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Some time ago we had an Exhibition Layout "St.Laurant en Ardennes". A 16 x 10' model of the Belgian Ardennes originally built by Bill Roberts & re-furbished by Brian & Dave. We had a lot of fun & gained a lot of experience with this layout. Some years ago it was retired & after much planning & false starts work started on a new layout.
However, some testing & trials were carried out first. What track to use ? We set up a test track with Fleischmann Profi & Peco both code 100 with some Roco & Tillig code 83. All the track performed well & surprisingly, the Tillig point accepted various wheel standards including the pizzs cutter/steam roller wheels on an old Lima Class 33. We left trains running 24/7.
We really did like the look of the Tillig when ballasted and it was only the fact that we thought it would be a little delicate took it off the short list.
In the end, we settled on using Fleischmann Profi - it looks pretty good with additional ballasting and weathering. Also, from past experience we know that the Fleischmann points lend themselves well to automation.
We settled on a board size of 8 x 2'6" using 8mm plywood sides, 20mm MDF ends, softwood frame and "Kingspan" for the board itself. All in all the construction, even with the built in legs resulted in a strong, rigid and lightweight base.
We had a plan, sort of, a schematic for the track plan and that was it really - trackwork, roads buildings were laid out "by mkI eyeball".
The track was set out, adjusted to our liking and then glued down with "Instant Grab".

As someone who has seen this layout first hand I can honestly say it is a fine layout and although not yet fully completed gives me excitement to see the final result.

As the trackwork was laid it was tested - mechanically with some coaches & the "hand from the sky" & electrically using a 12v 5a power supply, a 50w halogen spotlight bulb and a digital multimeter.
The rolling stock was very noisy on the Kingspan, more noise than we expected !
All went well until we connected all the baseboards together & we had a short circuit. This was traced to the inner loop at the station end, but we still could not find out exactly where. In the end we resorted to removing the track piece by piece, not easy as it had been glued down with "instant Grab".
Fortunately, we found the "short" - there was a slight burn mark in the Kingspan between where two of the fishplates/joiners would have been. Fleischmann fishplates/joiners are a little like a "figure 8" & they have marginal clearance when laid to the surface of the baseboard, in this case the aluminium foil on the Kingspan.
So, the decision was taken to remove all the track & start again, this time laying the track on 5mm closed cell foam - an expensive schoolboy error as little of the track could be reused (things stuck down with any of the "instant grab/gorilla" types glues tend to be pretty much there for life.
Still, the trains are a lot quieter running on the closed cell foam.
Around this time we were approached by a film company who wanted to use the layout for filming link shots for a film based around romance on the Orient Express so we concentrated on ballasting the trackwork & fitting the OHLE (catenary), something we would have left to a later stage. This project fell through so we continued construction at a snails pace.
The pictures show some progress - the castle is a Kibri kit bought made up (not very well either) but Dave made a good job of refurbishing it & repainting it from sandstone to the grey it is in now. The THW Depot & the signal box we already had, the Aldi's is a new Faller kit.

No pictures at the moment but last weekend saw the completion of the basic track laying to the storage loops & preparation for the automation.
Also, a little more progress was made on the scenics.

Work continued with test running - here are a couple of pictures showing the inner look storage sidings in use.
Yes, we know that some of the consists are a bit iffy !

To follow on, test running threw up an issue with the curved points on the right hand rear board. Quite a number of locomotive derailed on them, mostly steam (we had just started running more of them) & some other longer 6-axle locomotives. We are too close to the Tenterden show change them so we will run only stock that can accommodate the curved points. The pictures show the problem area & the proposed replacement layout. The "looped out" connectors are ready for the automation of the passing loops.

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