BITTON

[Andrew P]

Just read Ben Jone's brilliant post in BRM Sep + bumper pack, post #83

 

Bodge.

[Brian D]

You can't keep a good bodger down.  Keep up the good work Andy, looking forward to your updates.  All the best.

Regards,

[Andrew P]

Brian, if you want to post the images of the bridge you PM'd to me on here then its OK by me.

 

Bodge

[Jintyman]

If they did templates it would be a lot easier, I will give them a call later and have a chat, the guy was really helpful last time.

 

Bodge.

Hi Andrew,

I'm pretty sure they do templates, a quick call to Marc Weaver would enlighten you. I'm also certain they would complete certain track configurations from a printed plan such as Templot, their prices? Well I can't answer that one I'm afraid, but a call or email to Marc should answer your questions.

 

Jinty ;-)

[Andrew P]

Hi Andrew,

I'm pretty sure they do templates, a quick call to Marc Weaver would enlighten you. I'm also certain they would complete certain track configurations from a printed plan such as Templot, their prices? Well I can't answer that one I'm afraid, but a call or email to Marc should answer your questions.

 

Jinty ;-)

Thanks Jinty, I was SUPPOSED to do it today and got side tracked but I will do that either tomorrow or Monday.

Laying paper templates out on a board has to be more successful than drawing it with templot etc.

I have used the Peco ones in the past and really found them to be very good.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

Bodge.

[Jintyman]

 

 

I just wish I could get my head around Templot!!!!!! :no:

 

I've got a spare wall in the garage, some wood and a yearning to make my own track?????? (it's probably an age thing!!!)

 

Jinty ;-)

[Andrew P]

Tina Turner said; whats Love got to do with it;

 

I say whats age got to do with anything, its just you cant do anything as quick.

 

Cough, Cough choke, ugggg

 

Bodge

[Ray H]

I think we should have two sweepstakes. The first on how soon Andy has trains running after the man supplying the shed has departed for home and the second on how many pages this thread will have reached by that time. :-)

 

Seriously though Andy it is good to see that you appear to be well on the road to recovery but please don't rush it.

 

I had a heart attack in 2005 (and a stent fitted on the same day) and felt like a thousand dollars within a matter of days. However I took things easy as I'd been instructed (by SWMBO) and thought I was ready to return to work about 5 weeks later (and about when the doctor said I probably would be).

 

I did a return test trip from home to office (by trains & tube - so no real exertion) exactly 5 weeks after the attack and that laid me low for a further two weeks.

[Andrew P]

I think we should have two sweepstakes. The first on how soon Andy has trains running after the man supplying the shed has departed for home and the second on how many pages this thread will have reached by that time. :-)

 

Seriously though Andy it is good to see that you appear to be well on the road to recovery but please don't rush it.

 

I had a heart attack in 2005 (and a stent fitted on the same day) and felt like a thousand dollars within a matter of days. However I took things easy as I'd been instructed (by SWMBO) and thought I was ready to return to work about 5 weeks later (and about when the doctor said I probably would be).

 

I did a return test trip from home to office (by trains & tube - so no real exertion) exactly 5 weeks after the attack and that laid me low for a further two weeks.

Cheers for the advice Ray,    Dee keeps telling me to;

STOP,

SLOW DOWN,

DON'T DO THAT,

LEAVE IT TILL TOMORROW.

 

So now I am, I walk slower than I used to, and think differently too.

 

Re the Layout, that will be slow as well, I'm in no hurry, its not as though I have an Exhibition to get it ready for.

 

It was always thought of as; The Last Great Project, and that's why I want to get it right, and by that I mean I want Marcway  / SMP track and points if I can afford to do it.

 

Jason, (Sandside) said to me something along the lines of; if its going to be permanent then don't rush it, if I use Peco track I may regret it in a year or two as Marcway / SMP looks so much better.

 

Having run both Jason's Bacup, and Jeff's, (Physicsman) Kirkby Luneside I must say the running qualities especially over points was a world away from what I've been used to.

Also the fact that most Locos will be Steam and most wagons will be 4 wheelers again the points will make the difference to the total running and look of the finished article.

 

Will it be my; Layout of a Lifetime? well that depends on the lifetime, so back to paragraph 1, I'm talking it slowly.

 

 

All bets are off.hahhaha

Cheers.

Bodge

Edited August 15, 2014 by Andrew P

[Andrew P]

I spoke with the Potting Shed man early today and confirmed the spec and start dates, so the base is being done on the 4th Sep and the Shed goes in on the 12th.

