johnlewis

Hello Mikkel

I agree that the GWR may not have done things like that, not that I am any sort of expert, but from what I have read they tended to go their own way in most things. That does tend to make life 'interesting' for us GWR modellers, especialy if our interests are around the 1895-1912 era when much was changing.

I do keep an eye on several threads on RMWeb and your Farthings blogs are among those threads. My particular interest is the Bridport Railway and Toller Porcorum in particular. I am using the Timber Tracks P4 panels for the straight track, in fact there are no curves as such, the turnouts at each end of the siding will be built on Templot templates using timbers from Timber Tracks and plastic chairs from C&L.

I found the straight track easy enough to do, remembering to reverse the chair direction for the last chair, but maybe should have alternated all the chairs as the track is bi-directional. I am a bit scared tho' when it comes to turnouts and keep putting off making a start!!

I quite like the idea of having the siding as baulk road though, possibly using some of that nice rail from the BGS but finding photos of track from that in-between era is proving a bit difficult. It is bad enough finding photos of GWR turnouts witth round stretcher bars, but there are two photos of Bridport station circa 1910 one of which clearly shows balk road with early type rail still in use.

I am looking forward to getting my 850 back from the other side of the world, strictly speaking it isn't correct for the Bridport branch as it should really be a 2021 which although looking much like the 850 had the rear wheels spaced further   apart so altering the appearance of the whole rear end a bit.

There is a new thread on ScaleForum entitled Dartmouth which is to be about a mixed broad/narrow gauge layout and a few days ago Paul Townsend posted a picture showing what he is doing regarding wiring the layout. He says

"The CBus electronics is derived from MERG kits and will simplify wiring, allow computer control etc."

Now if that is simple wiring I am glad I decided to go battery powered/RC controlled, but that is quite enough from me.

jayell

Mikkel said:

"One unexpected problem was that initially the styrene parts fitted together too neatly, so it didn't have that rounded and slightly worn feel of real wood. So I distressed it a bit here and there. "

There was an interesting series in Scalefour News back in 2003/2004 describing building timber framed wagons in the 1930s at Stevens Wagon Works in Doncaster by someone who was an apprentice there at that time. Amongst other things he says apropos siderails:

"Now we will be thinking about the siderails. These run the whole length of the wagon and are machined from five- inch square timber. They are bolted to the top outer edge of the solebar and form a base on which the sides of the wagon wil be built. To prepare them each end has to be haunched to fit over the top of the headstock, then a chamfer is cut along the top outside edge. The chamfer is cut with a drawknife  and is stopped short at both ends and also where the cross rods will be. Then an arris is planed off the front bottom edge"

 A final comment on the side rails:

"Care has to be taken that no hammer marks show on the face of the side rail ................................. I should add that   all the nuts must always be left vertical - it looks better like that."

So it would seem that Mikkel is correct in thinking his styrene framing was too square, 

The article was included in S4-135 to S4-138 and I suspect it describes the way wagons were built way before the 1930s. I have omitted lots of detail about bolt sizes and the like but for the benefit of 'rivet/bolt counters' it is all there ;-)

jayell