This blog covers the doings in the Devon Riviera Group of the Scalefour Society, aka 'DRAG'. Not to be confused with 'SWAG', mind, which is the South West Area Group of RMWeb...

There are several members of RMWeb in DRAG, including Re6/6, 10800, Metropolitan, FatAdder and Brinkly. We meet twice a month in the Teignmouth area.

Although we are an official AG of the S4 society, most of us have various amounts of OO and R-T-R stuff squirrelled away.

Our current project is 'TT2' (Test Track 2 - our 9m x 4m 5-track P4 test track. This logically enough will replace TT1.

TT1 is a double track oval (pretty large) in P4, which was to be put up every evening we met in a local hall, to let us run our locos and stock. However, all things are part of the learning curve, and TT1 was no exception. Differing types of P4 track and poor quality timber led to boards warping and the track otherwise not keeping it's proper alignment. Consequently we could not be sure that any derailment was due to the stock or the track!

The new TT is built using better materials and by people well-versed in carpentry. A consistent track standard is being used (Exactoscale Fasttrack and copper clad pointwork). A quadruple track oval, with various configurations of crossovers and pointwork will test our locos and stock thoroughly. The outer track also has two long passing loops and on the inside of the four P4 tracks is a circuit of OO P87 track... to enable us to run all our OO R-T-R purchases so that our P87 member doesn't feel left out!

Progress so far has been documented in the Layouts section of the old forum, but I will use this blog to add further photos and reports as work progresses. We have thus far completed all baseboards and have actually started to lay track!

Tuesday 29/9/09

A good nights work at Holcombe last night, more track laid on the first 5 straight boards - see photos below.

Apart from mentioning the general meanderings of our Area Group, we will also be focussing on the specific progress of TT2 construction. Baseboard construction is complete (see http://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=514) and tracklaying is just starting in earnest.

Last night work continued on the track on the 'easier' straight side (which only has the one B7 crossover). Firstly, CK and Andrew get to work:

A variety of weights (some edible) was used to hold down the newly glued track whilst the PVA cured:

At board joins, the rail is soldered to copperclad end-protectors, with bits of brass shim to match the rail height with the main run of Exactoscale FastTrack:

The first vehicle traverses the B7!

And some of the team admire the evening's work - David, CK, Re6/6, Nick and Brian

(I probably need to make future gallery pictures a bit smaller for sharing with the blog).