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Kris

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Blog Entries posted by Kris

  1. Kris

    A new life?

    By Kris,

    I never thought that I would be adding an entry to this blog again, however 7 years later here it is. Just over 6 years ago I moved away from South Devon, taking Avonwick with me. Whilst the main part went on display in a spare room the layout has not been run since. About 5 and a half years ago Avonwick was wrapped up and put into deep storage, I no longer had anywhere I could leave it up.
    Avonwick has since spent the passing years on its end wrapped in a plastic bag in my garage, generally getting in the way. Several times it nearly took a final trip to the tip.
    So that brings us to today.
    Today I moved Avonwick to a shed. There is space here, not for the whole layout, but at least for the main section. Years of neglect seem to have had minimal impact in the general fabric of the layout and the lighting still works. Does anything else work? I've no idea, but there is at least a chance that Avonwick will see a train run again one day, something that I was never expecting to happen.
     

  2. Kris
    By popular(ish) request this is a brief update on the preparations completed this week in the run up to Newbury exhibition.
     
    1st Avonwick had 2 ground frames both covered by huts, my good intentions were to have had both of these built but work this week has meant that I only got one completed today. It's far from brilliant but it is about right. At some point before Easter I will try to get the second one completed and maybe get some point rodding in.
     

     
    I have also been sowing some grass on the bridge section of the layout. This is only the initial sow, so more work needs to be done on this.
     

     
     
    Other that that I have badly stuck the info board together and worked out how to stop it falling down, at some point I will need to re do this. (Several grammatical errors have also been pointed out by the other half).
     
    A 16 ton mineral wagon has been completed as have a couple of coaches (well as much as parts allow).
     
    A couple of name boards have been added to the station.
     
    That's all for now. Tomorrow packing will take place ready for me to leave at about 4 on Saturday.
  3. Kris

    Further on the fiddle.

    By Kris,

    Right, after several sessions of wiring and a session of fettling the new fiddle yard for Avonwick is nearly finished.
     

     
     
    As can be seen I have ended up with 4 through sidings and a pair of sidings, one for each direction. Doing this has tightened up the minimum radius that I was using so I will have to do some tweaking of the couplings to ensure that all the stock runs happily.
    The wiring is currently a real mess and will need sorting out at some point in the future (after the RM meet at Taunton) but it works. All the sidings are automatically isolated it the route to them is not set. This has been done to try and eliminate the possibility of running a train into a point set against it and causing a short. Doing this has caused some headaches and a little swearing but I hope that in the long run it will be worth it. The whole thing is controlled by just 4 DPDT switches. These are currently just hanging loose so I need to sort these out before Taunton. I also hope to have a small panel that will show which route is set, though this is a "would like to have done", not something that has to be done.
     
    Having done quite a bit of testing today I am happy that most of the point work is working as it should do. A couple of points have shown a need for a stiffer bit of wire connecting the tie bar sleeper with the point motor, this is something that I will have to source. I have also been unable to fully test the first point at each end as to do this I need to connect up to the rest of the layout, something that I hope to find time to do later this week.
     
    What next?
    Well before Taunton (so in the next 2 weeks) I must fully test the whole thing and sort out the switches.
    I would like to have some form or route setting indicator.
    Stock wise I have 3 Toplight coaches that need minimal finishing off, and a Hawksworth that needs its roof fitting and a pair of bogies making, so who knows which if any of these shall be ready in 2 weeks time. I think that that's most likely enough to be going on with.
  4. Kris
    Well several weeks have passed since the last update and it feels like there has not been a huge amount of progress.
    Part of this has been down to my own stupidity, placing an order for the wrong type of rail, thankfully getting the right type only took an extra week or so.
    Since getting the extra rail a couple of other issues have taken my mind of modelling a little but I have go some done.
     
    I have completely stripped the fiddle yard. On one of the boards I have built 3 new points that are now complete except for tie bars and check rails. To these I have added 3 loops to the board joint. The 4th loop is waiting until I work out if I can fit in a siding for the DMU. On the second board I have part built the 3 points and have laid one of the loops.
     

     
     
    A general overview of the new layout at the moment. The most complete points are furthest away from the camera. The shortest pair of loops have ended up being about 5 and a half foot long, so enough to comfortably hold a 10 coach + loco train, something that would swamp the layout. The longest loop might end up being around 3 foot longer than this so theoretically would hold a 16 coach train + loco.
     

     
     
    The second image just shows the most complete pointwork. The single rail that goes very close to the track exiting the second set of points is not soldered down apart from the first 4 of 5 sleepers (at the point end) so will end up far further away from the other track than it appears at the moment. The soldering is far from neat and the sleeper gapping (where I have done it) has been done very quickly with a mini drill and abrasive pad. It's not a neat job but it does appear to work from the testing that I have done so far. What I am please with is the gap that I have achieved at the crossing point. This is far better than the other points on the layout and should help with the running qualities.
    The points have been built as a single unit to maximise the available space.
     
