Toftwood

I had time yesterday to finally lay the fourth track over the lifting bridge. The joints here need some fettling but the locos now run over with barely a bump. I found i had to do a modification to allow me to get my hand in underneath to reach the dropper wires. Thanks for looking Stay safe, regards Pete

I wish someone would produce an A8 Tank in OO. Lovely work Ian. Pete

These last few days I have managed to sneak into the shed and put together a LC Creative laser cut Steel Girder bridge. It was reasonably easy to put together, I have had to reduce the height as it is to go under the board on the lifting section. The cobblestone sheet is a Metcalfe product. I made one mistake in building the bridge, I did not realise until it was stuck (as usual) that the girder trim needed to be split instead of as can be seen giving a double vertical girder. Anyway it does not detract from the finished bridge. As the bridge is only double track and the railway here is four track the rear abutments have been left off to be cosmetically fitted later. Although I like the brick finnish, I wanted that NE look of stone. The larger is too big so will cover in the Slaters dressed stone, once I resupply. Just to the top right is where the Bridge will be fitted. I had originally thought to have a Pub and some terraced houses in this space, but I felt a more industrial look would be better. So some ply walling was cut and stone plasticard cut to fit over. This shows the bridge before final fettling to fit under the trackbed. I had a quick go at spraying a spare off cut of the stone plasticard from almost edge on. This was with track dirt. Will have another go with dk Sand and dry brushed sooty black. Well thats it of this update. Stay safe Pete

I had a real wobble the other day. Looking at the clearances at concourse end of Cullerbay Station with the exit of the four track tunnel under it, I thought I had made a right boo boo. Because I wanted to extend the platforms as far as I could to get at least a five foot platform face, I had forgotten that the four tracks on leaving the tunnel are on an incline and how I originally wanted to frame the upper board would have meant no Clearance. As you should i all cases like this, I left it for a day and came back to it today with the solution. I shall enlighten when I get to that stage in the build. As you can see here the clearances are tight. I started to fit the supports for Cullerbay so far so good. A check of the clearances showed all was well. The cross pieces are temporary as the frame of the upper board will take their place giving it some strength which it will need as it will be hinged at the rear to allow access to clean the track and wiring. I also did some temporary templates for the Marden Road platforms but don't have suitable wood to make them up yet. So there we go, a bit further on, the heart has settled down again, I had thought I had made such a mistake I did consider binning Cullerbay station and making it a fiddle yard come engine shed. Now to move on again.... Regards, stay safe Pete

Here we are into the ninth week of lockdown at home. The garden is looking a little tidier, the Motorhome has been washed and polished, gas and diesel are full, the rear chassis has been (hopefully) derusted repainted and wax oiled waiting for the word from No 10. The bridge is now relaid and working thankfully. The hinge joint is now on one level the other end was done properly as it should have been done in the first place, but as you know this is a learning exercise as well. Once I thought I had finished both joints I gave the bridge a small lit to check clearances. That went well so I lifted a bit further and felt a resistance so quickly put it down. I gave it a good look over and found I had not cut the track(the lower one in the above photo) Luckily no damage done. So I have moved on slightly to start the set up of 'Marden Road' Previously I said that I needed to build in a loop so trains could pass. I have revised that as the point would have been placed where the baseboard was slightly arched and I found that there would have been a possibility of derailments. So I took out the point (thankfully not secured) and returned the track to what it was. I have still kept the siding as I believe that freight trains would set back into refuge sidings ?? So there will be a buffer at the end on the right. So thats where I am at the moment. Regards, stay safe Pete

After at least a week of warm sunny weather and not a lot done on the Railway, doing lots of outdoors stuff, what did get done was to rip up the track and cork on the lifting section. I persevered in trying to get a smooth joint, placing packing underneath; taking it out again, soldering paxolin sleepers to rails, unsoldering them when that didn't work until it just looked a right mess. I was getting nowhere and becoming frustrated. So I bit the bullet so to speak and went back to what i should have done in the first place. So up came the cork underlay... and down went two layers of 1/16 cork. The reason for the unevenness was because the lifting section trackbed is on an incline and there is a slight lip at the join at the left end (in the above photo) then a slight drop before climbing the incline. This was enough to cause larger wheeled Steam locos to derail. This is the first layer, the area to the left will be for siding space, Wit the addition of the second layer, the underlay is of the same level now so I can lay the track properly, like the track at the top of the picture. I as I said earlier other domestic stuff has got in the way for a few days but should be able to put some more time in this week. Stay safe, stay home. Regards Pete

