Adventures in code 55

[Gloucester Road]

Construction ensued on board 2 this morning; helped by youngest who really wanted to use the powerdrill this time. Dont tell mummy. Then went for a cold 25 mile bike ride; must be nuts to go out in 52 degree weather, anyway got the blood pumping. When my oldest came home and finished his homework we put together some puzzle pices that make up board 2.

 

 

we then lined it up with board 1

 

 

then some stock added to get a feel of how things are going

• a Voyager leaves the station
• Class 156 waiting for departure
• class 08 shunts a VGA
• class 67 heads for the TMD
• class 57 reverses into the container yard
• class 66 and 37 on shed

i couldnt figure the flex track function and the set track cuves were way off. So use your imagination as the line that the voyager would have passed the 156 on will be widend out to allow a platform to fit between those two lines with the one on far right being an avoiding line.

 

 

 

Then we printed off the pages for board 3 to see how it would look.

 

 

Any comments or suggestions? Thanks for looking

 

Stephen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kris]

When you showed the plans on the other side they didn't make much sense, seeing them joined together helps a lot with that. I would suggest that the sidings with the 08 and VGA in are very short for UK practice. I would suggest extending these.

[Edwin_m]

The curve where the Voyager is seems to be two curves separated by a straight. Would this be better as a continuous curve?

[Gloucester Road]

Kris,

 

I agree having put the sidding down it does seem short, so they will be lengthened.

 

Edwin m,

 

Good eyes. Yes all the curves are a combination of curves and straights. I couldn't get the flex track function on anyrail to work, all curves will be made up of flex track and continous in the final product.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Stephen

[taytrain]

nice work so far

[Gloucester Road]

Household tasks kept me busy today, leaf raking, fertilsing lawn, stacking splitting firewood and such. Did get a little done and fitted the upper level to board 1. Measure twice cut once is how its supposed to go, First attempt found my track to be 2.5 inches above lower level, much to high. Half inch removed and it looks much better. .

 

Here are some pictures.

 

with template on

 

 

with flex track on

• in this shot you may notice the pencil marks, that is where the curve needs to be cut and sanded back to.

 

with class 60085 pulling petroleum tankers and 67027 on shed.

 

 

 

Thats it for today.

 

Stephen

 

 

[Kris]

The height difference doesn't need to be large to get the effect that you wanted. I think that taking that extra 1/2 inch off was a good idea. Are those the final blocks that the upper layer is going to sit on?

[Gloucester Road]

Kris,

 

The supports are temporary, they are a bit wonky at the minute. Just wanted something quick and dirty to get the height right and see how my plans were coming together,

 

Yesterday we built board 3 and put together some more of the upper level line together on board 2. Today the plans were attached to board 3. As noted the sidings looked a little short and have been lengthened, these changes can been seen by the darker print.

 

• Board 2: longer sidding, upper level installed (temporarilly)

 

 

• Board 3: longer sidding

 

As we are at peak of fall foliage here in New Hampshire here is a foliage shot looking down my road.

 

 

Played trains today as there were some new arrivals today. See my blog update,

 

Stephen

 

 

 

 

[Gloucester Road]

Bit of a milestone yesterday; board number 4 was finished off. Work on board 3 and 4'S upper level will commence next. Track has been ordered for board 1 which will hopefully be here when I get back from flying. Here in the next 2 pictures one can see how 2,3,4 boards all line up.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

[Kris]

Good to see that it's coming on well. Is this going to end up as a continuos circuit?

[Gloucester Road]

No, its going to be end to end with cassettes at either end.

 

Stephen

[Gloucester Road]

Ok, Home from my week of flying, not a busy week just long. On one of our trips we saw two wounded birds; the Qantas Airbus 38, two were in LAX under going repairs. We were taxing so not the best picture.

 

 

Right on the modelling front. Legs for board one have been finished. The legs and the top are capable of being seperated and transported, a first for me.

 

here are the legs

 

here is the top attached

 

Here are some staged locos and the shed from Gloucester Road.

 

Started doing some wiring tonight, so far so good.

 

Stephen

[Kris]

NIce looking legs, what height are you having the layout at?

[Gloucester Road]

Kris, the legs are about 52 inches high which puts the base at 52 1/4 high. Now this seems high but there is a crawl space door which will be under board three so the height for the entire layout was dictated by this door. For me to work at its not a bad height as I can lean against it whilst working.

 

Work continued on the elecectrics for board 1. There are four locations where power is supplied to the foot of a point and then four other locations. These other locations allow four locos to be stored in the shed, two at the fueling point and two on the storage road.

 

 

The top track is mains power, the middle two will (once dremmeled apart) allow two locos on each track, the lower is a mains supply and the bottom is to allow two locos artthe fuel point.

 

 

Moving to the right of above photo. Upper track allows for two locos on the storage road, centre is mains power as is the lowest line.

 

Here is the underside that will be cleaned up and labelled before being conected to power.

