Elmore

[5BarVT]

7 hours ago, Johndc120 said:

Ground frame finished and stuck down in place.

Excellent, that looks spot on.

Paul.

[Graham T]

On 01/10/2019 at 07:29, Johndc120 said:

From a kit of parts to complete baseboards. Last night we had a very successful night. After several weeks of prep work to produce baseboard kits, we’ve finally put them together. 

 

This is the all of the ends and internal webs for the layout

 

Construction started on the outer frames of the first board

 

Board 1 completed, it takes 20 minutes to assemble each board and they are complete with all of the risers for the track bed, joining dowels and bolts to assemble them together

 

Sorry to drag up a post from the very start of this thread, but I'm thinking of using a similar construction technique when I finally make a start on Chuffnell Regis Mk II.  Please could you tell me the size of the ply and the softwood that you used for the ply sandwich, and also the spacing between cross members?  Thanks 🍻

PS. Also, how thick is the ply you used for the track bed?

Edited May 24, 2023 by Graham T
Added a question

[BroadLeaves]

With apologies to @Johndc120 for the thread hijack:

@Graham T You may be aware of both of these already, but if you have the book, Barry Norman discusses this technique in his Landscape Modelling, where he even goes into the specifics of grain direction for the wooden blocks between the ply sheets. You can also watch the man himself talk about it at https://www.missendenrailwaymodellers.org.uk/index.php/virtual-missenden-baseboard-construction/ 

[Graham T]

Thanks very much for that @BroadLeaves

[Johndc120]

Progress on the platforms, the brickwork for all of the platform faces is all now painted, we have now done the mortar and lime staining on the brickwork for the cattle dock, the bricks will be painted in the same way as the platform faces so it’ll only be the mortar which will have the remaining line stains
 

 

 

[Johndc120]

Carrying on for painting of the cattle dock today.

 

 

 

the brick red is on and the first bits weathering applied to the floor. The bullnose stones have been painted into blue as well. It’s nice to see some bits starting to get towards being finished

 

 

 

[Johndc120]

Ballasting has finally commenced on Elmore, the first stretch has been the Bay platform and the V at the end of the platform including around some of the point rodding

 

 

 

 

[Johndc120]

More ballasting done around the bases of the point rodding rollers, cranks and other associated signaling equipment 

 

As a member of the S&T for Network Rail and working on this equipment I’ve attempted to get the rodding as close as I can to the prototype and I’m really happy with how it has come out, a big thank you to Alan Butler of Modelu without which it wouldn’t be possible.

 

It is all very clean at the moment but once the weathering is done and a few bits of weeds it’ll look the part

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dj_crisp]

The point rodding looks rather splendid! It's inspiring me to have a go on mine :)

[Johndc120]

41 minutes ago, dj_crisp said:

The point rodding looks rather splendid! It's inspiring me to have a go on mine :)

Give it a go, it’s such a complex subject don’t expect it to be perfect but the beauty is nobody else will be able to point out what’s wrong either!
To me it’s something which is very obvious it’s missing because it’s my profession. But it certainly adds something to a layout when it’s there

 

John

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Johndc120 said:

Give it a go, it’s such a complex subject don’t expect it to be perfect but the beauty is nobody else will be able to point out what’s wrong either!
To me it’s something which is very obvious it’s missing because it’s my profession. But it certainly adds something to a layout when it’s there

 

John

That's always a problem! While I'm not a professional, I've found that ever since I became a heritage railway signalman I've been very much aware of layouts with wrong/no signalling... Once you know, it always stands out!

[Johndc120]

2 minutes ago, Nick C said:

That's always a problem! While I'm not a professional, I've found that ever since I became a heritage railway signalman I've been very much aware of layouts with wrong/no signalling... Once you know, it always stands out!

 

To me a layout with no signalling or point rodding looks bare, that said as long as someone has a go with point rodding I’m not about to say ‘that wouldn’t go there or that’s not correct as it needs to be a few yards that way or this way!’ An attempt at it is very much appreciated and that’s good enough for people’s layouts. However I wanted mine to be as close as I can get it!!

[dj_crisp]

7 hours ago, Johndc120 said:

Give it a go, it’s such a complex subject don’t expect it to be perfect but the beauty is nobody else will be able to point out what’s wrong either!
To me it’s something which is very obvious it’s missing because it’s my profession. But it certainly adds something to a layout when it’s there

 

John

 

I've been enjoying researching WR signalling and I know there will be plenty of gaps in mine but I'm going to have a go!   (My effort will be a bit more modern set in the 80/90s mostly)

[5BarVT]

19 hours ago, Johndc120 said:

As a member of the S&T for Network Rail and working on this equipment I’ve attempted to get the rodding as close as I can to the prototype and I’m really happy with how it has come out, a big thank you to Alan Butler of Modelu without which it wouldn’t be possible.

