Eastwood Town - A tribute to Gordon's modelling.

[fishytrains]

Great to know you are enjoying the progress you are making.

 

Mike

[Rowsley17D]

Some neat looking work there, Gordon. Where do you get that multi-coloured cork from? And does it come ready curved?

[gordon s]

The cork comes in rolls of various widths in 100' rolls. I have used 7/8" x 1/8" strip, with three lengths making up the double track bed. I'm ashamed to say I'm either lacking skills or just bone idle to chamfer the edges, so I buy the pre chamfered strip from Charles Cantrill. If you forget the cost and think you will probably save time and money in other areas, it does give a consistent base for the ballasted track bed.

 

The service from CC is excellent and I have used them for years. (No connection)

 

http://www.charlescantrill.com/shop/model-railway/

Edited November 7, 2014 by gordon s

[Pete Harvey]

Gordon

 

What is the idea in the different grades of cork?

[gordon s]

I'm not sure what you mean by different grades, Pete. The 7/8 strip is 'cork' coloured. The chamfered strip is black, but from the same supplier and is also 1/8" thick.

[coachmann]

Chamfering cork with an electric sander (smoothing iron shape) is easy plus the sander can be used to put superelevation on it.

[gordon s]

I guess I'm just bone idle then….:-)

[Pete Harvey]

Why the two different types/colours of cork I understand the the chamfers but why the two could you not get them both in the same colour?

[gordon s]

That's the way they come, but as they are covered in ballast anyway, it's not a problem….But there is a plus to the two colours.

 

In case anyone is interested, I map out the exact position of the track on the board by taking a known datum (the edge of the board) and then attach the printed Templot sheets to the board using the datum edge to ensure correct alignment.  Using a small drill (1mm), I then drill a hole through the plan on one of the outer rails every 2-3".  Removing the plan gives you a line of hole which match one of the rails.  I then use a set of radius curves to pencil the curve between the holes.  This isn't absolutely necessary if you have good eyesight, but it makes it easier to see the line of holes once you have spread the PVA to attach the cork roll.

 

I have found that using three strips of 7/8" cork is perfect for double track.  Drilling a couple of mm outside the rail is also perfect for single track as a single length of cork strip is about 1mm wider each side than a single width of track.  Spread the PVA and stick the brown roll down first and then the black edging.

 

You then know the position of the rail is the line created by the join of the brown cork strip and the black chamfered edge strip.  Single track means a small offset of 1mm to get the correct alignment on the cork underlay, but that's easy to set by eye.

 

Like most things, it's easier to do than describe, but having the two strips of cork in different colours is a huge bonus I hadn't appreciated until you asked the question.

[martin_wynne]

Hi Gordon,

 

An alternative is to tap in a little way a row of 1" veneer pins along the rail or centre-line*. You can tear away the template if you have another copy and don't need it again, or lift it carefully over the lost-heads on the pins.

 

Then you don't need to drill holes, draw a line between them, or try to see it through the glue. Just push the edge of the cork against the pins, and pull them out when set. There will be a small gap between the cork strips, but it is easily lost in the ballasting later.

 

*Templot can also print the cess lines or trackbed edges if preferred (geometry > trackbed edges > menu items).

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[gordon s]

Thanks very much, Martin.  That certainly works and is easier than my method, but in this case I'm using a set width of cork strip and using the centre line would mean cutting the cork to the correct track bed width to create the single or double track bed.  Using three strips of 7/8" (22mm) cork gives a track bed width of 66mm, which is perfect for 50mm double track spacing.  I appreciate the double track spacing is less than that on straight track and generally widened out on curves, but couldn't be faffed with it, so have used 50mm as a standard throughout.  

 

Another one of life's compromises I'm prepared to accept…;-)

 

The trackbed edge is a great feature of Templot and I use that to create all my cut lines when creating the ply track bed.

[mightbe]

Looks like things are going swimmingly! I'm a big believer in the K.I.S.S. method, because it's worked so well for me.

