Sheffield Exchange, Toy trains, music and fun!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Hi Doc

 

Enjoy New York, but I bet it is for work.

 

What did Buffers give you in exchange for hard earned toy train tokens?

 

Ironically, given your post about passenger complaints, I bought some Wills platforms, platform shelters and canopies!  Also a gantry for the signals that I don't have.

 

NYC is always good for a few days, although prefer not to have to go in January.  

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Doc

 

I have some 18mm MDF as recommended by Mr Peters to cut up. My problem is I cannot cut wood/MDF straight with a jig saw or a hand saw. I have tried the straight bit of wood to guide me thing but even that didn't help. Try telling that to the populous of Halhamshire. 

[Andrew P]

Hi Doc

 

I have some 18mm MDF as recommended by Mr Peters to cut up. My problem is I cannot cut wood/MDF straight with a jig saw or a hand saw. I have tried the straight bit of wood to guide me thing but even that didn't help. Try telling that to the populous of Halhamshire. 

Nor could I mate, I cut it, then went around with a Surform, and Sandpaper, then once the Peco edging was fitted, a little filler hid my BODGERY.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I can't cut straight either, so I opted for the Wills kits as I do OK with plastic kits.  

[Stubby47]

Cut both straight edges off a sheet, and leave a gap between them under the platform surface.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

You could buy yourself a small table saw, cut hundreds of bits wood straight, everytime.

 

manna

[Clive Mortimore]

G'Day Folks

 

You could buy yourself a small table saw, cut hundreds of bits wood straight, everytime.

 

manna

Hi Manna

 

That does sound good. I can see a down side, once I have convinced the boss we need to buy one, she will find all sorts of other things that need to be sawn straight. 

 

Edited, Mike the English teacher spotted a typo.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Stubby47]

Well, as long as she is careful...

 

 

Re the platforms, would lengths of stripwood be a solution?

Edited January 3, 2019 by Stubby47

[Clive Mortimore]

Well, as long as she is careful...

 

 

Re the platforms, would lengths of stripwood be a solution?

Hi Stu,

 

Could you please enlighten me on stripwood platforms. Thanks.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Hi Manna

 

That does sound good. I can see a down side, once I have convinced the boss we need to buy one, she will find all sorts of other things that need to be swan straight. 

 

Swans aren't straight, they have a bent neck bit in the middle, has your good lady swapped dobbins for the Queens pets?

 

Mike.

[Stubby47]

Hi Stu,

 

Could you please enlighten me on stripwood platforms. Thanks.

 

I'm assuming you were intending to cut the ply to size for the platform width, less the thickness of any brick cladding, but are worried about cutting the edge straight.

 

By using strip wood, one piece for each platform wall, you could lay each piece accurately along side the track, then use a card or thin ply for the surface.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

Thanks Stu

 

It is something worth considering.

[richard i]

No ranch with barn in the future planning. I can’t stand horses. They are bigger than me and have a brain.

[Clive Mortimore]

No ranch with barn in the future planning. I can’t stand horses. They are bigger than me and have a brain.

I feel the same about them but only my knees knock now when I have to do something with them and no Mrs M around to help.

 

Anyhow a song for today

 

[Stubby47]

Horses - dangerous at each end and unpredictable in the middle.

[westerner]

I'm assuming you were intending to cut the ply to size for the platform width, less the thickness of any brick cladding, but are worried about cutting the edge straight.

 

By using strip wood, one piece for each platform wall, you could lay each piece accurately along side the track, then use a card or thin ply for the surface.

 

platform.png

 Its the way I've always done my platforms, Wencombe, Kingsbridge and now Louville Lane. It's always appears to work. The advantage is the thin ply or card can be cut with a straight edge and Stanley Knife, so no sawing!!!

Edited January 3, 2019 by westerner

[Andrew P]

I feel the same about them but only my knees knock now when I have to do something with them and no Mrs M around to help.

 

Anyhow a song for today

 

Think,       NO, KNOW, I prefer the Chris Isaak's version mate, SORRY.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Andrew P

[StevieD71]

I'm using 15mm x 6mm pine stripwood covered with brick paper for platform wall and topping it with 3mm balsa for the surface, which seem to work well. I've used some thicker balsa for the ramps. The bonus for me is that balsa can be scribes and cut with a knife, which is handy because I'm another who cannot cut a straight line in wood.

I just have to work out how to finish the platforms now. Sandpaper sprayed dark grey is my current front runner.

[Clive Mortimore]

I have parked the platform ideas for the moment, as running is more important than the scenics.

 

In the Manchester sidings since I fitted the point motors there have been some derailments over a couple of points. On inspection I found that it was due to two points that at the blade ends were very close together and the point motors were pushing against each other causing the points to twist. One of these was in turn misaligning the next in the ladder. The next one was a Y point that I had done a "Grantham" on and straighten it. The twisting was making it go tight to gauge and derailing every thing. Plan was to separate the Manchester sidings into two sets with an entrance/exit each, well plans do change.

