Les1952 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) Firstly- who we are. The Bingham MRC (BMRC) Wednesday night mob consists of five members and one occasional member. The five are- Trevor Webster, Geoff Warren, Alf Hodkin, Jim Ross, and myself, Les Richardson. Our Occasional member is my son Simon, aka Mr Simon. Early Planning and criteria. In order to be able to erect the layout in the Bingham MRC clubroom it needs to be no more than 12 feet long. It also needs to be effectively a "roundy-roundy plus", ie keeing the punters happy by having a constant procession of trains on the main line, while giving a play area independent of the main line for shinting to take place. It has been decided to make the layout as two parts, each of which can be exhibited separately, or combined to make a single L-shaped layout. The pictures below show the mock-up and give an idea of how it might work. The white area to the left was the original attempt at the Rise Park end. The piece sticking forwards is Top valley Goods Yard- which will be fed from a small fiddleyard above that of the main layout. Rise Park Station is shown mocked up near the middle of the layout. Where the main line dives under Top valley Goods there will be an abandoned junction and a deep rock cutting. The Rise Park boards are to be exhibitable separately- size 12' by 2'8". Top valley Goods is 4' by 2', and if exhibited alone will have its own (cassette?) yard. More to follow...... Les Edited February 21, 2016 by Les1952 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
50030 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Rise park and Top valley.... So own up, which one of you has the Bulwell connection? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Rise park and Top valley.... So own up, which one of you has the Bulwell connection? Alf lives in Rise Park. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) The baseboards. Rise Park is made on three baseboards. The centre board has legs on both ends and is braced diagonally, while the two end boards are piggybacked on it with a sigle leg on the outer end. The underside of the centre board, seen outside the BMRC clubroom this morning. The centre board erected, showing the diagonal bracing fitted. Again taken outside the BMRC clubroom this morning. Also shows the split hinges that lock the two end boards in place. The Top Valley end boad showing the underside, inside the clubroom. The construction is the same as on my layout "Hawthorn Dene Colliery" The board in the background belongs to the BMRC OO-gauge layout "Phoenix Park". More to follow. Les Edited January 8, 2013 by Les1952 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) Trackplan- part 1 This is the trackplan for the visible part of the roundy-roundy. Slightly foreshortened, the visible part is about 8'6 long, and the loop occupies about 80% of the length, leading off before the site of the former junction. The loop exits via a crossover with sand drag. As Rise Park is somewhere North of Nottingham (trying to avoid Top Valley according to Alf) goods trains might be held in the loop waiting for the yard at Annesley to have a line for them. No corresponding loop Southbound as goods trains wouldn't set off South until a path was available at least as far as Nottingham Victoria- at least that's our story.... The line veers off to the right at a former junction, with a second cutting running straight ahead to a boarded-up tunnel mouth. Not shown is another lifted kick-back from the goods loop into a factory (which now sends its goods out through Top Valley Goods Yard. The track plan for Top valley Goods hasn't been finalised, waiting for the lower line to be built so areas that can't be used for point motors (due to trains passing under) can be determined. If TV isn't in place the end will be covered by an urban scene- the layout will get more countrified as it moves towards the left. More later, including a fiddle yard schematic (nicked from Hawthorn Dene Colliery) All the very best Les Edited January 8, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) Board construction schematic. This is the diagram I drew for Hawthorn Dene Colliery- (plan view showing the way the boards are constructed). The outer frame is a sandwich- the difference is that instead of the 3.6mm ply on Hawthorn Dene's boards a slightly thicker 6mm ply has been used on the three Rise Park boards. The outer is a 6mm-9mm-6mm ply sandwich, with more air on the sides of the two end boards than on the centre board. The ends are filled solid as these are where most stress will happen. Legs are permanently hinged to the board, and the diagonals on the end boards are permanently attached also. Looking along the three boards in the BMRC clubroom this week- while it is cold we're working in daytime for the winter. The nearest board is the Top Valley end. Top Valley Goods will sit over this starting at the backscene (the pencil line running along the boards) and making an L-shape running away from the camera. Boards for Phoenix Park in the background. Tracklaying began before Christmas and the two fans for the fiddleyard have been laid. Schematics later. Time for bed, said Zebedee....... Edited January 8, 2013 by Les1952 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 (edited) A look at Home Home for the layout is racking built by Trevor and Alf about two and a half years ago when we first moved "Farndon Road" from Newark to Bingham. Last Christmas (2011) we took the decision that a layout that took six people to exhibit and needed a van wasn't a viable prospect for us to complete as an exhibition layout. It took us about 6 months to sell the layout and get it on its way to its new home in Belgium. Once Farndon Road had gone the shelving was adjusted so that each of the four RP-TV boards could be stored the right way up on a separate shelf. This gives the advantage that if a board is ballasted or glued it can be stored safekly away from other groups in the club. The bottom level has all the odds and somethings stored in plastic boxes, the next