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Intermodal in P4


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  • 1 month later...

Well i'm still patiently waiting for a move date hoping a lovely letter drops through the door soon so i can liberate all my bits from storage. Recapping over this thread i've put some more thought to stock storage and the pros and cons of various methods to do this. While pondering it suddenly hit me (ouch), i have two baseboards with traversers that link to make one 2.95m traverser. They hold the stock when the layout is operational, so why not use this space to keep the stock when the layout is back in the framework. There will have to be some clever design to both hold the stock and allow them to move freely onto the layout.

My idea is to have a version of the "U" shaped fiddle yard cassette system but permanently fixed side by side with only a small amount of side play and felt or fine brush sides to soften any movement. It will have a removable top sheet to ensure the stock is seated on the track correctly and the rail base will be made from angled strips of plastic to guide any derailments back into position. The end of each traverser will need a stop plate to keep the stock in place and any empty space will need to filled with foam blocks to prevent movement. Full length trains will need to be split when housed in each traverser board, but that could be easily done by leaving a gap in the top plate at the join to get in and decouple.

I'm sure there are going to be some snags i've not thought of, but this looks like it could work.

Edited by rdr
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  • 3 weeks later...

The trouble with waiting for your completion date, your mind wanders and plans get altered as more information and ideas become available. Ideas pop in your head and you end up needing extra space for these to be implemented on the layout.

A few ideas have been milling around my head over the last week or so.

1. An extra board has been added, six in total.

2. Operational artics dropping and receiving containers in the yard, crossing a weighbridge on entry and exit of the yard with an office and security gates.

3. Cars, taxis and buses dropping off/parking and collecting at the station entrance.

4. Longer more realistic D10 points and removing the three way point.

5. An additional track in the station with run around for goods and single loco hauled passenger stock.

6. Two platforms with a pedestrian underpass.

For the vehicles to be controlled by computer as well as the trains, there needs to be a method of returning the vehicles to the layout in a specific order without any human interference.

On the extra board, i plan to make either a system of multiple storage loops or several dual road turntables for both the container yard and the station approach. They will be hidden from view just before the fiddle yard.  This extra board will allow the viewable area a much needed 600mm extension and 1630mm for the vehicle loops/turntables. Having several storage loops or dual road turntables will allow me to sort the vehicles by computer, rather than just have a repeat of their exixsting order.

Edited by rdr
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  • 1 month later...

the date is set, September 2nd, phew, finally moving. itchy fingers have been very active on templot and i'm up to plan number 72, that's a lot of ideas and changes. Way too many ideas have come and gone, some have been incorporated others have been forgotten, but the basic idea has been strong throughout all.

In my hiatus i managed to pick up a 42" hewlett packard 800ps printer which will print from sheets or a roll, so plans are afoot (well a bit longer that a foot) for a continuous printed track plan of 9.7 metres.

 

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  • 1 month later...

it's taken a few weeks to settle in and setup the outbuilding as a workshop, so the next step is to make the main room in the spare 8 x 5m area to the side of the garden. This will add on to the outbuilding giving a pretty good sized "shed", and space for "Intermodal".

 

Plans have been tweaked and nudged and the fiddle yard has been moved to the rear of the layout. The plan is still in four main sections of 1630 x 1000mm with the added sections of 1630 x 500mm attached to the rear. This time the fiddle yard has an end traverser rather than the main boards traversing, this saves weight and keeps the boards thinner.

The overall size of the layout is 6560 x 1500mm

 

To explain the layout, passenger trains come through a tunnel to the second board and pass below the station forecourt and into the platforms, loco hauled trains will be able to run around on the second road. Container trains will also appear through the tunnel but on their own road entering the yard past the station forecourt and into the yard. There's a single loco traverser at the end that re routes the loco to the centre road to run around.

There will be two cranes to unload and load containers from the two small/medium container ships which should keep things busy, to either the trains or the section between which will have trucks waiting to be loaded. 

Directly above the station forecourt is a model of mine and my neighbours house, i thought a cameo appearance would be nice and it fits well in the space just after the road tunnel exit. Next along to the right is the station car park and following that is the staff car park and offices for the dock. A konecrane container lifter has pride of place just before the actual dock in it's own hatched off area. The dock is the final area with two ships full of containers ready to be shifted.

Both container cranes are shaped with extended arms like demonic "TT" shaped titans to cover the ships and trains while rolling along the edges of the roadway for the trucks.

DCC AIR is coming along nicely and has been tried by others already, good ideas are often thought up by a few people at the same time.

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Edited by rdr
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  • 3 months later...

a bit more work has been done, not as much as i would have liked though. The large radius curve idea has been shelved and the earlier end on traverser rekindled, mainly due to a fear of derailing on the curve and access to the fiddle yard which would be up against a wall. I'll have to shorten each board by 100mm to fit the 5 x 1628mm boards into the longer half of the workshop. 

Frames have been shortened and test fitted, so all is good there, legs now need to be made to support the frames in situ. As soon as i have the boards up on legs i'll post some pics.

Edited by rdr
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  • 4 months later...

DSC_0440.JPG.8fe6d2a0430e014bbdead1f3fb967155.JPG

 

Some improvements and progress on Intermodal.

