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Elbow Lane. Having a rest while I build board 4.


dasatcopthorne
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During the last couple of days I have been working on construction of the Sector Plate Fiddleyard.

 

All three boards will have their tops level with one another so the tracks from the scenic section will come into the Fiddleyard on the same thinkness of cork that the main boards have. I had calculated that the Sector Plate could be made from 3mm ply with Copperclad on the top. The rails will be soldered direct to the copperclad both on the fix and the swinging halves of the Plate. The 3mm ply was obtained from Tim Horn and It's top quality.

 

The copperclad half attached to the fixed fiddleyard entry overhangs the cork by 10mm. The Sector Plate then fits under this overhang. This keeps the Sector Plate from rising at the end and thus inline, hight wise, with the fixed area.

 

The pivot for the Sector Plate is formed from a bolt with self locking nut passing through a short length of brass tube. Hopefully the woodwork won't wear too much.

 

I think the pictures will explain themselves.

 

EL

 

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The copperclad has now been fitted the the Sector Plate as well as the fixed board half.

 

As the Sector Plate is only made from 3mm ply I decided to fit aluminium angle along the edges to negate any flexing.

 

The copperclad and the ali angle have been fix from underneath with 5mm x M3 countersunk bolts. The Copperclad and the ali both being tapped with the matching thread.

 

EL

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Recent work on Elbow Lane has included the fitting of a District Cutout to the fiddleyard board, additional construct on the main boards and prepping and wiring the small control panel.

 

The DCC power on the Sector Plate has one 'pole' live on each of the aluminium strengthening angles. Rails will be fed from these.

 

 

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Elbow Lane Again.

 

I thought that I'd show some of the stages of putting together the Tim Horn baseboards in case it helps other decide whether or not to take this route to their layout. They truly go together like Meccano.

Here you see the end of a board that will connect to another. The fitting of Patten Makers' Dowels a fully constructed board and the board in its place on a shelf.

 

EL.

 

 

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Today has been spent adding the last end to the board that connects to the fiddleyard.

 

This was left to last as the end piece needed to be fixed to the fiddleyard board so the track positions could be marked and then the aperture cut out, with a jigsaw, where they will pass through and out onto the first scenic board.

 

Then the fiddleyard and the neighbouring board were set up on the living room table and the centre lines of the fiddleyard tracks were projected onto the scenic board to assist in lining up the tracks when they are laid.

 

The next job was to fit the layout's LED lighting otherwise I won't be able to see to do anything. The LED strips are connected at the join in the two scenic boards by a 3.5mm stereo Jack and socket. Buy an extension lead, cut the ends off about 50mm from the plug/socket and the two make a cheap joint.

 

I decided that the LED strip could be fed from either end of the pair of boards, thus allowing an individual board to be lit when I'm only working on one and the other may be stored elsewhere.

 

EL.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by dasatcopthorne
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This morning I have been preparing the first turnout and two lengths of track for laying.

 

Droppers soldered on. Positions on the board marked for drilling holes. As I am using Servos to move the turnout blades, the Peco spring has been removed.

 

I then cut away the currently unwanted area of cork then glued down the piece under the track. As the track plan is on the cork, the piece that has been removed will be replaced for laying the adjacent track.

 

 

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It was inevitable that something would be forgotten in the excitement of laying a bit of track!

 

Forgot to weather the rail before laying. This is done with 'Casey Super Blue', Liquid Gun Blue. It should be washed off but I'll have to forego that with the track that's already down. It's not glued but I can't be asked to lift it and re-fit the fishplates.

 

Here's the effect it has.

 

EL

 

 

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Today has seen laid track extended onto the second board. I've decided to use very small brass screws to anchor the rail ends at boards joints after finding some quite small ones in a toolbox.

 

As can be seen, I don't like to have the whole board covered in cork so that a good ballast shoulder can be formed.

 

When gluing down the cork I cover the holes for wiring with a small piece of masking tape to shop the glue pouring through the holes. As I cut away the unwanted cork I mark the position of the edges and then tape over the marks. Finally the tape is cut away where the glue is to be spread leaving some to stop over application of the adhesive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited by dasatcopthorne
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Over the weekend saw the magnets attached to the underside of the baseboard and the DCC Power Bus run withing each board.

 

I now have the Code 75 flat bottom track for the fiddleyard, having decided that the bullhead was too fragile.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by dasatcopthorne
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Hello all my readers.

 

Yesterday was something of a milestone. The main trackwork was finally connected to the fiddleyard board.

The sector plate will allow the three fiddle roads the connect to both the tracks eminating from it.

In the end I decided it was prudent to use some cheets on copperclad the hold the railends safely.The fiddleyard will be fitted and removed quite a lot as has to be stored when ever the layout is not in use.

 

EL

 

 

 

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Edited by dasatcopthorne
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