Southern Railway Modelling - Miscellaneous Project work

[Jack P]

Copied from my post on Tony W's thread. There was a discussion around baseboards and i'm interested in feedback!

 

The cost of laser cut baseboards + postage to New Zealand is both difficult to justify fiscally and from a creative sense. 

I spoke to a few people who have built baseboards/layouts and they suggested the skeletal approach from ply, with the flat surfaces then cut from ply once the trackplan was printed and tweaked. 

 

I ventured to the local DIY store and returned with some sheets of 9mm 'Okoume' ply. 

 

 

The angled board took a bit of head scratching to make sure I had lengths and cut angles right.

 

 

After I'd assembled the two boards, I decided it wouldn't do justice to the trackplan I was intending to use to only have it across two boards (too much compression) so this afternoon, a third board was started.

 

 

To make my life easier, I used the jig/cutting brace that came with my circular saw and ripped lengths off the board along the short side. This meant I had plenty of boards that were all 1200 long (2400 x 1200 ply sheets), and then cut the spares down for ends/bracing formers. I then marked out and used the jig saw to make the slightly more 'artistic' cuts.

I'm already aware that I would do things differently next time - for instance; I probably don't need braces at 200mm centres and i've not cut any holes in the bracing strips (which are too close for me to get a hole saw into). But it was a great learning opportunity and I'm pleased with what I've produced. 

There are still bits to do, once the track-plan is printed and affixed to the ply toppers, I can start to work out where I need to make cuts to the bracing boards to allow for anything underneath. 

I'll also laminate the ends to be at-least double thickness.

 

My question to Tony's thead followers (and you guys!), is; do we think 550mm wide boards are too narrow to allow a natural depth of field, without it feeling forced?

The track plan is a simple two track main line, diverging into a junction.

 

 

The plan is to loosely base the scene on the junction at Hardham, the two photos below were really what drew me to this location. 

It's nothing overly complex, but level crossing gates on a turnout were interesting, plus the raised signalbox and junction. 

 

 

 

It's early days yet, and I'm still not convinced I have the guts to make it prototypical. But i'll keep you updated as I go.

 

That's all for now!

Edited March 21, 2023 by Jack P

[Nick C]

Very nice - A very early Saxby box I believe, and an unusual one being on stilts - last of it's kind accoridng to Pryer. Also fairly well photographed which should make modelling it a bit easier! Both sets of cottages still exist, though of course the box is long gone. The one on the west side (left in your bottom photo) is slate-hung, which is very unusual for Sussex, tile-hanging being more common. 

[Jack P]

7 hours ago, Nick C said:

Very nice - A very early Saxby box I believe, and an unusual one being on stilts - last of it's kind accoridng to Pryer. Also fairly well photographed which should make modelling it a bit easier! Both sets of cottages still exist, though of course the box is long gone. The one on the west side (left in your bottom photo) is slate-hung, which is very unusual for Sussex, tile-hanging being more common. 

 

Yes indeed! Apparently very similar/the same as the one at Billinghurst. 

 

Thank so so much for the information on lineside structures. It's amazing how many things you need to start figuring out, once you choose to model a location (even approximately). I'm very excited about the challenge though. 

Next step is identifying the different types of trees. I'm also slowly starting to figure out the signal gantry and the 3rd rail aspect.

 

 

I realise that the explanation of the boards was a bit poor - to summarize. There is 3650mm of board length, with the rectangular boards being 550mm W, the angled board splaying out to 700mm at the far end. 

This should give me plenty of room for the junction to divert off at the end, and enough space to represent the curve as it comes up to the signal box.

 

 

[Nick C]

Billingshurst box still exists - it was moved to Amberley museum after it closed. They may well have plans as a result? 

 

It's an area I know pretty well, I grew up near there...

[hayfield]

23 hours ago, Jack P said:

Copied from my post on Tony W's thread. There was a discussion around baseboards and i'm interested in feedback!

 

The cost of laser cut baseboards + postage to New Zealand is both difficult to justify fiscally and from a creative sense. 

I spoke to a few people who have built baseboards/layouts and they suggested the skeletal approach from ply, with the flat surfaces then cut from ply once the trackplan was printed and tweaked. 

