Wantage Road 1880 4mm Broad Gauge

[Charlie586]

Thanks, Annie and Lez.

 

 

 

it's loaded now, better late than never. 

[ChrisN]

1 hour ago, Charlie586 said:

Thanks, Annie and Lez.

 

 

 

it's loaded now, better late than never. 

 

Wow, you took it outside to get real snow!  

 

Have a good Christmas.

[Charlie586]

8 hours ago, ChrisN said:

 

Wow, you took it outside to get real snow!  

 

Have a good Christmas.

Thanks Chris. I just poured talcum powder over everything.

 

(Just a joke -  it's a snow app on phone)

[Nick Gough]

Merry Christmas to you Charlie, and all at Wantage Road.

[Charlie586]

Hope you all had a good Christmas. I got some bgs underframe etches, but haven't taken photos of them yet.

 

I was going to solder some more on the turnouts. First I thought I'd check as the track centres for the two lines they connect are about 6.5cm apart so part of the diverging lines will need chopping short.

When i put them together I realised I've been an idiot and they won't match. The common line in top turnout is at the top so won't meet the bottom turnout as that one has common line at the bottom. 

This might make it clearer.  I need 2 points with common rails on different sides to meet up. It's not a mirror image if that makes sense. I've got some 3mm cork arriving tomorrow, so I'll put the new baseboard together and build points directly on the cork on the board. I'll leave the nearly finished one for the yard, and use bits off the other one. I'll draw it out tonight on tracing paper first. 

What I did instead today is solder the hawthorn splashers to body. Needed a bit of fettling, filing and swearing to get it right, but I got there. Still need to do front splashers and sand boxes. There's plenty of room in the boiler and a shaft at each end of motor so I'm thinking of a flywheel.

[Charlie586]

As is usual with railway stuff, putting the baseboard together took three times longer than I thought it would

not the clearest photo,  but it's 12mm ply on wood frame. I glued it then clamped and put screws in the next day as I couldn't find them. It's 2ft 6 by 1ft like the last one.

 

 

Plan drawn out, it's slightly longer than I had originally calculated but easily fits the board

 

 

Tracing paper (actually greaseproof I think, from the kitchen cupboard), this will be used more as an overlay check than attempting to trace the plan 

Cork (from 10cm wide roll,  3mm thick) glued on and weighed down overnight with various Russell books and Stephen King hardbacks 

 

 

Going back to the plan. On the next board after this, the goods shed one, I don't think I'll get the yard point in to 2ft 6 as everything will be shifted along a bit.  I may have to make that board longer. No big deal, but would have been nice to have them all the same length. 

 

Finally, stuck a photo copy of plan onto cork but couldn't get it to stick that well, so ripped it off and I'll be using uhu to stick the copperclad directly to cork. Need a decent permanent marker that's not too thick to draw points out, again. The 3d print for the switch didn't come out well, and another 2 failed. It's just too cold at this time of year in the spare room for the printer. 

[Ian Smith]

In MRJ no. 1 there was a plan for a mixed gauge crossover that incorporated side-stepping so that the common rail (of the two gauges) was the outside rail of both lines.

 

Hope that may be of some use (assuming that you have MRJ no.1 of course).

Ian

[Charlie586]

Thanks Ian. I don't have mrj 1, I'll look out for a copy. I do need a side stepping crossover for the 4th board (the rightmost one in the track plan in previous post). The bgs do mixed gauge turnout diagrams, but not for that. I think if I use the tracing back to front on an original I should be able to cobble one together as a last resort. 

[Ian Smith]

2 hours ago, Charlie586 said:

Thanks Ian. I don't have mrj 1, I'll look out for a copy. I do need a side stepping crossover for the 4th board (the rightmost one in the track plan in previous post). The bgs do mixed gauge turnout diagrams, but not for that. I think if I use the tracing back to front on an original I should be able to cobble one together as a last resort. 

If I get a chance tomorrow I’ll see if I can scan the relevant pages for you, the plan was reproduced in 2mm scale though so you will have to resize it.

Ian

[Charlie586]

Thank you, Ian.

[Charlie586]

Haven't had much time this week, probably won't get much for a while either. But that's life, isn't it.

