jonhall Posted August 29, 2010 Author Share Posted August 29, 2010 All of the points are attached to 'bluepoint' mechanical actuators, and then model aircraft polyethylene wire-in-tube and a few cranks have coupled them all up. Nice idea, shame it dosn't bloody work the bluepoint mechs should in theory only need about 5mm throw, which handily is about what the scalefour society leverframe provides. Unfortunately they take so much force to get over center that with the slop in the pushrods you cant throw one without having nearer 10mm movement at the lever end. Having extended the bottom of the s4 lever to get that much, I can now just about get one to throw, but the co-acting pairs have so much resistance I'm bending the brass tube in the leverframe rather than getting both points to reliably go over center. I'm trying to decide if I need to go to 1 lever per point, or cut my losses and chuck the blue points in the bin and get a handfull of tortoise. I'm feeling very disenchanted right now! Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandman Posted August 29, 2010 Share Posted August 29, 2010 Hi Jon I'm presuming the force required is caused by the built in switch not the actuator to the tiebar. Can the spring in the switch be bypassed at all? Shame the original idea has not worked out. All the best Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) From time to time I'm asked how we are getting on with Hamworthy, and usually my response is some feeble excuse about lack of time, but spurred by the realisation that we want to use the layout at the heart of our club stand at this years Tolworth Showtrain, there has been a sudden rush* of activity. A lot of what has gone on is underneath, but I've been busy with the polystyrene terraforming - its not all that easy to see in these snaps, but once we have a modroc shell on, it should take some paint... The entrance to the underpass/subway looking toward Poole/London The view from the (disused) Broadstone embankment Jon *its all relative! Edited October 3, 2011 by jonhall 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull1845 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Coming along nicely Jon, The underpass is known locally as the "Mickey Mouse Tunnel", no idea why but just a piece of useless info for you... Cheers Scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 (edited) Another little update, as ever the last minute rush to get ready for an exhibition... one of the drawbacks of meeting in a leisue centre is that everything you see has to be unpacked before we start, and packed away at the end of the night - we probably lose 20% of the meeting. regretably most of the action is still taking place underneath, but we are getting there slowly. Through wiring has gone into conduit under the boards, and the inter-board plugs are being wired - this is one of the easy mainline boards with only track feeds. Unlike this one, which has all the pointwork as well - its all getting a bit busy The other major development is that we have finally started to brace the legs to the baseboard - I've never been too bothered by this, as once the layout is up, the legs arn't parallell, so it dosn't tend to sway, however they are quite vunerable when the layout is being set up. the solution to this has been some joist braces from B&Q - seen here in the flat. One of our members has fitted a riv-nut to one end into which a handwheel bolt is screwed, through the flat plywood leg so that we get a sturdy, but lightweight diagonal brace. Until now we have only cut the first hole in the leg, to allow the wires to pass through, but now we know where the brace will fit, we can cut a few more holes to save a bit more weight. The other activity last night was to prepare the cement terminal board to accept the lever frame that will operate the points. This is rather easier than the other frame, as the board is somewhat triangular, we have space to extend it out behind, and not muck about with retractable frames. Here the first couple of tubes are just visible in a slot in the backscene/baseboard frame. Not a job thats required for Showtrain, but as nobody else needed that board to work on, another job that could be ticked off the list. Hamworthy will be the centerpiece of the Hampton Court MRS club stand at Tolworth Showtrain www.tolworthshowtrain.co.uk next weekend - please come and say hello, and we will be more than happy to show you what we have done. See also the Tolworth Showtrain thread on RM web here - http://www.rmweb.co....__fromsearch__1 Jon Edited November 7, 2011 by jonhall 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 (edited) Well Tolworth Showtrain is over for another year, and I'm pleased to report that we actually made some progress whilst demonstrating secenic techniques... The terra firma at the London end is more or less at it's final shape, has been skinned, and given a quick spray over to give some ground cover, and the platform surface is well advanced. Jon Edited November 14, 2011 by jonhall 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyneux Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Looks great Jon. It's a shame I missed the Tolworth show as I'd have liked to have a look at Hamworthy. Is that a 4TC paired with the 73? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Is that a 4TC paired with the 73? No it's a 4VEP, just for the contrast we combined 2 coaches from the Hornby VEP with 2 from one of our members MJT. We had quite a lot of questions including how do you open the windows on the Hornby one - I'm sure a lot of people didn't twig at all. Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandman Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Hamworthy is looking good. I'm really annoyed I missed the show so can't wait to see it at next weeks meeting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 (edited) With a sudden rush of activity both before and after Showtrain, my enthusiasm is somewhat restored, so with no meeting next week due to a clash of hall bookings, then two more lost to Christmas and New Year, I've brought a board home with me to work on. The aim is to have installed the subway and platform surfaces to both platforms by the time we reconvine on the 8th January. What you see in the earlier photos is a bit misleading, as the surfaces were only card templates to aid cutting the final surface, but the island platform has now got a sub surface of white plasticard, and a top surface at one end of black plasticard. Three quiet evenings this week have allowed the stairwell on the island to have been mostly built - as a sub-assembly so that it can be detailed up later. I suspect that the steps are rather too large, because the tunnel is rather deep, but as thats a function of baseboard depth, it's not something I feel inclined to fix. Jon Edited December 14, 2011 by jonhall 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 (edited) Aided by the lack of RMweb to distract me over Christmas, I've made reasonable progress. I treated myself to a couple more IOW 1938 trains, so this is Hamworthy, the junction where the new cross-Solent tunnel joins the rest of the network... I haven't got any 10.5mm wheels so alas the two dinosaur sets are as yet unmotorised see thread >>> http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/46417-efe-1938-london-underground-tube-trains/page__fromsearch__1 This shows bothe the platforms and the wagons I've been working on (see a new thread) - the platforms have actually got even further, I'm still hopeful that they can be finally fixed into place before I have to take the board back on the 8th. And finally I poped over to one of our other members during the course of last week - he has had a part sheet of 4mm plywood in his garage since the last set of baseboard building, so we turned that into some strips, and I've spent some time knocking up the branch fiddleyard. Jon Edited January 2, 2012 by jonhall 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandman Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 You have been a good boy over Christmas . I look forward to seeing the results on the 8th. Well done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 Well it kept me off the streets for a while... I went into B&Q last week to buy two strips of wood, 8x18mm, and became distracted, by the time I left I had a bil for £55.06 to present to the tresurer J Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRDBLUE17 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Hi Jon, Really good to see the progress you are making, use to spend all my school holidays in Hamworthy when I was younger and remember seeing the 37's on the steel trains alongside Hamworthy Park working back from the quay. Really captured the look of the place well, Keep up the great work, All the best, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) I've brought another board home with me this week, plan A was to work on the point rodding, and to facilitate this I built most of the remaining lever frame last week, and I even remembered to bring home the control tubes, unfortunately I seem to have left all of the cranks at the club, so that plan has been postponed... All I've been able to do is build up a set of bufferstops see this thread. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/44572-lswrsr-rail-built-buffer-stops-in-4mm/page__fromsearch__1 and apply some paint, including a further trial of plasticote stone effect aerosol - there are some quite large areas of dead ground where previously there would have been track at Hamworthy, and I'd been a bit concerned about how I would ballast this area, but then I discovered this stuff in B&Q and I think it's not a bad base coat for whatever we add on top. Jon Edited January 18, 2012 by jonhall 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 18, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 18, 2012 I seem to have left all of the cranks at the club, I do hope your fellow members don't see this! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandman Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I do hope your fellow members don't see this! Yes we have and we will rib him about it on Sunday evening. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted January 19, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 19, 2012 Oh what a slip up!! Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold griffgriff Posted January 19, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 19, 2012 Oh what a slip up!! Ian look up alternate meanings of 'crank' in a thesaurus B) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 (edited) Jan-Feb-March updates, Having taken the bits that were already in stock home to work on the leverframe a car accident meant that my ability to pop to the local r/c model shop and find a few of the outstanding items became impossible - so the baseboard was loaded into Dads car, and returned to the club unfinished.... Having totally crushed enthusiasm for this job (which wasn't overly high in the first place) I decided to continue with a few jobs that I would enjoy, or at least would give the impression of having made actual progress, so a bit more polystyrene terra-forming was done, this time on the branch/cement terminal board. Sheets of expanded polystyrene were built up in layers and roughly carved until the approximate land form was in place (quite messy), and then stuck down, the following week they were shaped with a surform (quite messy2) and then modroc followed by plaster (messy10) was smoothed over the top, to give more or less this The week after we smoothed off the rough plaster edges, and I brought my airbrush down, loaded it with paint and then discovered that a) whatever I thought was acrylic thinners deffinately wasn't and the paint totally seperated, and b ) last time I put it away there must have been some water (or something) in the air line, as the valve was totally knackered as well - this was also very messy, but not in a good way... The following week I had found the cheapo airbrush that I had only bought for the aerosol adapter, and which has now been promoted to service use, tried the airbrush with neat thinners BEFORE filling it with paint, and then mixed some definately Tamiya thinners, with the paint, and sprayed the whole lot brown. Meanwhile one of our other members has been working his way along the rails, painting the sides a rusty brown/black colour, he is under instructions to finish by next week, because the week after he flies to Shanghai and is making his way back to Walton-on-Thames by train - I fear he will find the most difficult bit will be the fimnal Waterloo to WoT in about 6 weeks time, certainly I have to do Dresden>Thames Ditton at Easter, and I already know that the last leg will be a rail replacement bus from Tolworth! We are gradually eradicating the plywood colour from view, this is the state of play as of last night. Jon Edited March 19, 2012 by jonhall 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyneux Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Sorry to hear about the airbrush! The layout is looking good. It's a big project so it's understandable that your enthusiasm for it will wax and wane. By the way, I hope you are going to run some 4TCs on it? I have many happy memories of watching the trains on the far side of the boating lake from Poole Park when I was a small child. Mostly Blue/Grey 4TCs being propelled by a "bagpipes" 33. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 Just placing a link to a thread so that I can find it again. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/15276-poole-port-freight/page__fromsearch__1 Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted August 16, 2012 Author Share Posted August 16, 2012 Ever so excited by a photo of bufferstops - now I can get on and build them http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/43836-img-20120816-hamworthy-5/ Jon 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandman Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Ever so excited by a photo of bufferstops - now I can get on and build them http://www.rmweb.co....16-hamworthy-5/ Jon Just seen the pictures and sent you an email before I realised you'd already seen them. Useful bit of reference material. Be interesting to see if they had anymore pictures that they had not posted. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted October 29, 2012 Author Share Posted October 29, 2012 (edited) Sporadic activity to report. A few weeks ago several club members and their tool collections assembled in a hired scout hut to do some more carpentry, this time to build the long overdue fiddleyard traversers - another first for our club. Whilst progress wasn't quite as swift as I might have wished, we have now got one built, and most of the wood cut for the other. The surface is 6mm ply located in a routed grove in the sides, which are 9mm ply. The runners are 550mm draw runners from screwfix. The runners need to be modified to allow them to work in both directions, and as it turns out should probably have been mounted a bit farther to one side, so that the maximum extention was to the side that the manufacturers intended. The deck is about 4ft6in long, and it wil have a further 2ft extension eventually, there is a 6in fixed interface with the scenic board next door. Unfortunately we have had to go backward a little since the photos were taken - we discovered that the runners need a further modification to stop us from loosing the ball race when it was pulled too far in one direction - this led to the dreadful discovery that I had hidden all the screwholes with a bit of plywood that had been enthusiastically glued and screwed into place. I did eventually manage to release this, but to put it back together I'll need to route some access holes! Further compounding my problems last night, I discovered that some of the packs of runners (but not all) are handed pairs, so if you put the third extention in the wrong one it won't dome back out again - having surveyed them all in 4 pairs I have 6 of type 'A' but only 2 of type 'B'. Jon Edited October 29, 2012 by jonhall 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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