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Iron Bridge Mill (Formerly Dave's Mill)

Gauge: 009 (Kato Unitrack N gauge)
Power Control: DC only (self contained or external)
Status: Work in progress

Iron Bridge Mill (formerly Dave’s Mill) is the centre piece of what was my desk test track. Built from Kato Uni Track, the layout allows me to test my 3D printed designs and lets me test locos that have arrived on my desk for a service.

The curves are a radius of 117mm which is very tight. All my 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 locos go around ok and my long carriages with bogies are ok, but anything with a longer wheel base would fail.

The points have motors built-in and isolate. This means that for the main loops and sidings, there is only 1 power feed. I have put an insulator in the curve furthest from the feed allowing the points to be able to insulate the halves of the loops. This allows some flexibility in operation. A passenger train can be isolated in a station while the goods trains shuffle things in the sidings and out onto the main line.

The mill set of points face the wrong way for the power to automatically flow to all parts. There was no power to the end of the head shunt if the points were towards the mill. So I have added another supply at the end of the head shunt to fix this. In actual fact, this is switched. This means that a loco can be parked in the mill, and one on the head shunt, and still allow a third train to the main line and other siding.

I’ll be using the layout for testing stuff (like water) before committing on the larger layouts.

Renamed after the renovation of the nearby iron bridge.

Iron Bridge Mill Photos