“Highland Sulzers” - Inverness TMD in the 80's - P4

[Indomitable026]

I’d like to share something with you, this should be my 10,000th post, but it’s not - Despite a couple of warnings from Andy I missed it!

 

This is actually my 10,003rd post - I don’t even think that relates to a loco number?

 

I’ve been reflecting back on this fantastic journey and I feel it’s important for to me to say...

 

THANK YOU

 

• To Andy York for creating and running this forum over all these years, it remains a wonderful platform and in an unrivalled position - a fantastic resource and community.

 

• To all my close friends - you know who you are. For everything really - there’s too much to even start and mention...

 

• To everyone that has followed all my exploits, your feedback, encouragement and camaraderie.

 

We are no where near the end of the line.
 

So here’s on to the next 10,000, and all those unbuilt layouts we’ve not even thought about yet - let’s keep sharing...

 

 

[sulzer71]

On 21/12/2020 at 17:46, Indomitable026 said:

 

I may do, I’ve got a 26 and two 27s from this period.

 

My priority is to model the ones that were there in 1983 when I went up to Inverness on a family holiday. When I bought these, which had already been converted to P4, I couldn’t get the later ones I wanted. Of course you can now. To convert these to latter ones is a bit of work including filling in the tablet catcher recess and some paintwork and renumbering.

 

That said, I will back date at some point because I want some of Phillip Sutton’s 24s when they appear next year...

Dropped you another PM regarding the 26's/27's

[Indomitable026]

A little bit of progress tonight, I’ve made a tentative start on the electrical wiring. I’ll post in a bit more detail once I get my eye in on the job and I’ve got a bit more time.

 

[Southwich]

Looking great that Damian - lovely work on the track! 
 

I’ll be interested in what you end up settling on for the tiebar arrangement once you install the blades. Are the gauges you use all exactoscale ones?

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

[Indomitable026]

11 minutes ago, Southwich said:

Looking great that Damian - lovely work on the track! 
 

I’ll be interested in what you end up settling on for the tiebar arrangement once you install the blades. Are the gauges you use all exactoscale ones?

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

Thanks for that Will.

 

Yeah, Tie Bars - not resolved. Not as obvious answers as there are on most other things on the track build. I know what I’m doing with the droppers and point actuators - but not the tie bars.

 

Mark Forrest is also grappling with this one on his Manifold Valley Minerals layout..

 

 

 

[Regularity]

Putting glasses on the layout doesn’t make you look clever: you’re supposed to put them on your face.

[Indomitable026]

2 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Putting glasses on the layout doesn’t make you look clever: you’re supposed to put them on your face.

That’s where they went...

[Indomitable026]

31 minutes ago, Southwich said:

Looking great that Damian - lovely work on the track! 
 

I’ll be interested in what you end up settling on for the tiebar arrangement once you install the blades. Are the gauges you use all exactoscale ones?

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

These are the gauges.

 

The Mint gauge and the flangeway gauge are from the Scalefour Society stores.

 

The roller gauges I think I bought from C&L a few years ago at a time when they were selling Exactoscale items, but I don’t know what make they are - may be someone can advise?

 

[Southwich]

49 minutes ago, Indomitable026 said:

Thanks for that Will.

 

Yeah, Tie Bars - not resolved. Not as obvious answers as there are on most other things on the track build. I know what I’m doing with the droppers and point actuators - but not the tie bars.

 

Mark Forrest is also grappling with this one on his Manifold Valley Minerals layout..

 

 

 

I’ll be interested to see what you come up with. I’ve used a thinned copper clad sleeper on my EM track which, whilst reliable, isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing. I’ve joined the S4 Society over the last few days so looking for something a bit more ‘finessed’ for the next layout and when I have to build a silly number of points for Boxenby...

 

I also saw Mark’s thread so look forward to seeing both solutions. 
 

29 minutes ago, Indomitable026 said:

These are the gauges.

 

The Mint gauge and the flangeway gauge are from the Scalefour Society stores.

 

The roller gauges I think I bought from C&L a few years ago at a time when they were selling Exactoscale items, but I don’t know what make they are - may be someone can advise?

 

Thanks for the info re gauges - think I best get an order in with the S4 society stores!

 

Thanks for the info,

 

Will

[jbg]

The roller gauges you bought from C&L look very much like they are the Exactoscale ones.  They did also do a set allowing for gauge widening on curves but I'm not sure whether either are currently available.  

 

Jeremy

[Enterprisingwestern]

9 hours ago, jbg said:

The roller gauges you bought from C&L look very much like they are the Exactoscale ones.  They did also do a set allowing for gauge widening on curves but I'm not sure whether either are currently available.  

 

Jeremy

 

That might answer the question on a set that I have, (not that I do, or have any intention of being a wide boy), they have numbers on them.

 

Mike.

[Flymo749]

10 hours ago, Southwich said:

I’ll be interested to see what you come up with. I’ve used a thinned copper clad sleeper on my EM track which, whilst reliable, isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing. I’ve joined the S4 Society over the last few days so looking for something a bit more ‘finessed’ for the next layout and when I have to build a silly number of points for Boxenby...

 

I also saw Mark’s thread so look forward to seeing both solutions. 
 

Thanks for the info re gauges - think I best get an order in with the S4 society stores!

 

Thanks for the info,

 

Will

 

Bear in mind that the Mint gauge is used for checking track, not for building it.  I just wanted to make that clear at the outset for you.

