Eastwood Town - A tribute to Gordon's modelling.

[artizen]

Regarding sticking down paper templates. John - have you tried using Blue Stick by UHU?. It seems to have very strong adhesive powers when I use it inappropriately (such as trying to glue aluminium to plywood). Certainly works really well when building Scalescenes kits.

[trisonic]

One very messy railway room.  I did warn you...

 

You can also see the limitations of the roof slope and how it reduces the available space by around 4' overall.

 

Interesting photo. Now I understand how critical the "Stairwell" is - and the "battle" between it and the slope of the roof heightwise.

 

Best, Pete.

[The Great Bear]

One very messy railway room.  I did warn you...

 

Looks tidy to me...

[RedgateModels]

Great progress Gordon

 

and you seem to be fairing better that the other Eastwood Town

 

http://www.ilkestonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local/locked-out-badgers-survival-in-severe-doubt-1-6391442

 

My office at work overlooks the ground and the clubhouse etc is boarded up. We are waiting for the pikeys to move in, plenty of grazing for the horses

[gordon s]

A sad story indeed Ian. 61 years down the drain through poor financial management, most of which is owed to the council. I can't help but feel sadness for the club and all their supporters.

 

Just to close the loop, Pete, here's the other side of the room with the staircase. Hopefully it will all make sense now. The stairwell board is in place and I'm working on the ones on the right. The boards on the left are the old storage lines from an earlier version of ET. These will be relocated and realigned to become the new storage roads which will come out into the room from the stairwell.

 

Edited February 14, 2014 by gordon s

[PhilH]

Do you really need all those banisters?

[eldavo]

Do you really need all those banisters?

I think you will find the local authorities have put a preservation order on them!

 

Cheers

Dave

[Ray H]

I think you will find the local authorities have put a preservation order on them!

 

Cheers

Dave

 

No, I heard that his next door neighbour had some and Gordon wanted one more!

[coachmann]

Thanks Gordon and Martin for explaining things about 00-SF. It is much clearer to me now. 

[gordon s]

Couple of pics that show what lays ahead.  I needed to start on the shed approach roads and whilst sticking a few sheets together is a good indication, nothing beats putting them all together to ensure everything hangs together and you're not introducing a mm or two error.  On it's own it's not an issue, but take that 8'-10' away and what was a mm or two is now a misalignment of 30mm.  The only way to cover that is to lay out the whole area and then work from there.  Thankfully A4 printer paper and sticky tape is far cheaper than 12mm ply and of course it can go in the bin without the love of my life noticing….:-)

 

Here's half of ET shed.  The turntable is currently a Fleischmann one as I've been anxiously awaiting news of the Metalsmith's Cowan and Sheldon 70' kit.  I say anxiously, but it's now two years and there are doubts it will ever appear.  Never mind, I'll face that hurdle when it comes to it.  My preferred stepper motor control system has also gone out of production, but no doubt both of these issues will be resolved nearer the time.

 

Of course having printed out the sheets, I had to try them for size.  The far end will house the turntable and coaling stage plus a few ancilliary buildings.  The four road shed building will sit this end and overall the shed will occupy a space of 12' x 3' which will narrow to 2' width to allow access between the shed and storage roads.

 

The wind is blowing it's best, but so far we're dry and the power is still on.  I can't imagine what it must be like for those with a lounge full of water and no sign of the flood abating...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tender]

Here's half of ET shed. The turntable is currently a Fleischmann one as I've been anxiously awaiting news of the Metalsmith's Cowan and Sheldon 70' kit. I say anxiously, but it's now two years and there are doubts it will ever appear. Never mind, I'll face that hurdle when it comes to it. My preferred stepper motor control system has also gone out of production, but no doubt both of these issues will be resolved nearer the time.

 

 

Hi Gordon,

As always really enjoying watching this develop. I can't help you with the Cowan and Sheldon turntable (I have a 65ft GWR on order for Polly's Great West Road) but you might want to have a look at my 'DCC Stepper Motor Controlled Turntable' thread if you're up for building something.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/78578-dcc-controlled-peco-turntable-project/?p=1223686

 

Ray.

Edited February 14, 2014 by tender

[trisonic]

You still got Electricity, Gordon? I heard on TV that there were a lot of downed power lines in your vicinity.....

 

Best, Pete.

[gordon s]

We're fine, Pete, in fact I've just got back from 18 holes of golf in the sunshine.  A clear blue sky promises much needed relief for those less fortunate, although there is so much water in the ground it will be days before the situation improves.

[gordon s]

Dear Diary…26th March 2014.

 

Still breathing, so that's a plus. The last month has seen considerable activity, but most of it on the golfing front. Managed to bank £133 in cash prizes over the past four weeks from the Seniors and Club Competitions, so life could be worse. The weather has held up fairly well and the combination of fresh air, exercise and competitive sport drew me away from my other passion. Not surprisingly as ballasting the last board seemed to take forever, but it had to be done.

 

The goods loops are starting to take shape and the new headshunt is in place. This required some additional carpentry to widen the existing track base, but now that's in place and the track is down.

