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Showing results for 'Templot' in blog entries.
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Bristol Barrow Road - Storage Sidings Track Plan
barrowroad posted a blog entry in barrowroad's Blog
Since my last entry I have had a rethink on the curved scissors crossover. It is critical to the running of the layout and being on a curve I have decided to simplify the entrance/exit of the Up and Down storage sidings by using a single crossover at each end. These will be C12 1600mm radius one will permit trains to access the down main from the UP sidings whilst the other from the DOWN sidings to the UP main. My decision followed additional work on the working timetable and following the movement of trains in and out of the storage sidings. I realised there was no need for the second crossover at each end which enabled simplification of the trackwork. First page of 2 of the working timetable Proposed plan of Storage Sidings C12 1600mm curved crossover - Templot Here is the progress made on the first of the crossovers with the 1 in 12 crossing V's in place. -
Bristol Barrow Road - Fiddle Yard Track Plan
martin_wynne commented on barrowroad's blog entry in barrowroad's Blog
Hi Robin, A switch-diamond uses opposing pairs of moving blades at the centre, instead of fixed gaps and check rails. Here is a picture from RMweb of such a diamond-crossing: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/22907-dbs-60013/#top They are much easier to build than ordinary diamond-crossings, and much more reliable in use. BUT they require two extra point motors. In effect they are two very stubby turnouts toe-to-toe. They must be arranged so that both sets of blades move over together, in opposite directions. In Templot, click real > K-crossing options > movable K-crossings (switch-diamond) menu item. More diagrams and notes about all this here: http://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?id=2144&forum_id=22#p14263 regards, Martin. -
Bristol Barrow Road - Fiddle Yard Track Plan
barrowroad commented on barrowroad's blog entry in barrowroad's Blog
Thanks for the advice Martin, I've not seen a switched diamond and would be unsure how to produce it in templot. Any pointers welcome? I assume the K-crossing check rails should be extended to the V-crossing wing rails? Regards, Robin - [a templot novice] -
After a great deal of thought I've finally decided on a track plan for the fiddle yard - well the main bits anyway. There will be five storage sidings to the side of each of the up and down main running lines which will run through the middle of the sidings. The sixth track will be a run around loop for locos etc. This also has a pair of turnouts for additional storage into the four corners in order to maximize use of the space available. I am considering putting one or more loco turntables in the corners next to the wall. Having finally "mastered" Templot - well sufficient to produce the plans in the attached photos - the entrance/exit at each end is via a pair of C12 scissor crossovers. These are on a 1600mm curve and are at 50mm centres. I went for the C12 as the minimum radius on the inner crossover is 44.4". The use of the scissors will give maximum flexibility. Gluing the printed A4 sheets together was an interesting exercise!
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This time I am not going to start my post by saying it’s a long time since… Those who do follow this blog will be used to that, those who don’t’, won’t care anyway. It’s winter, there is a lot of influenza about, and the day job is taking a lot of time due to a major reform in the Danish unemployment system. (I work as system administrator/ consultant in this area). But this weekend I managed to fit in a trip to Copenhagen to my tame guru Richard. My last post was about a D6 point that I started to construct with DCC stainless steel rail and the wrong thickness of sleepers, and the problems that caused. I decided that since the point was the wrong geometry, wouldn’t solder, and would stick up above the flex track, that I should start again. I spent a few hours fiddling about in Templot to turn points into better combinations of letters and number, bought some nickel silver rail, thinner sleepers, slide chairs, and a sheet of copper that turned out to be slightly too thick (☹) and started again. Being a professional pessimist, it shames me to admit that things seem to be going rather well. I am now building a B6 semi curved something or other, and after about 12 hours have got as far as soldering the vee, checkrails and stockrails. To my great joy running a wagon through the point gave the smooth movement that I so admired on Richards points, as hard as I tried I could not get the wagon to derail, and it does not even appear to hop as It crosses the vee. I am frankly in shock. I’m close to finishing my first point! The picture that appears to show me pressing down on the rails with a screwdriver is actually me supporting myself after an hour of sniffing glue fumes whilst fixing plastic chairs to plywood sleepers. I have also managed to obtain access to a A0 plotter and now have a roll containing the entire length of the trackplan that I have a nasty suspicion will not fit in the space available. I’ll find out tomorrow when I clear enough space to roll it out.
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Planning for Hayle North Quay has progressed a bit. I have now sorted out a 2d plan by combining a transparent bitmap export of the plan from Templot with some colouring in done using Inkscape. The overall depth of the layout will be 22 inches at the ends and 24 inches in the middle. The Octel office block and the whole of the Esso depot have been subjected to quite a lot of fore and aft compression but hopefully I've still managed to keep the character of the place. I've also also pulled this together with the various 3d mockups of buildings that I've heen mucking about with for ages and added some expanded polystyrene hills to make a 1/4 size 3d mockup. The snow white hills have now been sprayed with various mixes of acrylic through my third best (5 quid) airbrush to make them a bit less stark. A hairdryer was deployed to persuade the paint to dry. I'll probably still do a few more bits and bobs to the mockup - like adding in some boundary walls and maybe adding a bit of colour to the buildings... and also make those chopped up orange biro oil tanks show up rather better against the rock face behind. Overall I'm reasonably happy with it although there are a few things that I want to adjust when I do the full size version. At the moment the only track gradient is up to the Octel works. I might add more on the real thing but also need to think about wagons rolling away. I still need to add some coal piles on the quay itself. At the moment the middle foreground looks pretty empty. I might also experiment to see how things look if I extend the dunes up as a painted backscene. I had some bits of LED strip left over from our new kitchen that was done last year so some of this was repurposed and fed from South Yard's lighting controller. It's a bit bright for such a small mockup but it does the job. Next job is to start thinking about baseboards... at the moment I'm thinking in terms of 6mm birch ply. Some photos - one overall and one of each of the main clusters of buildings.
