exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Well, the RetroFest2025 layout is almost there. Just detailing and adding people, animals and vehicles now really.

I'd never have been able to do it without the fine weather.


The retaining wall build and the repainted old Hornby train set tunnel portal have come out quite nicely actually. The walls are made from 5mm foam core board with brick paper stuck on the surface.

I'm not keen on the lichen based "shrubbery" though. Might be OK for this pseudo-early-80s layout though.


Meanwhile, the ZX81 has had a bit of an upgrade with a modulator replacement (with backporch generator) fitted.


I've also looked at the case-less Cheetah 16K RAM pack. Last night I desoldered all the 4116 chips and tested them... one mostly failed with the tester flashing blue LEDs. All the others passed. I think I'll mod a 41256 chip and fit that in the socket and see if the pack actually works.

That looks really cool! :thumbup:

@stephen_usher

:excited:

Looks really great.

Well done !

Well done on the layout @stephen_usher , look pretty good to me. What trains are you going to run on it?

PhilC wrote: 15 May 2025 08:11 Well done on the layout @stephen_usher , look pretty good to me. What trains are you going to run on it?

I've three small locos chipped up and labelled so that people know which is forward and reverse.


I'll also have a couple of carriages and a small number of wagons. For this small a layout it will be ample to demonstrate the Zero 1 digital control system at the event.

Wow, that layout is really impressive, nice work :)

I'd be confused that one of those 3 has forward & revers the opposite way round to the other two (going off the diesel vent on top of the locomotive)... :?

The layout is very impressive - reminds me of the setup my brother & I had with our late Dad when we were kids...so many years ago now!

:thumbup:

JezC wrote: 15 May 2025 10:37 I'd be confused that one of those 3 has forward & revers the opposite way round to the other two (going off the diesel vent on top of the locomotive)... :?

Blame Hornby for that! :-)

The end with the fan should be the No.1 end, and hence usually the "front". It seems that Hornby wired the Class 25 the opposite way around.

With the arrival of the last building from eBay, a signal box, I can now name the station and the layout...


That's right, it's named after an AND gate as it's digital. :lol:


I also have sheep!!!


I also decided to revisit the slave controller PCB. I re-enforced the tracks with some resistor legs so there's no way that they would break during transport.

Andgate was very amusing to me :)