This is Euston!

[bigP]

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Edited January 31, 2021 by bigP
Deleted

[Ian Morgan]

The Code 40 rail is so fine, it does not have much springyness, and once it has been curved, or straightened, to the required amount, it does tend to stay put. So long as the track is laid carefully, with smooth curves and no sudden changes in direction at track joints, it is surprising how large the gaps can be, especially at baseboard joints. I have found that height differences can cause the most problems.When I lay track, I use heavy, flat-bottomed weights across joints to try to make sure the two pieces of track end up at the same level.

 

As for filing track ends, it is a worthwhile investment to buy some good files (e.g. Vallorbe). Expect to pay for a single file what you might pay for a packet set of cheap files. Keep files away from other tools, and each other, in the toolbox as they will damage each other if they are left rattling together (a sight often seen on tool shop trade stands at exhibitions).

[cornish trains jez]

Hi Jeremy,

 

Please forgive the really naive question....

 

I'm just starting to experiment with some turnout kits and handbuilt track - nothing on this amazing scale! 

 

I am struggling with the lack of fishplates - I understand that most handbuilt or finescale track is simply butted up against the next section with no physical join. As each section is wired up there are no power-transfer issues. While I can see how you can do this in EM for instance, the tolerances for accuracy in 2mm scale must be tiny. Do you simply reply on having the sleepers and chairs very accurately stuck down and they simply hold the rails in alignment, are there any problems with rails "un-flexing" and leaving kinks between lengths of track?

 

I have some code 40 rail, and as the profile is so tiny, getting the cut ends of the rails flat is remarkably difficult - they just don't seem to butt together cleanly.

 

In the past I have occasionally struggled to get proprietary flex track to stay aligned even with fishplates joining the rails to the next section, so I am a little apprehensive of having joins between sections of track with no physical link!

 

How are you finding this on your layout? Is this a bit of a non-issue really, or is it one of those things which sounds simple, but is actually vital to get right?

 

Cheers

 

(sorry this is a lot longer than I planned!)

 

David

 

Hi David,

 

Thanks for looking into the thread. The best way to line up the tracks on long straight sections is to have an overhang of sleepers between each section of rails. So, each sleeper sprue is about 6 sleepers I think, so if you have one rail ending about halfway along the sprue, fix the section down and allow to dry (preferably overnight - although I tend to just stick down long sections now!) and then thread on your next piece of rail. If you have the rails just overlapping the chairs in between each sleeper, the alignment should be spot on.

 

I'll post a picture later if i get time as I'm currently in the middle of a straight section.

 

I agree with Ian, a good set of files is essential.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[cornish trains jez]

Regarding N / 2mm track construction, particularly turnout construction, in my opinion you can do no better than watching this series of vids from the Masters.....

 

 

Some of it may be 'suck eggs' moments, other bits will be new techniques/ideas.  Overall though a worthwhile watch.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Paul

 

The whole series of these videos are excellent and I used them to help me build my track/turnouts. There is nothing better, for me anyway, than watching someone do something then replicating it yourself.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[David41283]

Hi David,

 

Thanks for looking into the thread. The best way to line up the tracks on long straight sections is to have an overhang of sleepers between each section of rails. So, each sleeper sprue is about 6 sleepers I think, so if you have one rail ending about halfway along the sprue, fix the section down and allow to dry (preferably overnight - although I tend to just stick down long sections now!) and then thread on your next piece of rail. If you have the rails just overlapping the chairs in between each sleeper, the alignment should be spot on.

 

I'll post a picture later if i get time as I'm currently in the middle of a straight section.

 

I agree with Ian, a good set of files is essential.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Thanks Jeremy,

 

It sounds so obvious the way you explain it! I had been imagining building points and lengths of track of a standard length - then laying them as you would Peco track. Of course you need to change your mindset to use the components to build the overall scheme, not just sections of track.

 

That makes so much more sense - I hope others reading this have also benefited from me asking the dumb questions!

 

Thanks - and good luck with the development of the layout.

 

cheers

 

David

[Ian Smeeton]

FIVE days and no updates?

 

Are you still, beavering away?

 

Looking forward to the next advance!

 

Best Regards

 

Ian

[cornish trains jez]

FIVE days and no updates?

 

Are you still, beavering away?

 

Looking forward to the next advance!

 

Best Regards

 

Ian

 

Hi Ian,

 

Been a bit manic at work last week or so so I haven't been able to get on with as much as I would have hoped to do. I've been spending a fair amount of my spare time in the garden, tidying it up ready for the good weather (when it eventually arrives! ) and I've also dug out a trench for my new shed base. The shed will be big enough to take one board at a time for Euston so I can have each one permanently erected to work on. The shed will also house all of my railway modelling gear, books, magazines, stock etc.

 

I have done a few more bits to the layout and I'll update again soon with some more layout progress.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[RBE]

The shed sounds good Jeremy. I must get cracking with my workshop plans. I am planning a 8ftx20ft affair though to completely self contain my modelling efforts which is a major undertaking really. You're welcome to come and dig it out for me if you like!

[cornish trains jez]

The shed sounds good Jeremy. I must get cracking with my workshop plans. I am planning a 8ftx20ft affair though to completely self contain my modelling efforts which is a major undertaking really. You're welcome to come and dig it out for me if you like!

