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craigwelsh

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  1. craigwelsh

    More track progress

    By craigwelsh,

    The important bits are now finished on this point for the 'branch' lines into the yard. I did have an issue with the divergence of the switch blade from the stock rail not being enough but that was my fault for not putting in enough of a set and instead trying to continue the crossover radii through the switches. Now that the inner and outer radii have been tweaked a little the blades fitted fine and stock runs well through both lines. I can now get on with rivetting up the remaining sleepers to put in place. Closures are a bit short really where they form the wing rails at the vee but I don't really want to swap them out now.

     

     

     
    edit:
    Most of the sleepers are done now. The ones with crosses are the original ones with guesses at the rivet positions and will be replaced. No 12 is especially a problem as I cut the switch blades slightly off and its now where the fishplates need to be!

     
    Dick has been laying the goods loop in the meantime at the correct 10ft spacing from the running lines. The ballast is also slightly thinner here and dirtier where the engine stands at the signal.

     
    Some closeups on the existing track, hopefully mine can end up looking as nice!


     
    I have started fitting the plates for the Tortoise motors to be reinstalled for the new points and this will be easier now that the layout has been taken down again for the club AGM. We tested the MERG accessory modules controlled via a laptop on Monday which must be the cheapest computer control option around!

     
    Note for anyone using these plates that its worth putting the tubes about 22-23mm apart and not the 21mm Exactoscale recommend as the throw can allow the blade to rise up without additional cosmetic stretcher bars.
  2. craigwelsh
    I'd read a couple of threads on here about using Sculptamold as a scenic cover and a bag was duly ordered by someone in the group for a trial. Previously tile cement had been used on the layout in rather industrial qualities. Not only was that very heavy but it had cracked when put over white polystyrene and wasn't providing the robust basic scenery the layout wanted for exhibition travel as well as sitting in the club room in prime 'leaning on' position!
     
    Sculptamold has been a revelation once we got some out of the bag to trial on a small offcut of spaceboard as shown below.
     

     
    Following advice on rmweb we added PVA to the basic mix so it was 2 part sculptamold, 1 water and one PVA, later covering added some black powder paint hence the grey hillside! It is much lighter than the tile adhesive when applied and even lighter once the moisture has evaporated out. The test piece was hit against a table a couple of times with no damage and it takes a bit of real effort to pierce the surface, the PVA does make a slight difference here.
     

     
    Now that the initial corner has been done our centre board is having spaceboard cut to fit around the canal bridge for what will form a removable section at the moment. It will make the front of the layout much more presentable though by hiding all of the wiring from viewers at least. A signal box will sit on the embankment to the left of the bridge controlling the junction.

     
    The canal bridge has now gained a nice finish to the brickwork and the completed wing walls. The previous attempt at the layout had the water level under the track much lower, land height will be built up to the bottom of the new bridge though there will be locks in the foreground.
     

     
    An overview along the trackwork showing how it will be elevated on the embankment. The goods yard will probably have a retaining wall behind it for a length before it meets the goods warehouse. Further scenic tests on the far board will be to determine the correct cess to embankment relationship while point motors still have to be installed on the main board. The yard is also being finalised as a warehouse will sit over the one siding with wagons visible through arches in its front. The running lines disappearing around the back of the warehouse will help hide the trainset curve into the fiddleyard from the front boards to a degree. Note the terraces being experimented with, there will also allow a nice viewpoint up to the warehouse and hide the edge of the layout from front viewing.
     

     
    Sculptamold is available on Amazon for £6.50 (as of 12-2011) and if used as thinly as we used it should provide good coverage.
    Spaceboard was bought from B&Q for £7 a sheet though is now in short supply as it was gov't subsidised insulation. Other types of extruded poly are available though.
  3. craigwelsh

    Layout Overviews

    By craigwelsh,

    People have asked for an overview of the layout in the past so here are a couple from a few months back now. The layout is 18ft by either 10/12ft, i'll have to check.. Bit small in P4 really but Dewsbury takes up the bigger area available in the club upstairs so this is as big as it can be.
     
    Much of the yard has been relaid along with its ballast since this view and the scenic work at the far end has come out as the white polystyrene it was built on really wasn't stable and an over use of tile adhesive had made it far too heavy!
     

     

  4. craigwelsh

    More about Wiring..

    By craigwelsh,

    A few people have asked about the wiring on this layout and hopefully the following pictures will help a little. In time i'll try and do proper diagrams but hopefully these will help people out. Zoom in on the images for clearer views.
     
