MrSimon

Thanks Paul, I’ll keep them in mind for the next module 😀 Hello everybody! As I’d laid and soldered the track already on this join I pressed on with the first pass at ballasting, which was mainly neat glue between/around the tracks with some ballast sprinkled on top… it’s kinda load bearing and worked well on original Gresby. Once it had cured for a week I cut it through with the razor saw: The ballast will be tidied when I come to do the main ballasting. I made a point operating mechanism - the rod in the yellow box locks the point in the main direction it will be in while I sort out the rest of the mechanism (which will attach using the hole on the right - whether rod in tube or servo/motor powered). This is so I can use the layout to run through without the points changing under a train. Here it is in place, I couldn’t fit the first bit of scenery without it installed. It’s currently just glued but I’ll fit a pair of screws as back-up and then sort out the wiring to be out of the way. Here’s a job I haven’t done since 2012 - painting road markings! I know there’s transfers these days but I’m only doing a short stretch with nothing complicated… The bridge and road in place, you can see the point and mechanism hard up against the edge of the bridge. Next up is to trim the left of the road to shape and form the ditches and retaining walls, then find and attach the sky… Lots to do! Simon

Hi, On the stand at Ally Pally the gypsum containers were in the cabinet, in complete looking packaging - I didn’t get chance to speak to anyone, are these now on the way/here? Many thanks Simon

Hello everybody! Bit of a leap forward this week, I nipped down the hardware store and got some bolts and screws so I could fasten the wires out the way (so I can get the point mechanisms built so I can get the street level bits of the baseboard fitted so I can get the wiring done…). It’s a very circular build 🤷🏼‍♂️. Under the board is currently ugly chaos…but I’ll get that sorted! This weekend I worked on the first Gresby to Unitrack transition board, it took a while to widen the track to meet the spacing of the viaduct smoothly - I didn’t want sharp corners or bumps. I’m glad I had 6” to play with though: I’m going to ballast the bits of Peco track before I cut the board join to try to make sure it doesn’t misalign! Finally this evening I was able to run a train off the layout onto the viaduct. It’s the same loco that I used for the first train on old Gresby back in 2022 (except I finally got it finished)… So there we are - a train has run… now to finish off and run a load more! Lots to do Simon

Looks great! Do you think it would reduce to N/2mm or is it too intricate? Cheers Simon

Hello everybody! Here’s where we’re at at the end of the weekend: Just the two final bits of Finetrax to lay at the top left, and the board joins to sort - but I’ve got work to do on the other boards before then. Harder to see is where I’ve had to make soldered connections between the turnouts on the inner and the plain line next to them - I think it’s my only issue with the Finetrax: I’ve found it difficult to get a reliable soldered join between the point blade and the point rail, I managed it on the outer line but the inner doesn’t seem to have been as successful - I managed to get a great bond with the point blade though so it should be fine, and I spent quite a while checking all the droppers powered what they were supposed to once the soldered ‘fishplates’ were created. I was a little worried about expansion but the longest piece of rail on the inner track is 6” so I’m sure it’ll be fine. Finally, here’s an overview of the three boards - I’m keen to get cracking with the scenery and running trains as I always find this bit much less interesting… Lots to do! Simon

Hi Graham, Give it a go definitely! I’ve given it a bit more thought but I’m not sure how it would work in practice - if they were push-to-make switches there’d be icecream vans levitating 🤣 Heres the current state of play, I’ve made the third point so once the soldering’s complete I should be able to get the rest of the track laid today. Rather annoyingly the feed from the frog of the third point will come through right in the middle of the bridge… Lots to do! Simon

Hello everybody! I’ve finished laying the outer track with just the board joins left to lay, inner track starts on my lunch break tomorrow. So far only 9 wires taking power to the track, but there will be 18 more when the other track goes down. I decided that under the flat section at the front would be a great place for control panel… Hear me out… what if the icecream vans were the switches…? Lots to do! Simon

Thanks Dave! I’m hoping the levels work, there was a lot of flat board in the middle of the old layout, this time I only wanted the trackbed to be flat - it’ll look more contoured once I get to the slopes between the levels so it should make more sense than it does at the minute, it’s starting to look more like the picture in my head already! After some boring un-photogenic bits over the weekend, culminating in checking I hadn’t wired-in shorts, I laid the first bit of track this evening: Six holes in the baseboard (5 wires and a hole for the tiebar) and a smear of glue it’s weighed down to set. Two lengths of plain track and that’s the outer line complete and we’ll be able to give it a test run 😁 Lots to do! Simon

