Well it's been a while since I posted anything on the progress of Barrow Road. After an enjoyable day out at the members day at Taunton I returned to domestic duties and have finally managed to decorate two rooms in the house which included replacing the flooring.
I have now returned to more interesting tasks and have made some progress on the girders for the roundhouse roof. I have nearly completed the six 46ft long girders but have run out of 2mm and 2.5mm 'T' section brass so further wor
Back front holiday and I find a set of Ultrascale wheels for my second Bachmann Peak has arrived. I had forgotten all about the order intended for my proposed conversion of split head code 'D95' to D13 with 'corridor connection doors.
This conversion was inspired by a photo purchased from Rail Photoprints of D13 passing the side of the shed on 2B93 the 10.49am local infill turn from Bath Green Park to Temple Meads.
http://www.railphoto...565-RP.jpg.html
I decided to take a break from th
I've had a few days off from Barrow Road at Railex with my other layout Sheep Pasture, a Cromford & High Peak subject.
Sheep Pasture at Railex
[ See Kempenfelt photos of layout dated 2nd June - please ignore his earlier post ]
I'm now back on the job finishing the girders, both long and short, by forming all 1400 rivets in the overlays for the top and bottom of the girders.
Here are some photos taken today during completion of all the girders - trial assembly revealed the
This afternoon, at long last, I made a start on the model of Lawrence Hill Junction Signal Box. The basis of the model is another stunning kit of parts commissioned from York Modelmaking which arrived last week.
The kit consists of a shell formed from interlocked peices of 2mm mdf onto which will be fixed the walls of the box made from laminations of Rowmark plastic. Each of the four walls consists of four layers of the plastic onto which is fixed a further layer on rustic cladding. So far
The PCB board inserted into the roof is courtesy of my S4 Glevum Group colleague Dave the groups electronics guru - thanks Dave.
As mentioned in a previous post I ran out of LEDs and sent for a pack of 3mm Protowhite [Golden Light] from Bromsgove Models. I also decided to try out one of their DCC Concepts LED/Lamp Control boards.
Two of the new LEDs have been fitted to Dave's circuit board without the 'flourescent tube' and a further LED has been fashioned into the exterior gas lamp at the
Following RMweb taking it's unscheduled Christmas break I realise I have not posted anything for a while. Further progress has been made on the main line with both centre boards now having the C&L flexitrack replaced by ply and rivet track. Limited modelling time over the Christmas festivities has seen all 4 lengths fixed and fully chaired with the ply sleepers stained with Coldron dye. All the main line track is now in position ready for the droppers to be attached.
Here are a few photo
Having formed and soldered up the two main support structures
the main beam was formed from two pieces of rail each 30mm long. There is a narrow gap between the two rails so I used a short length of 0.2mm nickel silver strip as a temporary spacer during soldering. I also used two additional pieces to join the rails together.
I have since modified this by using a couple of pieces of thin double sided pcb to make the beam insulated from the trackwork - [ Mark, I have taken note of you
I have added the rest of the templot track plans and added a few locos for atmosphere - most of them are still in RTR state and will need chassis conversion to P4.
The templot is in need of some tweaking as it was done with a 55ft turntable inside the roundhouse before I discovered that a 60ft Cowans Sheldon unit was installed in 1927.
The Jinty on road 8 is a P4 converted Bachmann as is the WD on the exit road. All the rest will need converting.
I completed the trackwork for the junction at Lawrence Hill a couple of months ago and now that I have the legs for the curved board I decided itwas time to lay the track. The junction is constructed off the layout using a templot track plan and has been constructed from ply sleepers using a combination of exactoscale functional chairs and rivets. I like using the latter on pointwork as it enables adjustment to the track before adding the cosmetic chairs.
Some re-alignment of the track on th
Over the past couple of months I have had to make some modifications to the Dunster House shed building in order to make room to fit the fiddle yard boards down the back wall. This has entailed making cut outs in the two short walls that protrude into the building. After much thought and deliberation I made a decision to add a 6" x 3" wood beam across the two inner roof 'trusses' in order to add strength to the roof. These two beams were supported using 'permanent' acrow props which have now bee
The box furniture has now been added and includes the booking-in desk, cupboard, stools, chair, clock and finally the two stoves.
The latter have been modified to act as electrical pick-ups for the lighting, Each stove has a sprung pick up added to the top of the stove pipe which makes electrical contact with copper tape attached to the underside of the roof.
This needs to be tidied up - one of the LEDs in the tube does not work and I have now obtained fresh supplies from Bromsgrov
It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog however I have been very busy on the layout during the past year completing several small buildings in and around the shed yard and cladding the Barrow Road viaduct with Wills Coarse Stone sheet and making all the scenery along the front of the layout.
