Richard Hall

A few days off work, so a bit more progress on the three-way "Scotsgap" turnout. First set of blades now in place: Turning it over reveals the blade pivots and tiebar. Tiebar is made from two strips of PCB with a bit of 2mm square styrene strip sandwiched between them. Once I am happy with the blades, the protruding ends will be bent over 90 degrees to secure them. Here is one of the blades: Pivot is soldered to the outside of the rail, tiebar dropper to the underside. In theory, if one of the blades gets damaged (not unknown) I can simply snip off the bent over ends, lift out the blade and drop in a new one. I'm not sure I'd go so far as having a spare set of blades for exhibitions, but some rail, a file, N/S wire and a soldering iron would have the layout up and running in a few minutes. One more tiebar to do (I already have the second set of blades) and loads of insulation gaps, then I can get on with something else. Rothbury end yard turnout, probably. My bottle of plastic solvent was getting a bit low so I tipped in some stuff I inherited from my late father. The resulting mix won't touch Easitrac chairs, so I can't really do the fully-chaired crossover or the concrete sleeper track until I have the right solvent. (Butanone from memory.) Richard

Nice busy workbench, I think your Gem tank engine is coming together rather better than mine. I use drill bits to align rod etches: they are much harder to accidentally solder to the rods. Richard

And so it begins. This will be the fiddle yard entrance at the Scotsgap end. Hidden from view, so plain PCB construction, no chairplates and every second sleeper omitted. So far, so good: my test wagon runs through all the crossings although tight in a couple of places where the checkrails need a slight nudge. Pivoting blades next. I realised that I hadn't filed the insides of the stock rails as I usually do at the blade ends, but the blades won't be permanently attached until the turnout is removed from the template, so I can tickle them up with a file at that stage. Should be fun working out where all the insulation gaps go, but I'll worry about that when I come to it. I have two of these beasts to build (opposite handed), then the crossover in the scenic section which will be fully chaired, mixture of brass chairs on PCB sleepers and plastic on plastic. I haven't tried the brass chairs before but they look very pretty. Richard

A bit more work on the BR brake van. It has been hanging around for a while waiting for me to work up enough enthusiasm to do the handrails which I made from 0.3mm phosphor bronze wire (PB because I couldn't find the pack of nickel silver wire that I was going to use). The first handrail took me four attempts to get the length right: after that things got easier. The long handrail along each side baffled me for a while: in the end I drilled holes hard up against the vertical handrail at each end which held the horizontal handrail in place while I soldered it to the verticals. Grey primer always flatters models: unlike others on here I'm not brave enough to show my efforts in raw metal, but even so there is still a fair bit to rectify before I splodge acrylic paint all over it with a tar brush. Worst bit is where the roof seems to have unsoldered itself along one edge: the duckets are a bit draughty as well. At the moment my brake van has no brakes: the delicate half-etched shoes didn't survive the model being handled to fit the handrails, and I don't have an easy solution to hand. I could point out that you can't really see the shoes from normal viewing distance due to the stepboards, but that isn't really in the spirit of finescale modelling so I suppose I'll have to cobble together something. At least I have a brake van, and for now I only need one. Richard

Maun parallel jaw pliers are one of my favourite all round tools. I don't currently have one which will do wheel fitting but I have been meaning to buy a suitable set for ages. You will also need the little slotted shims so you don't squeeze the frame bush between the muff and the wheel back and lock everything solid, but the same applies with the quartering tool. https://www.maunindustries.com/parallel-pliers/smooth-jaw-parallel-pliers/ Richard

Another excellent set of posts and timely for me as I start to look at building a Gresley non corridor brake third. Did the corridor and non-corridor stock have the same roof profile, I wonder? In my scrapbox I have a Minitrix corridor coach with damaged sides which might give me a roof. Richard

