5050 Posted April 28, 2016 Author Share Posted April 28, 2016 Following some useful discussions at Scalefour North a couple of weeks ago - and the realisation that there is a helpful section of building Double Slips in the Scalefour Society Digest sheets - I am now making some progress. Yesterday and today I have filed up and soldered the Vees, formed the wing rails and check rails. filed up the 'internal' curved double ended blades and generally 'manned up' to get on with it. I'm currently waiting for the Araldite to go off that is securing small sections of 20 thou nickel silver kit etch waste to the sleepers around the Vee and Wing Rails and under the centre section on either side. These are for soldering rails to for electrical continuity and strength reasons. Hopefully they will be disguised in due course by cosmetic chairs. I'll try and take some photos tomorrow to show all this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gismorail Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Very impressive base board construction there off to a good solid start excellent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted June 5, 2016 Author Share Posted June 5, 2016 Following some useful discussions at Scalefour North a couple of weeks ago - and the realisation that there is a helpful section of building Double Slips in the Scalefour Society Digest sheets - I am now making some progress. Yesterday and today I have filed up and soldered the Vees, formed the wing rails and check rails. filed up the 'internal' curved double ended blades and generally 'manned up' to get on with it. I'm currently waiting for the Araldite to go off that is securing small sections of 20 thou nickel silver kit etch waste to the sleepers around the Vee and Wing Rails and under the centre section on either side. These are for soldering rails to for electrical continuity and strength reasons. Hopefully they will be disguised in due course by cosmetic chairs. I'll try and take some photos tomorrow to show all this. Here's a photo of the well advanced slip point. It's actually completed now bar lifting it from the template. I'm currently building the 2 remaining 'ordinary' points at home and in the clubroom starting on the fascia etc. I also purchased some more Churchward etchings for the Signal Box locking room windows yesterday at the Gauge 0 Guild Show in Doncaster. As it was a 4mm purchase I had to smuggle it out in a plain cover.......................... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnarcher Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 I've only just found this thread, judging by the attractive sketch it should be a very characterful model. The slip's impressive too. How long do you expect to spend making trees? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted July 5, 2016 Author Share Posted July 5, 2016 I've only just found this thread, judging by the attractive sketch it should be a very characterful model. The slip's impressive too. How long do you expect to spend making trees? Thanks, I hope it will be too! I have a contract in place for the trees with a well known local arboriculturist. I doubt if I'll be needing them for quite a while though! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 A quick post to let you know that progress hasn't halted, merely slowed down slightly. Our clubroom layout room is being redecorated and so DR (along with other layouts) is temporarily dismantled and moved downstairs awaiting completion of the decorating. Possibly this evening I MAY be able to get it back upstairs again but, if not, it should be Friday. Prior to the move and having painted the track bases in a flat white emulsion, I had determined the final alignment of the trackwork, marking the centre lines accordingly with pencil. Cork sheet was cut into metre long 1" wide strips and laid, using Timebond adhesive (strong stuff!), either side of the centre lines. The ends of the boards were avoided by approx. 2" as these will, in due course, have some 3mm MDF or similar stuck down to provide a solid base for the rail ends which will be soldered to small brass screws. At home, I have been busy with buildings. There are only 3 required and the Severn and Wye Wild Swan book (volume 2) has drawings for the Station Building. The Signal Box was based on the 'standard' (!) GWR wood box. Evergreen siding was used for the Signal Box walls with Evergreen strip of various sizes for uprights, edgings, etc. Windows are from the Churchward brass etchings. In fact, the final overall size of the box was calculated from the etched windows - and I still made a mistake!! I had to graft in some additional length to the front and back to compensate which also meant lengthening the lower and upper floors. Roof is covered in York Model Co. slates, ventilators from Scalelink via 51A Models/Wizard and the chimney is brass tube. Non of the roof details is secured as yet. As an aside to all this, the Chrchward 'instructions' say to use Spraymount to attach the frames to the glazing. Anyone tried this? I was considering using Hypo adhesive with the very fine applicator nozzle but if anyone can advise then please do so! Station Building uses scribed 40thou styrene sheet for walls, window and door frames are Evergreen strip, doors and windows etc. from 20thou styrene sheet, Chimney (which is at a 45 degree angle across the rear corner) from balsa and Slaters brick sheet. Roof tiles from a sheet of Howard Scenics I found in my 'stash' though I can't remember how I got them! I've been looking at some colour photos (Whitecroft, Speech House Rd.) to try and determine the colour I should paint the Station Building. I was initially considering cream with chocolate contrasts but the 2 stations in question, around 1960, appear to be plain cream with brown doors. The Box will be brown and cream whatever! Here are a couple of shots of the Box - And the Station Building with all the additional parts - The only other building required is the Station Master's House and I have been promised some photos over and above those in the books. Once I get them I will try and produce a drawing which will have to be based around the space available on the layout. Watch this space! QUICK EDIT - the Station Building is only a scale 35mm wide so space must have been at a premium inside! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted August 8, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 8, 2016 Re the use of Spraymount with Churchward/Modelex etched windows, yes, I've done that. It works pretty well. Just keep the side that faces the glass as clean and free of paint as possible and just one gentle pass with the spray glue is sufficient. I think I then put each glazed window in a small 'envelope' of folded paper and put a book or two on top. The other thing here is to make the glazing larger than it needs to be, and trim to match the etched window frame, once the glue has completely gone off, and then touch in with paint as necessary along the edges of the glazing material (where this is visible). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 That Station building has "Eassie" written all over it!! ... can't help thinking that a "scale" 35mm wide is rather too narrow, though Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Here's a photo of the well advanced slip point. It's actually completed now bar lifting it from the template. I'm currently building the 2 remaining 'ordinary' points at home and in the clubroom starting on the fascia etc. I also purchased some more Churchward etchings for the Signal Box locking room windows yesterday at the Gauge 0 Guild Show in Doncaster. As it was a 4mm purchase I had to smuggle it out in a plain cover.......................... Double Slip.5.A.jpg Super job on the double slip, sorry for the belated reply jut only just found the thread I was given a Timbertracks slip fret to build, however being for both EM & P4 gauges which have differing measurements between the 2 Vee tips I had to cut the fret into 3 or 4 sections to get it to match the corresponding Templot template With 4 mm double slips I found the force required to switch 2 pairs of switch blades at the same time (owing to slips having shorter switch blades as well as 4 blades) to be too stiff. After chatting with Norman Solomon about something the solution I came up with was to buy some cast brass fishplates (C&L), cut through the switch rails at the join (just after the check rail) then solder a fishplate to both ends of the centre sections. The switch blades can now be slid on to the fishplates, the switch blades being held in place at the tips with either the tiebar or actuating units. This makes for a very free moving blades One other tip for Timber track frets is to check the centre marking for the vee is accurate as I have one which was out of centre Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 That Station building has "Eassie" written all over it!! ... can't help thinking that a "scale" 35mm wide is rather too narrow, though It's what the drawing in the book measures at. Looking at various photos of Lydney, Whitecroft, Speech House etc. in an assortment of books, the narrowness is quite apparent. Layout now re-erected in the clubroom so no excuse now for not getting on with it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkeNd Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 This is the Stationmasters House at Parkend. The station buildings are very narrow - no more than 8ft wide. Parkend below. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 Thanks for posting the photos ParkeNd but the SM's house at Drybrook Rd. is nothing like the one at Parkend. It is stone but in a 'double fronted' design with a central door. Shouldn't be TO difficult to build but a couple of decent photos would help! Sadly demolished years ago without many photos being taken. Are the building colours at Parkend on the 'reproduction' building based on the original Severn and Wye ones? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkeNd Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Thanks for posting the photos ParkeNd but the SM's house at Drybrook Rd. is nothing like the one at Parkend. It is stone but in a 'double fronted' design with a central door. Shouldn't be TO difficult to build but a couple of decent photos would help! Sadly demolished years ago without many photos being taken. Are the building colours at Parkend on the 'reproduction' building based on the original Severn and Wye ones? They are Severn and Wye colours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 That second photo of the station at Parkend is really lovely and is a great testament to the skills and efforts of the DFR teams. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 Just to show that some progress is being made on the actual layout now that the clubroom decorating has finished. Here's a couple of shots of the boards with some of the cork underlay stuck down and the pointwork temporarly positioned to mark out the tie bar positions etc. Since these were taken a bit more underlay is laid and hopefully there will be more put down this evening. The gaps in the underlay at the ends are for some solid material to be fixed for securing rails ends to screws etc. The steel folding trestles bought from t'internet are proving very popular in the club! I've also been donated a red chocolate machine, perfect for the end of the station building. BTW, the platform is only a temporary affair found during the room clearance prior to painting but it serves to give an 'idea' of the location. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkeNd Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 I like the cork underlay. I used it and it makes a real difference, although others wax lyrical about how they don't bother with it. Keep the photos coming. I think yours will be better but here is my attempt at a scratch built N gauge Dean Forest Railway station building - in my case Parkend. And then in place next to my attempt at the Goods Shed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted August 27, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2016 I think yours will be better but here is my attempt at a scratch built N gauge Dean Forest Railway station building - in my case Parkend. And then in place next to my attempt at the Goods Shed. I think those would look good on any 4mm layout, but the fact that they are 2mm is indicative of your considerable skill in making these, very nice bits of work indeed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Having been inside the Station Building at Parkend, I'm aware of how narrow they really are - you don't so much 'go inside', as 'put it on'... but the subtlety of my humour over the 'scale 35mm' has been lost somewhere; the way it read to me was that the real building is 35mm deep, & that had to be scaled down to suit 4mm, not that the scaled-down measurement comes out at 35mmm... oh never mind me I'm just enjoying all these FoD threads! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 Having been inside the Station Building at Parkend, I'm aware of how narrow they really are - you don't so much 'go inside', as 'put it on'... but the subtlety of my humour over the 'scale 35mm' has been lost somewhere; the way it read to me was that the real building is 35mm deep, & that had to be scaled down to suit 4mm, not that the scaled-down measurement comes out at 35mmm... oh never mind me I'm just enjoying all these FoD threads! Ah, I see now. Obviously MUCH to subtle for me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted September 22, 2016 Author Share Posted September 22, 2016 Right, pay attention ( as the bloke on the telly says!). I've been working on building 2 of the 4 required trap points, they're the ones at either end of the 'platform' loop. The other 2 are where the Mineral Loop joins the main line near the slip and the other coming down the Trafalgar branch. I'm intending to make them work along with the correct signalling and to this end I've decided to 'invest' in a Mega-Points control system. This should allow me to set routes, each of which will have the correct tiebars thrown, signal arms pulled off and power fed to the relative sections. Mr and Mrs MP gave our club a demonstration on Monday which was very informative and cleared up a lot of points (!!) that I had struggled to grasp when talking with them at shows. The 'platform loop' will hopefully be laid with GWR wartime 'block and beam' track which Alan Buttler (ModelU) is printing. I discovered this at Expo EM North last weekend after I had spent a couple of days patiently cutting out and filing approximately half of the 136 blocks I need. Should have contacted him earlier! I also bit the bullet yesterday and electrically tested the double slip with a Pannier. It worked! One less worry to stop me sleeping at night. Here's the trap point for the double slip end of the loop. And the one for the 'Cinderford' end. (Not positioned on its 'proper' bit of template) Sleepers yet to be coloured of course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 All trap points now completed, all cork laid and sanded, so nothing to really stop me starting track laying in the near future - so watch this space as they say! Following a 'discussion' on another thread and following a suggestion by fellow RMWebber Simon Dunkley I have had a go at building a short length of inside keyed track, as used along the platform at DR. I was concerned that simply by using standard C&L chairs that the rail would angle outwards at 1:20 rather than inwards. I therefore used riveted sleepers to make a basic formation at approx. 4 sleeper intervals and used 'split' chairs solvent fixed in between. Splitting the chairs into inside and outside halves (which, on this system become outside and inside - if you see what I mean!) obviates the 'lean' effect - and P4 flanges don't hit the keys. Photos will follow in due course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 This week I have been mainly making Turnout Operating Units (or TOU's). In the past (almost 40 years ago in fact!) I made a batch of these for our 'Ceiriog Valley' GWR based OO layout, basing them roughly on the Studiolith design, using aluminium curtain rail, perspex and brass tube. These are still in use on the ex-Wakefield club layout 'Hungerford' so have stood the test of time. It would appear that these days, aluminium curtain rail has become a bit like the proverbial rocking horse waste, and if I was going to use the design on DR, then a rethink was required. Inspiration came to me whilst 'minding my own business' one morning and at Wigan show I purchased some brass channel and strip from Eileens Emporium ( other purveyors of similar items are available - but they weren't at Wigan!). I still had the sheet of 5mm perspex I used all those years ago which was cut into strips approx. 12mm wide, milled square on the long edges in the lath into a finished width of 10.5mm and then milled again into shallow rebates on the long edges to fit into the width and depth of the channel I had bought. Holes were drilled at 16mm centres for 1.5mm brass tube which will hold and support the 'L' shaped wires that will be soldered to the blades. A further central hole was also drilled for possible use as a location for the actuation wire although use of this may well depend on where the TOU and its operating servo will be positioned. It may be that I will have to operate from an end which is why the perspex currently extends from one end until the final position is determined. A simple cardboard jig was made to ease construction of the brass elements. The 5mm x 3mm channel was cut into 35mm long lengths, the 7mm x 1mm strip into 25mm lengths with a 2.2mm hole drilled in one end to take servo mounting screws (http://www.modelfixings.co.uk/servo_screws.htm) for attachment to the baseboard. I decided one screw each side would be adequate. The parts were soldered together in the jig with the channel parts spaced apart at 12mm external. 3 were made for the 'ordinary' turnouts and 2 longer 4-hole versions will be required for the double slip - but I need more channel! I only bought one length. Silly me! I was also going to make some smaller units for the 4 single blade trap points but then - after searching vainly for a length of the aluminium curtain rail I initially wanted use for all the units - I found approx. 80mm of the stuff in virtually plain view in the lathe tools box! I must have looked at it many times but it just hadn't registered. Cutting this into 4 x 20mm lengths, drilling the 'flange' for the securing screws and milling some more 26mm lengths of perspex to fit with a 1.5mm hole in one end resulted in some single ended TOU's. Here is an overview of the components and completed units. And the milled and drilled tiebar. Ignore the cross-markings - they go back 40 years! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted November 2, 2016 Share Posted November 2, 2016 I thought the building now at Parkend was recovered from Drybrook Road? And looking at the Neil Parkhouse pictures, the paint looks like GWR light & dark stone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted November 4, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 4, 2016 I thought the building now at Parkend was recovered from Drybrook Road? I have some recollection of reading about that, Tim, but the building at Parkend seems to be one of their new breeze block cladded with reproduction wooden panelling, as per Lydney (or have I got that completely wrong). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 That set me looking. I stand corrected. The building is currently at Norchard (according to Neil Parkhouse) but I think it was at the Parkend site in the 70s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.