Old Hamblings single and double slip plans

[hayfield]

I thought this may interest those of you who are interested in old trackwork. I thought this would be worth a £1 plus postage off Ebay as I am interested in old trackwork.

 

 

 

As can be seen they have some form of pivots in the centre of each crossing but no explanation

 

 

Sorry the scan is a bit wonky

[Il Grifone]

Very interesting, but a couple of errors jump out.

 

The crossing nose should be supported on the sleeper and crossing timbers are 1 foot wide usually (and possibly closer together?).

 

Apart from that they'd make quite reasonable BRMSB trackwork.

[hayfield]

Very interesting, but a couple of errors jump out.

 

The crossing nose should be supported on the sleeper and crossing timbers are 1 foot wide usually (and possibly closer together?).

 

Apart from that they'd make quite reasonable BRMSB trackwork.

 Looking at a series of modern plans and timber track frets, sleeper spacing varies. As you say certain parts need sleeper supports and there are maximum spacings on sleepers. Here Hamblings have opted for regular spacings between sleepers. Which I guess was the modelling style accepted when these were made

 

Don't forget all manufacturers of RTR track do the same, and in 250m lengths. In reality older track came in panels of varying lengths (40' 60' 80' etc) and sleeper spacings were closer together at each end of the panel to give the joint more support. Not forgetting 14" wide sleepers under the nose of the common crossing.

 

Its the pivots which make me curious, especially as there are 2 tiebars at each end and the pivots are on the centre rails only, I guess it is to ease the amount of power needed to throw the switch

[Il Grifone]

It looks like the switch rail is intended to be non flexing and leave a small gap when set 'straight'. Each rail has its own pivot which I would have thought complicates matters. A complete solid unit for each 'switch' is all that is needed.

 

There are no 2 rail section gaps shown, so I would assume outside third or stud contact electrification is intended (normal practice in 1946 of course!). I acquired a quantity of pointwork made like this some time ago, with rail soldered to brass sleepers. My intention was to replaced the sleepers with PCB strip, but I'll probably saw though most of them and only replace sufficient to hold the thing together (or even more likely not use them at all!).

 

The use of pivots is probably something to do with the use of heavy section rail and the strain on soldered joints.

[roythebus]

"Somewhere" in my collection I've probably still got some of the Kings Cross point drawings from the mid 1960s.

 

Ray Rippon of Southend used to produce point drawings as well.