    On view in this shot are the following types of dropper.
     
    Pink - Goods Loop outer
    Red/Purple - Goods Loop inner
    Grey - UP Main outer
    Red/Yellow - UP Main inner
    Black - Down Main outer
    Red/black - Down Main inner
     
    The code makes it easy to flip the board and attach the correct droppers to the correct copper sub bus. We use sub buses both for fault finding and for potential occupancy detection.
     

     
    You always have solid colour for the outer rail and these always connect to the higher bus line of copper too (the pairs of buses are vertically stacked for each line under the board). From another board so no goods loop but the shot below shows the UP and DOWN line sub buses along with the main DCC around the layout using the blue and brown mains cable. We've confused things by having two power districts so two main DCC buses as well as the sub buses! The inter board connector also has two pins used for every DCC wire too, CBUS and 12v DC have yet to be wired up to this connector.
     

     
    In this next shot we've got some more wires and a MERG CBUS point control module.
     
    Green - Frog wires with numbers attached. Here we have two wires from point 12 to join up and wire correctly.
     
    Twisted Pair Blue and Yellow - MERG CBUS control bus, goes all the way around the layout controlling all signals, points, controllers and potentially block occupancy, electromagnets too.
    Twisted Pair Red and Black - 12v DC power that goes to all of the MERG CBUS boards
     
    Yellow - Tortoise control, numbers as per the frog, there go from the turnout to the MERG CBUS module which can control 4 of them. We can easily flip the wires if the motor goes the wrong way or indeed flip the output in software.
     

     
    Here are 3 of the recently installed fiddleyard points on the new trackwork in this area. This trackwork replaced some which had very tight radii (we now have a 3' 6" minimum). Above baseboard where possible for ease of access, the frog wiring also is pretty obvious!
     
    Once all the remaining track and motors are in I intend on painting the board surface all black to make it look a bit more presentable and hide the traces of old removed track!
     

     
    An overview of the complete point installation. The Tortoise have sub bases for quick change if needed and are fitted with ribbon cable and 9-pin serial for the same reason.
     

     
    Close up on an installation showing the serial connection with two control wires (Yellow), frog wire (Green though not numbered yet) and the correct dropper colours for this circuit (Red/Yellow and Grey). In the background another motor needs installing which will have Red/Black and Black feeds.
     

     
    Due to our Tortoise having the earlier revision boards inside more substantial switches have been retrofitted to deal with frog switching as shown.
     

     
    Any queries or questions do please comment!
  5. craigwelsh
    Well more like a whirr but..
     
    MERG CBUS modules drive a Tortoise controlled from Panel Pro in edit mode. I believe the code for the MERG setup we're using was only recently added to JMRI so we were using a MERG utility to test the points previously. Its nice to have the visual working now.
     
    The physical setup of the stretcher bars and TOU's may take slightly longer!
     

     

     
    An overview for Mike G before the yard started to be glued down and ballasted.
     

  6. craigwelsh
    With the main up and down lines completed and running before xmas the remaining scenic pointwork now needs completing and laying. Tonight Dick has been laying the goods loop at the right end of the layout on the outside of the running lines while i've made a start on the crossover from the branch down into the goods yard. I've started with the point on the main running line and will do the other point that leads onto the headshunt later. There is a board joint in between the two so they have been modified from the original templot 1:7s to something like a 1:6.5 and a 1:8 to avoid issues. This was the same sort of thing adopted for the good loop exit crossover.
     

     
    The running line is on a 110" radii with the turnout road on a 48" curve. The 110" curve used in the initial laying out of the 1st rail is in shot. This is the first bit of pure ply and rivet i've done and follows Dick's approach. Note I only fitted minimal sleepering at first and the other sleeps will go in later allowing the riveting to be more accurate. It also means its much easier to get it off the paper again as only 6 sleepers have tape on them!
     
    Although I said the crossing on this was a 1:8 I ended up making a 1:7 from the Portsdown models jig as it fitted the plan better for some reason. I didn't bend the rail through the nose of the crossing just the loose rail sticking out. Wagons run nicely though it so far but I need to file up the blades and fit the check rails yet. Cosmetic chairs to finish after i've replaced the initial sleepers which had roughly placed rivets which end up a bit misaligned.
     
    The Exactoscale 1:7 shows the straight nature of even the best settrack but also the extended nature of curved pointwork on the closure rails between crossing and switch.
     

     
    General view through the flow of the track.
     

