Off Tackle

Found this thread as I'm currently building a very small plate girder bridge with rails carried on longitudinal timbers/waybeams. This is an amazing build with museum quality level of detail and execution, very inspirational. Can't thank you enough for posting the waybeam diagram, answers a bunch of questions I've been trying to find answers to, and the clear details of your waybeam sections is really helpful too. Can I ask how deep your waybeam timbers are, and what you've made them from? I've made some up at a scale foot deep, based on eyeballing rough measurements from a photo of timbers taken off a bridge by Network Rail, but it's basically just a guesstimate.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, much appreciated. Going with a 'standard' chair spacing with my bullhead rail, the deal was sealed by that wonderful image from @Miss Prism! Nearly every image I have (about 30 off the web, hesitate to post any here due to copyright issues) with additional chairs are with flatbottom rail and pandrol style clips/baseplates. I did look for bridge chairs before buying the C&L 4 bolt ones, and I think the ones I needed - the Exactoscale 4CH 201A 4-bolt L1 bridge chair - were only available via one of the societies. As my bridge is pretty short requiring less than 100 chairs I couldn't justify spending more joining a society than the actual chairs, but now I'm some way into building the bridge superstructure and am building the timbers I'm having second thoughts...ha'p'orth of tar and all that. The timbers I've built are 6.5mm wide to accommodate the chairs and that combined with the OO gauge does somewhat make the central trough look a bit too narrow. I'll post some pics as I progress.

I'm currently having a crack at building a plate girder bridge with the rails being carried on longitudinal timbers. I'm using bullhead track with C&L 4 bolt chairs and I'm aiming represent a Victorian era bridge for a branch/mineral line. In the course of my (image based) research there seems to be a variety of spacings when it comes to how many chairs on used on such bridges. Some appear to use a similar spacing to normal sleepered track, but many images show somewhere between 40% - 100% more chairs attaching the rail to the longitudinal timber than is found on normal track. Are there any prototype rules or engineering guidelines that anyone is aware of?

Thanks to those posting the photos. What a superb looking model, and quite the achievement by Bachmann. I'm looking forward to the cabless versions but for such a tiny thing Britomart is exerting a strong gravitational pull on my wallet! Just my opinion (and for whats it worth I'm wrong with alarming regularity) - I contend that such high-quality models prove we are truly living in a golden age of RTR.

This is fantastic information, many thanks to everyone! It seems that I have a bit flexibility and still be within prototypical practice, which is a nice position to be in. Thanks again

Approximately 22 hours after phoning Rails yesterday regarding the pre-order status I received my Caley 812 - I don't think there's a universe where you can get better customer service and delivery efficiency than that. Kudos to both Rails and the Royal Mail. Just unboxed, and she truly is a thing of beauty. Not got her on the rolling road yet but based on appearances I'm very happy with my purchase. Stunning livery with a wealth of finely applied details.

@Mol_PMB Thanks for the detailed reply, much appreciated! Just to clarify - as my first post was imprecise - the inglenook is standard gauge with a narrow gauge interchange on a loading wharf (not marked on the plan). Therefore I think I'll go with a starter. This is great news for my little project as I can have a starter signal controlled by an off scene signal box, meaning I don't have to buy all the bits for a ground frame/associated point rodding and can use the dummy point levers I already have. Due to space constraints I'm going to have to install it on the right hand side of the track rather than the left. I've collected some prototype photos with right hand mounted signals so I'm hoping I can justify the location on sighting grounds (although I think some of the photos I have are GWR and therefore right hand drive). Another question...I was planning on running a quarry worker's train - would they be operated under the same regulations as a fare paying passenger train and therefore require interlocking etc?

I've been wrestling as whether I need to/should add a starter signal to a basic inglenook I'm building. I've done a bit of reading on here about signaling (a subject I know absolutely nothing about). I'm a the point of adding scenery and because of the way I've constructed the model (elevated running line) if I was to place a working signal I would really need to do it now before adding the scenery formers, and I need to some help to stop prevaricating! This is the track plan below, with the exit on the right being via a tunnel: The double slip is both used to save space and because I like slips, with the spur being used by the release loco. The theme of the layout is a high moorland valley mineral wharf with a narrow gauge line from an incline further up the valley which runs to several quarries. Goods traffic & worker trains come in for the quarries and stone blocks/aggregate is the traffic out. Therefore despite there being two engines in steam as dictated by the lack of run-round loop, I imagine that all shunting movements would be conducted by hand signals. The tunnel mouth on the right is almost exactly at the point of the required '3 wagon plus engine' headshunt for the inglenook, so I can model a 'No Shunt Beyond This Point' notice on the tunnel mouth. However, would there be a requirement for a home signal next to the tunnel to communicate that an outgoing train is clear to enter the next block? Or would it be sufficient to assume that the next block would start somewhere further down the line? My hope is to build a series of smallish modules that can be operated independently or combined to represent different parts of this fictional mineral line. The next module I would build would be an extended scenic section with a passing loop and possibly a single forestry siding. So in theory, could the home signal be on the next module, protecting access to the passing loop? Part of me wants a working signal for the operational interest, another part of me just wants to crack on without bothering. However if one would be required for a railway like this to actually safely operate, then I definitely want to model it. I have some dummy point levers ready for fitting if I don't have a signal. If I did have a signal - would it require a ground frame acting as a block post? If so, would I then model the three points and the signal as being controlled by the ground frame?

