Balmoral Road - Some Industrial Background Buildings

[brossard]

1 minute ago, PJ10 said:

Thanks John, I initially tried and gave up after making a couple of scratches on the glazing. At least I know I'm not missing some obvious way to remove them and that they do come out. 

 

PJ10 

 

I suppose you could take the body off and push them out from the back.  I had to remove the body to install sound and the man in the cab.  This broke all the plastic steps.  I don't recommend body removal.

 

John

[PJ10]

Hi John,

 

I've followed a similar journey to you with my 20. I've also had mine in bits to install sound and yes I broke a step too. Fortunately only one. I agree, the body is an absolute pain to get off. As I had the loco completely dismantled including the bogies to address some notchiness in the gears I took the opportunity to file some of the chassis away to make any future body removal easier. I did look to see if the glazing panels could be removed but the lighting units makes it impossible to get at the panels. Well I couldn't find a way.

 

Cheers

 

PJ10

 

 

[brossard]

16 minutes ago, PJ10 said:

Hi John,

 

I've followed a similar journey to you with my 20. I've also had mine in bits to install sound and yes I broke a step too. Fortunately only one. I agree, the body is an absolute pain to get off. As I had the loco completely dismantled including the bogies to address some notchiness in the gears I took the opportunity to file some of the chassis away to make any future body removal easier. I did look to see if the glazing panels could be removed but the lighting units makes it impossible to get at the panels. Well I couldn't find a way.

 

Cheers

 

PJ10

 

 

 

I did find that the lighting units come away with a little encouragement.  I made new steps from scrap brass.  They aren't pretty but look the part.

 

John

[PJ10]

Hi John,

 

Ironic that I've just reassembled the loco! I'll give the "outside" route another try (complete with safety glasses to avoid flying bits of blade ). If that doesn't do it then I'll try and remove the lighting units. Cheers

 

 

[brossard]

27 minutes ago, PJ10 said:

Hi John,

 

Ironic that I've just reassembled the loco! I'll give the "outside" route another try (complete with safety glasses to avoid flying bits of blade ). If that doesn't do it then I'll try and remove the lighting units. Cheers

 

 

 

Grit your teeth and give it a go.  Worse comes to worse and the glazing may get wrecked.  Shouldn't be too hard to replace.  I thought about with mine.  A close look will reveal some distress.

 

John

[brossard]

Another van weathered:

 

 

BR built BZ, 1950 I think, from a CRT kit.  I wasn't happy with it's performance on account of I hadn't used bearings   Yesterday I took the underframe apart and fitted bearings made from brass tube.  I also improved the clearance for the Cleminson axle carriers so it works well now. 

 

John

[pwr]

John

 

I love the way your stock has that faded late 1950's look about it. Really good to see

 

Paul R

[brossard]

Thanks Paul, that's a nice description. 

 

John

[brossard]

An off topic diversion but I had to share the baseboard builds for the club layout.  This layout is 00 and has been around for about 20 years.  It has done many shows locally and as far afield as Toronto.  It has been decided that we will make the layout fixed, expand it and upgrade.

 

Over the last few weeks baseboard construction has been underway.  I was particularly impressed by the corner baseboard which is curved.  I was skeptical but the guys have come through brilliantly.

 

 

This shows the layup of the 2' radius curve.  The curves are two layers of, I think 1/4" ply.  The insides have been curfed and glued together.  This was all very carefully planned and has come together as seen.

 

 

Two other baseboards can be seen here, 3' x 8'.  These are of traditional ply construction.  There is a third board behind these which has a slight curve.

 

There is another curved board to do in the next week or so.

 

John

 

PS, videos of the club layout can seen in the FB link below.

Edited September 6, 2021 by brossard

[brossard]

Curved board has been completed:

 

Excess ply was removed by jigsaw initially and then fine tuned with a router.

 

Second curved board construction will commence shortly.

 

John

Edited September 11, 2021 by brossard

[brossard]

 

Duplicate

 

Edited September 10, 2021 by brossard

[brossard]

There's a short video on the FB page linked below.  

 

https://www.facebook.com/BritishModelRailwayMontreal/videos/561733214977985/

 

John

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by brossard

[brossard]

The second curved board for the club layout upgrade was finished today:

 

 

Getting exciting.  There is trial fit planned for Sunday so that should be interesting.  I will report on that.

 

John

[brossard]

On Sunday the new boards were trialed and look very good.  Today some club members did some levelling.

 

 

 

This is a view down the fiddle yard/new station.  FY will be on the right, station to the left.

 

 

An overall view of the new sections.  The far end hasn't been finalized yet.  There will be another curved board and a gate.

 

 

From the old layout end.

 

John

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by brossard

[brossard]

To provide some context for what the old layout looks like and what the new one will be, here is a CAD shot of the two overlaid:

 

 

There is talk of putting the branchline section of the old layout inside the new layout and connecting them as shown.  The main layout uses code 100 track, while the branchline uses code 75 track and is more finescale:

 

 

Taken many years ago.  The Timbertracks Tetbury station.  Porters shed is scratch built and signal box is Ratio.

 

John

[brossard]

Over the last several days, I've been having a think about my crossover:

 

 

These are non standard for 0 gauge and are blown up (by 199% to compensate for gauge) 00 small radius turnouts.  I though I was being clever but the testing we have done so far reveals that these are tight.  My J39 will go through but complains while doing so.

 

So, I did some trialling.

