You may remember (back in the mists of time!) that the quarry siding unprototypically joined the 'Up Main' just before 'Potley Lane Bridge' (the scenic break).
In 'real life' the siding actually ran on for another mile or so to Corsham station...
I've been giving some consideration to the future of this (and other) layouts. The original intention was to use 'box Quarry' as a 'test bed' and somewhere to run 2mm stock as it was constructed. It would run between two cassette-type fi
This entry follows on from a throw-away remark about scribing the retaining walls...
Image courtesy Derek Hawkins - Wikipiedia Commons.
At first glance, the retaining walls appear to be in laid coursed stone - so no problem there - except some of the courses appear to be ashlar blocks. However -
A close-up lineside shot (with a telephoto NOT trespassing!) shows this is, in fact, the natural coursing of the limestone through which the cutting & tunnel was made.
So it w
Blimey, nearly a year since the last entry... However, the house refurbishment is finished (I'm writing this in the new study), I have a new (part-time) job and opened up a new enterprise - model-making (surprise surprise) (check out the FB page - https://www.facebook.com/PerfectionInMiniature )
). Personal modelmaking has been somewhat limited, but it's time to get back to it. But what - there's so much unfinished business! So I'm starting at the smaller end - back to 2mm (this week, anyway)..
So back to Box - working on the second scenic board, intending to start tracklaying... However -
I found I needed to paint the trackbed first! I thought I'd already done that, so drying time was required for the layer of 'Mud Hut' from 'Dulux'.
Whilst the paint was drying I indulged myself in giving consideration to the method of point-control. The only two points - a switch and a trap are on this board along with the signals needed to protect them. So I'm seriously considering
Having made all the track for the scenic section, it's time for it to bed down! As I intimated in a previous entry, I intended to use 'Depron Foam' - a high-density urethane foamboard used in the model aircraft hobby. It is extremely light-weight, stable, and holds pins etc. One thing it does not like is the heat from the soldering gun, so the first job was to place dropper wires beneath the respective running-rails. I thought I'd got away with making long runs of trackwork - but this ain't
Progress has been somewhat slower than I would have liked... A combination of a 10th Anniversary weekend in the Cotswolds, a rotten cold and work in the house (NOT housework!) has severely limited time in the box!
As the previous entry showed, work had started on the 'quarry line' -
here the 'Up main' and another track ladder can be seen giving an impression of track centres etc. The ladder on the 'down main' eventually migrated to extend the 'up main' almost to the pointwork for t
As stated (very) late last night, the soldering experiment went very well.
This is the card surface after the second rail was added to a section of track ladder - hardly marked, and
removal of the card layer shows the foam core was totally untouched. Excellent - so on with the show..
A 500mm track ladder was pinned down over the centre-line of the quarry siding and the second rail added. It seemed a shame to waste this effort so I also decided to try my hand at converting
Decision made, 5mm foamboard purchased - time to start cutting! As many will appreciate, foamboard is extremely light (good) and somewhat flexible (bad!) so using it for baseboards tends to indicate it needs bracing... Design parameters were for the boards to be 750mm x 300mm, the sides to be 100mm deep, with the baseboard top at 75mm. Using 5mm board this left 20mm below the bed for (simple) electronics, signal and point actuating mechanisms.
Each board would have 3 supporting cross-memb
Having just purchased a BachFar 'Warship, 3 BR Collett coaches and a Class 108 DMU set,I've found out something that should have been glaringly obvious from the start... a boxfile fiddleyard ain't BIG enough!!! Cannot imaging how I'd run a '28xxx' & long coal train or a 'King' & 14 bogies.... So some lateral thinking has been applied. I'd like to continue with the 'minimal' baseboard concept and I do like the effect of running in the deep cutting that the boxfiles give. Current opti
Not my favourite subject, electrics... However I felt it better to make a sart with them as most of the wiring will be buried under the scenics 'cos there's no sub-baseboard!
The 'back' of the boxes shows the inter-box connectors (RCA plugs & sockets). The four-group to the left will bring power (DCC) into the layout and provide a connector to the 'Potley Bridge' box - the righthand connector provides power to the 'Box Tunnel Cassette storage.
