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steve fay
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Martyn 3 link has been working hard on the first points for RB.

Following proper GWR practice.

I'm very grateful for his input

 

And before any eagle eyed reader spots it, the slab bracket is just put in place and it will be in the correct orientation before being glued down  ;) .

 

Martyn.

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nice...

 

and given the wait for supplies to arrive, a bit quick off the blocks too!

 

I have only ever built track using Templot, copperclad and soldering iron, or Peco - I'm about to make a foray into C&L-land and would be grateful for confirmation of my shopping list for Reading;

 

I'll make my own crossings and blades from plain rail, along with which  I will buy the nice plastic fishplates, and the chairs.  It's the chairs...  I obviously need slide chairs, plain chairs and chairs for checkrails, and a few others - slab chairs can be paxolin and cut down standard chairs, but I'm not clear about quantities - and I know these vary from turnout to turnout. 

 

Estimate for one turnout - 48 standard two-hole chairs, 18 slide chairs, 12 bridge chairs  6 fishplate pairs

 

That said, does this sound like a sensible list to build a bit less than 10 metres of plain track including 5 1:7 turnouts and 2 1:5 ones?  Don't mind if I'm a bit out one way or the other, but would hate to get started and find I'm missing something vital

 

500 standard 2 hole chairs  E7CH 102A

100 bridge chairs  E7CH 201A

200 slide chairs     E7CH 301A

144 fishplates E7XX FP01

plus 20m of rail.

 

no sleepers as I'll cut my own - very thin, track rather "embedded" in the dirt.

 

thoughts & advice very welcome

thx

Simon

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Hi Simon,

 

Hopefully I can give you some helpful info regarding the p/way, first of all like a loco build it depends on how much detail you want to add and just like locos there is quite a bit of regional differences especially in the chair design.

 

The GWR for instance, you will find most of their chairs were 2 hole whereas the other regions chose 3 or 4 hole.

 

Getting on to the amount you will require for a standard 1:7 turnout you are looking at 96 standard 2 hole chairs, the   E7CH 201A bridge chairs are not compatible for the GWR being that they are 4 hole.  If you need a smaller 2 hole chair I am afraid it's a case of trimming a standard chair down with a stanley knife, there is no other choice at present and most modellers I know follow this practice. As for the slide chairs you will need 16 per turnout and the  E7CH 301A chairs are fine except the flatter part of the chair has 2 bolts instead of one, so if you want to be a sad s*d like me I also buy the standard slide chairs and replace the flatter one hole part by cutting them in half and join them under the rail out of sight. You will need 6 fish plates, I use 4 of the plastic ones for the normal gaps and 2 of the cast ones on the blade rails themselves.

 

Regarding filing your vee's and point blades I have found the jigs supplied by the S7 stores a real help, but you can get by without them.

 

HTH,

 

Martyn.

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Martyn

 

 

thanks for this, I knew about the GW prediliction for 2-hole chairs, but the key (oops) point (oh, sorry) of confusion was the bridge chair.  I am not planning to change all the slide chairs too....  yet,

 

will amend shopping list accordingly!

 

much appreciated

Simon

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I also use small pads of copper-clad pcb on four sleepers to support the common crossing on points. This technique allows a degree of wiggle room during construction, ensures the crossing is dead flat and provides electrical connection across the crossing. I finish off with sliced up cosmetic chairs.

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plus 20m of rail.

 

no sleepers as I'll cut my own - very thin, track rather "embedded" in the dirt.

 

thoughts & advice very welcome

thx

Simon

 

 I think that I'd up the amount of rail as that would only do 10M of plain track, but as it looks like your going to build approx. 7 points I'd say get about 30M of rail, or maybe a bit more. The off cuts can always be used for detail on the layout.

 

OzzyO.

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I built my crossing wingrail assemblies on this

post-8525-0-47909100-1311320100_thumb.jpg
 
soldering the rail to bits of scrap etch which can be traimmed back either flush to the rail whan a half chair can be added or left with a piece sticking out to represent the chair base.
The picture below show a 2mm one with chairs added ready to lay onto the timbers. A dab of epoxy will fix the crossing assembly down onto the timbers I then build the rest out from there.
 
post-8525-0-20846500-1413476344_thumb.jpg

 

I find doing this I set the wing rails up correctly in the jig then when build the turnout I can tweak  the ends of the rails slightly without disturbing the flangeways at the crossing.

 

Don

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Steve

 

There were some comments in the handmade track forum about using metal black on the rail - have you tried this?

 

It seems to me that you could black the rail before fitting chairs etc (though probably not before assembly of point work as it inhibits solder) and the colour is supposed to be a pleasing dark brown when used on Nickel Silver.

 

Sorry, I don't suppose this suggestion is well timed!

 

Best

Simon

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Simon

I blacken rail with metal blackener and paint them with Floquil 'rust' before putting the chairs on the rail. Sliding the chairs on the rail disturbs some of the paint and gives a nice uneven finish - and no nasty bright rail showing through of course! Unfortunately I don't think Floquil is available in this country any more which is a shame because it went on very thinly.

Bill 

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The first full length stretch of track is now down wired up and tested. The dream is very much becoming a reality.

Martyn is beavering away on the first points as well.

We need some information on GW slab and bracket chairs as we are looking in to having them cast. If any one volunteers at a railway and could do some measurements that would be great

Stevepost-5983-0-45052400-1415899218_thumb.jpg

Edited by steve fay
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The first full length stretch of track is now down wired up and tested. The dream is very much becoming a reality.

Martyn is beavering away on the first points as well.

We need some information on GW slab and bracket chairs as we are looking in to having them cast. If any one volunteers at a railway and could do some measurements that would be great

Steveattachicon.gifimage.jpg

Wow that track looks almost real...........

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Hi Steve,

 

You need this:

 

cvr_track_400px.jpg

 

from: http://gwsg.org.uk/GWSG_Publications.html

 

Chair drawings on page 98. All the GW track info you could want.

 

Martin.

 

Hi Martin,

 

Yes I have got that book and the only dimensions I can find is of an above view, I am hopefully going to have them 3D printed so I would probably need some more measurement of the chair I would think. Any advice or info would be much appreciated.

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

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Yes I have got that book and the only dimensions I can find is of an above view, I am hopefully going to have them 3D printed so I would probably need some more measurement of the chair I would think. Any advice or info would be much appreciated.

 

Hi Martyn,

 

The slab is 1.7/8" thick, the same as the base of a chair casting. That scales to 25 thou in 4mm scale. See also: http://www.norgrove.me.uk/GWRtracknotes/R1734.pdf

 

Martin.

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Hi Martin, Keith,

 

Thank you both so much for the info, the idea of having some produced might seem a bit over the top but in 7mm scale these chairs are quite noticeable to the eye.

 

The guy who will hopefully manufacture them for me will also be putting them on the market just in case anyone else is interested, and depending on costs to follow maybe the smaller 2 hole L1 chair .

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

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