 

 

Printed the switch baulks again and they printed better this time, still not perfect yet though. I'm getting the stretcher bar bits ready but still needs thinning down more. There's a fine line between getting it small enough to look about right and making it too fragile. It's quite near the end of the baseboard, the end of the frame underneath is about an inch from where the dropper will be, so I should get to practice swearing when fitting it underneath. 

 

 

More deja vu point soldering. Its a bit harder doing it directly on the board, on a piece of ply I could move it around more to get the best soldering angle. Maybe on the next board I'll build the points (with cork on ply) then build the board around it. 

 

 

[lezz01]

I use 1mm square NS bar soldered to 2mm wide

pads of double sided 0.4mm thick copper clad for my stretchers Charlie. I made a jig for soldering them up.

They seem to work well but I haven't tried to work them powered yet.

Regards Lez.

[Charlie586]

7 hours ago, lezz01 said:

I use 1mm square NS bar soldered to 2mm wide

pads of double sided 0.4mm thick copper clad for my stretchers Charlie. I made a jig for soldering them up.

They seem to work well but I haven't tried to work them powered yet.

Regards Lez.

Thanks Lez 

That looks good, the copperclad is quite hidden under the rail. I've got 10 points altogether on layout so can experiment with other ways. I'll try that way on one.

Took a closer pic of the bits. Holes drilled through copperclad strip and small brass pins soldered through (only done 2 but need 3 for mixed gauge)  these will be soldered to small holes drilled into ends on switch blades (you can just about see a hole in top switch blade) . I'll fit a dropper (maybe 2) to copperclad to go through the cork and board to operate from underneath. I've got some old peco point motor micro switches that I'm hoping to include to switch frogs polarity. 

 

[Ian Smith]

Charlie,

I have PM'd you with a scan of the Baulk Road Side-Stepping Crossover from MRJ No.1.  (Sorry about the delay)

Ian

 

PS.

I've just read your latest post, I did my loose heel switches hinged in a similar way in 2FS, one thing I did do though was keep my pivot long (it extends below the baseboard), so that I could solder a fine wire onto it which is also soldered to the adjoining rail to maintain electrical continuity for the switch blade.  I would also check the amount of planing you have on the switch rails - mine taper pretty much along their whole length to allow them to fit snuggly against the stock rails.

Edited January 14, 2022 by Ian Smith
added Postscript

[Charlie586]

Thank you Ian.

 

Originally the pivot was going into the same piece of copperclad the stock rail was on, and I was going to wire up each piece of copperclad. But it does need altering now as the switches are 3d printed am obviously not conductive. A longer pivot is a good idea, the copperclad stretcher should conduct to the rail,  but best to be safe as a small gap will lose the connection. I haven't got to test the switch yet, still trying to 3d print all the baulks but getting failures, but it will need more filing, it meets at a bit of a angle at the moment. 

[Charlie586]

Done some more to the turnout, mainly getting pieces of rail and baulk ready, cut to size etc, and not had much time for soldering. Should have some time later in the week for soldering, so I'll post a pic when more substantial progress made. 

 

Nearly ready for the hughes tram motor to be fitted. I've got a gear but it's not in the photo.  The wheels are 12mm, should be 10.5 but I've not got any that size so I'll use these for now. It's possibly going to be quite quick as limited on how big a gear I've got that can fit in. High Level kits do a few tiny gearboxes and I'm sure the micromiser will fit so if it does go too quick I'll have to wait until the next time I can spend money. 

 

 

Also about ready for the Grantham tram car. As it's twice the length and has a skirt I can get away with the wrong wheels and use bevel gears. I've done a little rocking cage type thing for one of the axles to help it around bends.

Just need a good day or two soldering now.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Charlie586
Spellin'

[Charlie586]

Another wagon load of rail arrives and is shovelled onto the track.

 

 

 

The start of a switch soldering jig has been spotted in the wild 

 

underneath the jig is another little paint test on baulks. The one on the left is pcb (excess solder and outer part of copperclad scraped off), the right is lolly stick. Mainly brown acrylic with a little bit of black. Then dabs of nato olive is shovelled on  to make it less uniform. 

Finally had a decent run of 3d printing the switch plates. I upped the print time by 2 seconds a layer, which seems to have helped but has obviously slowed it down. Just need to shovel some paint on them and then stick to base board.

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Charlie586
Double photo

[Charlie586]

Bit of a test paint of switch plates 

 

 

Needs a bit more work doing as the wood parts need to be more of a weathered creosotey colour. The light (spot lamp) I took it under is very yellow,  the rail is actually just nickel silver with no paint on. 