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To run P4 rolling stock you need P4 track. P4 track is easy – obtainable RTR from C&L or ‘makeable’ from Easitrack or of course for the really keen made from components. But points/turnouts/switches and common crossings? The more affluent can get someone to make their point-work but for most folk they must be constructed by hand from components. So that’s the place to start. Having decided I needed a test track and that a test track must have at least one point I set about making one. A forage in the ‘odd track box’ that the local area group of the Scalefour Society has rendered a point kit made by 85A (Martin Wynne). The bag held ready filed switch blades and a ready made ‘V.’ I planned to use Exactoscale functional chairs and ordered the necessary sleepers, slides bridge and special chairs, some rail and fish-plates from C&L Finescale who provided a very quick service. I was ready. Having previously experimented with Templot I created a left-handed B7 ‘templot’ to use as the basis for the turnout, stuck this down to a flat surface and positioned the sleepers accordingly. These were affixed with double sided tape. Proceeding with great care I eventually arrived at the point where I needed to fix the switch blades. So I proceeded to cut them to length. A length that was too short. Bah! I would have to make my own. This turned out to be easier than I expected and following accepted practice as expounded in various places I filed the blades down and when satisfied fitted them in place. The blades are only held in chairs at the heel end of the turnout. At the toe end the blades rest on the slide chairs and in modelling practice are effectively held down by the operating mechanism. At this point I was ready to remove the point from the building board. And at this point things started to go wrong. The double sided tape was rather more sticky than I expected. But worse was to come. Slide chairs do not hold the track and I had forgotten to glue the slide chair to the outside of the stock rails. Thus several sleepers fell off. Re-fixing the sleepers shouldn’t have been too hard. A little dab of super glue on the outside make sure the gauge is right and Hey Presto! all done. 3. But, I managed to stick the track gauge t the rails. It set like rock. 4. Removing the gauge destroyed the switch end of the point. Aargh! Fortunately the closure rails and the crossing were unaffected. Two quick cuts with the Dremel and the damaged rails were excised. New stock rails were cut and chairs fitted. Some of the ‘special chairs’ were ‘lost’ so I cobbled some together from bits. This time I left the sleepers either side of the stretcher bars out to make soldering the various bits in this area easier. Here’s ‘take 2:’ Next job is to make the TOU and affix feed wires. Thanks for looking.
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To run P4 rolling stock you need P4 track. P4 track is easy – obtainable RTR from C&L or ‘makeable’ from Easitrack or of course for the really keen made from components. But points/turnouts/switches and common crossings? The more affluent can get someone to make their point-work but for most folk they must be constructed by hand from components. So that’s the place to start. Having decided I needed a test track and that a test track must have at least one point I set about making one. A forage in the ‘odd track box’ that the local area group of the Scalefour Society has rendered a point kit made by 85A (Martin Wynne). The bag held ready filed switch blades and a ready made ‘V.’ I planned to use Exactoscale functional chairs and ordered the necessary sleepers, slides bridge and special chairs, some rail and fish-plates from C&L Finescale who provided a very quick service. I was ready. Having previously experimented with Templot I created a left-handed B7 ‘templot’ to use as the basis for the turnout, stuck this down to a flat surface and positioned the sleepers accordingly. These were affixed with double sided tape. Proceeding with great care I eventually arrived at the point where I needed to fix the switch blades. So I proceeded to cut them to length. A length that was too short. Bah! I would have to make my own. This turned out to be easier than I expected and following accepted practice as expounded in various places I filed the blades down and when satisfied fitted them in place. The blades are only held in chairs at the heel end of the turnout. At the toe end the blades rest on the slide chairs and in modelling practice are effectively held down by the operating mechanism. At this point I was ready to remove the point from the building board. And at this point things started to go wrong. The double sided tape was rather more sticky than I expected. But worse was to come. Slide chairs do not hold the track and I had forgotten to glue the slide chair to the outside of the stock rails. Thus several sleepers fell off. Re-fixing the sleepers shouldn’t have been too hard. A little dab of super glue on the outside make sure the gauge is right and Hey Presto! all done. 3. But, I managed to stick the track gauge t the rails. It set like rock. 4. Removing the gauge destroyed the switch end of the point. Aargh! Fortunately the closure rails and the crossing were unaffected. Two quick cuts with the Dremel and the damaged rails were excised. New stock rails were cut and chairs fitted. Some of the ‘special chairs’ were ‘lost’ so I cobbled some together from bits. This time I left the sleepers either side of the stretcher bars out to make soldering the various bits in this area easier. Here’s ‘take 2:’ Next job is to make the TOU and affix feed wires. Thanks for looking. Source
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Ask Martin. If it is not on Templot now, it probably soon will be! Regards Ian
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Thanks David. I certainly have my work cut out! There was certainly some inlaid track where the lines coincided with the roadway along the back of the wharf. Much of the rest of it was buried by wind blown sand whenever I visited, so that will be another thing to replicate. Then there will be track buried under big piles of coal. There were also small sections of granite sleeper blocks (even in 2012) surrounded by what I can best describe as brickwork 'setts'. I guess that these date back to the Hayle Railway. The 1950s aerial photos show some of these blocks with rails still in place although the turnout geometry is err... primitive so I doubt whether they were in use. So plenty of variety for trackwork 'finishes'. I'm not too worried about the sleeper positions on the Templot plan because I reckon that most of them will be invisible for one reason or another. I can't seem to find the option in Templot for granite block sleepering Regards, Andy
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Pointless?