Once the interior is lined then I will do the Electrics as by the end of September the evenings will be drawing in and I will need both light and heating, plus of course power for my drill chargers etc.

 

I also need to paint the outside before winter and the bad weather comes in but it will be done in a slow and sedate manner so as not to over do things.

The way things are at the moment I can do jobs in the morning when I'm fresh but by Lunchtime I'm Knacke**d and need a kip or rest.

 

Still I cant wait now for it to arrive and just seeing it sitting there will help spur me on to get some things done.

 

Re a time scale, well I hope to be starting to lay some track soon after Christmas.

 

Bodge.

[Mrkirtley800]

Andy, making your own trackwork is not exactly rocket science.  OK so plain track is a bit tedious, if not soul destroying, but you can make the whole thing "flow".  I do mine the hard way, using EM Society wooden sleepers and brass rivets.  I will be using this method for some time to come, at least for the next couple of layouts because I bought quite a lot some years ago. The results are really not as good as the modern way with plastic chairs etc but it is strong and easily adjusted, and, anyway, I am a fully paid up Yorkshireman and cannot waste good sleepers and rivets.

Couple of piccies of the two station boards from Canal Road being modified.  The crossover by the station platform has a 1/7 crossing angle.

Derek

[Brian D]

Brian, if you want to post the images of the bridge you PM'd to me on here then its OK by me.

 

Bodge

Thanks Andy.  A very interesting bridge indeed just a mile or so down the line.  I've taken the liberty of editing your railway map showing the position of the bridge, thus..

I visited the area in 2010.  As a retired structural engineer who had some responsibility for bridges at one time in my career, I was struck by the unusual configuration of this bridge which includes a goal post frame like stucture at mid or third span, both of the goal posts being founded in the Bristol Avon.  It has a concrete deck as can be seen by the photos below so was possibly a relatively modern replacement structure but I have no more details, no doubt fellow RMWebbers can shed some light.

You mentioned in your PM that you might not have room to model this structure in your shed.  Perhaps a garden extension of Bitton could accommodate this interesting bridge?

Regards,

Brian

[Donw]

Our models are less affected by cetrafugal force so can take turnouts at igher speeds than they could full size. Peco have taken advantage of this and produced turnout using old fashioned heel switches at a sharper angle than normally used which enables the turnouts to be shortened. But they do not look so good. I statrted building track 35 years ago because no one made EM turnouts and have since made them in a number of gauges. I enjoy making track but if you don't why bother. It does however make planning easier  because I can build one to fit. There is nothing particularly magical about curved turnouts. Usually in order to keep the length reasonable the larger radius is at least 1.5x the smaller.  In order to make them all you need is a set of gauges and two key dimensions the crossing angle and the lead or distance from the point blades to the crossing. If you fancy a try I can give your a table of leads for various switches.

 

Andy if you need a different turnout to those available let me know I will do you a one off.

 

Don

[Andrew P]

Andy, making your own trackwork is not exactly rocket science.  OK so plain track is a bit tedious, if not soul destroying, but you can make the whole thing "flow".  I do mine the hard way, using EM Society wooden sleepers and brass rivets.  I will be using this method for some time to come, at least for the next couple of layouts because I bought quite a lot some years ago. The results are really not as good as the modern way with plastic chairs etc but it is strong and easily adjusted, and, anyway, I am a fully paid up Yorkshireman and cannot waste good sleepers and rivets.

Couple of piccies of the two station boards from Canal Road being modified.  The crossover by the station platform has a 1/7 crossing angle.

Derek

Morning Derek, firstly thanks for a couple of very inspiring track pics, I know I could build my own track with a little time and patience but I'm one of these that wants trains running today.

Having said that I will be compromising this time and not using the Peco which I have loads of, it wont be until the baseboard are done that I will know how much more cash I have left to buy track.

 

Bodge.

[Andrew P]

Thanks Andy.  A very interesting bridge indeed just a mile or so down the line.  I've taken the liberty of editing your railway map showing the position of the bridge, thus..

andy map.jpg

I visited the area in 2010.  As a retired structural engineer who had some responsibility for bridges at one time in my career, I was struck by the unusual configuration of this bridge which includes a goal post frame like stucture at mid or third span, both of the goal posts being founded in the Bristol Avon.  It has a concrete deck as can be seen by the photos below so was possibly a relatively modern replacement structure but I have no more details, no doubt fellow RMWebbers can shed some light.

Bitton bridge 1.jpg

Bitton bridge 2.jpg

Bitton bridge 3.jpg

You mentioned in your PM that you might not have room to model this structure in your shed.  Perhaps a garden extension of Bitton could accommodate this interesting bridge?