    I have a slight problem with the location of one of the points on the other board as it is over a baseboard frame support, so will require a little imagination in the mounting of the point motor.
     
    Hopefully I will be a little less distracted this week and will be able to get this finished for some extensive testing over the weekend.
  5. Kris
    This morning I posted the following update in a previous blog
    Well having spent a couple more hours looking at this point this afternoon I have been unable to resolve the issues that were occurring. I did manage to get a partial improvement but nothing that could be relied upon. It appears that at some point the track work immediately before the point had been knocked at some time destroying the angle that the stock approached the blades. This meant that the wheels would lift over the blade about 75% of the time taking the incorrect route. I looked at the possibility of adding a joggle to push the blade over further to help the route finding but I don't believe that this would have proved effective. Repairing the damage to the track was possible but required the removal of 2 sets of points.
    In light of this I have decided to cut my losses with this area of the fiddle yard.
    So, deep breath time, I have removed the faulty point and 2 of the fiddle yard sidings. This equates to half the storage in the yard. The track from the sidings came up reasonably well but will need replacing. The point came up almost perfectly and might be reusable. The board top is also in good condition which is a real plus. One of the sidings needed to come up as the radius was to tight in a couple of places.
    What's next, well I could re lay what was there before but in light of the experience at the exhibition (I found that I did not use the far sidings as they were hard to reach) I think that I will relay as through sidings. This will mean taking up the sidings and the main on both boards. As Avonwick is going out again soon I will not do this until I am ready to lay the new track (the layout is fully operational still in it's current state). The order for this has been printed and will be sent tomorrow so we will see when things arrive.
    When complete this should offer 4 through roads with the shortest being about 4 and 1/2 feet in length.

  6. Kris
    Right photos are now on the computer so I'll pop a few of the better ones up here.
     

     
     
    A quick view showing the front of the layout. I was in the centre and the layout could be seen from both sides. Lucky that I had modified it so that it was viewable from both sides!
     

     
     
    And a view from the back. Something that strikes me having looked at this is the expanse of hardboard that you can see on the back of the main board. I know that at many exhibitions this would not be seen but I do feel that I need to consider how to hide this. A rather unexpected outcome that.
     

     
     
    The final photo, just a quick one to show a short freight being run using a sort of three link coupling. I did find that the kit built brake van was prone to sticking and the weight of this then caused derailments, so something else for me to be looking at.
  7. Kris
    "Weird it were, one day all was quiet, my view was normal and the next there was all these strange people looking at me, loads of trains were trundling through Avonwick and most stayed on the line, and some even didn't stall!
     
     
    Well, the exhibition finished three hours ago and I've made it to my bed for the night. So what are my initial reflections? In general I was reasonably please with most aspects of the layout at the show.
     
    The good
     

    There were some great comments made about the layout, it seemed to go down particularly well with the other halves that had been taken to the show. The toplight coaches ran very well. Some of the wagons also behaved. The layout stood up to being knocked by several members of the public. Set up and takedown went well. The control system worked well. Julia's 57xx was seen running round the layout There were enquiries about a possible couple of other exhibitions.
     
    The bad
     

    There were several derailments on the main section of Avonwick. The B set tried to become slip coaches on several occasions. The 108 did not perform well. There was an unexpected gradient that caused the manor to have problems.
    The ugly.
     

    The fiddle yard, in particular the points, two worked, one worked in one direction and one was a dead loss . I feel that some major rebuilding needs to take place and quickly.
     
    Some photos were taken but I sort those out later.
     
    Apologies to anyone I didn't get to talk to who was there or to whom I didn't say enough, by the end of the day I was rather worn out. It had been a very very early start.
     
     
  8. Kris

    Exhibition countdown

    By Kris,

    Well the last month or so has seen less done on Avonwick than I wanted, Part of this has been down to me getting more work over Jan than before Christmas but mostly down to me being a lazy oaf.
     
    What have I done?
     
    Some of the spot lights that I put in before Christmas have been replaced with ones which have diffusers on them. This has significantly improved the shadows on the back scene, although these do still show. It's more a case of bright spots now rather than dark ones.
     
    The woodwork has been painted to hide lots of stains and overspills. Black has been chosen.
     
    The goods yard has started the progress of transformation to the railways permeant way depot. A couple of dogfish and a digger have been purchased to aid this.
     
    Some extra stock has moved closer to completion but is now in a state that I can use it.
     
    The Ixion Manor that turned up at Christmas has had it's wheels turned down and now runs on 2mm track. The motion has been blacken on this but the pick up's need a little tweaking to improve the running.
     
    The display board has been printed but I have yet to secure this to the board I will use, I need to work out how to make sure that the board does not fall down and the exact position before doing this (well that's a job for this week then! )
     
    I have built a support for the controller so that it sits over the fiddle yard.
     
    A couple of trees that had been knocked down have had strengtheners added to their trunks and have been replanted. No more naughty trees.
     
