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Tewkesbury Shed and Quay Branch Exhibition Layout in EM Gauge.


lezz01
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I have often looked at that little site as an ideal prototype for a small layout and indeed I even passed the idea of it on to Tricky of this forum, who has been making a start on a 7mm version inspired by the location.

 

There is something very satisfying about making your own points and it is refreshing to see that the more "old school" methods are still in use and still producing good results.

 

Somehow, drawing your point bases in CAD and getting them 3D printed isn't quite the same as making them with wooden sleepers, rivets, files and soldering irons.

 

Lovely stuff!  

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On 14/01/2021 at 07:50, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

In your cake maker you have a potential scenery builder, excellent cakeage indeed!

 

Mike.

PS. Feliz cumpleanos.

Yes isn't though!?

Especially as this IS my garden.

20210816_154037.jpg.49ae6a7f1bba5f02bc8dc8f90fab6cec.jpg

20210816_153448.jpg.d05b7bb45177153c3fdbe12b0fb29ccc.jpg 

Lez

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So to start with I've just fabricated a simple wooden tie bar from a bit of crossing timber. Not very prototypical I grant you but it is only to get the blades the right distance apart and make sure a wagon will run through the turnout without splitting the wheel sets. It seems to work ok. I've set the blades 16mm apart by punching a hole 8mm either side of the center hole, fitted a rivet and filed the outside half of the rivet away. This gives me something to solder the blade to. As I said it seems to work OK.

20210117_231626.jpg.d5d6f786c059740fe9c16fefbac9604f.jpgSet for the straight road.

 20210117_231810.jpg.d160215ccb4e2949a2492d1cd54cb687.jpg

Set for the diverging road.

20210117_231913.jpg.0aa9defe54156cb477f0d373a7480820.jpgClose up showing the gap.

I'm waiting now for some new material I bought on ebay so I can make a neater job of it and address the fact that turnouts have 2 tie bars not one and will be a lot slimmer all round than a 12" scale chunk of wood.

I've said in a previous post that I'm not totally happy with this turnout and I'm going to be trying out various methods of doing different things before I commit them to the layout proper so I might cobble up a test plank made the way I intend to build the baseboards on a smaller scale to try everything out on and use this B8 on that. Then I can try out different ways of operating things, test locos and stock and scenic methods before I commit anything to Tewkesbury or even the new home layout.

Lez.      

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This is really in depth, and is a lot of help for those of us who want to start making track ourselves. That little shed is a great location to model. Where did you get the turnout templates? I see at least one that is LNER specific. Very eager to see more!

 

Amanda

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Peter Denny used a similar method on Buckingham. I would warn you that after about 60 years of continuous use, the rivets in the tie bar can wear the timber and become a bit loose and start to sometimes pop out!

 

Other than that, it works just fine.

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5 hours ago, WM183 said:

This is really in depth, and is a lot of help for those of us who want to start making track ourselves. That little shed is a great location to model. Where did you get the turnout templates? I see at least one that is LNER specific. Very eager to see more!

 

Amanda

Hi Amanda.

The templates are either from the EM gauge soc. or S4 soc. The latter being C&L and are therefore available through C&L as well at a cost per item. They are however free to members of the relevant societies. The EM soc caters to modelers of both EM and P4 standards, the S4 soc only to modelers of P4 standards. C&L templates are available in 00, EM, P4 and other scales and gauges. However Templot allows you to produce templates of just about anything in many scales and gauges and if I can get it figured out in my head I would use that instead.

Regards Lez.       

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4 hours ago, t-b-g said:

Peter Denny used a similar method on Buckingham. I would warn you that after about 60 years of continuous use, the rivets in the tie bar can wear the timber and become a bit loose and start to sometimes pop out!

 

Other than that, it works just fine.

Yes I know this t-b-g.

However as I was 60 last Thursday I don't think this will be a problem.. not for me anyway:senile:

I do intend to install something a little more elegant than this, as I said I'm awaiting supplies.

Many years ago, either in 79 or 80, I was part of the MKMRS crew that took our 0 gauge layout to a weekend show at Truro. It was a great trip and we were lucky enough to not only visit Peter's masterpiece but operate it as well. This trip has stayed with me all my life and is the main reason that I have modeled finescale ever since.

Lez.   

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2 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Yes I know this t-b-g.

