The diary (2002 and earlier)

Or: testing, repairing and swearing...

No single project works without a fuss: here's my ‘diary' of failures, retrying, ... In short: the setbacks and how I coped with them.
This is, too, an essential part of building "Marche-en-Bières", a part the reader of this website is entitled to know. Who knows, it might be useful for you, or merely as a comfort for your own setbacks with your own projects.

May '01: when I was building the frame for the layout, I encountered a serious measuring mistake: more than a foot! The plan had to be redrawn, the entrance of the Boulroie-station was shifted, and the city-part behind it was redrawn completely.

June '01: the first self-build turnouts are placed on the roadbed: especially the turnout drivers, made from old telephone electro-magnetic switches are a source of worry: It's a pain to fine-tune them, and gluing levers seems not a very good option...

September '01: I made an aid for rail-cleaning and having my locomotives run a bit: a light-sensitive porch and a simple electronic switch creates a means to have at least one train ride (and clean) a bit of track.

January '02: Shortage on my supply of electric wires: I have to re-schedule the colors I planned to use. It doesn't seem to be possible to get affordable quantities of wire. Meanwhile I already have about a mile of electric wire placed under the layout.

February '02: computer problems: my DSL-connections doesn't seem to get started and running. After re-installing everything for the third time and lots of swearing everything seems to work fine.

March '02: short-circuits: it becomes apparent what a load of wires seems to be getting together. Finding the errors is very tedious...

April '02: Clumsy! On removing some wood from under the layout, I managed to crush a turnout-drive. After hitting myself a few times ... I started repairing the damage.

September '02: I've been working some months with changing success and enthusiasm. Because of several technical troubles, it wasn't always obvious to keep the spirit up. After a while I changed to a new sub-project: building a bridge. It meant a success, because now I had got some actual modeling to do, and found the courage to encounter the problems I had with he layout itself.

October '02: the bridge is finished! The photos and building description can be found a new web page. I also made some new turnouts, and made a describing page of this modeling aspect too.

November '02: The Helix on the central peninsula isn't well built: the wire rods are blocking the way for coaches and other long rolling stock! Luckily, there was an article in "Modelspoor Magazine", a Belgian Model Railroad Magazine, where they just eye screws and bolts. The situation is corrected. In the middle of November I rearranged my priorities: the main track should be built and connected first (no sidings), so trains can run round as quickly as possible. This means building a lot of turnouts and postponing electronics ...

December '02: Building turnouts like a madman! And, I may say: I'm getting faster and ... better at it! I'm now building the main entrance of station "Boulroie"

See: diary 2003