Pricing Up
With the track plan finished it was time to work out exactly what parts where needed. There didn’t seem to be much point buying everything at once since, I’m sure, it will take me a while to do all the track laying.
One handly feature of XTrkCad is that you can select sections of track and produce a parts list, even listing how much flexible track you will need. You can even enter the prices charged by your favourite model shop and it will calculate how much hard-earned you will need to spend.
So I selected everthing for the double track loop and got the print out.
That was simple. But, as I mentioned before, I want the layout to be DCC and computer controlled. This meant I needed DCC point controllers and block detectors. So I worked out the number of points (simple) and the number of blocks (not so simple).
And I added up the cost of the DCC parts, the track and the point motors. And got a bit shock. Juts for a double track loop (and admittedly a good amount of pointwork) the total was nearly £1000! I didn’t mind spending that spread over a few months but it was too much to spend in one go.
It was time to think about starting on something smaller, so I did some more pricing up for a smaller section - this time just the outer main line loop. This time things came to under £400. Still expensive, but much more feasible. All I had to add to that was a bit extra for wiring and connectors.
So the orders have been placed: (Southampton Model Centre for the track and point motors; MG Sharp for the DCC modules; and Expotools and Maplin for the electrical gubbins) and it’s just a case of sitting back and waiting for the postman.