Tedcaster Sidings 7mm

[Rob Pulham]

After a couple of false starts, progress has started in earnest on a layout at last .

 

I haven't fully devised the track plan yet but I have all the wood - 9mm ply for the tops and 18mm ply for the sides and ends. These were to be 9mm ply too but when I went to B&Q this morning they had sold out of full sheets and the 3/4 of a half sheet was only £2 less than a full 8x4. So to buy 2 of them would have been nearly twice the price and still not the full amount. In the end I paid another £3 and got a full sheet of 18mm. This I had cut into half and then into 100mm strips for the sides and edges.

 

100mm (or 4" old money) may seem quite deep but I also ordered a 70 Ransomes and Rapier turntable from Metalsmith this afternoon and the installation kit for it requires 78mm depth. This wouldn't normally be an issue if the layout was going to be done in the traditional manner of legs/trestles etc. but this will sit on the newly installed kitchen units in the garage conversion.

 

When I got home from B&Q, the sun was till shining so I got the chop saw out and cut all the sides and ends to length and the softwoods strips for bracing the corners

 

I just managed to get all the softwood strips drilled and countersunk before it started to rain and then I moved indoors and managed to get one of the frames screwed and glued together. Photo's to follow tomorrow - not that there is much to see.

 

In terms of available space it is 3560mm long x610mm 11'8" x 2') with an L shaped leg that is 950mm x 610mm (this gives a total of 5' including the width of the long run boards).

 

Besides the turntable I have a few Skytrex resin buildings in the shape of:

 

A coaling stage, a water tower, a single road engine shed with a lean to office, These I hope will form the basis of something to show of all the locos and rolling stock that I intend to build (and the few that I have completed so far).

 

Next task besides working on the boards is to get to grips with Templot and plan the track layout. Plus ordering all the bits and pieces for building the track. I view the layout as a long term project so I may as well do it right with hand built track (especially as I do like to make things)

[georgeT]

Sound's good to me Rob, can't wait to see what you come up with, good luck..............

[Rob Pulham]

Sound's good to me Rob, can't wait to see what you come up with, good luck..............

 

Thanks George, taking the tram engine for a run out on a layout has really made me realise what I have been missing.

[Rob Pulham]

The weather was kind to me to day and although it clouded over a few times and let loose a few drops the rain kept off until I had lacked almost everything away.

 

So what did I achieve? Well much to my surprise I managed to get all the baseboards made up including the triangular infill piece - see sketch plan below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were all made up in the same way just different sizes to fit the space available. I also used the hole cutting saw to make the holes for the cables on the rest before I assembled them . A couple of them just need the belt sander running over them as the top overhangs by a couple off mm to finish them of ready for painting. They also need drilling so that they can be bolted together but I need to get bolts and wing nuts etc. before that so I know what size holes to drill.

 

Chris my good lady even managed to get the under side of one of them under-coated while the sun shone this afternoon. I ache a bit now but it is a very satisfied ache.

[MartinWales]

Nice work on the baseboards! Keep the updates coming!

[Rob Pulham]

After a very good morning at Barrow Hill I tackled the sanding late in the afternoon. Once this was finished I cleaned up and then put all the boards in position on top of the units to see how they fitted.

That's when my glaring mistake hit me - the triangular section that I was so proud of yesterday is twice the size it should have been The only ray of sunshine is that I have enough materials left to make one the right size and it only took me about 20 mins to make the first one. I would have been really gutted if I had needed to buy more wood.

[Rob Pulham]

Here are a couple of shots to show you the size of the mistake.....

 

 

 

All sorted now, but rain has stopped play on this particular project.

[Rob Pulham]

I am still waiting for the turntable from Metalsmith (it will be with me sometime next week) so I haven't been able to do much more than get the boards painted - if I am honest Chris painted them for me while I built a Wendy house for my neighbours daughter (think miniature garden shed on 4x4 stilts). I have the bolts ready to bolt them together but when I went to B&Q to get the rest of the boards for the back scenes cut their saw had broken so I plan to try again tomorrow (It's only a minor deviation on my way home from work to a B&Q warehouse).

 

In the mean time I had a look at some of the Skytrex bits and pieces that we got from Bolton show and Chris made a start on painting the coaling stage.

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to assemble and prime the water crane and timber framed crane + buckets that came with this particular set. So that Chris can weave her magic on them.

[Rob Pulham]

Before the downpoor started at the weekend I managed to get the boards bolted together and some of the back scene attached.

 

When I had them back indoors I couldn't resitst laying 4 yards of rack and playing .

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

More progress has been made on the Skytrex buildings this last week with the assembly and priming of the Coal and Water cranes. I have also assembled and primed the engine shed - I did try to photograph it while unpainted but the white resin was a bit camera shy....

 

 

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

Well Chris has weaved her magic on the weathering of the engine shed and coaling stage.

Once I have the A3 running I hope to make more progress on the layout.....

[81A Oldoak]

^{It may be too late to ask, but how heavy is each base-board?}

^Regards,

 

^{Chris Klein}

[Rob Pulham]

^{It may be too late to ask, but how heavy is each base-board?}

^Regards,

 

^{Chris Klein}

 

Hi Chris, sorry I hadn't seen your query. I am not sure about exact weight but I can handle each board on my own without too much difficulty.