 

Hi Cav,

 

Happy to come over to help with a bit of digging! Here's my finished efforts.

 

 

All the mess to the right of the trench will be broken up and used as hardcore, and I have plenty of it! I'm getting someone in to do the concrete base though. The shed I'm planning on having isn't quite as big, but at 13' x 7', it will make a nice home for my railways.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[RBE]

Looks good. Not a bad size either. I considered a smaller one but thought that if I'm doing it I may as well do it proper. I think I'll hire a mini digger to dig out my foundations as my back issues are certainly not gone. My garden is on a slope too so will need to go down about 2ft or so at one end.

Edited April 23, 2016 by RBE

[cornish trains jez]

Good evening,

 

It's been a few weeks since I posted any actual progress on the layout and to be honest, I'm way behind where I would have liked to have been by now. But things are progressing positively, albeit a bit slowly.

 

I have now completed the second to last slip on the layout and also fitted the track running into platform 13.

 

Here's a couple of progress shots for tonight.

 

 

 

 

I also hope to receive back soon my second batch of wheels, turned down to 2FS standards. These will be for 8 MK3's and a DVT.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

Edited April 24, 2016 by cornish trains jez

[Ian Morgan]

It is looking really good, and you are rapidly approaching completion of the track laying.

 

Good luck with adding all the feed dropper wires.

 

I cannot see from the photos, but it could be that you will have to cut some rail breaks in your diamonds and slips to avoid shorts from the wheel backs. Each diamond requires a 'frog' section at each end that will need to have its polarity switched depending on the route being traversed.

 

Ian Morgan

Hampshire

[cornish trains jez]

It is looking really good, and you are rapidly approaching completion of the track laying.

 

Good luck with adding all the feed dropper wires.

 

I cannot see from the photos, but it could be that you will have to cut some rail breaks in your diamonds and slips to avoid shorts from the wheel backs. Each diamond requires a 'frog' section at each end that will need to have its polarity switched depending on the route being traversed.

 

Ian Morgan

Hampshire

 

Hi Ian,

 

I've started marking out for the droppers already so I'll start soldering those on soon.

 

I hadn't thought about rail breaks in the diamonds, could you tell me where these should be please so that I can alter as soon as. Thanks.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[Ian Morgan]

OK, so you are planning to use DCC, so that makes things a little simpler. Consider the output from your DCC command station as two terminals, labelled A and B. Looking from your fiddle yard end, all the left hand rails could be connected to terminal A (using orange wire for example) and all the right hand rails would be connected to terminal B (using blue wire for example.

 

Now consider the simple diamond below. I have coloured the rails orange and blue to match. However, the two V crossings (frogs) I have coloured pink. If your train is travelling from bottom left to top right, it needs the left hand frog to be orange and the right hand one to be blue. But if a train is travelling top left to bottom right, it needs the left hand frog to be blue, and the right hand one to be orange.

 

Without cuts between the V crossings and the K crossings, the ends of the rails diagonal to the direction of a train would be at a different polarity to the wheels going past the ends at the K crossings.

 

I hope this is clear.

 

 

Ian.

[cornish trains jez]

Hi Ian,

 

Thanks for that, it makes hangs much clearer. At the moment the Vee crossing is a completely seperate part to the rest of the turnout so isn't linked to the K crossing, so hopefully it will be enough as per your diagram. I'm thinking of having a polarity switch linked to the the Vee crossing.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[Ian Morgan]

That is where route switching is useful, the polarity of the frogs can be switched depending on the selected route.

 

Alternatively, it can be arranged that the points that feed in to the diamond can be used to switch the diamond frogs as well as their own frogs. It all depends on the track plan and the allowed routes through it to work out the logic.

 

Ian.

[cornish trains jez]

Decided to lay some more sleepers tonight so that I can crack on with these two turnouts that remain on this section all in one go.

 

[cornish trains jez]

And here are the sleepers laid with some suitable "track laying" music in the background!

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

Edited April 26, 2016 by cornish trains jez

[dhjgreen]

Jeremy, you seem to be leaving a number of check rails for later. Is there a reason for this approach, or not got round to it?

[cornish trains jez]

Jeremy, you seem to be leaving a number of check rails for later. Is there a reason for this approach, or not got round to it?

 

Hi David,

 

I haven't got round to them yet but I do have quite a collection now of rail offcuts to use so I should really get on with them now.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[dhjgreen]

Hi David,

 

I haven't got round to them yet but I do have quite a collection now of rail offcuts to use so I should really get on with them now.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

Seems obvious when you say it, but you have to think of it first. I just cut pieces of rail for my EM layout, but only 12 turnouts to make!

[cornish trains jez]

Good evening,

 

More progress tonight as I threaded on chairs for a stock rail that would span two turnouts in one go. Plus I added the second stock rail to one of the turnouts so just the crossing blades and check rails to finish.

 

A few photos. A bit difficult to see which part has progressed but hopefully it will give an idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm making some steady progress this week.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[branchie]

This still not finished Jeremy?!?

 

 

Seriously though, this is very impressive track work.

[cornish trains jez]

Here are a couple more photos taken this morning showing progress and overall views to date.

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[Revolution Mike B]

I can't wait for you to get this finished Jez so we can see some trains running on it! Top marks for patience with it.......way too fiddly 

Edited May 4, 2016 by scoobyra