Adventures in Finetrax

[Claude_Dreyfus]

This new project is a world away from my usual poison (well, roughly half a world!), with a return to something British. Essentially this is an experiment with the new(ish) Finetrax, which hit the market last year, albeit with a fairly limited range. My ultimate aim is to construct a small terminus layout set in 1890s West Sussex; however I need to practice the point construction, as well as various building techniques, before embarking on something more ambitious. To achieve this, a small layout – basically a plank – is being started; testing how the points work, and how durable the trackwork actually is. It will also give me the opportunity to construct a small traverser fiddle yard.

 

So, where to set this new venture? Well, I still fancy something set locally to me (i.e. still in West Sussex) however is set in the present day, partly because I am only using one point and because I have a Farish Southern class 171. I have long had an interest in the Midhurst branch lines, so decided to have the what-if scenario of Midhurst station surviving. Midhurst today is a shadow of its former self. Once a station served by three lines, now Midhurst is at the end of what is effectively a siding from Pulborough. The station will consist of a single platform, minus its impressive country house style station building (pulled down in the late sixties as a result of rationalisation), and pretty much anything else other than a refuge siding.

 

Today saw the first plotting of how everything will fit together. The board is currently 4' x 2'; however will be trimmed to 4' x 1'6". An additional board will be added for the fiddle yard.

 

This first picture shows the overall scene...

 

 

The line across the front of the layout is where the board will be trimmed. The site of the platforms are marked in paper, whilst the track is currently some scrap PECO flexitrack, which will be replaced by code 40 Finetrax. In the foreground is the beginning of a modern housing estate. This is the viewing side of the layout.

 

As with the prototype, the station sits at the start of an embankment; which originally carried the western end of the station and the goods yard. This embankment is just about discernible around the tracks.

 

 

The houses are from the Bachmann 'ready to plonk' range. The garden plots have been roughly marked out, whilst on the right the plot for a set of terraced houses can be seen. The intention is to scratch build these, based on my first house.

 

 

The weather boards are a feature of many houses in Sussex.

 

 

 

The opposite side of the layout has a small industrial area, which is in the foreground. The pencil scribblings near to the front of the picture mark out the fact the station is on an embankment. The industrial are is at a lower level than the station, so will be partially hidden from the viewing side. The three cars are sitting on the planned site of the station car park.

 

 

Beside the main track will be a refuge siding. The yellow Ford Transit van is located where a small permanent way area will be. In the foreground will be a set of garages serving the terraced houses.

 

 

Heading away from the station, the track merges and heads into the distinctive single-track bore of Midhurst tunnel. The point template is a for a Finetrax B6 left-hand turnout. The odd looking scribbles beside the track roughly mark out where the signals will be located; the right-hand will be a ground signal. The top-right are of the picture is currently empty; but is likely to contain light industry. It marks the former site of the Hall & Co quarry.

 

Finally, the point (to excuse the pun) of the whole exercise. 

 

 

I have never built my own track before, so this will be an interesting new challenge. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

I shall follow this with interest. I would like to build my own but expect to get someone else to build points for me.

 

I don't have any worries about the durability of the track itself.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Right, well the sun was out and the weather warm, so I decided to continue work on the baseboard construction.

 

After some though, I decided to make use of some bits and pieces I had laying around, namely an old N Gauge Society module board, stripped of buildings a good few years ago. 

 

 

It had a sturdy frame beneath the fairly chunky plywood top, which I would use for the new layout's frame. First job was to dismantle the old layout. This took a little time as it was well built; fixed together with both screws and glue. Eventually the frame was removed.

 

 

Now, being a standard N Gauge Society module, it measured 4' x 2", whilst the Midhurst board will be 4' x 1'6". So some hacking down was needed. After a couple of hours of measuring, cutting and screwing, the new frame looked like this. I am not sure what will become of the plywood top. I did think about using it for the new baseboard - which will be multi-level to cater for the contours. It is a bit heavy, so I am not 100% certain as yet.

 

 

I wanted some legs as well, but decided I had may as well make use of Kanjiyama's legs as the were for the same sized board and were the right height. Some minor modifications were made to the frame to accommodate them, but the fit is pretty good.

 

 

 

My next task is to work out how to construct the track bed.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

A slight diversion this week as I finally met our club's silhouette cutter last Friday night. Having gone through the Silhouette cutter thread on here, and armed with a couple of pictures purloined from Google Street View, I set about trying to create a generic modernish set of small houses, based on the house I lived in a few years back. 

 

 

Whilst not exactly the same house as seen in the previous posting, these are the opposite side of the road and are of more or less the same design (in fact these houses are a couple of feet wider(!) than my old house. The image is a little distorted, but fine for being able to plot the outline of the house, and establish where the windows etc. are located. 

 

The image was drawn up on the Silhouette Studio software, which is pretty easy to use. 

 

 

This image shows the front and back of the buildings, which have been strung together into a terrace of 4 houses. The odd-looking box to the right is the weatherboard cladding from the front of one of the houses. What this view does not show is the some of the lines are cut lines and some -  such as the weatherboards - are score lines. The two end walls with windows are the ends of the terrace, which the other two - fractionally smaller - are internal walls.

 

This first set of houses will all be on one level; however it is my plan to construct a few of these sets, with at least a couple set on a gradient. These will have the same step effect between the individual houses as can be seen in the picture in the first post.

 

The doors and window frames have also been drawn out...

 

 

For scaling, 'JCL' produced a 4mm scale rule - which is available on the cutter thread. I reduced the scale down to 2mm, so yes, these structures will be built to 1/152.

 

These designs can also be printed out conventionally (the whole design fits onto an A4 sheet), so if unsuitable for the cutter, I'll put these onto card and stock up on a supply of sharp knives! I will find this out next Friday, when armed with plasticard and laptop, I'll give this a go.

 

Something that did strike me once the house was drawn up. It is only around 16' width...that is the same as the length of our club's N Gauge layout!

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hi,

 

Any update on this? I'm especially interested to see how the terraced houses cut by the cutter go together...

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I must admit, I have been a little remiss on my updates.

 

A few weeks ago I was able to run some test prints off on the cutter, and the results don't look too bad. I am experimenting with the thickness of the plasticard, as 0.10 seemed a little flimsy, whilst 0.20 was just a little too thick for our blades. The delicate frames for the doors and windows have also come out reasonably well, but some of the edges have scuffed a little with the blade owing to the thickness, so I might consider going back to 0.10 for these.

 

When I get some time (precious commodity!) I will try to assemble these. I suspect I will need to go through a number of iterations before I can get them to fit together properly...

[Steve Purves]

Will follow this with interest... Looks good.