Glenmutchkin - Loco Coaling

[Portchullin Tatty]

When last I updated you on Glenmutchkin, we were making the legs.  These have been reassembled and look like this:

 

 

They are not yet finished as I wish to make a mount for the support girders; so it will soon be time to prevail on my brother again!!  However, I have been tinkering with plans and have come up with the baseboard layout and a rather tidier rendition of the basic plan:

 

 

A little unusually, I am making the layout two boards deep as I am trying to get a lot of “depth of field” in the model.  Portchullin works very well in this regard to the right side where there is a bank and you do not see the back of the layout but less so in the station building area or across the bridge.  The depth of field is intended to try and overcome this but I will be having quite high hillsides behind again for much the same reason.

 

I am hoping that I have been able to book a bit of time in some friend’s joinery shop this week to make a start on the building of these.  Five of the boards are relatively simple; the last two (nos 3 & 7) a lot less so.  One of the chief areas that Portchullin lets itself down on is the quality of the baseboards – compensation/springing is a must on steam locos for example!  My friends (Tim & Julian) pointed this out with some vigour and told me that they really knew being joiners…………well you can see where that led for the next layout!

 

Every favour has a price though; so I am down to build something in return for them!

 

[Portchullin Tatty]

A fairly big day in Glenmutckin’s life today; the start on baseboards.

 

As I mentioned in the last post; a couple of my team who help on Portchullin made the mistake of both criticising my carpentry skills and then admitting that they ran a joinery business.  I guess you can see that they thus talked their way into a task and we spent day one in doing these today.

 

I know that a bad workman blames their tools; but by god having all the proper kit makes things much faster and a great deal more accurate!! To say nothing of someone who knows rather more about joinery than I do!!

 

 

The intended design will be predominantly open design around a skin of ply.  Initially a rectangular box is being made, as above.  After we have made the first batch of these we will then laminate a further layer of ply around this to provide the material to support the raised scenery and also to house the rebates for the pattern makers dowels – when we have done it hopefully the pictures will make it more clear.

 

We got three of these boxes made today; here are two of them – what is particularly pleasing is that they are perfectly level across the joint (see the bit of timber laid across the joint).  This is an area that I really did not get right on Portchullin and I note that lots of other modellers don’t either – right up to the famous person modelling Leamington Spa.

 

 

So thanks Tim and Julian – I am sure some signals can work their way back!

 

And a small plug for my hosts; if you are looking for a powered loft ladder; give them a try http://www.st-joinery.co.uk/electricloftladder.html?gclid=COfvoN-HyrwCFYWWtAodjCQAcw

 

[Portchullin Tatty]

I managed to get most of another day in Tim & Julian's joinery workshop.  With the assistance of Tim, we managed to get the three boards assembled with pattern maker's dowels; along with the beginnings of the ground profiles.

 

 

A start was also made on the last of the four boards that will form the main station area.  I didn't want an ordinary square board on the corner as the layout will be viewed both front on and from the end.  Therefore, we have had to profile the corner piece around a mould.

 

 

But all this help does have a price.........................  Tim and Julian have recently acquired Benfieldside.  This rather exquisite layout was built by John Wright and was subsequently owned by John James.  If you want to see how good it is, find yourself MRJ 38 and you will see what I mean!

 

Well Benfieldside has a fair number of signals..........................well it did once.  Now it has few damaged signals and a number of sites where signals once were.  This is where the use of Tim and Julian's joinery shop ceases to be free!

 

As it is a little different from my layout thread; you can find out about these on this thread.  

Edited February 24, 2014 by Portchullin Tatty

[will5210]

I'm looking forward to following this project. Curved corners look a good idea too! 

[MartinWales]

Sorry to be a pedant here but Benfieldside was built by John Wright!

 

Keep up the good work and let's have those regular updates!

Edited February 24, 2014 by MartinWales

[Portchullin Tatty]

Sorry to be a pedant here but Benfieldside was built by John Wright!

 

Keep up the good work and let's have those regular updates!

 

Oops, sorry you are quite right!  now changed.

 

Hopefully, with the boards beginning to take shape the layout building will start to get some momentum.  The only fly in the ointment is that Tim & Julian are expecting a substantial order which will take up all of their time for the next six weeks.  I have to respect that making baseboards for me does not pay any bills!

[Portchullin Tatty]

I managed to get most of another day done on the baseboards at Tim & Julian’s workshops.  The bulk of the first four are now done; although the decks are still to be put on these.  A slightly fuzzy picture to show the progress is below:

 

 

In addition to this, I had a look at their layout Benfieldside.  As noted in past posts, they have recently acquired this from John James, who was the custodian of it for some years.  Its original building was by John Wright.

