Jayk

Thank you very kuch @Caley Jim. That's actually less than I expected, I have a whole 2mm of space from the top of the bogie stretched to the underside of the wagon where I'll be soldering the nut. Guess I won't be needing to reduce the height of the brass bearings as much as I feared! 🎉 J

A nice easy one! To save me bothering Shop3, could someone give me the thickness of the 12BA full nut? Very restricted on space for bogie mounting and don't want to drop to a half-nut. Thanks, J

It's been a while! Longer than I realised in fact. But have got back in to the swing of things and progress has been made. The track is now complete! The two turnouts on the lower half still need to be plumbed in but that's a job for the coming week. Rather than an omega loop, which I'm terrible at making, I'm going to try the zig-zag for accepting the greater travel distance in the slide switch compared with the turnout. I'd intended for the top-most track to extend all the way to the right hand edge but I ran out of rail and since this is purely for testing and checking the clearances for the curves I want to use I'm not going to fiddle around extracting the 26cm needed from the power bus. Before realising I needed / should check the clearances I had more rail than I needed so decided it would make for a rather spiffing way to distribute the power along the length. Oops. While I was advised that I could use Templot for the checking of clearances it wasn't particularly practical since you have to enter full size data which it then converts down, fine in most cases but since I'm mixing 2mm and N gauge stuff and not being certain that the models are 100% scale accurate it was just easier to do it this way. The good news is that it fits! Just. The stock used is currently sitting on N gauge wheelsets so the first head on shot is with them pushed as close together as possible and the second is with them as far apart as possible. When running on 2mm wheelsets it should be somewhere in the middle. But this is the absolute worst case scenario as the vast majority of stuff I'm interested in running is not going to be longer than 64' and therefore won't get this close.

Acceptable.

There's always something that you forget about when planning things out. If I want to go twin track at such a small radius do I have enough space for stock to pass each other? With XtrkCAD I'd opted to use 1" spacing between track centers just because that was a nice and easy number and then while fiddling in Templot I kept to the same dimension. It's greater than the prototype would typically call for but only by about 2mm. But I don't know if that extra ~2mm is enough. I tried a check with a pencil held to the side of a mk1 coach and that seemed to suggest it would be fine then I got to thinking about the other stuff I might want to run. I have a Eurostar set that would be fun to use if I can get the wheels sorted out but that isn't really any different to the mk1, but I also have a 442 EMU kit sitting around which is based off of mk3 coaches and then maybe it would fun to pick up a blue/grey HST next year when Dapol rerelease it. The pencil method with a mk3 wasn't looking great so I ran off some templates at the correct spacing and placed the coaches appropriately. Maybe. It looks like it should be ok but depending on how accurately I managed to locate the bogies, maybe not. So it's time to add a second line to the test track, thankfully there's space so I've cut along the outside of the sleepers on the inside track to give a spacing guide for adding the new templates and glued them down. When I originally ordered some stuff from shop1 I just grabbed a few of what looked like I'd need it, this was before even planning out the test track. So I ended up not quite having enough chair plates for both plain track and turnouts to finish it. Now I have a firmer idea of where I'm going it was time to submit a second order to start getting odds and ends together for when I needed it. Particularly I wanted to grab some extra coils of the N/S flat-bottomed rail, I picked 1 up for the test track figuring that even if I messed up the entire length it was £3 well spent and I'd have develpoed the skills to make the most of the nice straight stuff. I had no trouble with the bending vertically, presumably because of going with soldered construction, so no reason to not plan on using it going forwards. Knowing it was WSL I wasn't expecting to get enough to do the whole thing, but using it for the 15" and 16" curves seemed like a good idea as it meant I could avoid any joints on them. Unfortunately I was too late and it's all gone! Ah well, since the vast majority of these curves won't be visible I might go with abutted sleepers where the joint is. -Jayk

There seems to be a reliance on RtR, however there are a few bits and pieces around. It sounds like you've already found Worsley Works which offer a couple, if you don't mind using something produced to N gauge there is also someone on Shapeways that offers some others (these being 3D printed one piece shells) although most would fall under "historic" there is a selection of Class 37 bodies in various configurations. However, there is also the issue of cost. I'm currently producing a Class 25 from a WW etch and building the mechanism along the same lines as the earlier Chinese production Farish items. So a central motor with twin flywheels and driveshafts out to each bogie. Excluding paint but including bogie frames from what used to be BR Lines it comes out to approximately the same cost as the Farish RtR version - I would then have to pay the additional £18 for the 4 replacement drop in axles. For a Class 37 using a body from Shapeways the cost to produce it rises to approximately the same as buying both a Farish RtR *and* the 6 replacement drop in axles. This leaves things in rather a precarious position. -Jayk