Vistisen commented on Vistisen's blog entry in Chard Junction and Hatch (trial and error)
Thank you very much Martin, This is very useful information. And I'm sure that it is on the Templot Site , (somewhere :-)) Is there a 'typical point size for different scenarios' page? By Scenarios I mean things like. Sidings, country stations, mainline crossovers, motive power depots, and so. -
Regular readers may have observed a certain 'theme' to some of my wagon building over the past few years and perhaps even wondered about the reason behind my seemingly incessant fixation with tank wagons. It's not a huge secret that I've been intending to do something based on what most people in our community will know as 'Hayle Wharf', so here, finally is the start of it. There are actually several wharves at Hayle, so I've decided to use the more specific name 'Hayle North Quay' as the title for the layout - basically this is the part that is of most interest to the likes of us, being home to a number of rail connected industries including the power station, bromine works, an oil terminal and a domestic coal depot. For those unfamiliar with the place, there are several nice Aerofilms photos online. The one that best sums up the bit I'm intending to model is... http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw033731 My plan is to use the old hotel and the limekiln as 'book ends' for the layout because they are (or rather, were) both interesting old buildings. The power station and the main (and very big) process buildings of the bromine works will be off stage to the left. To do this to scale would need about 6 feet but I'm squashing it down to 4'6. Actually that turns out to be surprisingly hard to do because it's a pretty busy place with lots of trackwork so when you chop some length out of one section it usually messes something else up. After winding up with some unexpectedly vicious radii in places on South Yard I was determined not to make the same mistake again so I opted for the pain of trying to learn Templot. It's a pretty strange beast but I think I have finally coaxed something out of it that I'm starting to be happy with. Step 1 was to load up some OS maps and an Aerofilms vertical photo as background images and use these to try to trace out the real track layout. Step 2 was to do some selective compression. I didn't find Templot was a particularly good fit for this job so instead I went low tech by printing the plan out and then taking a pair of scissors to it. Step 3 was to stick the plan back together and bung it on the scanner, import it back into Templot and then try to produce a track alignment that actually works in the reduced space. The third step has taken quite some time - a lot of nudging bits of track around a little, fiddling with crossing angles and curve radii but I think I'm finally getting there. The key bit seems to be the central 'loop' including the two turnouts and the diamond crossing that provide the connections to the bromine works and the oil depot. The word 'loop' suggests a run-round but in reality it was not used like that - all trains were propelled onto the quay. I might occasionally break that rule though. The latest step has been to print the loop section out at full size, stick the bits together and have a long hard look at them on the table. I'm now on the third version. There is still plenty more to do before the plan is finished - I haven't yet decided on the front to back dimension - I'm aiming for 22 inches but that might be too tight a squeeze. There is also the vertical dimension to take care of - in spite of appearances, the trackwork was not on a level playing field - it was definitely uphill to the bromine works. Some photos... Some tank wagons on the first version of the loop alignment. The bromine tank is on the connection to the Octel bromine works. Versions 2 (right) and 3 (left) from the 'rest of the world' end. The loop curve on V2 was 3 feet radius but it wasn't happy with the way it looked. Version 3 has a slightly bigger radius. The way that the left hand line rejoins the 'main' line at the far end looked pretty odd in version 1. Version 2 was an attempt to fix that but it still looked odd. Versions 2 (left) and 3 (right) from the 'power station' end. The loop has more 'breathing space' on V3 although the real thing had more room still. The odd track alignment on the loop end isn't too obvious in this photo but it was really bugging me.
