Author

Robert Stewart

Date

28th September 2025

Reading Time

3 minutes

After a few years of quiet existence Lacey Dale – our N gauge layout – has sprung forward.  A set of new team members, Nic, Danny and Jon have joined existing team members and layout leader Rob to renovate and improve the already impressive LD layout.

Initial work focusses on the mimic panels for the fiddle yard.  We started with rewiring the MERG Canpan boards to allow for more inputs, the original boards in the panel allowed for 16 inputs, the new board has increased this to 32.  Each input to the Canpan board is physically connected to a push button on the mimic panel.  The current board had 15 buttons connected and so no room for expansion. The intention is to allow for two hard wired STOP switches to be installed, one for the Up lines and one for the Down lines.  This would allow for an easily accessible and intuitive emergency stop in case of malfunction, train overrun, derailment, child (hands of) on the line etc.  Previously there was a button to click on the computer monitor that called for an All Stop on a running line but this could be fiddly to get to when the pressure was on.  “Where is the cursor? Oh god the mouse pad is not responding…”

Discussions are had over various possible development projects for major scenery overhaul, does the straight sloped hill back piece work well?  Could more interest be brought in with some swooping contour changes?  How do the section seams fit together?  Can they be disguised by scenery elements?  On the Low level layout does the station sit in the landscape well?  Could we bring the Southern end gradient consistently downwards to meet the station below?  This involves chopping through the scenery in place which also provides the function of covering the scenic entrance/exit,  can a tunnel be installed to help this transition?  Is there room to improve interest in the yard?  How do we make more of an interactive scene of the area?

As a new working group these discussions are unfocussed at times and a working schedule will need to be developed that prioritises the issues that will have the most impact.

There is always maintenance work to be done on existing components.  The point works are servo motors driven by MERG Canmio boards.  This allows for a highly flexible solution, start and end points of the servo and by mechanical connection, the switchblades can be set to sub mm precision.  The servos are cheap and reliable and therefore dominate the infrastructure.  Given the age of the layout and some design decisions well embedded by now the points occasionally need  fettling to help them sit properly for smooth train running. The software can set the centre point and max/min values for the servos through simple sliders in real time.

If you would like to get involved, come and speak to the team on any Thursday evening (one of us is normally in), or drop us a note via the Contact Us part of the website.