 

A lot has been going on at work recently which has reduced my modelling mojo with regard to the 06 (and modelling in general) . So I decided that I might try something different and that something being my Metalsmith turntable kit.

It's for a Ransomes and Rapier 70' table and this is what you get in the kit. This is the kit itself and the additional turntable installation kit.

This is how far I got in a very short space of time. The nickel spacers were folded up and soldered. and a couple of bearings were soldered into the centre bottom spacer. The rest just screws together...

After dinner I will start on the riveted angle plates. I expect that these will take a little longer to make progress.

[Rob Pulham]

As I predicted the riveted strips to represent the girders took a bit longer but it all went on with no problems and there was plenty of spare.

 

 

 

 

Next job is the guide wheels but not tonight I am going to the theatre to see Oliver.

[alant]

Hi Rob,

 

Turntable build looks interesting, will keep an eye on this. I have seen the Metalsmith products at shows before but never had a good look.

 

Alan.

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Alan,

 

Like you I had only seen them on metalsmiths stand at shows and on layouts from afar. I would certainly recommend it on what I have done so far.

 

 

Still moving forward although I haven't had much time on it this week. I have filled the screw heads with Milliput after one abortive attempt with solder.

 

I have also soldered the rails to the deck. my first ever bit of permanent way!!!

 

 

 

The Milliput still needs to be rubbed down.

[Rob Pulham]

I spent yesterday and part of today putting together the support frames/guide wheels that allow the bridge to rotate. This has been the hardest bit of the build so far and that wasn't hard so much as fiddly. It took a few goes to get the end U sections soldered square across the I beams with the right width at either end and that's despite having a template to bolt across it. The instructions suggest assembling this on a piece of glass which I did I still ended up stripping the wheels/bearings back of one of these to give it a further rub down to ensure that the guide wheels rotate freely.

 

Then most fiddly of all was getting all the 16ba screws/nuts on - all 48 of them. The instructions suggest having the nuts uppermost as being most prototypical.

 

How I managed this was to feed a couple of 16ba screws through from below. I used some short pieces of coffee stirrer wedged in to hold them in place while I fit the brass bearing in place over it. You need to be careful that you pair these up correctly of they don't fit - guess who had to take some of and start again to discover this......

 

Not having any 16ba nut runners I folded a loop on a piece of brass wire that passed through the nut. I used this to pick up and place the nut and then prodded,/tightened the nut onto the protruding thread with a cocktail stick finally tightening with a pair of pliers.

 

Which gave me these.

 

 

I also managed to get all the handrail/walkway support brackets folded and soldered up. The next job is to clean up all the cast brass handrail pillars and then open out the holes in the brackets to accept these.

 

The clear plastic plates are to insulate the guide wheels from the bridge

[Rob Pulham]

A couple of days off work has seen a lot more progress on this. Having made up all the supports and cleaned up/opened out the stanchion castings ready for the rails last night, today saw them fitted and the handrails too.

 

It was all quite straightforward apart from having packed the tops of the supports that fit under the winding platform so that the winding platform, was at the same height as the deck. I realised that my hand rail whould then come out at a different height from the rest at that point.

 

After a bit of head scratching I soldered a thin strip of scrap etch along the outside edge where there was no support (the supports not coming out that far from the deck)

 

 

I then drilled through for the base of the stanchion and opened out the copper clad to sink the stanchion base into it and bring them back to the level of the rest.

 

Giving this..

 

 

 

I still need to fasten the guide wheels on but that's a job for tomorrow.

[Rob Pulham]

This layout is still taking a back seat but today has seen a little more progress in the form of my first proper piece of permanent way.

 

 

 

 

I used Deb's 31.5mm gauges and it was most satisfying to have completed it.

[Rob Pulham]

And then there were three!

 

In between a few other bits and pieces I made up another couple of track sections. A second straight and a curve.

 

 

 

The rail sides are sprayed with Vallejo air rust and then lightly brushed with Vallejo flat earth to give a bit of variety in the colouring.

[PAD]

A couple of days off work has seen a lot more progress on this. Having made up all the supports and cleaned up/opened out the stanchion castings ready for the rails last night, today saw them fitted and the handrails too.

 

It was all quite straightforward apart from having packed the tops of the supports that fit under the winding platform so that the winding platform, was at the same height as the deck. I realised that my hand rail whould then come out at a different height from the rest at that point.

 

After a bit of head scratching I soldered a thin strip of scrap etch along the outside edge where there was no support (the supports not coming out that far from the deck)

 

 

I then drilled through for the base of the stanchion and opened out the copper clad to sink the stanchion base into it and bring them back to the level of the rest.

 

Giving this..

 

 

 

I still need to fasten the guide wheels on but that's a job for tomorrow.

 

Hi Rob,

Buildings and structures are not really my department. I leave that to me brother. However, looking at your buildings above I can appreciate the quality of the workmanship. I will have to keep and eye on the turntable as I have long felt that it would be a good way of exhibiting some of the my locos. All the better if works and can then be put on a future layout. I am going directly to the Metalsmith website to see what it costs. Cheers, Peter.

[malcs]

Hi, started to read your build, I was wondering if you had done any more on it ?