 

 

 

 

 

A great layout; I think anyway!

 

I have managed to restore the first two signals for Benfieldside – well entirely rebuildt one!  I will post some pictures in the next few days with a bit of luck on this thread.

[bcnPete]

Happy to have found this Mark.

 

Always liked Wick/Thurso as a model myself.

 

Staying tuned...

[MartinWales]

Come on in Pete! The water's lovely!

 

All jokes aside, the scope in 2mm scale would be breathtaking!

[Brinkly]

I didn't realise you had a thread on here Mark!

 

Such a great follow on project.

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

[Portchullin Tatty]

Lots has been happening on both my layout and my workbench and I have been rather slack in updating my RMweb threads.  Don't worry, I am not joining the RMweb sulkers.............  However, whilst I will probably put a few things over here, most will not and I suggest that a visit to my blog at http://highlandmiscellany.com/would be worthwhile if you want to see what has been going on.

 

Anyway, just prior to Portchullin’s last two exhibitions, Tim of S&T Joinery brought around the last couple of boards so that all of the scenic boards are now back at home.  Obviously, this meant that we had to do a test erection!

 

 

And very pleased I am too, especially with how flat they are.  A rear contrast to the rolling hills affect that I managed on Portchullin.  I am obviously hoping that this is going to result in much better and more reliable running.

 

The design of the leg and the supporting beams can now be seen more clearly.  it does take a bit of time to get these level (caused I believe by the absence of levelness in S&T’s workshops!  However, once the beams were level, it was a matter of moments to place the boards on them and connect them up.  So I think we will do some setting out at the weekend.

 

 

In some respects the photos don’t quite do justice to these boards and also how large they are collectively.  The width in the top view is 1200mm and overall the length of the boards together is 5250mm.  As will become apparent in future posts, I am going for the “railway in the landscape” feel and I don’t want it to fee cramped either.

 

And if anybody wants an electric loft ladder, this is where you go http://www.st-joinery.co.uk/

[Portchullin Tatty]

Definite progress was made with Glenmutchkin over the last 10 days, in that the first portions of trackwork have been laid.  At last, it is an embryonic layout!

 

 

This was started at the two platform faces as in practise this is one of the major setting out points.  This is because it is about the only straight bit of track on the layout and also because the platform needs to sit on top of the most substantial baseboard joint on the boards – where the front and back boards abut.  The platform will be a separate element of construction and will bolt over the joint, hence hiding it from view.

 

 

The scrap tak is seen here sitting in the branch bay.  The branch bay platform face is to its full length, the main line platform face still needs to continue for 500mm – into the trainshed which presently can only be imagined!

 

 

Now that the first few bits of track have been laid, a sense of scale starts to become apparent.  Not for me the “model to the railway boundary only” approach – I am very definitely attempting to portray the railway in its setting.

 

 

The other major setting out point for the layout is the link into the engine shed; which is a single slip from the main line and a cross-over from the main run-around loop.  The baseboard joint is mid-way through the crossover, so deines this end of the layout.

 

[Portchullin Tatty]

Matters have been progressing with the layout on and off through the summer and a lot more of the track has now been laid. We have both the main line and the full run around loop complete, along with most of the bay and its run around loop too.
Attachment:

The line diverging in the foreground is going into the shed area, those visible below the bridge go to the bay (left) and yard (right). A signalling trackplan can be found on the first page of this thread.
Attachment:

I quite like the sinuousness of the line, which can be seen here/ I have done this in order to give interest to the layoput but it is pretty typical (indeed characteristic) of the lines to the west coast as they wind through the mountainside. I do have in mind some hills to justify this in the finished item.
Attachment:

Attachment:

Already there is a sense of magnitude to the station forming, the platform face (which is not all in view in either of these views, comes in at about 7 feet – enough for an eight coach train of pre-grouping coaching stock. Really, its length is defined by the length of the bay – this will become clearer when the train shed appears because the bay has to start clear of this..
Attachment:

Attachment:

Attachment:

I have also placed into its approximate position the road overbridge that separates the shed from the main station area. The construction of this can be seen in postings here.  The intention of hte bridge is to act as a scene blocker and thus to compel the watcher to view the layout from more than one location to appreciate it.

[will5210]

Great stuff so far! I love the meandering trackwork away from the station.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Mark,

Goodness! This is going to be something special, I look forward to seeing it one day.

All the best,

John E.

[Portchullin Tatty]

Great stuff so far! I love the meandering trackwork away from the station.

 

 

Thanks, Templot is your friend where it comes to making flowing trackwork!

 

There is not a great deal of straight trackwork out in the western highlands, certainly by the time you get to the extreme west - lots of rock to dodge around to mention nothing of the sea!

