Progress on Yeovil

[Laurie2mil]

After a concentrated few weeks with the chop saw - and litres of PVA - I've now finished the baseboards and legs for the Weymouth lines on Yeovil.  Overall, pleased with the results: they're strong, flat-surfaced (thanks to Alan Smith kindly cutting out the top surfaces from good quality birch ply (massive thank you to Alan) - why, oh why, didn't I use that for the rest?) and rigid.  They're also very heavy - all really a 2-person lift - but that's not a problem as it's primarily a stay-at-home layout.  They do all separate and reassemble easily (given a couple of hearties) - location is with pattern-maker's dowels, bolt together with handwheels and captive nuts, separate legs with top height-adjustment.

 

It's good to see the full extent of the project; I finished the scenic track during the lockdowns and that's just rested on for now.  Still the track beds to cut out, stick down and sand, joints to close up with P38, trackplan to stick on and superelevation strips as well - THEN I can stick the track down.  Wiring will take me up to Christmas - and probably beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by Laurie2mil
Duplicate image removed

[queensquare]

Great to see you have started a thread on this fantastic project Laurie. Look forward to further updates,

 

Jerry

[Laurie2mil]

Thanks Jerry. I thought I was posting on “what’s on my workbench” as I’m not planning a regular blog (age advances and you can see how much there is to do!)
Still, it’s done now so I’ll try and use it when there’s a particular development that might be of interest. 

Thank you to everyone who has looked, and reacted. 

 

[CF MRC]

That’s made a lot of progress since I last saw it, Laurie. Looking excellent.

 

Tim

[Railpassion]

It looks terrific. Very spacious and well built. 

[2mmKiwi]

Nice one Laurie - I see you won the baseboard challenge then!

It must be quite motivating to have all the baseboards in place and being able to visualise the track that will populate it.

[Ian Smeeton]

Great to see the layout on RMWeb

 

Kath's Cake means you might need an extension to Lauries Lair if the space around the layout continues to contract.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Adam]

A lovely bit of work, Laurie - I hadn't realised that the aim was a fully modelled(?) Pen Mill as well as 'Town. One of the advantages of the somewhat odd* railway history of Yeovil - especially in 2mm - gives the opportunity to represent an interconnected system. 

 

Adam

 

* If you're not familiar with it: three different railways - which gave rise to, at one point, five different stations (ok, not all passenger stations, but still) -  sort of converged there with more and less convenient methods of exchanging traffic between the GWR and the South Western.

[Sithlord75]

Posting to ensure I follow 

[AY Mod]

A lot of progress there Laurie since I last saw it; you've spent the last couple of years more productively than I have. It's all looking excellent.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Wow!!! An amazing example of the advantages of 2mm. Pity if it never gets exhibited but it would be difficult to transport. Open Days perhaps.

[Laurie2mil]

6 months on, and so much for getting the track on and wired up by Christmas!  However - there is now visible progress

cf. my first and somewhat  accidental post last October.  I haven't re-published the previous photos which just showed the (then) new baseboards to complete the Weymouth lines circuits, because they've now been overtaken by the the  scenic track I finished laying on them yesterday.

 

There were a things to do in between: shimming/sanding the baseboard joins to get a reasonable level of flatness across them; printing out and sellotaping the Templot track plans together (having, of course, spent a month or 2 refining the "final" (and "FINAL FINAL" fiddle yard layout - and working out the control system to operate it in co-ordination with the main panel on Yeovil Town); cutting the track beds (2mm ply) to shape, gluing down, cutting across and reinforcing the joins with 2-pack /wood filler; sorting out the super-elevation and gluing those strips down; and - at last - sticking the track down.

 

All the running lines are super-elevated; I'll have to wait until the wiring's in and it all works to be sure it's all smooth and that I've not over- or under-cooked it (not that I'll be able to do anything about it now).  The last section to lay was the loco depot with its bizarre layout.  Digging out the 5 pits was the worst job of all!

 

Next job: droppers for the track feeds, then loads of wiring.

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Laurie2mil
Correct orientation of 2 pictures

[VRBroadgauge]

Hi Laurie. You're still the track King. I'm interested in your inspection pits. I assume that you've anchored the rail to what will be the floor of the shed and retro cut the pits out. How do you go with the lining of said pits? I assume they would be brickwork.

I've done a couple of trials on my Tallangatta module. I made the pits out of styrene and glued a long PCB sleeper laterally which I soldered the rail to.

I've got one pit in an engine shed and an ash pit in front of a coaling stage.

I've had mixed results. Are there any difficulties with the way you're doing it (apart from a lot of swearing)?

 

Cheers

Bruce

 

[Laurie2mil]

 

I'm not so sure about that, Bruce, but thanks for the compliment!