Thank you, in reverse: I didn't really want to start the interesting trackwork right on the end of the platforms as that felt wrong. It's probably been done in many real places, but I wanted a gap between them so that it would feel less train-set-y? I am rather concious that this is more of the trainset I always wanted and less of a scale model. I was also unsure exactly how much space it would take up and how much space would be required to complete the station area so I opted to initial smoosh it all up hard against the right hand end so that I had the maximum amount of space to work with. With the plan above having a platform (I'll call it platform 1 and work up the plan) long enough for 12 coaches and my original idea that by representing the platform continuing off-scene to the left would allow such a long train to be feasible. So I can always shorten the platforms a little as well to give the junction more room to breath. The demarcation of on-scene and off-scene was more down to me visualising how I would be creating the breaks. An upper level station and forecourt such as you can find at, for example, Barking, Wimbledon or West Croydon would work for the left hand side and the for the right I was considering a flyover carrying a major trunk road. But either way, you're absolutely right, a curved backscene or break looks better and also uncovers more of the track to view. Finally, good idea! I don't know why it didn't come to mind - possibly some weird mental block again associated with trying to avoid it looking too train-set-y. Still, below is an updated version without the colours but with the suggestions incorporated. I think it's definitely an improvement. -Jayk (edit:- the curves through the junction are now at 40" radius but I'm still stuck with the 15" radius curves visible to the right of the lower exit of the junction and also for 9" or so on the left end of the station. If I can't find a way to open those up I'll have to come up with a way to cover them up.)

Tidied up a bit and added a yard and the storage loops. The storage loop highlighted in red is connected to both loops and therefore would need a reversing switch if the 4 rails of the 2 loops are wired as suggested. The yard sidings feel a little short with the shortest being only 22" long, but I'm not sure how else I could arrange it. -Jayk

Not much progress made this week as I've run out of primer and due to living in the middle of nowhere it's a ~35mile round trip on dodgy, hilly roads which translates to about an hours worth of driving. So until the next expedition I threw together what is definitely a class 47 bogie. See, it even says so! Obviously it's just a box with the axles spaced correctly but with the btb set at 8.5mm it navigates the 15" radius curves without sticking. I initially had issues as I set the calipers using the wheels in the wagon and that caused sticking, but on inspection those wheels were set at 8.7mm which wasn't what it said in the book. Aside from that I've made a start on the design for "the layout". It was inspired by something I saw over on the N gauge forum, which was a single track dogbone with one end made in to a reversing loop and the other end had a loop which also provided access to an upper level. I saw something slightly different in that if you made a twin track dogbone and connected the outer and inner loops from one side to their opposites on the other side and did this in both directions you had the ability to run a train from one loop to the other and reverse direction at the same time. If you also wire the 4 rails of the two loops up in opposition to each other you also don't need a reversing switch. This lead to me thinking about a junction station where 2 lines cross / meet and this is what I want to focus on. So here's the first mock up of those thoughts: The green areas are the station platforms, the blue area would be used for some storage loops and the red area could provide room for a small yard - probably permanent way. So the visible station throat is where the two lines meet and then they separate again through the station. The idea is to increase the radius of the track through the upper platforms and also to introduce more of a curve in the lower platforms so that the whole thing looks to be on a curve. I want either enough visible space on the lower platforms to accomodate a 3x4 coach EMU consist or have the platform extending off-scene on the left such that it appears there is space for that. I won't be running such behemoths but even the local stations where I grew up were all capable of handling such services and it's this sense of size that I really want to capture. I'm still basically incompetent with Templot at this point with my experience limited to creating a couple of turnouts and linking them up for the test track. So I'm using XtrkCAD to sketch things out and as it offers an export to BMP function I'm hoping that I can use that and then import it like a map in to Templot so I have something to work over. I'm hoping it's not going to get too complicated, I know that there is an option to create crossings from intersecting plain track and I *think* you can do something similar for creating turnouts so that I'm not stuck having to tinker with the turnout creator to find settings that match the plan / space. But before all that I need to get the sketch in to something I'm happy with. -Jayk.

