Cullerbay, Marden Road - BR(NE) early 60's

[Toftwood]

4 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

There was a facility for setting a ‘signature’ on the old site and I think I just pasted the link into that.  I can’t see how to do that these days, so I’d better not start a new layout that needs its own thread!!

Sorry I can’t be of more help.

Paul.

Thanks paul, I'll have a play around with it a see if I can work it out.

 

Pete.

[Toftwood]

As mentioned previously I identified a problem with the track over the lifting section hinge joint.

Running a coach across here is no problem, but run a loco (Pacific) across here and it derails. So some packing is required. 

 

Regards

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

I hope everyone is coping with the 'enforced' stay at home. As a full time worker (sorry for the swear word) its been 4 weeks of bliss with possibly another 3 to come.

Amongst various domestic bits and bobs that have had to be done I have been doing some wiring up on Cullerbay. In the last post I mentioned that I had found a problem at the joints on the lifting bridge. I have stripped off the track on on the bridge for the moment, removed the screws to which I had tried to solder the track too and as the moment am waiting for some copper clad Paxolin from C&L Finescale. I received a box of Wago connectors so have used them to wire up the droppers to the Bus around half the layout.

In this photo you can see where I stripped back the track from the lifting bridge. 

As a quick evenings project I mocked up a girder bridge out of mount card to give an indication of where the exit from under Cullerbay Station would be. 

I was having a ponder the other evening, thinking through as you do how trains would be operated once up and running. It occurred to me that whilst I had the facility to park a freight in a siding to let a passenger pass in one direction, there was not a similar facility in the opposite direction. So today I set too and as can be seen above, have lifted a section of track and cork to replace with a curved point which will lead to a loop ending at the entrance to Marden Road.

SO I will add in this curved point at the entrance to Marden Rd (to the bottom Right) The other point will lead off to a small industry yet to be decided.

Its never clean job!

And the new cork and first of the track goes down.

 

Hope all stay well and safe

 

TTFN

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

With I think three different parts of the Layout being worked on at the same time the overall impression is that there is not much actual progress. But suddenly you seem to leap ahead and its a great feeling. I was waiting 3 weeks for the paxolin sleepers to arrive, but arrive they did.  

I know this might be like sucking eggs to some of you but this is all new to me. With the sleepers in place out came the soldering iron.

As previously mentioned, this join proved to be a problem with the track to the left dropping away causing a derailment. So I packed underneath the track with another layer of 3mm cork. 

At the other end of the bridge to the hinge, I started to sort this join. 

with paxolin in place awaiting soldering. Going to need a heavy weight to press the track down whilst its soldered to give a smooth transition.

The second track goes in.

In addition to adding in the lay over siding on the opposite side I felt I needed to think about how to fit the boards for Cullerbay.  I had another look at the track layout and thought that I would not have enough room for the points complex in the space I had left myself. So I spent some time rejigging the plan and came up with this.

I wanted 4 coaches and a Pacific in the longer platforms so needed 5' faces. This meant moving the platforms back and into a curve so the concourse sits over the tunnel mouth. Still not sure about the points complex yet. I will do what I normally do, lay out the points in place and jig things around till they fit.

Then I set my mind to Cullerbay's baseboard. Because of the 4 tracks which run underneath and with me running DCC, track cleanliness would be paramount so being able to get in and clean the tracks was high priority. I considered removable sections, but thought I would not have anywhere to put them and damage might be caused. So I thought about hinging the whole board (actually in sections)along the rear. 

As you can see in the diagram, the boards would be framed in 2x1 but laid flat not end on. Along the rear I will fix a 2x1 batten to the risers then hinge the 9mm plywood to that.

This gives an end on view and a better idea of what I propose. I hope the 1" of ply will be strong enough at the hinge. I'll give it a go.

These two photos show the batten in place.

Thats all for now.  

 

Hope you are all continuing to stay safe.  Take care.

