Dyserth Road is a small portable layout built using two 4ft by 2ft boards to give a total of 8ft by 2ft. The layout is freestanding by way of two trestles with some heavyweight black curtain hung on three sides of the boards. A fascia above the layout sporting the layout name and with lighting behind was also constructed. The layout is completely freelance and depicts a small locomotive fuelling point and stabling sidings two of which operational interest. The layout is very much modern image and although it depicts a EWS facility many of today's colourful liveries from the private operators including Freightliner, Fragonset and DRS can be observed. 

Dyserth Road pictured at the East Midlands Exhibition (Nottingham) March 2003.

Baseboards

The baseboards consist of 6mm plywood tops with a softwood frame, two trestles were also built to support the boards. Both boards are joined together using four 3 inch hinges with removable pins two on the top and the other two below the boards. The backscene also uses 6mm plywood and is 8 inches high. Having used chipboard in all of my previous layouts I am very pleased with the results from the plywood boards as they are strong but reasonably light.   

Trackwork

Track work is Peco streamline code 100 nickel silver of the wooden sleeper variety and the points (turnouts), of which there are eight are medium radius electrofrog. 

Electrics

'Dyserth  Road' is now operated by DCC (Digital  Command  Control) and a Lenz TR100 16 Volt AC 3 amp power supply provides the power to a  LZV100 combined command station/power amplifier which has three micro processors for superior performance and operation. Control is by means of either the LH90 walk about rotary knob  throttle or the preferred LH100 pushbutton throttle. More details on the DCC system can be found here. A capacitor discharge unit provides power to the Peco point motors which are operated using push buttons incorporated  into the control panel. A 16v ac  to 12v dc conversion board provides the smoothed 12Volt power to the two Roger Murray colour light signals and the Eckon ground signal. There are a  number of  isolating sections and these are wired up using miniature toggle switches but are no longer used with the DCC control. All these components are housed under the control panel. Electrical connections between the two boards and to the control panel are done by means of computer 'D ' type plugs and sockets. The control panel can be attached to the front or the rear of the layout and the hand held throttles can be plugged into any of the three DIN sockets provided around the layout.

The Control Panel Track Plan, the red push buttons operate the points and the miniature toggle switches were used for isolating sections as Dyserth Road was originally built utilizing standard DC control. Now that DCC (Digital Command Control) has been adopted the isolating sections are no longer used or required. 

Overhead Catenary

The  overhead catenary is from the sommerfeldt range and  comprises of single profile masts which are not exactly as per the British prototype but are  very close. On to these masts are soldered the conductor wires, these have to be fitted reasonably central over the track. This means using quite short lengths on curves or over points as the wires themselves always need to run straight. The conductor cable which runs over the join of the baseboards is not soldered so it can be removed when the layout is transported between locations.

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