@nick_bastable Thank you! And yes, I realise that it is on the tight side but as always the ambition is greater than the space. I can stretch to 36" wide on "the layout" so this is very much about testing the feasability of a loop - I'd really like to be able to watch the trains go round. Luckily I'm about those block freights and multiple units so the worst I'm going to encounter will be a Class 47 bogie with axle spacings of 14.5mm (total 29mm). I really should mock one up now that I have a length of curve to push it along, no fancy bearings just holes in the PCB should work. -Jayk

Had a flurry of activity this week, got the second turnout installed and the approx foot of track leading to it as well as the reverse curve leading off of it. Having got sick of cutting up tiny bits of solder I picked up a bottle of 0.65mm diamater balls intended for use with BGA chips. It was so much better, with a foot of track being approx 60 sleepers and with each sleeper requiring 4 applications of solder it made the whole thing actually pleasurable to construct. The view looking across my second attempt showing the reverse curve leading to the other half. It's 15" radius with no transition between the directions outside of whatever I may have introduced while putting the first rail down. Although it can't be seen rather than burying the operating wire sleeve in filler as I did the first time I opted for simply laying it on top of a bed of wet araldite as I went a bit to firm on pressing the filler down and it's made the first one a little stiff in operation. Pushing the switch forwards will operate it as expected but pulling the switch back does nothing but open the omega loop. Happy to say that this time I can just use the wire coming up through the switch. A second shot showing both installed turnouts for no real reason other than to show both a straight and a curved frog. The difference isn't something I'd have even thought about or probably even realised was a thing before starting with this. You'll have to excuse the centered blades in both shots, I took them while I was waiting for the araldite to set so the switch is in the middle of it's throw as well so that there's equal pressure in both positions. Aside from that, I also managed to get a good way in to making the replacement bogie, shown below with the outer end to the left of the image. Being the second definitely made a big difference in terms of speed and ease of construction. With the first one I was checking and adjusting everything each time I did any work to it due to an abundance of caution and not knowing where the critical junctures of the build would be. I'm still considering thining the worm housing even further to enable the UJ to be as central as possible, I can get it 1mm closer to the center of the bogie, but it does take the worm right down to the minimum number of teeth. I might tack it all together first and see how it lines up when offered to the chassis. But it does run nice and freely, I had to use the "definitely a small lathe and not just a mini-drill" to reduce the diameter of the 18 tooth gear on the right axle a little and then deepen the cuts as I'd not quite got the previous gear in precisely the correct place but since the other 4 all ran silky smooth I figured it was better to do this rather than attempt to reposition both bearings the fraction it needed. -Jayk

I have to admit that up until the discussion over the easitrack points I had no idea about this aspect. I've been very much winging it so far and just trying to follow the templates. Looking back the first turnout has the same issue but the starter wagon will roll through both routes of both points in both directions under gravity so I think I've gotten away with it. But it's definitely something I'll need to pay attention to on the next one and will hopefully make things a little easier when shaping the blade. Definitely glad I decided to start with a test track though, a little roughness and weirdness here and there will be a good shakedown for any rolling stock. It was also very much the intention to learn and make mistakes here so that "the layout" will be more competently put together. Thanks for the catch, -Jayk

Work for the Class 25 is still ongoing but I'd been putting off a job. I wanted to add flywheels just to help give it the best shot at running nicely as possible, but the restricted space which meant having to redo the bogie also meant that I would need to countersink the UJ's in to the flywheels. I'm sure this wouldn't be an issue with the right tools at hand, but no drill press meant it was going to be a case of doing it the awkward way. So out came the trusty twin pinion hand drill and with some ultra high tech securing of the flywheels to the desk (blutac) I set about drilling a 4mm deep, 3mm diameter hole in to the 6mm tall, 9.5mm diameter flywheels. I actually drilled a little shallower and chamfered the end of the UJ's a little to nestle a bit better in to the cutting lip. And there we have them! The UJ's stand a little under 0.5mm proud of the flywheels. So happy to have got these done without any mishap, it's back to the relaxing task of soldering chairplates to sleepers and rails to chairplates then onwards with the bogies. -Jayk