    A stock box has been built out of a box file, some kitchen scrubbers and bits of an old roll mat.
     
     

     
     
    Avonwick up without info board.
     

     
     
    Avonwick up with the Info board popped in place. Do I leave it here or put it at the other end?
     

     
     
    The stock box. It holds 14 coaches on the the layer that I have built plus a few wagons. The centre strips are removable only being held in place with pins. All other bots of foam are stuck in place, mmmmm the smell of Evo stick. There is a further layer of foam that sits on top of what can be seen.
     

     
     

     
     
    And now onto the stock. I now have 4 Toplights ready (2 still need their roofs glued on). Whilst I have another 3 of these nearly ready to go I decided to concentrate on these 4 so that I had something to run as a train. These don't have buffers as they are still out of stock but they will just have to wait for these. I was going to light these coaches but have not managed to get a satisfactory power transfer so have left this off. This means that the insides have compartments but no real details. A shame but it has an upside as these are very heavy coaches already. I have built a couple more wagons but have not taken a photo of these to put on here.
     
    Avonwick will be at the Newbury Model railway exhibition next Saturday (12th of Feb) details can be found here. If your going to be there say hello.
  9. Kris
    Well Christmas is over and the goose is decidedly not fat anymore.
     
    I spent much of the Christmas and New Year period away from home so was unable to do any work on the layout, but I was able to work on the information display board that I talked about at the beginning of December. I think that I have come up with a final design.
    My aim for this was to avoid a cluttered look with far to much information. (I'm not sure that I have achieved this). The space that this will be printed on is about 2ft x 3ft.
    I have left a large area under the stock area to allow me to put up information about individual loco's being used.
     

     
     
    Any comments, typos duff spellings that you can find I would love to hear.
     
    Right and on to the layout. The siding has been claimed by the railway's permeant way department is currently being converted to hold a small stock of ballast and sleepers. Much to farmer Giles's disgust though they don't appear to be fussy about where they dump old sleepers. There has also been the appearance of a small hut in the yard for the volunteers to hide in when the rain comes sheeting down.
     
    The trackwork has been given a light coat of grime as under the new lighting I felt it was to bright. In doing this I have given the siding a heavier coat.
     
    On the side of electrics, I have given the main ring a little rewire to allow me to connect the controller in a couple of places allowing for use at home and when out playing.
     
    Stock news
     
    I have tinkered with my 108 to get this running again. It failed in the summer but all appears to be good now it has been serviced.
    All good preserved lines seem to have some form of demonstration goods train, and the Kingsbridge line shall be no different, I however am now looking ever more towards the next layout in terms of stock, so this one many well be one of the grubbiest and least cared for freight trains around. (I have been weathering).
    Extra coaches are still at a standstill, and having found out that there appears to be a long delay on an order for screws I have now sourced these from elsewhere. Hopefully these should turn up in the next few days. It does mean that I will have ended up with enough screws for a couple of hundred coaches though.
     
    Fingers crossed and I might get a further update out with pictures of the layout and stock developments soon.
  10. Kris
    The lighting at Avonwick has never been fantastic, a fact that was commented on several times at the 2mm Soc expo when it was exhibited. I had used 150 LED's to provide illumination, a good idea but not one that proved to be effective. With the layouts second exhibition rapidly approach I thought it was about time that I did something about this situation. I didn't want to be fiddling with 240v's and was looking for something to supplement the LED's rather than replace them so I trundled of to Wickes (other DIY chains are available) and purchased a set of 4 low voltage Halogen downlighters. These improved the situation some what but were far from perfect, they left deep shadows at each end for a start. So what next? Well in for a penny in for a pound and magically I found myself at the till with some more downlighter's this time surface mount ones.
    As I had added a reasonably deep facade I have been able to hide all the lights behind this. I am a little concerned about the heat that is generated by these but as they are wired through 3 independent plugs (this is as much of a minus as a plus) I can remove some of the lights from operation at times if I feel this is needed.
     
     
    I'm now up to 10 x 20w lights on the main layout, it's brighter than the LED's but it's not perfect. There are some annoying shadows on the sky at the back . I have tried to angle a couple of the surface mount lights to solve this and it has to some extent. Something to think about over Christmas.
     

     
    New lighting with the room lights on.
     

     
    New lighting with the room lights off.
     

     
    General view of the layout of the new lighting.
     
    So what else has been going on, on the main layout?
     
    Well with Farmer Giles busy watching the progress or lack of on the extension developments have been minimal. Health and Safety has at last caught up with part of the railway though. Passengers are no longer required to jump down from the platform (or walk off the end) to reach the road. New steps have been installed complete with a handrail for those less steady on their feet. Disabled passengers are still required to access the platform via the ramp on right. There is still a lack of fencing between the goods shed and the new steps but that will be rectified once I find the stuff. Edit I've now found the fencing and have added that last missing section.
     

