Nearholmer Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 We all have our “compromise limits” with model railways, it’s just that those limits are very personal, and in all sorts of different places. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRASinBothell Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 It's not so much a "desire to run express trains round train-set curves", as a desire to run express trains, and only having room for a layout if you use train-set curves. Gordon 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 4 hours ago, HSB said: I have never understood the desire by many people to run express trains round train-set curves in any scale (usually without any transition curves which makes it look even worse). Short locos and stock will always look far more convincing on sharp curves. Trouble is that even pretty generous model railway curves (on indoor layouts especially) are "train set" radii compared to the real thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianusa Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 7 hours ago, HSB said: I have never understood the desire by many people to run express trains round train-set curves in any scale (usually without any transition curves which makes it look even worse). Short locos and stock will always look far more convincing on sharp curves. Spoken like a true modeler who will never really understand those who dabble in toy trains. You have to ignore most of what you have read over the years about scale fidelity, size, weathering and prototypical running. While some of this can be realised in toy trains, most prefer them to be shiny out of the box, just like on Christmas morning. Others are content to buy used items on E Bay and run them as they are, a used item over fifty years old, some getting on for the century. A lot graduate from OO for various reasons, some age related, some just for a change while others know nothing else having received the train set many years ago, but these trains are just as interesting in our eyes as the scale model trains available today. Brian. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 When forced to use tight radii, another advantage of light railways arises. One of the most jarring aspects of tight curves is the enormous clearance required at platform edges. A light railway can legitimately dispense with platforms, or use very low ones, thus avoiding drawing attention on that score. The need for straight track in order to accommodate passenger stations therefore disappears. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 Thank you all for the comments and it is certainly giving me something to think about with regards to the potential track layouts that I might be able to squeeze into the available space. Please keep them coming as I am learning all the time and it has been a long time since I did any serious modelling. However I have at least made a little progress with regards to getting a running chassis. I still have motor to add to finish it off but this is the extent of my what I have done so far. 7mm scale Narrow Gauge Ford Model T Railbus running (or should that be rolling?) on 16.5mm track 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 (edited) Managed to get the motor fitted and then the simple pickups added and gave it a test run. Growls a bit but a bit of running in would help. Am putting it all down to newness. Then I looked at the body work and decided I really need to carefully have a tidy up before I continue. My work space is being encroached all the time and it is starting to annoy me now. Anyone else start to do more than one project at any one time? Or is it just me?! Have ordered some transfers for the narrow gauge Peco wagons that I have built. I need to get another coat of paint over them and the transfers with some little bits of weathering. I also have bought a few more period road vehicles. Big shout out at this point to @TomF (Tom Foster Weathering) https://tomfosterweathering.wordpress.com/ as he will be weathering the vehicles for me, as well as teaching me some basics too. All good fun this modelling lark.....Then you slice open your middle finger changing the blades on the Swann and Morton knife and realise surgery would be extremely painful without anaesthetic! Edited February 20, 2020 by BritishGypsum4 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 17 hours ago, BritishGypsum4 said: Managed to get the motor fitted and then the simple pickups added and gave it a test run. Growls a bit but a bit of running in would help. Am putting it all down to newness. Then I looked at the body work and decided I really need to carefully have a tidy up before I continue. My work space is being encroached all the time and it is starting to annoy me now. Anyone else start to do more than one project at any one time? Or is it just me?! Have ordered some transfers for the narrow gauge Peco wagons that I have built. I need to get another coat of paint over them and the transfers with some little bits of weathering. I also have bought a few more period road vehicles. Big shout out at this point to @TomF (Tom Foster Weathering) https://tomfosterweathering.wordpress.com/ as he will be weathering the vehicles for me, as well as teaching me some basics too. All good fun this modelling lark.....Then you slice open your middle finger changing the blades on the Swann and Morton knife and realise surgery would be extremely painful without anaesthetic! If you're going to cut yourself while modelling, I recommend the Dremel. Based on my experience with its much larger cousin, the angle grinder, a spinning disc cauterises the blood vessels and nerve endings, resulting in a wound that neither bleeds nor hurts much. Not at the time, anyway... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 23 hours ago, BritishGypsum4 said: All good fun this modelling lark.....Then you slice open your middle finger changing the blades on the Swann and Morton knife and realise surgery would be extremely painful without anaesthetic! Ouch!!! You have my sympathy!! 5 hours ago, PatB said: If you're going to cut yourself while modelling, I recommend the Dremel. Based on my experience with its much larger cousin, the angle grinder, a spinning disc cauterises the blood vessels and nerve endings, resulting in a wound that neither bleeds nor hurts much. Not at the time, anyway... I'll take your word for it.