Possibly. Would it be a one of these? I have a body but it's sans cab. Upper magnet is rather rusty and it looks like the upper half of the body catch on the rear is either missing or has been squashed down onto the lower half. Had a quick peep at the upper brush / spring / collet and all looks clean and surprisingly unused. -Jayk

Well, it's been a while! Haven't really managed a huge amount of progress what with one thing and another but should be able to get another period of progress in. After much measuring and using photo editing software to measure things accurately I've decided that there really isn't going to be enough rotation available to the bogie if I'm driving it off of the center gear. Had a nice set of packages turn up with the post this morning. I needed an extra set of bits so I can make two that are driven off of the 2nd gear, I also ordered a set of Farish bogie sideframes and the battery box to make life a bit easier and finally a set of etches for the Freightliner Bogie Flats. I'm unsure if I'll use the battery box either as is or even as a base for building in to the larger one that I need but figured it would be better to have it than not, whichever way I go the battery box is going to get filled with lead to provide some nice low weighting as I think the majority will need to be stuck up in the roof. There are still some bits I need to get for the class 25, it's all rather got away from me. The original intent was simply to have something that moved under it's own power and if it looked vaguely like a loco then so much the better. But I now want to also grab a pair of flywheels from NBrass as they do some 4mm thick ones, I'm hoping that if I ask nicely I can have the hole opened up to 3mm in them so that the UJ outers can fit inside them since I'm cramped for space. They also do some rather chunkier looking UJ pieces that fit on 1.5mm rod which I think I'll be using in the larger mechanisms. The flats I'm really looking forwards too though. They're not quite the exact ones I was after but I believe that the only difference is that the larger rectangular openings on either side of the bogie pivots are covered from below. It's a fantastically simple design and should prove a relaxing build. But it looks like they'll end up being rather on the light side since I don't think there's anywhere to hide weight apart from on the bogies. On the track side of things, I'm nearing completion of the second turnout. I'm not as happy with the V as I was with the first one but this turnout is curved through the frog whereas the first one was straight. The other parts I'm much happier with however and I even remembered to flare the wings around the V this time! The check rails are also vertical rather than in at an angle and the order of construction / use of gauges was much more comfortable. I've also got some track lain although at the moment it's limited to that first turnout and the plain track leading from it to the board edges, but it's all wired and the turnout is operating from the spdt slide switch Araldited down. Once this second turnout is mounted and wired in I can run some plain track from the toe out to the other end of the board so I'll have a full length to test things on. Not really a huge update, but I think I'm definitely getting the hang of things; it's about having more things under / awaiting construction than you have completed. -Jayk

First of all, a quick correction. I was a little confused with the specs for the worm and such, I'm using a M0.25 worm (3-371) with the 100DP 21T Skew cut (3-366) but the M0.25 worm does interact with the M0.3 spur gears at their current width. So the option to thin those and use them in a manner similar to the photos still exists. The biggest issue is that I've no idea how I would go about fabricating the pivoting mechanism such that the bogies could still be removed. With the bogie installed on it's pivot (the other end is supported with some blu-tac) the center of the bogie UJ would be approximately in line with the inner edge of the first small grill and the center of the motor UJ will be approximately in line with the inner edge of the second small grill. Wheels are 7.5mm diameter if you want to finger measure 😀 When I first started imagining the bogies I actually wanted to run the worm off of the second gear (counting from the outer end) rather than the middle one but I didn't think I'd have the room. Looking at this photo it appears that I would have done which would also allow for the center line of the worm to be lowered - the black lump that is just visible is the bearing to support it. Starting to get a little nervous about the amount of rotation that will be available and I need to have a play with how it looks when sat on top of the plan. The consolation is that I have a working bogie and at 8'6" wheelbase it's a nice common size for many EMUs as well so it could find a home in something a fair bit longer. Speaking of which.... Found the Bob Davies N-train website which has printed cab-ends available for the 302 the 310 and the 312 (albeit in N gauge rather than 2mm), all of which are very much of interest. Currently trying to track down a book on EMUs similar to the Marsden book on Diesel Loco's or at least some source of drawings, preferably dimensioned but at least to a consistent scale. -Jayk