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Bristol Barrow Road - Fiddle Yard and some Comet Coaches
barrowroad posted a blog entry in barrowroad's Blog
Over the past couple of weeks I have added a 2mm layer of adhesive foam to the remaining boards including the seven in the fiddle yard. My choice of a roll of 10m x 1mm 'Envoy Multi Adhesive Underlay' via Ebay has proved relatively easy to lay and economic at just shy of £18 for the roll. The adhesive layer on one side needs careful handling when peeling back the clear plastic covering sheet but once in place it grabs well and sticks. You will not remove it easily. Made of recycled rubber tyres it will take adhesives - I have used PVA for fixing the track work - but is also waterproof and has the added advantage of being black. Each board joint has a 10mm wide piece of 2mm thick strip wood glued across the ends - from Cornwall Model boats. This is there to fix the track ends. I use 12BA cheese-head brass screws as fixing points to solder the rail onto at the board joints. When laying the foam I initially found it difficult to remove the 10mm strip of foam at each end of a board - as mentioned it sticks well!! After battling with one board I used a 10mm length of masking tape along each end prior to fixing the foam mat and hey presto the cut 10mm strip just peeled away. The stripwood was then glued in position. Having finished laying the foam I moved onto something different pending arrival of the templot plan for the fiddleyard. I obtained a rake of Comet coaches from Geoff Brewin's estate and being 00 I have converted them to P4 using Bill Bedford LMS coach bogie etches. The etched frames fold and solder well but the brake shoes are something else. Thanks to Mike G for his assistance in the build. He left off the brakes and I now know why. After adding the brakes and wished I hadn't as they are very difficult to position correctly. I decided to remove the inner shoes and adjust the outer sets to stop them rubbing of the wheels once the weight of the coach body was added to the sprung bogies. They run really well now.- 7 comments
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It has been a long time since my last post. This is not just because I’m busy with other duties. It’s also because I did not want to write while in the depths of despair! I finally took the model railway rite of passage and tried to build my first point. My long suffering friend Richard, who as a highly competent school teacher is used to dealing with ‘special case’ pupils undertook to teach me the black art of bending rails and filing vee’s It stated off well. I calibrated my printer and printed out a point from Templot. It is one that will end up in a siding, as I was advised not to build a mainline point as my first attempt. it is a BH-4SF GWR curved D+V-6 RH (that’s what it says on the paper) I have bought DCC concepts rail, flux, solder and track gauges. The sleepers are from C&L and are the thin ones that match the DCCconcepts track, I also bought Exactoscale GWR 2 bolt chairs. I even joined the P4 society to buy a vee filing jig. So I was ready to go. I manged the first bit without any errors. That is to say, I could stick the pieces of A4 paper together, and cut the sleepers out. Under supervision I cut and filed rails for a ‘6 vee’ and then using Richards ‘not yet patented, but it jolly well should be’ vee gauge jig, tried to solder the two rails together. Then it all went pear-shaped. I simply could not solder the rails together, finally after an hour we gave up and I was persuaded to try and use nickel-silver rail instead. Result one vee soldered on first attempt! Not only that it is much easier to file the nickel-steel rail than the stainless-steel rail. One angry e-mail to DccConcepts later and I was advised to buy a 3mm wedge soldering iron bit and use more heat. A few weeks later after our annual new years bash, we commenced again but with not much more luck. After a couple of hours, I gave up and started muttering about using Hornby Set-track. My teacher is made of sterner stuff and he sent me off to make the dinner and got down to work. He managed with a lot of sweating and words that won’t be allowed on RMWEB to solder the blades and one check rail. But even he was wanting to drop the DccConcepts rail. As an experiment, I tried to solder it to copper printed circuit boards: no luck, soldering a dropper wire to a section of flex track: no luck L This was the state of play until this evening, I am lucky to be surrounded by good neighbours, one of whom works repairing electrical equipment. ‘It’s not the heat, it’s the solder was his comment. And he bought along a sample of Multicore 60/40 grade ARAX Acid Cored Solder Wire, made of Sn and Pb alloy for metal fabrication. With not much hope I took a piece of wire and tried to solder it to a piece of DccConcepts track without any mucking about with glass fibre pens for cleaning and all that rubbish. To my immense surprise, It worked first time. I must admit I got a bit carried away and within two minutes I had soldered a piece of PCB to a rail, two bits of rail together, and a pair of pliers to a rail. (the last one was by accident). Mind you he stressed very strongly the need to neutralize the result, apparently unless I do the house will be melted down when I wake the next day. But I can solder! Suddenly the world seems full of possibilities. So to sum up: I was wondering about going back to Tillig track, But I’m not prepared to give up on the flowing point work and OO gauge sleepers. I think that I will use the pack of track and rail that I have bought. After that I will change to the new PECO track for ordinary track. Points will be built using nickel silver rail, although I will use the 10M of stainless steel rail as for the outside rails on points as there are not many soldered connections on these rails. This is because I’m a Scrooge and cannot face throwing it away. I feel the need to say that I AM a big fan of many DccConcepts products and use their pointmotors and still will, and their fabulous DCC modules that allow both push button and DCC operation of points are billiant. I will almost certainly use the ALPHA system for control via fewer wires and find their new surface mount point motors very interesting. But I believe true loyalty means saying what you think is the truth and I have to say their stainless-steel rail is not for me and I STRONGY suggest you sample it for soldering purposes before buying large amounts of it. Just so the DCCConcepts don’t feel that I om on a crusade! I have to say that Exactoscale need to look at their moulds. I thought it was just me but my friend agreed the GWR chairs 2 bolt mould is too worn out. The chairs on one side of each section consistently snap in two when being pushed onto rails more than the ones on the other side!
