73B

[puffernutter]

I've done many layouts in the last few years, but the problem is that none of them got anywhere near completion - only one of them got to the ground-cover and structures stage! I've got a lovely S7 project that's simmering away, but with 6 weeks-and-counting waiting on Alan Gibson to get around to milling some hornblock bearings, I've decided to embark on something I've given the nickname 'Worn Jeans' - a small, cheap, easy, comfortable exercise. For myself that's 4mm scale, BR Blue, South London.

 

So, in the style of Mikkel's wonderful 'Bay Platform', here's my 'one bite' of the elephant:

 

73B is the depot code for the Bricklayers Arms Depot, a major freight yard, wagon works, locomotive depot and railway factory complex in urban south London. It was surrounded on all sides by houses and tenements, brick lined cuttings, girder bridges and canals. It was accessed by a spaghetti junction of viaducts and branch tracks connecting it to the myriad of nearby routes in and out of London.

 

The real life Bricklayers Arms depot closed its doors in 1962, and so I am freelancing a lease of life to this steam era relic and modelling it as it might've been in 1975. Continental freight has been centralised from Bricklayers arms and Southwark to the new Hither Green sheds, and the overall decline in freight traffic has necessitated the closure and truncation of several sheds on the site. It has no third-rail electrification, so is worked exclusively with 08's, 33's and 74's.

 

My layout is a small section of this mammoth facility, compromising the area at the end of an outside loading platform, the entrance one of the many goods sheds, and the end of some hardstanding.

 

The layout was discussed in this design thread, which spurred me onwards with some great replies. Taken from that thread is the gist of how it'll look, all of the 3'6" by 6" of it:

 

(note that the outer van in this image has been replaced with the front corner of a goods shed and a closed door.)

[puffernutter]

The genesis of this project was finding out that I only required some slide-chairs to be able to lay some track in EM. Having spent the better part of the last six months building a brass loco kit in S7, I was quite looking forward to the change!

 

Although I own Templot, I happened to find a C&L B7 template in one of my boxes, so I spray-mounted that to some 2'4" x 4" 9mm ply. The ply was left over from a previous layout - a local woodyard costed more per sq. foot than B&Q but they'd cut it for me - so that'll be a strip of 2', a strip of 1' and then the rest in 4" strips? I bet they were well pleased with me when I called that order in!

 

Anyway, this is how far I got in the first evening:

 

I was very happy with the vee - up until this point I'd been using C&L pre-milled V's and switchblades, but this time I thought with the minuscule 4mm rail (at least in comparison to Code 125!) I should be able to handle it. Although the face of the vee wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, it looked pretty solid!

 

Unfortunately the more eagle-eyed of you will be able to spot the issue, I'm sure - I was laying it out with flat-bottomed rail, but I only had bullhead chairs! Quite why I decided I should buy flat-bottomed rail I'll never know! Either way, an order was sent to C&L on that Sunday night.

[puffernutter]

It became pretty obvious in my design thread (linked in the OP) that 4" x 2.6" while sound as a diorama would have incredibly limited play value. Instead of running batons underneath the board, I glued them to the side of the ply to gain an extra 1 3/4" of real estate and firm it up. I helped alot, especially since I didn't see how bowed my 'baseboard' plank was! I'm confident the Titebond 2 will hold up.

 

I made the sector plate and sector-plate support out of the same 9mm material, so I could easily clamp it flush and flat relative to the baseboard surface. Here's a shot as it was at this stage:

[puffernutter]

With the receipt of my C&L Bullhead track I was able to start laying out the turnout again, this time hopefully for the last time! Because the Bullhead is thinner even than the flat-bottomed rail, it was difficult to get an exact angle on the filing.

 

My method was to work out which side to file down, then measure 7mm down the rail. Since it's a B7 it's got a 1:7 angle, so for every 1mm in width of the rail it should be marked 7mm down the length to get the correct angle - the rail happened to be close enough to 1mm for it not to matter.

 

I filed it by laying it on a steel rule and using a 10" single-cut file at a quite acute angle until the tip was down to a point.

 

I did this with both rails, then drew a 1:7 angle in pencil on scrap wood, super-glued the rail in place and soldered it after flooding with flux. It wasn't a perfect vee initially, the straight rail's tip was protruding by a mm or so - this was easily sorted with the file. (it would've been easier if I'd left it super-glued to the wood instead of pinging it off straight away).

 

After threading the chairs on, I was able to lay the straight stock rail, and the straight rail off the vee:

(this picture shows it before I got the chairs glued down on the vee's straight rail - you're not going mad!)

 

I do now have a bit of a quandary - I know how I want the branch track to curve, and have marked this on the baseboard - but I'm not so sure how to get the timbers laid equidistant from that rail line and perpendicular to the curve all the way 'round.

[eastwestdivide]

Good luck with the tracklaying.