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

After at least a week of warm sunny weather and not a lot done on the Railway, doing lots of outdoors stuff, what  did get done was to rip up the track and cork on the lifting section.

I persevered in trying to get a smooth joint, placing packing underneath; taking it out again, soldering paxolin sleepers to rails, unsoldering them when that didn't work until it just looked a right mess. I was getting nowhere and becoming frustrated.

So I bit the bullet so to speak and went back to what i should have done in the first place. So up came the cork underlay...

and down went two layers of 1/16 cork.  The reason for the unevenness was because the lifting section trackbed is on an incline and there is a slight lip at the join at the left end (in the above photo) then a slight drop before climbing the incline. This was enough to cause larger wheeled Steam locos to derail. 

This is the first layer, the area to the left will be for siding space,

Wit the addition of the second layer, the underlay is of the same level now so I can lay the track properly,

like the track at the top of the picture.

 

I as I said earlier other domestic stuff has got in the way for a few days but should be able to put some more time in this week.

 

Stay safe, stay home.

 

Regards 

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

Here we are into the ninth week of lockdown at home. The garden is looking a little tidier, the Motorhome has been washed and polished, gas and diesel are full, the rear chassis has been (hopefully) derusted repainted and wax oiled waiting for the word from No 10.

The bridge is now relaid and working thankfully.

The hinge joint is now on  one level 

the other end was done properly as it should have been done in the first place, but as you know this is a learning exercise as well.

Once I thought I had finished both joints I gave the bridge a small lit to check clearances. That went well so I lifted a bit further and felt a resistance so quickly put it down. I gave it a good look over and found I had not cut the track(the lower one in the above photo) Luckily no damage done.

So I have moved on slightly to start the set up of 'Marden Road'

 

Previously I said that I needed to build in a loop so trains could pass. I have revised that as the point would have been placed where the baseboard was slightly arched and I found that there would have been a possibility of derailments. So I took out the point (thankfully not secured) and returned the track to what it was. I have still kept the siding as I believe that freight trains would set back into refuge sidings ??

So there will be a buffer at the end on the right.

 

So thats where I am at the moment.

 

Regards, stay safe

 

Pete 

[Toftwood]

I had a real wobble the other day.  Looking at the clearances at concourse end of Cullerbay Station with the exit of the four track tunnel under it, I thought I had made a right boo boo. Because I wanted to extend the platforms as far as I could to get at least a five foot platform face, I had forgotten that the four tracks on leaving the tunnel are on an incline and how I originally wanted to frame the upper board would have meant no Clearance.  As you should i all cases like this, I left it for a day and came back to it today with the solution. I shall enlighten when I get to that stage in the build.

As you can see here the clearances are tight.

I started to fit the supports for Cullerbay 

so far so good.

 A check of the clearances showed all was well.

The cross pieces are temporary as the frame of the upper board will take their place giving it some strength which it will need as it will be hinged at the rear to allow access to clean the track and wiring.

I also did some temporary templates for the Marden Road platforms but don't have suitable wood to make them up yet.

So there we go, a bit further on, the heart has settled down again, I had thought I had made such a mistake I did consider binning Cullerbay station and making it a fiddle yard come engine shed. Now to move on again....

 

Regards, stay safe

 

Pete

 

 

[Toftwood]

These last few days I have managed to sneak into the shed and put together a LC Creative laser cut Steel Girder bridge.

It was reasonably easy to put together, I have had to reduce the height as it is to go under the board on the lifting section.

The cobblestone sheet is a Metcalfe product. 

I made one mistake in building the bridge, I did not realise until it was stuck (as usual) that the girder trim needed to be split instead of as can be seen giving a double vertical girder. Anyway it does not detract from the finished bridge.  As the bridge is only double track and the railway here is four track the rear abutments have been left off to be cosmetically fitted later.

