Kirkallanmuir

[queensquare]

Lovely stuff Jim, as an S&D man I'd always plump for the dark blue!

 

Jerry

[Caley Jim]

I don’t know, I just don’t know..

In that case, you and any others of a similar disposition had better skip the rest of this post.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

 

The madness continues and the remaining signal wire posts have been fitted.

 

Looking in the up direction.

 

And in the down direction from the bridge

 

and from above the livestock landing.

 

Jim

[JohnBS]

Jim,

I don’t fancy the job of cleaning your track !

John

[Caley Jim]

Jim,

I don’t fancy the job of cleaning your track !

John

With the signals removed, it's not to difficult with a nail buffer.

 

Jim

Edited November 24, 2018 by Caley Jim

[bécasse]

With the signals removed, it's not too difficult with a nail buffer.

 

One of the most useful tips that I have learnt from exhibiting regularly in France is that wine corks make excellent track cleaners, either the genuine article or the plastic substitute. There is always a ready supply at French shows, where most exhibitors consider the odd glass or two of wine to be an essential (human) lubricant at lunch time!

[richard i]

One of the most useful tips that I have learnt from exhibiting regularly in France is that wine corks make excellent track cleaners, either the genuine article or the plastic substitute. There is always a ready supply at French shows, where most exhibitors consider the odd glass or two of wine to be an essential (human) lubricant at lunch time!

How very civilized.

[bécasse]

How very civilized.

 

Actually even more civilised than that. It is commonplace to turn up with local food (hams, pâtés, cheeses, gâteaux, etc) and drink (wine, beer, aperitifs, even spirits), someone goes out for baguettes, and come noon everyone sits down to a very jolly picnic with all the goodies freely shared. If you have ever been to a French show and wondered why few trains run at lunchtime ...........

[Donw]

Actually even more civilised than that. It is commonplace to turn up with local food (hams, pâtés, cheeses, gâteaux, etc) and drink (wine, beer, aperitifs, even spirits), someone goes out for baguettes, and come noon everyone sits down to a very jolly picnic with all the goodies freely shared. If you have ever been to a French show and wondered why few trains run at lunchtime ...........

 

I suspect those locals who come to view the trains give the same priority to lunch and would accept the lack of activity.

 

Don

[Caley Jim]

Having got the signal box built and the point rodding and signal wire posts fitted, the next job for the Sick and Tired Dept. is the telegraph poles.

 

The CR made wide use of A-frame poles so some 1.5mm brass rod was cut to length and slightly tapered in the minidrill.  I only had enough rod for three poles, so I resorted to using some 1.5mm od tube, but still don't have enough.  Graham R of this parish has kindly got me some more rod which I'll get from him at our area group meeting next Saturday.  Meanwhile I made two A-frames from three lengths of rod and one of tube.

 

I had drawn up an A-frames prior to producing etched cross bars and insulators for Sauchenford and added some extra etches for myself.  To make a jig for assembling the A-frames I printed two copies of this and glued that to a piece of card, letting me assemble two A-frames at the one time.  I then cut carefully down the two outside edges of the A-frames, leaving a space into which the rods could fit.

 

 

The tops of the two pieces of rod were filed to a long chamfer, fitted into the jig with the chamfers together, and soldered.

 

 

Some shallow slots were then filed across the poles where the arms would fit and the tops filed to a ridge shape.  Only 6 arms are being fitted.

 

The arms were then soldered on using the printed image as a guide to getting them accurately positioned.

 

 

To the left of the photo are a couple of the etches for the arms.

 

The arms were cut from the fret and the ends filed smooth.  Kitchen foil was used to make the protective tops, glued on with cyano.

 

 

The left hand A-frame is the one which will be opposite the signal box and the extra arm on it, at right angles, is for the wires going to the box and the weighbridge office.  i have a photo which shows an arm fitted in this way to the end of one of the main arms.

 

Once they are all assembled, they'll all be painted together,but I only have enough tube left for one more A-frame and the single pole beside the office, so I can't make the fourth A-frame until I get that other length of rod.

 

They may not be as complex as Tim's one for CF, but they should help to add to the 'Caley' feel of the layout.

 

Jim

[Lacathedrale]

Exquisite!

[Caley Jim]

Looking again at the photo I have of a pole with and arm attached at right angles to the end of another one I realised that all the insulators on both the lower arm on the pole and the one attached were in pairs on spindles.  These comprised a broad 'U' bracket, fixed to the arm, with an insulator threaded onto each leg of the 'U'.  They were used when there was a joint in the wire and give the amr a much 'beefier' look than my etched ones.  i pondered and experemented how to reproduce this.

 

The method i came up with was to form the spindle from 10thou p/b wire, with the base of the 'U' flattened in pliers.  The etched insulators were cut off and the spindles either soldered or glued to the underside of the arms (I chickened out with the soldering after the extra arm came adrift and had to be re soldered in place!)  The insulators were formed from a small piece of insulation from decoder wire slipped onto each leg so that just the end of the wire protruded.  A touch of cyano to the top fixed them in place.

 

 

Hopefully once they are painted the difference between them and the etched insulators won't be too obvious, at least from a couple of feet away!

