Steam_Julie

I'm hoping to soon be doing some work on Trefegwys Road, to reduce the weight of the baseboards &.thus make it more easily transportable. Julie

I like missy's work too! But she works @ a snails pace. Julie

Something that I didn't mention in the blog entry is, cutting thin strips of plywood is difficult, particularly when you don't have a proper saw bench. I found that the top of my washing machine, it has a Formica top, is the correct height, and provides a very stable work surface. I would advise, if you are not the domestic athorities yourself, that you ask before trying this out for yourself. Another technique I use when working with small pywood layout construction is to use lille pins as micro panel pins. This is very difficult when you start, but it prevents splitting of small blocks and works well in holding the work together, whilst the glue is setting. Julie

2 mm modelling the layouts are smaller & lighter to carry, but the models are more fiddly to work on. The ability to move the layouts on public transport is important to me, because I live on an island & don't have a car. I'm getting use to working in the smaller scale. I now feel that if I had built Trefegwys Road, using the same construction methods used on Clovelly Road, it would have been a more manageable project all round. Still that's life & learning for you! Julie

Yes it does fit in the same case as Pack Lane. Julie

During the last session working on Clovelly Road, I realised that the curves at the back of the layout were to sharp, for the trains to negotiate without problems. These were caused by the flanges rubbing against the inside of the curves outer rail. To solve this problem it was necessary to increase the width of the baseboard. By examining the carrying case I found that this could be increased by 26mm. This has now been done. Baseboard 2 Attached to the original baseboard Both baseboards together, with the corner rounded The underside of the combined baseboards The plywood used for baseboard 2 is slightly thicker than used for the main baseboard, thus baseboard 2 is about 1mm thicker. But the top surfaces are aligned, so this is not a problem. I have taken the opportunity of adding rubber feet to protect the table on which the layout is placed. because of of the change of baseboard size the feet are used are higher. This is required to allow the larger baseboard to clear the inside of the case wheels. Julie

I have just realised that if I radius the corners that I can add another 6mm to the width of the extra baseboard. The radius is, to clear the internal part of the case wheels. Julie

I've attempted to get the trains running by fettling the track. I have got the locomotive running sweetly in both directions. But when I attached a couple of wagons, then the running problems returned with a vengeance. I think that I pushed my luck too far. This is because the coupling swings to far out, causing the following wagons to derail. When the track was fettled, increasing the gauge, the wagons stayed on the track, but the rolling resistance was too great. When working with 2mm models, small locomotives are very light, and therefor there will be problems with effective electrical resistance will be very large. You have no way of increasing the locomotive weight to reduce it. Also the hauling capacity of small loco's is very limited too, thus rolling resistance become critical. Over the years I have tried traction tyres etc. and there doesn't seem to be any way of gaining performace that way either. I've been working with minium radius layout for a long time, and know the effect of wheel position relative to the track is very important. Thus when the radius is too small, effective resistance becomes too large too, because the the contact area, between wheel and rail head is too small. When one constructs minimum space layouts, this situation often occurs. The only sane thing to do is admit you attempted to go to far. Then look at how the problem to see how they be solved. In this case I can increase the board width by just over 20mm. The width was determined by the internal width that can fit within the carrying case. This might not sound much, but this will allow me to increase the track radius enough to solve the running problems. So now it's lift the track along the back of the layout and do the woodwork. There are challenges, not problems in life. The thing I enjoy is look at the challenges and making the required changes and overcoming them. Julie

Neat idea! Julie

The copper strip used to provide the power bus is self adhesive, yes you guessed it 'sticky back metal', no modeller should be without it!. The adhesive works well, but when using non lead solders, with their higher melting point, the glue melts, and you have to push the strip down again. In extreme cases you have to reattach the strip with extra glue. The choice is yours what ever comes to hand. Julie

Equally important for good running when running around tight curves is that you should use transition curves. This means that the radius should gradually get tighter and you should avoid a sudden changes of the radius. Julie

I have now installed a permanent wiring connection between the controller and the layout. This uses a 2.1 mm DC panel mounted socket and plug as shown below. This arrangement allows the train to be run continuously. The train runs the complete circuit, but it slows down at several points, due to the sharp curvature. The track gauge needs to be slightly widened at these points. This process is called fettling the track. Fettling is more necessary, on this layout, because I am pushing the radius very tight in order to fit the track into a very small footprint. The wiring description was started in http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1849/entry-16530-clovelly-road-wiring-1/ Julie