With I think three different parts of the Layout being worked on at the same time the overall impression is that there is not much actual progress. But suddenly you seem to leap ahead and its a great feeling. I was waiting 3 weeks for the paxolin sleepers to arrive, but arrive they did. I know this might be like sucking eggs to some of you but this is all new to me. With the sleepers in place out came the soldering iron. As previously mentioned, this join proved to be a problem with the track to the left dropping away causing a derailment. So I packed underneath the track with another layer of 3mm cork. At the other end of the bridge to the hinge, I started to sort this join. with paxolin in place awaiting soldering. Going to need a heavy weight to press the track down whilst its soldered to give a smooth transition. The second track goes in. In addition to adding in the lay over siding on the opposite side I felt I needed to think about how to fit the boards for Cullerbay. I had another look at the track layout and thought that I would not have enough room for the points complex in the space I had left myself. So I spent some time rejigging the plan and came up with this. I wanted 4 coaches and a Pacific in the longer platforms so needed 5' faces. This meant moving the platforms back and into a curve so the concourse sits over the tunnel mouth. Still not sure about the points complex yet. I will do what I normally do, lay out the points in place and jig things around till they fit. Then I set my mind to Cullerbay's baseboard. Because of the 4 tracks which run underneath and with me running DCC, track cleanliness would be paramount so being able to get in and clean the tracks was high priority. I considered removable sections, but thought I would not have anywhere to put them and damage might be caused. So I thought about hinging the whole board (actually in sections)along the rear. As you can see in the diagram, the boards would be framed in 2x1 but laid flat not end on. Along the rear I will fix a 2x1 batten to the risers then hinge the 9mm plywood to that. This gives an end on view and a better idea of what I propose. I hope the 1" of ply will be strong enough at the hinge. I'll give it a go. These two photos show the batten in place. Thats all for now. Hope you are all continuing to stay safe. Take care. Pete

Love the weathering on the retaining walls. the cabling was also very prevalent up in the North East around Newcastle. Pete

I hope everyone is coping with the 'enforced' stay at home. As a full time worker (sorry for the swear word) its been 4 weeks of bliss with possibly another 3 to come. Amongst various domestic bits and bobs that have had to be done I have been doing some wiring up on Cullerbay. In the last post I mentioned that I had found a problem at the joints on the lifting bridge. I have stripped off the track on on the bridge for the moment, removed the screws to which I had tried to solder the track too and as the moment am waiting for some copper clad Paxolin from C&L Finescale. I received a box of Wago connectors so have used them to wire up the droppers to the Bus around half the layout. In this photo you can see where I stripped back the track from the lifting bridge. As a quick evenings project I mocked up a girder bridge out of mount card to give an indication of where the exit from under Cullerbay Station would be. I was having a ponder the other evening, thinking through as you do how trains would be operated once up and running. It occurred to me that whilst I had the facility to park a freight in a siding to let a passenger pass in one direction, there was not a similar facility in the opposite direction. So today I set too and as can be seen above, have lifted a section of track and cork to replace with a curved point which will lead to a loop ending at the entrance to Marden Road. SO I will add in this curved point at the entrance to Marden Rd (to the bottom Right) The other point will lead off to a small industry yet to be decided. Its never clean job! And the new cork and first of the track goes down. Hope all stay well and safe TTFN Pete

And then Hornby brought out their Q6.......

Thanks Tom, I had a look at your old thread. Was impressive! Regards Pete

Any chance of a closer look at it whenever you can? Thanks, (I have a Hornby Scenecraft shed two road stone built with the arched doors. Its ok but....) Pete.