Hello everybody! I won’t lie: when I glue something down it tends to stay glued down… so tonight it took an hour to wrestle the curly obeche off the trackbed! Only stabbed myself once with a screw driver, and I’ll find out about splinters and scratches later when I wash up… I went for a slightly different tack on the replacement trackbed - I used my fret saw for the hole gap between the bridges rather than making two separate sides Where has the fret saw been all my life?! Replacement trackbed ready to glue down. Success! Simon

Hello everybody, I made some more progress, which had had me scratching my head for a day or two - fitting the alignment dowels! They’re fitted now, and here’s a shot of the total layout: The two side boards are for the transition between the Unitrack and Finetrax. Some stage in the ordering/design process I asked G&H to make them 70mm deep instead of the standard 100 - the benefit of this is that it will fit the unitrack viaducts better: Heres the tallest pier I’ve got, there’s a difference of 1cm, but I don’t think it’s a standard viaduct pier - it’s the tallest from the incline set. Tomorrow is new ply day… lots to do! Simon

So I’ve got the trackbed laid, but now I’m thinking I might take it up: The issue I have is the Obeche I used has warped on the left hand side - I scored it on the back like I normally would with balsa but the glue has made it curl, despite being weighed down when it was being glued: The three layers are ply (un-warped) and two 1.5mm layers of obeche, which are warping… I don’t have any ply in stock, so if I do take it up it’ll be after a trip to 4D :( The rest of the board is fine, but I don’t want to progress further if it needs to be undone later. Meh. Lots to do! Simon

Hello everybody! Things got a bit more advanced with the old fret saw and I cut the holes in the side of the layout: Flushed with success I realised two things: 1) my PVA wasn’t sticky anymore 2) I need some sort of clamp, so I don’t have to sit around holding bits of wood together while I wait for my glue to set (it won’t set) So I went to our new DIY shop and bought a clamp and some wood glue and now the side boards are built and the main board is 80% there! it’s tighter than I thought for fitting a point mechanism in, but I reckon it’ll be fine I even dug the first engine to run over this bridge on the old layout out so it can do the honours again, once I’ve finished the trackbed… Lots to do! Simon

Where do I claim my Fret Saw Proficiency Badge (Straight-ish lines and corners)? As expected the main board will need a bit of filling here and there, and will definitely need the sides and back for rigidity… but that’s the main cutting done! Left to cut tomorrow are the train holes in the sides and the lengths of trackbed, then I can get glueing! Lots to do! Simon

Thanks Grahame, I was still going full guns on the block of flats until early August, then the old layout was stripped and tipped by bank holiday! The new boards turned up at the end of November so I’ve just been waiting for a un-filled week of leave… there’ll be plenty of Gresby content over the next 8 days 😁 - there’s been plenty keeping me busy but very little of it seems to have been normal N - I’m sure the N/2mm ratio will even itself out a little over the rest of the year. Glad I found a chance to try the Finetrax though - I think I’d only just finished ballasting the old layout when I saw Cav and TomE using much finer N on their layouts and spent about 5 years wondering whether to relay once Finetrax came out. Making 2mm track made me do it! Cheers Simon

Hello everybody! Bit of progress today - I got the measurements transferred from my head onto the baseboard: Thats the front piece, the main board and the cross member thing. If the baseboard makers do a warranty I’m about to invalidate it!! I went super scientific to work out how much to drop the front for the street end. There’s 45mm between the bottom of the trackbed and the bottom of the road - luckily my customary layout bridge bus is a single decker, but it’s a lower bridge than old Gresby. Finally today I watched a pair of semi relevant YouTube videos about fret-saws, and used one for the first time in 25 years! Not bad (on the cross member part that no-one will see) - bit of glue, filler and sandpaper and it’ll be fine. Load bearing and fine… Lots to do! Simon

Thanks Dave - if I’m being completely honest with myself the old layout should have probably gone in the skip a while ago! The good news is, after 2 days in the office and 2 days laid low with the worst cold ever survived by man the point repair seems to be rigid! I’ll know for definite when I fit the new dropper wires if it needs replacing or not. Fingers crossed! Cheers Simon

With N Gauge to follow yes…?

