drrsenior

Thanks: I thought easing the stock rail out was the correct solution and what I had been doing. Have never gone anywhere near the common crossing and fully understand the 15.2mm dimension as being critical. I also have been building largely C10 so the need should not be very great. I will have largely Bs (? 6s, not 100% sure away from home and my painfully sorted Templot design) in the shed layout so probably will need to be a bit more generous there.

Enjoying ?? the cool damp weather rather than 34oC heat and bush fires. The C&L timbers were the plastic ones so of no use to me. I have been using the DCC Concepts pre cut and tinned timbers which solder really easily. Whilst in theory they only cover A and B turnouts, in practice there are always a few spare which can be trimmed down for the gaps when building Cs. A good few posts back you talked about having to 'ease' some clearances for good running with longer wheelbase locos: Can you explain where you found the need. I have had to tweak a few and have been working a bit in the dark. I think generally it has been to ease the stock rail away from the check rail. Has that been your experience? If I am going to have to do that, I am figuring that if I know WHERE, it is easier to do during construction rather than waiting until it is in situ. Wiring it up on the bench to run a 9F through is a bit complicated so to date I have not been able to find the tight spots until laid in situ. Pushing a 2-6-2 chassis through before installation did not find all the tight areas.

Currently actually in the UK. Come to see my 90 yo Mum for Xmas BUT carefully organised to have been able to go to the Warley exhibition yesterday. Just bought 20 metres of code 75 BH from C&L for the 10 turnouts needed for the shed area of my embryonic layout. Now waiting for the Heljan turntable to be back in stock so that my wife can buy it for Xmas!

I suspect none Aussies may not 'get' St Enodocs comment re the blanket. As an ex Pom, my Aussie wife had to explain that the full saying is: 'sticks like to a blanket'. We have such lovely colloquial language!! As an aside: it is Eastwood Town which has inspired me to build OOSF turnouts for the first time in Queensland following Gordon's order which seemed logical to me. They have gone reasonably well: I replaced the first 2 that I built but the rest seem to be OK after minor tweaking: thank you soldered construction. I had tried building a few using C&L components but could not get on with them possibly because I could not build them in situ. I have lots of spare C&L timbers as living in Australia you have to buy in bulk to avoid having to wait and wait for further supplies from across the world and then I have not used them!