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Today is the start, the beginning. After over 40 years absence from the hobby today is the new beginning. Having spent years dreaming of building a new layout and how this will fit with that, what radius the ten coupled will go round, how to control it, whatever is DCC, and track laying today is the day. There have been so many false starts, empty promises to self and failures too many to enumerate, today is the day! There never was any intention to start a blog; but why do something when I could be talking about it? Then in wondering how to build complex point work of the sort that could not be got out of a packet I googled and stumbled upon Gordon-s and his splendid blog of the rebuild of Eastwood Town. I had been searching for ages, it's easy to find something if you know where to look, it was like uncovering a sector of the dark web, an 'open sesame' for a secret society. Then the dam burst, a waterfall effect! there giving all sorts of advice on DDC, fishponds, golf, good wine and the electrocution of tortoises, came a whole community of like minded sooths and sages offering all sorts of help. In amongst them some who are truly generous characters who really know their subject of DCC and Templot, Martin Wynne, whose wisdom deserves acknowledging and thanks for allowing us others to read and benefit. My 40 years in the wilderness precipitated by marriage, children, employers, gardens, shopping, decorating, writing christmasy cards and the whole plethora of life that believes it has precedence over what it is all for, the railway. Back then I had 'Beckthwaite' , a 16ft round and round with a through traverser of 1930's LMS main line in the lake district. LMS for it's beautiful locomotives and liveries, and the countryside it ran through. It didn't last - I got married (we all know what happens then). The new house (2012) was built with a 'room in the roof' for the railway - no excuses now! and with encouragement from the Domestic Authorities (DA) the railway now has planning permission. I've got 16ft x 16ft to fill with a railway paradise. The direction has changed. I saw the UK as flat, tidy and conventional, I can see that any day if the week. Go west, my boy. A fellow modeller showed me his interest in the USA rail roads (they can't even say tomatoes right) and John Allen's Gory & Depheted, I was hooked. Outrageous scenery, bug ugly diesel locomotives, pure grunt steam locomotives and anything goes. 2017 is the start of the build of the D-Urty & De le Pied et Tete Railroad, or the Dirty and Dilapidated. Out goes the attic full of years stored crap, the 'to be fixed one day Hostess trolly' it's all to be cleared in the name of progress of 1940's to 1950's somewhere in the mountains HO railway (USA or not it's a railWAY). So there we are, that's the intention, let's see what happens - we've been here before!! However, now I said it, dear reader, I'm beholden, responsible to my shareholders. Now let's have a look at that 'Templot' . . . . Holy Moly.
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Bristol Barrow Road - New Baseboards
barrowroad commented on barrowroad's blog entry in barrowroad's Blog
Hi Dave, The basis of the fiddle yard is the Up and Down Main running through the middle with up to six sidings each side with B7 or B8 turnouts in a fan shape. Morgan is working to refine this in templot in order to maximise the use of the space available. The main traffic is obviously trains to and from Temple Meads and the north but I need to build in ECS workings from Lawrence Hill carriage sidings which make up about 40% of the traffic passing Lawrence Hill Junction box. One unusual working is the Newcastle Mail which requires turning the complete train at Mangotsfield triangle to ensure the three mail vehicles are in the correct orientation for the return trip. Maybe I'll just turn the three on a cassette:-) -
Hi, I thought I'd start a blog on my small (4x2 ft) scottish dock side layout I've been working on (very slowly!) for the past few months. It's based on a real corner of Grangemouth docks, with hand-built inset track in OO-SF. I haven't decided the era yet, but could be set anywhere from 1890s CR up to 1950s BR... I decided I wanted try a small layout because a) I have very little spare time at the minute, b) (I think!) I like building track, but should try a small project before committing to a bigger layout. Wandering around on the excellent NLS maps site (http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=19&lat=56.0212&lon=-3.7275&layers=168&b=1), I came across this intriguing (to me at least) 1896 track plan in a small corner of Grangemouth docks. The cross-over peaking out between the two sheds seemed like an ideal 'cameo' to make a small layout. My pre-formative years were in Grangemouth, and at least one side of the family were Grangemouth dockers in the past -- so it seems an appropriate location too! Track Plan By 1913 the track had been rationalised with the cross-over removed to leave parallel sidings. By 1943, the sheds by the dock side had gone too (which usefully allows me to see the underlying track layout). I'll be sticking with (roughly) the 1896 track plan for interest, but not necessarily that era! I've loaded up the maps into templot, and overlaid (roughly at least) a track plan. The scenic area is 1200 mm x ~400 mm (4' x 1'4"). The shaded area (below) is behind the curved backscene. There are two sector plates, and a "cassette" siding to make stock transfer easier. The sector plates are the limiting length at ~300mm, which is enough for a dock tank + a few wagons -- probably enough for this. Plan is to build to OO-SF throughout, with bullhead and PCB sleepers. All the track on the scenic area will be inset, probably with scribed DAS. The solid orange areas are buildings, and the transparent ones are covered sheds. I need some sort of view block behind the left hand shed; so I think I'll pretend there was a wall there (in reality it seems this shed was open on all sides, from the grainy pictures I've found). I've had to shorten the buildings / shed on the right hand side compared to the map, but I'll try to keep the same building shape at least. Operationally this plan might be a bit limiting (but operating is way down my list of interests anyway!), so my latest thought is to include the set of points on the bottom left (which actually existed there in the 1943 map). With a temporary extension to the left (2-300mm), the layout could function as an inglenook... With hindsight, I should probably have made this a longer/thinner layout with fiddle yard to the left. The board is made though, so we'll live with this. The original intention was anyway to make the layout fit in a single board. History Grangemouth grew up at the eastern end of the Forth and Clyde canal, about half way between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Over the past 200 years it grew into a major port, and is today Scotland's largest container port (it's probably most famous now for petrochemicals). Grangemouth docks (along with the Forth and Clyde canal) were owned by the Caledonian Railway from the 1860s, though NBR also had running rights into Grangemouth. The dock here is called "Junction dock" (or "Upper dock" sometimes) and is one of the oldest in Grangemouth (predating the CR acquisition). It was the inner most dock in the series between the canal and the sea, presumably explaining it's names! In it's heydey, the docks handled a wide range of goods, but was particularly associated with the import of timber. I have no idea what this specific area of the dock handled though. The only reference I can find refers to one of the sheds a "tongue shed" -- no idea why! I've sourced various photos showing both canal barges (usually laden with wood) and small coasters/steamers moored up in the area. The dock is still there, but no longer used. The site of the buildings has been completely cleared, and is now the main road entrance to Grangemouth docks. Finally a bit of the real thing. Kicking around under moss on the side of junction dock, you can still find some of the rails...
