Hi,

Our group managed to arrange some mid-week working sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, so it gave us the opportunity to have all of the layout Modules in one place and to attempt to put them together for the first time

Wednesday

Our End Loops had been painted, but as yet we hadn't joined the pairs together. So the first job was to clamp each of the halves together and drill the holes for the fixings and the pattern makers dowels to aid alignment. As with the other boards, we have chosen to use M8 x 50mm bolts and T nuts to provide the clamping action.

Once the halves had been joined, we offered them up to the Fiddle Yard and after finding the centres of the modules clamped and joined them. At this point though time was getting on and we could see that the Scenic Boards were quite a bit higher than the End Loops / Fiddle Yard and would need allot of adjustment, so we called it a night.

Thursday

First job was to put up the Fiddle Yard / End Loops and as we knew they were quite a bit lower (about 2cm) than the Scenic Boards we wound the legs out and leveled everything off. We then started to put up the Scenic Boards and got out the tape measures to make sure they were parallel with the Fiddle Yard Modules. As the Scenic Boards are curved, it's actually really hard to work out wether they are in line or not and we were struggling to get everything lined up correctly. After what seemed like an age, allot of head scratching and inching module legs across the floor, we were there and the boards were aligned.

We then clamped the End Loops to the Scenic Boards and installed the final fixings. A brief inspection of all the module joins showed that we need to do a little fettling to one set of the end loops as the joint between them and the Fiddle Yard had a slight gap. Nothing that a few minutes with a hand plane wouldn't put right though.

Here are some pics:

Scenic Boards being put up, leveled and positioned with the Fiddle Yard.

Several shots taken with all the modules connected, moving around the layout.

A couple of members testing the fit of the operating space.

Before the modules were packed away, the track centre lines were marked on the End Loops, so that the cork track bed can be laid. Our intention is to super elevate the curves on the End Loops and if that is successful, then we will modify the curves on the Scenic Boards accordingly. More details of that though in future posts.

Cheers, Mark.