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1 hour ago, Northroader said:

It looks like the title of the paper he’s holding has been “got at” in your clip, Annie..........

I don't know what you mean Mr Northroader.  Just because I do texture work and know how to use graphics software doesn't mean I had anything to do with it  :angel:

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4 hours ago, Annie said:

I don't know what you mean Mr Northroader.  Just because I do texture work and know how to use graphics software doesn't mean I had anything to do with it  :angel:

I have a suggestion as to what to do with that photograph which would involve a wall and darts,:devil:   but I don't want to fall foul of the moderators, so I'll restrain myself! 

 

Jim

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  • 3 weeks later...
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The first part (the simple bit) of the threatened reorganisation has gone in. This just uses the right hand fiddle Yard from my Englefield line. It’s 37.5” x 12” (950mm x 305mm) open tray, a 2x1 frame with hardboard top and ply surround. It can take three cassettes, plain track laid on a ply strip with aluminium strip loop handles. With all the chopping and changing I’ve done I’ve never found any reason to change the design of the cassettes, they function quite well. There’s an oddity in that two are from the American line and use Peco bullhead track, and one is from the Washbourne line, but has f.b. rail soldered to p.c.b. sleepers, and this one has been packed underneath to give an equal thickness to the rail top.

The trains made up on them give an indication of what I’m intending to work over this line, although I should stress that they won’t appear simultaneously, as in this picture, but rotate. At the back there’s a 1950s North American freight, on the centre road a British 1880s goods you’ll be familiar with, and in the front a newcomer, a 1900s Continental goods train. Apart from the diesel, everything else is scratchbuilt, a necessity when when doing oddball interests in O scale. Weighing things up, I think the European operation is sufficiently distinct to deserve a thread on its own, so I’ll start that up in the New Year, I hope.

 

185A3DEC-A4A1-4043-9377-D013107EB156.jpeg.b2c1c3ba90efec9a8e35a068d73e0253.jpeg

 

Now I must thank everyone for coming on the thread during the year with friendly chat and views. Best wishes for Christmas, and hopes for a successful New Year. I’ve put in a word with Santa.

 

8D2F5BE6-02F4-455C-8237-505F9137D97E.jpeg.d3efea59e35cf8ab13744c8e5eb36139.jpeg

 

Edited by Northroader
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That is one of the most unusual gathering of trains I have seen for a while. I look forward to the thread on the continental train.

 

Here's to another year of the unexpected on Washbourne! :locomotive::dancing:

 

Edited by Mikkel
Working on the the Danglish
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The reorganisation is proceeding at a slugs pace, I’m afraid, which is why I haven’t posted for some time. The focus is on revising the main board, which is coming from the new one allocated to the continental line. The frame is done, the base is cut to profile, and track (hardly any) laid. I’ve discovered that the best thing to do next  is to organise point and signal control runs, and I prefer mechanical linkage to electric operation. (Come up sometime and see my collection of burnt out point motors) The trouble is I find it a fiddly job, and get bored easily, so drift off to a more delectable modelling job which interests me. More discipline is needed, I suppose I’ll get there sometime.D81FFED9-1637-4472-9AAD-64A14C091E54.jpeg.7a6c4e880d02c16b25ce1e03288579fc.jpeg

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14 minutes ago, Northroader said:

The reorganisation is proceeding at a slugs pace, I’m afraid, 

 

Slugs are on average twice as fast as snails - not hampered by lugging the shell around and with a more vindictive attitude to one's favourite plants.

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There was this guy at a pub where they raced snails, so he took the shell off his snail to make it go faster, but he found it just made it more sluggish! Boum, Boum.

(Sorry about that, this is a pregroup ing thread, and the old ones are the best, and it is Saturday night.)

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Reminds me of the story of the guy who went to a fancy dress party with nothing on and carrying a girl on his back.  "What have you come as?" he was asked.  "I'm a snail and this is Michelle!" was the answer.

 

Jim  (Windae picked)

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3 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Reminds me of the story of the guy who went to a fancy dress party with nothing on and carrying a girl on his back.  "What have you come as?" he was asked.  "I'm a snail and this is Michelle!" was the answer.

 

Jim  (Windae picked)

Which, in turn, reminds me of the girl who went to a similar party with nothing on except black gloves and black socks. She said she was the Ace of Spades.

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At least you are making some progress. I am no great fan of mechanical linkage after building one layout where all the movement seem to be lost in the linkage and the operation of the turnouts was unreliable. I saw an advert for the Tortoise motors bought some ripped out the linkage and fitted the tortoises. They are largely self adjusting and only need rough adjustment. Worth every penny to me.

 

Don

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On 08/02/2020 at 23:42, Donw said:

At least you are making some progress. I am no great fan of mechanical linkage after building one layout where all the movement seem to be lost in the linkage and the operation of the turnouts was unreliable. I saw an advert for the Tortoise motors bought some ripped out the linkage and fitted the tortoises.

