An Asymetrical double outside slip in 2mm

[StuartM]

Following on from my recent entry in the 2011 challenge I have decided to make a small shunting layout centred around an asymentrical double outside slip as I like complex trackwork and this will improve my track building skills.

The "ados" has taken around 3 months to make and is all but complete, with just some chairs to solder in place.

The electrical connections are in place and my 2mm class 04 runs reasonably smoothly through all four paths

I will probably end up using the same method for point control as I did for my sissorslips which is a home made circuit controlling servo's

More to follow as and when

[Gloucester Road]

Umm, that is quite the bit of track work. Imagine there was alot of effort to keep track of which pieces went where

[bcnPete]

Blimey Stuart - You do like your double slips

 

Coming from someone who still can't build a turnout properly, then hats off to you.

 

Look forward to seeing some more of this thread - do you have a track plan to share?

[Kris]

You appear to be far to keen on complex point work than is healthy. Still they are lovely to look at keep it up.

[RedgateModels]

I keep having to remind myself this is 2mm! I think I have my work cut out building a conventional double slip in 7mm ........

[Donw]

Very nice Stuart. Quite a complex bit of trackwork with a curve through of the 'straight routes'. You also appear to be using a mixture of easitrac chairs on the PCB timbers but no chairplates. I presume as the easitrac chairs hold the rail off the PCB it allows the solder to run underneath or have you fix brass slips under the solder blobs. I hope we get chapter and verse on how you control this via those servos.

Don

[Graham R]

Hi Stuart, this is inspiring stuff (not least your PIC stuff, which is at least as impressive as the pointwork).... please keep posting progress reports. Hope you don't mind some questions, no need to bother if you're busy.

 

You seem to be using less soldered chairplates and more cosmetic Easitrac chairs than in your diorama http://www.rmweb.co...._fromsearch__1? How is that working out? (just saw Donw has asked about same thing)

 

What about tiebars/operating mechanism, will you stick to the wire droppers/brass tubing/sliding ABS box section recipe?

 

Finally, on ballasting, you said:

 

The ballast was a home made mixture of.....

50% ready mix concrete put through a fine sieve and 50% very fine dry white sand, ( I live on an island so no problem there for me but I believe aquarium sand does the same thing) I mixed the two together and then used 50/50 pva/water to glue the mixture down and then when dry I sprayed it with a mixture of matt black, frame dirt and sleeper grime.

 

What do you use to position the mix so that it lies down nicely between sleepers and not on top of them, given that there's so little depth? Screwdriver prodder, magnification and lots of patience, or is there a better way?

 

thanks

Graham

[Re6/6]

Excellent work there Stuart.

[richbrummitt]

It's so beautiful.

[StuartM]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and questions which I will try and answer in the next couple of threads

 

TRACKPLAN

I've given up with Templot; One update to many which reorganised Templot so I virtually had to start the learning curve all over again, made me vow never to use it again; I come from the generation that expects the software to do the work for me.

 

This left me wondering how to create track plans from now on. I decided to use pen and paper and an artist’s ruler and just draw what I wanted on graph paper with 1mm sq cubes. I drew the track to 10mm scale and used the 2mm assoc track gauges to pull the rails into gauge.The first photo shows the result.

 

The second photo shows the intended layout; The idea being that this will be a modular layout that will at some stage in the future bolt together with other modules to create one big layout. The idea is that this is a small possibly railway related industrial complex land locked between a railway embankment carrying the mainline overhead and the buildings the sidings serve. The sidings are accessed via a low tunnel that runs under the mainline to the reception sides on the other side of the tracks

[StuartM]

Very nice Stuart. Quite a complex bit of trackwork with a curve through of the 'straight routes'. You also appear to be using a mixture of easitrac chairs on the PCB timbers but no chairplates. I presume as the easitrac chairs hold the rail off the PCB it allows the solder to run underneath or have you fix brass slips under the solder blobs. I hope we get chapter and verse on how you control this via those servos.

Don

 

Thanks Don,

 

Easitrack chairs

 

I wanted to use the easitrack chairs because they look so nice but in reality its too difficult to build something like this without using solder joints as there are so many mirror corrections and adjustments that need to be done and this can realistically only be done by re-melting the solder, often many thimes over. I started off with twice as many cosmetic chairs but they all got burned off during the construction process. I still have some brass chairs to slip under the rails and solder in place. the easitrack chaires just get glued in place and have no structual input.

 

servos

 

I intended to switch the points via a leaver frame as I thought this would add to the playability of the layout but then I thought I'd still have to press switches to set power through the rails, so then I thought if I've got to press a switch it might as well do everything so yes I intend to use the same method as for the sissorslip project.

 

I have made a few minor improvements to the mechanisms though as shown in photo

[StuartM]

 

 

Finally, on ballasting

 

What do you use to position the mix so that it lies down nicely between sleepers and not on top of them, given that there's so little depth? Screwdriver prodder, magnification and lots of patience, or is there a better way?

 

thanks

Graham

 

 

A 1" artists sable haired brush to brush the ballast into place, and a smaller sable hair brush to tidy up; very expensive but worth it as cheap paint brushs are franky crap.

[StuartM]

And finally one more photo of the trackwork itself from a slightly lower angle with some daylight highlighting the railheads which nicely shows up the four differnt paths

[mullie]

Amazing track, I struggle to build track in 00, certainly not brave enough to try N!

[martin_wynne]

That's an impressive piece of work Stuart.

 

Here's a picture of the real thing.

 

 

Martin.

[Oldddudders]

Super tracklaying, by any standard, but certainly in 2mm.