Yes, the motor will be mounted centrally within the loco and drive both bogies via driveshafts with the society 3D printed universal joints at both ends (so 4 of these in total). If I understand your concern correctly, I think I'm ok. There is around 0.75mm->1mm difference between the gap the worm sits in and the length of the worm. So, providing I push that towards the outer end when attaching the UJ cup and setting the length of the driveshaft with the bogies sitting straight then I have that much extra to work with for when the bogie rotates are the driveshaft would need to be longer. The use of a skew cut is something that I was advised was necessary and although I knew from disassembling rtr stuff that they used straight cut with the worm I couldn't find anything on whether you needed to use different tooth pitch to achieve this. So it was a case of better safe than sorry. But from the twiddling I've done, yes, I could use the M0.25 worm with a M0.3 straight cut gear. The only downside would be the change in gearing. The way I've built this I get 23.625:1 (23 5/8), removing the skew cut that would be either 16:1 or possibly 18:1. Again, this being the first attempt, I've nothing to use as a basis for comparison via experience. So I started by working on finding out the wheel rpm necessary for scale top speed and then trying to find motor rpm ratings so I could work out the gearing needed to achieve it. As for how much you'd be able to rotate the M0.3 against the M0.25 without thinning the M0.3 I don't know. But I've thinned a couple of the gears in this with nothing more than a minidrill and a file. Which was fun. I've definitely seen that approach used in one of the Japanese rtr chassis I have and I think @Izzy used the method you suggest with the class 15 they built for Priory Road. --- The pivot plate and worm are added to the bogie just to show what I was trying to describe the other day. Also had a bit of a surprise when the Postie arrived, she had my silicone tube! I made a bit of a mistake when ordering it with some other bits and pieces. Everything was showing a delivery date of 10th May -> something, so having got used to seeing that with the others when I got to the tubing I saw a "10th" in the corner and didn't look any closer. Turned out it was coming from China and the expected delivery date was 10th June -> 27th June. I didn't notice until after it was dispatched and while it would have been cheap enough to grab another batch from somewhere in the UK it comes in 5m minimum lengths and I'm not sure if I'll ever need the full 5m from the first order let alone what I'd do with a second lot 😀 I'm still not comfortable with the sizes used in this scale. I'd settled on 0.5mm wire and this is 1mm OD, 0.5mm ID tubing. It's a bit slim! But the wire slides in it well enough so probably swapping back to making and installing track for a while, especially as I need to make a pair of flywheels. Ok, "need" might be a stretch, but I really want to give this loco every possible advantage I can. I'll cut back and revise things once I get something that works. -Jayk

That will hopefully be tomorrows job, assuming things turn up. I'm planning on using a 10BA screw passed through some washers and bits of PCB for the pivoting mechanism. So from the bogie up it would be a 0.5mm plastic spacer with the center removed to allow for the screw head, PCB with screw soldered through it from below and a washer soldered to the top as a rubbing plate. Then for retention on the chassis, again working up from the bogie, it would be another washer soldered to a PCB frame and a third washer soldered to the top side of that with a nut being used to stop it all falling apart. Depending on how it goes the nut may or may not be held in place with a dab of glue. Or it all goes horribly wrong and I'm left asking the same question 😬 -Jayk

If you only get 1 answer per response consider yourself lucky 😁 I think if you stick with any brand of soldering iron that has been around for a while which also has replaceable tips you'll be fine. I'm using a very basic Antex TCS iron rated for 50W @ 230V, although I should note that it's not the one currently shown on their website, this was also purchased from Maplin but many years before they closed. I'd guess that the iron is at least 20 years old at this point. It has a little dial for adjusting the temperature that you operate with the tip of a jewellers screwdriver. I've had very limited experience with constructing things in 2mmFS but the same basics will apply that you learned with 7mm. The smaller the tip the less heat the iron can push in to the item you're working on with the wattage being how fast the iron can replace the heat in the tip. I've only used a 1mm normal chisel tip for most construction only needing to go up to a 2mm chisel tip when attaching internal bulkheads to a diesel loco body and for constructing a powered bogie. Haven't used the 0.5mm conical tip yet. I'll have to leave details on how to handle different melting point solders to others as that's something I've not needed to deal with yet. On the occasions where I've needed to solder an extra piece on top of or next to a previously soldered item the 1mm tip and being quick in and out with the iron was enough. -Jayk