Hi Tom, is the Engine shed scratch built?? looks the business. Take the roof off and you have Tyne Dock/Percy Main :-) Coming on well. Love the progress so far. Pete

As mentioned previously I identified a problem with the track over the lifting section hinge joint. Running a coach across here is no problem, but run a loco (Pacific) across here and it derails. So some packing is required. Regards Pete

Thanks paul, I'll have a play around with it a see if I can work it out. Pete.

I often wonder looking at other topics on Rmweb, how to get a link to my thread added to the bottom of my posts as a number of others seem to have. So that if i post a reply on someone else's thread then it will show my link as well?? I have searched the Profile page and can't find anything that directs you to how to do it?? Can anyone point me in the right direction please?? Thx Pete

Taking these photos has identified a problem with the track which could have been a fairly serious problem had I carried on and ballasted. The problem is with the joint over the hinge end of the lifting section. I have run a Mk4 coach over each joint many times to check it ran smoothly, which it did. when i put the locos on the track for the photos, there was a pronounced drop which caused the loco to derail. Probably because of the longer wheelbase. I'll post a pic later as an illustration. So it seems that I will have to put some packing in to raise it ups little. Regards Pete

Thank you for your kind comment. Its a continuous learning curve. I am getting to a point well outside my comfort zone. Regards Pete

I took a break from track laying the other evening and put this bridge together from some spare Daler Board card that I had left over from picture framing. Once I had got some rough measurements, I whipped this up in an evening. Once the PVA was dry I tried it in the place where a proper scratch built bridge will go. It sits quite well although the proper one will need measuring properly. This is a view over the bridge parapet looking towards what will be Marden Road Station. With the weather turning a little less friendly and as something different I Have a number of duplicate numbered Locos that needed renaming and renumbering. Having never done anything like renaming or renumbering I plunged in and these are the result. 2 X Peppercorn A1s, now 60121/131 Silurian/Osprey, Peppercorn A2 now 60530 Sayajirao, and Gresely A3 now 60091 Captain Cuttle. A couple will need fitting with decoders and the accessories fitted as well. That will have to wait until they spend more time on the layout than in /out of the box. Regards Pete.

That looks pretty good to me Scott. Well done for persevering. Keep up the great work. Regards Pete

Some nice work there Matt, some chunky copper clad. Will you have anything in there other than ballast to disguise it? Pete

This staying home business is great for railway modelling. I have done more to the layout in a few days than in the past few months, especially wight the weather as it is. So, did a bit more today, I think I have managed to get round the non brass screws issue. The bess effect is just that, some judicious scraping has taken the brass finnish off the tops of the screws. The solder is holding at the moment. Having cracked the problem of one end of the bridge onto the other end and sorting out the lead into Marden Road Station. Yes I know there is a kink in the track, this will be rectified before glueing The temptation to sharpen the curves has been resisted but one has to way that off against platform lengths. The points are already two to three feet in and using curved points which are 9" long takes up a lot of space. But I think it will work with a bit of jiggery pokery. I am really pleased with how it is coming along, I was looking back at when I started this project to what it look like now to..... Take care and stay safe. Regards Pete

This looks great and already on its way. I'm from the other side of the mouth, Tynemouth. Will enjoy following the progress. My own effort, Cullerbay and Marden Road (Rmweb) is a fictitious line set somewhere on the N East coastal area. Lovely. Regards Pete.

Time I think for a short update. I have been making steady progress on track laying bringing the four tracks onto the lifting bridge. This is the hinge end. As you can see I am using screws to witch the track will be soldered thereon. Twas after the glue had dried and I went to solder onto what I thought were brass screws, that I found that they were not brass after all. The solder would not take. In the mean time I spent several evenings renaming two Bachmann A1s, two Bachmann A2s and a Hornby A3. So the weather has been nice the last few days and as I am at home on 'Standby' from work I did some track laying. It seems however I have reached my photo limit as I uploaded straight from my iPhone. Hope everyone is staying safe. Regards Pete

Hi Brian, With regards to your re-wheeling of older stock and finding that the axles are hard to fit, try this gizmo. Its called a 'Truck Tuner' in the US, its to HO standard but its the same gauge. It reams out the axle hole and gives a smoother run apparently. Hope this helps. Regards Peter