  7. craigwelsh
    So 18 months after we started digging it up we now have two line running on Slattocks again!
     
    Here are a couple of poor videos of the occasion. The Pannier was on DCC and the other locos were running on DC.



     
    The new track and ballast has really improved the ability to take closeups on the layout without the basics looking bad. The missing bits can be filled in now that the droppers are in and the cess installed up to the shoulder.

     
    This LMS pairing from Dick Petter was in the display cabinet at the Manchester Show and had a good run on the layout before posing on the bridge while Dick got some awards for it!


     
     
    Just the point motors to install on the mainline before we do the other lines off the junction and also the goods yard.
  8. craigwelsh
    Sorry for the lack of recent updated on this blog, its mostly been a case of more of the same as track and wiring have been replicated around the boards. The club has a xmas social however a fortnight on Saturday and so its all hands to the pumps as we race to get the new setup running in time!
     
    The scenic trackwork for the two main running lines is now completed again and i've shown a quick overview of the main board.

     
    Here is an overview of the underside of that board before most of the droppers are in showing the point motors have also to be done in the future. I've since labelled the boards on show but these were built and installed by Mike Bolton (of MERG as well as MMRS) who agreed at the Manchester show that Slattocks would be an ideal testbed for him to use the new MERG DCC system on. The modules are a USB interface on the upright, the MERG DCC/CBUS command station, a DC/DCC switchover module Mike built for the layout and lastly two 5A boosters which run two main districts (outer and inner tracks plus subsections) on the layout. Note all of the modules have quick connectors to allow replacement quickly if required. Either booster can power the whole layout too if we suffer a failure. The large capacitor under there was used previously for the electromagnets for AJs.

     
    The main buses are 1.5mm lighting solid copper and terminated at the ends of each board in terminal blocks. The sub buses on each board then connect into the relevant main bus, in some cases via a circuit breaker in the future (e.g the goods yard). 25-way D's connect between boards with female connectors on each board and a separate standardised cable. The twin bus meant more pins required and we also have spares but the CBUS twisted pair and 12V power have yet to be hooked up.

    Grey droppers are outer track outer rail, Yellow/red outer track inner rail, Black Inner track outer and Red/Black Inner track inner. Frogs are wired green and numbered though they have currently been soldered directly to the correct bus for straight roads until the motors are in. There was a minute of concern tonight when the booster was powered up and the trip went - i'd wired something with yellow/red when it should have been grey. Luckily it was quickly spotted and my Zimo chipped Hymek had a short first run on the layout.

    The shots also show the robust plates now fitted to protect the woodwork from the bolts used to put the boards together. Slattocks gets disassembled quite a lot unfortunately to give more space in the main hall for popular talks and when Dewsbury Midland comes downstairs to attend shows.
     
     
    This is Wednesday night's work, fitting the main and sub buses to the right hand end board and wiring up all those droppers from the two tracks.

     
    The fiddle yard has temporary links utilising as much of the original pointwork as possible. Some of the pointwork at the left-hand end was very tight and now has a 48 inch radii on the outer and 42inch on the inner as the minimum. The right-hand end shows the original location of the junction on the board surface under the new links.

     

     
    Tortoise point motors powered via CBUS accessory modules will be refitted after the through running only social. Some motors around the canal bridge will need some tricky cranks fitting to them as well to give us more of a challenge!
  9. craigwelsh
    Last Friday the Manchester Club had a running night where all the layouts were as operational as possible. I'd tested the double track curve laid to date with a pannier tank on the Tuesday and Tony brought something more appropriate to have a short run on what was back in place and also test running across the board joints here on the skew.

     
    A couple of pictures showing how I finished off that skewed board joint from the last update. Pieces of scrap were soldered across the cut sleepers until the assembly was glued in place to avoid the gauge widening suffered on the initial joint when this wasn't done. These are later removed and I now need to clean them up. A little extra ballast was being glued in place in the 2nd shot to cover a hole. I've since split and reattached the boards to check nothing was glued up and that they went back ok.

     

     
    After prep work on Tuesday Dick will hopefully be laying the now fully chaired junction next Tuesday. This will really make the layout 'Slattocks Junction' and arguably for the first time ever as the old trackplan didn't really heavily feature the junction in the name!

     
    The fishplates I put on the edge of some production etches have proves useful to cheaply provide electrical joints to match the Exactoscale plastic ones without resorting to too many lost-wax cast ones. Unlike the Colin Waite/EMGS ones these are double thickness.

