bordercollie

Hi Thanks for replies. If starting again I would use structural wood. Locally I cannot get laser cutting done and I have not achieved perfectly straight edges. However, I committed myself to birch ply. For the L-girders I would have preferred 9mm. but this is how unavailable close to me and to get it transported from Eastern States is prohibitive. I have 6mm birch ply. On reading. the comments I may adhere two pieces together to make a 12mm thick pieces for the flanges. If I run out of birch I will finish with structural pine of old skirting board. I am thinking of using small shelf brackets (approx 50x50 mm) screwed temporarily until glue has cured so won't need to drill and screw into end grain.

Hi I think what you are talking about is another type of construction, I can not remember what its called. What I am talking about is what is called L-girder. This where to bits of wood are joined at 90 degrees to each other. apparently this forms a strong structure where various forces act in different planes. Regards

Hi I did think about the problem of attaching the two parts of the girder. However, the adhesives available today are very strong and it appears that the wood would break before bond. Extra support can be had by supporting blocks at intervals. However, it is not easy to take them apart if needed. I may consider using some old hardwood skirting boards. Thanks

Hi I am contemplating using L-girder construction for part of my layout. I have been reading Iain Rice's books. In one book he suggests 4,5,6 mm plywood for girders. uprights etc. and in another 6-10mm. I was wondering if 6mm plywood has been proven to be strong/durable enough in the long term ( 6mm is the only bitch plywood that I can get). Regards

Hi If I understand correctly the maintenance of the signal is a major factor as to whether bounce,occurs. As my layout is a GWR branch c1929, could I assume, or not, that at this earlier date general maintenance would have been superior to later in time? If so would the generally better maintenance extend to a branch line situation. At this stage I am thinking that I may programme varying degrees of bounce from none to a very small amounts on the various signals. In a period of good maintenance would 3’ arms have any detectable bounce? Regards

Hi Thanks for info. I may try just using etch primer over tarnish before painting and assess the result. I had previously bought two etch primer products, one from SMS and one from Tamiya and I will try these first. I relation to Upol acid 8 etch I have read conflicting reports. In your experience, does it cover up fine detail due to the thickness of the product when applied? I assume that applying the lime scale remover would still need the scrubbing of the brass rather than just immersing it in the fluid. Regards Graham

Hi I am wondering if I need worry about introducing signal bounce for lower quadrant semaphore signals. I have seen several opinions and have seen videos of bounce. This bounce seems to be related to, at least some extent. the maintenance of signalling. Would maintenance have been better in 1920s GWR against recent videos of surviving signals? Given the small amount of movement in 4mm scale would it be worth doing anyway? Regards

Hi I am about to start hand painting a 4mm scale brass wagon underframe. After each session (over quite an extended time period) I have been washing the components under warm water and putting them into an ultrasonic cleaner with plain water (bore water). There is quite extensive tarnishing I have tried to clean it up with emery paper, small files and sanding sticks etc. I have had some success but I have bent or risk bending parts or breaking parts. Can the tarnishing simply be painted over after applying the primer? If not, is there anything I can soak the parts in to remove tarnishing without risk of damage to the soldered underframe? Best wishes

Hi My main problem is when using private messages. You simply cannot remove the ad, even temporarily, by pressing close button. You can read messages as a small part of my laptop screen is not covered by this ad. I had started a topic some time ago. All attachments posted on the topic had disappeared and become unavailable. I recently wanted access to some information from forum topic that I had not saved at the time. I asked the member who had originally posted a diagram if he could send this again. He agreed to do this. Thankfully, I must have previously saved a screenshot as soon as I received his reply. I had forgotten I had done this. So I tried again a week or so ago and I now have the above problem. It is now impossible to take a screen shot without a large portion being a advert. I now know that I have to live with that or pay the money. I agree that you can temporarily remove ads by pressing the close button when using forum but not when using messages. Regards

Hi If I understand you correctly the only way for this website to remain usable is to pay for a membership and that the the video can not be closed in any other way. It used to be possible for the pop-ups to be closed. Regards