 

I ventured to the local DIY store, and armed with some sheets of 9mm 'Okoume' ply I set to work.

 

 

The angled board took a bit of head scratching to make sure I had lengths and angles right.

 

 

After I'd assembled the two boards, I decided it wouldn't do justice to the trackplan I was intending to use, so this afternoon, a third board was started.

 

 

To make my life easier, I used the jig/cutting brace that came with my circular saw and ripped lengths off the board along the short side. This meant I had plenty of boards that were all 1200 long (2400 x 1200 ply sheets), and then cut the spares down for ends/bracing formers. I then marked out and used the jig saw to make the slightly more 'artistic' cuts.

I'm already aware that I would do things differently next time - for instance; I probably don't need braces at 200mm centres and i've not cut any holes in the bracing strips (which are too close for me to get a hole saw into). But it was a great learning opportunity and I'm pleased with what I've produced. 

There are still bits to do, once the track-plan is printed and affixed to the ply toppers, I can start to work out where I need to make cuts to the bracing boards to allow for anything underneath. 

I'll also laminate the ends to be at-least double thickness.

 

My question to Tony's thead followers (and you guys!), is; do we think 550mm wide boards are too narrow to allow a natural depth of field, without it feeling forced?

The track plan is a simple two track main line, diverging into a junction.

 

 

The plan is to loosely base the scene on the junction at Hardham, the two photos below were really what drew me to this location. 

It's nothing overly complex, but level crossing gates on a turnout were interesting, plus the raised signalbox and junction. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now!

 

 

The crossover starts before the level crossing and interestingly goes through it

[hayfield]

On 20/03/2023 at 11:24, Jack P said:

Copied from my post on Tony W's thread. There was a discussion around baseboards and i'm interested in feedback!

 

The cost of laser cut baseboards + postage to New Zealand is both difficult to justify fiscally and from a creative sense. 

I spoke to a few people who have built baseboards/layouts and they suggested the skeletal approach from ply, with the flat surfaces then cut from ply once the trackplan was printed and tweaked. 

 

I ventured to the local DIY store and returned with some sheets of 9mm 'Okoume' ply. 

 

 

The angled board took a bit of head scratching to make sure I had lengths and cut angles right.

 

 

After I'd assembled the two boards, I decided it wouldn't do justice to the trackplan I was intending to use to only have it across two boards (too much compression) so this afternoon, a third board was started.

 

 

To make my life easier, I used the jig/cutting brace that came with my circular saw and ripped lengths off the board along the short side. This meant I had plenty of boards that were all 1200 long (2400 x 1200 ply sheets), and then cut the spares down for ends/bracing formers. I then marked out and used the jig saw to make the slightly more 'artistic' cuts.

I'm already aware that I would do things differently next time - for instance; I probably don't need braces at 200mm centres and i've not cut any holes in the bracing strips (which are too close for me to get a hole saw into). But it was a great learning opportunity and I'm pleased with what I've produced. 

There are still bits to do, once the track-plan is printed and affixed to the ply toppers, I can start to work out where I need to make cuts to the bracing boards to allow for anything underneath. 

I'll also laminate the ends to be at-least double thickness.

 

My question to Tony's thead followers (and you guys!), is; do we think 550mm wide boards are too narrow to allow a natural depth of field, without it feeling forced?

The track plan is a simple two track main line, diverging into a junction.

 

 

The plan is to loosely base the scene on the junction at Hardham, the two photos below were really what drew me to this location. 

It's nothing overly complex, but level crossing gates on a turnout were interesting, plus the raised signalbox and junction. 

 

 

 

It's early days yet, and I'm still not convinced I have the guts to make it prototypical. But i'll keep you updated as I go.

 

That's all for now!

 

 

Jack

 

 

A quick screen print from the 1912 plan. The 1945 differs as the trailing crossover has been removed, the facing crossover  has moved back so the west end straddles the road. 

 

The sidings and run around have gone and I assume the turnout to the branch is much the same.

 

Your photo of the level crossing confirms the new position of the facing crossover.