 

Nothing very clever about the pits in the end, though I did ponder over how to do them for a while before I started.  I thought that making the holes in the baseboard would be the worst part, and it was. 

 

I anchored the rail along the ash pits like you, Bruce - a longitudinal pcb sleeper to represent a concrete top edge of the pit that the chairs would have been bolted to; for ease of construction of this part of a complex section of track, I treated myself to the cast brass chairs for these, tho' they will all be buried in ash.  Here's how I ended up doing the shed floor and pits:

 

The shed floor is 2 layers of 1mm plasticard.  The first step was to cut a Templot track template to the footprint of the shed, and sellotape it to a sheet of the plasticard to form the bottom layer of the shed base:

 

The inside faces of the rails were marked on (2 of and most of the 3rd track were straight so a stab at each end with a pointed scalpel was enough) and the plasticard cut to the shed outline.  Then the template was removed and the rail faces lightly scored on full length.  I was aiming at 3'3" wide for the pits which = 6.5mm in 2mm (they've actually ended up c.6.3mm), and these were scribed centrally between the rails, then cut out (several scores with the sharp scalpel against a straight edge to go through the full depth of the plasticard then pushed out) and the edges sanded straight and parallel:

 

The next step sellotaped the floor to a sheet of paper to allow an Easitrac plain track section to be butanoned to it at each end of the first track to hold the rails in position:

 

The rails were pulled out, plastic chairs threaded on, rails re-inserted into the sleepers and the chairs welded onto the base with butanone whilst being pushed against a straight-edge: 

 

Repeated x5 (the entry of the centre track was angled and curved so the chairs here were initially left un-stuck, then accurately assembled in situ with the approach tracks and when the alignment looked right, welded to the base (one of these chairs has moved out of position in the next photo): 

 

The shed floor was built up to the rail head with strips of 1mm plasticard, cut to fit as accurately as I could between the edges of the chairs.  I found it easier to cut paper templates for these shapes first (taken from the base itself, not the Templot plan - I can never build anything exactly to a template) then use these to mark out, cut out and finally file the plasticard strips to fit as best I could:

 

The strips were welded onto the bottom layer by brushing on butanone (quite a lot of it so it didn't dry out) and left to cure under a weighted plate of glass to try and keep it all flat.  The result:

 

The finished base was temporarily fixed in position on the trackbed with the approach tracks (drawing pins), and the edges of the pits scribed onto the trackbed template (a Templot duplicate).  They were cut out by scribing the edges with a Stanley knife (scalpel too flimsy for the ply) and then digging out between them about one ply-layer at a time with a 1/4" chisel.  The ash pits are c. 5mm below rail-head, the inspection pits 2mm deeper; with a 2mm ply trackbed on 12mm baseboard) it's relatively easy to find the plane of each layer and chisel them out one at a time.  For the first time in my life (I'm ashamed to say) I kept the chisel really sharp - and it paid dividends!   I considered cutting through full depth with a jig-saw and sticking a strip of thin ply underneath for the bottom, but it would have made the pits 8' deep and awkward to bring up, and they wouldn't have been as straight:

 

 

I deliberately cut the wood slots slightly oversize - just outside the shed-base pits - because I hadn't (still haven't) decided what to do with their insides but you don't notice that, and it means that if I choose to I can smooth them out to their plasticard edges with wood filler or similar.

 

The shed floor is at rail-head level, but you can see the chairs on the insides of the rails and maybe just a bit (near the shed doors) in the shuttering gap on the outside of the rail.  the heights worked out OK as I hoped they would: with any inset track where locos go, the rail head has to be above ground level for electrical contact.  Here, the "ground" (shed base) is 2x1mm = 2mm above the trackbed, and the rail theoretically 1mm (bottom plasticard layer) + 0.25mm (chair) + 1mm (rail) = 2.25mm, which is fine.  In practice, I do tend to squash the rail down when welding the chairs, so some depth is lost in the weld of chair to plasticard and the shed tracks have ended up from just palpably (but not measurably) to 0.15mm above the shed floor (the plasticard also varies fractionally in thickness).

 

Finally to answer Bruce's questions.  At the moment all the pits just have their raw plasticard and plywood surfaces (and are likely to stay like that for a long time!)  I don't have any information about the prototypes but assume the edges of the ash pits would be fire-brick, which - if I do seek to represent that - would be a brick paper muckied up;  the bases would be covered in ash, so some sort of grey-pink paste smeared unevenly about (?real ash??)  The inspection pits would be clean (-ish) and their sides and floors could be finished in stone, brick or concrete, or a longitudinal concrete beam on top of brick or stone walls.  But being in the shed and 18" away from the viewing point, you won't see the innards of the pits themselves and I may well end up putting some steps at the door end and just painting them all them a dirty grey colour.

