The Garden Railway hadn't been running all that well lately. It soon became apparent there was a loss of power in the track despite all the spurs having direct power connections. Given that the layout mainly tends to be used more as a glorified photo-plank, this wasn't too much a problem, but a few weeks back I finally sat down and did something about it.
A not so quick test revealed the main weak spot to be between the two points. Some will probably tut and claim the problem is down to them being insulfrog settrack points, and to a point (Boom Boom!) I'd somewhat agree, but given a secure line of power and good cleaning they can work well with short wheelbase stock.
Improvement was incredibly straightforward. The paint was scraped back on the sides of the rails around the fishplate joint, then two 1.2mm holes drilled either side the track through the ballast. Dropper wires were then soldered to the rails and fed through the baseboard to connect up to power lines already running underneath. The solder joints just need painting now to blend them back in.
There was a small casualty on the way. Having to get the soldering iron so close to the signal box/potting shed and essentially solder blind it came into contact with it. Mercifully it only really took the paint off and gave the drainpipe a couple of realistic dents! Again, just another quick fix with a touch up painting wise.
Hopefully this means I might actually be able to get moving footage of The Garden Railway at some point soon...
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