Marble Mountain Quarry HOn30 Micro Layout

[cbroughton67]

I'm a member of the Micro/Small Model RR Layouts group on Facebook. One of the group members is a talented layout designer, and he was asked to design a track plan for a micro-layout challenge - one to fit inside a 13" x 9" football display case. After sharing his HOn30 design with the group, two of us decided to tackle building the layout, myself included. #2 turnouts, 6" radius curves, hand-laid track... "challenge" was certainly the operative word. This has turned out to be the most hobby-related fun I've had in a while! The layout is about 85% complete at this point, but I've been taking photos along the way and wanted to share the progress here. Enjoy!

[cbroughton67]

Here's the design - I've followed it very closely.

[cbroughton67]

This shows the track plan inside the case. This is also the "template" I used to hand-lay the track.

[cbroughton67]

Track laying begins...

[cbroughton67]

The point rails are solid at this point, but I realized quickly that I'd have to hinge such tight-radius turnouts.

[cbroughton67]

[cbroughton67]

Track and turnouts complete...

[cbroughton67]

Had to build a base for the layout, so I decided on a 1/8" plywood base. It's about 2" deep, which give enough room for scenic features, turnout controls, wiring, and the turntable gizmo.

[cbroughton67]

Here's my turnout control... DPDT slide switch, R/C control rod, and some music wire.

[cbroughton67]

Two holes drilled in the slide switch - small one for the throw bar wire, and the large one for the clevis on the R/C control rod.

[cbroughton67]

Progress...

[cbroughton67]

Base for the 4" turntable

[cbroughton67]

This is the turntable itself. I used a small audio headphone plug to both supply power to the turntable track and act as a pivot point for the turntable. The wiring-end of the plug is what you see here.

[cbroughton67]

Since the polarity would be off every 180-degrees of rotation, a switch would be needed to correct the polarity to prevent a short between the turntable and the rest of the layout. Being the sole operator of the layout, I needed it to be idiot-proof! So, I came up with the idea of a cam and a pair of roller-switches to flip the polarity automatically. Here's the cam and the plug-end of the audio connector.

[cbroughton67]

This shows how the roller-switches will be mounted and engage the cam.