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted February 21, 2020 Author Share Posted February 21, 2020 10 hours ago, PatB said: If you're going to cut yourself while modelling, I recommend the Dremel. Based on my experience with its much larger cousin, the angle grinder, a spinning disc cauterises the blood vessels and nerve endings, resulting in a wound that neither bleeds nor hurts much. Not at the time, anyway... Funny you should say that about the angle grinder.... I was removing old paint off some loco parts at home with the angle grinder and the sanding discs when I just happened to catch my finger on the disc.... The scars are there but it bleed like a stabbed pig!!! And I remember it stinging when I did it too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted February 22, 2020 Author Share Posted February 22, 2020 So I started to have a look at what was in the attic, and as I mentioned before it really is cramped in there at times. I seem to be hoarding boxes for no real reason and decided that if I cleared a corner of the boards from boxes and general clutter then I could start getting some polystyrene down to build up the hillside. So, with a bit of twisting and turning I managed to make space and glued bits of polystyrene down where I wanted them. I am going off two hand drawings of the attic that I did. Neither are ideal however they give me an idea of what I want and I'll worry later about the station area! Second and third pictures are just to give a hint of track placement and size of hill behind. Kits are the Peco 0/16.5 ones and are nice and simple to build. Still need to letter them (transfers came today) and finish them off. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted March 27, 2020 Author Share Posted March 27, 2020 On 30/01/2020 at 05:02, PatB said: Given the space and chosen prototype, it would be worth contemplating handbuilding the track. That would allow a roundy layout to be roughly circular, maximising radii, as you wouldn't be restricted by set point geometry or the limitations of 0 gauge flexi or set track. For a light railway this could be done very cheaply using code 100 FB rail salvaged from scrap Streamline, glued to card sleepers or soldered direct to small panel pins driven straight into the baseboard a la Freezer, Denny, Hancock, Read et al. It's fairly easy to create something that works and, for a smallish layout, the scope of the work isn't that daunting. On another point, I don't wish to be a party pooper, but if you're having knee/hip problems you may want to think about future access to the attic because, as I'm just starting to discover, things don't get any easier as time passes. I'm a relative striping compared to others here but, even so, there are a few heavy things I put on high shelves in the workshop a decade ago and I'm now genuinely unsure whether I can get them down again. I'm rueing a few decisions that were made by a younger, fitter man. I must apologise PatB. I was meant to reply all that time ago to this. I don't intend to remain in the attic but I am wanting to build something that is acceptable, tests my skills and is somewhere that I can run a few items. My knee has settled down as has my hip so I put it down to twisting funny at the gym. Given that we are now on lockdown everything is behaving itself. I don't want to remain in the attic as my ultimate goal is the garage but that is rather messy at the moment. Long story short but my main project is currently in a number of bits and the smaller items are in there being cleaned, measured and painted up. Until the day arrives when that goes together (which will be offsite) then I can make plenty of space in the garage and start to build in there. At 20 + feet long and 10' 6" wide I should have enough to do something that will keep me and any visitors entertained. Like anything though it all takes a bit of time and a little bit of money to get things going. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 3 hours ago, BritishGypsum4 said: My knee has settled down as has my hip so I put it down to twisting funny at the gym. Given that we are now on lockdown everything is behaving itself. Proof enough for me that 'Keep Fit' is actually bad for you. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted March 27, 2020 Author Share Posted March 27, 2020 Yeah. I feel that I may have put weight on though!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishGypsum4 Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 (edited) A hint of the Ratty. I have been trying to tidy the attic during lockdown. Not too successfully in all honesty but at least the main of the empty cardboard boxes have been recycled and are out of the way. I did manage to assemble an Avalon kit of a 09 bogie coach and I put it with a little unknown diesel on some 009 track. It now just requires painting and glazing before the roof can be added. I had to adjust the bogies on the kit. If I did it as instructions the flooring was scraping the rails!! I had to use some thick washers between the bogie and floor to lift the coach a little so that there was clearance. First picture is with the diesel which runs on a Kato chassis and runs sweetly indeed. Second one is a Ratty influenced shot with 15" gauge diesel and a Standard Gauge 5 plank. Those who know their Ratty history will know that the 15" gauge line ran between the standard gauge rails up to Murthwaite crushing plant. I have been trying to get my modelling mojo back and subsequently it is trying to get things to fit in my space. I have come up with a unique idea but I don't know of any real life prototypes. Is there a station anywhere in the British Isles that was shaped like a T where a track ran past (top of the T bar) and had two tracks either side of the vertical bar of the T? The T is the basic shape of the platform Doesn't matter if not but it has given me, design wise, more space for both 32mm track and I also have the 16.5mm now running continuously around that attic. Edited April 13, 2020 by BritishGypsum4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 On 29/01/2020 at 17:57, Nearholmer said: Crikey, that is one long vehicle! A good one for clearing line-side vegetation, signals etc from the track bed. Yes, that’s what centre-throw is, and end-throw is the equivalent where the end of a vehicle sticks out over the curve on the outside, which is usually most pronounced on locos with a bogie leading, and no side-control springs. Try looking up YouTube videos of large American articulated locos in O Gauge 3 rail... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 On 29/01/2020 at 17:57, Nearholmer said: Crikey, that is one long vehicle! A good one for clearing line-side vegetation, signals etc from the track bed. Yes, that’s what centre-throw is, and end-throw is the equivalent where the end of a vehicle sticks out over the curve on the outside, which is usually most pronounced on locos with a bogie leading, and no side-control springs. Try looking up YouTube videos of large American articulated locos in O Gauge 3 rail... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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