BITTON

[Andrew P]

Morning all.

 

Just to add to all the useful info on track building, me and Bodgit have been building layouts with each others help for well over twenty five years and in all that time we have used p - - o track on everything, never really looked at finescale track building at all, l remember buying a layout of a chap years ago, who had handbuilt all the track himself, but it needed a lot tweaking to get it to run, so what did l do....ripped the whole thing up and laid p - - o ?

 

When we went to a exhibition a while back we had a indepth look at some layouts with handbuilt points and SMP track, and that got us looking at the whole thing in a different way, we started to ditch looking at layouts with p - - o track and really started to look at the layouts which had SMP etc etc. and thats where the idea came through with 'Bitton' Andy said he wanted to build a roundy round layout with handbuilt points and SMP,

 

So when JasonT said he would build some track for the layout, l was interested, and seeing what Cav had done with designing the track plan in templot l was hooked, so l gave it a go, yes it was crap at first but they got better and better with practise.

 

So off l went down to Bodgits armed with soldering iron and all the bits needed to help push Bodgit in the right direction, and after about 3-hours we had managed to make a cross-over for the goods yard at 'Bitton', yes it was rough, but we were getting there and it gave Bodge the push he wanted, there will be no stopping him now ?

 

George

Morning mate, just got back from the Optician's with all good results so that's fine.

 

Bitton will be my FIRST REAL model railway. I hope.

[Andrew P]

Listen to (or read) the advice of others, but ultimately you find what works for you. Work to the gauges rather than the drawings, the gauges are more accurate. I think you should give yourself a pat on the pat for how quickly you are progressing then sit down with a cuppa ( and no more than one biccy) to take it easy. All the best.

Don.

Thanks Don for the encouragement, I'm sitting down with a nice Latte and a Rich Tea Biscuit. 

[Andrew P]

Andy, I have just done a test print of the pdf file I sent to you on the office printer. I set it to custom print at 100% as I told you to do and it has printed absolutely spot on. If you are having to reduce it then there is something wrong with you printer set up. Have you stuck a steel ruler or calipers across the rails of the print outs to check gauge? I get exactly 16.5mm when I do so.

 

Cav

Morning Cav, the first print came off at almost O Gauge, once resized down to 85% it is spot on, after I finished last night I slipped a bit of SMP Track on to the new Point with the Fish Plates and it is spot on to SMP. 

 

Cheers mate.

[Andrew P]

Morning Andy,

PLEASE listen to Mick's advice - that little event in the shop which you mentioned, surely supports this?

I have a niggling worry about you starting to build the track before the gauges arrive from Jason. It will be pointless(?) if the gauges are even a little way out! Not interfering mate, but seem to remember a discussion on the importance of using the same set throughout the build from several pages back?

Hope the eye tests threw up positive results,

Kind regards,

Jock.

Morning Jock, re the  Gauges, your right of course so I will wait now for the Gauges and the Slip to arrive from Jason.

 

Cheers and I am resting today and tomorrow as I have a busy weekend ahead.

[Andrew P]

Just a personal thought, but if I was entering the complicated world of track building utilising materials kindly provided by other people, I would need someone to come down and set everything up for me so I knew I had the right sized prints, gauges and so on, and maybe start up a build so I could see how it looks...

 

Would someone be able to do this for Andy if so required?  Might be a lot less stress on his shoulders, given the multiplicity of differing advice he's been offered and the need for him to take it easy...

 

As I said, just a thought; no use me volunteering as I know nothing about the subject!

 

Andy, I hope you recover quickly, but take all the rest you need...

 

 

David

Thanks David, that's so kind of you to suggest that mate, really appreciated. George T came down the other week and guided me through the basics, and that got me started.

I have now sorted out my print size, and that's another problem solved, and after Steve's advice and reading Gordon's Eastwood Town build it all making more sense.

Cav has done a brilliant job with the Templot Plan but it must have been the settings on my Printer that brought the first sheet out almost O Gauge, I now have that sorted as well, so I am getting there.

 

I also have a few Guys at the Club that build O Gauge Track that I can call on as well.

 

Cheers again for the thought.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Andrew P

[RBE]

Andy I would be more than willing to pop down to give you a hand provided the timing suits the missus business commitments.