Regards,

Brian

Morning Brian, thanks for some great pics of the Bridge. Its already going to be tight to get the Station Platform and Goods loop and Head Shunt into the 16ft.

Now someone has suggested (I think it was young Don) that I do a looped 8 with the fiddle yard underneath the Station at a low level.

This would mean a gradient of about 1 in 60 which isn't to bad but its getting access to the fiddle yard once its under the scenic section and will double the visible section around the room, so again that's something I will look at once the support frame is built.

I would like to include water either the Avon, or the Kennett and Avon Canal as I feel it always adds to a layout but as for the Garden section its a BIG no no, our back garden is only about 25ft square so just enough room for a bit of lawn and some shrubs.

 

Thanks again for the pics, its always good to have any prototype pics on here.

 

Cheers.

Bodge.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Andrew P

[Andrew P]

Our models are less affected by cetrafugal force so can take turnouts at igher speeds than they could full size. Peco have taken advantage of this and produced turnout using old fashioned heel switches at a sharper angle than normally used which enables the turnouts to be shortened. But they do not look so good. I statrted building track 35 years ago because no one made EM turnouts and have since made them in a number of gauges. I enjoy making track but if you don't why bother. It does however make planning easier  because I can build one to fit. There is nothing particularly magical about curved turnouts. Usually in order to keep the length reasonable the larger radius is at least 1.5x the smaller.  In order to make them all you need is a set of gauges and two key dimensions the crossing angle and the lead or distance from the point blades to the crossing. If you fancy a try I can give your a table of leads for various switches.

 

Andy if you need a different turnout to those available let me know I will do you a one off.

 

Don

Hi Don, thanks for the offer, as I said above once I have all the basics done I will know if I can afford the Marcway / SMP track, I have worked it out that I will need about 20 points for the fiddle yard plus about 100 yards of track just for in there, which I already have in Peco Code 75 so that's sorted, and I will have about 30 points left over which would help to fund the Marcway / SMP if I can.

 

Bodge.

[Andrew P]

Just another thought with post #193 is that if I go for the looped 8 then I will have 4 tracks at 2 different heights going across the lifting section across the door.

 

NOT GOOD

 

Bodge.

[Andrew P]

I've just noticed that I have an amazing 30 people following this thread already, and considering its only been going for just 6 days its had over 4600 viewings and 194 post's, so close to page 9 as well.

 

Thanks for all your support so far, and as I haven't even got the Potting Shed built yet, let alone any track down, its a really inspiring me to get started.

 

Bodge.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Andrew P

[Jock67B]

Morning Andy!

From the popularity of the thread, you can see why we all wanted you to get fit as soon as possible, and back to inspiring us again!

Proud of your efforts in that direction and can't wait to follow the build! I'm afraid I'm going to cop out on the track front as budget, and probably available time, will lead me to use Peco code75 although I'm determined to use up the 5 or 6 yards of SMP flexible code 80 I've got if I can make it compatible. I'll also try to use the few unopened SMP plastic based point kits if I can make them work!

Not long now for the shed to arrive, try to be patient!

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Clive Mortimore]

I spoke with the Potting Shed man early today and confirmed the spec and start dates, so the base is being done on the 4th Sep and the Shed goes in on the 12th.

Once the interior is lined then I will do the Electrics as by the end of September the evenings will be drawing in and I will need both light and heating, plus of course power for my drill chargers etc.

 

I also need to paint the outside before winter and the bad weather comes in but it will be done in a slow and sedate manner so as not to over do things.

The way things are at the moment I can do jobs in the morning when I'm fresh but by Lunchtime I'm Knacke**d and need a kip or rest.

 

Still I cant wait now for it to arrive and just seeing it sitting there will help spur me on to get some things done.

 

Re a time scale, well I hope to be starting to lay some track soon after Christmas.

 

Bodge.

Dear Mr Bodge

 

I am reluctantly writing to you following your refusal to allow me to blow up your shed, but I must complain. Yet again there appears to be a delay in getting trains running and therefore the Sergeant Major will have to order Sergeant Shoutalot to find something for the men to do until after Christmas as there will be no trains to take them on leave. I suppose they will have leaf picking up to do during the autumn. Can they borrow your glue gun to stick them back on the trees? I hate seeing trees without leaves, looks so untidy.

 

My Adjutant, Captain Nearlyposhname, not a bad chap for a grammar school boy, has suggested that he could form a working party to come and paint the new shed. The Quatermaster, god awful man came up through the ranks, says that we do have a few tins of green paint in his stores. But as normal he is worried about there being gaps in his shelves when I inspect his store. I hate seeing gaps in the shelves, looks so untidy.