 

I printed out a pair of blown up 00 medium turnouts and tried these for size:

 

 

These are amazingly good.  The end of the template in the top picture coincides with the end of the turnout.  The end of the RH turnout in the lower picture is about 2 inches further along.  This arrangement maintains the siding space.

 

What about a comparison between the standard 0 turnout and these?

 

 

They are nearly the same length, but the main difference is the blown up 00 turnout has a smaller radius but fits better.

 

 

Peco turnout overlaid on the template.  The difference in radius is clear.  My beef with the standard turnout is that is takes a lot of length to avoid fouling.

 

I did a survey of my redundant turnouts and found a number that can be recycled for new construction.

 

John

[boxerbayrailway]

Interesting idea blowing up the OO templates,  it never occurred to me the radius would differ from the O.

 

Having had bad experiences in the past,  I try to iron out any problems with the track before moving ahead.  I've just ripped up and redone the track on my dock.  The finished result is so much better,  well worth the time.

Felix

[brossard]

Right Felix.  TBH, I hadn't realized the radii were different either. 

 

Better to have another bash at the track if the initial job makes you unhappy.  There's a single slip on the layout, that I made, and that makes unhappy, so maybe that's another job.

 

John

[brossard]

Right, so I have been working on the new turnouts.

 

Here's where I am:

 

 

The template is from Peco, the blown up 00 medium turnout.

 

Timbers are laser cut ply from Intentio, glued to the template.

 

 

First job is the crossing.  I will try to use 0-MF features on these turnouts.  Starting with flangeways which need to be 1.5mm (vs 1.75mm).  I used the copper clad strip which measures at 1.45mm.

 

Note the angled strips of copper clad, these are used as a jig for the vee.  Ignore the notation.

 

 

Finally, the brass strips are trimmed off.  Make sure the nose of the vee is completely over a timber.  Note how the brass strip fits between the timbers.  This is a trial fit.  Next will be chairs.

 

John

[brossard]

Haven't done very much in the last few weeks.  Lack of mojo I fear.  It is gradually returning (I hope).

 

In the meantime I have been having running sessions with a couple of like minded mates.  A recurring beef has been having to rummage around in boxes to find stock to run.  We set to and reorganized things to put all the stock on shelves.  This makes it hugely more convenient to make up trains.

 

 

John

[brossard]

Well, I bit the bullet and agreed to take the layout to a show in mid June.  It's a local event and I don't expect there will be any British stuff there.  I get the impression, from what I have seen in other local shows that 0 gauge, such as it is here, is not as sophisticated as British 0 gauge.  I hope to open eyes.

 

I have been working on things that have been put off.  First I needed a screen for the sector plate:

 

 

Cobbled together with 1x2" lumber and piece of MDF hardboard that I was given from club stocks.  Needs painting, another rountuit.

 

The other thing that our group (well there's only three of us in the MBOGS (Montreal British O Gauge Society)) wanted to do was to get some paint on the layout.

 

So, after laboriously masking, I sprayed grey primer to try to blend some of the disparate materials I used, and later, red oxide primer on the track:

 

 

After painting, I had to scrape and polish the rail tops - tedious yecch!  Obviously a long way to go but I think it looks better.

 

John

[brossard]

More progress to report as the big day looms, show is next weekend.  We have 3 cars so it looks as though everything will fit.

 

I got the layout curtains today.  These were used more than 20 years ago on a previous layout and needed taking in.  Props to my friend's girlfriend for helping with that.

 

 

I used velcro strip to hold the curtains.  Note the screen has been painted.

 

 

You will see that the surface of the layout has had a coat of paint - Truffle.

 

I've also been having a go at painting the track.  Started with red oxide primer as seen in the post above.  Then I used an airbrush to apply railroad tie brown.  This evening I was adding some black enamel wash.

 

 

This is really sort of experimentation.  If anyone has better ideas please let me know.

 

John

[brossard]

Getting down to the wire now.  Today I finished cleaning the track, urgghhh!  I got a loco running so that's good.

 

I did a dress rehearsal to make sure everything is there:

 

 

 

Plan is to load everything on Wednesday evening and set it up.  Oddly, the organizer has the venue all week (not a lot of Hockey going on right now I suppose).

 

 

John

[brossard]

We had a good day at the show yesterday.  The layout and stock performed brilliantly.  We were all shattered by day's end.  We had to take down on Saturday because one of our number had Father's Day commitments.

 

 

 

Yes, I know, an interloper but great models from Dapol.

 

 

More interlopers, sort of, more in terms of time than region.  A pair of North British carriages built from 62C kits.

 

 

There were a number of non train exhibits:

 

 

Static tank models, nice but you can't do anything with them.  As my mother used to say, "they only harbour dust."

 

 

This is a bit more like it, working ship models, they look to be 1/87 scale.  I wonder where they do their sailing, that would be cool.

 

John

 

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by brossard

[brossard]

Discovered a lot of pics had disappeared so reinstated most of them.

 

The layout is in the throes of track modification:

 

1)  The single slip which sort of worked but always bugged me has been replaced with a Peco double slip.  Got it second hand for a good price.

2)  The crossover has been modified by moving it down the layout to straddle the joint of two boards. This means that two coaches can  more comfortably use the platform.  The turnouts were rebuilt to be something like the standard Peco but with a smaller radius diverging road.

 

The track laying has been done and I need to rewire it.

 

John

Edited July 24, 2022 by brossard