Hi Jonathan. I second the lime kiln suggestion, I don't have any expert knowledge but they seemed relatively common. From my basic research on the Horrocksford Branch and Bellmanpark quarries I came across a preservation project of the large Bellmanpark lime kilns. A narrow gauge tramway fed the top of the kilns, with 2 parallel tunnels under the kilns each with a standard gauge siding running parallel to the L&Y Blackburn - Hellifield mainline. Many of the kilns in my (very limited) research seem to be of a similar pattern. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1021105?section=comments-and-photos You can see one of the inner arches of the northernmost siding in the first image. The second image is of the well visited example at Millers Dale - again fed by a narrow gauge tramway from the top. The whole structure can be accessed easily from the old trackbed (the walk along the trackbed in stunning scenery is a pretty great day out in itself). This is of much more modern construction - on the other side of the station is an older set of kilns that fed the railway and were more akin to the Bellpark example.

It might be worth giving them a quick call - I'd pre-ordered an 'as built' 812 and heard nothing in the last few days so made an enquiry. A very friendly and helpful Rails team member informed me that when they had tried to take the balance my bank had flagged the transaction as potentially fraudulent and blocked it. Apparently this has happened to a number of pre-orders which has complicated a busy pre-Crimble period for Rails, and they are in the process of contacting customers with blocked payments. I wondered if one of the reasons it had been blocked was that is a purchase over £100 from an IP address that my bank didn't recognize, so I enquired if I could get the deposit refunded and then try buying the loco from my PC whilst on the phone. The staff member had a word with their manager who kindly agreed - the transaction went through and within the hour I had Rails and Royal Mail notifications that my loco was in the post. Top service from Rails and I'm eagerly awaiting a slice of Scotland....

Thanks George, that's very kind. Actually, you are to thank/blame for the individually painted stones - after 3 attempts at painting the basic shell I just couldn't get the look I was going for, then saw the results you were achieving and thought 'what have I got to lose?' As it turned out, my hair, my job, my house, my sanity... Currently working on the mineral loading wharf with inset narrow gauge track....finding it more complicated than I thought I would.

This is a very evocative image, and from eye level the background moundage works very well and gives a sense of depth that belies that actual dimensions. The feeling of being high on an exposed moor is really captured. For my two-cent's worth, I'd avoid too many trees or anything that could cast a shadow on the backscene. I could imagine maybe half an inch to an inch of distant hills/moorland, maybe by cutting down an ID backscene so it's mainly a cloudscape with fells a few millimeters the horizon level in this shot.

@ManofKent - thanks for the kind words. I sourced the Palfoam from Bay Plastics, which I believe is up in the north-east (usual disclaimer, no connection etc). It was easy to request a custom size on their website and get dynamic quotes, and in my opinion Palfoam is very good value for money. I ordered 2 sheets matt finish white custom cut sheets 2440x390mm costing £19.02 with VAT. I did order the sheets a bit longer than necessary to enable me to mess around with the corner curvature. Delivery was another tenner, and in retrospect I should have ordered a third sheet as it's a very cheap and beautifully easy to work with material. The custom cuts were spot on - the sheets only needed a simple wipe down to get rid of warehouse dust and I was good to go.

Cheers Chris! I used Slaters Stone Courses (for 4mm) over a 1mm Palfoam shell, but in retrospect I might have been better using the 7mm version for a chunkier look. In an act of either pure zen or insanity I elected to paint each stone individually, and then drybrush with a sort of sandstone-y colour in an attempt to blend it together (Vallejo Bone White). Its still quite lairy to be honest in comparison to the buildings in the Forest of Bowland area I was basing the colours on, but at a certain point my inherent laziness kicked in and I just let it be

My first attempt at scratchbuilding.....it took a bajillion hours to get to this point but important construction and painting lessons were learnt, and while there's quite a lot I'd like to redo I'm fairly happy with it for a first go. I feel lucky that I was researching prototypes at the same time as @chuffinghell was, so I benefited somewhat from the deep discussion that was being conducted in the Warren Branch thread (although my effort is nowhere the same level of fidelity). The main doors are currently just held in place by gravity, and the glazing needs to be installed for the front facing windows, bit I'm pretty much calling it done.