three have the Rise Park boards and the top is for the Top Valley Goods board. Fiddle Yard. Apologies to those who have read much of this before on the Hawthorn Dene Colliery thread. The Rise Park part of the project is designed to be operated by two people seated on tall kitchen stools behind the layout. Top Valley Goods will have a third operator at the right-hand end looking from the front, or behind the short side of the L-shape. If things are tight RP can be operated by one person, but he would need to walk from end to end. Points at the entrance fan to the fiddle yard will be hand-operated as these are within reach of the operator. Points at the exit end are of the Stephen Rabone/Richard Deas "trailing" type, as used in the large exhibition layout "Littlewood" and by Mr Simon on "Gresby". Due to a mistake made by me when purchasing the points for conversion to trailing we ended up with four right and four left trailing and the same number of hand-operated. Rather than buy extra points, and have some left over that weren't useable on either RP-TV or my HDC layouts, the fiddle yard fans for both layouts were altered to the following- The longest line is nearest the board edge. More later... Les Edited January 9, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Interesting model project.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Fiddle Yard continued... this plan is also repeated from the Hawthorn Dene Colliery thread. It shows the long-short arrangement for each fiddleyard road. Every road is divided into two sections. The one nearest the exit is kept short- in this case two Pacifics long (not that LNER Pacifics were allowed to double-head, the only train that involved that had a special dispensation to do so as a means of getting a Pacific from York to Doncaster without using up a light engine path). The capacity of each road is the total length of the two trains in it- which can be a long one and a short one, or two medium sized ones. The front train is held with its loco in the short section, and the rear one is pulled up close behind it. This is the system we have been using on Trevor's layout "Parnhams" layout for a few years, mostly successfully. The downside is that the motive power of the two trains in each road has to be matched for speed- so that the second can move up as the first moves out, and preferably before it emerges into view of the paying punters out front. Quiz Time... Which of the group (an engineer) has two pairs of glasses to wear when modelling (not usually simultaneously) and is said by the rest of the gang to need a third pair to find the others when he puts them down? Answer will be revealed (or not) in good time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 (edited) Evening, all. Building the Fiddle Yard Tuesday this last week involved laying plain track in the fiddle yard, staring at the Rise Park end. Alf checks alignment ready to pin another length down. The length of white plastic is the between-track gauge. The wiring diagram was more-or-less completed before any track was laid. On the front of the layout droppers will be soldered to rail undersides before the track is pinned down. On the hidden parts and in the fiddle yard the droppers will be soldered to the rail sides. More later Les Edited January 11, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordini5 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Les Really looking forward to the progression of this. Keep the photo's coming as really helps keep the enthusiasm of others watching a layout develop. IMHO anyway. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 (edited) Les Really looking forward to the progression of this. Keep the photo's coming as really helps keep the enthusiasm of others watching a layout develop. IMHO anyway. David Many thanks for that, David- much appreciated. Three details from the last photo- The board edge is black- we've had to put a plastic edging on it as on this side the ply was splitting a little as a result of the saw cut. Oddly enough I've not suffered this on Hawthorn Dene, I must have got a better quality sheet, though mine is 3.6mm rather than the 6mm here. The white either side of the board join is 20 thou plasticard. The copperclad is the right thickness for Code 55 track, but we're using Code 80 so it needs raising a little to avoid getting humps at the board join. There will still be a very slight undulation in the fiddle yard but less than the gradient caused by the slope on most exhibition hall floors. In the past we've worked out that getting a layout flat across joints at exhibitions is more important than getting it absolutely level- we never have locos running at their adhesion limit. The layout behind Alf belongs to another BMRC group - the Thursday N-gauge crowd. This is Ashtown, which the club was given as bare boards with track, and which has now been wired to a new control panel at the back and is ready for scenioc work. And so back to bed.... All the very best Les PS one of the pairs of glasses in post #9 is now in use...... Edited January 12, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 More tracklaying details. Geoff is tinning each rail on the underside before soldering the rail to the copperclad at the board joins. The copperclad was also very carefully cleaned before being similarly tinned. Hopefully that results in a neat, flat join across the baseboard- or at least a sight flatter than I can manage. Another repeat from the Hawthorn Dene thread- the trailing points used at the fiddle yard exit. No moving parts- the blades are removed from the Peco point, the mechanism and spring are discarded, then the blade is cut short to allow flanges to pass behind it as well as over it. Once installed it takes a bit of fettling with a fine file to get the point smooth. The only down side to this system is that you can't reverse a train back into the fiddle yard if you send the wrong one out by mistake. On the other hand most derailments on Parnhams are caused by exit points being set incorrectly or by trying to revesre a train into the fiddle yard so it is no great loss........ More to follow Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 So, if Alf and Geoff were laying track, what were the rest of you doing? Evening all. Last Tuesday Jim was at work and didn't get (he'll be there tomorrow) and I was making the tea, taking photos and generally tidying up as my next job needs some track laid. Trevor was seated at a table making a start on the first building- the waiting room. Armed with a sheaf of photos taken at Rothley Station and a set of scale plans of actual GCR station buildings kindly provided by someone I'll credit later as I've forgotten his name. Here are the part-finished ends of the waiting room. All buildings will be made from plasticard apart from the toilet block on the station. This will sit across the board join and is to be removable. We'll use a Farish Scenecraft one for this as it is high risk for damage. There will be a spare one as well. Shame they're not 1:1 scale as the Bingham clubroom has no loos........ Almost time to feed the cat. Another session and some new photos tomorrow. Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 (edited) Start of Week Two.. Eveing all. I'm counting the weeks upwards from the start of us doing Tuesdays at the clubroom. This week all five of us managed to get there by 9.15am despite the snow, and we knocked off at about 3pm. In the meantime Geoff and Trevor had a field trip into Nottingham to find some suitable buildings. This is Trevor being photographed by Geoff taking pics of a building he fancies making. The building is the Hutchinson Prince of Wales Brewery, (now Murphys). To sum up how far we got last week here is the start of the fiddle yard fan at 9.15am. Trevor also produced the building that he started last week (see post 14 above), finished. His comment was "It's wrong". He'd intended to do the waiting room at Rothley but didn't look closely enough at the name at the top of the plan, and this is actually the waiting room from Brackley station. As the GCR built their stations from standard designs and Rise Park Station didn't exist, who would spot the difference? No doubt someone will post a reply saying exactly what the difference is - go on, I dare you.......... He also produced the start of Rothley signal box, or a box very similar to it.. Apparently it should be green as the prototype has been green as long as the stationmaster can remember (about 70 years, it seems). There will be a difference in the porch, and that is deliberate. More to follow when I've edited the pictures. Time for bed Les Edited January 15, 2013 by Les1952 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 16, 2013 Author Share Posted January 16, 2013 First job for me this week- gapping the copperclad. Evening, all The only problem with using copperclad to secure the track at the board edges is that you need to gap the copperclad to make sure that there is no way current can flow from one rail to the other- the only exceptions to that being tramways that use the overhead for the live and return through both rails, and steam or clockwork poered layouts. Just to prove I do some work other than chief teaboy, taking everyone's life into my hands with a minidrill and cutting disc. Lo and behold, before and after..... More later, work to do. All the very best Les 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 17, 2013 Author Share Posted January 17, 2013 Willing pupil Evening, all. While Geoff and Alf got on with the fiddle yard track Trevor continued to build the signalbox, with Jim as a willing pupil. Gapping track at board join. Last post showed me using my minidrill gapping the sleepers. There is a much more suitable cutter available for cutting the track at board joints- this one demonstrated by Alf cuts a much finer slit across the rail. I'm too hamfisted to be allowed to play with it..... By the end of week two the fiddle yard is all laid, though the second board joint needs gapping, and the first four drop wires have been put in as far as the tag boards. Time for bed.... Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 (edited) Week Three didn't happen... Evening all. Too much snow on the track up to the clubroom, and none of us posesses a 4X4. In the meantime I've been marking exams and Trevor has been building. No doubt some goodies tomorrow for us to look at. Just to prove there is actually a track plan and wiring diagram in existence. There is also a spreadsheet with the different connections listed and colour coded, ready to be ticked off when they are actually wired in. Idea nicked from Mr Simon- no idea who he nicked it from..... The droppers from each board are going to tag strips purchased from BriMal Components of Hartlepool (usual disclaimer except I think there's a former pupil of mine involved....) Connections across the boards will be by SCART leads- we'll use flat ribbon types, short and heavy duty with gold-plated ends. All for now- no doubt more to follow after tomorrow- we're starting at 9am and working through to a convenient stop- planning and laying the front and doing some more droppers. All the very best Les Edited January 28, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 (edited) Week Four post one Evening all.. A short week this time as we needed some rolling stock to test clearances. Much of the day spent moving the platform backwards and forwards to check the angle and work out excactly where it would best sit to get a decent flow round both sides. This can be done by CAD but needs to be confirmed visually to work best. This shows the start position. The platform is scale length and scale width for the ome at Rothley, but will become a little smaller as things progress. Mapping where the main line turns off the closed line at about the meeting point of the centre board and the Top Valley board. The straight timber follows the lifted line into the tunnel while the track is juggled to get an acceptable main line curve. Total tracklaying today- two lengths of the up line and about 12 inches of the down, with the position for the turnout into the goods loop finalised and the hole for the motor pin drilled out. Additionally the fiddleyard tracks were gapped at the second board join, the positions for the drop wires feeding the fiddleyard marked and about half the holes drilled before the battery on the drill gave out. The copperclad for the baseboard joins at the front was also laid and is curing before week five. Time to feed the cat- pics of building progress to follow... Les Edited January 29, 2013 by Les1952 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) Week Four post 2 of 2 Evening all...... So, what had Trevor been up to in the two weeks since we last met? 1. The ladies waiting room is now finished. 