However as I was 60 last Thursday I don't think this will be a problem.. not for me anyway:senile:

I do intend to install something a little more elegant than this, as I said I'm awaiting supplies.

Many years ago, either in 79 or 80, I was part of the MKMRS crew that took our 0 gauge layout to a weekend show at Truro. It was a great trip and we were lucky enough to not only visit Peter's masterpiece but operate it as well. This trip has stayed with me all my life and is the main reason that I have modeled finescale ever since.

Lez.   

 

Many happy returns!

 

I am the same age as you and I am fairly confident that Buckingham will still be going strong long after me.

 

I also got to visit and operate the layout with Peter in Truro. Pure modelling joy and also one of my favourite modelling memories.

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On 14/01/2021 at 19:35, lezz01 said:

Yes isn't though!?

Especially as this IS my garden.

IMG-20210114-WA0004.jpg.fa3e92a544e6a0867e971426fcb8210a.jpg

20201020_174921.jpg.0774d3e9aae45f1ab93c6ed68ad533e9.jpg 

Lez

 

Hey   Lez.....My apologies for not wishing you Many Happies,,,, missed this posting....belated good wishes my dear pal....We are all in the 60's Club now!
Regards Bob

Edited by BobM
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Thanks Bob mate. Sadly the cellabrations, just like our Silver wedding, were somewhat curtailed by the effing plague. Still Kimmy made as much of it as she could for me. A good friend made my cake and what a cake! Another good friend cooked us curried goat with rice and peas and caribbean BBQ chicken wings which is my absolute favorite meal, so it wasn't a total washout. I also did quite well for prezzies including this little beauty:

20210118_212055.jpg.ad7c8f2bf42dc0f9079178923e88a297.jpg

Nice eh?

Lez.      

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9 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Hi Amanda.

The templates are either from the EM gauge soc. or S4 soc. The latter being C&L and are therefore available through C&L as well at a cost per item. They are however free to members of the relevant societies. The EM soc caters to modelers of both EM and P4 standards, the S4 soc only to modelers of P4 standards. C&L templates are available in 00, EM, P4 and other scales and gauges. However Templot allows you to produce templates of just about anything in many scales and gauges and if I can get it figured out in my head I would use that instead.

Regards Lez.       

 

I've been a member of the EMGS for a year or so... and did not realize they had turnout templates.... ack.

 

Any hints on where they're at on the site?

 

Amanda

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You should have got them in your welcome pack Amanda. They are certainly on the disc, I've just checked and they are in both jpeg and pdf formats. If you didn't get them in your welcome pack then drop an email to the membership sec and he will post a set out to you. I had two copies of a sheet and another missing and he had them out to me within a week. On the disk you have a set of both EM and 18.83mm templates so you just need to print them off or transfer them to a memory stick and take it to a stationary shop and they will print them off for you as you need A3 or bigger. I got them to copy me two sets full size and a further two sets at 2 mm and 1 mm to the foot for planning and it cost me less than a fiver including a nice hardback notebook for a record of my pond water quality readings. Yes I know koi keeping can become a tad anal, all I can say is when you lose nearly all your fish because of an ammonia spike it concentrates the mind. A hard lesson, not least of all for my poor koi.   

Lez.

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Supplies arrived from Ebay today and I've managed to put something a bit more elegant together than a lump of wood with 2 rivets in to represent twin tie bars.

20210119_212035.jpg.f4b510da363aad6d16e8a25a585b65a7.jpg

What do you guys think?

I have to say they aren't as easy to make as they look. To get two built I've broken another three.

1.5mm x 0.3mm copper clad isn't very strong. So I've doubled it up by sticking two bits back to back with UV activated glue. Then drilled it 0.7mm and dropped it two 0.6mm brass lace making pins. Soldered these to the copper clad top and bottom cropped the pins and ground them flat on the bottom. Then I ground away half of the heads and then cut gaps in the copper top and bottom. Then it was just a case of soldering them to the switch blades and trundle my test van through. Jobs a goodun. Well yes OK I still need to clean it up but I think it will do the job nicely. It looks a lot more prototypical than a lump of wood anyway. I'm booked in to have injections in my hands tomorrow (trigger finger) and the plague vaccine on Thursday so I might not get much done for a couple of days. 

Lez.   

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I think it is a rather elegant solution, also if people didn't try to do things differently, consequently breaking any number of trial pieces, we'd still all be using fibre based 3 rail track or lithographed tinplate coaches and so on. 

