Had another opportunity this week to set up all six boards together with a view to designing the rear section of the upper loop but also to play with the layout and identify any faults.
The rear section has now been fabricated & painted and awaits final assembly and wiring. Several people suggested that the rear section would benefit from its own siding so that a second train could be stored so this was incorporated into the design.
A small back board has been created for the length of the front three boards, sadly its height means that it's impossible to run the layout from the back and be able to see what's going on, so the layout will have to be side-operated.
Although the 0-6-2 tank engines seem to be the most temperamental locos and therefore were considered the best test locos, we hadn't foreseen that it would have been prudent to test with a larger loco - had we done so we would have found out much earlier that the hit the platform of the main station as they exit the tunnel. A spare platform ramp has been re-modelled by shortening the ramp and rounding off the sloping edge, this has now been primed and painted ready for fitting, which should overcome the problem.
We also discovered that there has been some slight warpage in the front sections, boards one and two being the worst affected. Although no derailments, there's quite a jump between the boards which may be cured by adjusting the legs, currently all the legs are at a fixed position but it appears that some adjusters would be beneficial.
Finally it was suggested that it would be very clever if, as part of the auto shuttle, the points at the village station could also be automated to let a different train out each time. After careful consideration I think I've found a way to do this using the existing shuttle module and some creative engineering...
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