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Well, the last two weeks have not gone to plan... How often do we all say that? With two weekends away visiting friends and family along with a number of week nights spent away with work, progress almost ground to a stand still on Tredethy Wharf. What I have been able to achieve is not really much to shout about so will have to wait for the next blog... But.., while spending evenings in hotels, not drink in the bar but playing "Billy no mates" in the hotel bedrooms, I've been giving some thought about what comes after Tredethy. Over the years, before I joined Scalefour Society, I'd collected almost all of Ratio's GWR buildings with the intention of building a GWR branch line terminus. I've also been slightly sidetracked by thoughts of a Taff Vale colliery and collected a few buildings and stock to suit. Since coming back to the hobby I've realised that there is a big difference in timescale to what can be achieved in OO compared to P4. This realisation has come from the time it has taken me to get Tredethy Wharf built. So I'd started to think, is there some merit in a small project being a viable option to follow on from Tredethy? A small layout would enable me to exhibit if it was considered good enough. It would also be an achievable project especially if I go really small and extended Tredethy to include a Clay Dries or Stone sidings.... So while being 'Billy no mates" I revisited some of the track plans I've collected over the years, then with pen and paper in hand I sketched out some ideas. While doodling a troublesome thought kept creeping into these ideas. Once Tredethy is scenically built, to complete the project, I will still need to build a few locos (a Beattie Well Tank, a WR 1366, BR Class 03 being three locos) as well as a few more wagons. These are not going to be built overnight and at the pace I'm progressing may take two or three more years before I can exhibit Tredethy with a correct loco fleet spanning a few years. If I change tack to a GWR BLT or Taff Vale Colliery these layouts would required a different loco stud and other rolling stock to be built. Hmmm.... so a change of tack might not necessarily be a quick project. So what of the first and last big project, Grogley Junction? Well, thinking that after building the above three locos for Tredethy they would also be available for Grogley brings me back to thoughts about this big project. It is the one that I still have a passion for. It is the one that I can picture in my mind. It is the one that I have been researching and building an alternative universe for. On the down side if I make a start on Grogley in P4 I now realise it will probably never be finished. But does that matter...? If it brings me enjoyment while building it, probably not. If I cannot exhibit it, does that matter? Probably not. So during my second week away I dug out the current track plan for Grogley and started to have a think and a bit of a tweak... The below is what I've ended up with. The major changes I've made, since the last track plan, are adding a three platform station reducing the line towards Wadebridge junction to single track and adding Polbrock Engine shed. The more minor additions are a small loading dock siding and a siding that will be used for coaching stock storage. This is version 15 of ideas for this project and does look like it has grown "arms and legs". My thoughts have been, if this is going to be the (first &) last big project then it had better include all that I would like to see on a layout and give good operational opportunities. So a layout with a station, exchange goods sidings, a junction, and an engine shed, what more could I want...? Hmmm, don't answer that 'cos I could think of a few if I tried :-) Below is just the track plan showing the kick back for the Bodmin cassette storage so it can be accessed from both directions. This would allow Bodmin to Wadebridge trains to be stored on these cassettes. One advantage of this latest track plan is, by replacing the previous hidden sidings with Polbrock Engine Shed, it has allowed me to increase the scenic area of the layout. This extra space has given the opportunity to represent a length of single track running along side the river leading into Polbrock. This will give me a better chance to replicate the picture below. Another possible advantage is as there are two signal boxes (Grogley Junction & Polbrock) I could split the layout to allow for two or more operators. Wow, it is getting out of hand... While away I've also been able to get the basic elements of the above into Templot. Some slight alterations have had to be made but overall it is the same as the above. To complete the track plan in Templot, I have to finish the turntable; a double slip; a three way turnout; and those tricky diamonds at the junction to draw, then tidy up some of the sleeper spacing. Well, will this project get off the ground or is it just a dream? We'll have to wait and see...