 

Surpisingly little swearing, but it did take a lot longer than I thought it would.

Looking forward to hearing of /seeing your progress with Tallangatta!

 

[VRBroadgauge]

This is a VR ash pit Laurie. We modeled most of our infrastructure on the British versions. Our inspection pit had steps in one end. I have access to quite a few of these sorts of plans at Victorianrailways.net. This may be useful to you if you have nothing else available.

[Sithlord75]

7 minutes ago, VRBroadgauge said:

This is a VR ash pit Laurie. We modeled most of our infrastructure on the British versions. Our inspection pit had steps in one end. I have access to quite a few of these sorts of plans at Victorianrailways.net. This may be useful to you if you have nothing else available.

 

Obviously adjust track gauge to suit!  😂

[VRBroadgauge]

There was actually a standard gauge version Kev.

[Laurie2mil]

A quick update: the wiring of the Weymouth circuits is slowly progressing, to the extent that the double junction is now functional with the temporary control panel at that end (still have to sort out the polarity switching of all the crossings in the loco yard, tho').   So on Tuesday Tony Gee did a  short video of his beautiful Dean Goods (with a train of Steve Sykes' wagons - still miss you, Steve) running from end to end, and also the re-wheeled diesel railcar (re-wheeled Farish), and my M7 with the lovely gate set made by John Aldrick shuttling about.  This video is now loaded onto YouTube at 

 

 

Big thank-yous to Tony, John - and Steve.

 

Thank you everybody for your interest.

 

Laurie A

Edited August 28, 2022 by Laurie2mil
spelling!

[Richard Hall]

That is an absolute monster of a layout and would be a pretty ambitious project in N gauge, let alone 2mm.  Wonderful to see it on video.

 

Richard

[t-b-g]

The video really shows just how smooth the track is. Through all the points and crossings and over baseboard joints there isn't the slightest trace of a wobble or a lurch.

 

It is very enjoyable and exciting to be playing a small part on such a project.

[Laurie2mil]

Monster is about right, Richard.  It will see me out - which is the idea.  I'll just get as far as I can with it before I get too decrepit and/or fall off the perch.  A great challenge, a constructive occupation, and a continuing education across multiple disciplines.  The passion and drive comes from its nostalgia for me.

 

In the meantime, I am flattered and delighted to count many friends who have helped and contributed in various ways along the road, whom I aim to acknowledge when their work is the subject of a post.  Perhaps the most constant has been t-g-b, with much learned and adopted from evenings operating (I know that's a misnomer, Tony) Buckingham.  Tony has been encouraging throughout (ref the above comment, much valued), and the goods shed and Dean Goods are just examples of his superb modelling skills (they were his first foray into 2mm. FS or otherwise) which I'm very proud to have on the layout.  Andrew Hyatt, Rich Tuplin, Andrew Hartshorn and (inevitably) Tony Gee have all contributed wiring days and Andrew Hyatt fettled the DGs on Steve Sykes' wagons - thank you all: all these - and many others' contributions elsewhere - are much appreciated, giving me more time for the more idiosyncratic aspects (!)

[CF MRC]

That is a superb video Laurie. What it also does is show how 2mm scale now works, which was entirely down to the efforts of Bill Blackburn many years ago, instilling the need for excellent quality control in all 2mm scale products.
 

Tim

[Laurie2mil]

Thank you, Tim, praise indeed from the 2MM Master for all involved in that little cameo.  But I have seen many other 2FS layouts which run very smoothly - viz. those that were at Derby, and many that were not.

 

I entirely agree: what stands out to me about 2MM finescale is the brilliance of those who determined the track and wheel standards those 60 years ago.  they achieved the perfect balance between engineering precision (defined dimensions and tolerances), practicality (within the skills of anyone prepared to have a go and stick with it, much easier now with all the rails, sleepers, etched frames, small motors, jigs, kits and other creature comforts, of course), and aesthetics (as close as practical to the prototype appearance given the first two).  The wheel profiles and BtBs precisely match those of the track and point dimensions: it's a single package.  That they have not had to be modified in the 60 years of the scale's official lifetime, and have given us such superb operational layouts as CF, Fencehouses, Wadebridge, Bath - and the rest - says it all.  We all stand on the shoulders of giants!

[Ian Morgan]

Having a single source for the wheels and jigs also means the standards are maintained.

 

I pity the poor OO guys who have so many problems trying to run stock from different manufacturers who follow different standards (even within their own range of products).

 

[AY Mod]

Wonderful flowing trackwork and superb running, love it Laurie!