I can sympathize with you on the hand problems, my right is about 75% and all I can do is be grateful for having it at all. My mother just had her first plague jab, it's no big deal either I am relieved to hear. I'm too young yet to be anywhere near the top of the list so just keeping my head down!

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Well I'm category 4 as I'm clinically extremely vulnerable. However I'm a pharmacy tech and have stayed at my post throughout the epidemic. The only time I took out was when I had covid 19 in April, yes I know I'm damn lucky to be here. TBH I hardly knew I had it as I had very mild symptoms. My surgery has just started booking cat 4 but I got the jump on them because I'm a frontline health worker so it's all good. My darling wife Kimmy is a manager in my surgery and that's where I got covid from. She had somewhat similar symptoms to me and we still have some of them even now albeit much reduced, they still linger especially the headaches. She had her first vaccine jab on Saturday and it did knock her over, she could barely get out of bed for dinner Sunday and has a very sore arm. I just hope I don't have as bad a reaction as her. Still I can spend the day in bed if I need to and I have quite an extensive library centered on the Midland Railway including some very recent titles I have only skimmed through so it's all good. As for my hands, I have severe locking of my right hand ring finger and moderate locking of my left ring finger. I think I'll just have the right one done tomorrow as it is quite painful, I can get the left one done in a week or so. Then I'll be good for a while until other fingers start locking up again. It's a bit like the fourth bridge you get them all done over about 18 months to 2 years and by that time you're back to the start again. It is a pain but I really don't fancy the op as that is very painful indeed and the injections work, as I said, for about 18 months to 2 years. Oh the joys of getting old, still nothing has actually fallen off.......yet.

Lez.         

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This is my latest stretcher bar for points. Every time I build a layout I come up with something slightly different. I like a pivoted joint rather than a rigid soldered one, so I drill holes in fibreglass circuit board, as it is more durable than the resin based material. I cut it to shape, so it is wider where the holes are drilled, for strength.

 

Brass pins are then inserted from underneath and bent over to give a decent length to solder to the blade.

 

I did use thin strips of pcb as illustrated above but I found that after a while, either the solder joints break from too much flexing, or the copper comes away from the insulating material. The pin through will help that.

 

DSCN2499.JPG.25227f24df595e27e4159d5454d3d250.JPG

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We both copped for it in mid February, my other half was working in various schools as part of her training. At the time, the under 30s were considered invulnerable. Not so, we both had lousy chest infections and other flu like symptoms which knocked us out properly for a week and lingered another three. It was the thinking that you were getting better one day and hardly being able to stand up the next that was scary. I have beaten pneumonia and sepsis as well as things that go bang (hence the right hand, right leg and various scars.) but I don't think that I am invincible, I try to look after myself in every respect. The only good thing that has come out of my tangle with covid is that I didn't falter on quitting smoking. I suspect that if smoking hadn't killed me, the Memsahib would have for not quitting.

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50 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

This is my latest stretcher bar for points. Every time I build a layout I come up with something slightly different. I like a pivoted joint rather than a rigid soldered one, so I drill holes in fibreglass circuit board, as it is more durable than the resin based material. I cut it to shape, so it is wider where the holes are drilled, for strength.

 

Brass pins are then inserted from underneath and bent over to give a decent length to solder to the blade.

 

I did use thin strips of pcb as illustrated above but I found that after a while, either the solder joints break from too much flexing, or the copper comes away from the insulating material. The pin through will help that.

 

DSCN2499.JPG.25227f24df595e27e4159d5454d3d250.JPG

Nice. I've done something similar to that in the past. One of the reasons I've gone with two tie bars is the chances of them both failing at the same time is a lot less than if I only had one, plus it's more prototypical. I did score some really old school Peco tie bars on ebay the problem is they have holes that are 14mm apart and are supposed to be for EM and even though they are glass fiber I found that they break even easier than the 2mm scale sleeper strip. I didn't want to make them more fragile than they already are by drilling another hole in them. I also tried to put the same sort of shape on them as you have used but they didn't file well, maybe it's an age thing. Peco haven't produced them since the early sixties and if I were to take a punt at it I would say they were probably older than I am.

Lez.   

