Tracklaying #modelrailway

As I mentioned on my Facebook modelling page, nothing can beat track planning with the "real rails" on the hand, to feel the flow of the track. It is a tip that Chris Nevard shared and I must say that he is absolutely right.

So, after my good friend Sérgio Pissarra made me a plan and using the track bits I already have, I started to lay down the track.

The track plan was made using AnyRail. It is 2700 x 400 mm (roughly 9 feet x 16 inches)

This software, together with SCARM, is really good for planning, but not good enough. On the screen everything fits, and looks OK but in reality things do not "flow".

Today I started to lay the track, following the plan, and also having some inspiration with Cyril Freezer "Minories" and Chris Ford "Hopwood". I started to make the track "flow", adding a nice sweeping curve at the back. Track is PECO code 100 HO/OO gauge, with electrofrog points. Point motors will be installed in a near future.

Baseboards are made of 10mm plywood, with pine reinforcements. It's placed roughly at 150cm from the floor. 

One the first changes I made was switching the positions of the long "Y" with the left hand turnout.
If you look closely, you will find that the "Y"  was the "center" piece. Moving it to is final location, I was able to have a long large radius curve to access the station. 

You can see here the beautiful curve, when looking to the station throat. 

On the plan, I also had a two track fiddle yard. Now I just have one track there (that one next to the wall). The other one was shortened, so that I can have a small locomotive stabled there, if I ever need to release a locomotive on the arrival track. (something similar to Sta. Apolónia in Lisbon, Portugal). The two tracks on the right are meant to be used for freight, still to be decided. 

BR 37 156 in "Dutch" is on the arrival track, just for testing purposes. Track isn't glued down to the baseboards, but it will be, after a good night sleep...

I have to say the I am quite happy with the looks of the track plan. Thanks to Sérgio, but also thanks to my ever lasting search for a track plan that fulfills my needs, I am really happy how things turned out. Just hope I can finish this one... ^_^  

Thank you all for the time, and sorry for my terrible English... but I need to write in English, to practice and to get to all my readers.

I will post a video on my Youtube Channel as soon as possible and I'll start to livestream again on my Twitch channel.

Cheers!