2. The ticket office that isits on the platform between the staircase foot and the waiting room is complete 3. The staircase has had one wall and the ends mocked up as a trial fit on the platform. Trying this one out has helped decide the dimensions for the final version- which will be about 2/3 of the height and a little narrower to fit the spaces. As if this isn't enough he also produced the first mock-up of the brewery front- .... this one, though the mockup escaped the camera, and he produced the finished version of the signal cabin. The current plan is that the brewery model will be half-relief at the back just to the left of where the Top Valley board sits. Time to do some work, Les Edited January 30, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Week Six It is actually the start of week seven, but I've not had chance to sort out the photos... We had week five off as the snow was threatening. Week six was notable for the contractors appearing to relay the drive to the clubroom, and for us running out of Code 55 track. To the pictures.... Trevor has now finished the signal box. This will probably stand where the main line diverges from the lifted connection on the Top Valley board. The mock-up for the brewery front, though there are two prototypes of this in different scales to get a feel of which will look better on the layout. The final version will be a little smaller than an exact 2mm scale replica. Testing clearances round the platform before actually laying any of the track round it. The bridge arches are both to double-track clearances. In the down direction there is a loop to hold trains waiting for a space at Annesley yard, and a sand drag for those foolish enough to over-run it. In the up direction either vegetation where the second track was never built or vegetation taking over where it has been lifted.... The sweep of the up main laid and tested for smooth running. This is the point we ran out of streamline....... More in Week seven. Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) Week Seven Working this week from 10am to 2.30pm, later start because Jim is on early shift and can't get here at all. New driveway to the clubroom looks nice but they've left a step to fall down off the roadway edge. I proved it by falling UP it in the evening after an exhibition meeting that finished after dark...... As expected Trevor brought along a part-completed brewery front. Work today involved getting the rest of the track laid across the front. A breakaway group to put the point motor under the track laid last week failed when we realised we'd no screws short enough, though we did get the tag strips put under the Top valley end board. Flattening fingers A view along the front of the board- all trackwork for the Rise Park roundy-roundy is now laid. Wiring commences next week with droppers and temporary connections to get trains running for a soak test of the track in week ten. Stock used to clearance-check the platform and overbridge while the track was positioned, with two coaches used for running checks (play "hotwheels" by pushing along at speed to check the rail joins and cross-board points are smooth.). Loco is a 9F as the widest we've got measured at platform height. The short bit on the point at the loop exit will run into a sand drag. More next week. Les Edited February 22, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull1845 Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Hi Les, The layouts coming along nicely. It's good to see the pictures of the layout develop and the people behind it.Cheers Scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Hi Les, The layouts coming along nicely. It's good to see the pictures of the layout develop and the people behind it. Cheers Scott Many thanks for that- we're moving into a much less photogenic stage, putting wiring in place will take us through weeks eight to twelve on current estimates.... All the very best les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Week Eight Only two pics this week, largely as I spent much of the time talking to a prospective new member while soldering to one of the tag strips. What I thought was the bad news was that of the extra bits I ordered last Wednesday the SCART leads (which we didn't need today) had arrived while the tag strips (which we DID) hadn't. The latter were waiting for me when I got home- of course..... As it happened we didn't get as far as needing the tag strips on the second board. Soldering was a divided task, with Alf doing most of the soldering above the board, and me doing the soldering to the tag strips, largely as it was quicker to do them that explain which one went where. Lighting isn't a strong feature of the BMRC clubroom so the anglepoise came in useful for us to be able to see what we were doing. Trevor and Geoff spent a lot of time planning the backscene. This is a prototype former. The hillside will continue half-way over the fiddle yard and there will be little or no sky at the top of it. Trevor is checking reachability under the prototype to see if a coach standing on the furthest track from the board edge can be reached under the proposed angle of the bank. The top edge will actually be at a small orange pen mark about two-thirds of the way along the former. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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