I started by lifting the two points I was moving and cutting a section of the mainline out. That went to plan.

I then cut the new holes for the point motors. That went to plan.

The modified point was partially lifted, when giving it a push back down a point blade broke.

 

Mild panic set in. I then rummaged through my spares box of track and found the point I broke the blade off when fitting the point motors and another wrecked point that still had a good set of blades. It is a wee bit difficult to do and I think harder to explain but I did manage to swap the point blades and the tie bar without losing the Peco spring. Quite cuffed with myself.

 

I then refitted the point motors to the points and put them in their new positions.

 

Time to test everything. Only a couple of the Manchester points worked. There was a dangling return wire. I must have not soldered a joint when fitting the point motors first time as it wasn't connected to a point that had not been disturbed, so up came more points so I could get at it to solder it.  Before even plugging in the soldering iron I noticed the repaired point's motor was the wrong way round, so that had to come up again to turn it.

 

All back down and ready for testing. This time they did all work.

 

The holes I had made in the past are now covered a la Peters' bodge.

 

New holes drilled to reposition the studs on the control panel, they were moved.

 

Now to test with moving trains. When I was finding out what was derailing I used the secondary socket for number four hand held controller. That was over the other side by the diesel depot so I switched out the hand held and activated the panel mount. Well that never happened. There is electricity going in but none coming out. Normally with a Gaugemaster it is the rheostat wipers that are not making contact, no not this one. Time to buy another one.

 

Testing was done with number three controller from the panel.

 

A couple of derailments happened but the problem seemed to be a kink in one blade of the repaired point, soon sorted.

 

The next thing was to alter the markings on the panel to match the new track layout. I thought I had some purple paint, well that is the colour of the section I have altered. I mixed some red and blue and got a very close match of purple, so that is now done.

 

A very busy and productive night, I do hope in the long run the changes improve the running.

 

As I have been working on the purple section here is a song about purple

Edited January 5, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[St Enodoc]

I have parked the platform ideas for the moment, as running is more important than the scenics.

 

In the Manchester sidings since I fitted the point motors there have been some derailments over a couple of points. On inspection I found that it was due to two points that at the blade ends were very close together and the point motors were pushing against each other causing the points to twist. One of these was in turn misaligning the next in the ladder. The next one was a Y pint that I had done a "Grantham" on and straighten it. The twisting was making it go tight to gauge and derailing every thing. Plan was to separate the Manchester sidings into two sets with an entrance/exit each, well plans do change.

I started by lifting the two points I was moving and cutting a section of the mainline out. That went to plan.

I then cut the new holes for the point motors. That went to plan.

The modified point was partially lifted, when giving it a push back down a point blade broke.

 

Mild panic set in. I then rummaged through my spares box of track and found the point I broke the blade off when fitting the point motors and another wrecked point that still had a good set of blades. It is a wee bit difficult to do and I think harder to explain but I did manage to swap the point blades and the tie bar without losing the Peco spring. Quite cuffed with myself.

 

I then refitted the point motors to the points and put them in their new positions.

 

Time to test everything. Only a couple of the Manchester points worked. There was a dangling return wire. I must have not soldered a joint when fitting the point motors first time as it wasn't connected to a point that had not been disturbed, so up came more points so I could get at it to solder it.  Before even plugging in the soldering iron I noticed the repaired point's motor was the wrong way round, so that had to come up again to turn it.

 

All back down and ready for testing. This time they did all work.

 

The holes I had made in the past are now covered a la Peters' bodge.

 

New holes drilled to reposition the studs on the control panel, they were moved.

 

Now to test with moving trains. When I was finding out what was derailing I used the secondary socket for number four hand held controller. That was over the other side by the diesel depot so I switched out the hand held and activated the panel mount. Well that never happened. There is electricity going in but none coming out. Normally with a Gaugemaster it is the rheostat wipers that are not making contact, no not this one. Time to buy another one.

 

Testing was done with number three controller from the panel.

 

A couple of derailments happened but the problem seemed to be a kink in one blade of the repaired point, soon sorted.

 

The next thing was to alter the markings on the panel to match the new track layout. I thought I had some purple paint, well that is the colour of the section I have altered. I mixed some red and blue and got a very close match of purple, so that is now done.

 

A very busy and productive night, I do hope in the long run the changes improve the running.

 

As I have been working on the purple section here is a song about purple

You might find this more soothing...

 

[richard i]

Don’t do the sandpaper on platforms, I just ended up with very short brushes and it did not look as good as scatter. Ripped them up and started again........actually Andy did the basis of the repeat with you.

Richard

[john new]

I have parked the platform ideas for the moment, as running is more important than the scenics.

