First Sunday in June (FSIJ) - 16mm fine scale layout construction

[Greengiant]

Yesterday we trial fitted five of the six gondolas on the RotaYard.

 

 

 

 

This photo gives a better idea of size of the yard.

 

 

I need to tweak some of the baseboard ribs to give a little more safety margin clearance now we have an assembled yard.

We also identified that because the motor and drive belt wheel hang slightly below the RotaYard frame (see photo below), although the RotaYard should only ever be lifted from the baseboard into its transport box, it was felt necessary to add some small feet in case it was ever put straight onto the floor.

 

 

The motor in the frame fixed in place with the 3D printed mount.

 

 

So we needed to make some small feet and add location holes in the baseboards and storage box. A cup of tea and some biscuits later the solution was to remake the motor mount. With this in mind, back to the CAD and an offset mount was designed and we just need to 3D print one, no need for the feet.

 

 

 

It should not be too long now before we can do the first powered run of the RotaYard.

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

Time for an update. The gondola bases have now been painted in satin black.

 

 

The small test section of track has had some moss deposit experiments take place and some fish plates added. Was unable to cut the web of the rail to simulate a joint, but on the actual layout the web will be cut when laying the rail.

 

 

Sleeper distressing on the whole layout has now been done using these various tools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sleepers have all had first stage staining.

 

 

First stage ballasting has now also been done.

 

 

We did call in some help with some borrowed track and stock to speed things up.

 

 

Martin

 

 

[Greengiant]

Yesterday we took advantage of the good weather we have had and laid all the boards out to give us an idea of the footprint required for the layout.

 

 

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

Track laying has started, first is board six.

The plates were cleaned up with a mop in a wizzy disk.

 

 

Clip positions were marked out, then they were soldered to the rail using a 150 watt iron to get enough heat in quickly. We made a simple jig by routing a groove in some plywood at the depth to hold the upturned rail and the clips in exactly the right plane.

 

 

For rail end clips and some mid point clips we have some that have been drilled to accept small screws.

 

 

With end clips in place we used a rail bender to curve the rail until we got the flow we wanted.

 

 

Note that the clips are not always central on the sleeper width, this is not an error, that is how they appear on the actual railway.

 

 

 

One board getting there, still to do is fitting of the pandrol clips, blackening of the rail and final fixing to the sleepers.

 

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

Today we got to board four with the track laying initial stage.

 

 

On the previous two boards the fishplates were soldered on using an RSU.

 

 

This photo shows that we cut the web and head of the rail to simulate rails joins.

 

 

Martin

[Donw]

very impressive trackwork

 

Don

[Greengiant]

Bringing the thread up to date, not a vast amount has been done other than the parts for the traverser have been made and trial fitted to the baseboard.

The units that hold the adjustable end stops and power supply plunger pins have now bee 3D printed.

 

 

Here seen mounted on one of the end plates but yet to have the power supply pins fitted.

 

 

And here seen with the traverser perspex (with protective film still applied) and a linear bearing.

 

 

This photo shows how the drive belt will be attached to the traverser table, not at all clear in this picture is how the belt interacts with the mounting block, I will try and get a better picture to show how this works.

 

 

An overall view of where this will be sighted, our intention is to have this fully on view and showing all the workings.

 

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

I now have some close up photos of the parts we have 3D printed or CNC'd for the traverser.
 
This part is the unit that transfers the drive movement from the belt to the table. The belt which we will cut to length just slides into the unit from the side, the teeth printed in the slot locate with the teeth in the belt, this gives us the ability to adjust belt length by one tooth which means final tightening will be minimal, plus we can buy any over length belt, no need to buy one the exact length.
 

 
This is an end view, the lower slots are for the belt, what will not be obvious is the slot on the upper part. This slot is wide enough for a nut over the flats, which means we push in a nut which is now captive and will not rotate to receive a bolt from above through the traverser table to allow the fixing in place of this unit.
 

 
This is a 3D printed mount for the end belt pulley attached to the end of the traverser well upright.
 

 
Here is the end wall of the well showing the belt pulley wheel and two 3D printed end stops which also house the plunger pick ups, only one plunger has been fitted at the moment.
 

 
One of the linear bearings mounted on a rail showing how the end stop and pick-ups will interact.
 

 
A close up of one of the stop units showing clearly a Pogo pin, you will see the head on the Pogo pin is made up of a series of points, the benefit of this type of pin is it is effectively self cleaning, it rotates in the housing giving a slight movement which should ensure any dirt on the contact surface is cleared.
 

 
A very short video showing this end stop in action.

Martin

[Greengiant]

By way of an update, final fitment of the traverser is nearing completion, the well end panels were drawn up, printed out to test for accuracy, then cut from 3mm ply as three laminations on the laser.

 

 

 

 

These were then glued up to give 9mm which will be deep enough to hold the M6 'T' nuts.

 

 

The workshop has now been rearranged so the four straight scenic boards can be left up permanently which will help with the track laying.

 

I have upgraded all of the fluorescent lights in the workshop to 6000K LED tubes, these have made a big difference to the lighting. Some were very straightforward to upgrade, they came with a special LED fuse starter, so just a straight swop. Some others were a little more involved, but basically meant removing the ballast and associated wiring, but nothing difficult. Added benefit of instant on and uses a lot less electricity.