Hi Not sure where to post this topic. I have just come across a new problem with using RMweb. When trying to access past messages, in particular, a digitrains an pop-up advertising video comes up. I am used to this and usually pressed the close button and I could carry on. However, when closing the video, a static image advertising digitrains appears. This image can not be closed or moved and makes reading replies difficult. I queried this and received a reply saying I must now pay a subscription to access RMweb without this pop-up obscuring a large part of the screen. Has this now become the norm. Has anybody else come across this problem? Regards

Hi I have some birch ply that I intend to construct my baseboards and frames. I have seen it suggested that plywood should be protected in some way to reduce warping from moisture. I was wondering if sealing with paint, varnish or some other way would effect how PVA adheres when ballasting and joining of the plywood. Regards

I have just about decided on building a traverser for my 4mm scale layout. I have found a lot of information re building one. However, I can not find a recommendation on the spacing of the track with a view to the handling and re-railing of stock. When placing two pieces of track at roughly 44.5 mm between track centres I can just manipulate a bogie coach back on to track. However, I am wondering if there is an ideal compromise between not having to make traverser to wide and ease of stock handling. Regards

Hi All Thanks for your replies. I think I will use 1 servo for each point. Mechanically linking 1 servo seems to be beyond me at present. Best wishes Graham

Hi I have finally decided that I will use MERG Cbus. I have also decided to use servos. My questions are: a) Can a crossover be controlled by just one servo? b) If so, what be a good, and preferably simple, way to connect the servo to the two switches? c) Is it a good idea anyway, considering the relative cheapness of servos? Regards

Hi I did receive a reply on 19.11.21. I have heard nothing since. I have re-read the e-mail and I how think I have misinterpreted their e-mail. They are currently moving premises. So I can not follow up at the moment. Regards Graham

Hi This will be my first Model Railway and thus didn't really know what I wanted. I searched for information and found a large number of ideas. In the end I decided to over-engineer rather than under-engineer. Hence, I have ordered. some 12 mm Baltic birch. I think I may use 6 mm for cross-members and the curved frames. We have a Mediterranean type climate with warm dry summers and wet winters with overnight temperatures rarely resulting in frosts. Best wishes Graham

Hi I will need to build 2 or 3 non-straight baseboards. I have decided to use 12 mm birch ply for the main baseboard tops and frames. I will have five baseboards in total, 3 (or 2) as open frame and two with solid top. The open frame boards will tentatively be built as follows: See attachment One of these will have straight sides and outer frame. The inside frame will be curved to approx. 2400 mm The other two boards (or maybe built as one), have curves of approx 1700 mm outside and 1900 inside. I think making the cross-members a maximum of 300 mm apart on outside and running them radially towards inner frame at about 90 degrees to the tangent. The other board I could run the cros-members parallel to each other from outer board to the inner one or try to run them in a more radial pattern. Is there a best way to do this in relation to strength and resistance to warping. Regards Sreen shot LHS 13.2.22 4.23.pdf

Sorry about confusion. For most topics it doesn't really matter where you are. I will try to put in my location. Thanks for input. I am about to order some 12mm birch plywood for baseboard tops and the track beds on open frame section and for frames of main baseboards and 4 or 6 mm for uprights etc. and for bending of curved frames where needed. I am playing round with graph paper and protractor to see what I can get out of each sheet. Regards Graham

I can confirm that the garage is a closed double garage with roller door. It is single brick construction attached to the house. There is no extra insulation. The house was designed as passive solar, but this probably this doesn't extend to the garage. The window faces due north i.e. towards the sun. I keep the door closed to keep as much dust as possible out, not be mention snakes and other wildlife. Here in SW Western Australia we have a Mediterranean type climate. I was hoping that Birch plywood would overcome this problem to some extent as it is rated as exterior use. Your photos show exactly what I want to achieve but I will be using open frame. If I understand correctly you were able to bend the 9mm to the the radii shown. My bends will between 1700 and 1800mm so maybe it will work with open frame. I have seen utube videos of ply wood being bent to quite small radii using formers and layering two of more thinner plywood and gluing them together whilst being clamped together for 24 hrs or so. I sent a post a few days ago but it appears not to be here anymore so hopefully this post will arrive and stay in the forum. Regards Graham