 

 I have found the same problem once cranks are introduced into a run.

If you run the rod directly from the baseboard edge, along the surface of the board, to the point or signal no motion is lost and I genereally find that they work reliably.

Of course, if you want lever frames or a centralised control point, this option is not available.

 

 I have recently had problems with my pre-Grouping N gauge layout, where the links were under the board, due to the operating wires absorbing motion where they came up to the surface of the board.

These are still awaiting replacement rods placed onto the surface.

Fortunately scenic work had not proceeded too far, partly due to my scepticism about the method used.

It seems to work well for others though!

 

Ian T

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If using wire-in-tube you have to make sure the tubing is well anchored, especially round bends, so that it can't flex.  If you incorporate a lot of cranks, then you are going to lose some movement at every crank, although you can arrange the holes in the cranks for the wire/rod so that there is more movement going out than is coming in (if that makes sense!).  It's also good to have much more movement than required at the 'lever' end and absorb the excess with an omega loop at the turnout/signal end.  This also makes sure that switch blades are held firmly against the stock rail.

 

Jim

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Have you tried bicycle-brake bowden cable, rather than the sort of things usually used on model railways? Its a "interesting" to cut, because it is so tough, but is will take a fairly tight bend OK and still work fine, which might avoid the need for cranks. Rather than attempting to take it up through the board, trat it like a point motors, and put a vertical rod through a brass tube, and solder a crank on each end (remember to leave soldering the second one until after it is in situ!).

 

When I get time (I'm supposed to be working right now) I need to work out how to actuate the points on my new small layout ...... probably electrical because a board joint is involved.

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The system I've used on Kirkallanmuir involves the wire being attached to a horizontal crank under the baseboard, one end of which has a tube soldered to it which passes up through a slot in the board and ends just below sleeper top level.  There are two wires coming out the top of the tube, insulated from each other and from the tube*, which go out sideways and are each attached to the lower edge of the tip of a switch blade.  This also reduces the stress on the joint between whatever you are using as a stretcher bar and the switch tip as the wire can flex.

 

* The 'tail' of one wire has a length of insulation from decoder wire over it, then that and the second wire are slid into a piece of insulation from mains cable and the whole thing is then a reasonably tight fit in the tube.

 

tiebar.PNG.975d71c085b3f7721882d1069ef9f937.PNG

 

Jim

Edited by Caley Jim
Edit to add that dimensions are mm for 2FS and 6mm ply baseboard with track laid on 1mm card.
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In the past I have used the brake cable from bikes which is a sod to cut because of the steel spiral sheath, also the cable itself, though you can use acid flux to solder it up before cutting it. Then  I moved on to a similar idea using a brass rod running in the plastic tube you can get from model aircraft shops, where they use it in the planes for control surfaces. For short runs you can raid a Biro pen (after it’s empty, of course)  As Jim says, this needs regular support, I usually bang in staples. The model plane shop guy in Swindon retired last year, so looking round for something reasonably cheap I’ve happened on the big orange shed, as they do have a rack with useful metal sections and strip. I’ve got plenty of 2mm o.d. brass tube, which should be sufficiently strong enough, and I’m supporting it around every foot on the run. I want to have a control point at one end of the board, although I’m not thinking of anything as full blooded as a proper lever frame, more likely just sliders. The tube can take solder for lugs to bell cranks as needed, so it’s just a change of direction when level with the point of application. There’s just one point needing control and that’s ready to connect once I screw the platform board down. ( The baseboard is in two halves, track at the front and a platform base ar the rear, which is carrying the control runs) Normally a point control is connected to a D.P.D.T. switch, so the polarity of the frog changes with the point movement, but in this case the point is a insulfrog crossing and doesn’t need switching. I find if you’re careful with the pin sizes and hole clearances, including the pivot, you don’t lose much travel through a bell crank, which I’m just making from brass strip. Again referring to Jim, there’s a bit of extra travel allowed for, either an omega loop, or collars and stops either side on the rod which get soldered up. Then there are four locations for six signals, not all of which are used at any time. What I’m doing here is having “plug in” sockets for the posts at each location, so I can vary the signals simply. The socket is formed from a square section brass tube with a close fitting tube at the bottom of the post, and the cranks on the signals will register with forks coming up through the board. The sockets are in, and the slots for the forks are cut. It’s just making and mounting the forks, and then linking back to the control rods that’s left to do, which is happening slowly. Thanks for your interest and suggestions on this job.

Edited by Northroader
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  • 3 weeks later...
1 hour ago, ChrisN said:

so perhaps she will have to come out again...

Great choice of words there ;)

I was amazed at how much Hilda is actually wearing there - albeit "just about". It seems to be more than usual... :scratchhead:

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I find that selling things on eBay, which I've done a lot of since Christmas, has the dangerous side-affect of causing me to look at what other people have for sale, which I guess is part of the cunning business model behind it all.

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