 

Yours

 

Lt Colonel La de Da hyphen Poshname

 

Rough Engineering Made Easy

[Andrew P]

Morning Andy!

From the popularity of the thread, you can see why we all wanted you to get fit as soon as possible, and back to inspiring us again!

Proud of your efforts in that direction and can't wait to follow the build! I'm afraid I'm going to cop out on the track front as budget, and probably available time, will lead me to use Peco code75 although I'm determined to use up the 5 or 6 yards of SMP flexible code 80 I've got if I can make it compatible. I'll also try to use the few unopened SMP plastic based point kits if I can make them work!

Not long now for the shed to arrive, try to be patient!

Kind regards,

Jock.

Cheers Jock, in reality there's nothing wrong with Peco track, I've used Code 100 on ALL my exhibition layouts and been asked if its Code 75, one guy even thought it was hand made EM Gauge because of the pre weathering prior to ballasting, and then neat ballasting and coloring.

This time its more a case of ME wanting it to be different from my previous layouts but remember at this stage, if finances run out I may still be going down the Peco road myself with this build, as I would rather do that and have trains running than sit around trying to sell off more stock that I really want to keep, just to have a wider spaced sleeper.

 

Bodge.

[Andrew P]

Dear Mr Bodge

 

I am reluctantly writing to you following your refusal to allow me to blow up your shed, but I must complain. Yet again there appears to be a delay in getting trains running and therefore the Sergeant Major will have to order Sergeant Shoutalot to find something for the men to do until after Christmas as there will be no trains to take them on leave. I suppose they will have leaf picking up to do during the autumn. Can they borrow your glue gun to stick them back on the trees? I hate seeing trees without leaves, looks so untidy.

 

My Adjutant, Captain Nearlyposhname, not a bad chap for a grammar school boy, has suggested that he could form a working party to come and paint the new shed. The Quatermaster, god awful man came up through the ranks, says that we do have a few tins of green paint in his stores. But as normal he is worried about there being gaps in his shelves when I inspect his store. I hate seeing gaps in the shelves, looks so untidy.

 

Yours

 

Lt Colonel La de Da hyphen Poshname

 

Rough Engineering Made Easy

Morning Clive, I've seen you lurking and wondered when you'd be offering to blow something up again, now you want my Glue Gun as well!

 

The Shed will need painting but it must be in psychedelic stripes of at least 10 colours not Grass green.

 

Cheers,

Bodge.

[georgeT]

Hello Mate,   Been thinking a lot about your project, l think you will be unable to run the trains you love as they didn't run at bitton, l think you will miss out, so l suggest you might try to re-build that lovely layout you built in your garage about 15 years ago with all the loops etc when you had about 6 trains running at the same time, as you say your biggest love is to watch trains running, l think bitton will tie you down too much, ? just  an idea mate, that way you can run whatever you want ??

 

George

[Andrew P]

Looking at this picture of Bitton which I've found it shows the Yard at what appears to be its re laying stage during preservation and what appears to be a Police Car in the Yard as well.

The picture shows the line through the Goods Shed and the loop around it, then to the right the Main Line being re laid towards the Platform and on to Bath, but  it looks like it is a Single Line, in my chosen period of the late 1960's I'm assuming it was a double track main line all the way from the north to Bath as seen in all the other pics I have.

 

Bodge

Edited August 16, 2014 by Andrew P

[Andrew P]

Hello Mate,   Been thinking a lot about your project, l think you will be unable to run the trains you love as they didn't run at bitton, l think you will miss out, so l suggest you might try to re-build that lovely layout you built in your garage about 15 years ago with all the loops etc when you had about 6 trains running at the same time, as you say your biggest love is to watch trains running, l think bitton will tie you down too much, ? just  an idea mate, that way you can run whatever you want ??

 

George

Morning George, its a nice idea but I really want to model a real location this time, its something I've never tried before and although it wont be a faithful copy of Bitton it will be near enough with the track plan, Buildings etc to be able to call it Bitton.

 

Like Jeff with Kirkby Luneside aka Kirkby Stephen, and Jason with Bacup you get the atmosphere and also the prototypical traffic flow, which for me will be all the Local stuff in and out of Bitton Yard, plus the through traffic from the North to the South and vice versa.

 

Re the trains running through well Bitton is Midland down to Bath and still has all the Ex Southern stuff from Bournemouth coming through plus the WR stuff on the Bath / Bristol service through Mangotsfield.

 

Nice idea Bud but I will stick to Bitton to the end.

 

Bodge.