steve howe Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Apologies to those who were following this thread on the old forum for letting it go cold over the summer. I was otherwise engaged on completing my P4 shunting plank in time for the 3Spires Railex at Truro. And now have just managed to navigate back into these new flashy shenanigins of the new RMweb. The original thread can be viewed at: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=44155&start=0 So we left the tale with the baseboards almost complete and a full size trackplan drawn up. Previous readers may remember the 'continuous run v. end to end debate and my preference for a continuous run, all contained within the main 'footprint' of the layout. This required fairly severe return curves at each end to reach storage loops concealed behind the backscene. Tests with stock proved 11" radius curves to be feasible and these have been adopted. Constructing the pair of angled boards which will carry the return bends showed up an unacceptable level of wasted space 'off stage' which with a bit of adaption could be brought into the scenic area. This required the backscene to be eased to a gentler curve (which is good) but meant it spanned two baseboard joints (not good) as I wanted to retain the backscene as a continuous sweep with no joins. This meant that the backscene cannot now be permanently fixed to the layout and will have to be re-thought. However this change liberated about another 18" of visible running line and allowed the station area to be spread out giving a more spacious air. Narrow gauge lines wandered about all over the place and even wayside stations like this were often surprisingly spread out. I was never too happy with the 'boxed in' feel of the old scheme where the backscene enclosed the scene on three sides. This alteration makes for a far less claustrophobic approach. I hope to move on to track construction very soon, two turnouts have already been built for the fiddle sidings using the new Karlgarin rail The attached photo is not the most exciting but shows the basic revised tack plan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium DLT Posted October 29, 2009 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 29, 2009 I await developments with interest Steve. With all these small layouts you are planning, will you be able to link them together at a show? I still think you are pushing your luck with those curves though. All the best, Dave.T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
On30runner Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 this looks interesting. I reckon the curves will be fine, I once built a OO layout with curves twice the sharpness just to see if it would work with a pug and some wagons, it did! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 this looks interesting. I reckon the curves will be fine, I once built a OO layout with curves twice the sharpness just to see if it would work with a pug and some wagons, it did! Yes, one of the few advantages of 0-16.5 not going down the exact scale route is that you can use what are effectively 'trainset' tolerances which means ridiculous curves (hopefully concealed from public gaze) can work. My bogie stock seems OK on 11" radius, and I have managed to ease this in practice to 12" inside radius now. How they cope with tightened up clearances when it comes to pointwork we shall find out in due course! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Its been a while since we reported on progress on this minimum space project, but over the last month the concealed storage sidings have been installed and working. Sub-zero temperatures in the garage have precluded much else! Both crossovers are operated manually using wire in tube and bell cranks arranged to operate simultaneously andusing both sets of contacts on the switch to change polarity. Apart from a little fettling to get smooth running over joints, I can start to look at the wooden sleepering for the visible section. Steve Frostbitten fingers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 So that's where my 'Anglepoise' went to ... Penlan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 I realised it has been a while since we wandered down the lane and peered over the hedge at the great non-event that is Coverack Road (alight for Lanarth) halt. I hadn't realised however it was nearly a year since progress was last reported! Last year became very crowded with preparing for and attending several shows both in and outside Cornwall with my P4 layout and our Club layout 'Gweek North Quay' which attended Expong at Swanley. In addition we spent many weeks and months refurbishing a new clubroom, and working on the restoration and development of a large P4 layout 'Watermouth'. All of which meant that my little 0-16.5 project was put very firmly on the back burner for most of the year. However shortly after Christmas I resolved to push on with the baseboards which had been languishing in the garage and make a start on the 'onstage' trackwork. Having read the excellent series of articles by John Clutterbuck in the Narrow Gauge and Industrial Review, I was inspired to have a go at using wooden sleepers with hand-spiked flat bottom rail. John's techniques, whilst time consuming, are quite straightforward and the main visible area of track was completed in a little over three weeks working mainly an hour or so every couple of days plus an odd afternoon at weekends. Cork was stuck down with Copydex (in an attempt to achieve quieter running) and a line corresponding with the outer rail marked on with a bendy lath. The line was marked off with dividers at roughly 2' 6" centres and the plain sleepering stuck down. The sleepers are Costa Coffee stirrers cut six at a time in a simple jig. General view of the whole layout, The scene will make more sense once the backscene support has been installed which will mask the fiddle