     
    Now we just need to launch our 'bridging the gap' project to get me enough beer to see through the completion of these two sections .

     
    Dewsbury was running a variety of BR stock that members had brought for the evening along with the other 3 layouts in the club. A rather nice 0 gauge A1 was running around that layout upstairs at speed. Our guest from the NRM was enjoying himself so much he was caught unawares and had to agree to open the MMRS Exhibition .



  10. craigwelsh

    08 Shunter work

    By craigwelsh,

    Brassmasters finescale rods
     
    I'd made these rods up a while ago when I first P4'd my one 08 shunter. Unfortunately after getting the first one perfect I rushed the 2nd late at night and broke it after i'd soldered it solid and not taken the correct route of stripping and starting again! It went back in a box after that as it won't run properly without the correct movement within the rods. I got it out this week and decided to fix it up and get it completed again. The rod was fixed with a spare lamination from the fret that was supposed to go on the back of the rods. I didn't bother with this as its not at all noticeable in practice. I cleaned up the existing parts, thinned the repair as much as possible and drilled the new pivot, this time nothing was solder solid and it works fine!
     
    Eventually i'll go over them with a little filler and polish up some of the laminations before painting them.

     
    Shawplan Laser cut Glazing
     
    @PMP gave an introduction to these here and I was lucky to get a set at Stormex to try out. I need to query Brian at Shawplan whether he has done the rounded windows the doors on this really need as the glazing on my sheet is for the other type of door.

     
    They look really superb when fitted and I polished the rear cab window i've fitted so far with t-cut before fitting to really shine it up. Obviously it needs a tiny bit of weathering back but at the moment it had the effect of really clean glass.
     
    Left one is laser cut while the right is original.

     
    Right one is laser cut while left is original, note how you lose the white outline and the window looks bigger. This window needs a clean really before I Klear it in place and all windows need their surround painting black.
     
    Note how the rear wall has a false section where the rear windows are glazed, you lose this with the replacements and the detial on this bit needs reattaching to the actual wall.

     
    Eventually i'll probably remove the door operating stuff and glue them in solid as you see it a lot clearer with the new windows.
     
    Bringing it all together we get the following though that cab side window needs to go up a bit when I replace it, South Wales is colder than that

    Note the farther rear window is much more flush being the laser cut example. I've fitted the Brassmasters balance weights to this and am glad I have as you see too many P4 08s around without them.. Wheels just blackened with a permanent marker for now while I run it in, pickups really need replacing completely though.
  11. craigwelsh
    On Friday at the Bluebell 50th I was moaning to Richard from Bachmann about their banana shaped bogies that were really bad news in P4. Some of mine are bad enough that they still rock on the gear after the bearing holes are filed back.
     
    Richard however pointed out a fairly easy mod you can do to get around this problem and he'd done it to his P4 locos. It turns the drive into an A-1-A arrangement but this is perfectly acceptable in my Heljan Western so I have no problem doing it to 37 and 47 classes from Bachmann!
     
    As supplied the drive chain goes via the central axle to the inner axle. You need to transfer drive to that inner axle still.

     
    Luckily there is a hole up in the tower of a perfect size to take the gear from the middle axle once it has been filed back to the thickness of just the gear. Its a perfect fit for it and you can get away with it working well without an axle for the gear to run on. I'll probably fit one at some stage though.

     
    Any issues now with the central axle and I can spring the bearings if I wish with a tab and some wire through handrail knobs.
     
    A simple solution to an annoying problem I had holding up my projects . I may in the future go down the Brian Hanson coil sprung route but until the kit is out this will do nicely!
  12. craigwelsh
    The slip which allows access into our goods yard was laid tonight and apart from the double junction is the biggest section of pointwork needed to be laid on the scenic section of pointwork to be laid on the new look layout.
     

     

     
    The tried and tested 'lay and ballast' method was used again and its being tweaked slightly before the selection of weights is applied. The small sections of straight track to the board joint will be filled in later using plastic sleepered lengths, old flexi was used to check alignments were ok before glueing.
     
    Scenic changes to note are the hillside losing its ridge beside the track and the board next to the slip has been opened up a bit to be cut back nearer the track. We'd hoped to do this before laying but no one had a chance to get the jigsaw out. It should be ok doing it after though. It'll avoid an odd looking flat patch of wasted embankment or a step in the side of the embankment and allow a better view 'up' at the stock from model person eye level on the front boards.
     