 

The Y turnout is clearly after the signal box but (wrongly in my opinion) shows it nearer the level crossing than it was. If it was nearer it would have to snake through the old run around/siding route

 

 

[Jack P]

A quick update

 

After some careful work, the baseboards look like this:

 

 

What, I hear you asking, are you up to? Well this was my first go at something like this, and there were a few shortcomings. Most glaring of which was that I had cut the scenic parts of the baseboard horizontals without really paying attention to the topography of the area. At Hardham Junction the only places the landscape falls away is looking towards Pulborough, after the signal, the rest of the area is on fairly level ground, with some small embankments on either side. 

 

I also didn't really leave enough space between the horizontals to get a drill in there, nor did I use the hole saw in advance to cut lightening holes/cable runs. I also need to fix the alignment dowels in place before attaching the ends. to the rest of the board, to make sure the cuts are nice and straight. Final thing was I felt that 550mm (the width i'd chosen) was just too narrow.

 

So...

 

 

I spent most of the day in the sun cutting some new boards. It always seems to take me a few cuts to get my act together - as can be seen by the shame pile on the right.

 

 

Here they are at the end of play tonight - I'm trying to minimise cutting inside the shed as (with no extraction) dust just gets everywhere. Next steps are sorting out the alignment dowels and hole saw-ing the horizontal boards. These new boards are fractionally shorter (1190mm vs 1200mm) but 200mm wider, with all 3 being rectangular. This should allow more of the surrounding scenery, while still incorporating the compression I had employed on the other boards. The end goal is to try and make the end result as close to 'prototypical' as possible.

 

Anyways, that's all for now! Hardham Junction (V2 boards) will continue.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Jack P

[Jack P]

The neighbours don't hate me, despite having to listen to the scream of the holesaw when I finished work last night. 

 

 

The end panels haven't been holed, and are waiting for the locating dowels to arrive before more work is done - I'm probably going to double them up to get the thickness I need, possibly triple, and IF I do go that route then i'll likely put some holes in the thickening boards. That's for next time on 'Woodworking with Jack'.

 

I've been working on the trap point for the branch, which is just a Peco B6+ modified to curve. 

 

A friend of mine is planning to go to the Amberly Museum to take some photos/measuements of the box there, so that we can decide on the best course of action for the production of mine. Laser cutting probably has the most appeal. 

 

That's all for now!

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Jack P

[Jack P]

Another update from Otto & I.

 

 

Board construction has begun & is progressing well

 

 

The first two boards are now complete.

 

 

The above boards will have thin ply tops added to them, which will then have the scenery built up upon them. The third board will have the falling cut-away as the curve sweeps around (in the Pulborough direction).

Next step will be to measure the printout of the track plan and make sure I have my spacing correct for the turnout motors & make sure no part of the  turnout will sit on a gap, i'll also then use this as a base to make my cuts before assembling the third board.

 

The logic of applying my eyes and counting on my fingers did not occur to me until now. In my previous post you can see the tie-bars for the turnouts at the crossing & the junction. I had previously thought there was a significantly longer gap between the two. I can count approximately 21 chairs between the two, so to be safe, i'll go with 22/23. But this should mean I won't have to introduce much/any compression, and may be able to fit the entire lot on a single board. The only issues I can see arising is that i've chosen to use B7's and not the more likely C9 crossing turnouts.

 

 

You can see my primitive scratchings to show the approx. distance.

 

The control system will be DCC, and while the wiring for the actual running lines should be relatively straightforward, I am still scratching my head when it comes to powering the Turnout motors/switches. 

 

 

I opted for the Cobalt S Levers (which are amazingly tactile, and heaps of fun to play with), and the Cobalt iP Digital motors. Next step will be figuring out how/what/why it all works. if the turnouts all fit on the same board, then it will only be the two signals on the third board that will need the ability to be disconnected. 

 

That's all for now!

Edited May 5, 2023 by Jack P

[KeithHC]

You could turn those baseboards into the frames for a carriage or wagon.

 

Keith

[Tony Teague]

10 hours ago, Jack P said:

Another update from Otto & I.

 

 

I opted for the Cobalt S Levers (which are amazingly tactile, and heaps of fun to play with), and the Cobalt iP Digital motors. Next step will be figuring out how/what/why it all works. if the turnouts all fit on the same board, then it will only be the two signals on the third board that will need the ability to be disconnected. 

