Knadgerhill - the long slog

[5BarVT]

Thanks for the reminder about Tour of Britain.

For alignment, try the method suggested by DCC concepts using their dowels: align boards and clamp together; drill pilot hole through both board ends; rebate for alignment plates using pilot holes. I’m not good at woodwork and that has been easy for me.

Paul.

[NittenDormer]

Whoops, another month for past... Clamping the boards together to align the holes doesn't work because I have glued the board assemblies together, and there isn't enough room for the drill. The holes would be diagonal.

Anyway, I have been busy laying a single track in a U shape across 4 board, aligning the rails across the joints, and wiring so that current continues across the joint. While most soldering only requires 3 hands, there are some jobs that need 4. I've tried soldering droppers to rail already stuck in place (fiddly, and requiring much use of special soldering words), I've tried soldering droppers to rails first, then drilling holes underneath where I think the wire is (only to find that it isn't), I've soldered wires to the multicable connectors with tiny amounts of space between the prongs just asking for short circuits...

 

After much bodging, I had wires connecting all 4 boards. Time for a test! Nothing. Loco stops dead at board 3. A Vuelta later, a chance to troubleshoot. Amazingly, the connectors work fine. Turns out that one rail/droppers joint is not connected, some more levering up, wishing I had more hands and frustration and... it works!

 

Next is to lay the second track. Before I do that, I need to test hauling capability on the first track, and decide whether Powerbase is needed on the uphill track. Before I do that, I need to lay the first track on a 5th board. Before I do that, I need to finish sticking the 5th board together with glue. This will take around a week of clamping. Nothing moves fast on this layout!

[LongRail]

Once you seperate the boards you could always make a ply or MDF template to match the end and drill that to locate the dowel position and then transfer the hole position to the ends of the boards, suggest using a small diameter oily drill

[NittenDormer]

Thanks LongRail, I might try that next time.  

 

In the meantime, more bodging...

 

 

This may just look like any old baseboard to you, but this is board 5, which I have recently been passing-the-point-of-no-return on, by replacing screwed joints with glue and panel pins (both because I don't fully trust either!).

 

Having thought I had finished the gluing, I turned it round to discover I had forgotten to glue the back of it (the vertical part in the picture). Sadly I HAD glued the top, which meant that the top edge of the side was stuck, and I couldn't remove it to get the glue in place. So the bottom parts are glued and pinned, the top parts only pinned.

 

Then I backed up the glue on the top with pins. The far end of the board has been deliberately left unglued, so that I can remove it when it comes to adding alignment dowels. What did I do? I securely pinned the top to the end. So now I wont be able to glue that properly either.

Edited October 7, 2018 by NittenDormer

[NittenDormer]

Gah! Tonight was meant to be about testing haulage capability, but instead I've been trying to fix a wiring fault that is stopping power reaching the track. I've unscrewed and rescrewed the chocolate blocks. I tested the connection with the board on its side (9v battery on the vertical track, loco on the next board - works) only for the connection to disappear when the board is laid flat again. I've given up and resorted to watching full size track problems at Paddington Station.

[NittenDormer]

For tonights progress: weathering some track. Since I don't have an airbrush, I tried hand painting the rail sides. Quickly got bored. Need to source airbrush/aerosol.

[LongRail]

I paint my rails by hand apply good coating and while it is still drying wipe along the rails with a cotton cloth. This evens it out cleans the sides and spreads the paint around on the ballast and sleepers to give that general dirty appearance. That way you can quickly paint the rails.

[NittenDormer]

Woo hoo! After weeks of being too tired and too busy, I finally make some more progress. I drilled 10 screw holes (go on, take the rest of the week off).

[LongRail]

Woo hoo! After weeks of being too tired and too busy, I finally make some more progress. I drilled 10 screw holes (go on, take the rest of the week off).

WHAT SIZE HOLES WERE THEY

[5BarVT]

WHAT SIZE HOLES WERE THEY

Round ones!

[NittenDormer]

About 3mm wide if you must know.

I have decided the garage is too cold at the moment, so am prefabricating some track beds indoors. Which is taking a phenomenal amount of stages.

1. Cut cereal boxes into strips and glue together for super elevation/cant formers.

2. Mark (accurately) the track positioning, spacing etc, and glue formers in place.

3. Cut strips of cork, glue in place and weigh.

4. Check positioning again. Decide it is not perfect, but within the parameters of acceptable bodging. Paint black using new airbrush. Block new airbrush with paint.

5. Apply DCC Concepts Powerbase, since this is going to be the tightest curve AND the steepest gradient. The plates all need trimming because of the curve, resulting in sharp edges and uneven surfaces. More bodging.

 

Even now, still to do is fit track, add wires, glue down and ballast. And paint.

By the time I have finished all this, it might be warm enough to venture outside.

