Using the easy-assembly Finetrax pointwork kits in 00 and EM (and in P4 from the S4 Society)

[Ian_H]

8 minutes ago, Riverdart said:

Hi guys , had to join the group to give my appreciation to Wayne for producing a product that one felt encouraged enough to give it a go .

first attempt in making track and first time using a soldering iron.

Wow, to me, having never built any S&C (well perhaps once but we won't talk about that), that looks superb, I would be well pleased with that. Well done

[The Evil Bus Driver]

8 hours ago, Riverdart said:

Hi guys , had to join the group to give my appreciation to Wayne for producing a product that one felt encouraged enough to give it a go .

first attempt in making track and first time using a soldering iron.

That looks great! Nice job there. I'm going to buy a few soon. Good to see how great they look.

Edited May 31, 2022 by The Evil Bus Driver

[Jeff Smith]

13 hours ago, Riverdart said:

Hi guys , had to join the group to give my appreciation to Wayne for producing a product that one felt encouraged enough to give it a go .

first attempt in making track and first time using a soldering iron.

This looks really great but I wonder if the check rails need a little more lead in?  Just a tweak with a pair of pliers!

[Stephen Freeman]

12 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

This looks really great but I wonder if the check rails need a little more lead in?  Just a tweak with a pair of pliers!

Flares come in a variety of designs, depending on the prototype but in this case the end gap should be a little more, though perhaps not as much as some think.

[Tankstage]

Here's a couple of slips and points in the lead-in to my station...

[Riverdart]

Was debating wether or not to put a small kink in the check rails , Wayne has moved the end chairs inwards to allow for a lead in and l thought this would be enough .

Was worried one of them would have to be bent in situ, wasn’t sure how strong the chair would be when doing it so one left it to see if their would be a problem.

l have run nearly all my stock though it without any problems , so it’s the case with me of if it ain’t broke don’t touch it .

 

[The Evil Bus Driver]

2 hours ago, Tankstage said:

Here's a couple of slips and points in the lead-in to my station...

Looks brilliant! I still need to buy the wood for my boards yet. 

[NFWEM57]

And out of the blue comes Peco TT:120...!  More realistic track (code 55) according to the advertising but not so the turnouts. Another opportunity for Wayne?

[KeithHC]

2 hours ago, NFWEM57 said:

And out of the blue comes Peco TT:120...!  More realistic track (code 55) according to the advertising but not so the turnouts. Another opportunity for Wayne?

Just what I was thinking as well. But Wayne when are the EM A5’s coming out……..

 

Keith

[BWsTrains]

And the B7 single slip.......

 

Colin

[NFWEM57]

Guys and gals, I didn't say immediately, I said an opportunity...! I am sure Wayne is flat out on A5s and single slips already.  PECO, a large company have only just achieved 4 gauges, Wayne is a one man band and has been delivering 5 for a while now.! We don't see all of them...!

Edited June 7, 2022 by NFWEM57
PC Correction

[Wayne Kinney]

6 hours ago, KeithHC said:

Just what I was thinking as well. But Wayne when are the EM A5’s coming out……..

 

Keith

 

6 hours ago, BWsTrains said:

And the B7 single slip.......

EM Gauge A5 and 00 Gauge Single Slip will be realeased in the next 2 weeks. :)

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, Wayne Kinney said:

00 Gauge Single Slip will be realeased in the next 2 weeks.

 

That's the point (ha!) at which I open my wallet.

[Dominion]

Three corners of my scissors formation now populated  with British Finescale products. They go together very well and they run very well. Thank you for developing them Wayne.

They will look better once I clean up the rail head of paint a little more on the double slip. These are OO-SF

 

[Wayne Kinney]

Thanks for sharing, it looks great as does the entire formation!

 

Finished up CAD on the EM Gauge A5 and 00 Gauge Single Slip:

 

I'm part way through building them up to take photos for the website and also instructions for the single slip. Unfortunately, me and my wife have both picked up Covid last few days. We are both tripple jabbed but it's the first time we've had it and it's knocked us for six, so will add a few days delay...

 

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Wayne Kinney

[KeithHC]

Looking good Wayne but take it easy. My wife and I had been on a cruise out of Italy in December 19. Got back just before Christmas. The England cricket team had travelled out at the same time and several players went down with an unknown flu illness. It was a couple of days later that my wife woke up and felt terrible so stayed indoors and I went for a run. Got back and then it hit me the worse flu I have ever had. So our Christmas dinner consisted of a couple of Lidl pasties as we had zero energy to do anything. But we got over it and like you three times jabbed but both of us will get a forth jab. Well only after mid November for me……

 

Keep hydrated and order in a few takeaways 

 

Keith

[bradfordbuffer]

Will you be doing 12mm gauge track for tt120??....as I run for hills!! Its all got a bit 'challenged' on thread for peco tt120!....I'll stick with my 14.2mm ones you have produced! The oofs track with diamonds and slips above looks well..