 

Hi Jack

 

Otto looks beautiful!

 

As you know I too have used the DCC Concepts levers; they look great, they provide for multiple functions, and they are as you say very tactile, however, my word of caution is that I have experienced a high failure rate and I am now out of spares, having replaced at least 5 of a bank of 24 levers. After the first two went I bought some further spares but I have since got through those and am finding it hard to source further stocks in the UK.

 

 

The faults have included loose soldered connections & dry joints inside the switches and on the tag boards used to connect them, and most oddly, solder joints under those tag boards spreading once screwed down and shorting with adjoining tags.

 

Clearances are very fine but you can see in this image where I have had to scrape away solder to avoid shorting.

Despite all of this I remain committed to using these levers as I haven't identified any alternatives that look the part - plus I'd have to re-sdesign the front of my panel for anything different!

Tony

[Jack P]

14 hours ago, KeithHC said:

You could turn those baseboards into the frames for a carriage or wagon.

 

Keith

 

I'm hoping that's a good thing!

The goal was to make them as accurate and strong as possible without making them too heavy. They're heavier than the other boards, but not significantly, they're also 1/3 as big again, so a good trade imo.

 

12 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

Hi Jack

 

Otto looks beautiful!

 

As you know I too have used the DCC Concepts levers; they look great, they provide for multiple functions, and they are as you say very tactile, however, my word of caution is that I have experienced a high failure rate and I am now out of spares, having replaced at least 5 of a bank of 24 levers. After the first two went I bought some further spares but I have since got through those and am finding it hard to source further stocks in the UK.

 

The faults have included loose soldered connections & dry joints inside the switches and on the tag boards used to connect them, and most oddly, solder joints under those tag boards spreading once screwed down and shorting with adjoining tags.

 

Clearances are very fine but you can see in this image where I have had to scrape away solder to avoid shorting.

Despite all of this I remain committed to using these levers as I haven't identified any alternatives that look the part - plus I'd have to re-sdesign the front of my panel for anything different!

Tony

 

Hey Tony,

 

Otto will no doubt appreciate the compliment!

 

I appreciate your insight into your experience with the levers. I don't expect them to be perfect - they needed some gentle tweaking out of the box already. 

I'll keep an eye on the soldered parts of the joiners, I assume you've also used the 'no-solder' components that plug into the front of the lever? They seem like a good solution in practice.. but we will see. 

 

Did you find a specific method for painting the levers that seemed to work best for you?

 

[Tony Teague]

9 hours ago, Jack P said:

I appreciate your insight into your experience with the levers. I don't expect them to be perfect - they needed some gentle tweaking out of the box already. 

I'll keep an eye on the soldered parts of the joiners, I assume you've also used the 'no-solder' components that plug into the front of the lever? They seem like a good solution in practice.. but we will see. 

 

Did you find a specific method for painting the levers that seemed to work best for you?

 

Jack

 

I think you're about right - they need a bit of TLC but the results look good and they have good functionality.

Another thing that I found through experience is that when they are mounted close to the front of the control panel - as mine are - and in the 'pulled' position, it is far too easy to turn around in a chair or whatever, and catch the lever with a sleeve or the back of the chair - so I have also bent a couple, to my extreme annoyance!

 

Yes I have used thepre-soldered plug-in units and what my previous picture was showing was the underside of the little plug-in board; in practice it would be very hard to use a normal soldering tag strip within the same space and it makes it easy to swap connections in and out - alos to swap levers if / when one fails.

 

 

In terms of painting, I didn't want to dis-assemble each lever, so I put masking tape across the tops of the lever frame and then painted the levers down to that level - the paint does not continue down inside the lever frame.  I used a primer and then Humbrol enamels.

Tony

[Jack P]

On 06/05/2023 at 19:54, Tony Teague said:

Yes I have used thepre-soldered plug-in units and what my previous picture was showing was the underside of the little plug-in board; in practice it would be very hard to use a normal soldering tag strip within the same space and it makes it easy to swap connections in and out - alos to swap levers if / when one fails.

 

Wonderful. Thanks again Tony. 