Internally power feeds to 't
Thats better!
(with a bit of help from my friends)
Normal service will be resumed - probably tomorrow.
I will admit (without playing for the sympathy vote) progress was definitely affected by the loss of one of our cats on Thursday night. 2-year old Saki was run over and later died from his injuries. Zoe & I met too late in life to have children so the three cats to some extent acted as surrogates and we are both devastated.
It wasn't helped by learning on Saturday night
This week has been spent working on the track panels that will lead into the quarry & the main tunnel -
Now the feed wires have been attached (cannot call them droppers - they'll be buried in the foam trackbase!), the sleepers will be 'grimed' and the rails 'rusted'. All will then be fixed in place with my usual mix of 'Cascamite' & bird sand on the aforesaid 'Depron Foam'.
The quarry tunnel really was a tight fit as the (rewheeled) ventilated van shows. Of course thi
Since the last entry on this blog in March, I've not been too idle! Two entries in the 2012 Challenge, 'Weavers Yard' in the Upton Dene blog and a pacemaker fitted have effectively taken care of the (?)summer... Retirement's wonderful! However its time to get down to some modelling where there is a danger that something might actually RUN soon!
The first issue was finding a way to connect the boxfiles together. Their lightweight construction rules out my usual method of 'engineers dowels
Over the last couple of weeks, packages have begun arriving at chez scanman - amongst them two packages from shop 2 of the 2mmSA. The advice on the Associations website is to 'start small' and try a wagon. So I decided to try several - which would work the 'quarry' line. This photo (use with permission)
shows Corsham Station stone wharf around 1910, with a variety of different planked wagons, most used in stone transporting.
5 packets of 'RCH 1887 5-plank' (10 kits) gave me:-
Just back from the most frustrating site visit ever! Some people have commented on the depth of the cutting at this pont. It's more like God wielded an axe! The situation is worsened by the fact thatr the railway boundary is demarcated by 2m-high 'anti-climb' fencing and worse, it's set well back from the cutting's edge. Even the undergrowth got in the way...
There is absolutley no view of the portal from the cutting sides, and any attempt to take one from Pootley Road Bridge (a mere 800
It's starting to come together... A large-ish packet arrived from 'Worsley Works' at the weekend.. Tiny or what! Then today a package arrived containing a '5700' body. (if you're reading this - cheers Ken). Just need the chassis bits from the shop now.
Meanwhile a start has been made hacking at the boxes.
2 layers of 6mm 'depron foam' were cut to represent the main tunnel portal and a 'road' from the quarry siding into the fiddleyard box. This was then used as a template to mar
Not on the actual modelling (one track panel is all there is so far) but in aquisiton!
Four box files - with the scenic section in the middle two - the end boxes for cassette-type f/y's and storage.. I've also sent off fairly large odrers to Shops 1-3, 'Masterclass', Ultima' etc.
The driving force? RETIREMENT !! We learned on Friday that subject to unforseen problems, we'll be mortgage-free on 29th Feb so we will definitely be 'leaping' that day! I'm jusr short of the 'big 65'
Having said I'd probably not be doing tooo much to this project... Well I just couldn't resist! Having spent most of the day on carboard mock-ups of the 'Ambridge' baseboards, I needed something different. Plus it gave me a chance to try out my new avatar, coutesy of Paul Martin from the 2mmSA. Several inches of snow (which kept me at home) also helped! So what progress today?
1st - renewed m Association membership (its that time of year!) E-mailed PM following BCNPete's suggestion - resu
Well, if you've read my latest 'Upton Dene' entry, you might guess what's coming next!
Basically I need a 'test bed' for a 2mm layout, and I rather like the 'boxfile' idea. All credit here to people like BCNPete who carry the idea out so well! The other inspiration for this entry came from a chapter entitled 'Corsham to Quarry Tunnel' in Colim Maggs's book 'Branch Lines of Wiltshire'.
The building of Box Tunnel revealed the presence of large quanitiies of Bath stone, easily winnable an
