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Brewhouse Quay: Track Laying


Chris Nevard

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Just before the Xmas holiday I started to lay the track on Brewhouse Quay. The delay in getting the snaps here being due to that increasingly shocking excercise of actually interacting with people face to face (cue the H&S Executive for another new directive no doubt) rather than keyboard, eating all the wrong foods, drinking too much beer in foreign climes and probably in due course getting a dose of lurgy due to all public places being heated to suit the staff rather than the heavilly dressed public.

 

Initially the plan was to use ready made track, but after messing about with Xtrakcad it came apparent that I would not be able to shoe-horn in the track plan that I wanted into the small area. And anyway, with nearly all the buildings being ready to plant I needed some challenge having not built my own track since Catcott Burtle in 2007.

 

The track as you'll see is traditional copper clad construction, but rather than using the more usual code 75 bullhead rail I'm aiming for that light railway/industrial look by using code 55 marketed by C+L Finescale for OO/HO. Code 55 is about as light a code as one can go in OO realistically to avoid ready to run wheel flanges bouncing along the sleeper tops.

 

Seen here are the first few inches with rail laid, and those with keen eyes might just notice the destressed copper clad scratched to represent timber. Sleeper gapping to avoid a short circuit is just to the rear of the nearest rail so to avoid an unsightly groove when seen from the front of the layout.

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When soldering the rail to copper clad sleepers, to avoid that tell-tail look often seen with blobs of solder on the side of the rail which would spoil that flat-bottomed look, I'm pre coating the sleepers with a thin coat of solder and then 'sweating' pre-fluxed rail onto the sleeper surface. Whether I add cosmetic rail spikes remains to be seen, for much of it only the rail tops will be seen protruding out of fine ballast or cobbles and some of the less recent ready to run offerings may just brush the spikes. Such can always be added at a later stage when the layout is nearely complete.

 

The baseboard top is plywood, but seen here is what looks like a foamboard base - correct! To make track laying easier due to the fixed high backscene that that surrounds 3 of the 4 sides, I'm using a removeable sub baseboard which will then be permanently fixed into place once the more tricky aspects of tracklaying have taken place. In due course, ballasting with diluted PVA could cause the foamboard to delaminate, so to avoid the possiblity of that happening, as long as the whole lot is painted prior to ballasting this will not be an issue. As with other projects I generally use a blend of Halfords red primer, grey primer and matt black. One could of course use Railmatch 'Sleeper Grime', but Halfords bonds to the metal better, dries quicker and can be bought from around the corner.

 

Below: to illustrate the future, looking back to 2007 here is primed track using Halfords on Catcott Burtle ready for ballasting. This example is of course C&L bullhead with chairs.

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6 Comments


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  • RMweb Premium

I like the way that looks , much neater than blobs of solder , and it looks like it would be easier to do the cosmetic finishing touches .

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  • RMweb Gold

Whether I add cosmetic rail spikes remains to be seen, for much of it only the rail tops will be seen protruding out of fine ballast or cobbles and some of the less recent ready to run offerings may just brush the spikes.

 

Oh go on, you know you want to?! (The SPLR bit of BHR has around 1000 individual dog spikes, using the same materials you are using above, so if I were you, I'd find any excuse to hid them with the scenery!).

 

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this one develop, although I won't hold you to using the 7F as regular motive power! ;)

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  • RMweb Gold

Does look good Chris. Althought the 7F would look nice, although it would probably be on it's side having fallen off the track!

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

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  • RMweb Gold

There are Americans who have spiked a whole basements worth of track and later have gone over to flexitrack. It all depends on how much of a masocist you are ( or how much track). The code 55 looks really good.

Don

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I'm with you JB - I was shocked to find out Catcott was 2007! Seems like only yesterday I was following its construction with much interest.

 

This is looking like it's going to be another stunner as well Chris - I'm looking forward to seeing the finished layout. Your track always looks incredible, whatever your method - a great boon to us 00 modellers to know that it can look just as good as the more accurate gauges.

 

Mike

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