 

I was wondering, what's going on on the first corner module, that little bit of cork branching off as if to suggest more? Is that a provisional fiddle yard entrance? Speaking of which, can we see the layout plan?

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi Gordon,

 

That new board looks a lot better than your first one, the flow seems to be a lot smoother.

 

Best of luck, now the curve has been learned.

 

SS

[gordon s]

Looks like things are going swimmingly! I'm a big believer in the K.I.S.S. method, because it's worked so well for me.

 

I was wondering, what's going on on the first corner module, that little bit of cork branching off as if to suggest more? Is that a provisional fiddle yard entrance? Speaking of which, can we see the layout plan?

 

 

One of the reasons I haven't published a trackplan is that I really want to push on with the basic construction and not become distracted by the wonderful, adventurous and sometimes completely off the wall suggestions as to how ET should evolve.

 

ET is not based on any specific location and is simply a vehicle for me to enjoy watching trains run in a scenic setting that will remind me of the many happy years I spent at KX and Wood Green watching magnificent steam and early diesel locos in a mainline location, travelling at speed.  There were also long goods trains that were equally fascinating as they trundled along.

 

I have been through most layout combinations known to man over the past few years and every plan has been abandoned as it was too complex for me to build as a lone modeller.

 

Simplify, simplify was the mantra of many supporters, so this version is simply four complete loops.  I have also always steered clear of putting boards down the middle of the room as I'm not getting any younger, but lifting the boards by another 12" has opened the possibility of doing something interesting when the time comes.

 

It might be a cassette system.  It might be a large shed facility.  It might be an industrial area.  It might even be 'Bastille' terminus…:-) 

 

One of my thoughts has always been a reverse loop, but previous versions haven't had the space to accommodate the 3' radius curves required.  Thinning the boards down to 600mm has now made that possible and one of the Templot plans includes just that. It is not cast in stone, simply a feasibility study.  

 

Anything shown in red on this plan may never be built, but the option is there.  My goal is to get something running and then go from there.  In all the years I have been scrapping wood and blowing money up the chimney, that has never been possible, so this really is a very simple plan to run something and then take inspiration from there.  The pointwork is feasible and each of the four corners includes an access/exit formation that could be used in future.

 

ET station will have two up lines and two down lines plus an additional loop for goods traffic.  This will allow four trains to run at once and I will be able to sit back and watch whilst enjoying a glass of wine or two.  There are no conflicts and if the track is laid well, there is no reason why trains can't run for hours.  Of course that would become boring, so operational interest will evolve once something is running first.

 

The door has been left open and anything is possible now….

 

When the time comes, I will welcome your ideas on the next stage of development with open arms, but not just yet as I have a railway to build…:-)

 

Edited November 10, 2014 by gordon s

[Jintyman]

 

Hi Gordon,

 

Marvelous progress with the carpentry and I bet the workings out for the rise and fall were challenging?

 

I know that you use Templot, and I do as a newcomer to its wonderful assistance to track design and building. My question is, how do you save your design and post it on the likes of this site as you have done above please?

I don't want to detract you from your layout building, but I've been trying to do it for a while now to no avail!!!!

 

Regards

 

Jinty ;-)

[gordon s]

Hi Jinty, that's pretty straightforward.  Make sure you have the latest version of Templot 2.  The Sketchboard facility is not on the earlier versions of Templot.  

 

Ensure the plan you want to export is on the screen.

 

Along the second line of the menu at the top of the page, click on 'sketchboard'.

 

This will open up a pop up menu.

 

Select 'new drawing with a current trackplan'.

 

Once the new 'sketchboard' plan appears, click on 'output' in the top menu.  It may appear in light grey, but it is operational.

 

Click on 'export a file' which should be the fourth one down in the drop down menu.

 

On the right hand side of the new pop up page, you will see a box with export image on the right hand side.  