Although I like the brick finnish, I wanted that NE look of stone. The larger is too big so will cover in the Slaters dressed stone, once I resupply.

Just to the top right is where the Bridge will be fitted. I had originally thought to have a Pub and some terraced houses in this space, but I felt a more industrial look would be better.

So some ply walling was cut and stone plasticard cut to fit over.

This shows the bridge before final fettling to fit under the trackbed.

I had a quick go at spraying a spare off cut of the stone plasticard from almost edge on. This was with track dirt. Will have another go with dk Sand and dry brushed sooty black. 

Well thats it of this update.

 

Stay safe 

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

I had time yesterday to finally lay the fourth track over the lifting bridge.

The joints here need some fettling but the locos now run over with barely a bump.

I found i had to do a modification to allow me to get my hand in underneath to reach the dropper wires.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Stay safe, regards

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

Some further progress on Marden Road has seen the cork stuck down for the main track formation through the station.

I have started to build the large factory kit from Kibri which has been in store for years waiting for the right moment for it to be completed.

The two gaps in the cork left and centre are where the platforms will go.

 

Pete

 

 

[Toftwood]

I see that it was June last year that I last posted on here. I fired up my MacBook to find it all changed again. I scrolled to my last page and found the photos were not showing. Got back to February 2020 before I found some photos in the thread?.? 
I am writing this on my iPad which appears to be showing all? Can any one enlighten me ? 
I know I don’t post often and haven’t followed my usual favourites for a while and have been using my Facebook page more often but I thought I would post some updates on Rmweb but can’t even do that on my laptop.?

[Toftwood]

I am not long away from completing track laying in Marden Road station. I still have four Tortoise motors to fit.

[Toftwood]

I thought I might put in half an hour in the shed this evening, too cold really to be out there much longer. I have been test fitting the final point and short sections of track before adding point motor and wiring up.

Maybe one of you may be able to let in to the secret method of being able to fit track when you have to fit it in a gap of already fixed track? As in the photos below . I understand about sliding the fishplates along but with the insulated ones, you can’t do that??

The point in the centre has two short stubbs of track at the frog end. How does one get them secured without bending the track/fishplates? 

[5BarVT]

Can't quite see in the picture, but I assume your problem is that the short length of track only joined at one end has four insulated fishplates?  If so, two of these will not be doing anything as the polarity on each side never changes.

Keep the insulated fishplate closest to each V replace the other two with metal ones.

Paul.

[Toftwood]

Hi Paul, nice to see you are still following the thread. 
I believe all the fishplates are in the correct poisons regarding insulated and non insulated. My problem is how to get the point and two stubby bits of track into the gap without doing any damage. The track at each of the three ends are secured. 
 

Pete

 

After all this time I have just had a gander at your thread. Just a quick skim through. Nice idea in such an area. Will follow with interest if I can figure out this web. Wish they would stop fiddling around with it.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Toftwood
Additional info

[Ian Blenk]

4 hours ago, Toftwood said:

Hi Paul, nice to see you are still following the thread. 
I believe all the fishplates are in the correct poisons regarding insulated and non insulated. My problem is how to get the point and two stubby bits of track into the gap without doing any damage. The track at each of the three ends are secured. 
 

Pete

 

After all this time I have just had a gander at your thread. Just a quick skim through. Nice idea in such an area. Will follow with interest if I can figure out this web. Wish they would stop fiddling around with it.

Cut chairs off the sleepers, slide back the fishplate, put tack in place, slide fishplates to join turnout. Fix sleepers in correct place.  Put dummy fishplates in place

[Toftwood]

So, taking Ian’s succinct advice, I managed to fit the remaining  point this morning. It went well apart from spearing the end of my thumb with a small screwdriver 

I tidied up some of the cork edges, removing it where it was no longer required. Finally I finished making up the harnesses for the remaining four Tortoise motors.

 

 

stay safe 

 

Pete

[Toftwood]

What should have been posted earlier