[will5210]

Thanks, Templot is your friend where it comes to making flowing trackwork!

 

There is not a great deal of straight trackwork out in the western highlands, certainly by the time you get to the extreme west - lots of rock to dodge around to mention nothing of the sea!

I agree - I'm currently eyeing up the pleasing curves of the line into Fort William station! Lovely stuff

 

Will

Edited September 7, 2015 by will5210

[phixer64]

Hiya

 

After seeing Portchullin in its flesh at Southampton, this is right up there. Love the sweeping curves and the construction of boards, liking the bridge as well. Gives you the sense where you are in the world

 

Excellent modeling, keep up the fantastic work.

 

Regards Jeff.

[MartinWales]

Any more news Mark?

[Portchullin Tatty]

Yes, fighting with turntables of late - expect to have something to post after the weekend!

[Portchullin Tatty]

Testing Times with Terribly Troublesome Turntables

 

A decade or so ago, I did start a MPD type layout and got some way with the building of a working turntable but had lots of trouble with it and this did rather kill off my enthusiasm for the layout – with inevitable consequences…………

 

The difficulty was to get it to operate smoothly, with any level of reliability, and to stop with sufficient accuracy to enable P4 wheelsets to enter and leave the turntable without derailment.  Well, Glenmutchkin needs a turntable, so it is time to confront that particular demon again – and he has not gone away in the meantime!  However, I think I have put the blighter back in his box with the help of the Chatham Turntable Drive, a chunk of scratchbuilding and a dose more cussing………..

 

 

The Chatham turntable drive is named after its originator and is supplied in the UK by Model Railway Developments – not a great site listing I know, but there is a better Youtube video.  The attraction of this particular drive was the mechanical locking arrangement – this means that it both stops consistently and then holds the turntable deck firmly there until activated again.  The basis of the drive is a large wheel that has numerous fingers cut into it – the user then takes a finger away for the positions at which it is desired that the turntable will stop.  When operated, a plunger runs across the tips of the fingers but where it encounters a gap, the plunger is pulled into the gap and cuts the power at the same time.  To operate it again, the plunger is pushed free of the gap by way of a solenoid and the power to the drive reactivated.

 

The concept is great but there are some issues.  The first was that the solenoid did not fully operate when activated.  I found two problems with this; the first being that the control box seemed to send a less than full voltage to it.  This was fairly easily dealt with by bypassing the control panel with the push button.  The second problem related to the microswitch that alternates the power between the solenoid and the drive motor.  The spring to this, even though it is quite light, was sufficent to offer to much resistance for the solenoid to overcome.  I managed to overcome this by making sure that the rest of the plunger is as smooth as possible by rubbing all the parts down with fine wet and dry and a touch of oil.  This takes a degree of care to set up to get the balance right and I am worried that it will be a source of problems for the future but for now it works.

 

 

The next issue, is that the motor is not engaged to the drive wheel by a mechanical set of gears and instead has a brass wheel that runs on a rubber rim.  This is probably designed as a safety feature to stop the motor burning out when a problem is encountered but it is prone to slipping rather too much.  I have sought to overcome this by way of wrapping the motor wheel with sandpaper but this has only been partially successful.  There are still more tweeks to do but I have found that it works rather better in one direction than the other, so this may be the ultimate solution!

 

 

The next issue was to set the ride height of the turntable deck up correctly.   I found that this had two aspects to worry about; the height of the deck relative to the rails that it runs on and then the height of the deck relative to the approach trackwork.  I found that it is not sufficient to simply seek to try and get the deck set up correctly with fixed construction – it was simply too sensitive to minor errors.  Therefore, I made up a mount with 50mm M4 bolts.  By threading on a pair of nuts onto this, it was possible to adjust the exact positioning of the drive relative to the deck and then the entire assembly with the baseboard.  The first of these nuts is shown on the above picture and once the drive unit is in place. the second set is tightened from above to hold it all in place.  I am concerned, however, that they will loosen over time – so some “nut-tight” has been added to the shopping list!

 

 

I connected the shaft of the drive unit onto the turntable deck by way of a small piece of tube.  This had grub screw clamps onto the drive unit shaft and a permenantly attached bolt on the top (bottom in the picture).  The rod to the base of the turntable deck was reduced in diameter slightly such that it would rock just a touch and take up any inconsistancies in the turntable well.  However, I ensured that the bolt was tight in both the rod and tube, so there was limited backlash.

 

 

Next up was a turntable well; which was another area where the gremlin made itself felt last time.  Most of this had to do with trying to get the turntable deck to sit squarely and equally in the well.  As already noted, I adopted the oppisite approach this time and built the well to fit the deck and simply relaid the rail afterwards so that it was exactly above the pivot – it has proved to be a whole lot easier and could have saved a lot of frustration last time!