     
     
    The station building is now also on firmer foundations having had the inside fitted out with desks, seats wall paper and people. The building is now internally lit with the wiring going through hidden channels in the walls. Farmer Giles is mightily impressed, whilst bluebell is moosing on it. I have added a couple of bits of signage to direct passengers to the loo and ticket office.
     
    The goods shed is now also more secure. 2 years after the construction of this building it has received its doors.
     
    Finally the small bridge that crosses the stream (that also goes under the platform) has gained the railings that it needed. These have been constructed from scrap etch and the wires that were trimmed of LED and resistors used in the lighting of the station building. Reuse and recycling in model form.
     

  11. Kris
    Having gone down the route of adding the extra sections to Avonwick I have been intending to add an information board as a visual break between the old and the new layout. This has to happen because of the fixed nature of the backscene on the original Avonwick board. I have though about a few things that I want on this board, and some things that I don't.
     
    I do want

    Information on the layout and reasons for it. Information on the Kingsbridge branch line. A map showing where this all is. Pictures. The layout name.
     
    What I don't want
     

    Lots of words. To much information.
    Given this I have come out with a rough plan for this info board.
     

     
     
    The board will come start at floor level and reach up to just beyond the top of the facia of the Avonwick Board (about 6ft). The width is 2ft. These sizes are fixed as the board will double as a protective cover for the main layout board during transportation.
     
    I'm not sure about the background colour or the layout of the information that I will put on the board. I am sure that I can't go much lower than I have already with the information shown on the plan. This would be too low.
     
    All thoughts and and suggestions are welcome.
     
     
    Extra info added 8/12/10
    I've had some further thoughts about this and have quickly knocked up an example info sheet for a loco. How does this look?
     

     
  12. Kris

    The greener side of life

    By Kris,

    "Weeeelllll, ye see err" Snorted Giles ", T'wer like this. The ground be all grey when I went up to bed. In morning I opened my eyes and sneezed, but it bint never been like tis now"
     
    With the other half being away for the week I have been able to get down and do a reasonable amount of the scenic modelling these past few days.
     
    First up I got the sand paper out and attacked the sulptamold to give me better, i.e. smooth, surface to work on. Having done this and hovered up, the carpets, me, the carpets again and me again I pulled the out the paints. Starting with the rock faces I slapped on the grey. I was going to do more than one shade of grey here but the jaggity of the "rock" has caused lots of different shadows giving a rather nice effect, even if I do say so myself. Having slapped this paint on I dripped further quantities of grey paint in the area immediately next to the track, most not getting the track, well mostly.
    Brown paint time light brown in the crop field and a deeper richer brown for the riverbed.
    Green came next slip, slap, slop it was done with some real finesse, I think not. Having done this I suddenly realised that I had put quite a bit of green paint where I should have used brown and I had already made up and used brown on the river bed. Never mind wait for the green stuff to dry and paint over the top.
     
    Ballasting, a hateful job, but track does look silly if it's not done so out came the sand glue and damp stuff and down it went, and after drying out came the small screw driver to scrap off the errant bits, this is still an ongoing task on the river bridge board.
     
    At this point I stopped working on the river bridge board and put all of my efforts into the tunnel and bridge boards. First bit down was a piece of grass matting to form a grazing field at the end of the board next to the Avonwick module. Then it was out with lots of PVA spreading this over the area at the top of the embankment. Static grass was then added to this using the electric tea strainer method. I used a blended mix of 4mm tall "grass" here. Having done this it was on with the embankments and other railway owned land. This was all done in 6mm grass, a little long for 2mm I hear you say. It is defiantly long if you start putting animals or other scalable items into it but if you don't do this it looks like unkept long grass. I wanted this to look different to the non railway owned land.
     
    Nearly there now.
     
    Next up was the area that will become wooded - in the photos this has come out looking rather red, it's not as bright in reality. I popped down some scatter, looked at it, consulted Giles, then got the paints out. Boy was it bright before I did this. But having toned it down the look has improved. It still needs more work but the basics are coming on.
     
    A quick dab of glue up the middle of the lane followed by some extra scatter and the road becomes ruralised with grass growing up the middle.
     
    Finally I added the bushes and hedges. In the photos I have placed a van on the road. You'd not want to meet someone else down there, but that's normal for this area.
     

     
     

     
    I think the cameramen must have been a little drunk to get an angle like that!
     

     
     

     
    An overall view of the curved board.
     

     
    Final photo just showing the current state of play on the river bridge board.
  13. Kris
    Well every thing on the layout looks sort of grey, what did you expect a Technicolor dream coat effect?
     
    This should really have been titled some general shots of the Avonwick extension project but that just sounded dull, almost grey.
     
    Starting with the fiddle yard. This is now all laid and wired, one of the points could do with some tweaking though. At some point I might add a single spur off the main line facing away from the centre of the fiddle yard. This would allow for a cassette method of stock addition and removal. This is sometime off though as currently the amount of working 2mm stock that I have does not quite utilise the existing space. In the end I decided not to go for loops but for dead end sidings. Having tested this it seems to work acceptably. By running the arriving train past the points I can then send the next train out onto the layout without delay. I can then shunt the train back into it's siding. Each siding holds a large loco and 4 coaches (5 57ft coaches might fit in at a push or with a small loco).
     