Great to see another Jubilee being started - I hadn’t realised there were long and short ones, is my Peco donor body all wrong for the Colosus nameplates I’ve got in the box? I’d like a Newton Heath one with a Fowler tender (but I’m not wedded to the tender if that makes the loco incorrect…) Many thanks Simon

Andy it’s not my browser - how can it be? I got a brand new windows computer in May/June last year and the first website I visited was RMWeb - the layout topics page loaded fine, then I logged in and I just got the white screen… I’d never used the laptop before or accessed RMWeb on Microsoft Edge before. I did the above to see if it was the browsers on my other devices as suggested. I genuinely don’t see how that can be anything other than a glitch at your end or in the software or with my profile, or how would my unused browser be able to remember not to load the layout topics page? I completely scrubbed my browsing history on my other devices as per your instruction and it had no effect - fine until logged on, white screen as soon as I log on. I have literally no power over anything on my profile except whether I continue to pay to not see as many adverts. If there’s a hidden button I should press please do let me know. I’ve been able to access the layout topics page twice since the site broke last year, and it used to be the main forum I read. If you’re at AllyPally I’ll happily come to the warners stand with my password and demonstrate on your computer, as your browser works perfectly and I’m obviously wrong. Many thanks Simon

Hello everybody! I had quite a productive weekend, I’ve got enough ply to build the trackbed up to 5mm now - three different layers so I can make the bridge bases thinner than on the old layout… and thinner bridge bases means I don’t have to cut away as much board (so it’s less likely to fall apart in my mind anyway!) Also this weekend I made the two main points: I left some of the ends a little long so I can trim them to size when I lay the track. I’m 50/50 about re-building/replacing the left hand point (top) as I broke some of the chairs under one of the short pieces of rail and I can’t tell if that’s going to become the point it regularly fails in later life. (Neither frog is stuck in yet while I wait for some decoder wire to turn up) The Finetrax points are really easy to build. I’ve built a few 2mm points so the size of the flange-way looked massive, but N gauge wheels pass through really smoothly so I guess it’s right - they’re certainly the nearest looking N Gauge points I’ve seen! It was quite surreal seeing a standard Peco wagon going through a point without all the usual dipping into the crossing! I think I’ve got everything ready to start building… Lots to do! Simon

Thanks Nick - me too!

Thanks Graham, I think if I’d had space for the layout where I live I would have got more use out it, or made the larger changes to fix the bits I wasn’t satisfied with… Today I got an important bit of measuring done: It’s the height difference between a piece of Kate Unitrack and a piece of Finetrax - 5mm. Knowing this means I can work out how much to cut out of the board as I’ll know how big the bridges can be… quite a difference working downwards this time, last time I worked upwards! Ply shopping at the weekend! Lots to do! Simon

Hi Ian, Great work on the 262 so far - I would have never thought to do the bunker flare/beading like that (it’s bookmarked now for when I need to do some). What thickness of phosphor-bronze are you using for the chassis sides? Many thanks Simon

Hello everybody, So long story short: Gresby was in store for a while and the storage place wrote to say they were doubling the price, so I decided to make some alterations to the layout: It’s not as bad as it looks… 90% of the track was lifted and all the buildings (except the multi-storey which I never liked) are in a box in the wardrobe. New boards were ordered and today I actually got one out to start drawing out my thoughts. It’s a little smaller than before but I’m combining it with the unitrack so I’ll still be able to run full length trains, and store (and build) the layout in my tiny flat. This (above and below) is all the plan I’m doing, and it matches the initial detailed design pretty closely: The classic Gresby image, I’m in two minds about widening the road slightly - but we’ll see what looks best. The boards have come from G&H, once I’ve marked them up I’m going to start cutting bits out of them, I didn’t think my design would make the laser happy 😏 On the day I went to strip old Gresby down I took the factory I finished on the last page, just to see if it fitted: I kinda did… but it didn’t look quite right. This view will return but slightly differently, no house or tunnel, but the bridge, the trees and the fridges will be back. The house will be used somewhere else. The new bits of track have been ordered so let’s see how quickly I can get something running. Lots to do! Simon

Hi David, The axle is 13.47mm and the wheels is 6.3mm measured on the treads. The brake gear goes over the axle and the axles go into brass-ish bearings. The couplings are on a pivot with the NEMs protruding beyond the buffer beam. Mine’s staying N, interested to see the conversion though! Cheers Simon