The other thing I wanted to look at before starting construction proper was pivoting point blades. Longwitton has some very long curved points and the clearance between switch and stock rails might get a bit marginal. Pivoting blades should help with that. I found a soldered construction N gauge point that I built a long time ago and had already used to develop the tiebar design that I ended up using on Longframlington and Stobs. For the pivoting blades I glued two PCB sleepers back to back, drilled them and then soldered in lengths of very fine copper tube (says 0.8 x 0.25mm on the packet but seems more like 0.9 x 0.4). The pivots are nickel silver wire bent 90 degrees at both ends and soldered to the blades. Nice and simple, appears to work well and should be robust enough. Obviously I'll have to dig some holes in the trackbed to provide clearance but that is no big deal. Now it's back to painting wagons while I wait for rail and chairs to arrive. I'm planning to get all the track built over Christmas, then sort out the baseboard carpentry and start tracklaying early in the New Year. Richard Richard

I was hoping to get started on track construction this weekend but due to postal strike only one of my two packages from Shop 1 has arrived so far. Still I managed to do a couple of useful bits starting with this; Concrete sleeper bullhead track and it turned out to be very easy. Just slice the rail fasteners off with a scalpel, revealing a hole which will take a pegged chair. The chairs are a slightly loose fit in the holes which opens up the possibility of gauge widening on curves, not normally an option with plastic based track. So then I wondered, can you do the same with wooden sleepered Easitrack BH? The answer is yes: the two chairs nearest to the camera are pegged chairs. There is probably enough slack in the holes that you only have to replace the chairs on one side for gauge widening purposes, still a faff but worth looking at for those of us who don't have the room for wide sweeping curves. Richard

Can anyone tell me the dimensions (width and thickness) of the plastic turnout sleepers 1-180? They are out of stock at the moment so I want to see if I can find styrene strip to substitute. I have built turnouts before with this stuff but I can't remember the size. Cheers, Richard

Thank you Jan for a very useful suggestion. I was trying to leave a bit more space than that between the trackbed and the outer edge of the baseboard, which is why I was thinking I would have to reduce the radius. But looking at your redrawing of the plan I think that might work very well. There is still enough room in front of the storage loops for tea mugs, dead locos, inedible sandwiches on paper plates, and all the other stuff that seems to accumulate during a show. Richard

We had a good discussion today at the Norfolk AG meeting about various aspects of the layout: height, backscene, lighting etc. I have been playing around in Templot again to get that third loop in and ensure the baseboard joins don't get in the way. There are six boards but I plan to permanently bolt them together in pairs to reduce the number of baseboard joins and associated trestles. I think this is getting fairly close to the final track plan. I could pull the circle radius in a little further in pursuit of the suggestion from @Yorkshire Square but things are getting a bit tight in a couple of places already, and I don't want to lose too much scenic depth between the trackbed and backscene, so I'll probably leave it as it is. Next stage is to order a pile of track components and see if I can get some turnouts assembled. Can I get something running by Christmas? Probably not, but hopefully I can at least get some track laid. Still pondering the concrete sleepered BH track_ do I make up a drilling jig for the sleepers and use pegged chairs, or will plain chairs glued to the sleepers be strong enough? I'll need about 1.2 metres of concrete sleepered track, assuming the line reverted to wooden sleepers beyond the crossover (I haven't found a photo yet). Richard

Just been looking at this now with a sandwich in my hand. Advice to everyone: if you are self-employed, do NOT keep model railways at your business premises. I have spent half the morning messing about with Templot instead of earning a living. Anyway, I reckon that if I pull down the overall radius a bit from the current 28" I can fit in a third loop on the outside using curved three way points at each end: building those will be good practice for Woodburn which has one at the entrance to the goods yard. Just for once I have the luxury of not trying to fit too big a prototype into too small a space. Why people bother with O gauge I have no idea. Richard

A bit of planning: big thanks to @richbrummitt for these lovely baseboards. Five coaches and a tender loco (Rothbury race day special) fit comfortably into the shorter of the two storage loops: ideally I'd like three loops but I don't really have the space without resorting to unhelpfully sharp curves. Maybe a traverser or even a train turntable would work better? I'm also wondering whether I can shuffle things a bit closer together in the scenic section and have a short section of embankment: I rather like to see trains running above ground level. Lots to ponder here. Richard

