Author

Ben Weiner

Date

23rd July 2018

Reading Time

< 1 minute

 In June Empire Mills was sold. Following its departure the space it occupied was cleared out and the baseboards for Orchard Wharf moved in. Thanks to the Lacey Dale team we now have a space for both groups to work in.

NB look out for the writeup of Empire Mills in the August 2018 BRM magazine.

We are now focused on building the dockside track, designing the control system, and planning the major components of the scenery.

Control: DCC and CBus

The layout team decided earlier on to use DCC for loco control. We have now decided to use MERG’s CBus for controlling point and signal servos and for the control panels. We’re currently working on the detailed design.

Track and scenery design

We thought we would forge ahead on the dockside trackwork but we’ve realised there is much to do to design the scenery. There are two reasons: firstly, we have to conceal the exits from the fiddleyards; secondly, we need to capture the atmosphere of the locality and provide reasons for all the rail activity on the wharf. Until we have the building lines settled there is little more we can do on the track. You can see the track components already made using John’s innovative design if you pay us a visit — the pointwork, using T-section angle for the flangeway, is unusually complex and quite challenging to build.

Get involved

All members are welcome to get involved with the layout. Talk to us on a Thursday evening,
email us (orchardwharf@themrc.org.uk) or join us for a Friday evening session.