NittenDormer

wish I was as tall as you.

This sounds like the kind of question the average modeller should already know the answer to, but as yet I have only dabbled with card kits. Iam about to foray into the world of the Wills Vari-Girder bridge. I have PVA, wood glue, superglue and puncture repair 'rubber cement'. (I am guessing I can rule out pritt stick.) Do any of these work on plastic kits? And by 'work', I mean 'stick together'.

You know how I was complaining a while ago about the weather being too bad for modelling (in the unheated garage). Well, now the opposite problem applies - the weather is too good. The bicycle is getting dusted off (and the legs), the Giro is on TV for 3 weeks, the Tour de Yorkshire looked simply stunning... it is a conspiracy. Nonetheless, there is the usual snail-like progress. I am currently working towards laying track out from the fiddle yard, round the first 180-degree curve and along the front. To this end, I am looking at the front-end board: This is the first (of many) pinch points, where the track, having set off at a mere +50mm above the baseboard bottoms, crosses a stream/river. As you can see, the riverbed has been set into the baseboard framework rather than on top, giving me a little more clearance (this also allowed be to use offcuts rather than a new piece, which pleased me far more than it should). There is still only 13mm between the bottom of the track bed and the 50mm-height flat base (the track here is climbing, a classic mish-mash angle of 1mm every 3 inches, although you could call it 1 in 75 if you had to). My 9mm and 5.5mm plywood did not add up to 13mm, so in looking for something to support the track bed, I came across some discarded hardwood venetian blind slats which, when crudely snapped and glued in blocks of 5, fit the 13mm gap perfectly (you can see the two blocks clamped in the background). Strangely, the 13mm blocks seem to fit both sides of the stream gap, although there should be a 1mm or 2mm difference in the height needed. Here is a second angle. The venetian blind supports are doubly useful because there is no other support for the trackbed between the back of the baseboard (where the tunnel-shaped hole is) and the upright nearest the camera. The stream bridge will be approximately between the tissue and the clamp: Meanwhile, at the fiddle yard exit, I have a height difference due to using different thickness of cork on the two boards. As these are 3mm and 2.5mm, the difference should only be 0.5mm, but something will need to go under the non-fiddle-yard trackbed to align it. Strangely, the 2.5mm blind slat seems to work for this too.

I was thinking of naming a country pub "The Pheasant Plucker". In about 5 years, you can find out whether I did (it will take me that long to get round to it).

Nuclear powered steam. To quote Harry Enfield: "Fire's going down dear, best put another lump of plutonium on it."

An important but rarely mentioned issue must be the definitive article that applies to Asda only. One might say 'I'm off to Sainsbos/Tescs/Morros' but 'I'm going to THE Asda'.

Nothing more fun than a bitter family battle for bragging rights. Although if you are anything like me, the little nippers have deliberately sabotaged any adult fitness through disturbed nights and enforced go slows, only to suddenly be able to outrun you, by which point the adult body can no longer adjust to the increased speed. It is a deliberate conspiracy if you ask me l Will this be roundabouts the delights of Skem?

I am currently torn between knuckling down and training hard for one final hurrah, or retiring to sedentary trains. I've had over 20 years of decent road running, but the only chance of a PB these days is to find a distance I have never done. I don't mind the racing, it is the training that is a pain.

My son has the Big Jigs stuff, he is constantly taking it up and relaying. Hours of fun for him. I suspect he will be quite disappointed that my layout will be stuck down and non-changing.

This week I have been mostly... buying second hand points in preparation for track laying. Now I am waiting for them to arrive and see what state they are in.

About 100 pages ago (I know, I am a slow thinker), there was a lot of moaning about bad or pavement parking. Which set me thinking. Would it be a crime to deflate some of the tires, on the basis that this would not cause permanent / criminal damage, but would sufficiently inconvenience the offender. Plus a warning note on the windscreen. For the record. I have never done this, I am not planning to do his, I am not encouraging others to do this. But still, I wonder.... Legal experts (qualified and unqualified) shoot me down.