 

In the Manchester sidings since I fitted the point motors there have been some derailments over a couple of points. On inspection I found that it was due to two points that at the blade ends were very close together and the point motors were pushing against each other causing the points to twist. One of these was in turn misaligning the next in the ladder. The next one was a Y point that I had done a "Grantham" on and straighten it. The twisting was making it go tight to gauge and derailing every thing. Plan was to separate the Manchester sidings into two sets with an entrance/exit each, well plans do change.

I started by lifting the two points I was moving and cutting a section of the mainline out. That went to plan.

I then cut the new holes for the point motors. That went to plan.

The modified point was partially lifted, when giving it a push back down a point blade broke.

 

Mild panic set in. I then rummaged through my spares box of track and found the point I broke the blade off when fitting the point motors and another wrecked point that still had a good set of blades. It is a wee bit difficult to do and I think harder to explain but I did manage to swap the point blades and the tie bar without losing the Peco spring. Quite cuffed with myself.

 

I then refitted the point motors to the points and put them in their new positions.

 

Time to test everything. Only a couple of the Manchester points worked. There was a dangling return wire. I must have not soldered a joint when fitting the point motors first time as it wasn't connected to a point that had not been disturbed, so up came more points so I could get at it to solder it.  Before even plugging in the soldering iron I noticed the repaired point's motor was the wrong way round, so that had to come up again to turn it.

 

All back down and ready for testing. This time they did all work.

 

The holes I had made in the past are now covered a la Peters' bodge.

 

New holes drilled to reposition the studs on the control panel, they were moved.

 

Now to test with moving trains. When I was finding out what was derailing I used the secondary socket for number four hand held controller. That was over the other side by the diesel depot so I switched out the hand held and activated the panel mount. Well that never happened. There is electricity going in but none coming out. Normally with a Gaugemaster it is the rheostat wipers that are not making contact, no not this one. Time to buy another one.

 

Testing was done with number three controller from the panel.

 

A couple of derailments happened but the problem seemed to be a kink in one blade of the repaired point, soon sorted.

 

The next thing was to alter the markings on the panel to match the new track layout. I thought I had some purple paint, well that is the colour of the section I have altered. I mixed some red and blue and got a very close match of purple, so that is now done.

 

A very busy and productive night, I do hope in the long run the changes improve the running.

 

As I have been working on the purple section here is a song about purple

I think Gaugemaster have lifetime guarantees, although I have never needed to activate a claim on it.  May be a case of send them the duff one and get a replacement back. 

[Clive Mortimore]

I think Gaugemaster have lifetime guarantees, although I have never needed to activate a claim on it.  May be a case of send them the duff one and get a replacement back. 

Hi John

 

They do, but when I worked for them had it been tampered with then it was normally "No". As I have "investigated" why it didn't work, and no longer have the Gaugemaster panel I might have forfeited the guarantee.  

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi All

 

Here is a thought, at what level do I say "That is good enough for me"?

 

I always like the modelling that Kier Hardy does, it is wonderful. Today on his Hornsey Broadway thread he showed a photo of some BR Mk 1 non-gangway stock he is making from Bachmann 2EPB stock. I enquired as to why he was going that route, and Kier's answer makes sense as the end result will be a better looking model of a set of Mk1 non gangway coaches than just opening the boxes and plonking the Bachmann models on the track.

 

On my layout at the moment are two rakes of Mk1 non gangway coaches, they are the Bachmann model and to me look fine, even without flush glazing. Now am I dropping my standards, not reaching expected present standards or just content with my lot.

 

I am not comparing my modelling with Kier's but my own standards. Something to think about in the long term of building the Exchange.

[Mulgabill]

Clive

 

You pose a question that I suspect most of us grapple with, privately, and often inconclusively.

 

Having had a long break from proper modelling, before starting Helstonish, I realised there

would have to be many compromises when I did get started.

 

I also realised that we all see things differently. I have concluded that I tend to take in the

overall impression, rather than specific detail. Therefore in my ignorance I can accept

details that are not neccessarily in quite the right place, until somebody points them out.

(This is the cartoon bit in Helstonish).With any luck my ageing memory will still allow me

to overlook such details, until a point where I feel an irritation that leads to an attempt to

improve it.

 

At that point comes the next big question, do I have the skills / ability to ACTUALLY improve

it.

 

However alongside all this philosophy, I am on RM Web which inevitably means the "acceptable"

threshold is rising. Not 'cos you say so, but 'cos I'm both more aware and more desirous of

raising my standards (within reason).

 

To this end I have been host to an internal debate over the roof of my Forest of Dean cottage,

unsure whether to get the hammer out and make it fit, or start the roof again.

 

My thanks to you for raising this thought publicly, you have helped my decision, to rebuild.

Hopefully one day my skills may get to a level that sombody wants to invite a layout of mine

to be shared more widely, you never know, but I've a way to go yet.

 

All the best