 

 

Thats as far as we got as i cant seem to find any issolating connecters, so they have been ordered as have 8 buffers as you will see next. While awaiting the postman,. started work on the engine shed. It is going to be two Scalescenes engine sheds back to back.

 

 

 

Thats it for now, unless the postman brings me a package work will continue on the shed tomorrow.

 

Stephen

 

 

 

 

[Kris]

I see that you have been busy with the graffiti. Is there some form of covering for the inside walls of the shed?

[ColinW]

Your layout looks very impressive, look forward to seeing more of it.

 

Colin

[Gloucester Road]

So the postman delivered a package that had isolators and Peco buffers.

 

 

They have been asembled and placed temporarily, I think they look pretty good. Now we will need to find what colour to paint these; any sugestions. I know what the instructions say about colour, but would like to see some images. Here is the shed with the buffers and some of the internal bracing installed.

 

 

 

Class 67072 was seen coming out of the shed and heading to the fueling point location

 

 

 

Judging by the look of things I think this is going to be an EWS shed. 67027, 37xxx, 66072, 60xxx are on shed while a class 08 shunts a small engineers train.

 

 

 

Right thats it for now as work is getting in the way.

 

Stephen

[Kris]

The colour of the buffer stop is a bit of a minefield with many different variations used, with differences showing on stops next to each other.The main stop beam is wood so can be anywhere from a very dark brown/black to an old silvered grey. The buffer contact points on the beams are sometimes painted white, as I'm sure you can imagine this quickly becomes grubby. Red (buffer beam red) is often also used on the beam, sometimes between the buffer contact points, sometimes on the buffer contact points (in this case the rest of the beam is likely to be another colour, generally black or white). Yellow can also be seen on some.

 

The framework is normally painted black or grey, but red is not unknown.

 

Pop rail built buffer stop into google and you'll get lots of images, mostly of models but some real ones, though most of these are shown from the rear.

 

I've a couple of images of one at Totnes on a preserved line I'll try to dig out later and pop up.

[Kris]

Found the image, and it's yet another variation, a totally red beam.

 

 

[Gloucester Road]

So I see that many of you in England are in the snow. Have fun, we dont have any yet here in New Hampshire.

 

Kris, thanks for the buffer image. It will come in handy.

 

So what has happened with the train this week. My original thought was to put Gloucester Road up for sale or donate to the Boy Scouts. However my oldest son asked me if he could have it; so out came the measuring tape, could we get it to fit in his room. No. Ok ,could we move it around in the guest/train room? Yes, it fits over my work space; bit of a squeeze for me to work but he is happy. If you look closely you will see Gloucester Road has moved to the Island Of Sodor. THomas, Percy, James, Henry, and two Farish locos now run happily around.

 

 

With Gloucester Road over on the other wall the extension with Brimsley on it no longer fit and had to come down. Pieces of it are being saved and may be reused. The extension had to come down anyway in order to make room for the new layout so two birds down with one stone. Here we see some of the demo ongoing.

 

 

 

Ok so with demo going on that wall it was time to see if my measurment for board one were right. With some anxiety board one was moved into place, it was snug but a great fit. With board one in place some locos were put on, part of the backscene from the extension, some of the wall, buildings, cars, fences and partially built shed were staged on the board.

 

 

Not bad, can start to see what was in my head. Next up wiring all of the sections to allow locos to be isolated in the shed, fuleing point, and storage road. Also laid out boards two through four on the wall where the extension had been.

 

Not sure if i have mentioned this anyhere in this thread, but all the photos in the thread have been taken on my Droid X. Its has an 8 megapixel camera and does a very good job, also found this feature on it that stiches photos together as you take them into a panoramic shot. So here is a shot. Now those of you that remember "new layout" it can be seen sitting on board 3. Yes, it still exists and can be found in my gallery section.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Stephen

[Kris]

That mocked up picture of yard area is looking good.

[Chinahand]

Hi Stephen,

 

Relatively new to RMweb so have only just found your thread and spent a good half hour reading through it all.

 

What a superb project it is turning out to be and I will be watching it for further progress.

 

Just out of interest where did you get your sky background from ??. They look like photo reproductions.

[Gloucester Road]

Trevor, your in China!!! Wow, my Dad used to travel there all the time.

 

The backscenes are from Scalescenes.com on his South Oak Road blog. They are photos and come out very well, try this link My link and scroll down .

 

Some more electrical work today; all was wired up to allow four trains into the shed and then be isolated, onto the fuel point two trains can be isolated from each other, and two trains can be stored on the storage road. Then the test run, chased some electrical faults for 30 minutes and then presto it works.

 

With the wiring out of the way decided to test make some hard stand for the shed and storage road.

 

Here is the front of the shed area

 

 

The back of the shed and road area

 

[Gloucester Road]

Not sure what i did but here is the rest of my previous post.

 

Here is the storage road; first bare card and then with Scalescenes.com road surface.

 

 

Thats it for now

 

Stephen

 

 

[Kris]

The inset track is looking effective. If you're going to motorise the points it is worth removing the uprights from the ends of the throw ties.