 

I have a bit of work to align a few rails where they join the vees of the copper clad pointwork. I'm sure others may have done something similar, but I find this does improve the alignment of flexi track to copper clad. I deliberately stagger the joins by two or three sleepers. This allows the inner rail that joins the vee to be soldered into position which maintains the gap and stops any thermal expansion closing the joint over time. It seems to make a much more solid transition and works well. This close up of the track will show you what I mean. I have yet to solder the rails in position, hence the poor alignment.

 

 

Other than that, more has been done in the last few days than for some time. Here's a few general views with a mock up of the next length of walling. This will continue until the inner goods section girder bridge. Beyond that the tracks will move away from the lower main lines and I will build earth embankments. I am hoping to wire up some of these sections soon so at least something might run. The stairwell board needs to be lifted to fit the Tortoise motors after which it can become a fixture and the pointwork can then be laid across the gap. I know, pointwork across a gap goes against all my principles and I wish I had thought that one through a lot better. Hey ho, faced with a choice or ripping stuff up and starting again, I'll live with it..

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2014 by gordon s

[trisonic]

Thanks for the update, Gordon. I think that it is looking really good,  as usual. Frankly I'll be disappointed when it is finished - but I get like that about my own stuff too.

 

I'm the opposite to you due to the appalling weather. The snow has nearly all gone and the promised storm of last night didn't happen - no snow just windy. So, I need to get out more. The trusty (ha) 7 iron will get some use in the backyard next week.....

 

Best, Pete.

[Ian_H]

Dear Diary…26th March 2014.

 

Hey ho, faced with a choice or ripping stuff up and starting again, I'll live with it..

 

 

Hi Gordon

 

Looking good but "rip it up and start again" almost had heart failure

 

I really like last photograph, looks an immense distance.

Ian

 

edited for keyboard error ... making my spelling look stupid

Edited March 26, 2014 by Ian_H

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Gordon, thanks for responding to my request for an update. Looking very nice indeed. Is that a Brit or the DoG in the photos?

[martin_wynne]

Hi Gordon,

 

I agree with Ian, that last pic looks superb. I couldn't resist getting out a pot of paint:

 

 

Martin.

 

[gordon s]

Hi Gordon, thanks for responding to my request for an update. Looking very nice indeed. Is that a Brit or the DoG in the photos?

 

It's Hornby DoG, which I picked up a couple of days ago from Gaugemaster.  It's had a hour or so running in on rollers and seems fine, but the colour/paint finish is really grating with me.  Somehow the flat finish makes the whole thing look rather toy like.  I'm assuming it is the right colour, but somehow just looks wrong.  The other thing I've just noticed are the flangeless Cartazzi truck wheels.  I've just looked in the box and there doesn't appear to be a set of flanged wheels either, so that's very disappointing.  I'm not a Hornby knocker, but this does fall short of what I was expecting.

 

 

It's not my day.  Thought I'd have a bit of fun filming a rake of Mk1's passing across some reverse curves in 00-SF at an obscene speed to see if they would derail.  Sadly my tripod seems to have come apart and the light has now dropped so that will have to wait for another day..

[Rowsley17D]

It's Hornby DoG, which I picked up a couple of days ago from Gaugemaster.  It's had a hour or so running in on rollers and seems fine, but the colour/paint finish is really grating with me.  Somehow the flat finish makes the whole thing look rather toy like.  I'm assuming it is the right colour, but somehow just looks wrong.  The other thing I've just noticed are the flangeless Cartazzi truck wheels.  I've just looked in the box and there doesn't appear to be a set of flanged wheels either, so that's very disappointing.  I'm not a Hornby knocker, but this does fall short of what I was expecting.

 

S0245901.jpg

 

 

 

No doubt you'll have seen Larry's (Coachmann) r-t-r bashing with the Railroad version. I don't think he mentioned the truck wheels. It does seem to be a backwards step. The DoG is too late for me (1930s) but with the drafting problems sorted would have been a worthy successor to the Duchesses.

[gordon s]

Well this isn't taken with a video camera and the light is not great, hence the over compensation on light levels, but here's my pointwork test.  This is a pair of Bachmann Mk1's close coupled with Kadee No 18 couplings, so close that the corridor ends of the Bachmann coaches are touching.  This is across a pair of B7 turnouts in 00-SF at God knows what scale speed.  Any derailment and it's a fail and out come the gauges and soldering iron.

 

Nothing scientific of course, just my way of testing..

 

Edited March 26, 2014 by gordon s

[hayfield]

Looking very good, but getting the oldies at the golf club to buy another loco is quite novel !! 

[silverlink]

Gordon,

I'm sure I heard a sonic boom as they went across the points!!!

Ian

[pirouets]

Jealous. Where I play they only give vouchers back that have to be spent at the club rather than converting to railway currency.

 

With your point test, have you ever come close to not catching them which may be a problem with the current state of the boards and the drop of doom at the end or is there a fair amount of room between the points and the end of the board?

[gordon s]

Sorry Steve, they are cash vouchers to be spent in the pro shop, but then that's money I would have spent anyway, so the net result is the same. I'm up a few quid that can be spent on railway stuff or golf balls...

 

All my testing stock has been round the block and dropped a few times. If you look closely you may see windows rattling around loose inside. If nothing else grabbing stock before it falls of the end is a good test of my reactions...