Canterbury Road (Mk2)

[Nevermakeit]

1 hour ago, Fishplate said:

Hi @Nevermakeit. Manufactured by Dapol for Rails of Sheffield.

 

John

It certainly looks very good - although not really my region! 

[Fishplate]

TMC had a 50% off sale on last week. I thought 'There will be nothing I need in the Sale. I'll just have a quick flick'.

 

I was right. 

 

I could only find something I wanted. Two loco arrivals in two days. Oops. 

 

Justification. This particular loco was allocated to Faversham shed in 1945/ 46, so would have been in Southern livery of the time rather than BR as shown. It subsequently moved to Ramsgate at the end of November 46, so I presume would have still been on Faversham turns. Subsequently based at Tonbridge and Stewarts Lane, the model carries the Stewarts Lane 73A shed plate. From either of the latter it may have worked the @westerhamstation branch (?).

 

Another lovely model to add to the fleet. And a bargain to boot!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[ManofKent]

Lovely looking loco. It possibly finished it's days on Tunbridge Wells- Three Bridges?

[Fishplate]

Pondering on how the move went I have every respect for people who take layouts to exhibitions, dismantling and setting up. The copper clad sleeper arrangements at the joints have worked pretty well with two exceptions, both entirely my own fault.

 

The first one I omitted to solder the rails to the sleepers on top rail on the second siding from the bottom of the picture below. 

 

(The H Class is on the rolling road to just give it a running-in session in the absence of the continuous run.  The D Class will be following).

 

 

 

The only damage to the track, shown in the photo below, was between boards 3 and 4. This was caused when I lifted board 4 past boards 3 and 5. Sadly I ripped out one rail on the descent to the Goods yard. I will cut out and relay the damaged section of track, removing the copperclad sleepers either side of the joint when board 4 goes back in place.

 

Those aside, I'm quite pleased with the horizontal alignment at the joints on boards 2 and 3.

 

The vertical alignment at the joints has some minor issues. I've put those minor misalignments down to the track not being ballasted/ stuck down on the approach to the joints and only being pinned onto a "springy" underlay. Easily corrected I think.  I will also square up the sleepers to the rails now that the railway is in it's permanent (way ) home.

 

 

Next job is to position board 4, which holds the main control panel, temporarily next to board 3.  No 4 piggybacks off 3 and 5. I want it to be loose so I can get at both sides of the integral control panel. A bit more furniture shifting is required to create a temporary working surface. Then I can start on the wiring, laying the carriage sidings and getting the points into them operating.  

 

On a separate note, we had some material delivered for the joiner who is doing some work in the house at some point in the next couple of weeks. The items were a maximum of 3900mm long and needed to be upstairs. Naturally they've ended up in the railway room. When measured, the distance on the long wall between skirting boards into the alcove turned out to be precisely 3910mm . . . . .   

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[ManofKent]

You're collecting a nice collection of rolling stock. We definitely need someone to produce a rtr class 01 though - ubiquitous for East Kent.

[Fishplate]

Here are the points for the carriage sidings roughly positioned against the connection to the main line.  The buffer stops for the two sidings are (out of focus) in the far distance.  The blank space to the right of the buffers will be where the station building/ forecourt will go. Then there will be subway access to the island platform running alongside the main line. The subway access will continue beneath the other two tracks to provide a staff route down to the goods yard.

 

It is all there in my head. 

 

The turnout hanging partly in space will lead onto the 'scenic cassette' head shunt. Some railway and domestic carpentry required to achieve that as I need Board 1 to be in position and the railway room door replaced and rehung to swing the opposite way to currently. 

 

John

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[Nevermakeit]

9 hours ago, Fishplate said:

Here are the points for the carriage sidings roughly positioned against the connection to the main line.  The buffer stops for the two sidings are (out of focus) in the far distance.  The blank space to the right of the buffers will be where the station building/ forecourt will go. Then there will be subway access to the island platform running alongside the main line. The subway access will continue beneath the other two tracks to provide a staff route down to the goods yard.

 

It is all there in my head. 

 

The turnout hanging partly in space will lead onto the 'scenic cassette' head shunt. Some railway and domestic carpentry required to achieve that as I need Board 1 to be in position and the railway room door replaced and rehung to swing the opposite way to currently. 

 

John

What is the dark grey surface between the wood and the track, please?  Thanks.

[Fishplate]

23 hours ago, Nevermakeit said:

What is the dark grey surface between the wood and the track, please?  Thanks.

 

Hi @Nevermakeit,  

 

  My friend gave me the material that was left over from his own railway. I will ask what it is precisely and report back. If I recall correctly it has something to do with swim suits.

[Gedward]

2 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

 

Hi @Nevermakeit,  

 

  My friend gave me the material that was left over from his own railway. I will ask what it is precisely and report back. If I recall correctly it has something to do with swim suits.

