hayfield

DLT Thanks, there is quite a lot that goes on and over the years methods have changed. I am new to the group which has been going for years. One of our group members lives in Canvey and started off the coach restoration project, rebuilding coaches initially in the Southend area. Now we have a full time carpenter who works full time at the carriage works, though some times he is down at Woody Bay working on either rolling stock or infrastructure Looking at van 23, it had a wooden chassis and was rebuilt with a wooden chassis. Now all new stock is on metal chassis and we are waiting for Woody Bay to build it, which now is becoming quite frustrating

Our workshop manager is a very gifted joiner who has a great love of the railway especially building rolling stock We try to reuse coach parts that come into our possession and quite often spend more time refurbishing parts than it would take to fabricate new parts. On Tuesday he and a volunteer were machining up parts for the communication cord system which back on to the Cantrail, not quite early L&B as in the early years the coaches did not have them We had an end of a coach (unknown number) which we have stripped down, it had been altered in SR days as it had the first windows (which were attached) altered in size, way over my pay grade I just like working with wood

John Its a PVA glue, nothing wrong with this providing it does what you require. For me the fact that it dries solid would be detrimental for track laying as I use closed cell foam as a track bed, horses for courses.

Copydex is a brand name, its a latex glue

These photos were taken last week These are roof/ceiling ribs for both van 23 and coach 9 These were first formed in a press jig as they are each made from 6 strips of I think ash. then in the machine shop they are machined to size, then a router is used on both sides to make the mouldings A couple of us were working on the benches. The varnished parts were first fabricated then vanished then the legs were fabricated and fitted to the front seat rails and the top back rails were formed and fitted The benches were made from reclaimed wood (100 year old pitch pine church pews) which had to have any old defects repaired. Bigger holes had plugs fitted Nail holes on visible parts were firstly partially plugged then matching wax filler worked in Plugs were glued in over screw holes and the wax is being applied both un-finished) As we are volunteers time in some ways is not an issue, and where possible we are copying the build methods originally used Using several tons of wood is in one way a lot more time consuming, but saves thousands of £'s plus is more ecological The varnished parts will be mostly unseen once the slats are fitted. The front legs and rails along with the slats will be stained then varnished, and a lot more care is being taken, the rails are still waiting for a final sand to shape as if you look closer the marks left by plaining to shape are visible. As I said the workshop is just outside Colchester and there is someone there most working days.

We all have preferences when building our layouts, the first thing to understand is that modern baseboard building techniques using ply makes wonderful sound boxes (amplifying speakers). A bit like going into an empty room where it echoes, some of us prefer to dampen the sound, so anything that reduces vibration is desirable. Likewise anything that locks everything up is undesirable I do beg to differ at least from your claim about the sound deadening qualities of latex glues. Firstly if you are into sound deadening you must look into both baseboard design, materials used including the type of underlay. PVA glues lock up everything solid and can help amplify the noise made when a train moves, sadly PVA will penetrate some porous sound deadening materials. So we have to look for alternatives The use of Latex glue differs in how you use it. You can use it as a contact adhesive, but you must let both surfaces dry out toughly, then lightly lay the track down, adjust it, then tap it down for a firm fix. Excess glue can be removed, but you must cut the dividing line with a sharp craft knife first to avoid pulling up the glue under the joint The art of track laying is in both planning and preparation, get these right and you will not end up with a sticky mess whatever glue you use. A dry run first has got to make sense, gluing prior to having a finalised position is unwise, but I do accept final adjustment is a must The second method is to lay the glue as you would with PVA neat and you have plenty of time to adjust its position before it sets. If the track is lifted you will have a sticky mess, just as you would with PVA, both are water soluble so both can be cleaned easily, or with latex wait until its dried and pull off the dried rubbery material. Latex dries in a flexible state unlike PVA which dries solid, you are correct in that latex on its own will not noticeably reduce sound, but when used in a well thought out way with other materials it can reduce unwanted sound, to a certain extent these methods can also be used with PVA and still be effective to a certain level, but it fails on the basis of setting rock solid. Latex can be used for ballasting exactly the same as PVA, diluted 50/50 with water, but unlike PVA it retains some form of elasticity, PVA sets solid. As far as I am aware latex does not discolour crushed ballast as PVA does, plus ground cork is still available rather than stone ballast, which may also be better for sound reduction Granted buying latex from well known brands is expensive as are all other glues including PVA. PVA does have its uses. But glues have moved on and now I would use Polymer glue in preference. The last time I used PVA was on flooring to act as a key for other glues to grip