 

I've ordered one  of these: https://kslaserdesigns.com/ks-laser-other-items/cab-holder?product_id=284

Which is designed to house the levers and the Solder-less tags. I'll report back on it's construction when it arrives.

 

I decided that I wasn't the biggest fan of the mottled look on the handles of the Cobalt levers - so after sanding off the coating of clear, I used blackening fluid to make them look more metal-y. 

 

 

Admittedly they look very black here, and not so metal-y. But in real life they look like polished, blackened metal. 

I then painted the levers. 3 for turnouts, 2 for signals, 1 for the Gates.

 

 

I ended up taking the levers out of the frames and masking the connections at the bottom. It was a lot of faff, but it meant that I could get them painted all over. 

I considered painting the catch lever black (as some had) but decided that they look enough like Saxby & Farmer levers as is. They were given a coat of satin Lacquer and left to cure before reassembly. 

 

I finished off the final board - pictured here with 1 piece left to go. 

 

 

I am looking into options for the tops. I have found some 4mm ply that I think would be perfect. There is a firm local to me that do laser cutting too, so that might be the best way of ensuring they're nice and square and even. 

 

Here's a very loose mock up of how the board leading into the crossing/junction will look.

 

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52888597524_8fa55931d7_h.jpg[/img]

 

 

I'm yet to cut the trackplan out for the Junction as it diverts, but that'll be tonight's job, followed by a full mock up over the weekend. 

 

More anon

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Jack P

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Jack P said:

I then painted the levers. 3 for turnouts, 2 for signals, 1 for the Gates.

 

 

You only need two point levers for Hardham in that era - one for the crossover, one for the branch. I've found a copy of the 1947 diagram, can't post it here for copyright reasons but I'll drop you a PM with more info...

[Jack P]

On 11/05/2023 at 22:14, Nick C said:

You only need two point levers for Hardham in that era - one for the crossover, one for the branch. I've found a copy of the 1947 diagram, can't post it here for copyright reasons but I'll drop you a PM with more info...

 

Thanks Nick - for those reading along at home, Nick's provided me with a signaling diagram from 1947 (the junction was re-laid in 1946), so this is perfect. 

I had incorrectly assumed that the crossover would require two levers (one per turnout), but this is incorrect and in practice would need just the one. No matter, I may stretch reality even further, and bring another signal on scene, or just have a spare.

 

I have spent some time this weekend doing something for the first time - building signals. 

A quick tangent, I think this is the first actual model work to commence specifically for this layout. Which is very exciting. 

 

Here's a poor attempt at AI image sharpening. 

 

 

This shows the signal in question. My notes so far are below:

- A heavy duty rail built post (actually x2 twin rail posts) this specific post doesn't appear to have the rungs joining the two sets of posts. 

-Then we've got the landing platform, supported with bent angle iron offering personnel protection in the form of a thin railing running around the perimeter.

-Two dolls, which appear to be of the LSWR 'Lattice' type, certainly the finials look to be of the LSWR cruciform type (my understanding is that the southern adopted these as 'standard' along with the LSWR's style of point rodding).

- Two pressed 'corrugated' home arms adorn the tops of the posts.

- There are two ladders, a straight one against the back of the gantry, and another leading to the top of the higher doll.

- Balance weights are attached to the dolls and have wires running to a central roller, which then feed down. 

 

If anyone has any other observations that may help with the construction, please let me know.

 

These are the bits i've knocked up so far from ex-MSE, now Wizard models etches. 

 

 

The top two arms were my first go using the simple fret, I quite quickly decided these weren't quite detailed enough, so I scribed the corrugation lines and used the arms from a different fret. The corrugations aren't as prominent, but I think overall the arms look better. Balance weights and brackets assembled, however i'll need to flip one around before it's all fixed in position. Shorter ladder assembled too. 

 

 

Here are the rail built posts. I've used drawings from the Pryor book on Southern Signals, and scaled them to 1:76, coupled with measurements from the photo. I used the signal arm as a sort of datum for those measurements. Probably wildly inaccurate, but at least all the bits will look vaguely correct in relation to each other. 