 

 

The well walls were formed of Will random stone sheet, as I did not think that they would have used anything particularly fancy on a turntable well.  However, to stop them springing out of the curve, I laminated this with a chunky thickness of plasticard and also secured them to a plasticard base – this also formed the base for the rail, which is secured in turn with Exactoscale chairs.  One thing I did notice when studying prototype photos is that the chairs on the turntable rail are quite closely spaced – presumably because a relatively limited number have to support the entire load of the engine (much less in number than in plain track due to the deck carrying the entire weight of the loco onto only four points).  I have replicated this on my deck.

 

The dish to the well was, I have decided, merely ash ballast in the pre-group era (neat concrete was a much more recent approach), so I formed this with Das pressed into place and made as smoth as I could make it with fingers.  This never gets crips and “machine made” so represents what I think it will have looked like.

 

I will look at the deck in the next post, after which hopefully it can be shown fully working and in situ!  However, here is a peek:

 

 

….alliteration with thanks to Mrs Bennett; I really do remember Magistrate Maskew of Moonfleet Manor……..!

 

[Portchullin Tatty]

Glenmutchkin's shed area is modelled on Kyle of Lochalsh's (it is a mirror image) and I wanted to capture the typically cramped feel of the inspiration. This is the original OS map for the shed (ie old enough to be outside of copyright).

 

 

Key to this is the way that the whole complex centres around the turntable and the first turnout is almost tight against the turntable's wall as this photo extract shows:

 

 

The first turnout is, you will see, a tandom and whilst it is not visible in this picture, almost certainly it was interlaced (as the Highland always seemed to always use interlaced turnouts). Well, interlacing gets quite crowded on a tandom turnout, as you can see:

 

 

It takes a long time to do all of the sleepers as there are a lot of them but once it is done, it does look rather impressive don't you think?

 

[60012 Commonwealth of Australia]

Looks very good! Will certainly be keeping an eye on this, as it ticks all my boxes - 

British Rail Scottish Region - tick

P4 - tick

Steam era - tick

 

Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more progress!!

[Portchullin Tatty]

I have been back onto the layout of late, with a view to get the first wheel turning on it before too long.  That means attacking the electrickery things, beginning with the control panel.

 

I made a start on this by drawing up a diagrammatic representation in MS Paint and then using this to get one of the online firms (Vistaprint) to print me up a poster board to form the basis of the control panel.  I am not sure I chose the right material as it turned up on a light weight foam board and I had to mount a sheet of aluminium behind for it to be stiff enough to be useable.  But it did look pretty smart I thought………….

 

 

The control panel deals with all of the signals and turnouts that the cabin will have controlled, with local ground frames (which will be located on the boards locally) to be used to control the goods yard and the MPD.  The latter will be arranged such that it can be located either to the front or the rear, to allow some flexibility in operation.

 

I have got to the point where the full extent of switches have been wired in and I am just completing the jumper leads.  I took a lot of care to plan the wiring prior to any construction – despite the locos being DCC controlled, there are an awful lot of wires.  This is because I have stuck with traditional control for the turnouts and signals.  There is further complication as a result of the desire to incorporate some bells and even a block instruments (well maybe, at the moment it is just the wires!).  So in all, there are 90 odd wires doing something or another on the layout.

 

 

Somewhat in contrast to Portchullin, I have sought to keep the wiring as tidy as possible; everything is neatly collour coded and even labelled (to be fair it was labelled on Portchullin, but in a non colourfast ink………..!).  I am hoping that this will make the wiring easier to debug at the start of the matter and repair if it does get damaged.

 

I am proposing to use a variety of connectors between boards and to the control panel, including this rather nifty varient of the D-sub range that is wired directly onot a cheeseblock wireless connector.  Available to a variety of types from ebay including from this seller.

 

[Portchullin Tatty]

Well, that’s true of the top side, where nothing visible has happened of late but there is progress when you look underneath.

 

I have spent more than a few hours soldering dropper wires on about half of the track that has so far been laid. All is neatly colour coded (hopefully).

 

Another development in comparison to Portchullin is the painting of the entirity of the underside of the layout white. This is to make everything clearer and brighter. It will, hopefully, make it easier to deal with issues with the layout set up – although I am hopeing for less issues!

 

Even more hours (weekends even!) have been spent making up jumper connections, so hopefully the wiring will speed up in the coming weekends! I have spent this time to work through the logic of the wiring across all boards and there is a full wiring schedule in place – none of the wonky logic on Portchullin this time!