    Hopefully someone else can finish laying the goods yard while I continue on the main-line curve around past the camera, I have a large chunk at home now to solder dropper sleepers to and add brass chairs across the board joint.
     
    The board joint was an interesting issue and shows why you should really build your boards to the track and not vice versa! Diagonal boards may not have been as easy but would have avoided having to shuffle the spacing as shown (also creating a 25 sleeper length). To be fair though we have eased this curve quite a lot from the original and it probably wouldn't have crossed a specially built board as nicely as originally anyway!

  13. craigwelsh
    Whoops, I've forgotten to update this in a while! Well we have done a bit since last November when we were building pointwork and testing track ideas for the relay.
     
    As these pictures show we now have some of the plain track laid (glued and ballasted in one go) and i've been wiring the dropper to it as we go. The ballast is a mix of two Greenscenes bags and i'd much prefer them now over Woodland Scenics due to the tonal variation in each type even before you look at weathering it.
     
    The holes in the ballast are dugouts where the droppers are currently soldered to riveted tags. These will be filled in once they are all tested and ballasted over.

     
    This shot shows how i've been setting the outer track using the inner as a guide. The spacers were made by Dick Petter and the spacing is 6ft on the front but 7ft by this point shown to allow the long coaches to avoid each other on the curve. There is also a transition curve to deal with.

     
    All major pointwork for the new junction and surrounding was completed in March and the first bit is now in place. This 3-way leads into the goods yard but also transitions between the full height sleepers of the mainline and the 1/2 height sleepering in the goods yard. The difference taken up by 0.8mm thick balsa planed to a gradient perpendicular to the rails.
     
    The point was made by Andy G as shown in an earlier post but was subsequently modified by Dick Petter to match the double junction which he'd realigned slightly compared to the Templot output. Ignore the missing sleeper support at the moment, I think that'll be readded when the connection to the slip is put in. This has also been modified from the trackplan to allow the fitting of a correct length detector bar for the FPL on the double junction. The alternate is putting the bar through the switch blade area which would have mean part of it would have to move with the blade..
     
    Ballast here is a dirtier mix and I think its going to be ash into the yard, not sure at the moment though.


     
    The layout is probably going to be quite unusual in having both 1/2 and full height sleepers as well as copperclad, plastic and ply sleepers in the mix. Rivets are also used on most of the new points and some of the power feeds so its really a mixed bag to demo to new builders!
  14. craigwelsh
    Short progress update here on what we've been up to in the last week.
     
    Dick delivered the complex obtuse bit at the heart of the slip that allows access into the goods yard at the toe end of the double junction. Ralph can now combine this with this crossings to produce the finished article. As the layout has a gentle curve to it there is no straight track to this slip! Once this is complete all the mainline pointwork on the front scenic boards for the layout are complete although extra points will be needed on the inner lines leaving the junction. We intend on finishing a running loop of the outer lines before tackling these however.

     
    I've been working on a test piece to deal with the transitions we have between ply pointwork and plastic straight track. At other parts of the layout there will need to be a slight gradient to link into the fiddle yard but this test track covers the discrepancies at the front. 0.8mm balsa is used to pack the ply track up to the level of the plastic sleepers and I believe the exercise has been a success. Next however I need to test how it all looks weathered and ballasted. As it was made up from oddments please ignore the sleeper sizes and spacings! There is also Fasttrack included which doesn't feature on the actual layout but it made up a decent length and I want to see how the exaggerated grain effect covers up when painted.

     

     

     
    On Friday 13th November Slattocks played witness to the surprise 90th birthday party for Sid Stubbs, president of the MMRS and a true pioneer of finescale. He has been modelling in finescale for over 70 years and is still modelling in the original EM gauge of 18mm while making his own motors and making wheels and buffers etc on his lathe. If anyone is unfamiliar with Sid Stubbs there is an article on him in MRJ http://www.modelrail...issue.php?s=177 , his work also features in other editions if you search for him via the index. He is quite a character actually and your never sure when he'll turn up at the club (it was certainly a worry when someone went to get him on Friday!), reminds me of Yoda in many ways for anyone who's seen Star Wars . He also makes an interesting concoction if home brew so i'm told...

    This picture was signed by the artist.

    The event was well attended by club membership with many attendees shown in the following shots.

     

     
    Hopefully there will be further such celebrations in the future when Slattocks will have trains running on it instead of cans of beer and a row of cards .
  15. craigwelsh

    Mineral Evolution

    By craigwelsh,

    By way of a comparison here is the original mineral wagon I built before I kicked off my etching project.
     
