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Newbie. From scratch.


JimRhodo
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First post. If I’m in the wrong place I do apologise. Two years ago I bought a Flying Scotsman set “for my son” but I’ve had more use out of it. I’ve made cardboard houses, churches, mountains and green hills out of subuteo pitches and baskets but it’s time to move on. 

 

The base is 9mm ply from a local timber merchant. 120cm x160cm. Indoor outdoor marine or birch I’ve no idea. Very bendy. I’m bracing it with 18 x 44mm soft wood. Screws at 20cm gaps and the battens with ~ 15/15.5inch  gaps. The long strips are glued and screwed.  The flex lengthways is not bad. 

 

And then i hesitated   

 

The width pieces will be short lengths fitted between the gaps.  

Will this still reduce or cut out diagonal and width wise flex?

 

Its difficult work as I have minimal space and the track is already pinned. It’s also getting heavier. The unit sits on a drop leaf table.

 

Ill leave it there.  I’m just going step by step at the moment. 

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Welcome to the forum - I am sure yoou will find it helpful.

 

That is a large board to handle alone - probably more awkward than heavy, although it will, as you say get heavier.  9mm ply should be fine and the dimensions of the frame/braces likewise.  Screws and glue are good as also the spacing I think.  Cross-braces will definitely reduce flex but try to ensure they are a good fit rather than loose, and gluescrew again.  Do make sure there is no twist in the board as you fit each brace, otherwise you will fix in the twist - I presume there is no twist after fitting the existing braces and frame.  Think about where you might want point motors (if they are to be fitted underneath the track), sine the braces might prevent them from being fitted where you want.

 

Good looking job so far.  I hope your son catches your enthusiasm.

 

Harold.

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:“Fix in the twist” I’ll have to watch that. The base seems level enough when lying on the table. I undercut some of the longer pieces and will have to miss out one of the spars as I’ve run out of wood. The middle one is done and is so snug I used a 1 1/4lb hammer to get the wood to fit.

 

I’m just considering whether to miss a centre spar or a edge spar. Does it matter?

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That needs a lot of accurate carpentry to make it work, and trains can derail and smash onto the floor, not good.   We used a sheet of 9 mm ply with 2X1  44 X 22 ish around the edges projecting 10mm both below and above the baseboard surface for a dining table layout about 38" X 50"    It flexed but the board sat on the dining table and stayed flat when in use and having a lip protruding below the table edge it stayed put and didn't jerk sideways.  The 10mm lip prevented derailed stock plummeting to the floor and prevented damage to the track when propped against a wall track first. Drawback was wiring had to be surface mounted but to e honest you can disguise 90% of it as point rodding.  I think unless you plan to put legs on the board then the bracing is overkill and makes the board less stable rather than more so. 

Edited by DavidCBroad
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Oh. The lip idea I hadn’t thought of. Easy enough to glue some beading. My carpentry is a bit rough and ready especially in the small space I was working. Legs are an option especially if we move house. I was planning to put beading round half of it to slot a hardboard back drop which would be removable. 

 

Thanks for for the input. 

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The next issue is the dents and dips left by the countersunk screws

 

 How best to fill them? 

 

I presume that they need filling as I won’t be hiding them all with hills and the grass paint won’t level it all out. The  10mm trim to prevent runaway stock will deal with some holes. 

 

Well I’ve used all the strip wood up. The board weighs 18.75kg at present. I took the board out of its little room and realised there are some gaps at the edges where the strip wood was warped. The board is flat though. I wouldn’t recommend working in a small space. It’s like doing yoga with dumbbells. That last brace....

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3 hours ago, JimRhodo said:

I’m thinking of getting a Highland Rambler starter set to run inside and separately from the Flying Scotsman. Can I just get 8 x double second radius curves. with the track provided in the starter set so that it will run parallel?

Sounds good. We had double track on a smaller board, 1st and 2nd radius.   We had several little 0-4-0s and had great fun racing them round the track, the lip stopped them flying onto the floor most of the time. we also raced Triang Transcontinental locos with lights with the room lights off. Sadly my son grew up but I still have find memories of it.

