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Where ignorance is not always bliss and improvisation has its cost


petertg

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Background:

 

I am a GB expat, born in 1933 and have lived practically two thirds of my life outside the UK. My first memories of railway modelling go back to pre-1939 when I seem to remember an O gauge set up on top of the table with the rails plugged in direct to the mains and the locos had rods sticking out from the cab to control them. My father said you had to be careful not to get an electric shock.

The next memories date to the 1942-3 period when I was invited with a distant cousin by a man in Batley to see his layout in his cellar. It was a large room with the layout going round all four walls with a sort of diorama in one corner. he had a steam engine but said we could not see it because it took to long to raise steam. The electric models were set to do just one complete trip round the track.

During these years I also got to know a soldier posted to Pontefract and who lodged for a while with his family with my uncle and aunt where I was evacuated who had built is own steam engine, King John, which was a feature in a magazine which I believe was called Model Engineering.

At the end of the war, my father asked us what we wanted him to bring us when he returned and I requested a tank engine. I was unaware that these things probably didn't exist in 1946 Egypt.

Nothing happened modelwise for the next few years, I came abroad, got married and had children. Around 1972-3 we purchased a Lima kit for my son (alegedly for him), but never really had a decent place to set it up permanently. On a trip to the UK in 1975 I purchased a Hornby Track Plan catalogue, a Wrenn City class die cast locomotive and other items. On other trips I purchased Peco flexible track and, in the meantime, I had purchased sundry rolling stock locally.

Now and again we put the track portions together on the floor but no serious layout was ever made. Up to 1991 we lived in a flat in Barcelona, with just enough space for six persons and although we had a second home up at the top end of the Costa Brava, with plenty of space theoretically, there was really no adequate emplacement.

In 1991, we sold both places and moved into a detached house with a garage. Still now and again we put the track portions together on the floor or on the garden table, but nothing permanent. Then, in 2007 I saw the light (or the penny dropped) and realised that I could hang a layout from the garage ceiling. But I still had the fixed idea of a specific track plan from the Hornby Catalogue bought way back in 1975 and here are the illustrations.

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A closer inspection will reveal that the front cover photograph is a version of Track Plan nº 9, though, subsequently, for technical reasons, I had to make some variations.

Here is where the costly improvisation started. I was in complete ignorance of what was to be involved. I had my own ideas, a lot of diverse material, but nothing else. So, I set about the job without commending myself to anybody. I had an aluminium frame made by a man who had installed several aluminium windows and doors and sunblinds in the house. I ordered a 244x122x6 mm plywood baseboard (I had no idea that a lighter material was available) from a local carpenter and installed a pulley system in the garage as per the following illustrations, using a blind roll-up drum and, originally, a manual wind-up system, soon to be motorised (the board obviously came down easily enough, but was a hell of a job to wind up) and Kevlar mountaineer's cord.

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In the meantime, I had discovered Hattons and placed a massive order (250 GBP). I was selective. I had made a study of the requirements for the above track plan and missed out what could be replaced with what I had got. For example, one Lima straight cut to size could do for four Hornby short straights, Peco flex track could be used instead of long straights and an odd Lime curve could be inserted.

At that time, my idea of building a layout was you just stick the track pieces together, wire up the controller, plug in, place the material on the track and away you go. Poor me.

 

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A first impression of the future layout

With my massive order I had not been able to obtain the ramp piers (out of stock) so I set out on making a number of scratch built columns with wood and also tried expanded polystyrene (recovered from the tip, since the standard models wouldn't do) and with fibreboard I did some makeshift ramps.

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Then the man at the local Model Shop, when I showed him the Hornby Catalogue, suggested that the slopes were too steep and that the locomotives would slip. It appeared that this was so.

Change of mind (more improvisation), the plan had to be modified. The marshalling yard and one station were raised about 4 cms, whereby there were four gentler gradients instead of two steep ones (the original height difference was about 10 cms). But this required making more columns with improvised equipment.

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In the meantime, it was evident that while the baseboard came down easily (obviously) it was hard work to wind it up by hand. So an electric motor of the type inserted inside the drum of blinds was installed.

Up to this time I had no idea that DCC had been on the scene for some time and with analogue control the system worked more or less OK. Then I discovered DCC. and since my son gave me the money to cover what I had already paid for the blind motor I purchased a PIKO starter set. Having installed DCC, I had to modify the layout once more. The isolating tracks and points had to be deisolated (if that's the word).

More problems, some locos worked well, some didn't work at all, others with intermittent jerky running on the main circuits, but there was no way they would run into the sidings properly.

At this time the layout was virtually only track and the platforms of a Faller station at the bottom side. And time was passing. Sometimes weeks passed between work sessions. Also, I had installed underfloor point motors only on the main circuits, but not on the sidings.

Then I moved onto decoration and decided to modify the plan from what was shown on the Catalogue front cover, where there are buildings inside the circuit, but with no visible means of getting out (this fact was pointed out by my family). Here I could purchase very well made resin buildings but not cheap. Since I am a subscriber to Hattons weekly newsletter, I discovered the Metcalf card kits and opted for them. A whole row of six terrace buildings (two corner shops and four houses) cost a little more than one resin engine shed would have cost me here. So, except for the Faller station, still to be set up fully, the buildings are Metcalf. I will make it no secret that I have tried to relate the layout to my life in Leeds. I have at least six vehicles with Leeds registration numbers and one with no registration nº but a Leeds address on its side panels and other vehicles related with the automobile distributors where I worked. Yet other vehicles are related with other aspects of my life, namely a Morris Minor Traveller (brother-in law) Morris Minor Post Office van (my father) and a Ford Popular (a cousin of a cousin who once took me for a ride and the car was bouncing like a ball at 55 mph).

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  • RMweb Gold

The mains electric trains used a light bulb to reduce the voltage. However slight problem when there was no current flowing no voltage dropped across the lamp hence 240volts across the rails. That would make those kids at exhibitions who cannot resist touching the lines sit up sharpish!

Don

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