 

 

Jon Fitness was very helpful in pointing out that the angled supports are actually iron, and not rail. I've decided to use some more rail for the base of the gantry platform, it should be U channel, but the stuff i've got is far too big and the rail is much closer in size terms. The angle brackets are 1mm square rod bent up, they should be 0.8/0.75mm, but again this is all i've got to hand, so it'll have to do. The plate sections will be cut from brass offcuts and rivets pressed. I'm still not 100% in how it all goes together, but we'll get there!

 

I'm now figuring out the best way to make it 'work', Working point rodding might be a step too far, but the signal will need to work as it's supposed to. If anyone has any hints or tips for Signal construction, please let me know.

 

A final request, can anyone identify the trees in the background of the above shot? TIA.

 

That's all for now!

Edited May 14, 2023 by Jack P

[Tony Teague]

1 minute ago, Jack P said:

I'm now figuring out the best way to make it 'work', Working point rodding might be a step too far, but the signal will need to work as it's supposed to. If anyone has any hints or tips for Signal construction, please let me know.

 

Have a look at Steve Hewitt's thread:

Tony

[Michael Hodgson]

On 11/05/2023 at 10:00, Jack P said:

 

What is it with cats and boxes !  Beautiful animal.  I like the lever frame too - sorry to hear you have had so much trouble with it.

[Jack P]

59 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

 

Have a look at Steve Hewitt's thread:

Tony

Thank you kindly Tony. 
 

I’ll message Steve directly and see if he has any images saved of the specific stuff I’m after. The image loss is felt even more in threads like his, where the most recent 3ish pages are the only ones with content. 
 

9 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

What is it with cats and boxes !  Beautiful animal.  I like the lever frame too - sorry to hear you have had so much trouble with it.

 

Thank you Michael, he really loves the layout at present, perhaps I should make him something next.

 

Ive not had any bad luck with the levers (touch wood!), but it seems Tony’s been through a fair few! 

[Tony Teague]

Jack

Steve bilt all of my semaphores (pics of those installed so far on my thread) and he also has a lot of videos on YT, see: https://www.youtube.com/@steveatbax

The DCC levers work fine with his method of operation which is via servos which use the two way on/off functionality of the levers rather than the passing contacts.

Tony

 

[Jack P]

On 14/05/2023 at 21:58, Tony Teague said:

Jack

Steve bilt all of my semaphores (pics of those installed so far on my thread) and he also has a lot of videos on YT, see: https://www.youtube.com/@steveatbax

The DCC levers work fine with his method of operation which is via servos which use the two way on/off functionality of the levers rather than the passing contacts.

Tony

 

 

Thanks Tony, I messaged Steve & I think he'll be able to help me out!

 

A quick diversion from signals/baseboards.

I converted my second SECR D class to EM. I didn't take very good photos of the process though!

 

 

Here's the body after I spent an age cutting/filing for crankpin clearances. This is the version with 4 cab windows. I tried to re-use the Dapol wheels, but to no avail. New Gibson wheels fitted.

 

 

After painting the base layer of black, I repainted the cab interior and glued it back in place. 

 

 

Here's the chassis in the midst of being fettled. I used bits that Mr Ultrascale made, for the conversion, and I think they had might finer tolerances than the chassis. Wheels are chemically blackened and painted.

 

 

Here she is in current state with the Z, the other D and some wagons that are going through the conversion/detailing/painting/weathering process.

 

Finally the WD has completed running trials and now needs the final balance weights fitted and wheels/motion blackened/painted.

 

 

 

More anon.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Jack P

[DLT]

On 14/05/2023 at 09:33, Jack P said:

 

Thanks Nick - for those reading along at home, Nick's provided me with a signaling diagram from 1947 (the junction was re-laid in 1946), so this is perfect. 

I had incorrectly assumed that the crossover would require two levers (one per turnout), but this is incorrect and in practice would need just the one. No matter, I may stretch reality even further, and bring another signal on scene, or just have a spare.

 

I have spent some time this weekend doing something for the first time - building signals. 

A quick tangent, I think this is the first actual model work to commence specifically for this layout. Which is very exciting. 

 

Here's a poor attempt at AI image sharpening. 

 

 

This shows the signal in question. My notes so far are below:

- A heavy duty rail built post (actually x2 twin rail posts) this specific post doesn't appear to have the rungs joining the two sets of posts. 