[NittenDormer]

As always, frustratingly little to report. However, I am happy to accept gratitude for the recent mild weather. Yes it is all down to me, because I finally gave up on the garage and retired indoors with a Cambrian Kits Walrus. The instructions (and pictures) aren't the clearest but it makes a pleasant change, and hopefully will run by the end.

A trip to Model Rail Scotland has produced ideas for about 5 more layouts, no, mustn't be tempted yet...

[NittenDormer]

For a change today, I have been tidying my Hornby curves...

...and planning the other end of my fiddle yard. The FYb baseboard has been assembled for a while, but only screwed together as I knew it would need disassembly once the track positioning was finalised. 

  Now I can glue and pin the left board in this picturewhich  is what has stopping me from laying the track. 

[NittenDormer]

More holes. 

From this: 

To this:

 

And then starting to see how the track will look.

 

[NittenDormer]

A record breaking gap between posts. Sometimes because I've been doing stuff and too busy, sometimes because I haven't been doing stuff. And sometimes because the stuff I've been doing is boring, like wiring.

So, in a further' 'commitment' stage, more track has been glued and soldered down, then I've possibly been fussing too much about exactly what colour to paint the rails. I started with a tin of Humbrol 'track colour', although this is meant for tank tracks I believe.

One tin was emptied surprisingly quickly, so I bought a tube of acrylic (burnt umber) and mixed it with black powder paint to get a dark muck. Needs more testing - doesn't seem to airbrush as well.

Here is a bit of the Humbrol painted track:

 

I can potentially go on forever fretting about this, so I decided to stop now, and try some ballasting. Only to notice I hadn't filled the track joint gaps with dummy sleepers. Next I bodged an issue with the gap between track pieces being too big, being not wanting to face lifting the track and relaying it, I inserted TINY bits of rail in the joiner:

More lessons from how not to build a model railway shortly. 

 

[NittenDormer]

Preparing more trackbed for supercantevation, because I believe in making things more difficult than they need to be. 

Edited October 18, 2019 by NittenDormer

[NittenDormer]

For the last month or so, I've been experimenting with building a truss bridge.

The side girders are made out of 1.3mm mountboard, once that was done I attempted the smaller cross girders from strips of cereal box. The zigzags on the cross beams are 1mm wide and were pretty fiddly. 

 

The whole structure felt very rickety until the upright diagonals went in, now it feels surprisingly robust, although I still wouldn't like to drop it. A quick coat of Halfords grey primer and it's origins are less noticeable. Here it is temporarily crossing Shoebox Gorge:

 Still got some buttresses to build for either end, but I feel childishly pleased with myself (as befits someone playing with trains!)

Edited January 11, 2020 by NittenDormer

[NittenDormer]

In light of the current crisis (currently in 14 day home isolation as son coughed and felt hot last week, he was back to normal within 24 hours, so unlikely to be covid-19), the railway support platform in the garage has reverted to its other function, a table-tennis table.

 

[NittenDormer]

Literally for months now I have been struggling to scratchbuild/adapt a Scalescenes viaduct. Not following the instructions has resulted in many pauses and an a abandoned attempt. Finally it is starting to take shape, although I am still worried that a vital piece won't fit right at the end. 

[NittenDormer]

Viaduct finally finished and in place, now tracklaying. Thank goodness for tinned tomatoes. 

[NittenDormer]

Gluing the deck edge (?) to the ledge/top of arches. Looks straight enough, although the viaduct foundations may have shifted slightly since it was built in the late 1800s.

[NittenDormer]

Today is the viaduct parapet. The viaduct is about 3 feet long, so the original model addresses the fact that A4 paper isn't this long by having refuges every 2 arches. I decided I didn't want refugees, so have laminated 3 thicknesses of mount board to the required length and glued multiple cover sheets along it. One finished, the second underway.  Because I am a glutton for punishment,  I  decided I didn't like the standarstandns either, so have been carving the edges at the joints. It is slow but satisfying. 

 

You will also seen how short these sections are. Each printed sheet has 2 full length sections, 4 shorter approach wall sections and some refuge sections. Having used the long sections already, it seems a shame to waste the 4 approach sections. I draw the line at using the refuge bits though - they are only about 2cm long. The paper is printed at 110% so the capping stones have a nice side edge on my thickness of card.

 

[NittenDormer]

Now I know why the original Scalescenes kit has the parapet wall in A4-size lengths. Even with an assistant, it's hard to hold 3 feet of wall in place while the glue sticks. The final bit needed regluing, helped by some suitably heavy books.

 

 

[NittenDormer]

Today's Random Skill Unexpectedly Learnt Through Modelling: a 4 way plait.

 

[NittenDormer]

Current job: arguing with a Seep point motor (won't throw point) and making an underpass. I wanted that undulating steel ceiling look, helpfully the Scalescenes girder bridge kit has just that option. Although its tricky to do, see my first attempt versus second try.