It's a lovely kit but possibly pushing the limits of what you can do with etching. I bottled out of fitting the tiny gussets along the top of the frames, replaced the fold-up etched concrete slabs with Plastikard, and I have no intention of trying to use the etched handrails. Those duckets are just begging for someone to 3D print them in clear plastic. Mine will remain defiantly unglazed as I soldered the roof on before the need for glazing occurred to me. As well as strengthening the brake gear I'd be inclined to fit small angle pieces along the bottom of the sides where they meet the floor: I tried fitting the supplied flat packing strips but locating them is tricky once the body sides are on, and I ended up with one side bowing in slightly. I thought the roof would be a nightmare but it turned out one of the easier bits. All good experience to prepare me for the next challenge: I need a Gresley non-corridor brake third and I've never built a coach before. Should be fun. Richard

I have been plodding away at wagon building in between trying to get my Jinty to run properly: The 16 tonners and the Hybar were built N gauge on 2mmSA chassis so they didn't need much fettling. There are three SR vans, two with Monarch brake gear and one with conventional Morton. The instructions for the Monarch gear were a bit vague and I couldn't find a clear photo until after I had built the first one wrong. Only people obsessed with wagons will notice my mistake. For some reason the 2mmSA SR van body kit is listed as a twin pack but contains enough bits for three vans. Two BR standard vans, one on 4 shoe brakes and the other is 8 shoe, very fiddly to put together but satisfying once it is done. The slope sided MoS mineral is another Association kit and needed a fair amount of work as the supplied floor was much too narrow. Finally the brake van, 2mmSA etched kit and possibly a bit too much for my soldering skills at present. The duckets were especially awkward to solder up, and I broke off one set of brake shoes. There is a weak spot where they are half-etched at a very narrow point: next time I build one of these I will reinforce the shoes from behind before fitting them. Hopefully it will look OK when painted, but it was a steep learning curve. I might try the LNER "Toad E" van next and see if I can make a neater job of it. About twenty wagons should be plenty for "Longwitton". I still need cattle vans, Highfits, RCH 7-plank wagons and a couple more types of 12 ton van. The Rothbury branch didn't have any unusual freight flows requiring special wagons. Richard

Is Bob Jones still making locomotive kits? I'm struggling to find any contact details, the "Small Suppliers" entry links to a blog last updated in 2013 and I haven't found an email address in the newsletter or yearbook. I am going to need North Eastern engines and several of them. Do I need to move to Newcastle and join the NEAG or is there a simpler way? Richard

I have been immersing myself in Longwitton and discovered some fun things: 1. There is a bridleway that runs straight through the station site and then follows the course of the old tramway which led to Longwitton Colliery, a small drift mine which closed in the 1890s. A field trip beckons. Apparently the remains of the platform are still there, along with the road bridge (thankfully not infilled like so many). 2. The station had probably the smallest cast iron gents urinal I have seen, about the size of a telephone box. When I needed a slightly larger one for "Stobs" I was surprised to find that no-one has done the wall panels for these Victorian conveniences as a brass etch. Maybe I should have a go. I can't think of any way to reproduce this other than etching. 3. Concrete sleepers in 1952! Awkward, Easitrac concrete sleeper bases are only available with flatbottom rail. Am I obsessed enough to start glueing bullhead chairs to Easitrac sleepers? 4. A grounded 4 wheel coach body in use as a store, believed ex North British but all pre-grouping coaches look the same to me. If anyone has a slightly substandard etched coach body that they wish to dispose of, I'm interested. Even a small and insignificant station will turn up items of interest if you look hard enough. Richard

Sent you a private message.

At the risk of my simple little test circle suffering from "mission creep" I'm interested. An extra six inches radius would make a big difference. Whereabouts and how much? I have form for this kind of thing: here's my "simple little test oval" in N gauge which somehow ended up as a model of Midford Yard on the S&D with about twenty locomotives acquired specifically to run on it. I have no rational explanation for how that happened.