    Bachmann body
    Palatine models baseplate
    Bill Bedford w-irons
    Masokits brake gear parts
    Masokits door springs
    Ambis levers
    Smiths hooks

    Here is one I completed last night using my etched bits. Note its all a bit finer and I just need to add safety loop between push-rods and bottom door operating catch

     
    Finally the original build, 3rd test wagon and final wagon.

  16. craigwelsh

    Making a lever guard

    By craigwelsh,

    Just a quick step by step I did in pictures about 1am last night! Apart from the length niggle all four of the ones i've folded so far have come out fine with 2 from the 8 thou sheet and 2 from the 10 thou. The 10 has less of a length issue as the folds were really designed for that thickness so it all ends up shorter.
     
    Tools used, the tweezers are the useful bit for the folds while the sharp knife is vital to get it off the fret without distortion. I recommend a good optivisor or similar to most as my eyesight is still young enough to do it without.

    No I wasn't using the digest as a cutting mat .
     
    Fold 1 - right angle

     
    Fold 2 - small overfold

     
    Fold 3 - right angle

     
    Fold 4 - right angle

     
    Fold 5 - overfold

     
    Folds 6 and 7 - right angles form the end shape

     
    fold 8 - right angle to close the loop and give you the correct shaped lever guard

     
    To finish you can pin the hole at the top and push the stay through the solebar. Then the other stay needs forming in a z so that it meets the w-iron correctly.

    Compare it against my prototype shot here
     
    This BR standard has been lying around for a few years now and its picking up bits along the way. You can tell its an early one as I left the plastic brake gear on and didn't even replace the safety loops! Its now got my new tie bars (a lot thinner than i've managed to cut strip those) and some of the new brake lever guards. I'm making up the levers at the moment.

     
    Let me know if the pictures portray the sequence ok or if I should add arrows. Its obviously easier if you have the piece in front of you to visualise the fold lines but I do want to fix that length issue before I production these. Once its right its right for most wagons!
  17. craigwelsh
    Yay my test etch turned up frmm PPD, not sure if they just did it or if Royal Mail held on to it for a bit.
     
    Anyway, mostly lever etches in both 8 thou and 10 thou to test each, I needed to measure the thickness of each one as their etch of that detail seems to have gone a little awry..

     
    Lever guard made up in 8 thou, no breaks and its square now but the top bit has turned up overlength this time, might need to adjust it again .


     
    These worked well though - posed on top of an Exactoscale 1:7 but its a 1:8 and proves the sleeper spacing are spot on and it fits that 1:8 vee nicely. I'll try and make up a crossing on one in the next couple of days.

     
    edit: I've made up a crossing now, the nickel might be slightly thinner than I really need as you can flex a finished assembly a bit too easily. I'd probably do these in brass anyway as there is no real need for the crispness of nickel.

     

     
    Switch anchor strips that fit within the web of the rail allowing you to make up a switch anchor easily. It should be about twice as long as need so you can make one from each half but I haven't tried it get. Pleased it fits properly in the web though as that'll aid drilling the rail.

     
    I also put 10ft tie bars on this etch.
  18. craigwelsh
    I've not received my levers etch back from PPD yet (not sure if its stuck in a post backlog..) so I haven't done much in the meantime as my workbench is full of unfinished wagons.. I have tried fitting the underframe to a couple of different wagons though just to see how it goes and add some variety to my fleet.
     
    First is a LNER 6-plank merchandise wagon based on the ABS kit for a 9ft wb unfitted example. A bit of filing back of the white metal solebars and once soldered together the underframe slots in place. I need to look at the club copy of Tatlow to decide on a prototype as most pictures I have seen are of late surviving 10ft WB examples. The wm door springs have yet to be removed as they are a bit chunky compared to my etched ones. There are a couple of prototypes in Paul Bartlett's gallery although I think they are all 10ft WB http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c1000911.html .

     
    Next is the Cambrian kit for the LMS dia 1666 merchandise wagon that I picked a couple of body frets up for at Scaleforum. With 54,000 made its a prototype every steam era layout should have! These frets contain the sides and ends along with the solebars so I only need to make up some headstocks to complete. Its posed on the underframe for the LNEr wagon for now hence it has push rods in the Morton configuration.

     
    Whilst watching Abu Dhabi i've been busy on the laptop doing some more artwork to get the parts for the LMS 17ft 6" underframe into 'fret' format. Levers are being left until last again but the springy bits and brakes are suitably complete along with the main floor. Note the separate reinforcing diagonals and the triangular piece that fits on the small vee and provides support for the lift-link lever.