 

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by bradfordbuffer

[NFWEM57]

Hi Wayne,

 

We caught COVID in Feb 22. After all the jabs and boosters.  Took 10 days to show clear and another 3 weeks to rid ourselves of symptoms.  Keep hydrated and, critically, rest.

 

Take care.

 

Patrick

[Enterprisingwestern]

8 minutes ago, NFWEM57 said:

Hi Wayne,

 

We caught COVID in Feb 22. After all the jabs and boosters.  Took 10 days to show clear and another 3 weeks to rid ourselves of symptoms.  Keep hydrated and, critically, rest, building point kits.

 

Take care.

 

Patrick

 

FIFY!

 

Mike.

[NFWEM57]

 Enterprising Western, that has confused me. I only put keep hydrated and rest - not build point kits. Or so I thought..! 

Edited June 18, 2022 by NFWEM57

[57xx]

7 hours ago, NFWEM57 said:

 Enterprising Western, that has confused me. I only put keep hydrated and rest - not build point kits. Or so I thought..! 

FIFY = Fixed It For You

 

E.g. your post was edited in the reply, usually, as here, to add a humourous comment.

[Dominion]

The fourth corner of my scissors formation is now populated, again with Wayne's excellent OO-SF double slip kit.

This second one went together as well as and more quickly than the first.

I don't think I will show a photo of the underside wiring though, it is too messy.

However I have managed some crude interlocking, so that if either diagonal route is set through the diamond crossing, the other diagonal route cannot be set.

These really are excellent kits. If I had struggled through hand building all of it I may not have bothered with the interlocking.

 

[martin_wynne]

On 20/06/2022 at 20:05, Dominion said:

The fourth corner of my scissors formation is now populated, again with Wayne's excellent OO-SF double slip kit.

This second one went together as well as and more quickly than the first.

@Dominion

 

Hi,

 

Your excellent photos of Wayne's kits laid on Templot plans have made me ponder what changes might be possible or desirable in Templot to match them.

 

For years I have insisted that Templot is for hand-built track only, and offers nothing for users of ready-made trackwork. But these easy-build Finetrax kits fall somewhere between the two, designed by Wayne with the aid of Templot. At the very least I need to change the wording on the Templot web site to make it more welcoming to users of these kits.

 

I know some folks find Templot off-putting, but it's not easy to see what changes could be made to make it more accessible for track-planning with these kits. There was nothing comparable available when I started developing Templot 40 years ago.

 

There is some discussion and video clips about this on the Templot Club forum at:

 

 https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/kit-building-on-templot-plans.483/

 

Further comments and ideas welcome.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

Edited June 22, 2022 by martin_wynne

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, martin_wynne said:

@Dominion

 

Hi,

 

Your excellent photos of Wayne's kits laid on Templot plans have made me ponder what changes might be possible or desirable in Templot to match them.

 

For years I have insisted that Templot is for hand-built track only, and offers nothing for users of ready-made trackwork. But these easy-build Finetrax kits fall somewhere between the two, designed by Wayne with the aid of Templot. At the very least I need to change the wording on the Templot web site to make it more welcoming to users of these kits.

 

I know some folks find Templot off-putting, but it's not easy to see what changes could be made to make it more accessible for track-planning with these kits. There was nothing comparable available when I started developing Templot 40 years ago.

 

There is some discussion and video clips about this on the Templot Club forum at:

 

 https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/kit-building-on-templot-plans.483/

 

Further comments and ideas welcome.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

 

Martin

 

This is a great idea, as these kits have really moved the hobby on for those wanting better looking track (for those not wishing to build their own track) especially in 00 gauge, and increased the opportunity for some to work to EM gauge standards by providing easy to build kits. For some reason many are more than happy to customise an item but not scratch build.

 

Allowing easy access to customised plans is yet another big step, especially if it breaks the myth that making templates (plans) is difficult

[NFWEM57]

4 hours ago, hayfield said:

customise an item but not scratch build.

Because building a turnout from scratch is orders of magnitude more fiddly and time consuming with a much higher probability of errors in build.  My planned EM layout has 100 or so turnouts, 50% will be EMGS B6s for the fiddle yard, the remainder will be BFS with maybe one of two scratch built.  But for the EMGS B6's I would have stayed with OO and would flip back now, given Wayne's evolving OO range, had I not spent a small fortune on EM gauge conversions for my rolling stock.  Even now, I am considering whether I really do need or want to  build the G10~G16 points or will I just use BFS C10s.

 

I built some of Wayne's original N gauge turnout with individual chairs last year for my test track, that was bad enough and they had locating holes..!  Hats off to those who do build from scratch but for me, it's time I could be spending on other things - such as conversions..!