[Andrew P]

Hi Andy.

Printing out PDF files on a printer is very hit and miss for templates. The same file on different printers will give different results. You say you have to rescale the pdf by 85% which sort of confirms this. If your going to print out templot plans the best way is to do this from within Templot. Templot has a calibration routine to calibrate your printer so the templates are printed out exactly to scale. Scaling it by 'eye' using the gauge or sleeper spacing of SMP track will give significant errors when multiplied up along the length of a turnout which is probably why your V has ended up in the wrong place.

 

Do you have the templot .box file, i'm sure there's enough of us on here that could talk you through the process of calibrating and printing from within templot.

 

Ray.

Morning Ray, I don't have Templot, I tried it and really lost my temper trying to set it up, now incase Martin Wynnie is reading this, there is NOTHING WRONG WITH TEMPLOT, its just that I cant read instruction and follow them.

 

As I said in an earlier post, late last night I put some fish plates on a bit of SMP and it was a nice slide on fit to all the point exits, so it must now be right, I will fit some lengths of Peco Code 75 to all three exits when I have the rest of the rails in place and THROW some stock up and down to fully test it.

 

As for the V, well I'm afraid I was looking at the gauges and not the plan, as Steve and Gordon say If I build the V first I cant go wrong, I hope.

[Andrew P]

Andy I would be more than willing to pop down to give you a hand provided the timing suits the missus business commitments.

Thanks a lot Cav, let me get the weekend out of the way, and the Slip arrive from Jason, (as you may have read, I have cancelled todays visit) plus his Gauges, then I will give you a call.

 

Thanks again mate.

[Donington Road]

Thanks Mick, How do you know so much about my health? I went over to a Shop yesterday and whilst there I felt quite ill, I had to leave and came home, it must have taken about 5 Hours to get over it. It was just a wobbly moment but enough to remind me that I cant do what I used to do.

 

Cheers mate.

 

I'm about your age Andy.  I find the mind is willing to do things but the body can't do what it did ten years ago.  I have got my wife's mother and father who are both nearly 90, who need daily care which my wife does and I am doing all the maintenance and running their affairs, so basically running two households and it gets hard work at times.  We are about six miles away and they always want something doing after I've got home, arrrrgh.

 

As to your health, you told us all a little while back so its not hard to have a reasonable assessment of how you are.

 

You are a very sociable and likeable person, who likes to be friendly and helpful to everyone you meet.  That is all too apparent from just reading this forum.  Yesterday and today's posts just on the Bitton thread alone have taken me ages to read and digest.  But you Andy are not only reading them, you're brain is whirring away replying to most of them, creating new posts, some with photos and that all takes an enormous amount of time and effort.  Then, you are all over the forum looking into and contributing to other topics as well.  Then, you are doing all these other things like track building, shelving, etc., etc., in between.  How you find time to walk the dog I don't know. or is the dog taking you for a walk.  So all in all I see you rushing around non stop all day long without pausing to recharge the batteries once in awhile, which in the long term is not good for your overall health.

 

Please don't think I am criticising you Andy, far from it, it is just what I have experienced with my own family and friends that sometimes makes you stop and think a bit.

 

Good news with the Optitions this morning.  That will make you raring to go even more now.

[trisonic]

Good work, Andy!

 

But do be careful and take it a little easy.....

 

I’d like to visit you and Bitton - when it is finished.

 

Best, Pete.

[Jock67B]

Afternoon Andy,

Delighted to hear the result of the visit to the opticians and to hear that you appear to be heeding the words of all your concerned friends on here! Hope the weekend is calm but successful mate,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Andrew P]

Thanks a lot Cav, let me get the weekend out of the way, and the Slip arrive from Jason, (as you may have read, I have cancelled todays visit) plus his Gauges, then I will give you a call.

 

Thanks again mate.

That should have read; We have cancelled Tomorrows visit.

[Andrew P]

Good work, Andy!

 

But do be careful and take it a little easy.....

 

I’d like to visit you and Bitton - when it is finished.

 

Best, Pete.

Evening Pete, you'd be more than welcome when your over some time, and you can teach me the FORTH CHORD, hahha that will improve my playing, hahha

[Ray H]

I’d like to visit you and Bitton - when it is finished.