 

The idea is that you slide it along, and it will reveal any tight spots or snags.  It's excellent for fine-tuning track after it's built.  There are plenty of discussions of its use on the Scalefour Society Forum.

 

Cheers

Paul

 

[Southwich]

1 hour ago, Flymo749 said:

 

Bear in mind that the Mint gauge is used for checking track, not for building it.  I just wanted to make that clear at the outset for you.

 

The idea is that you slide it along, and it will reveal any tight spots or snags.  It's excellent for fine-tuning track after it's built.  There are plenty of discussions of its use on the Scalefour Society Forum.

 

Cheers

Paul

 

Thanks for the clarification Paul much appreciated. I did wonder how that would work in practice so thanks for the explanation! Still need to properly look at the forum...

 

Thanks,

 

Will

[Flymo749]

8 hours ago, Southwich said:

Thanks for the clarification Paul much appreciated. I did wonder how that would work in practice so thanks for the explanation! Still need to properly look at the forum...

 

Thanks,

 

Will

 

There is also a good article to look at by my good friend and occasional poster here, Mark Tatlow.

 

It's is Scalefour News 195, and is entitled "Trackwork problem-finding checklist".  It's basically a series of things that you can do to "debug" trackwork after it's been built - I know that mine certainly needs it!  It makes mention of the Mint gauge, and quite a few other tips besides.

 

If you don't have a hard copy, it's downloadable from the Members' Area.  I keep digital copies of all the Scalefour News now, as well as the hard copies.  Much easier to search when you need a particular article.

 

Cheers

Paul

 

[Indomitable026]

Right then, wiring.

 

I’ve used a quite thick wire here to minimise volt drop and maximise power available to the track. The wire is too thick to solder to the rail so a reduction is required. This is achieved using a smaller single core wire soldered into the thicker wire.

 

Here I’ve soldered the thinner single core wire into the larger multi strand wire.

 

 

Now with heat shrink around the joint.

 

 

The wire is then pulled up through the baseboard and a 90 degree angle put in the end of it.

 

 

And then soldered to the underside of the rail. Always from the non viewing side.

 

 

 

 

 

[Robert Shrives]

Once tested I guess some glue to fill the hole and provide a chemical anchor to the feed.  I recall ballasting with out sealing the hole of a few wire droppers and ended up with loose ballast to chase around for a while ! 

 

Great work and thanks for all the information.   A great bit of the network to model. 

[dj_crisp]

On 05/01/2021 at 20:22, Indomitable026 said:

Thanks for that Will.

 

Yeah, Tie Bars - not resolved. Not as obvious answers as there are on most other things on the track build. I know what I’m doing with the droppers and point actuators - but not the tie bars.

 

Mark Forrest is also grappling with this one on his Manifold Valley Minerals layout..

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure if my efforts help or are at your level but in case;

 

During my trackbuild I've ended up using Ambis tie bars which seem to work well. I found them a little difficult to fold up but after destroying a few to start with I got into a routine and managed to produce enough for my setup. Generally I've fitted two per point and the one closest the toe I drilled small holes in the tie bars under the point blade for the droppers to the tou.

 

They're operated using C&L TOUs which i found tricky to set up and had to modify (hack) for use with tortoises.  (During my build I started out with DCC concepts motors but was shocked with their failure rate so have fitted tortoises to all that I can).

 

If starting again I'd use the ambis stretchers but I'm not so sure on the TOUs.

 

Next up for me is dummy FPL... then point rodding but haven't found the courage to do that yet.

 

Will

 

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi,

 

I have just caught up with this thread and as luck would have it I have used the Ambis stretcher bars, there is a thread on the old Templot Forum that Phil O put up a few years ago on how to fold them up, the photos are a bit fuzzy, but you get the gist, I found it useful as the destructions are a bit vague.

 

http://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?id=2586&forum_id=6&highlight=stretcher

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Siberian Snooper
Forgot the link!

[johndon]

I'll be interested to see what you come up with for the tie bars, it is the last decision I need to make for my own track work although, in my case, the tie bars will be functional...

 

John

[dseagull]

On 06/01/2021 at 21:05, Robert Shrives said:

Once tested I guess some glue to fill the hole and provide a chemical anchor to the feed.  I recall ballasting with out sealing the hole of a few wire droppers and ended up with loose ballast to chase around for a while ! 

 

Great work and thanks for all the information.   A great bit of the network to model. 

 

Polystyrene balls are always good to fill feed holes (the sort you find inside beanbags etc). Very easily mould to fit the hole when poked in with the business end of a small screwdriver. Make sure you have soldered the feed first!

[2ManySpams]

9 hours ago, dseagull said:

 

Polystyrene balls are always good to fill feed holes (the sort you find inside beanbags etc). Very easily mould to fit the hole when poked in with the business end of a small screwdriver. Make sure you have soldered the feed first!

 

Or blutac or plasticine.

[Indomitable026]

2 hours ago, 2ManySpams said:

 

Or blutac or plasticine.

Yeah I like that idea - so it’s removable if ever there’s an issue.

 

Sold.

 

[BetweenTheTunnels]

2 hours ago, Indomitable026 said:

Yeah I like that idea - so it’s removable if ever there’s an issue.

 

Sold.

 

 

Would it be that removable after you've ballasted the area?

 

Richie

[Indomitable026]

33 minutes ago, Rochdale Road said:

 

Would it be that removable after you've ballasted the area?

 

Richie

 

I agree you’d have remove the ballast - it just feels that bit easier if ever have to change the wire. Hopefully you don’t...

[Indomitable026]

Well it’s Friday night and it’s time for the blues...