     
     

     
     
    Next we move onto the rear section of the layout, the section with the bridge on it. I'm quite pleased with the flow that that line has down this section. It is deliberately very narrow, it's only 165mm wide. Ultimately this extension is a scenic shelf to complete a circuit.
     

     
     

     
     

     
     
    From the end of the straight we hit the return curve with the overly high bridge and tunnel on it. The transition between this and Avonwick proper is nasty, but I will be using an information board to help hide this on any outings.
     
    The land over the tunnel will show part of an arable field (closest to the mouth) and part of a pasture. The gap between the tunnel and bridge will probably end up as a wooded cutting.
     

     

     
     
    The Sculptamold is mostly dry with just the odd couple of sections still showing up as being damp (6 days after adding!). I'm please that I have pre coloured it, chips are not going to be an issue. Parts need some sanding / chopping at to give an acceptable surface but overall I don't think that it has formed a bad surface.
     
    And finally Farmer Giles is please with the progress. He has however been a little distracted by the following advert
     

  14. Kris

    Bridging the Avon 2

    By Kris,

    Farmer Giles got out his steel toe capped wellies and has given the bridge builders a right good kick up the posterior, and with the words of "Oi, ya slackers shift yer selves" he persuaded them to get a move on in the building of the bridge over the Avon. Swearing was kept to a minimum despite cutting strips of plastic bricks about 0.5mm wide from a larger sheet to make up the arch detail. Oh this was described as "fun, honestly" but the effects seem to have worked even if the strips tried to twist as they were being glued on.
     
    Having done with the decorative brick work the builders went on and got out the filler and started to create the pointy bits at the bottom of the bridge where the centre pillar goes to the river bed. These are meant to channel the water more effectively and stop items becoming stuck on the centre pillar, thus backing up water height and creating pressure. On the real bridge they don't appear to be overly good at this.
     
    The filler was also used by the builders to fill in the gaps under the arch where they had bodged this into place.
     
    On top of the bridge the builders have also placed the capstones.
     
    Having been busy the builders fearing Giles really pulled their fingers out and have started playing god and have been creating a suitable landscape for the bridge to sit in. They are still waiting for this to dry at the moment though!
     
    The loco has been placed on top of the bridge to give a sense of scale, and the picture with the blue background has had this photoshopped in. The pink wall just did not look right. Getting pictures of the far side of the bridge is tricky at the moment. It's too close to the the wall.
     

     
     

     
     

     
     

     
     
    Next job will be for the builders to get their paint pots out and start painting. The cap stones on the abutments will have to wait until the landscape has dried out.
  15. Kris

    Bridging the Avon 1

    By Kris,

    Having a bridge on the extension to Avonwick has been a desire of mine given the amount of times that the line crossed the Avon between South Brent and Kingsbridge. Somehow in doing this I have managed to chose the river bridge that was furthest for Avonwick on the line. There were several reasons for choosing this bridge. The real bridge is easily accessible for me, being in walking distance from my home. I felt that there is something about this bridge that was quite graceful. The bridge is on a footpath so it can be accessed for photos.
     

     
     
    Down stream side of the bridge.
     

     
     
    Upstream side of the bridge.
     
    From the start I never intended for this bridge to be an exact copy (as much as I was tempted to walk along with a tape measure, notepad and pair of wellies) but I wanted to give a good flavour of the original.
    Cutting the sides of the bridge is the easy part, as is adding the parapet and buttress. The hard part has been adding the underside arch. The air has been blue at times from this. Being on a skew has made it particularly bothersome (all this not helped by building in situ).In the end rather than cutting the underside to the correct size and slotting it in I have shoved a much larger sheet of brick plasticard in glued it then cut it to shape. This has proven to be the easier route as the skew on the bridge is not symmetric. This glueing and cutting stage has been completed on the left hand arch. The right hand arch has the glue still drying on it. There needs to be some filling done to the edge to cover a couple of gaps.
     

     
     

     
     
    As can be seen when compared to the real bridge, I have increase the depth of the sides a little. Hopefully this will become less apparent when I add the brick decoration.
     
    I have also been adding the foam substructure for the scenery shell. This should be coming along soon(ish).
     
    As I have been saying on my kit building thread rolling stock has been increasing. Goods stock is very much going 3 link as this seems to work (other than being rather very fiddly). For coaching stock I'm still not to sure. I am trying a bodged home made system on my B Set and Giant at the moment. It seems to give satisfactory close coupling - the pictures of the train on the bridge show the train coupled up. When being pushed the buffers are used. I'm still not sure as to whether the solution is discrete enough.
     

     
     
    What do you think?
    What you see in this entry is by no means a completed project, it's still very rough around the edges and Farmer Giles will be talking to trading standards about rouge builders if they leave things as they are.
     