 

Best, Pete.

That soon? Can't you make it next month instead Pete?

[Alister_G]

Do you know, I've just got home and checked my email, and i've got 66 notifications of new posts to this thread since last night...

 

How's a man supposed to keep up?

 

 

 

Brilliant to see all the interest this has generated Andy, I'm now going to work my way through all the pages I've missed!

 

Al

[Andrew P]

Cheers Ray and Al, not much to report today I'm afraid, I'm off to Club now to finish setting up for the weekend. I'm doing a Weathering Demo so Al, if you fancy a visit again and want to bring something along for me to play on, be it a Loco or just a Humble Wagon then that's fine.

 

There you Al, now you have yet another post to read, ahhahha.

 

Cheers Guys.

[Jason T]

Slip, gauges and B2B are in the post mate, sent this lunch time. They should hopefully be with you tomorrow

[67A]

Hi Andy,

 

Good luck with your show tomorrow mate BUT please take it easy, I'm sure our REME contributor Clive would surely agree 'DON'T VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING!' Sit down, do a bit of light weathering and get someone to bring your tea and biscuit (1).

 

Have a good day mate.

[Andrew P]

Slip, gauges and B2B are in the post mate, sent this lunch time. They should hopefully be with you tomorrow

Thanks Jason mate, I'm looking forward to receiving it.

 

Shame about tomorrow as the Fun Fairs in Town for the switching on of Swad Lights tomorrow night and a massive Fireworks display, I was going to take you on the Ghost Train, hahhahah, its up by the Swad Indian.

 

I'm looking forward to having a play and finally lining everything up and starting to lay some rubber, I need to have a re read of Bacup to see how you did yours, I think it was Copydex for sticking down the rubber if I remember correctly but was it the same for laying the track, I'm sure it was?

[Andrew P]

Hi Andy,

 

Good luck with your show tomorrow mate BUT please take it easy, I'm sure our REME contributor Clive would surely agree 'DON'T VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING!' Sit down, do a bit of light weathering and get someone to bring your tea and biscuit (1).

 

Have a good day mate.

Thanks Mike, Its actually Saturday and Sunday and yes I have my seat, my heater, my gofer and a mat for under my feet.

[lmsforever]

Enjoy yourself tomorrow sounds like a great event  we had a very lacklustre xmas lights switch on last week yours sounds good ,can you do a workshop on sticking the rubber down as this looks interesting  .Chris

[emt_911]

Hi Andy,

 

Good luck with your show tomorrow mate BUT please take it easy, I'm sure our REME contributor Clive would surely agree 'DON'T VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING!' Sit down, do a bit of light weathering and get someone to bring your tea and biscuit (1).

 

Have a good day mate.

The other one agrees as well.

 

Enjoy the show and don't do too much

[Andrew P]

Enjoy yourself tomorrow sounds like a great event  we had a very lacklustre xmas lights switch on last week yours sounds good ,can you do a workshop on sticking the rubber down as this looks interesting  .Chris

Hi Chris, apparently Jason is the king of that, I will just be a very keen student, hahah

[Ray H]

Andy

 

I'd liked to have visited your open day but the rest of the family (in Cumbria) got in first and as I'm going there by train I can't even drop in when passing! I think your club has these sessions quite regularly so maybe next time.

 

I have been looking at another (old) thread about making 4mm points as I'm determined to go that way in due course. However, I noticed reference there to PCB thickness and SMP track which I recall you intend to us (as do I). The inference from what I read is that the SMP sleepers are thinner than the Peco ones so it seems necessary to use 1.06mm thick PCB sleepers on the pointwork to match.

 

Apologies if I'm mistaken but it may be worth noting otherwise.

 

Good luck with the open weekend.

[gordon s]

Just to confirm that point, Ray.  SMP sleepers are definitely thinner than C & L and you should use 1.06 x 4mm PCB strip for turnouts.  

 

I also buy pre cut sleepers for plain track.  They are 3.3mm wide and are single sided strip.  Much easier than having to cut down strip for plain sleepers.  From memory they came from Marcway….

 

A pack of 100 was £6.50.

 

http://www.marcway.net/list3.php?col=head&name=PCB+PRE-CUT+SLEEPERS

Edited November 28, 2014 by gordon s