As a former member and having had the privilege of working on same for about a month in Exeter way back in 1980 I want to comment on just how excellent a job John has done.  I never knew him professionally (although ‘I know a man who does’) and the first time I saw one of his location case 3D prints it was clear that he had excellent (inside) knowledge of the subject.

Well done.

Paul.

[Johndc120]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

As a former member and having had the privilege of working on same for about a month in Exeter way back in 1980 I want to comment on just how excellent a job John has done.  I never knew him professionally (although ‘I know a man who does’) and the first time I saw one of his location case 3D prints it was clear that he had excellent (inside) knowledge of the subject.

Well done.

Paul.

Thank you Paul, although I’m hastened to mention it’s not just me building the layout, it is a collaborative effort from 4 of us. However being the S&T man I did want to get this layout right, I have previously built layouts and always been let down by this side of the hobbies as there’s not a lot on the market.

 

Then modelu started producing their rodding stools and just took things to a new level! The last layout I did was done with Wills point rodding kits, this photo shows the scale difference between them (which is obviously a manufacturing restriction on the Wills side)

 

This is just 3 rods, just imagine what the difference would be if you were 6, 8 or 10 rods wide! 
 

After going down this route the next obvious step was to produce the cranks taken straight from the BR mechanical drawings. Following this the whole thing has spiralled to the point I now have produced FPL locks, point machines, concrete legs, an array of Western region location cases and much much more!

 

John

 

[Graham T]

That photo is a very convincing argument for not using Wills rodding on my next layout!

 

[Johndc120]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

That photo is a very convincing argument for not using Wills rodding on my next layout!

 

don’t get me wrong the Wills stuff is good and a great starting point for anyone who is new to it but it also creates more problems along the way. You try squeezing 3 rods of wills down this bridge which in is relatively easy to do on the prototype!

 

 

you’ll run into the same problem going inside a platform face too. But for a single rod somewhere or a twin and you’re not constrained by space it’s a good representation 

[Graham T]

Yes, I ran into just those constraints with rodding for a facing point at the end of the platform on Chuffnell Regis.

[Tortuga]

Your comparison shot of Wills vs Modelu rodding earlier in the build convinced me to use the Modelu products for Alsop. Have you used their other rodding bits and pieces on Elmore or 3D printed your own?

 

Also, would it be really cheeky to ask you to check my rodding diagram for Alsop?

[lezz01]

What did you use for the rods themselves? Are they square or round? Soz my mince pies ain't what they used to be.

Regards Lez.

[Johndc120]

On 13/06/2023 at 20:04, Tortuga said:

Your comparison shot of Wills vs Modelu rodding earlier in the build convinced me to use the Modelu products for Alsop. Have you used their other rodding bits and pieces on Elmore or 3D printed your own?

 

Also, would it be really cheeky to ask you to check my rodding diagram for Alsop?

Not Cheeky at all, of course I don’t mind 👍🏼

[Johndc120]

On 13/06/2023 at 20:54, lezz01 said:

What did you use for the rods themselves? Are they square or round? Soz my mince pies ain't what they used to be.

Regards Lez.

I’ve used round as that is what would have been correct for GWR rodding. The U shaped square channel appeared much later on the western

[Johndc120]

Continuation of track ballasting last week. The point rodding looks a bit better now it’s ballasted in correctly along with the track
 

 

 

[Johndc120]

More ballasting tonight, this time at the platform end and around the drainage pit for the cattle dock. It looks quite different now the ballast has come up to be level with it
 

 

[Johndc120]

I know the previous photos have disappeared so here’s the process of building the catch pit (seen in previous post) and our inspiration for doing it this way.

 

this is the prototype I found, I’ve since forgotten where it actually was but it shows a fairly flat brick built design with drainage channels built into it and longitudinal sleepers fitted into it for attaching the chairs

 

 

I started out making the overall shape using white plasticard, slots were then put in for the timbers which I just used the same turnout timbers left over from building the points

on top of the plain plasticard I then attached a sheet of brick to give the detail to the gully ways

Once this way stuck solid I could then build up the other areas with an extra layer of brick and this gave the illusion of gully’s or drainage channels

 

 

The sleepers could then be glued in situ and the chairs attached to this to complete it.

 

 

being a large flat structure it started to curve up quite quickly so this was one of the first bits to be glued onto the cork with evo stick 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Johndc120