 

 

Switch blade test (lots of tests going on at moment). The axle goes through it but it still needs more filing as blade on left isn't quite touching. Sorry about the working mess, etc. Still soldering the points up, I'm past halfway now.

[Charlie586]

Not too much time but did bit more soldering.

Sorry it's a bit slow, this must be like watching paint dry. I'm still enjoying laying the track and building the points so I'll carry on with it.

 

Hughes chassis trying to sort pick ups out but there's not much room. Tried a weathering type coat on the switch plates, needs a bit more light colour on it I reckon. I'm also adding temporary power wires to the top of board so I can figure out the wiring before taking them underneath. 

Switch blades soldered up, needs cleaning up and gapping inbetween the right and middle blades. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll have the switch assembled on the board. 

[ChrisN]

1 hour ago, Charlie586 said:

Not too much time but did bit more soldering.

Sorry it's a bit slow, this must be like watching paint dry. I'm still enjoying laying the track and building the points so I'll carry on with it.

 

Hughes chassis trying to sort pick ups out but there's not much room. Tried a weathering type coat on the switch plates, needs a bit more light colour on it I reckon. I'm also adding temporary power wires to the top of board so I can figure out the wiring before taking them underneath. 

Switch blades soldered up, needs cleaning up and gapping in between the right and middle blades. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll have the switch assembled on the board. 

 

Charlie,

It is your railway, and we are just along for the ride.  You do not do it primarily to entertain us, that is just a consequence.  Just watching the way things develop is a pleasure in itself, as we all do something similar.

 

Keep up the good work.  I think most things you have done you have had to work out how to do it, so well done.

Edited February 7, 2022 by ChrisN

[Charlie586]

53 minutes ago, ChrisN said:

 

Charlie,

It is your railway, and we are just along for the ride.  You do not do it primarily to entertain us, that is just a consequence.  Just watching the way things develop is a pleasure in itself, as we all do something similar.

 

Keep up the good work.  I think most things you have done you have had to work out how to do it, so well done.

 

Thank you, Chris. It is a bit of a long, but enjoyable, slog. I think I thought it would take about 10 years when I started, I'm nearly halfway through that. Real life has a habit of getting in the way.

[Charlie586]

We looked after the granddaughter for the day at start of week and came down with a cold type thing almost immediately. Been doing lateral tests and thankfully it's nothing worse. It has slowed down the modelling though. 

 

Anyway,  I've been using liquid flux, weak phosphoric acid, for about 6 months now and it's improved the soldering no end. Other, nearby bits no longer fall off, there's less cleaning up and it works just as well on cheap silverline solder as on the Eileens Emporium stuff. The old flux I used to use is on left, bought about 20 years ago. I'm not quite sure how to throw it away as it rots anything it comes near.

Laid the switch plates down but needed some minor filing to get the stretcher bars in properly. I also need a tiny 2mm bit of rail  on copperclad inbetween the standard/narrow switch and the rest of the point. Still quite a bit of tweaking needed.

The hughes tram chassis works via pickups but is too quick. I'll do a video at some point. Getting a better gear or gearbox in there will be tricky. The wheels are 12mm on 2mm axles so that really limits what I can use. The wheels should really be 10.5mm as well which makes it even worse. I'm not sure where all that lead will go either, as there's very little room in the body.

[Charlie586]

One of the frogs wasn't quite running through right so I tried to slightly move it but the piece of pcb delaminated quite badly 

 

But luckily the track gang are replacing it

 

The standard / narrow blade needed some adjustment while assembling the point so had to resolder while in place. I used tiny bits of paper on the stock rail to avoid soldering the whole thing rigid 

It's about there now, but is a bit stiff so it's difficult to lock in the photo downwards direction, pings back without constant pressure. There's 2 droppers that go all the way through the board on the stretcher bar, it might be them,I might not have drilled their holes straight enough. They've given out snow for the weekend after the gales finish so I should get a decent run at tinkering with it.

[MrWolf]

Are your permanent way crew using sufficient amounts of Task Appropriate Profanity? 

[Charlie586]

45 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Are your permanent way crew using sufficient amounts of Task Appropriate Profanity? 

There's a lot of 19th century swearing going on by all parties at the moment.