    Farmer Giles has been seen talking to Dasiy about why she should not cross the river by the new bridge. He might be slightly mad.
  16. Kris

    Keeping things civil.

    By Kris,

    Well since running out of various bits and bobs required to keep making rolling stock I have returned to working on Avonwick.
    I have been tidying up the baseboards. This has been done by giving the end boards a skin of hardboard. This has gone reasonably well and these boards now look a hugh amount better.
    I have then been playing with some insulation foam that I had initially purchased to build the boards with (this was a dismal failure ) . In adding this I have also had to create the tunnel mouth and build the bridge that hides the hinges that join the board. The tunnel mouth has been built out of plasticard. The bridge was built out of card. Adding the tunnel has meant that I needed to do a bit of ballasting, oh joy! The tunnel is based on Sorley tunnel north end (This disused tunnel lies between Kingsbridge and Loddiswell). This is set a little way into a steep rocky cutting. I have slightly modified the entrance to include a bridge that in real life does not exist. This is quite a high bridge some 40' above the track level and carries a small single track road that goes between Sorley farm and Churchstow (You won't find this road on any map ). To say that this road is little used would be an understatement but as an ancient right of way, and a condition of using the land of Sorley farm to build the line on, the bridge was provided without diversion.
     

     
     
    Churchstow road bridge looking towards the tunnel
     

     
     
    Churchstow road bridge looking away from the tunnel
     

     
     
    Churchstow road bridge looking away from the tunnel
     

     
     
    General view of this part of the layout
     

     
     
    Tunnel entrance
  17. Kris

    Getting hitched up

    By Kris,

    As I have said in previous entries I have been considering how to couple up coaches. This lead me to look at how coaches were coupled in the past. Coaches were never* coupled with chain, it was not considered safe enough, and using chain means the coaches would consistently crashing into each other, much like loose couples wagons did / do. Most freight does not complain about this sort of ride, but passengers do. To get over this GWR coaching stock used screw link couplings. These allowed the coaches to be coupled at a fixed distance, so removing the shocks and jolts. Screw links have since been replaced with buckeyes and other similar couplings.
    In real life buffers compress so that when going round curves the fixed spacing given by the couplings does not matter. Making compressible buffers in 2mm might be feasible, but I am not convinced that I am able to do this (This may be a solution to this in the future). However in real life the hooks are also sprung. Now I think that this is something that I can replicate.

     
    This diagram shows how this could work. I would not want to use a complete spring it would be to strong so cutting one down should work. To from the "hook" I feel that an opened up link from a chain would work if soldered to a piece of brass rod.
    Now can I make this work?
    *well maybe on the earliest railways
  18. Kris

    The first train.

    By Kris,

    After a day hard at the soldering iron, the first train completed a circuit of the new Avonwick. It has shown that there are a couple of areas that need tweaking but that's a job for tomorrow!
     
    As an additional bonus I have found that I can get the layout up in the room it lives in.
    No photo's at this point, just a quick update.
  19. Kris

    B Set bodging

    By Kris,

    So your passengers have become a little hacked off from travelling in a DMU one to many times, moaning about the whining of the engine and the uncomfortable seats. What do you do? Ignore them, they are only plastic after all!, or panda to their whims???
     
    Now lets leave my little fantasy land for reality (it's not as nice here). At the 2mm expo I tried a quick and dirty conversion on a pair of Dapol "B Set" coaches replacing the wheel sets to increase the stock that I had to use. On the whole this was not very successful. The wheel sets that I really needed to do the job don't exist, so I bodged using some wagon wheels. This allowed for some running but overall was not a satisfactory solution. Realising this at the time I picked up a pair of plate bogie etches. The first pair of these flew together today and is now attached to one of the coaches.

    I choose to use 9ft wheel base etches, mainly as these were available to purchase. The difference that these make to the model is reasonable (having the correct sized wheels in also helps ).
     

     
    Left hand - new bogies Right hand - Existing bogies
    Now I have sorted the bogies on the first coach I now need to get round to doing the second one. Once these are done then I might think about filling in the window that should not be there and changing the outer buffers to longer ones.
     
    Changing the bogies also means that I need to consider the coupling mechanism. Now the real things used screwlink couplings. Could I make these work in 2mm? With their Hymek, Dapol supply various pipes and couplings including a pair of dummy screwlinks. I have been playing about with these and a CCT amazingly they work, when being hauled. When being pushed though the coupling slips off. There appears to be some potential here I feel. A small tiny bit of sprung wire over the top of the hook might solver this issue. If this is the case then this may well provide a suitable method of coupling especially if I go down the 3 link route for freight.
  20. Kris

    Going round the bend

    By Kris,

    Progress over the pass few weeks has been slow due to several factors, mainly holidays combined with a little to much modelling relaxation.
     
    However the other half went away for the last couple of days so I got to play.
     