Bridge, tunnels, racing trains, yep I agree with all that. And so probably does my son, although he seems to really enjoy the taking apart and rebuilding of track as settrack would offer. He spends a lot of time with his Big Jigs wooden track, having given up on me making acceptable progress. Again the adult play, children play distinction as per the Lego Movie comes to mind. The only other suggestion to include (or consciously exclude) is a diamond crossing to allow the required volume of crashes.

Yeah, but what does this have to do with transition curves? Ah! Curtain rails. Something to do with how they sag in the middle when I hang them? I have to say I'm not a fan of CAD, probably because I can't do it. I need to see things 'in the flesh' to picture how it goes together. Help, I'm a luddite!

Somewhere (Model Rail?) had a track plan based on York with the platforms curving. One way to fully utilise the space.

I do like a good card build. And this one is looking good. I tried a Modelrailwayscenery kit (the girder bridge) after a few Scalescenes ones, the slightly different approach in the instructions needs a bit of adjustment but overall I was impressed with the detail.

Gluing this week. I have discovered a new supply of clamps in the wardrobe.

What a strange place for a siding.

I look forward to seeing the bridge over the river just outside K in model form.

Hi, by all means have a gander at my thread, Knadgerhill. All I've done so far is build baseboards. All mine are 'open'. I opted for plywood as being more stable than softwood or other sheet materials, I experimented with 6mm 'sandwiches' but it felt too bendable so went for 9mm ply all round. The 'recommended' minimum height to the track is 100mm, my fiddle yard is at 50mm but the rest of the track is climbing so soon is above 100mm. My boards are around 4 feet x 2 feet, with supports around 1 foot apart. I fou d that putting in a lengthways central support really helped with the stability, I haven't added any diagonal bracing yet but will probably do so at some point. One recommendation from my experience would be to attach the parts with screws at first, even if you are planning to use glue/panel pins later. The various stages of test fitting, tweaking, adjusting etc involved a lot of removing and finessing the various parts as they progressed from rough cuts to the final versions. I concur that plywood frames can be ironmongery-heavy - I calculated around 100 screws per 4 x 2 baseboard. I found it useful to start off with a solid-top 4 x 2 board, so that I had a confirmed right angle to work from. A ply straight edge is also useful, for cutting other ply in straight lines. I use a jigsaw for all my cutting. I started off with absolutely no experience, but have learnt a lot.

I once nearly got a mortgage from the C&G, but went elsewhere in the end. Does that count?

And for the next utterly unexciting development... This weekend I have been mostly replacing screws with glue and panel pins. Apologies that I don't have 'before' and 'after' pictures to amaze you with. It is another point of no return for me, with the joints in question no longer easily reversible if there are problems later on. Because I am an edgy, risk-taking type of guy, I have been gluing in a 6° garage when the bottle says minimum temp 7°. But I am keeping the glued parts in the house overnight.

Smokie - Living Next Door To Lice

The right pictures, just not necessarily in the right order!

2 months since my last update, and yet it doesn't feel like I have very much to show. I have spent quite a lot of time cutting holes in my boards like. ... that proverbial holey thing that escapes me at the moment. I have been testing clearances at some of the pinch points, and established that things (just about) squeeze through : I came up with a way of turning a spirit level into an inclinometer (putting a bit of card under one end) and will be patenting it shortly Working on another module, I have turned this into this And And I have tried my first ever attempt at ballasting, which was fun and could be done in the house. There is still plenty happening, but the cold evenings are finally getting to me and I could do with spring, not least because I have reached the no-turning-back point of gluing the plywood together permanently so that I can get on with track laying and scenery, but it is too cold for the glue to set. Incidentally, my children ballasted some of the track pictured. I am not telling you which though.

So, somewhere round the back, there are still 5 Deltics hidden away? Please let it be true.