     

     
    ps Anyone who has one managed to build one of these underframes yet? I realise people might be waiting for the levers (I certainly am!) but any feedback would be great, thanks.
  19. craigwelsh

    Progress on Track..

    By craigwelsh,

    A bit of progress overall since the last update. The trackplan is now cut to size and stuck down on two of the boards, the third needs a little woodworking still on the inner curve while the outer is having its balsa finished.

     
    Andy G was not available tonight but his trackwork for the goods yard entry was on show. Not sure what was being pointed out, possibly that the 3-way still needs its switch blades fitting.

     
    Dick Petter has been busy in the background...

     
    He surprised everyone by bringing down his completed double junction and we checked it fitted the plan perfectly and was being tested by a Crab he is working on. He has taken some cosmetic chairs with him to fit to it but as soon as Andy's trackwork is also finished we can prepare to lay it. More straight track is also ready to be laid after this.

     
    The scenic guys meanwhile have been prototyping the road bridge over the canal at the front of the layout. We aren't quite sure yet if this should be a humped bridge, straight or skewed as yet... If there are any experts in bridge design do let us know how a hump bridge would fit in with a canal!

  20. craigwelsh
    If anyone got etches off me at Scaleforum and I haven't messaged you, let me know what you think of these instructions:
     
    9ft_Wooden_Instructions_partA.pdf
    9ft_Wooden_Instructions_partB.pdf
     
    (Thanks Andy for gettingpdf format added to uploads )
     
    I've also uploaded a gallery of prototype shots which i've attached to this entry which may be of use.
     
    Progress continues on further etch work when i'm not building track for the club.
     
    Craig
  21. craigwelsh
    Following on from the last update I thought i'd share a quite post showing how we've been dealing with board joints using copper sleepers and brass chairs.
     
    The sleepers aren't cut yet as I need to get it all gauged properly beforehand to cut exactly on the correct diagonal. The rail is precut as that is cut perpendicular to the rail direction. When the sleepers are cut i'll solder some brass strip across the joint for now to retain gauge until the sleepers are epoxied down, normal stretches of track use PVA.
     

     
    The view also shows the ply replacement sleepers to which the rail is soldered giving us our droppers, there are a couple more to fit yet in this section.
     
    I really should tidy up the workbench before I need to get the full curve on it for some painting!

  23. craigwelsh
    First part of an update from last night's progress. It was decided that as the track spacing and alignment on the right hand curve would be different from the original it would be easier to start with new wood work. The initial thought was to remove the track bed entirely but it was quickly discovered that the base had been glued as well as screwed to the supports and removal would create a lot more work than anticipated. So in the absence of 4mm scale JCBs and dumper trucks etc the track gang set to with chisels
     
    Oi watch my hands you..
    Trackbed demolition

     
    Half an hour later we were left with a ply base onto which a new balsa track bed could be laid, so the rest of the track bed with the exception of the goods yard was given the same treatment so that by the end of the evening we had a starting point for rebuilding (nearly just a few AJ magnets to remove once we've got the right screwdrivers available)
    More photos at lunch.
     
    It was bedlam last night in Dean Hall. Not only were the P4 track gang chiselling away but the 7mm Narrow Gauge group were making very loud use of a jigsaw to cut the edges of their baseboards (I think) and the P4 scenic department were busy watching the OO group leader put the final touches to the woodwork on the scenic boards
     
    Scenic work

     
    At the end of the evening the track base had been cleared and the mess removed and the track plan was placed over the layout for the first time. Thankfully it fits with only a small change to the track bed necessary other than for the new Bury lines. The final trackplan will be produced on a large format plotter thus reducing the cumulative errors I will no doubt have introduced sticking all the bits of paper together.
     
    Andy Innes points to where his point rodding now has to go, whilst Tony W tries to remove yet another AJ magnet

     
     
    Andy
     
    Andy G
  24. craigwelsh
    Just to put up a more recent post than the archive stuff i've been importing here is a sample of the plain lengths of track i've been working on for the re-laying:

     
    There consist of 4 60ft panels each of 24 sleepers and are built from Exactoscale components. I only lay the one rail at home and the other will be laid at the club once its been curved to match the template and any gauge widening has been added in.
     