Scotsman should be OK on 2nd Radius just.  I would get something LNER to complement the Scotsman may be an 0-6-0 tank and a few wagons rather than the freelance Rambler. You could do some shunting with the siding with some goods wagons

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I’m thinking of a small highland train working between a quarry and a station contrasted with the Scotsman which just flies by. It would be near a tunnel which is the border between England and Scotland. The only issue at the moment is that a wagon would probably be shunted onto the mainline rather than empty it’s contents from one wagon to another. Unless there was a stone storage facility.   Or a crane as the wagon would belong to the quarry

 

The 1cm lip is nearly in place and I’ve filled most of the holes with fine polyfilla. I don’t have many clamps so I have to do one bead at a time. 

 

The tunnel i plan to be removable. Will foam support its own weight or should the base be reinforced with hardboard do you think?

 

I also have an idea of Scotland exiting Great Britain in the 1930s but that’s mainly because I have scale soldiers from ww1. French and British. 

Waving (platform) flags

Riding bicycles 

Running (for trains)

Digging holes

Laying cable

Sitting down (having missed the train)

 

I have to account for all the rifles. 

 

Edited by JimRhodo
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Well the little independent train for the quarry is up and running and the tracks are pinned. I’m now filling up with ballast. I’m using  Javis fine ballast chips. Online ballast seems quite a bit finer. Almost dustlike. They are proving rather labour intensive and that is just the inside of the track. 

 

Should i I be using finer still? Now I’ve taken a photo it looks better but what do you think?DE95858E-30DD-4F39-9EFD-DCB659BE6BF3.jpeg.f4a1eec70f0c699c5711c247776c3590.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

They look a little big for ballast, but still good work.

Look up the ballast spreaders.

They're pretty good at getting a lot down fairly quickly.

Thanks. I look with envy at the ease with which I see paint brushes tamping and sweeping the ballast while I scrape and thumb rocks about.  I’ve done most of the tracks now and read a useful article about using wood to polish the tracks. I nearly got going with sandpaper which I understand is a no no. 

 

Question. 

How long does 50 50 pva take to dry, days?

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I may be overdoing the glue. I got it about right and then added more. I just want to get on but don’t really know what I’m doing. The trains can run slowly so there’s no major grit. I’m polishing the track with a wooden cocktail stick and a block of wood I’ve cut two grooves in to match the rails. The inner track is still seriously wet so I’ve not run a train on it at any speed. Next job probably the hinged backdrop. 

 

This is a rough idea. I’ll draw a grid and then put some iconic Scottish hills on. 

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Edited by JimRhodo
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New problem. 

Ive got a siding point which makes the train jump off when it goes on to the siding. Off the siding is okay. I’ve cleaned it and done slow motion studies of it but can’t see what’s wrong. It’s the pivot of the point where the jump happens. It’s a tiny bump but it’s enough to derail. 

 

Is is there anything I can do apart from try and bend it with a pair of pliers?

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Just a thought, but might it be when the wheels of the stock go over the central plastic part of the point (the frog/common crossing). If you are using some older coaches or wagons, then the wheels can have larger flanges which touch the frog. Does it happen with all your locos/coaches ?

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I’m now making the hill with the tunnel. The backdrop is okay (3mm hardboard for lightness with some stripwood to reinforce it). A bit warped but useable. The hill will be insulating foam (50mm) with the foil pulled off. 

 

Question. 

What should I use to glue the layers together? Some say gorilla glue, pva, pva plus superglue, hot glue and not solvent based glues. What do you think? 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Part two is ready. Now I’m planning to build a second hill. Loosely based on St Ives in Cornwall. The chapel is St Nicholas on the Island. The waiting room is based on a few photos of 1930 she’d buildings. It’s only garishly coloured as the layout looked so grey (granite). 

k

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve committed myself to the island and the white polystyrene is glued to the base. Video out in the next few days. I’ve started carving a path up to the chapel and I’m happy with the scale of the chapel but I had a go at building a farmhouse. It’s 170mm wide and 90mm high. Does it seem a bit big?  I was looking at Hornby buildings and the terrace is ionly 40mm wide. 

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  • RMweb Gold
On 23/03/2019 at 21:43, JimRhodo said:

Part two is ready. Now I’m planning to build a second hill. Loosely based on St Ives in Cornwall. The chapel is St Nicholas on the Island. The waiting room is based on a few photos of 1930 she’d buildings. It’s only garishly coloured as the layout looked so grey (granite). 

k

 

Loving the timelapse animation :good_mini:

Edited by chuffinghell
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  • 3 weeks later...

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