martin_wynne

Hi Nigel, Some pre-group companies used sleepers (10" wide) in the switch front, but the REA designs and all post-group companies use timbers (12"wide) in the switch front. Usually the end timber at the rail joint has the heavier S1J joint chairs. Templot has an option for the switch front to be sleepered or timbered. The EMGS say their turnout is a bullhead B-6, which means it is either an REA design dating from the 1925 designs, or a GWR design from 1930. In either case the switch front timbers will be 8ft-6in long (34mm). cheers, Martin.

Hi Kev, Well yes, but so is the membership able and willing to click a Donations button. Currently: RMweb: 39,386 members. Templot Club: 2,289 members. cheers, Martin.

Hi Gary, It's odd, because I have no recollection of ever changing to Strict mode, and Steve clearly didn't: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/158853-advertising/page/7/&tab=comments#comment-4199741 What's more, despite the warning about Strict mode from Firefox, I have had no problems with any web site or being unable to login or perform any other working on them. I don't know for how long RMweb has been displaying the adverts, but I have never ever seen any of them, so clearly the Strict mode has been in force on my

The Templot forum hasn't disappeared after 20 years, despite having no advertising. The key is the Donations button, which keeps it ticking along in reasonable health. On RMweb, the model hobby trade could advertise on here with simple adverts consisting of images and links to their web sites, without needing trackers. Simply an on-screen version of their magazine advertising. Martin.

Hi Gary, It's not blocking the ads. What it is blocking are the trackers which the ads try to install. Firefox now does this by default, at least on my system, i.e. the STRICT tracking protection setting is ON. If there was an ad on RMweb which was a simple clickable image, it would appear normally. Unfortunately, there isn't. They all try to install trackers to keep track of what you are clicking on and responding to. Firefox blocks the tracker not the ad, but the result is that the ad doesn't appear. Here's a list of all the ad trackers on RMwe

Hi John, Just to let you know that in the next Templot program update, there will be a new function to create symmetrical Y-turnouts automatically. Here's a bit of video: https://flashbackconnect.com/Movie.aspx?id=dNJO8HaY3G73Z2URE_7xQw2 I know it's something that has had folks scratching their heads. Update should be available in a week or two. cheers, Martin.

Hi Steve, It's because you are using Firefox, and it has updated itself to the latest version. I have been using Firefox (always-updated) for ages, and never have had any advertising on RMweb. I believe Firefox has now made the no-adverts setting the default. Martin.

How wide is it? Presumably listing prices with and without purchase tax (now VAT) was for their trade customers. I remember a local model shop as a boy, where whatever you asked for he shook his head, reached for the W&H catalogue, and said "I can get it by Monday". The catalogue was a good exercise in mental arithmetic. Cover up the left column and subtract 1/10.5 from 12/7. Martin.

Hi john, In that case you put the book in it the wrong way round! There are usually some marks round the glass showing the top of the document. If it will only fit some other way, you need to rotate the image afterwards in a photo editor program. Some scanners have an option in the settings to rotate it for you. p.s. I remember using W&H code95 bullhead rail back in the 1960s, but I can't remember how wide it was or whether it came from Peco. cheers, Martin.

Hi John, Don't take photos with the camera horizontal (i.e. book or model flat on a bench). The camera's orientation sensor doesn't work when it is horizontal. If you don't have a scanner to use instead, prop the book against a wall, and take the photo with the camera vertical. If it's a phone, look on the back and turn it round so that the camera lens is at the top. cheers, Martin.

Hi Andy, True. But when quoted wrong it destroys the credibility of the document. That document was dated 1983, long after scale BS-95R bullhead rail was readily available and in use for finescale 4mm/ft track building. If the document can get one thing wrong, it can get another. For example quoting the check gauge as 17.25mm and so creating asymmetric flangeways, when it should be 17.20mm. In truth, the check gauge dimension is always a minimum, so an actual measured value of 17.25mm is perfectly acceptable. But it can't be quoted as the check gauge because

I am not an agent of RMweb. This section of RMweb: "Handbuilt Track & Templot" references my registered mark "Templot". I have moderator privileges in this section only. I do and will protect my mark from being associated with misinformation and misleading statements. Especially those which might confuse beginners to hand building track. Martin.

So EM modellers must change to using 1.00mm rail? And throw away their track gauges? Martin.

For the umpteenth time I am not supporting anything. Like everyone else on RMweb I post a personal opinion, and readers can take as much or as little notice of it as they choose. My opinion is that the correct and optimum check gauge for standard EM is 17.20mm. There are some other EM variants listed in Templot which a few modellers are using and others might like to try. The real question to ask is why we should take any notice of a document drawn by someone who quotes the rail width as "1.00mm" to 2 decimal places. It could at a stretch be rounded to "1mm", but writing it as "1.0

Hi Andy, Thanks for posting that, but it's new to me, and it doesn't correspond to other EMGS material in my possession. There are some problems in it: 1. scale bullhead rail is 0.92mm wide, not 1.00mm as shown. 2. the crossing flangeway is correctly shown as 1.00mm, but the check gauge is incorrectly shown as 17.25mm. That would result in a check flangeway of 0.95mm and therefore asymmetric flangeways. That would make it impossible to construct complex formations such as tandem turnouts and crossovers having parallel-wing crossings.