    I'd previously done a length of 26ft panels that will go on the gauge widened curved. When building that panel we ran into a bit of a problem when I realised the chairs were opposite (3-bolt but one on inside, two outside) to the chairs laid in the goods yard. Hmm, which was wrong, well it turned out the new 8000 chairs we had were LSWR ones! Quick phone call for Andy G to Exactoscale who checked it out and they discovered they'd had 'S1' chairs back from the moulding company that were actually LSWR type. That slowed us down for a week or two until we could swap over our bits at Scaleforum. We are now back on track with the correct chair!
     
    Unlike the LSWR chairs though the correct chairs feature flash accross the jaws of the chair, the more popular mould has obviously seen far more use. Its a bit of a pain as quite a few chairs decide to snap in two rather than slide onto the rail. We will need some of these in the future to cover up some rivets on pointwork though.
     
    Show preparation, proper work and our etching has variously delayed group memebers but good progress is also being made on the new pointwork that we can hopefully start laying soon.
     
    Craig
  25. craigwelsh
    I went along to Dean Hall yesterday evening, for the first time since last month. I took my camera and this time it had a memory card in it so I took a few pictures.
     
    I'd better leave Andy or Craig to explain how the big template was produced and printed - I'm afraid the "dark arts" of templot and template production are a bit beyond me at the moment but they were putting it together last night and trying it out for size on the layout. I have to say that I think it looks pretty impressive. So here are a few pics showing this with Andy, Craig, Ralph and Dick.
     
    Note one of Craig's wagon etches cunningly placed in the corner of one of the photos. I have to say I think this looks pretty good in the flesh :thup
     

     

     

     

     

     
    John (knottyjohn)
     
    _______________________
     
    A bit of an update as we've not reported back for nearly a month. Progress has been a bit slower than expected but we need to get this part right. The fiddleyard throat to the first six roads has been lifted and cleared as has the old double junction. The old droppers and wiring has been removed allowing the trackbase to be filled and sanded, this is nearly complete but needs a bit more work in some parts of the fiddleyard - PVA can be very stubborn.
     
    The main cause of the slow progress has been the need to do further work on the track design. The loop has now been cut back so that it joins back in before the junction, the previous arrangement was incorrect due to the repositioning of the junction and also the canal bridge. Unfortunately this means that the turnout I'd previously completed needs to be rebuilt. :wall The crossing and slip arrangements have also been very slightly (but it still altered nearly all the crossing work!) to give a better and more prototypical arrangement. The drawing work for the front at least is now complete and last night saw Craig and myself crawling around Dean Hall's floor sticking rather large sheets of paper together, hopefully KnottyJohn will be along with some photos. This wasn't the easiest of tasks trying to get everything to line up but we think we've got it near enough and the alignment when placed over the layout was satisfactory. This now means that we can get on with the small amount of woodwork required and start putting the balsa back into place.
     
    We've lined up an electrician to rework the fiddle yard control panel, though with interlocking required on the front now we may well have a look at the Merg CBUS system. This, hopefully, will give us the flexibility to be able to modify the fiddle yard later without having to completely rework the control panel again and also enable interlocking to be incorporated on the front. It's early days and we've no idea of the cost yet. Also on the electrics, New Hey's outing to the Members' Day has brought the realisation that the layout needs to be sectionalised (don't confuse with isolating sections etc) so as to prevent a short in one location stopping the whole layout and also to protect the controller. The shorting issue has always been a problem but until people started putting solutions forward for Andy C's issues we weren't aware that there was anything that could be done about them. The solution in the short term is to use car brake light/indicator bulbs though an electronic solution may be implemented later. Most of the track feed wiring needs to be redone anyway so designing power blocks (sections) in at this stage is not a big issue.
     
    Hopefully next week will see reconstruction work begin in earnest.
     
    Andy G
     
    _______________________
     
    Last night was good as it both marked a successful sign-off on a newly finalised track layout which fitted without issue as well as the first night in a while of forward progress where we've now reversed the layout as far as it needs to go and we can really start going forward again.
     
    The car bulbs were a nice revelation, i'd always wanted to put a breaker in the fiddle yard anyway but also knew of the problems my Dynamis had with them. Nice simple engineering that I sometimes overlook works anyway and it just beens we need to be careful what we connect our dropper wires too when the track is relaid to ensure we can put bulbs/breakers on different parts in the future.
     
    Plenty of track to get on with although in my case a finished wagon etch is the priority so we can build a few ready for the October show (and people stop nagging to buy some ).
     
    The plan also means the scenic guys now know the new boundaries of all their hills etc.
     
    Craig
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