We have been doing things, honest!
Whoops, I've forgotten to update this in a while! Well we have done a bit since last November when we were building pointwork and testing track ideas for the relay.
As these pictures show we now have some of the plain track laid (glued and ballasted in one go) and i've been wiring the dropper to it as we go. The ballast is a mix of two Greenscenes bags and i'd much prefer them now over Woodland Scenics due to the tonal variation in each type even before you look at weathering it.
The holes in the ballast are dugouts where the droppers are currently soldered to riveted tags. These will be filled in once they are all tested and ballasted over.
This shot shows how i've been setting the outer track using the inner as a guide. The spacers were made by Dick Petter and the spacing is 6ft on the front but 7ft by this point shown to allow the long coaches to avoid each other on the curve. There is also a transition curve to deal with.
All major pointwork for the new junction and surrounding was completed in March and the first bit is now in place. This 3-way leads into the goods yard but also transitions between the full height sleepers of the mainline and the 1/2 height sleepering in the goods yard. The difference taken up by 0.8mm thick balsa planed to a gradient perpendicular to the rails.
The point was made by Andy G as shown in an earlier post but was subsequently modified by Dick Petter to match the double junction which he'd realigned slightly compared to the Templot output. Ignore the missing sleeper support at the moment, I think that'll be readded when the connection to the slip is put in. This has also been modified from the trackplan to allow the fitting of a correct length detector bar for the FPL on the double junction. The alternate is putting the bar through the switch blade area which would have mean part of it would have to move with the blade..
Ballast here is a dirtier mix and I think its going to be ash into the yard, not sure at the moment though.
The layout is probably going to be quite unusual in having both 1/2 and full height sleepers as well as copperclad, plastic and ply sleepers in the mix. Rivets are also used on most of the new points and some of the power feeds so its really a mixed bag to demo to new builders!
6 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now