Indeed! My innocent and unknowing little brain thought that bogies would be easier than having to fiddle with all that evil quartering stuff, I still think that it probably is but not by as much as I thought. But everything is going to need them so I have to get comfortable with producing them. Maybe now that small scale etching is now possible some bogie sides could be a candidate for the learning process. It would certainly make meshing easier. The material used for the sides and spacers is just some double sided PCB, sold as 0.8mm but when I put the callipers on it came out as pretty much spot on 1mm thick. The bearings are actually the brass version rather than the phosphor bronze which certainly helps keep the cost down. It's possible that using some metal sheet and simply drilling out 1.5mm holes for the axle steel to run in but that would require way more precision in drilling than I am capable of, this way I can always open the holes out slightly so that the bearing can be slid across. The soldering issue I believe was down more to a lack of care as well as the materials used. Being PCB there's very little for the solder to grab on to and as they were all inside joints they were more prone to flex. Maybe. I also initially only used a small amount of solder. I swapped from my small soldering bit to the larger one because of the small ones inability to push heat fast enough. It's good to know you're going to pull yours out and give it another go, good luck with them! It's annoying because I have a right angle that I can press the work in to whilst soldering and on the first attempt I did use this but when repairing / reinforcing the joints I randomly decided to forget about this. As far as a jig goes, I'm not sure how I'd go about making one that would be useful for more than the other bogie on this project though. -Jayk edit below to save a post. On the 2nd and 4th bearings you can see where I had to open the holes up to get things in to a much better place prior to soldering. Ignore the top part please. :D And here it is after a coat of paint and inserting the half axle pieces and wheels. Posed next to my only other item of 2mm stock, the tester wagon. I always forget how big the diesel loco wheels are, I tend to think of them as being of about the same size as a coach or a wagon when in reality there is a significant difference. These are the 7.5mm carrying wheels from shop 2, which matches the 3'9" diameter used on the class 25. It almost looks good, just need to cut 2 lengths for the worm. It doesn't need the isolation gap but I'm going to insert from either end so that I can apply a small amount of glue to the inside of the worm and not worry about it being pushed on to either of the bearings. Speaking of electrical isolation, I was good and checked that both sides remained isolated after adding each gear and also after adding the wheels. All good.

Much less to show for the work this week. Although I'm super happy to get this part done, it seriously felt like one of those 1 step forwards and 2 steps back processes. I really think that there must be an easier way to do this, I'd intended originally for it to have ends as well as the middle spacer underneath but I got a little carried away with how close I could cut back and the gears ended up protruding. After much struggling I managed to get a joint I was happy with on the lower spacer and even managed to get the gears in and meshed, then after more struggling I managed to get the side pieces on for the worm. Then it all went a bit wrong. The joints weren't as good as I'd hoped and things were starting to flex and then one of the side pieces fell off. I got that back in place, eventually, only to discover that I'd mounted it too high and the worm was no longer meshing. On top of that the side frames were not parallel nor were they at 8mm across the outside faces at any point. So back out came the soldering iron and I got to have more fun getting things true, well joined and in the correct place. After that it was back to fiddling with the gears again because the meshing was no longer correct. Then I took too much material off of an intermediate muff which was allowing the gear to float across and catch on the skew cut in the center. That took longer to notice than I'd like to admit as it was absolutely fine so long as the bogie was tilted with the gears down. In the end I taped the minidrill to the desk and stuck the whole gear, muff, axle steel thing in it and with a needle file pretended I had a small lathe. I also had to do this to reduced the diameter very slightly for a couple of other gears and then file out the cuts to re-point the teeth. But eventually I got it all sorted so that now I can spin the axle steel the worm runs on and despite the fact the worm is a loose fit on it, everything turns! The two sideframes are also electrically isolated from each other. I think I'll add a little araldite around the the outsides of the joints to just provide a bit more security than relying purely on the inside soldered joints and then it's time to block up all 12 holes from both sides with blutac and give the thing some paint. -Jayk