    1st job. Fit the legs.
    2nd job put the whole thing together for the first time. Bodge a little to ensure that it fits, phew sorted.
    3rd job repair a couple of weak joints on the board, darn.
    4th lay some track ... and ... well all appears good so far. I have laid about 5.5m of track complete with dropper wires so that just needs wiring up to the main wiring loop and away we go, hopefully
     
    So picture time, just to prove that this is not just all talk!
     

     

     
     
    The loco and short freight is just their for the camera, to give an idea of size. So far the track work appears to be a whole lot better than my previous attempts in this area.
     
    Next jobs will be to complete the main line on the fiddle yard boards, this will obviously include points, gulp, but I have started building the first of these, so we will see how that goes.
     
    What I did establish this morning was the line side fencing requirements for the new boards. It's in the region of 10m, which given my method of creating these fences this means cutting some 1250 fence posts before drilling 7500 holes in these posts before threading the wire through these 7500 holes. This might take a little while!
  21. Kris

    Thoughts on fiddles

    By Kris,

    What makes for a good fiddle yard?
     
    I suspect that there is not a single answer to this question but I think the closest I will get to an answer to this question is "One that works for the model in question". Now this is not a huge amount of help when you are trying to design one.
     
    With the redevelopment of Avonwick I need a new fiddle yard. I have managed to impose some restrictions on what I can build through my desired operating location and maximum radius (caused by a wish to run Avonwick at home and not having endless space). These restrictions / limitations have led me to reconsider my original idea for a conventional fiddle yard comprising of 3 through loops (see plan 2). This led me to wonder what would happen if I were to build a yard as shown in plan 1.
     
    The red line on the plans indicates a baseboard join. Plans are most defiantly schematic only as the real baseboards are curved.
     

     
    Why do something like this for a fiddle yard?
     
    Against

    I loose the ability to run round (Would I really be doing this at an exhibition?) The maximum length of train is reduced. (Realistic maximum of large loco and 5 coaches on the longest sidings). More handling of stock.
    For

    Allows for end to end operation. Larger minimum radius (This is a major selling point to me). The through line should never be blocked by a train that is stored. Only a single line crossing the baseboard joint. All points are in a small area making it easier to monitor their positions. Easy to expand - This would have implications for the maximum train lengths though. Aids the memory in showing me which trains have run in which direction and how they need to be returned.
    What am I missing here?
     
    These are only ideas at the moment, but as ideas are cheap and easy to make alterations to I quite like them.
     
     
     
    As an aside to the Avonwick building bits.
     
    Loco's
    I have been poking at my class 11 and it lives. I even managed to solder the coupling rod retaining washers on without locking up the whole mechanism. I still have an intermittent short occurring when the body is placed on the loco and the running is not as smooth as I would like (It runs nice and smoothly without the body work on) so I need to keep poking.
     
    Through my door this week also came a nice little envelope. The castings and etchings for a pair of Black 5's are now in the pile awaiting their turn in the workshop on the work bench. Having got the class 11 going I feel reasonable confident to have a hack at one of these now. I'm still scared of the 9f though! Not quite sure how I can justify these on a small ex GWR branch line in South Devon though, Farmer Giles may feel that the cyder is getting to him when he sees one trundle past
  22. Kris

    A developing circle

    By Kris,

    It's just over 2 weeks now since the 2mm soc's golden jubilee exhibition, and the realisation that in it's current set up, Avonwick was not practical to operate at an exhibition. As previously discussed the poor running in the fiddle yards combined with the inability to run a sensible service with just one operator led to my decision to convert Avonwick to a continuous run.
    Things have not stood still in these last 2 weeks.
    Firstly I started to build some new baseboards utilising foam insulation board. This was not a positive experience for me. Could I get it to stick to the framing, nope. In light of that I ditched this material and returned to more traditional methods.
    Construction has now reached the following point.
     

     
    What can be seen here is the completed main board rear board and the completed end curved boards. The end boards for the fiddle yard are hinged. The boards at the other end will also be hinged. Doing this means that I have abandoned the idea of a road under bridge. This will be replaced by an over bridge which will be used to disguise the hinges on the scenic section. This end board was also originally intended to have a section of embankment. This has been shelved and a low cutting will be substituted. I felt that this would help to disguise the sharpness of the curve to some extent.
    Next steps are to build the legs and make sure that it all links up correctly with the existing Avonwick board.
  23. Kris

    Reflections on expo

    By Kris,

    At the moment I'm about half way home from the 2mm expo, with Avonwick in the back of the car. I've got to say that I had a great time their despite the hall being so hot the failures were occurring right left and centre today.
     
    This was the first exhibition that I have been to and exhibited, so what have I learnt about this and what have I learnt about Avonwick as a whole?
     
    Plus points
    - I liked operating from the front. I found it very pleasant to be able to talk to anyone who wanted to know more.
    - Most of the scenery went down well, with lots of people recognising the location.
    - The height was about right. Good for me to operate at. It was fractionally to high for wheel chair users but not so high that they could not see anything (so I was told).
    - I was happy with the way the scenic side of the line ran on Saturday.
     