Templot has moved on a lot over the past 6 years, now building a Templot plan (called Template in Templot) is simply a tick box exercise, for a novice user it may require a little assistance from Templot Club simply to explain the options, or rather what options to use. But simply trying different options will quickly show what they produce As for building the turnout Templot is developing so that even filing jigs can be printed to form both the vee and switch rails. However this is an add on for those with 3D printers. Building turnouts is developing into a simple process, on the other hand templates/plans allow for any building method to be used Below is a Y turnout with a longer lead to the previous posted, but the same crossing angle

A couple of years ago I both joined the L&B plus became a volunteer with the East Anglian group who rebuild the coaches and vans When I joined the group we were working on van No 23, progress was a bit slow for various reasons, the main issue is that Woody Bay is building the steel chassis. Last year we got to the point that virtually all the parts we could prefabricate was built, painted and now stored. We have had lots of commitments but to date none have been kept. In the summer of last year we were offered the opportunity to but all the pews from a church in Ipswich, providing we dismantled and took away all the wood (several tons) we could have it at a knockdown price. A good part of last year was de-nailing the wood then make a start on building coach 9 First we started on the roof timbers, which were cut then painted, On the drying racks in the paint room Next we cut all the inner planking for the coach walls These will go into storage as we build further parts Again painting them up to 1st coat of gloss At the same time we started fabricating the seat parts. Then start the assembly. The grey roof ribs are for van 23 Bottom left are the planks for the hat rails Some of the seating slats have been cut, background left is a storage area for prefabricated parts for both coach 9 & van 23

Another push over the weekend and the turnout has moved on. Gone is the solder paint, good old fashioned lead solder wire and flux. I finished off the toe of the turnout then went on to fit the wing rails using roller gauges and a D D Wheelwrights block gauge and wing rail alignment tool (available from either Scalefour or EMGS stores). The second stock rail went on much easier and I had a preformed switch rail which was quickly fitted. The seconf wing rail was formed and soldered in place as was the first check rail The block rail gauge is used to set the curved stock rail inconjuction with the switch rail maintaining the exact gauge Using leaded solder has made construction much easier, but sorry I am not a convert of this method. I have spent several hours on this turnout and not a chair in sight. I am undecided whether I will add chairs to this turnout as I will not be using it. I simply wanted to have another go at using this system. A concern I have is how level the rivets are and then how level I was able to solder the rail given I tinned both the rail and rivets.

Mullie A great buy there, as you say you need to re-wheel it anyway. Lets hope changing the wheels is easy

There is now an automatic function which enables a nigh on symmetrical Y turnout This was a simple B6 as it was what I had looked at before Its in the Tools dialogue box, you may have to alter the crossing size but its all very easy once you get the hang of it

Usually in 4mm scale, both Scalefour and the EMGS sell wing rail gauges. Normally a flat piece of metal strip .68mm wide for P4 or 1mm for EM gauge, The check rail like the stock rail is set by their own gauge. Care must be taken with multi gauges as they can lead to inaccuracies An Alternative to the basic wing rail gauge is made by D.D.Wheelwrights for both P4 & EM gauges called a Block gauge with crossing alignment aid. These are sold by the appropriate society. The block gauge is very useful for several gauges https://85a.uk/templot/archive/topics/topic_2293.php

The latest accounting period figures are in for this month Firstly I have noticed Octopus's projections have dropped dramatically. They are still suggesting I up my monthly payments by £26 pm which is a lot less than 2 months ago. Also their forecasting system is agreeing with me that my payments will cover my expected use for the next 12 months. They are forecasting that my account will run down by August to a credit of £100 (-£450 from this year) What they cannot factor in is my export income which hopefully will be enough to maintain a status quo My projection of £91 for this accounting period was £2 more than my bill Octopus originally forecast £209 but dropped it to £138. So we are much closer now than a year ago with our forecasts, in fact I am forecasting a larger bill in December than Octopus is, for the coldest 3 months we are very close together with our forecasts. I am expecting by the end of April my credit balance to drop to £189, so I am happy I have sufficient surplus to cover a colder winter than average. There seems to be conflicting info as to where energy prices will be over the next quarter, we will have to wait and see if the issues in the far east keep affecting the oil price

John In my experience someone will want them, a candidate for a 99p start price plus postage which covers all costs and fees.

