Yet more modifications

The layout's now attended four public exhibitions and the more we use it, the more we learn about what works well and what doesn't. It's still not been a year since the layout was declared finished and already there have been extensive modifications to improve reliability and ease of operation.

The main area of focus this time is with the run around loop and its connection into the two main running loops. Both loops can currently access the run around but in reality, the outer loop access has never been used and is unlikely to ever be used. With steam loco operation confined entirely to the inner loop, no steam locos ever cross to the outer loop, which is almost exclusively used for the multiple units, diesel & electric locos and long goods trains. 

The diamond crossing is now the sole crossover. It's fair to say that I'm not a fan of them. This layout originated with three of them and the previous layout had its fair share of them, most of them being removed due to various issues. It's been found that some, but not all of the rolling stock tends to jump as it passes over the crossing. The other issue is that when running tender first out of the turntable, two pairs of points have to be traversed, some locos tend to stall, some don't like tender first running at all and derail. 

Much as I love the design of this junction, and the track had to be cut & modified to fit, in reality it would be easier to remove the outer loop crossing and leave just the inner access. The second pair of points can be replaced with a half curve which will make loco movements much smoother. We do frequently uncouple a loco and swap over via the points and turntable, so an electric uncoupler, as well as being really useful here, will also drop straight into the space where the diamond crossing currently resides.

Some creative ballasting and landscaping will also be required to hide this lot.

While the tracks are being lifted I'll also install another semaphore signal trigger. These work really well and the automatic signals look fantastic!

Although it's a shame to be removing items of interest like this, overall it greatly improves reliability and helps us to keep things running.