 

Then it's probably some kind of neoprene.

[Fishplate]

Hi @Nevermakeit and @Gedward my friend confirmed the material is associated with wet suits. It does make a very nice surface to pin track to. It is fixed down with neat PVA and lots of books whilst it dried. Any sound deadening effect probably lost by pinning into the plywood. Will only get noisier when I get round to blasting it.

 

John

[Graham T]

Blasting does tend to be rather noisy, I find!

[Fishplate]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

Blasting does tend to be rather noisy, I find!

 

Indeed @Graham T. Something I would like to do to this thing with its "predictive" text 

 

John

[Graham T]

Sorry John I just couldn't resist

[Fishplate]

11 hours ago, Graham T said:

Sorry John I just couldn't resist

 

Resistance is frequently futile . . . . . .

[Gedward]

I'm tri-ang two replay. Butt fining it imposing to do. Basically.

[Fishplate]

This evenings task was to get Board 4  out of its travelling frame and mounted on my stock cupboard so that I can then start wiring up the control panel. Three hours later, task accomplished.

 

Why is it when you set out to do task a), you find that there are actually several things in front of task a) that need to be completed. Like clearing the top of the stock cupboard should have taken five minutes, but. . . . . and finding the drop in frame you made a year ago for the control panel. . . . . .  and locating the aluminium sheet you cut. Found all the offcuts. . . . . . . . .

 

So when Mrs FP needed to change the ink in the printer that sits under my desk, the penny dropped. I had put it and a lot of other items in "a safe place" about two months ago whilst we were having the work done in the house. The safe place happened to be the cupboard where the printer ink is stored. Why does the human brain not remember the things that you've told it not to forget? 

 

On a positive note, having emptied several boxes looking for the aluminium and the panel, I found several other items, including the key to the (unlocked) stock cupboard, the bottle of flux for soldering and the brackets that held my destination boards on the wall at the last house and which will go up in this room in due course. So not a completely wasted evening  

 

Anyway, this is the result of three hours box searching/ shifting and generally scratching my head:

 

Board 4 with aluminium panel loose fitted 

 

 

Outline of track diagram to be transferred to aluminium.

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[Nevermakeit]

23 hours ago, Fishplate said:

Board 4 with aluminium panel loose fitted 

 

 

Outline of track diagram to be transferred to aluminium.

 

What is the significance of the panel being made of aluminium, please? Thank you. 

[Fishplate]

23 hours ago, Nevermakeit said:

What is the significance of the panel being made of aluminium, please?

 

Hi @Nevermakeit

 

No technical answer really other than I have used my friends aluminium panel and seen others as well. I like the finish that it can give. I also wanted a firm base for the switch panel.

 

I had thought of hardboard, plasticard and various other solutions, but none appealed as much as aluminium. My Canterbury Road Mk1 layout, mentioned on Page 1, had a 20 thou plasticard panel mounted directly to the board of the fiddle yard. That worked fine, but needed plenty of support.

 

I am happy working with wood, but I haven't worked with aluminium before. So, like many things in this hobby of ours, I had to make my mind up to have a go and potentially muck it up.

 

I found the sheet in a well known DIY store several years ago at a very reduced price and larger than I needed for the panel and sub-panel. It also came wrapped in a thick plastic protective cover which, I thought, was really useful to mark out on. I cut both the metal and the plastic together. With 20/20 hindsight that wasn't the greatest idea as the further I got with the cut, the more the sheet and the cover separated with the aluminium sheet moving (so not thinking ahead there!).

 

It was also interesting to clamp the aluminum in place and avoid marking the surface because of the clamps.

 

For marking out after the first cut I put some masking tape across the metal and marked out on that. In the end, I'm not sure I needed to do that, but it worked for me (or maybe I had read or been told that?).

 

Not sure I've made that good a job of the cuts. But, to be positive, the cuts are straight, it does fit the required hole and it doesn't have any dints or kinks in the main panel area, just on the cut edges, which I can deal with hide. 

 

One of the offcuts will make the sub-panel for the Dock. 

 

I will be marking the track layout out with pencil from the diagram I included in the picture above, then drilling holes through the aluminium and the supporting lift out panel to accept the switches. When they are all done, I will then highlight the track layout with marker tape in different colours for Up, Down and Sidings. It will then all be sealed with a matt varnish (as Cant Rd Mk1 panel was). 

 

Then it will just be a case of joining the switches to the layout.

 

I haven't yet decided how many electrical sections I am going to have in the Carriage Sidings. They should will hold a 4CEP plus a MLV, so at least two. However, the option to have more to store multiple loco's on there is also part of the pondering. It gives greater flexibility for them and also with two coach EMU/ DEMU/ DMU combinations. I will have to be getting some stock out to measure.