 

Click on 'create image file'

 

A pop up will appear.  Click on ' continue - create image file in detail mode'.  

 

This will bring up the standard Windows 'save' box where you can allocate a file name and location.  It will normally save them in an 'image files' directory, but for one off's I save them to the desktop.

 

Once that is done, you will get confirmation that the file has been saved successfully and you have the option to view it.

 

Job done!

 

That file can then be imported to RMweb in the normal manner as it is saved as a .png file.

 

It's very easy once you have learned the steps above, you will do it in seconds….

[The Stationmaster]

Gordon I can see more clearly now why you were having such an 'interesting' time with the gradients!  Here's hoping the 'roundy' continues to come together as planned.

[gordon s]

Another day and 1200mm nearer the finish line…:-)

 

I know now why I hate gradients.  Everything has to be measured relative to the 'natural' level and must not be measured from a baseboard edge or the floor.  Working in two different positions can completely screw up a gradient.  You can level up the board frame in one position and start work.  You then find access to the board is limited so move it into the centre of the room and find the levels you so carefully set up are now out of line.  In the past I have built a gradient jig constructed from a sandwich of three pieces of ply 1 metre long with the centre piece offset by 10mm and then used a spirit level to establish the 1% gradient, which works fine on straight track, but it is hopeless on curves.  I do have a digital grade meter which is also fine, but oh so sensitive as the base is only around 60mm long and the grade will vary across and up and down a sheet of ply.

 

I am getting there, but there has been a bit of cussing and I have started afresh a couple of times when things weren't quite correct.

 

I now have to move my display cabinet as the extra height now means that's in the way and those that are observant will see I still have a few large US locos which I will still want to run when no one is looking.  Thankfully I noticed the tunnel mouth was probably a bit tight to some of these large loco's, so that will need a little reshaping to the archway to ensure the various projections on these large US loco's will pass through without damage.

 

Of course whether or not the overhang will be a problem when it comes to ET station platforms remains to be seen…:-)

 

At least progress is being made..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hayfield]

Gordon

 

Very impressive, nearly as good as the Yankee woodworker on in the early hours, and he has every machine known to man !!  I dare not show you my woodworking skills

[Ian_H]

"Gordon and the 'New Eastwood Town Workshop'" I'd probably watch that in the early hours given half a chance! ..... Get the camera crew in Gordon and you'd make a killing in royalties, although nobody else 'ill get anything done!

[martin_wynne]

I know now why I hate gradients. Everything has to be measured relative to the 'natural' level and must not be measured from a baseboard edge or the floor.

 

Hi Gordon,

 

Haven't you made yourself a water level?

 

1. small plastic bucket

 

2. drill a hole in the side of it near the bottom. Glue in a long length of clear plastic tubing, say 10ft. Put a temporary plug of some sort in the far end of the tube.

 

3. stand the bucket on a chair in middle of railway room.

 

4. fill bucket with water and a drop of washing-up liquid.

 

5. remove the plug and allow a little water to run through the tube to clear any air bubbles in the tube. Put the plug back in. Top up bucket if necessary.

 

6. take the end of the plastic tube to where you want to measure a level. Remove the plug again..

 

7. the water will rise in the tube until it is the same level as the water in the bucket. Mark this as a datum from which to measure gradient heights.

 

8. without moving the bucket, repeat this anywhere else in the room to establish the same datum level.

 

9. don't let anyone else in the room while you are doing this, because for some reason they always burst out laughing.

 

10. don't knock the bucket over.

 

Martin.

Edited December 18, 2014 by martin_wynne

[Shadow]

Have you tried using an Inclinometer App from a smart phone.

 

I use this one :- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plaincode.clinometer&hl=en

Edited November 14, 2014 by Shadow

[gordon s]

Thanks guys.  If you look carefully in the third pic of posting 1826, you will see I use a self levelling laser level mounted on a tripod, which works perfectly.  My comment referred to setting up the board say against the wall and adjusting the feet to bring it level.  When you move it to the centre of the room to work on, it doesn't necessarily follow the board will still be level.  The last thing you want to do at this point is level it again as when you move it back to wall, it will no longer be level in that position.  The room is built on substantial RSJ's, but there is a slope of a few mm across the 6m span. Not a problem in a normal room setting, but it can skew results when you are dealing with small percentage grades.