roads at the rear The private Estate siding curves back from the yard. Where the track will be buried in ash/weeds etc. it was built on copperclad. The point components were made off-site on the bench, I used the Karlgarin rail for this project which is an accurate representation of 40lb per yard flat-bottomed section. The foot has to be removed to allow the switch rails to fit snugly to the stockrails, and the corresponding taper on the switch blade has to be a close match along the length where it abuts the appropriate rail, this is really the only tricky filing operation required other than to achieve a nice joint on the crossing vee. I soldered the crossing vee and wing rails up as one unit on thin brass strips so that it could be made as accurately as possible on the bench and installed in one piece. The rail is quite substantial and I found cutting the foot with a piercing saw where I wanted to file to, helped to make clean rebates for the splice rails to slot into. The rails were spiked down with KBscale flat-headed spikes. Roy Link used to make these before his range was transferred to KBScale and the newer spikes seem thicker than the older version. I drilled 0.5mm hloes either side of the foot and inserted the spikes with bent-nosed pliers. This was made rather more tedious because the spikes were slightly longer than the thickness of the combined sleeper and cork underlay meaning I had to push them into the plywood base, this made things hard going but has resulted in incredibly strong track! Progress moves rapidly ahead! The stone faces for the platform and goods dock are in place and the bracing to support the platfoem surface is going in. The walls were cast in plaster from some rubber moulds I made originally for the quay walls on Gweek, they were glued in place with PVA and when set solid, reduced to the correct height with a surform and a wood block as a gauge. The card surface of the platform area will lie flush with the tops of the walls and edged with large flat stones. The platform in place and the sketch plan for the station building tried out for size. The next stage is to sort out the point linkage, stain the sleepers and weather the rails and conduct some experiments with simulating weedy ballast. Hopefully progress will not be delayed by another year before the next update appears Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold mudmagnet Posted February 9, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 9, 2011 Excellent work there Steve. The track has a good flow to it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 The backscene is integral to the baseboard, but as the layout is designed to split into three sections, the backscene itself will be produced on a roll of fine canvas fixed to a permanent support with velcro to achieve a seamless 'sky'. Originally I indended to use thin ply, but in practice it placed too much stress on the fixings (and me!) to be reliable so bendy MDF was chosen instead. Regrettably it has added considerably to the weight of the baseboards but has proved reasonably easy to curve and fix. Fixing blocks of 12mm square timber were glued and pinned to the line of the backscene. Using these as a template, three bendy laths were laminated together. Its all starting to look a bit monumental! but the reason for the laminated laths becomes clear as a frame for the top of the backscene. The MDF panels were glued and pinned to the fixing blocks and the batten fixed to the top edge. Final stability will be achieved when the side panels are fixed in place and the edges of the backscene joined to their rear face. The backscene support in place, although it looks huge (its 600mm high) the front pelmet will be fairly deep creating a 'letterbox' effect. Towards the rear of the layout will be several large trees which I want to make as near scale size as possible with the intention they will dominate the scene. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold mudmagnet Posted February 26, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 26, 2011 Steve, The backscene certainly looks the part. How have you glued the laths? How do they hold their shape? I like the idea of large trees at the rear and with the 'letterbox' will these limit seeing the tops of the trees? I assume that the layout will viewed at 'eye-level', or have I missed something? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 The laths were (I think) 20 x 5mm pine from B&Q selected to be without knots. I left them out in the rain to soften as I thought, instead they all fell apart because they are made up from short sections tongued and glued together.... eventually they were recovered and laid up in three laminations clamped to the little fixing blocks on the baseboard. I screwed them as well for security but once the glue set the curve held very well. It was then glued and screwed to the top edge of the backboard. Eventually the board will be split vertically to seperate the baseboards. The fascia will indeed mask the tops of some of the trees, hopefully means I won't have to model the whole tree Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Unfortunately time and other pressures have meant I have had to abandon the Lanarth project. The layout as it appears above (minus the backscene) is offered for sale: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181320966851 Thanks for your interest Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve howe Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Unfortunately time and other pressures have meant I have had to abandon the Lanarth project. The layout as it appears above (minus the backscene) is offered for sale: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181320966851 Thanks for your interest Steve I'm pleased to say this layout now has a new owner. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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