When TT3 was the next Big Thing

[Golden Fleece 30]

All falling into place very nicely. As a matter of interest, how do you propose cleaning the track in the tunnels? About 15 years ago I had an HO US layout running around the railway room, and the one thing I disliked was having to get to the hidden track to clean it. As I live in one of the damper parts of the country, the rail seemed to require cleaning fairly frequently.

 

Also, what's the black material forming the base of the bridge?

The tunnels are dead easy, if you look at the photo of the Jinty leaving with a Brit on the holding road there is a join this side of the buffer stop which goes to the long retaining wall and all the top section including the retaining wall lifts off.  There are no screws holding it down just hopefully a nice fit on the blocks on the baseboard so will lift off easily. The small flat where the level crossing is situated is just screwed down in case I need to replace any track but that section can be reached for cleaning.  Again looking at the Jinty leaving photo you will see two rails over a gap, these are half curve ones with sliding fishplates and used to join the lift off part to the main part, there is now an insert under these.  These can be seen in the photo of the Brit on the level crossing which also shows the track is still rising through the crossing but there is nothing I can do about it now.  The incline should have been about 5mm higher at the end.  I am hoping I can get it in the car as is without lifting it off.The road bridge is just 6mm ply from the sides etc.  This may later have a card top with a nice shade of tarmac as opposed to just the paint.

 

A lot more has been done today with the long wall getting its coping stones and the road from the lower level to the bridge is nearly complete along with more grass down.  More photos tonight.

 

Garry

Edited March 15, 2018 by Golden Fleece 30

[sagaguy]

Bit more about the M/N. A 3mm Society member bought a similar model a few months ago. He says that in the 1960s a company was advertising TT body kits to fit on existing chasses, mainly Southern. He thinks the company was called Holbrook or Holcroft.

Could it have been Tyldesley & Holbrook,Manchester.Long gone now.

 

                                      Ray.

[Golden Fleece 30]

This is as much as I can do now for the show. Photos of the whole layout from slightly different angles.  Tomorrow will be spent making the extra fiddle yard board, sorting out the stock, sets to take etc.

 

If anyone is wondering how to get from one platform to the other on the lower level the porter will slide the walkway across from under the platform just as it was done at Malton on the York - Scarborough line when it had both up and down platforms.

 

Garry

[whart57]

It might be fun to post these pics in B/W, like this:

 

 

That could have come straight out of a 1962 Modeller or MRC

[Golden Fleece 30]

It might be fun to post these pics in B/W, like this:

 

TT_layout.jpg

 

That could have come straight out of a 1962 Modeller or MRC

That looks really good and as you say goes with the period of its origin.

 

Garry

Edited March 16, 2018 by Golden Fleece 30

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here is the method used to allow the top section from the level crossing onwards to be lifted of the layout for access to the tracks underneath.  The curves are from a standard half curve where I have made the fishplates slide along the rail.  The gap in the wood from the level crossing has an infill (which now needs the edges painted) which the rails rest on to prevent undue pressure put, mainly when track cleaning.  At least if anything happens to these curves I don't have to worry about measuring and cutting other rail to length.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here is a short video taken this morning before our little one went to school and before the layout was put in the car.  It went in far easier than I thought it would.

 

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here we have the reverse loop in action for the suburban train to go out and back, fingers crossed it runs as well at the show over the next couple of days.

 

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Had a really good two days at the Howden show this weekend.  A storage board was knocked up to give even more operational interest which kept two operators very busy.  A couple of tweaks needed but overall the layout performed well. 

 

We did discover the incline was steeper than expected due to the floor/tables sloping in the same direction but all the locos seen here coped for two days.

 

Our little one did some operating a couple of times and found doing it in front of others different to playing at home.

 

I must get GWR removed from the tank and get a BR crest on it.

 

Hopefully a video later.

 

Garry

[Robert Shrives]

In one word - fantastic !  

[Golden Fleece 30]

One of the hiccups we had was a coupling to buffer issue on Tri-ang reverse curves.  I know these are sharp but surely Tri-ang would have taken that into consideration.  On two coaches only the buffers were riding over the hook causing a derailment , using the Tri-ang gauge these were set correctly and I noticed the buffers then pushing the hook inwards helping turn the bogie and it worked a treat, but, The A1A-A1A and a tank loco still had issues as their weight was too much for the coach coupling to help push it across.

 

If I remove the coach buffers the tank engine works fine but the Diesel still derails the coach.  I am thinking of filing a small flat on the underneath part of the buffers on the end vehicles.

 

Has anyone else come across this problem and if so do you have a solution?

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Further to the above post here are two photos using the gauge, which one is correct? I personally cannot think it is the hook on the gauge top as the main body of the coupling would need to be bent down for this.

 

Quite a few couplings have the hook pointing upwards slightly when the body is level, which is exaggerated in the photo due to the hook not dropping fully.

 

Garry

Ps I have since found that the ends of some couplings were also just catching the moulded buckeye protrusions so cut those off.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Golden Fleece 30

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here is a video of the show, please excuse the shunting sequence in the middle where I was trying hold the camera, control the train and watch the publics little hands at the same time.

 

 

Garry

[Il Grifone]

Further to the above post here are two photos using the gauge, which one is correct? I personally cannot think it is the hook on the gauge top as the main body of the coupling would need to be bent down for this.

 

Quite a few couplings have the hook pointing upwards slightly when the body is level, which is exaggerated in the photo due to the hook not dropping fully.