    The down side now
    - 2 fiddle yards are not an option for one operator. I could not see what was happening with the other one and had to keep walking up and down.
    - The fiddle yards caused must frustration with significant amounts of derailments occurring. I was most unimpressed with this.
    - The control system is flaky ZTC must do something about the software (this is a distant dream I feel!) or I will need to get another controller.
    - The lighting is not suitable for an exhibition, it's fine at home in a dark location but did not work here.
    - More rolling stock is required and it needs to have compatible couplings.
     
    And the future.
    One of the fiddle yards must go. This is obviously going to cause a problem for end to end operation so I foresee a roundy roundy occurring - Plans are already afoot for this, and somehow the bits needed to build the track appear to be in the car as I type, now how did that happen???
    More stock will be constructed but first job is to sort the coupling situation out.
    Extra lighting - I don't know how this will be tackled at the moment but it is something to think about.
     
    Future exhibitions
    When I built Avonwick I did not envisage taking it to any further exhibitions (except possibly a members meet) however whilst at expo I was invited to display at a future exhibition. This is very flattering. I'm not sure if I will take the offer up yet but I am certainly open to exhibition suggestions.
     
    And to finish it all off a photo of the full layout in the hall.
     

     
  24. Kris
    Whilst driving home and last night I spent a few hours thinking about the development needs that Avonwick has at the moment. Considering this and the comments that have been popped on my previous blog I have now started to plan for the future.
     
    Lighting is still an area I have not got any further with so there will be no illuminating comments about that from either myself or farmer Giles at the moment.
     
    Continuing on to the continuos run theme I think I am now getting somewhere, in my head and on paper only at the moment. At the moment I'm felling quite spurred on and have some time to spare so things might start happening quickly in this area. I am looking to have most of the new section vaguely scenic, using a variety of locations on the line as inspiration.
    So Avonwick developments might well be...
     

    - Convert from end to end to continuous run. - Only one fiddleyard. - River crossingbased on skew bridge between Topsham and Loddiswell. - Road underbridge based on road bridge between Loddiswell and Kingsbridge or bridge just outsideof Loddiswell station. - Tunnel tomask join from Avonwick to rest of layout. Based on Sorley Tunnel. - Curved sectionsto be hinged to fold in middle giving shorter sections for transport. - Rear 6ft sectionto be single piece. Much of the track on this section should be on a slight embankmentbut raising to be level at both ends. - Max widthof sections = 20cm - Total spacerequired for set up = 11†x 5’.6†- Legs on rearsections will be narrower than on main board so will need additional width addedat base for stability. This additional width will protrude into the central areof the layout. As this area will not be generally accessed there will be no triphazard. - Fiddle yardwill be on the right hand (Kingsbridge) curved sections consisting of 3 throughsidings, the longest being approximately 5’ and the remaining pair being 4’. Isee this as giving space to hold a short goods train, a loco hauled set of coachesand space for 2 DMU’s (utilising the same through line). Should other stock berequired then this would be added during the course of a running session. - Total runninglength would now be around 27’. - If possibleI will build this so the new sections can be attached to either the rear of thefront of the layout. This might turn out to be me in pure dream world though.
     
     
     

     
    One of two river crossing under consideration for new Avonwick (Kingsbridge branch) sections.
     
    Edited bit
     
    - A very draft bit of planning to show the changes.
     
    The existing plan of Avonwick

     
    and the plan for the future.

     
     
    As to scale in the plans, nah didn't bother with any of that malarky.
  25. Kris

    Going round the bend

    By Kris,

    I could have popped the title for this entry up for a couple of reasons.
     
    Reason 1
    On Wednesday I spent a few hours sorting out my class 11. By the end of the day it was running under it's own power (something it had never managed before). With the body work and cosmetic chassis on there was a slight sticking point that limited slow speed running, a bit of a pain but no more than that. On Thursday morning I thought I had identified the problem that was causing the sticking. Ah a couple of quick strokes with the file I thought, easy. Out came the file and ...... well now the silly thing does not work at all when the cosmetic bits are on it. Frustrated does not quite start to describe my feelings about this.
     
    Reason 2
    A better one this.
    Farmer Giles has been out with his tape measure and subsequently also got his wallet out, this rather shocked the moths. After a little trip this was found.
     

     
    Now what to do with this?
    I can't draw perfect circles but I did manage to print out and stick together a circle which looks suitably large enough.
     

     
     
    This needed trimming then folding in half then in half again to give me the quarters that I need to create my two new end boards for Avonwick. After doing this, and under the close supervision of Giles and Daisy various track features were planned out and thrown at the plan. I still have not chopped the plan up, that will follow on Monday (maybe). More detail needed first.
     

     
    The plan for next week is to stick the individual quarters of the plan to some of the foam that I have before cutting this to size.
     
    There will also be a 6 foot long section required to complete the circle.
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