 

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

We are getting nearer to assembling the RotaYard and traverser for testing the installation on the two baseboards.

Here are some close up shots of the 3D printed belt fixing/adjuster for the traverser drive belt.

We have the presenter of the podcast Model Rail Radio paying us a visit this week, so the workshop has had a bit if a tidy up, although it does not look like it has! Some sections of The Yard and First Sunday in June have been erected so he can see first hand what we have been up to.

While doing this we took the opportunity to trial fit up one of the curved lower fascia panels and have a discussion as to how best to achieve the mounting of said panels. The dark coloured bar at the foot of the curved fascia will eventually be painted white, there will also be full height, shaped panels for each end of the layout. While getting things ready we dug out the original concept models which have taken a bit of a battering over time.

The first concept model.

The second concept model.

A few shots of a lower fascia panel on one of the fiddle yard boards.

Martin

[Greengiant]

We achieved a bit of a milestone this week, the first powered run of the RotaYard.

 

We temporarily wired up the drive motor...

 

 

...and clamped the belt tensioner in place...

 

 

..a rough bit of packing for the end bearings.

 

 

Traverser plate in position.

 

 

All ready and fingers crossed while we power up the motor.

 

 

A short video of the very first powered run.

 

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

This week we put up the first four scenic boards in readiness for starting work on the landscape.

 

View from the goods yard towards Stony Shaw station in the background.

 

 

Low level view from the mainline up to the goods shed.

 

 

Component parts for the first of two points that make up the crossing by the signal box.

 

 

From the opposite direction.

 

 

Stony Shaw station end.

 

 

Two card coach mock ups at Stony Shaw station.

 

 

All of the stock and infrastructure has to be scratch built, so everything has to be drawn first, a start has been made on a number of items.

Wormshill the Hudwell diesel.

 

 

One of the coach pairs.

 

 

Some of the signals.

 

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

Latest update on progress, all be it slow!

 

We have now made a storage box for the RotaYard, this was a multi-part requirement, one, to store it so it takes up less room than it's component parts spread all over the workshop, two, to protect and keep it clean and three, so it can be easily moved for when it will shortly be off for the final fitment of the drive system and associated detectors and electronics.

 

 

The combined box and RotaYard is a heavy old lump to carry, we shall probably make some form of trolley when the time comes to exhibit.

 

Martin

[Greengiant]

This time of year a couple of us get involved with our classic cars and the layout takes a bit of a back seat, so to generate some enthusiasm to get on with things, we made some rough colour mock-ups of the three buildings on the layout and position them in place to get a feel for composition.

 

The run round end of Stony Shaw station.

 

 

The approach end of the station.

 

 

Signal box with the station in the background, a very difficult view point on the real thing unless you had a very tall step ladder!

 

 

Finally the goods shed.

 

 

A view of the first four scenic boards. The plywood at the top was for helping us decide fascia height, we have now set this at 21 inches from underside of fascia to the bottom of the baseboard, which is a lot lower than this picture shows.

 

 

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Work has started on preparing the signals, of which there are three semaphore and two ground signals.

Construction will be by etched brass, 3D printing, milling and hand cutting, whichever process suits each component best. Etch artwork has been started and a trial set of parts was laser cut from the artwork in 300gsm card to test the concept and highlight any potential construction issues , plus they could be positioned on the layout like the rough buildings.

 

Some of the base artwork cut out.

 

 

Rough assembled platform starter signal.

 

 

A waft of white primer and positioned on the layout.

 

 

The bases the signals are mounted on will be deep and sunk into sockets in the scenery, these bases will contain the operating servos so this will make setting them up on the workbench easier. The speakers will probably mounted behind the fascia, unless we can find a way to bury and disguise them in the landscape.

 

I was going to laser cut the base boxes and sockets and coat them in DAS and carve that, but I have been inspired by the great work done by Niki Wilkes with PVC Foamex, so have now got a pile of 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, and 5mm to play with. I have also been watching a series of YouTube videos of someone using this material for making the buildings for his garden railway, so will us it for that as well.

 

Made a start carving the top surface from 3mm Foamex, which comes out about right for a 1/19th scale paving block brick. I have been using cake decorators tools for the embossing, I got a large bundle of various sizes off eBay for about £6.00!

It was not until I sanded the surface did I find out one side has a peelable protective clear sheet applied! I will know now for next time.

 

 

Martin

[Zigzag Canyon]

I hope you have an update?

[Greengiant]

7 minutes ago, Zigzag Canyon said:

I hope you have an update?

Not much to report on other than we are not far off laying down the rails and making the points, but we have been distracted by our other layouts which have impending shows coming up. We have been doing scale drawings of the rolling stock so we can start making the parts.

 

Martin

[Zigzag Canyon]

Thanks!  I'm looking forward to tracklaying.  I'm curious how you will bend the rail with the plates and clips pre-soldered to the rail bottom.  I'm also hoping for a step-by-step turnout laying procedure.  Great work!  And have a happy Thanksgiving holiday.

 

Adrian