My latest completed project is the conversion of 11 Bachmann mk1 coaches to P4 using Bill Bedford sprung bogies with MJT frames; Masokits gangway connectors plus other detailing.
Her
Since my last entry I have had a rethink on the curved scissors crossover. It is critical to the running of the layout and being on a curve I have decided to simplify the entrance/exit of the Up and Down storage sidings by using a single crossover at each end. These will be C12 1600mm radius one will permit trains to access the down main from the UP sidings whilst the other from the DOWN sidings to the UP main.
My decision followed additional work on the working timetable and following the m
For those who missed Scalefour North earlier this year the Scalefour Society have just added a selection of photos of my layout on the Society website.
http://www.scalefour.org/shows/S4North2013/BristolBarrowRoad/
Since the show I have been concentrated on the additional trackwork at the rear of Lawrence Hill Junction signal box and have surveyed Lawrence Hill road bridge that will form the scenic break at that end of the layout. I have drawn up a plan for this additional scenic board wh
It's been a while since I updated my blog but we haven't been idle. Chris has made two Power Boxes one for the scenic side and a Booster box for the Storage sidings. Each contain a Maplins X21M Power unit, PSX circuit breakers, a DCC Concepts 12v Power supply PSU2 and NCE Units - a 5amp command unit in the main box and a Booster in the other. They do look rather smart.
Main Power Box
Booster Box
Engine Shed Sidings now has a panel for the turnouts which controls the Fishponds banke
I've had a train - Bachmann Peak D41 on Rumney Chassis plus four Bachmann MK1s performing a test run through the storage sidings. The test traversed Board 9 to Board 18 and involved a number of successful forward and reverse moves - I really must register on Youtube and take some videos.
Wiring has progressed further since my last entry with the production of 16 wiring looms for the analogue Cobalt point motors. These are positioned along the double track main line and will be operated from
Further progress on the wiring with Boards 14 and 15 now partially complete. The immediate object is to wire the complete circuit of the double track main line. Boards 14 and 15 are storage yard boards on which the bus bars are now fixed as are the inter board 'jumper' cables. The UTP cab bus units are also now wired.
Board 14
Board 14
Board 14
Board 15
I've just started on Board 16, with just 17 to 20 to go.
Board 21 now has the majority of the track laid - just a couple of 60ft lengths to go. All the track is C&L ply sleepers with functional Exactoscale 4 bolt BR/LMS chairs. I've just received an order for a pack of 500 to complete this board. You will see in the photos lengths of black card which I use under the ply sleepers.The card is 0.2mm thick and 6mm wide and has become my standard practice for track laying following a recommendation by Graham Turner - if you need to adjust any length of
The lift out board - number 19 - has now been fully wired. Power to board 19 is fed via four brass strips on the board which, when the board is in position, make contact with 4 brass sprung plungers obtained from old light bulb connectors. To enable power to still feed Board 20 when 19 is lifted out power cables have been run down the support legs, across the floor and up the support leg of board 20. To avoid the potential disaster of engines and stock being accidentally driven into the abyss a
A bit more progress over the past week with Boards 18 and 20 sorted today. This leaves the lift out section to wire followed by a start on the wiring for the cobalt point motors.
Board 18
Board 18 top view
Boards 17 and 18
Board 20
Following my recent posting I received two constructive comments from RMwebbers.
I forgot the box stands on a concrete plinth and that there should be steel RSJ's to support the 2 central pillars above the lead out slot. This has now been rectified by adding a layer of 60thou plasticard around the base with the top edge champered. I have just made the pair of transverse 'I' beams to go under central pillars - not fixed yet so not in the attached photos. Thanks for your comments Keith.
An
Another Jubilee is now allocated to Bristol Barrow Road having just completed another P4 conversion of a Bachmann RTR model.
Saskatchewan - 45561- is the latest added to 45577 Bengal and 45662 Kempenfelt which I have converted in addition to Patriot 45506 as shown in my last post.
The other Jubilee 45572 Eire is on loan from David Clarke.
Over the past couple of weeks I have added a 2mm layer of adhesive foam to the remaining boards including the seven in the fiddle yard. My choice of a roll of 10m x 1mm 'Envoy Multi Adhesive Underlay' via Ebay has proved relatively easy to lay and economic at just shy of £18 for the roll. The adhesive layer on one side needs careful handling when peeling back the clear plastic covering sheet but once in place it grabs well and sticks. You will not remove it easily. Made of recycled rubber tyres
Engine Shed Sidings signal box is now finished and has taken it's place on the layout. The box is constructed from a Churchward Models etched brass kit I picked up from Ebay, and contains a detailed interior from Springside items with armchair and signalmen from Modelu. The final items, shown in the photos, are the two downpipes which are attached using Modelu cast iron holderbats. Only the two nameboards to make.
