Nearholmer

We can’t tempt into any less usual stuff, can we?

Or, maybe seat belts were closely based on model “rough-shunt” wagons. There’s a diagram of how to make one in MR&L magazine c1910, and there is also a description of building a rotary interia wagon to make small scale live steam operation more realistic, which is another idea that gets reinvented periodically.

It still looks like a big, ponderous thing even in that livery

I’ve long thought that much of reality is rather overrated, and that even “the best” model railways require so much self-delusion to make them seem realistic when seen in the flesh, that I sort of don’t prize “realism” all that highly. Sometimes, I think that evocation does the job just as well, if not better.

Brilliant magazine, which covers both very interesting prototypes, and some very stylish modelling. When I was into NG, I subscribed, and had every edition up to maybe some date in about 2018. The other magazine to consider is Narrow Gauge & Shortlines Gazette, the much older US equivalent of this and NG&IRM, which I suspect inspired both to some degree. i hope that selling it proves to be a good decision commercially, because it does deserve to be better known. Next challenge must be to find and import an equivalent Japanese publication, because quirky NG modelling is a very popular thing there, but only gets very occasional exposure here. All three mags mentioned above have carried articles by Japanese modellers over the years, but there is a sort of untapped (by people who don’t speak Japanese) well of craft and aesthetic there. Victors imported a couple of Japanese books of photos of NG layouts way back in the late-1970s, but I’ve seen nothing since.

The name of an entire family of SNCF loco designs, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Cassé

Is that what it is. I’ve seen them about on the railway, I think even ridden behind (or in front) of them on Chiltern, but wasn’t even moved to google them.

TBH, having slavishly followed it, I’m becoming suspicious of Peco’s diagram myself now! I’ve fixed the unifrog double-slip down, so can’t look at the underside to see whether that offers any useful clues, but viewing it from above, thinking what must be connected to what, and “dabbing out” with a continuity tester, which confirms my thinking, I now can’t see why all, indeed any of, those rail-breaks are necessary for “live frog operation”, any more than they are for “dead frog”. The only reason I can see for having rail-breaks is for sectionalisation if using straight DC with more than one controller in use on the layout (e.g. Up and Down Road controllers on a double-track circuit), and even more so if “cab control” is being used to switch sections between controllers, and I’m beginning to think that Peco have given instructions based on that case, just in case that is what someone is doing, rather than a long list of ifs, buts and maybes that could lead to confusion ….. it seems to be a sort of worst-case wiring diagram. Thoughts?

In a tense contest today, a panel of expert judges attempted to decide which of the finalists would take home the coveted crown as “Britain’s Ugliest Diesel Locomotive”. So close was the ballot that the chairman, Sir Vernon Windbag-Aesthete, was forced to use his casting vote, declaring: “My decision is that that thing on the right, whatever is, is the winner, because whoever designed it clearly made a stupendous effort to achieve extreme unpleasantness, right down to the clever way in which the livery is used to emphasise its worst features, which is a stroke of genius. It almost hurts to look at it, which is perhaps the highest accolade that I can bestow. The runner-up is undoubtedly a very strong contender indeed, but doesn’t quite reach the heights, because it conveys a slight impression that it’s ugliness is more the result of omission, that the designer simply couldn’t be bothered to make it beautiful, than of deliberate design decisions, although I do appreciate that stupefying dullness is a worthy quality in itself.”. The winning locomotive will now go on to compete against machines from all over Europe, including the renowned former Eastern Bloc classes that have made such a strong showing in previous years.

TBH, I would always ensure that “frogs” are live, and switched via proper contacts, not fortuitous contact at switchblades, on all point-work. It’s not difficult to achieve, and it puts one more thing in the finely-poised balance in favour of the trains doing what you want them to do, when you want them to do it!

May bro has sent me this, of CH at its moodiest, taken as he was walking his dog this morning, trying to dodge an impending downpour.

Back to “live frogging” the double-slips for a moment: This is the diagram provided by Peco (including typo that says it’s a single-slip!): I think the need to insulate all the rails must be dictated by how the various bits of metalwork in the centre of the assembly are fed, and the need to avoid passing short-circuits between wing-rails and opposite polarity running rails being caused by wheels, but I’ll have to peer at it, and draw a diagram, to be sure. If what Peco are instructing is truly necessary, and not a bit of excess caution on their part, the insulating gaps/joiners need to go in at track-laying stage if future “live frogging” is contemplated.