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8 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Nice. I've done something similar to that in the past. One of the reasons I've gone with two tie bars is the chances of them both failing at the same time is a lot less than if I only had one, plus it's more prototypical. I did score some really old school Peco tie bars on ebay the problem is they have holes that are 14mm apart and are supposed to be for EM and even though they are glass fiber I found that they break even easier than the 2mm scale sleeper strip. I didn't want to make them more fragile than they already are by drilling another hole in them. I also tried to put the same sort of shape on them as you have used but they didn't file well, maybe it's an age thing. Peco haven't produced them since the early sixties and if I were to take a punt at it I would say they were probably older than I am.

Lez.   

 

I am planning to add a second stretcher for cosmetic purposes.

 

This is one of those modelling jobs where there are many different answers and most of them do the job just fine. It is down to us to find a way that works for us.

 

I used N gauge sleeper strip for stretcher bars some time ago and I got quite a few broken solder joints. I decided that expecting a rigid, small soldered joint to stay intact when it is being asked to flex every time the point is changed was asking too much so I gave up and went for a pivoted joint, with the pin free to swivel in the hole.

 

Your pin through may well give yours more strength than mine ever had so you may have cracked the problem by a different method.

 

I am not familiar with the Peco ones. They seem to do (or used to do) all sorts of track products that have passed under my radar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I am planning to add a second stretcher for cosmetic purposes.

 

This is one of those modelling jobs where there are many different answers and most of them do the job just fine. It is down to us to find a way that works for us.

 

I used N gauge sleeper strip for stretcher bars some time ago and I got quite a few broken solder joints. I decided that expecting a rigid, small soldered joint to stay intact when it is being asked to flex every time the point is changed was asking too much so I gave up and went for a pivoted joint, with the pin free to swivel in the hole.

 

Your pin through may well give yours more strength than mine ever had so you may have cracked the problem by a different method.

 

I am not familiar with the Peco ones. They seem to do (or used to do) all sorts of track products that have passed under my radar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also using fulgurex point motors so there won't be a heavy impact of a solenoid firing the blades back and forth powered by a capacitor discharge unit.

As for Peco's track products, yes you are right! The array of "Individual lay" components was truly astonishing. There was something for everyone no matter the scale or gauge. You only have to look at an old magazine from the 50s and 60s to see what was available. I remember that my first Peco catalogue had more pages of components than streamline track and "Pritchard Patent Products" was far more prominent in adverts and on the catalogue than it is now. Now days they are truly track builders to the world with a range to suit every scale and gauge, but back in the day they were suppliers of components to track builders across the "British Empire" in days when RTR track offerings were very very poor. Back then if you wanted anything approaching a scale prototypical Permanent Way you rolled up your sleeves and built it yourself because what was available off the shelf didn't cut it. It's odd that back then Peco was the C&L/Exactoscale of it's day!

Lez.         

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Lez

Nice to see your layout progressing, especially as you are doing ply and rivet. I must admit I build all mine using plywood sleepers with the chairs glued with Butanone just using copperclad at baseboard joints, I find it quicker and I hate fitting cosmetic chairs. Like TBG I have used a number of tie bar methods, C and L, Masokits (My Brighton layout) and am now using the method shown in the photo. These are some OO finescale points I built for my son using laser cut sleepers and P4 Track Company chairs. It uses two bits of very thin double sided copperclad and a nickel silver tie bar. Easy to make and also to adjust for the point throw. Not saying you or anyone should use but it is yet another method. We also use it on SHMRC's Hope - under -  Dinmore layout. Keep up the good work. 

PS: Templot is very easy once you realise it is not a CAD drawing programme. I liken it to pining flexible paper templates to a drawing board. If wanted I would be happy to do a zoom session to show you the basics.

PPS Have you thought of using laser cut base boards?

Capture1.JPG.d501c1813d583ef23376c853987c89f6.JPG

Edited by kipford
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Thanks Dave. I have some double sided copper clad but it's a lot thicker than that. I may well take you up on your kind offer of a zoom tutorial for Templot. That's if I can figure out how to get all of that working. I'll speak to Kimmy about zoom as she has had a lot of experience of that sort of thing this year. I even have a webcam although I've never plugged it in. It's a Dalek which is why I have it. Yes I know! What can I say?! I'm a Terry Nation fan!

Good news! Kimmy just came in and she will run through zoom with me so we can sort out a time that's good for both of us. Over the weekend maybe?

Lez.

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