 

Garry

Ps I have since found that the ends of some couplings were also just catching the moulded buckeye protrusions so cut those off.

 

Garry

 

I'm not certain, but I would say the first one, as the critical dimension is the coupling bar height. The top of the 00 coupling bar is about 10mm above the rail (probably 3/8"?*), so I would say the TT ones should be around 7.5mm. I'd check with a mint example where the coupling has not been bent,

 

I keep one particular Dublo wagon and set all the others to this. Set right, I find a Tri-ang vehicle will couple with a Dublo one with the hook horizontal.

 

* The odd half millimetre is within tolerance. It's not that critical.

 

Davjd

Edited March 20, 2018 by Il Grifone

[Golden Fleece 30]

Hi David, I thought the top one too.  It looks like some couplings for some reason do not let the hook part lie horizontal and I have found some spares that do not lift fully due to a different design of the hook body.  A gentle teak with pliers will pull the hook back level and as I only use a handful of coaches on this layout the mods will be negligible as my next layout will have modern Peco points etc so not as sharp curves to worry about.  I just use two of each variation like 2 WR, 2 SR, 2 Pullmans etc but still need to look at some (not all) long wheelbase wagons which gave the same issues whereas none of the shorter ones did.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Needing somewhere to store the layout but also be able to use it and with no room in the house I came up with the idea of making some supports to fit across my 00 3-rail layout boards.  This has worked a treat so I can now build/modify/repair in the house and still test on the layout as opposed to a couple of lengths of track.  It is easy enough to lift off if I ever want to get back to the 00.

 

What I could do with is a very CHEAP to run method of heating the shed.

 

I just need to sell of a lot of the 00 to make way for shelf storage of the TT.

 

Garry

[NCB]

I was wondering about shed heating. I live on the side of a hill, so space for sheds is more limited than it might otherwise be, but I'm having thoughts of getting in a JCB to create a level bit alongside the house. Some sort of building or shed would be useful both as extra storage and more room for trains, but it would need to be totally damp proof and also have some form of heating. Somebody suggested electric greenhouse heaters but I haven't looked into this yet.

[Golden Fleece 30]

I once asked a plumber about fitting a radiator into the system but as the shed is a few yards away from the house it was to expensive. The pipes would have to be more than a metre underground and specially insulated to prevent freezing the system so I ruled that out. I will have to look into the green house heaters.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

I did acquire the rebuilt M/N and it looks to be very nice.  It is brass but I have no idea if kit or scratchbuilt but the shape really looks the part.  Due to bits of paint flaking (I did scrape off the cylinder cover) I think I will be repainting as opposed to touching up but that can wait until the warmer weather.  Not only that but as the seller said it looks more likely a W/C as opposed to a M/N so I may give it a W/C name and number and save the plates for a Tri-ang repainted M/N.  As usual I will remove the front coupling hook which does give away it's shorter length but it is something different and unusual on the TT front. I cannot wait to see it at the head of a rake of the SR coaches.

 

The builder (and I assume the painter) was very good as the number is hand painted and not transfers.

 

Garry

Edited March 23, 2018 by Golden Fleece 30

[Golden Fleece 30]

Trying to source some more nameplates for the W/C and some Tri-ang M/N's I thought the Blue Funnel one was an ex Kings Cross version but on magnifying a photo it looks hand made which is excellent, more so for 40 years ago.

 

The other on here is a modern 3SMR one bought late last year which is really quite poor with words/letters not readable at times and is quite disappointing especially if hand made ones all that long ago could be produced to the quality of Blue Funnel.

 

I have written to the ex Kings Cross supplier so will wait to see what theirs are like.

 

I may ring Guilplates next week to check their cost etc but I believe they can be quite expensive.

 

Garry

[NCB]

Narrow Planet will do custom plates, although think they may be snowed up at the moment with orders for Minerva's 7mm pannier tanks.  Worth a try.

[Golden Fleece 30]

Narrow Planet will do custom plates, although think they may be snowed up at the moment with orders for Minerva's 7mm pannier tanks.  Worth a try.

I will have to ring them up but looking at the site it seems you pay per letter and in 4mm, 7mm and larger.

 

I have ordered some Kings Cross ones to try but as in the old days these do need to be cut out.  If I could do a TT Pendennis Castle okay all those years ago I guess I should be okay now.

 

Garry.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Golden Fleece 30

[Golden Fleece 30]

I have just machined the wheels on a Rokal 4-6-2 to allow it to run on Tri-ang track.  All I need to do now is think of a body conversion to a BR loco.

 

Garry

[APOLLO]

I heat my garage with a warm air fan heater. cheap as chips to buy and it warms the place up in about 10 minutes, then turn it down to half power.

 

I don't run it when I'm not in, but the garage is fully insulated so no problems with damp / condensation.

 

I'm afraid there are no cheap to run heaters, but I find my warm air fan heater does warm the place quickly. This one at Argos is around £20.

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4153238

 

2KW will be fine (mine is).

 

Your TT layout is looking great.

 

Brit15

Edited March 25, 2018 by APOLLO

[Golden Fleece 30]

I do have a fan heater but it is not cheap to leave on while I am not in there.  Like yours it does heat up the room quickly but then once switched off it cools quickly too.  The shed is fully insulated, 2" Celotex around the walls, and fibre glass in the roof, but is still cold overnight.  I have discovered the metal door is not sealing so will need to look at altering that to help prevent the cold getting in.

 

Garry