Now you ask, I realise that I have no idea! Starting with shows in the scout hut opposite infant school, I’ve been going to MR exhibitions under my own steam “forever”, and if “big” means London, I can’t actually remember when I first went to Central Hall, just thatvitcwascunvomfortably busy, which made seeing things a real difficulty.

That I get. But, if you connect them to the rest of the railway, no insulating gaps, and then later implement “frog switching”, won’t conditions exist where the section of rail adjacent to the frog ends up at the wrong polarity. I’m not at home at the moment, so can’t study the turnouts or the instructions to be certain, so I’ll look closely later. It’s the double-slip that I’m thinking of particularly, but the concern may apply to all (no, it doesn’t apply to all, only the slip).

Just for education, since I’m not a DCC user: how does that work? Surely if you don’t leave the rail-breaks, then at a later stage implement switching of the feeds to the frogs, that will create short-circuits?

A guy I used to work for would get very annoyed about what he called “fart and fly forward” project management (explanation available if required) but as a means of propulsion for crossing a continent it might work quite well.

Ah, those are the things I saw in the shop; I thought they were by DCC Concepts. Drill bit? 0.75mm I think is what I’ve been using.

I’m going to make a cosmetic (i.e. non-working) trap on mine next week at some stage, so when I’ve done that you will be able to see it and laugh/take inspiration.

Fine file for dressing rail ends? Very fine drill bit for making pilot holes for track pins?

I’m assuming you’re doing this properly “live frog”, in which case, if you consult the instructions in the pack, there is a diagram of where the rail-breaks need to be. Peco recommend insulated rail joiners, but to me their standard plastic joiner seems unduly crude for this scale (except the gauge) track, so I’ve simply left tiny gaps, hopefully big enough not to get bridged due to heat expansion of the rail. The other thing to think about is how you will secure the rail ends at the baseboard joint, if you’ve never done that before. There are as many options as there are people who do it, and I think DCC Concepts sell a pre-made thingamajig for the job. If you wade though the lower thread linked below my signature, you’ll see how I’ve done it this time round, which seems robust (although I completely messed one up this morning!), and could be made very neat by someone with better close-work skills than mine.

If you’ve never laid track before, you’ll definitely need to take this slowly and steadily, because the Code 75 BH is quite delicate stuff. By choosing that, you aren’t exactly diving in at the deep end, but certainly aren’t in the paddling pool. Do you have the necessary tools? The curves are quite tight, and I’d very definitely want to be using templates (Tracksetta or similar) to avoid kinks, and you’ll have some decisions to make about how to deal with the insulating gaps/joints around those double slips. PS: where is the fold line in this board?

That was looking sort of maybe OK for a laugh, until I got yo the picture of the dinner. What the dickens is that!!??

What is the significance of your username? I read it as a voltage transformer, but is that what it means?

Another slip too. I managed to bngger-up the cutting of the very last track-across-baseboard-joint, damaging the track in the process, so I’m going to have to re-do a section somehow. It’s such a short piece of rail, between the board crossing and the FY turntable that I think I’m going to have to put in a line of brass pins, and solder the rail to the heads of those, possibly using ply sleepers. Is that “Brook-Smith Method”, or is that a form of artificial respiration? I can imagine the section concerned might need to be heavily dosed with spilt sand, and heavily overgrown, for cosmetic reasons!

A good option if you want to stick with a generally wooden form of construction is to use concrete “spur posts”. These are short posts, to which wooden posts are bolted so that they are clear of the soil. I did all of our (tall, and long, heavy panels) garden fence with them, and that has survived unscathed, while our neighbour’s, done at the same time, came down last year due to rotted posts and cost him a fortune to have rebuilt. For plywood away from the soil, yacht varnish is incredibly durable too. On a former line I made a long girder (8ft) to cross an area where I didn’t want posts, using 2x1 softwood and ply to make an I-box, which I then gave three coats of yacht varnish (first one let down 50:50), and that shrugged-off the rain and damp. Soil and stagnant air are the enemies of wood, because the one is full of cellulose recyling bugs, and the other encourages them to take up residence.