 

Here is the plan taken from Templot, which is an amazing piece of software and so well supported by Martin Wynne.

Added to the plan are board outlines with buildings, dock, traversers, hatched areas, crane tracks, fences and access gate, station building, platform, access ramp and a road bridge crossing the lines to form a scenic barrier. Storage lines have been removed for clarity.

 

As the weather has improved and the construction of the baseboards has evolved a bit further, the layout has also evolved with new and old ideas and many changes, for the better i hope.

An idea was floated at one point to have the dock open to the sea, but it didn't work out to be very practical due to many factors. So the old dock came back and has opened up a few ideas including a closed car ferry terminal and workshop area.

 

The freight/container traffic has been given a dedicated line which gives a bit more room due to the removal of the access point, and the container yard area has been developed to include an old now defunct car ferry terminal that used the dock. This has been reclaimed to form a small service area for container wagons with the customs offices and storage shed converted for this use, such is progress. 

 

Technically the design of the traverser mechanisms have altered, scrapping the idea of belts in favour of long acme screws and sprung nuts. These are used extensively in 3d printers and hold tolerances really well, an important point for matching the track to the traverser on each road. Stepper motors will drive the traversers to maintain rigity and accuracy from four places along it's 3 metre length.

 

Next week the trackwork will start with 3d printed track parts closely following the C&L principles of track construction, all track will be completely hand built.

 

 

 

Edited by rdr
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  • 2 weeks later...

Boards are up on temporary legs and the track plan placed on top with a couple of trains to show the scale and the sweeping station curve. One of the traverser boards has been left off to be able to shift the boards around work on them.

 

 

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I wasn't all that fussed on the dual tracks in, so here's the single track version which i prefer. Also gone is the siding leading to the buildings, and i've left the hidden dmu storage tracks drawn that are inside the buildings and are fed from the traverser. This is a handy way of storing several trains in one long 3m traverser road and being able to pick and choose which one i need at any point in time. This works by feeding them into these storage roads to free up the ones behind, also the two sidings below hold the replacement locos for the container trains return trip.

My next obstacle is fixing the paper trackplan to the baseboards. My first thought is spray glue, as i've tried wallpaper paste and pva but this tends to warp the ply a bit. Any ideas guys, the ply board is only 6mm so i have to be pretty gentle with it.

 

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Edited by rdr
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  • 7 months later...
9 minutes ago, Wrighty said:

Hi buddy, I’m absolutely loving the size of the layout, will be following with much interest!

 

All the best

Chris (Facebook)

It's got slightly longer and the trackplan has changed quite a bit. I'll update this thread when i get my workshop a bit more organised, with some room to move.

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  • 1 month later...

An update, well things have changed a bit and moved in a few different directions, mostly for the better or certainly simpler. Templot/me have been busy drawing the impossible into a space that was never suitable, but as you can see from the picture it works and seems to flow well.

Intermodal has grown a small amount in length and girth to suit it's surroundings, and is now in a temperature controlled room that will save a lot of headaches in the future.

Gone are the straight lines and B8 points and we're now in the lengthy realm of C10's and very few straights. The full length station area has been tweaked to have a workshop siding and a storage line with a shed for an overworked 08, connected by a single slip. The 3 road container yard is still the same with it's cheeky traverser, and has grown an added road above for re-fuelling.

The main stock traverser is now just a single 3m line that feeds the stock back underneath the layout to a stacked fiddle yard with at least six levels (see second picture), so plenty of room for stock.

The framework has been designed and construction starts tomorrow, with hopefully some more pictures to follow.

 

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Edited by rdr
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  • 4 weeks later...

After a hectic week sitting on my rear end adjusting the innards of the baseboard in Templot, the baseboard has finally been completed. Occupying the one side of my office, it currently hides what's left of the stack of computers bought from a school late last year. The jumbled layout of braces at the thin end is designed to house the dock and loco traverser, and the staggered run of braces at the thick end conveniently avoids the point mechanisms.

The next choice is the surface material, 9mm ply seems to be the best option, with thinner 6mm ply on top to give different levels of track surface for the yard and station areas. I've planned to have the station area slightly lower than the container yard, using a full sheet of thin ply raised and cut through the middle to allow the station area to flow down. This way i should be able to get away without any awkward joints to blend in.

 

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A temporary top surface of 6mm ply which will be the running surface for each level, it will have a 9mm ply base to give it strength.

 

 

DSC_0150.JPG

Edited by rdr
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  • RMweb Gold
23 minutes ago, rdr said:

A temporary top surface of 6mm ply which will be the running surface for each level, it will have a 9mm ply base to give it strength.

 

Shouldn’t the strength come from the framing, and not the surface material?

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maybe a better word would have been "stability". The base is quite solid and with a 9mm ply top, it will make a "stable" base layer for the 6mm ply to form the running surfaces. The running areas are split to two different levels, the container yard being a couple of scale feet higher than the station area.

Edited by rdr
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  • 2 months later...

i've created a new version of the double road entry for Intermodal, which seems to work reasonably well on paper. Can anyone see any unforseen problems with this. The second pic is a closer view of the entry.

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Edited by rdr
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