Does anyone remember "Longwitton"? Built by Ian Futers in 1976/77 in EM gauge, a very simple little station on the Rothbury branch, and circular. I saw it, probably at the Easter York exhibition, and for some reason it fascinated me. I was ten years old. I was reminded of it by seeing the circular folding test track on the "Workbench" thread. The Norfolk group has been looking at building a test track but the design I came up with was a bit too big and complicated. A 4 x 4 folding test circle is a much more sensible proposition, but I cannot see a bare baseboard without wanting to landscape it. So I thought I would see how Ian Futers' design would look in Templot... I have extended the sidings slightly, and I'm not convinced by the pointwork geometry on Futers' hand-drawn original. It certainly looks doable and doesn't stray too far from the concept of a simple circular test track. Realistically I won't be able to start building Woodburn unless I move to somewhere with a larger railway room: meanwhile I will be building locomotives and rolling stock for Woodburn, most of which will be entirely appropriate for Longwitton. Those two curved turnouts are D12s, and even then the radius is down to 17" coming off the running line into the siding. Is that too much to ask of a six-coupled locomotive in 2mm? Richard

A bit more work on the Jinty which now sits almost level on the chassis, just needing a bit of fettling at the back and some means of attaching the body to the chassis. I also tackled the brake gear which was tricky as I have "repurposed" a couple of mounting holes and obliterated a couple more by moving the drive to the rear axle. The photo makes the result look much nicer than it actually is. I thought It looked slightly short and stubby, and the Roche drawing confirms that a bit of length has gone missing, split between the front footplate and the bunker. I might build up the latter with Plastikard, and maybe change those cast coal rails for something a bit nicer. Or maybe I'll just paint it blue with a big red "1" on the side tanks and see if we can get some of the kids into 2mm modelling. Start 'em young... Richard

A bit more work on the compensated chassis after I went to an exhibition and found a 1980s GEM "Jinty" body kit at a 1980s price. Nice clean castings, soldered up easily apart from the cab which I suspect was pushing the limits of what George Mellor could do with whitemetal. It is a bit basic but I'll tart it up with a few details, some nice brass buffers and so on. The kit was designed to fit the old Farish 9400 Pannier chassis, and I was expecting the dimensions to have been stretched slightly. I was surprised to find it is slightly smaller than the new-tool Farish Jinty in every dimension including width, which makes me wonder whether it is actually 2mm scale. It sat much too tall on the Farish chassis to clear the big motor: it will be interesting to see how it looks on my Fencehouses chassis. I have had to change the motor on my chassis as the 8 x 15 flat can fouled the body and not just a little bit. I have a stash of coreless motors in my gloat box, identical to the ones Farish use: one of those just clears the front of the tanks. I need to shorten the frames a bit at the back, and take a bit of metal off the underside of the body, but nothing too tricky. What I don't have is an analogue controller which works well with coreless motors, so I might have to DCC this one just to see if it runs. Richard

Sounds interesting. I suspect most baseboards are far too heavily built, as if we were all still modelling O gauge coarse scale. We have one chap in the Norfolk group who has built his baseboards from balsawood. At the other end of the scale the boards for Longframlington are MDF tops bonded to welded steel frames, and although quite small are actually heavy enough to be difficult to handle (although I can be confident they won't warp). I might try building a 4x1 board to test some of my ideas, and if that isn't an excuse for another layout I don't know what is. Richard

Having read the above I have decided to knit my own baseboards from hemp fibres. I think that should be OK.

A bit of Templot doodling. My first thought was to create a perfect circle in an area about 6'6" square. I started putting in a few sidings and quickly ran out of space on the north side. Nonetheless I managed to get most of the key features including a rather fearsome curved three-way point which should be a good test of my trackbuilding skills. I thought I would see what happened if i extended the baseboard to 8' x 6' Somehow I find this version less pleasing than the first one. There is also a very short siding for an end loading dock which I haven't put into the first plan yet, and the Wickham trolley siding is also absent. I haven't established how far the two headshunts extended. Now giving some serious thought to unconventional baseboard construction. I don't really like the idea of using thick PIR board as I can see it causing all sorts of issues with mounting and adjusting point servos: but having built two layouts in three years I have really gone off plywood as a constructional material. It is horrible splintery stuff and warps every which way. I'm wondering whether sealed MDF top bonded to PIR frame members might give me the combination of lightness and rigidity I am looking for. Richard