 

Just one question - if this is an outside slip, what does an inside one look like? I had always assumed that both rails were outside the diamond in an outside slip, hence the name.

[StuartM]

Amazing track, I struggle to build track in 00, certainly not brave enough to try N!

 

It's not N its 2mm!

[StuartM]

That's an impressive piece of work Stuart.

 

Here's a picture of the real thing.

 

 

Martin.

 

Thank you Martin that's very kind of you to say so.

I found this picture on a google image search a while back and used it as the inspiration for my attempt.

Is such a thing possible in Templot ? , if so doubless the results would be neater, I just don't have the patience.

Rgds,

Stuart

[martin_wynne]

Just one question - if this is an outside slip, what does an inside one look like? I had always assumed that both rails were outside the diamond in an outside slip, hence the name.

Hi Ian,

 

The "outside" part means that the switches (points, blades) are outside the diamond. A conventional double slip has the switches inside the diamond.

 

If both rails are outside the diamond you have a scissors crossover, or a half-scissors if on one side only. That's not usually called a slip because in the majority of cases both the side roads can be used simultaneously. In a double slip, inside or outside, they can't.

 

Iain Rice got his half-scissors mixed up with his outside single slips in his book on finescale track.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[martin_wynne]

Is such a thing possible in Templot?

Hi Stuart,

 

Sure. Almost anything within reason is possible in Templot.

 

An outside single slip is essentially two overlapping turnouts.

 

The basic alignments can be arrived at quite quickly. Here's a bit of Jing video showing how to do that: outside slip video

 

(give it a moment or two to download)

 

Once you have the alignments you can create all the partial templates and shove the timbers as necessary.

 

Getting a known crossing angle in the diamond requires some experimenting with the V-crossing angles and radius in the starting turnout. The V-crossings in the slip road must clear the other crossings with enough space for all the wing and check rails. The Templot Development Version (TDV) now makes it easy to create the diamond if you split off the exit tracks.

 

To make a double outside slip you would simply repeat the process. A double ouside slip is in fact fairly rare*, especially in running lines. The GWR had one at Reading.

 

*edit: in the UK. They are common in Germany.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[Oldddudders]

If both rails are outside the diamond you have a scissors crossover, or a half-scissors if on one side only. That's not usually called a slip because in the majority of cases both the side roads can be used simultaneously. In a double slip, inside or outside, they can't.

A scissors crossover has the outside roads straight & parallel, and a simple diamond in the middle, so is certainly able to accommodate parallel running. I recall the debate we had about whether placing one outside the remodelled Fenchurch Street in the early '90s, thus enabling an additional signal section, was a maintenance liability - the civils concluded not.

 

I have certainly seen double slips where each curved link had both rails outside the diamond - but no way were they a scissors formation. Clearly they are called something else.

[StuartM]

Thank you Martin,

I appreciate the time taken to upload the video which is rather neat.

 

As I child I used to spot on the end of the platforms of Reading general and perhaps this model is a subconscious remembrance of the signal works ?

[mullie]

Amazing track, I struggle to build track in 00, certainly not brave enough to try N!

I stand corrected! I'll go sit in the naughty corner and give myself a good talking to!

[Donw]

A scissors crossover has the outside roads straight & parallel, and a simple diamond in the middle, so is certainly able to accommodate parallel running. I recall the debate we had about whether placing one outside the remodelled Fenchurch Street in the early '90s, thus enabling an additional signal section, was a maintenance liability - the civils concluded not.

 

I have certainly seen double slips where each curved link had both rails outside the diamond - but no way were they a scissors formation. Clearly they are called something else.

 

I would refer to Stuart's example as a semi-outside slip. As you say an outside slip has the curved rails outside of the diamond. That gives three versions of the slip. As you imply a scissors crossover is to allow a train to swap across parallel roads. A slip is where two roads cross an allow interchange between them. The key difference is usually the crossing angle if it is shallow a double slip is fine. As the crossing angle increases either the curve of the slip road has to increase or you can adopt a semi-outside or outside depending on the crossing angle and the minimum acceptable radius.

 

Stuart now you have manged to design and build such a complex bit of trackwork I feel you would find it quicker and more flexible to carry on that way rather than using templot. I do like you turnout operating units very neat. You can switch the electrical circuits along with the turnouts by using multiway switches attached to the frame. I made a control panels for a friend and used 2 and 4 way switches. The key pricinple is that in steam age point and signal work it usually relates to movements to and from the up and down mains. If the controllers are connected to those then all you need is to connect through when the levers are thrown. With slips there are usally associated turnouts and the way they are thrown will determine how the slip needs to be powered.

Don

[martin_wynne]

I would refer to Stuart's example as a semi-outside slip.

Hi Don,

 

The only known picture of a semi-outside slip is this one:

 

http://www.scalefour...s/mrc09-04.html

 

One switch (set of points) is inside the diamond, and the other switch is outside the diamond. Stuart's example has both switches outside the diamond for each slip road, so it's not a semi-outside slip, it's a full outside slip.

 

If both rails are outside the diamond it is not usually called a slip road, it is more often known as as a scissors.

 

The PWI handbook "British Railway Track - Design, Construction and Maintenance" says:

 

"A flatter radius can be obtained for the slip roads than is obtained by the standard Single or Double Slips layouts by placing the switches outside the diamond, and the layout is then known as Outside Slips, which have to be specially designed and manufactured. The further the switches are from the common crossing of the diamond, so the flatter will be the radius of the slip road, but in all outside slip layouts, each slip road requires two common crossings in addition to those required for the diamond."

 

regards,

 

Martin.