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Stour Valley in P4, Yard entry built and a new chassis for an old loco
Fen End Pit posted a blog entry in Fen End Pit's Blog
The turnout leading into the yard got laid today, this leads off from the loop back into the double-slip in the yard. Once again I've been able to reclaim the V, switch-blades and tie-bars from the previous layout. The point was built on a copy of the Templot template off the baseboard and then stuck in position on the marks I had previously cut into the cork. You'll see various tools sprinkled around the layout. The original box of 'Brook-Smith' gauges, the 10BA bolts which I'm using to solder the rail ends to at the baseboard edges and just showing your truly, a little mirror I use when aligning track. This is a really useful tool when laying track as it allows you to see along the line. The view from the yard shows quite a pleasing line (along with the end of Fen End Pit!) Progress on the layout is great, but it isn't the kind of thing you can take out on a Friday evening to work on around a kitchen table. I'd followed Marcus' EHertsGER blog and was most impressed with the chassis he was building for his F4 tank. I'd build one of these in about 1985 (gulp) and had several goes at the chassis, none of which I'd been particularly happy with. The original Gibson sprung hornblocks and absence of any 'turn' on the carrying wheels meant that it was a very poor runner and just couldn't get around curves. I'd rebuilt it firstly with a flexichas beam system, one beam at the front and a pair at the rear. I'd also toyed with attempts to make radial axleboxes before finally settling on a 'phony-truck' as Marcus has done (though I never thought up the name, he should patent that). This version using CSB (Continuous Springy Beam) to provide springing so I will be interested to see how it goes. The quality of the etchings (produced and sold by Rumney Models) is superb. The High Level gearbox went together beautifully and the chassis folded up very nicely. In place are the axle jigs, designed to allow the coupling rods to set the position of the hornblock guides. If that wasn't enough I've been drawing up baseboards for the rebuilding of Fen End Pit. David -
Stour Valley in P4, A little video of progress so far
Fen End Pit commented on Fen End Pit's blog entry in Fen End Pit's Blog
Output from Templot to DXF is straight forward. output - export to file - create DXF button you can select the layers you want at this stage if you want though I usually export everything and then remove them in TurboCAD later. I then go from the DXF into TurboCAD with all the information Templot can output in different layers. The lasercutter software has a pretty terrible DXF import function which likes things simple so I tend to remove the unwanted layers containing things like the sleeper numbers or sleeper centre line in TurboCAD before trying to import. Once in the cutter software has the DXF loaded I'm simply setting the colour of the lines to represent a certain power and speed of cut which is just enough to mark the surface of the cork. I'm certainly finding that having the lines marked on the cork makes aligning the track so much easier. David -
Stour Valley in P4, A little video of progress so far
Scale7JB commented on Fen End Pit's blog entry in Fen End Pit's Blog
That's looking great, the correct area, and the correct era, thanks..! I'm just wondering thought about the laser etched templot diagram on the cork, it's an idea I'd had before, but never looked into seeing how easy it was to export the templot file as a laser cutter friendly file? If you had a minute to do a very quick description of the process that would be great. No point reinventing the wheel eh?! JB. -
Stour Valley in P4, first track laid and a few holiday pictures
Fen End Pit posted a blog entry in Fen End Pit's Blog
Back from an unnaturally dry week in North Wales and I was able to start laying some track. I had salvaged as much as I could from the previous layout (with the price of components following the practices of all the prototype railway company and retrieving components from closed lines makes good financial sense!). This did mean that I already had assembled switch blades and rail with chairs fitted that I could reuse. I printed the Templot template for the B6 point which is in the yard and stuck it down onto a separate piece of MDF for the assembly. Once completed I eased the point off the board and then stuck down on the cork of the baseboard. Given that all the components have been reused I don't think the result looks too bad when you look close up. Once painted and ballasted I don't think you will be able to tell that the components weren't new. Now a couple of pictures from the Cambrian Railway society at Oswestry. They currently have about 1 mile of track running from the station down past the back of various shops! Just next the the end of the platform is this partial double-slip. I took some pictures as I have one to build in the yard. I was particularly interested in the wear on the check railway on the far common crossing, what would have caused this or was it deliberate grinding to make some clearance? A Barclay 0-4-0 was hauling a ballast wagon and brakevan up and down with passenger numbers totaling 5 on my trip. One item of stock that I don't intend to scratch build (I leave it for the next RMWeb 'wish list') was this rather interesting 'device'. Also from this summer's holidays I should put in a good word for The Locoshed in Manchester. I'd headed to the building site which is central Manchester to take my Son to Comicon (What is Northern Rail's policy on large rubber weapons?) and then went and played on the East Lancs. This meant a tram ride out to Bury and searching on Google brought up a reference to this model shop. Stopping at Besses o'th'barn tram stop and crossing the M60 (on a bridge I hasten to add) I walked up Bury Old Road. What a welcome, 'Hello lads, what kind of modelling do you do? would you like a cup of tea, let me introduce the team'. It was lovely to find a welcoming model shop, Any model shop is good in this day and age but some do just seem to want to be an active part of the hobby. I'll go back there... My eldest Son was particularly amused by picking up a copy of BRM on the 2nd hand pile at Bury Bolton Road for 25p. It was the issue which had my article on Fen End Pit. This particular copy had been quite extensively annotated by the previous owner, correcting some of my drivel and high-lighting a couple of comments I'd made. David -