Today I started to wire Clovelly Road. The Red wires is South and the Black is North. The initial tests were carried out with a DC controller and an unclipped locomotive. The connection to the controller was achieved using a temporary connection. This will be replaced with a permanent connection later. The point is permanently wired, so that contact between the closure rails and the running rails is not critical. Photograph of the overall wiring Photograph of a track connection underside Photograph of a track connection track side The temporary layout connection Julie

Back from exotic holiday location, Alderney, and rearing to go again, with my modelling projects. Looking at the layout with fresh eyes, having not seen it for about 2 weeks, I noticed that there was a problem with sleeper spacing on the first section of track I layed. The bottom of the track, with the glue scaped off. There is rarely an unsolvable problems with models, they can be overcome by applying some ingenuity and a little skill. I carefully lifted the track using a scalpel scrapped off the contact adhesive residue. Then I re glued the track into position carefully making sure that the spacing was correct. I added two extra sleepers to make the spacing even. Incidentally whilst on Alderney, I travelled on a train formed of 2 1938 ex Bakerloo coaches pulled and then pushed by an 0-6-0 diesel locomotive from Mornington Cresent station, which is located in Bryne on the North of the island. Julie

Are there any side effects from taking the tablets? Julie

I agree that a cup of tea is better than a glass or two of champagne, less after effects too. Julie

Has it ever got damaged when you have moved the layout, or been working on etc. Julie

The rail bending tip came from the video by Bob Felphs in which he lays the track for an OO gauge model of St Ives made a few years ago. It was on the Peco Christmas CD. Julie

I will not be posting for a few days because I off on a foreign holiday, to Alderney. I have painted the bottom of the layout, so that I can now proceed with the electrical wiring. Julie

Hiding the transition from the visual to the hidden part, usually called the fiddleyard is traditional done using a bridge or tunnel. The is what is going to be done at the end of the halt platform. It was necessary to cut out a rectangle, of the track foam, to allow the bridge to be correctly placed. It will be held in position with two small screws, allowing it to be removed if required. The bridge is constructed using a modified Peco single track bridge kit. The bridge opening has been reduced it both height and width. The longest piece of rolling stock was pushed under the it to check that it cleared. The width of the bridge i.e. the width of the road accross it has been reduced too. This has two effects it takes up less of the valuable space on the baseboard and it looks further away to the viewer. I now added 3 temporary blocks, so I can proceed to the wiring task without damaging the track and the sheep creep. Julie.

Incidentally the sharpest part of the curve, 75mm radius, has been gauge widen by 0.35mm. This might so seem much, but it make the difference between the long wheelbase brake van when connected to the other wagon, from not coming off. Julie

I made the track laid yesterday slightly too short. But this was solved by pre-curing a short piece of track to place the point in the correct position. The stages are remove the rail from the sleeper, then bend to the required radius. It is difficult to bend the last 20mm or so of a rail length. Therefore I allowed 20mm extra on both ends, bent the rail and then trimmed the 20mm off each end. It is essential with any track laying, that you don't trim the section to the exact length, until absolutely necessary. My grandma always said when cutting material, when dress making, measure twice and then cut once. I have found this excellent advice when laying track too. Once the track laying was complete I was able to trim the foam base. No Lisa my layout, as you see, is not totally pointless after all. Julie

I then glued foam onto the baseboard surface and then glued the track in place. The foam was then cut to approx size. I then checked to see if two wagons, one a long wheelbase guards van, when coupled together would pass over the bridge without hitting the sides. They do, so I can continue with the track laying. The photographs below, were taken indoors on my desk in the study. Therefor I was forced to use the flash. The test wagon on the bridge. The fiddle yard area. Looking towards Clovelly Road halt. See also Clovelly Road - Tracklaying 1. Julie

The next task is to start the track laying. I am going to use a technique which I learned from a short video by Bob Felphs, Peco's track designer. It has unfortunately been removed recently from the website. He advocated the technique for the last 100 mm of track before a point or a track joint only. I have found that when building micro layouts, such as Clovelly Road it is advisable to pre-curve all of the track. Essentially you cut the sleepers on the section to be pre-curved into sections of approx 100mm length. The end section is then removed and the other moved towards the end. The rails can then be bent to the required radius, carefully using a pair of pliers, without the risk of damaging the sleepers. Photograph of the pre-curved track layed on top of the baseboard. When you are happy with the radius, a sleeper section can then be slid back into position. The process is then repeated until the whole section of track is pre-curved. Leave some extra length on the track section to allow final adjustments to be made during track laying. The end section is the most difficult to get correct. Photograph of track layed over the bridge. What you end up with is essentially a custom piece of settrack, minus the regular track joints including the joiners. The track can now be used as a template the cut out the foam base for the track. Birds eye view of the track layed on the baseboard. Julie PS Lisa you will have to wait to find out.

You will have to wait? Julie