RSS Fetcher Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I had thought that the return of the winter weather would have resulted in slightly more activity on the bench, the new low score being -27oC, but as per usual life managed to get in the way of the things I would have liked to have done. First up some housekeeping on Hingston Down Halt. After much deliberation, including considering picking somewhere that was a double to single track junction, I have installed a missing catch point on the siding for the quarry. Apparently it’s very much best practice to rip up perfectly good 2FS trackwork at some point, although I feel a bit late to the party. Admittedly I probably should have realised a catch point was required when I was laying the original track, but then planning and building the baseboards in an afternoon means that these kind of details are missed. Days after I had glued this down and wired up the new feeds, I took a look at some photos of Luckett on the Callington Branch, I realised that the blade should have only been on one of the rails. Nevermind… This went together in an evening, even with evil chair plates. Unfortunately there is a very slight curve to the whole panel, presumably as I hadn't put enough tension on the rail when soldering. The class 22, bubblecar and minerals that I tried all seemed to navigate through without difficulty, so I'm not worried, just means that you’re unlikely to see a shot looking down through there any time soon. I thought it would be wise to build a small cover for the layout to avoid rails being bent, buildings being smashed up (“when I get around to it..”) as the storage picnic hamper also holds the power supply and controller. Cue some handy foam-board and a few offcuts of square dowel, and hey presto… one cover. Secondly I felt that I needed to revisit the planning for Lydford, 7 boards of 2’3 x 4’ just wasn't going to be practical for storage nor building strength. So I reduced this down to 6 boards of 2' x 4', using a little more compression to the mainline and removing the down war sidings. There is still over half a mile of scale running, plenty of opportunity for locos to stretch their legs. I'm still unsure about including the Lyd viaduct on the Southern up side, as I don't have any measurements and the views are obscured by the dense woodland in the valley. Having settled on this for the time being, I went off on my bike to collect the materials needed from the local “Hardware Store,” The result was probably bemusing to most locals to say the least: Extruded polystyrene boards made the most sense to me thanks to their low weight, and if they couldn't be taken with me, they would probably make a nice pontoon to swim out to in one of the many local lakes. The wood was attached with no-nails and 3" screws to provide the foam some protection on the edge, more than anything structural. I suspect that this may yet prove to be a hindrance when I try and marry the boards together with dowels, as the hardwood maple was fairly green when they were assembled meaning that in all likelyhood, nothing will be square. I will most likely put 3mm ply on the top surface before laying track, as it is still pretty vulnerable. It turned out that I just had enough room to lay 5 of the constructed boards out... Aren't I glad that I didn't choose to have 7! Finally, in the run up to heading back for Warley this year, I attempted to build a decent length of Stephen Harris’ mineral’s to bung up shunt the goods yard with on St. Ruth. Despite being snowed in at Sudbury airport for 6 hours, drinking the bar dry, I made it with my wagons intact. Thanks to some fairly disastrous shades of grey (yes, the vac fitted 21T’s are supposed to be brown, so I realized,) and drinking fine beers instead of applying transfers and weathering powders, they didn't make it and a number have been stripped off waiting for improved weather and another attempt. This is likely to be my last post in Canada as I am about to be relocated to the neighbours in the south. I happened to stumble upon a Flickr photograph showing that a miner having to up sticks from Cornwall isn't a new thing. At least I have some hope to have a return to the UK someday... cornwall - gwr emigrants train arriving redruth station by johnmightycat1, on Flickr Until next time; my fellow ostriches… Attached thumbnail(s) View the full article Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.