Thank you, I completely forgot to bend the ends of the wing rails out before I placed them. Now I'm not sure that I have anything small yet sturdy enough to get in there to tweak them outwards so I'll have to try and forget it's a thing I forgot on this one. I did remember, though, to check it with a multimeter after checking the starter wagon would still roll through it. I'd previously checked that the scoring had actually isolated the sections before doing any soldering and had checked the first sleeper where it went back to a single score after the frog once I'd placed the chairplates because it was rather close to where the mark was. Thankfully all has been fine in that regard. I do like the suggestion about filling in the gaps with milliput to improve the appearance. That's not something I'd even thought about, I guess too much time with the hobby where those are just a part of normality. That's going to be a fiddly job! -Jayk

It is done! Filing the blades wasn't as bad as I feared it might be. I filed a little off of the inside (running face) of the rail to make it smooth, then bent it slightly inwards so that it remained flat along that edge. I picked that up as a tip and did the same when forming the frog, but forgot to mention it, as a way to ensure that there was vertical support all the way to the ends. Once the blades where shaped, adding tiny little offcuts from the class 25 etch to the underside of them where the actuating sleeper would be was probably the worst part. Thankfully I got them soldered on and only worried about filing the mating faces down. I did this so that the actuating sleeper can remain that paper thickness below the stock rails. Soldering the blades in place was fairly simple just using the normal gauges, although I did attach the first couple of sleepers working from the frog back to the curved blade using gauge narrowing because I really needed the small contact from the single foot of the triangular gauge. But once I'd done the rest I went back with the roller gauge and reflowed those joins to allow them to sit in the correct position. Attaching the blades to the actuating sleeper was done with the roller gauge holding them at check rail distance away. I went for a slightly longer contact than a quick dab because with what's been said about the joints failing I wanted to make sure that it was attached for the full width under the rail. Hopefully this will give them some resilience. It also means that with at rest (as in the image) both blades are attempting to push inwards and it hold itself at approximately the midpoint. Shame I didn't quite get the actuating sleeper attached square on! But as it's working I really don't want to go back and fiddle with it. Now to wait for supplies and work up to doing the others. This should also be the last mini-update message, so things will quieten down. -Jayk

Got the frog and check rails done. Not sure whether this is the harder part or if the blades will be the tricky part of the build, but this was definitely a part I was nervous about. I'm pretty sure that the check rails aren't fully vertical as I wasn't able to find a good way of getting a gauge on them, settling for holding the roller gauge with the majority of it outside of the track. But they're spaced correctly from the stock rails so I guess a case of no harm, no foul. Also looking at it now it seems that I didn't manage to get the curved stock rail on smoothly, there definitely seems to be a couple of kinks. Hopefully this won't be an issue so long as I am careful to frequently gauge the curved closure rail / blade as I attach it. Not much space to really test it at this point but I was able to propel my starter wagon back and forth through the frog on both sides using the tip of a pair of tweezers and it seems ok. For freestyling it from just the template I'm definitely happy with this. I've ordered the stuff I need for operating it and hopefully there's no major mistakes in my selection. Wire in tube, so no worrying about which bus to catch or what time it runs 🙃 I'm a little worried about the slide switches as they only have 2mm of movement on them, but that should be enough and won't require too much (or possibly any) in the way of springing. I'll still pop an omega loop in though. Also hoping that 26swg wire in 0.5mm ID tube won't be too stiff to operate, but that's a problem I can ignore until the parts arrive! I also seem to be lucky in that the etch for the class 25 is approximately the same thickness as the paper that the templates were printed on, so I'll be able to use little bits of that to raise the chairplates on the moving sleeper for a better contact with the blades. On that note, yes I did remember to file the foot off of the stock rails where the blades will contact them prior to soldering them on, it's sort of visible on the straight stock rail covering a length of 5 sleepers. I didn't joggle the rails so the blades will have to be filed down to a very fine tip. But not today. Apologies for these small updates, I'm hoping that if I do anything particularly dumb it can be caught early enough to not turn in to a mountainous obstacle. Many thanks to all that take the time to read. -Jayk

Absolutely, for this a Pi would definitely be overkill. This project is about learning track building and providing a test environment for stock. I'm pretty committed to just using simple slide switches for the turnout actuators and frog polarity switching. The fun stuff starts with the actual layout that would follow, the mental process is about finding the extent of what is possible and then scaling back to what is practical for what is needed but including some headroom for just in case. I'll have to investigate the MERG stuff further as wiring is about as much fun as coding. A sentiment that can be approached from both ends, but I mean it in a good way. 😀 But I agree that the discussion is best suited elsewhere. -Jayk.