Hi I hope this is the appropriate place for this query. I am going to build my layout in a closed garage which may contain a wet car at times. My idea is to use birch plywood for this reason. I have done a bit of research on building baseboards and have read a lot of ideas. My idea at present is to build the terminus area of layout on solid top baseboards using 12mm birch plywood as top and as the framing. The cross members would be 6mm plywood. I was thinking of making the corner of the layout as open frame. Another idea is to curve frames, front and back, on this corner section. I don't know if the thickness of ply that I could bend easily would strong enough. Uprights would be 6mm plywood with the track bed being 12mm ply. I know there a lot of opinions on this subject but could anybody tell me if this construction is as good as any? Best Wishes

Hi I placed the rodding runs in the 6' because I felt that, in relation to the point and catch point 19, the angle between drive rod and the rodding run to the turnout would be closer to 90 degrees. I now see that if I passed rodding for 19 under mainline as shown in my diagram and then cranked the rodding to turnout from cess side of mainline this have resulted in a more appropriate angle. I also felt that rodding and wires for 3,21, 22 and 23 would be simpler if laid out as I have shown. I didn't think that the runs for FPL 23 and points 21 and 25 would be run in the cess due to the timbering of point 21. Similarly the timbering of turnout 27 would make it difficult to make rodding runs in cess of loop. Should I run the signal wires for 3,22, 24 and 26 in the cess of the mainline or alternately in that of the loop before running wires under track. One or other of these options seem to be what would have been usual, I think. I think I should run the rodding and wires for 24,25 and 26 to platform face as soon as possible after the tongue of point 21. It would be less of a trip hazard that way. I am quite prepared to learn my assumptions are wrong and it would best to know how before I start laying track etc. In 1929 on a branch line situation would wood stools would have been the most likely? Best wishes Graham

Thanks Mike It took me several days to come with a relatively simple diagram to put on the thread. I made all the runs as they would come out of the signal so as to keep the diagram as readable as possible. I will run them all together when I build the layout. I wasn't sure if running wires and rodding next to platform face would have been the most prototypical. One of your previous pictures was very informative as I hadn't considered the need for rollers between the rails. It looks to me that signal wires just lie on top of ballast without any support. Is this correct? Is the way I have designed my runs within the bounds of what may have occurred? Best wishes Graham

Hi I have trying to display my ideas for point rodding and signal wire runs in a way that was not too confusing. My theoretical lever frame layout is as below. First of all, would this be realistic? I have basically worked off the system at Bodmin modified for my design. It seems to me that this would allow the shortest and simplest way of laying out the runs. I have spent many hours trying to come up with a diagram that is understandable, as attached. Most of the runs pass to outside mainline or between mainline and loop. 1. Signal Advanced Starter Mainline 2. Signal Advanced Starter Branch 1 3 Signal Platform Starter 4 Signal Starter Mainline 5 Signal Starter Branch 2 6 Spare 7 Spare 8 Point Slip 9 Signal Ground signal for Branch 2 10 Signal Ground signal Loop to Mainline 11 Signal Ground signal for crossover 12 FPL for 13 13 Point Mainline to loop 14 FPL for 15 15 Point to Branch 1 16 Point Mainline to Branch 2 17 FPL for 16 18 Signal Ground Signal Engine Shed 19 Point Engine shed/carriage siding and catch point engine shed 20 Signal Ground Signal Carriage siding 21 Point Mainline to sidings carriage and engine shed and catch point carriage siding 22 Signal Ground Signal for 21 23 FPL for 23 24 Signal Ground signal for 25 25 Points Mainline to loop 26 Signal Ground signal for 25 27 Point entry to goods yard 28 Signal Home Branch 2 to mainline 29 Signal Home Branch 2 to loop 30 Signal Home Mainline to platform 31 Signal Home Mainline to loop 32 Signal Home Branch 1 to mainline 33 Signal Home Branch 1 to loop. B I am reasonably sure it makes sense overall but have a few slight niggles as follows: a) Point rodding for one end of crossover (13) needs to go across the rodding for FPL (12) b) Similarly with rodding run for 19 and 21 needing to cross over each other and 23 crossing over 21 c) Is the run for 25 and 26 the most likely or would it have been run a long the platform face? I have included a layout plan from Templot and have tried to make a comprehensible diagram. The RHS of layout is depicted at the top and LHS at the bottom Regards Graham

Hi Thanks for input. I will now try to design a layout based on information. Regards Graham