 

Much more information than you requested  but I hope that is of interest/ helps and gives a feel for where I am heading. 

 

John

 

[Nevermakeit]

16 hours ago, Fishplate said:

 

16 hours ago, Fishplate said:

Much more information than you requested  but I hope that is of interest/ helps and gives a feel for where I am heading. 

 

John

 

Thanks very much for that comprehensive answer. It is very interesting to a novice like me to know how all these bits and pieces are put together. I look forward to seeing the finished result. 

[Fishplate]

Managed to get an hour on the control panel today. I've  transferred the plan to the aluminium sheet by marking out guide lines in pencil from the paper copy. 

 

Referencing my comment above :

 

On 27/07/2021 at 20:54, Fishplate said:

have a go and potentially muck it up

 

Having started to rub out the guide lines round the island platform area, I appear to have made an error by using an ordinary soft pencil rubber. Tried soap and water subsequently as the pencil rubber has left a worse mark than the pencil guide lines. As the guide marks extend outside the area that marker tape will cover I'm now off to Google how to solve that (unless anyone on here knows ). Progress below. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[Fishplate]

No idea what has happened to the last five months, other than new/ old house takes priority at weekends for getting things done and family/ grandchildren etc also take precedence over model railway activities whilst full time work is still happening.

 

So, today, a bit of time for the railway. The aluminium control panel has been fixed in place. 

 

The layout will have four controllers. Two for the main lines ( A & B) and one each to control the yards that are either side of the operating well (C) and the dock from its own panel (D). 

 

Having bought some rotary switches several years ago, one of the jobs I've been meaning to do for some time is to find out which pins I need to solder to for each controller when the layout section comes off Pin A. Rubbing the raised plastic numbers under the switches with a pencil enables them to be seen better.

 

 

With the switch pointing at 12 o'clock, then Pin A to Pin 1 is the live connection.

 

Each of the rotary switches will be set up as:

 

A to 1   Off

A to 2   Controller A

A to 3   Controller B

A to 4    Off

A to 5   Controller C

A to 6   Controller D

 

The six rotary switches will be daisy chained together with all pin 2's linking to Controller A, pin 3's to Controller B etc.

 

The dock and the yard will have On/Off/On switches with Controllers C & D off each side.

 

Controllers C & D will also power the scenic cassette and the carriage sidings. The carriage sidings will be sub-divided into several sections just using on/off switches.

 

So Controllers A & B are there to 'watch the trains go by' and C & D are for shunting and train preparation/ fiddling.

 

A rough set out of the rotary and On/Off/On switches is shown below on the paper print for clarity. It looks a bit cramped, but the switch bodies will, of course, be under the panel. The switches turn clockwise to the various positions for the controllers, so the main thing will be to avoid any clashes between adjacent switches before committing to drilling any holes in the aluminium panel. I'll be doing a thick cardboard mock-up to get a good feel for this.

 

Enjoy your modelling 

 

  

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[NHY 581]

Evening John, 

 

Good to see that things getting going again. It's difficult balancing everything and stiil finding time for this hobby of ours. 

 

Having retired at the end of November, I find I haven't really stopped ! 

 

That doesn't really explain why I've failed to progress a four foot by sixteen inch layout though,  let alone a scheme such as yours. 

 

I must try harder ! 

 

Rob. 

[Fishplate]

21 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

I must try harder ! 

 

As you say, other things do get in the way. However, I think I would be very pleased to achieve your level of finish.  Something to aspire too as a follower of your thread, @KNP 's Little Muddle , @MrWolf 's Aston and @chuffinghell 's Warren Branch amongst others on RMWeb that inspire me .

[Fishplate]

On 09/01/2022 at 19:16, Fishplate said:

I'll be doing a thick cardboard mock-up to get a good feel for this.

 

Tonight's progress. It's a tough life having to empty a box of biscuits and consume the cheese that went with them over a few evenings. Mrs FP helped though, so she is actively helping the model railway along. 

 

Above the panel, the rotary switches are all clear of each other in their 'worst' relative positions. Under the panel, just a couple of the square On/Off/On switches to space out a little bit more when I commit to drilling holes in the aluminium panel. Hopefully later this week. Then I just need to saw a length off the shank of the rotary switches, start to mark out the aluminium panel with marker tape between the holes and seal it. Oh, and wire them all up.

 

The Carriage Sidings*  On/Off switches and marker tape will wait until I have the track laid and can then decide how many isolating sections I want for locos/ EMU's/ DMU's etc.  

 

*top right of diagram, see July 12th 2021 post on this page.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[MrWolf]

I think that a "dry run" with the control panel is an excellent idea and worth taking the time over.

Having made numerous control panels for all sorts of applications, I simply made a box I thought was about right and then found it tricky to cram everything into it. 

I got lucky, but it was a close thing. Better to err on the side of caution!