-Then we've got the landing platform, supported with bent angle iron offering personnel protection in the form of a thin railing running around the perimeter.

-Two dolls, which appear to be of the LSWR 'Lattice' type, certainly the finials look to be of the LSWR cruciform type (my understanding is that the southern adopted these as 'standard' along with the LSWR's style of point rodding).

- Two pressed 'corrugated' home arms adorn the tops of the posts.

- There are two ladders, a straight one against the back of the gantry, and another leading to the top of the higher doll.

- Balance weights are attached to the dolls and have wires running to a central roller, which then feed down. 

 

If anyone has any other observations that may help with the construction, please let me know.

 

These are the bits i've knocked up so far from ex-MSE, now Wizard models etches. 

 

 

The top two arms were my first go using the simple fret, I quite quickly decided these weren't quite detailed enough, so I scribed the corrugation lines and used the arms from a different fret. The corrugations aren't as prominent, but I think overall the arms look better. Balance weights and brackets assembled, however i'll need to flip one around before it's all fixed in position. Shorter ladder assembled too. 

 

 

Here are the rail built posts. I've used drawings from the Pryor book on Southern Signals, and scaled them to 1:76, coupled with measurements from the photo. I used the signal arm as a sort of datum for those measurements. Probably wildly inaccurate, but at least all the bits will look vaguely correct in relation to each other. 

 

 

Jon Fitness was very helpful in pointing out that the angled supports are actually iron, and not rail. I've decided to use some more rail for the base of the gantry platform, it should be U channel, but the stuff i've got is far too big and the rail is much closer in size terms. The angle brackets are 1mm square rod bent up, they should be 0.8/0.75mm, but again this is all i've got to hand, so it'll have to do. The plate sections will be cut from brass offcuts and rivets pressed. I'm still not 100% in how it all goes together, but we'll get there!

 

I'm now figuring out the best way to make it 'work', Working point rodding might be a step too far, but the signal will need to work as it's supposed to. If anyone has any hints or tips for Signal construction, please let me know.

 

A final request, can anyone identify the trees in the background of the above shot? TIA.

 

That's all for now!

 

lovely stuff jack, hard to believe its 4mm scale!

[Jack P]

A quick update!

 

A GWR siphon (converted to EM) with the roof painted grey. I'd really like to pick up another, specifically the M.34 and backdate it - who doesn't love a bit of variety.

 

 

The  Z finally has paint!

 

 

I'll wait a wee while longer before masking around the cab and spraying the inside cream. I'm waiting on some crankpins and the chassis will be one step closer to completion. The dreaded pickups are really the only hurdle. 

 

Here's a glamour shot of 21c122 Exmoor - I've repainted it and added the original cab. Not overly happy with the finish though. I'm working my way through the fleet to understand what they'll need to be converted to EM. It might spell the end for this engine though - sell and start again is usually the most expedient option.

 

 

H1 2038 'Portland Bill' in glossy Malachite - I've really got to pull finger with my other two Ex-LBSC atlantics. 2039 is sitting half finished waiting for CAD work, and I've got an untouched BR condition 32424 ready to be backdated also. I'm still tossing up if I go 2424 in black, or do one of the other H2's in malachite. Hmmmm.

 

 

I've started making my own track for Hardham junction. I'm probably going to use Peco for the branch, as the chair keys face opposite ways, but for the up and down lines i'll make my own, so I can get all of the keys facing in one direction. 

 

 

Finally, I've installed a temporary bench, so that I can set up my 3D printer and my Lathe. It's certainly not ideal, but it's the best I can do with the space I have available. Once the old side of the shed is complete, i'll have something a little nicer, and slightly more spacious. 

 

 

Ignore the replica Firearms - I'm a big H&K fanboy. 

 

That's all for now!

 

 

 

[DLT]

On 03/06/2023 at 02:21, Jack P said:

Ignore the replica Firearms - I'm a big H&K fanboy. 

 

They're very hard to ignore Jack!!!

[Nick C]

I've just found a couple of rather nice colour photos of Hardham junction in "Sussex Steam" by Michael Welch. Both mid 60s, but I doubt it'd have changed much...