 

Presume you've found Bricklayers Arms on Kent Rail at http://www.kentrail.co.uk/bricklayers_arms.htm

Lots of words, but only 1 photo, and that's of a steam engine rather than the general area.

I do remember seeing a 73 on parcels emerging at N Kent junction around 1980, from a passing EPB.

 

Also an aerial photo of the area at http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/southwark/bermondsey/aeral-view-1926.htm

[puffernutter]

Thanks eastwestdivide, I've seen that site and overhead picture before, all part of the decision to model this area.

 

The track plan is laid out to provide the photo-plank for some stock, to hopefully finish a layout by way of it's simplicity, and to provide scope for a 3-2-2 inglenook shunting puzzle. The latter will be worked with using various 10' wheelbase vans and wagons - but I do have an ex-Southern CCT(Ratio?) and a few other bits that I'll be using for variation.

[7APT7]

Hi ya mate

 

When I read "73B 4mm BR(S) Freight Micro-Layout"... I thought I was going to see that small version in China, that fits on one finger...LoL (is it T or Z gauge...I was thinking of)

 

Wow... so less than shelf space... i see what you mean... what Back drop will you be using...?

Great photos keep the updates coming...

 

Regards

Jamie

[puffernutter]

Hi Jamie,

 

The backdrop will almost certainly be arches - it's the signature scenery between New Cross and London Bridge.

 

I've also just spent the last hour cutting and threading the wrong chairs onto some rail to lay the curved stock rail. ######! On the bright side, the curved side of the vee and its associated branch-track rail is all laid, and the timbers don't look too stupid (I had to use a scalpel chisel blade halfway through and slice up half of the chairs because the curve of the rail was shallower than the projected curve I'd laid out with the sleepers!

 

On the bright side, I've found a use for the 8" long flat bottomed 'test track' I laid all those years ago - the hardstanding at the front of the layout. For cobbles, I'm thinking that a bulk layer of filler up to rail height, then skim and indent with a thin drinking straw to get the cobbled effect. Thoughts?

[puffernutter]

Recieved my Heljan 33 - any tips on regauging?

 

I've pulled a couple of all-nighters and at work today, so no chance yet to re-lay the rail - but hopefully tommorow will be quiet and give me a chance to relax and get on with it.

[Mark Forrest]

Recieved my Heljan 33 - any tips on regauging?

On my Heljan 27 and Hymek I've used Keen Maygib 14mm coach disc wheels (from EMGS). Did initially use some Gibson wheels on the Hymek, but as they have plastic centres the pick ups need to be modified; with the (metal) Maygib wheels the pick ups just need a little tweak.

[Crisis Rail]

It became pretty obvious in my design thread (linked in the OP) that 4" x 2.6" while sound as a diorama would have incredibly limited play value. Instead of running batons underneath the board, I glued them to the side of the ply to gain an extra 1 3/4" of real estate and firm it up. I helped alot, especially since I didn't see how bowed my 'baseboard' plank was! I'm confident the Titebond 2 will hold up.

 

I made the sector plate and sector-plate support out of the same 9mm material, so I could easily clamp it flush and flat relative to the baseboard surface. Here's a shot as it was at this stage:

 

......ahh the ever reliable Wheeliebin - my workbench of choice - looking promising - Freight and Micro Layout my sort of thing.

[puffernutter]

Ha! Indeed!

 

I've got the Crompton in bits, what a pain to get those wheel retaining plates off, huh?

 

With regards to re-gauging, there's a 16-week wait time from Ultrascale so I'm just going to regauge the OO ones, I think...

[puffernutter]

As mentioned it's been a rough few days, but I did have time today to get some more rail laid. The most frustrating part of the track-laying so far has been getting the ties running perfectly perpendicular to the direction of the rails while also on a curve - maddening!

 

I took apart the Heljan Class 33. I decided to regauge the existing wheelsets instead of purchasing brand new ones. I believe this is intentionally facilitated by nub on the inside face of the non-fixed wheel on each axle which allows the wheels to be spaced wider than otherwise would normally be feasible. While I was adjusting the position of the gear on the axle I accidentally mushed up the corners of a few teeth - only a few MM or so - but enough to make it run like a complete dog until I trimmed them down.

 

While I had it apart I also fitted a DCC decoder - just plugged it straight in. The Heljan method of chassis attachment is spectacular and I had it apart in a few seconds. Perusing the forums gleaned the info that the motor only pulls half an amp at full load, so I used a Bachmann 1A 2 function decoder with an 8-plug harness - it got a little hot (with the aforementioned gear issue) but we'll see how it pans out.

 

On another note, Parkside delivered my replacement wagon wheelsets, but didn't supply ANY wheels with the 16T mineral wagons I purchased from them at the same time

[puffernutter]

Almost finished the trackwork on The Brick (aka 73B) - the only thing left is the check rails and point blades. Here's a shot of the whole visible part of the layout:

 

Sector plate is made with wooden stops at either side of the range-of-movement. Power for all tracks will be fed off the PCB strips in this area: