Brassey Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Gordon, I've laid half my track with the chair keys pointing the wrong way - I know it's there but who else will notice so I've left it. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGC Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Gordon, I've laid half my track with the chair keys pointing the wrong way - I know it's there but who else will notice so I've left it. Peter Tut tut!!!! Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Hi Gordon, you have been an inspiration to me in my track building, and possibly an influence to many more on here, BUT BUT BUT As Martyn Wynnie said with ALL the compromises there are in OO Gauge Model Railways, and INCLUDING the fact that YOUR TRAINS are driven by electricity and not Steam, I too say stick with what you have, lay it, paint it and run on it, then before you ballast it, just ask yourself this; do I rely want to go back to building 18 points just for the sake of it. None of us are getting any younger and so time is a very precious commodity, we never know what's around the corner, so go with what you have, it will still look wonderful, and enjoy seeing your trains run at last. Just my thoughts for what there worth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Auto pilot? Have you ever got in your car and driven somewhere and when you arrive, you don't recall passing landmarks on the way? We've all done it, because generally we have driven for so many years, it's second nature. You're still alert to any danger, but it's all done automatically. Building pointwork is like that for me. Over the past few years I must have build two or three hundred and find it very therapeutic. Life has taught me that technical work is a great escape from anything that may be preying on your mind as the concentration involved effectively blanks out everything else. Put on the radio, relax and enjoy your work….Wonderful. Last night I was just about to finish the last of 18 turnouts, where I have worked hard to ensure they work perfectly. Each has been made exactly to gauge and stock runs through with silky smoothness and I was feeling very happy that ET will see some stock running soon. Sitting watching TV with my wife, I started thinking about the layout and what needed to be done when suddenly my blood ran cold. Bullhead rail looks symmetrical in section but there is a small difference in the top and bottom sections and the thicker section goes at the top. Even though I could build pointwork in my sleep, I suddenly thought that whilst building I had told myself to make sure the rail was the right way round and the thicker section goes at the bottom….. Aarghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! My worst fears were confirmed and I now realise I have built 18 beautiful turnouts with the rail upside down... Right now I don't know whether to laugh or top myself…. Looking at them, only the real enthusiast would spot my error, but I know it's there and I have a need to get things right. Right now I can't face making them again as there were many hours put in over Christmas. If I can get over the stupidity of all this, I'll leave it as once painted and ballasted few if any would notice, but it will eat away at me. I know it's wrong, even though other's don't….. I feel a 'Larry' coming on….. What a shame and I think we all have done it with at least one bit of rail within a turnout and although it will not make and difference in running it's there and you know its there and if you don't do anything it will eat away at you. They will be fine for a fiddle yard etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 I use an X-Acto razor saw for cutting track. Especially when cutting in-situ for a isolation gap as the blade is only 10 thou thick and gives a much neater gap than a slitting disc on a Dremel. Ray Ray You beat me to it, it really blunts them buy it works very well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Ass-about rail is not in the same league of bluddyness as a coach side with the window etched in the wrong luggage doors. Like you, I built the damn thing, but unlike you, I posted a picture and half the Universe spotted it before me! In case any of my regulars are reading this, it wasn't one of my etchings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 8, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 8, 2015 Linthorpe, on 08 Jan 2015 - 22:03, said:Nothing worse than everyone else seeing it first Like not noticing your zip is undone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artizen Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Upside down bullhead won't be noticed from normal viewing distance once it is painted, weathered and ballasted. I would leave it alone and continue the journey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrkirtley800 Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Gordon, forget about it. When our club was building a large layout back in the 1990's, I encouraged everyone to have a go at building half track. I produced a jig and the club members, in turn, took a bag of copper clad sleepers and some rail home with them after club. They came back next club night with a yard or two of half track so that we could lay it that evening. On quite a few occasions the rail was upside down, but no one else noticed (it was code 75) and I wasn't going to tell them, and so it remained until the layout was scrapped a few years ago. Thing was, some of the members had never built anything before and were so proud of having contributed to the club layout, I wasn't going to tell them they had got it (slightly) wrong, and, lets face it, no one was any wiser. Derek 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trustytrev Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Hello, Use it as it is so you can run some trains sooner rather than later. Modelling railways is all about compromise. You can always replace them gradually if you feel so inclined at a later date. I really want to see trains being operated on Eastwood Town. I would also like to see your scenery being developed as well. Progressing to an operational stage is sure to reinvigorate your enthusiasm with new and interesting challenges in other areas of this great hobby. trustytrev. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNERGE Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 . Aarghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! My worst fears were confirmed and I now realise I have built 18 beautiful turnouts with the rail upside down... Been there done that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGC Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Like not noticing your zip is undone! No it's not, but yours is! Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 Thanks for all your kind thoughts and encouragement. A couple of days on and it's all systems go again. The pointwork has been saved and I'll just live with it. Everyone makes mistakes. It just happened I made 180 of them, one after another……:-) I ran out of 95 x 18 timber so work has been a little delayed, but tomorrow will see the construction of the final board to cross the stairs and make the full circle. Why do we always leave the hardest job till last? Daft really, but I guess that's human nature. This one promises to be a real challenge. One end is 740mm wide and the other 560mm. That's OK, but inevitably the ends aren't truly parallel, so this really will have to be tailor made with each cross strut cut to the correct length and angle. Add to that the need to accommodate two gradients of 30mm up and down from the datum point of ET station and then end fixings become a challenge. It has to bridge the stairwell, but in order to lay tracks etc, the end board of the station (5' long) and the bridging board (6'6" long) have to be fixed at right angles and moved into the centre of the room. A combination of the sloping roof line and access across the stairs themselves, mean the only safe way to lay track and ballast is to move it into the room. Without doing that would mean balancing on a scaffold plank across the stairwell. I would have done that in my 30's, but not now. That's where the problems start. Each board has been built to avoid any joins under pointwork. That's fine but does mean the boards are odd sizes and shapes. They lock together well but getting one out is like one of those children's number puzzles with a board across the room having to be removed so others can slide about to create the space to get one out without fouling the balustrade that comes 7' into the room. The Krypton Factor comes pretty close, but once done it makes working on the boards so much easier. There won't be a problem once running and operation commences as all of the boards can be easily reached, but there is a big difference between laying track precisely and re railing stock. Of course if you get the first one right, the second will never happen…:-) There may still be a need to access things for scenery etc, but lets get running first and deal with the scenic elements when I get that far. Oh how I envy those with a decent size room, straight walls and no stairs…. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I really do wish you all the best with that lot Gordon, MAMMOTH or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I've got a short piece of bullhead rail in a chair by our back door as a footscraper. I'm not going outside in the dark to see which way the rail is. Never even occurred to me..... Gordon, great to hear you are are moving forward rather than heading for the bin. As everyone has said, any model is a compromise and it's the combination of ALL the parts that turn it into a layout. Of course we want perfection, but life's never perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ray H Posted January 9, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 9, 2015 After reading your most recent post Gordon I think the oversight recorded earlier is a mere trifle compared to getting that final baseboard sorted but I'm sure it'll will be built with your usual thoroughness and be like everything else on your layout - a credit to you (and the envy of many of us). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium polybear Posted January 9, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 9, 2015 Aarghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! My worst fears were confirmed and I now realise I have built 18 beautiful turnouts with the rail upside down... Right now I don't know whether to laugh or top myself…. You could always flog 'em on Aussie Ebay.... polybear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 10, 2015 Oh how I envy those with a decent size room, straight walls and no stairs…. Move the big telly telly and 3 story high speakers into the railway room and put the layout in the lounge. I'm sure Mrs S wouldn't mind.. ...much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 Move the big telly telly and 3 story high speakers into the railway room and put the layout in the lounge. I'm sure Mrs S wouldn't mind.. ...much. It wouldn't be just his golf balls she took off him....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 Move the big telly telly and 3 story high speakers into the railway room and put the layout in the lounge. I'm sure Mrs S wouldn't mind.. ...much. I did suggest that once……... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 I seem to remember we had one of the Eastwood plans laid out in there and it fitted quite nicely... Cheers Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 10, 2015 I did suggest that once……... Only once? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gordon s Posted January 10, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) Once was enough. The mental and physical scars have just about healed….. No golf today as it was blowin' a hooley last night and there was a fair bit of debris around. Wet and windy never does it for me, but a comp tomorrow so hoping for better conditions. Spent most of the morning drawing bits of wood to scale. This 3 dimensional lark takes a fair bit of planning, particularly where two gradients and boards of two different heights are concerned. Thankfully my early days on a drawing board came in useful and I finally managed to crack the dimensions and angles. A fun day and if I'd had hair at the beginning there wouldn't have been much left by the time I called it a day. Just out of interest, this is only way at present of working on these boards. I have to stand on a single cross strut and lean across the chasm... I keep promising myself I will build a removable platform that will fill that void and allow me to work safely, but somehow I never got round to it. Those of you involved in H & S will probably shudder at the risks involved standing on this cross strut….I will do it, but somehow other things take over. I use 12mm ply end cheeks which are laid out in pairs and then clamped together with the edges aligned. If you drill a small pilot hole through both boards you can then use a 25mm Forstner bit to cut the recesses for the C & L alignment dowels. If done carefully with a pillar drill the alignment is remarkably accurate and that enables you to take boards apart and reset them without problem. Once the end cheeks are in place the rest of the frame is made up from 95 x 18 softwood. I had to space out the back rail as the stairs have finials on them which are decorative but a pain in the arse for modellers. I did suggest and even try removing them once, but that earned my no brownie points whatsoever with Mrs S….:-) Next job will be to fit the cross rails and then eventually undertake the mass shuffle of all the boards to get this board and the end board of ET station assembled in the middle of the room to start laying the gradient beds and then track. Still smiling….. Edited January 10, 2015 by gordon s 35 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) Hi Gordon I would like to have used several ratings for your post, but used like as the best overal. There were a couple of times I could have hit friendly and supportive, with at least one agree. Good to see that progress is being made and that the final bits of baseboard are coming together. I looked foreward to the track laying and the first train running. A good decision to ignore the fubar on your last turnout building marathon and press on. That first train will be a monumental moral booster, it may hopeful lead to you miss a few cross country hockey sessions. SS Edit for awkward fingers on the keypad Edited January 10, 2015 by Siberian Snooper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold pirouets Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 10, 2015 Twas lovely out on the course this morning bar 2 mins when it felt like a lake turned it self upside down. Just had to aim some what left or right when it was a cross wind. With the stairs, what's the head room that will be left as you come up? Will we be seeing picture of a plasters on your head or is there more room that it looks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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