 

I've learnt now to set it up against the wall and then take some critical dimensions which are then incorporated once the board is moved to the centre of the room.  The key is not to reset the levels at that point.  I'm sure some will think this is making life difficult, but gradients have caused so many issues in the past and forced me to scrap a build when a gradient that appeared shallow was actually steeper than it should have been and caused trains to grind to a crawl over the length of the gradient.

 

I think I'm on top of it now…:-)

 

I don't have a smart phone.  In fact I barely have a mobile.  It's only used for important calls and I probably make one call a month.

 

The meter I have for measuring grades probably does the same thing, but thanks for the idea.

 

Edit: Found this a few minutes ago that takes the smart phone a bit further..

 

http://www.nmrabr.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=148

 

This is the one I have and use.  I normally lay a straight edge along the gradient to take out any minor variations and then sit the meter on top of the straight edge.

 

http://www.micromark.com/miniature-digital-level,9409.html

Edited November 15, 2014 by gordon s

[gordon s]

Morning all…:-)

 

Don't worry, I haven't packed up yet, in fact things are coming together without any real problems.  Fingers crossed it stays that way..

 

I now have just the one old board sitting over the stairwell from the old ET.  The tops have been removed, pointwork removed and track pulled up.  The 12mm ply board will now be recycled. I used to take it to the tip as it could never be reused, but that seemed daft, when with a few minutes on a bench saw, the top could be cut into small pieces and put to good use as kindling for our wood burner.

 

I now have a whole stack of purpose built pointwork, some on ballasted cork that will need to be 'boiled' off.  Not a big job.  Simply take it outside or in the sink and pour on boiling water.  This melts the PVA and five minutes work will reveal a half decent turnout.  Still undecided what to do with them and they are becoming a distraction, so I've pushed them to one side for now.

 

Having cleared another space I now have room to start on ET station proper.  The BB baseboard frames are 1200 x 600 and could be laid end to end, but the 600mm dimension was too shallow and 1200 too deep for ET station and approach/car park, so I have laid them side by side and reduced the length of each to a metre.  This has created a board 1800 x 1000 which will sit perfectly between the approach pointwork at either end.

 

If you look closely, the frames have been hacked in various places to accommodate Tortoise motors which need about 90mm below the board to clear the housing and wiring.  This is probably the only downside of these boards as there can be a lot of hacking openings in the frames if you have ignored the cross bracing in your initial design.

 

One lesson learned.  This ET lite has been planned a little better, so this section will only have plain track and all the pointwork will be on the adjoining boards which will be of more conventional construction. 

 

 

Here is the track plan.  The more observant of you may notice a change in as much I have added a dual bay platform accessible to both the up and down tracks.  If I go ahead with the reverse loops, I reckon I could send a 101 DMU around the layout several times covering each of the fast/slow/up/down loops and return to the bay from the opposite direction.  

 

 

Hopefully the station should end up looking something like this.  I was horrified to see the date of these couple of pics was Feb '12 some two and half years ago.  Doesn't time fly…..

 

 

 

For those of you who weren't born when this whole thread started, the station buildings came from Gilbert's (Great Northern) original version of Peterborough.  They were built by Alan Downes and were based on Spalding.  I loved them when I first saw them and hopefully I will be able to do them justice again. 

 

 

Watch this space.  There may be more to follow…:-)

 

 

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi Gordon

 

This incarnation is looking good, only one comment, is there room for an opposing bay at the other end? It doesn't have to be in the island platform but may be at the bottom of your track plan. This is only an idea to possibly add to the operational interest.

 

Best of luck either way.

 

SS