 

Jim

[Marly51]

Pretty neat modelling, Jim.

[Caley Jim]

Having obtained more rod, courtesy of graham at our last group meeting, I have completed the remaining telegraph post required.

 

 

The left hand single pole with the spindles on it is to sit outside the weighbridge office carrying the lines to it, while the other single posts on the right are for the lines running to the goods yard office and come off the A-frame pole second from the right.

 

The signal box has also acquired an arm carrying the wires coming to it.

 

 

The posts were given a spray of matt black from a rattle can, painted dark brown and the insulators painted with a thin coat of white.

 

They have now all been installed apart from the one which will sit outside the goods yard office as I'm not yet sure of where that is going to be.

 

 

All adding to the atmosphere.

 

Jim

[Caley Jim]

No progress to report, but I just wanted to thank all of you who have taken the trouble to follow my, sometimes insane, efforts and leave positive comments during 2018.  I wish you all a Guid New Year full of productive modelling.  Just about to leave to go up the town to see the bonfire lit.

 

Jim

[Northroader]

Happy Hogmanay, Jim, for auld Lang syne.

[Caley Jim]

Happy Hogmanay, Jim, for auld Lang syne.

I trust that's with an 's' and not the dreaded American 'z'!

 

Slainte mhaith

 

Jim

[Northroader]

Hey, Jim, you were back from the bonfire before midnight???

[Caley Jim]

Yes, back to our own house for 'the bells'.

Jim

[Caley Jim]

Hey, Jim, you were back from the bonfire before midnight???

Couldn't seem to add a photo using my phone and the family were here yesterday, so only now able to respond properly.

 

The bonfire gets lit just before 21:30.  Thanks to the recent dry weather it caught light very easily (usually copious amounts of diesel are poured on it to get it going) and this was it by 21:45.

 

 

As you can see, the windows of the adjacent Corn Exchange (now an arts venue) are boarded up for their protection and also the head of the nearby pedestrian traffic lights is temporarily removed.

 

Jim

[Northroader]

I had this romantic vision of all the Biggar townsfolk happily circulating round the fire, with bottles clinking in overcoat pockets, til the church bells rang the chimes, and there was a great outpouring of bonhomie, backslapping, singing, and so on, and me thinking how they know how to do things properly up there....

[Ian Smith]

Couldn't seem to add a photo using my phone and the family were here yesterday, so only now able to respond properly.

 

The bonfire gets lit just before 21:30.  Thanks to the recent dry weather it caught light very easily (usually copious amounts of diesel are poured on it to get it going) and this was it by 21:45.

 

DSC_0992.JPG

 

As you can see, the windows of the adjacent Corn Exchange (now an arts venue) are boarded up for their protection and also the head of the nearby pedestrian traffic lights is temporarily removed.

 

Jim

 

Looking at some of the bits of wood on the fire I thought that the windows had been boarded up because they'd been ripped out and added to the fire! :-)

[asa]

Passed through Biggar two weeks ago and thought it was for something like that.

[Caley Jim]

In between working on the 2nd footbridge and other things I've started a bit of 'proper' scenic work on Kirkallanmuir (as opposed to railway infrastructure).

 

The fields in front of and at the end of the exchange sidings have been grassed with static grass and some bushes have appeared along the walls.  The main work has been a start on the trees on the hill behind the sidings. 

Most of this follows the techniques used on Fencehouses and described in MRJ.  The bushes and smaller trees are lichen sprayed with cheap hairspray and then dipped in a variety of scenic foams, flock etc., the excess being shaken off and then another spray to help fix them.  The large trees - they scale c60ft - are dried sedum flower heads with the seeds removed and a variety of Woodlands Scenics foliage mats, cut into random, irregular pieces, glued on with PVA.  Further hairspray then applied.

 

I find that it's a slow process and so far I've only got as far as the end of the lye siding with the trees, although the whole banking has been grassed.

 

There will eventually be a backscene behind this, once I work out how I'm going to mount it.  I have a few ideas.

 

Jim

Edited July 17, 2019 by Caley Jim
Edited for typos

[queensquare]

Hi Jim, apologies for going off topic but I saw on your area groups website that you have been having trouble with the cassettes on Sauchenford. I have used the method shown in the photo and have never had issues with derailments or electrical continuity. The photo should make it clear. Its just a couple of bits of shim bent up and bolted to a couple of inches of matching angle which acts as a dock.

 

 

Hope thats helpful, Jerry

[Caley Jim]

Thanks, Jerry. I'll point the group to your post. 

 

I had to leave early on Saturday and haven't really been involved in the work that had gone on with the cassettes. They were originally built to the same design as I described in the Magazine some time ago but we're never as successful as mine, partly, but not purely, due to them not having been built with quite the same degree of accuracy. 

The main problem I have with mine is poor pickup on them due to the aluminium oxidising, but at present the layout doesn't get run all that much, which probably doesn't help.

 

My problem for my making more cassettes is that the only angle which seems to be available now is 12mm as opposed to the 12.5mm I've used up until now, which kind of upsets the overall design as far as being able to stack them etc. I have a couple of work-arounds in mind, however. 

 

Jim