Martin Thanks for the insight, I guess its down to personal preferences What I am finding out is that opinions do vary, in some cases we try and adhere to prototypical practices, in others we must compromise either as it will not scale down and or not required when modelling, keeps us chatting for hours Then new techniques pop up, and or views change. It certainly is a good time for trackwork, with kits for both EM and P4 turnouts and crossings not only back on the scene but with improved detail and easy to build, and 00 gauge modellers getting 4mm scale track, looking more prototypical to boot.

Big fingers and auto filling !!!

Duplicate in error

Wayne I remember talking to Len Newman about 1-6 turnouts and he was very much in favour of using A switches, He stated to me it looks better, (though to me they look similar) and as the Scalefour society has requested A switches on a 1-6 turnout I was wondering why you are choosing to fit B switches in 00 & EM gauges In EM gauge both an A6 & B6 turnout have the same external (substitution) radius of 74". An A6 measures 273.5mm against 296.07 for a B6 turnout. I can see that an A6 would take up slightly less room than a B6 which may be a bonus for modelers with limited space. The aspect I had not taken into consideration is the smallest radii An A6 is 43" surprisingly the smallest radius in a B6 is 41". Seems to me that the A switch is both shorter and has a larger smaller radius within the turnout. Or is there something I am missing ?

Adrian, I hope it was not me, the trouble is for years we have been taught by the suppliers of both C&L and Exactoscale that this is the correct thing to do !! and as the range of chairs (thinking of the Exactoscale special chairs) is quite convincing, we all brought into the thought process. In its self it has caused issues regarding track gauges as the rail head needs to allow the rail head to rotate. The thinking about the rail laid with a cant is all about prototypically being correct, and hard to argue against in P4 !!! Anyway the latest thought process is for modelling upright is best, I assume Wayne's British Finescale turnout kits have upright rails, certainly Templot plug trach has upright rail so things coming back full circle, as for chairs, I think I will disagree with you. Certainly with Wayne's British Finescale kits its a method of holding the rails to the timbers, and most I assume will prefer having chairs, though Peco have sold track for years without chairs (as they have used flatbottom rail with clips) and customers have brought tons of the stuff Thanks for confirming you use solder cream and solder wire, thought I was using the wrong stuff

No chance, I sat one set plus a few parts sell for over £100 I did sell a spare punch with only the rivet punch for £50 which I was happy with, but I would not sell a complete set that cheap. The question being I regretted selling the first punch I brought back in the 80's. Bit will I ever use them again ?

Len Newman designed both ranges, however new tooling has been made for C&L. No idea who designed earlier new tooling but the new 14 chair C&L design was from Phil Read's design criteria Certainly the early K&L chair design was to be compatible with ply and rivet construction, and a good marketing ploy was to replace cast whitemetal half chairs with cheap (then) plastic extrusions The circular hole in the chair base on the Exactoscale range was to be compatible with their P4 company turnout and crossing bases, which had 2mm round spigots on the timber bases where the chairs were to be positioned. Like wise with the sleeper bases which also have the round spigots on the sleepers. I must say had I been using this system the turnout would now be finished, in fact its quicker than cutting then punching and riveting the timbers, . Still its a challenge, I have burnt two timbers trying to use some old London Road Models solder paint, but at least it can be put on the rivets once mixed with flux.

Brian Thanks, its not that it will not solder, I cannot get it to leave the cocktail stick onto the rivet. Using the related cream flux might be better ? I should have ordered some !!

Michael I totally agree with you, why is it that some people expect their offers to be accepted, if its only £1 that the potential buyer thinks is not very much, then rather the buyer reducing his price, surely the bidder should increase his bid, using the same thought process, its only £1 !!! I rarely get these requests, in the past when received such requests (twice) both times I relisted the items increasing the price by £5 and sold both. As you say if you want said items, make it worth the sellers attention. Its an auction so the market will decide its value, but if its not worth what the seller values it at, then he is well within his rights to keep it I do have items I would sell if I had the right offer, sadly there is not a facility to list items on the bay asking for offers without setting a minimum price. Let the seller decide if the offer is acceptable plus show the bids rather than hide them. For me its maximising the benefit to the sellers

Brian I use a 75 watt temperature controlled set on max (480 degrees) I started off using a cheap solder paste*, then went to my old standard solder wire, no idea of type as label too damaged (60/40?) good old fashioned 50 year old leaded solder * lead free 183 degree, should have read the label rather than the cost

I often wonder how some suppliers manage to maintain their prices when everything around keeps increasing, I am not saying increase your prices monthly, but its far better to manage the prices every now and then and stay in business Its easier for large firms to control their prices as their suppliers do depend on their custom, small suppliers are far more at risk in both cost and regularity of supply