Stour Valley in P4, now with the cork underlay
Fen End Pit posted a blog entry in Fen End Pit's Blog
With the majority of the baseboard work completed on my first two board these were moved up to the railway room from the garage. The 'works' end of Fen End Pit got boxed up and space made to put the new boards in position. I couldn't resist positioning a couple of items of stock on the boards just for fun. An order to Amazon last week resulted in 4 sheets of 6mm cork 2' x 3' being delivered. I'd deliberately order some quite thick cork available as flat sheets rather than rolls. Some of these made it onto the laser cutter and I was able to mark out the track work, this time including the sleeper positions, from the Templot drawing. There was a little charring on the cuts, I went a little bit too high on the power with the laser. Next time I think I'll just mark the cut lines and finish off with a scalpel. I've mitred the edges slightly to make the cess and stuck down with a thin layer of PVA. I think being 6mm I'll still going to get a bit of sound deadening even with the 'hardness' of PVA holding it down. You'll see that the last 6mm of cork at the baseboard edges has been replaced by 6mm hardwood. The intention being to give a solid edge at the vulnerable baseboard end. You can also see how I've already cut the slots for the operating mechanism which will drive the switch-blades. I've also bought some .8mm ply so next step is some sleeper making. David -
There are now two large pieces of plywood (9mm and 5 mm) and about 5 m2 of extruded foam blocking the landing upstairs. I have bought a saw blade appropriate, and after much mucking about I Templot AND Anyrail produced a plan for some baseboards that manage to avoid putting edges under any points. My teenage son has discovered the brand new bench saw and is champing at the bit to get building baseboards, so the only thing left to do is to clear some space, Oh dear. I will have to attack that tomorrow. Meanwhile here is an aerial shot of Hatch station which was the pilot project and the only bit of the original model that will survive.
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Back in the day new railways were always started with great ceremony. Contemporary reports always describe how the town band would play 'suitable tunes' (what would be considered an 'unsuitable tune' in 1850-60 I wonder?) and the shareholders would be treated to a meal befitting the occasion. So yesterday was spent in Makespace cutting 6mm ply with a lasercutter and this afternoon spent assembling the resulting kit of parts. As is usually there were a few places where 40 watts didn't quite go through the ply (you sometimes get a dense spot in one of the middle layers of the ply which you can't see) but it wasn't too hard to sort out. I marked out the track position from templot on the top surface, more for encouragement than practical purpose at this point, a centre-line would have been just as good. I found a couple of mistakes where I had positioned a tab 6mm out but this could also be dealt with without having to resort to re-cutting. The first board of my 'Stour Valley' layout to be assembled is the goods yard board, the main line can be seen just cutting the right-hand corned of the board. There is a piece to add to the corner of this board so that the track will actually cross the baseboard joint in the foreground at right-angles to the edge of the board. The goods shed will straddle the baseboard joint on the back line. From the opposite end you can see the cut outs for the power and control bus sockets, there is a second lamination of 6mm ply to take the thickness of the ends up to 12mm. Holes have also been cut for baseboard joiner dowels and bolts. The laser cutter I have access to has a maximum size of 900x600mm so you can see that the board is actually made in two halves. The joint in the top surface coincides with one of the bracing pieces which ties the two parts together. The other odd holes are to support brackets for legs. I've also cut the elongated holes for the point blade operating mechanism. Underneath so far I have just fastened the cross-braces which tie into the surface of the board. Having assembled the first board I think that the 50mm depth of the frame, which fine for the 'gubbins' I want to hang underneath, is still leaving the board a little too flexible. I think I will cut some diagonals and fit them into the different sections, which I can fortunately manage without messing up any plans. I think I'll cut these slightly oversize on the cutter and then sand the ends off on the belt sander to make a tight fit. Just to give you an idea of the second board, this is part of the kit of parts. This board is ~4'3"x 2 to get the baseboard joints to sit nicely between the track work. In the foreground is the Ashen Road end of the loop and behind that the point into the yard and the double-slip. The two sidings on the right at the rear actually terminate at the baseboard edge, the near on being an end loading dock. I think the next step will be to get some cork underlay, ideally as a sheet rather than a roll, and use the laser to mark on it where the sleepers and rails will be. Having drawn nice flowing track in Templot I'm paranoid about messing it all up as I transfer the track on to the board. I usually build track 'off-board' but then fit there is always a little flex as you try to take the point off the bench and onto the layout. Perhaps even worse is trying to get the alignment on the board correct as I always seem to find that .5mm out of true at one end becomes 3" once you get the other end of the layout. So, finally a start has been made on actually doing some modelling again following a break of almost 12 months for a house extension. I'm planning to work on these two boards of the Scalefour empire while also working on the Fen End Pit rebuild. I should be able to keep both projects in the railway room at the same time. Hopefully Blog updates will be more frequent if I actually have some modelling to blog about. Now to press publish and see if the title falls victim to the 'Scunthorpe problem' David
