NittenDormer

If you want to include a double track crossover, Peco streamline work to a 50mm centre to centre gap, while setrack/Hornby use 67mm. You can get a peco track spacer for about 50p that does both. The larger radius setrack curves (radius 4 to [a theoretical] radius 5), the gap is somewhere in between, around 60mm. What you need depends on what stock (particularly, how long) you are going to run.

A good 15 cm here, kids off school but I was off anyway, wife left work 1.30 (about 1 hour bus journey) and still not reached the point where bus termiates prematurely and she has to walk the last 2 miles... Sledging was freezing until I could turn away from the wind. Does this storm have a proper name (none of this rhyming p*sh.com)?

I enjoyed seeing this at Model Rail Scotland. Possibly the most bizarre shape I have ever seen, fiddle yards popping up everywhere. Particularly liked the undulating shape of the edge to get away from the flat earth look. And the bus UNDER the bridge.

Saturday was incredibly busy (= successful). Crowds di3d away sometime after 4, by which point I was too tired to investigate the traders. Exhibitors seemed pretty drained by that point too. On the important statistics (as compiled by my children) there were many diesels, no A4s, a single turntable (!! what are things coming to!), a last - minute Garrett and a Big Boy or two.

James, there seems (to me) to be too much negativity getting directed towards you. Its going to be YOUR layout. You build it according to what YOU want. There is nothing wrong with the entire surface taken up by track - if that is what you want. There is nothing wrong with set track curves - if that is what you want. There is nothing wrong with ambition. Or gradients. A word of caution though. Can you afford this? By which I mean a couple of thousand on track, plus a few kilometres of wire, a few tonnes of ballast, any scenic stuff? (For you to think about, don't need an answer here). The other factor is time. This is not an overnight build. f you are retired, to be blunt, how long will you stay fit and healthy enough for the work involved? If you are still working, how much time do you have to commit to this? What happens if this enthusiasm doesn't last (particularly a factor if it is going to be a couple of years before trains are running). I get a couple of evenings in the garage per week, if I am lucky. 18 months on, baseboards are not yet finished. Good luck, and happy modelling, whatever you choose.

Why is Northern alway at the bottom of the cascade ladder?

Thanks all for the suggestions, from carefully thought out to 'just chucked some card'. I'm an OOer. Gwiwer - lovely video. Reminds me of the classic comedy situation where 10 people come out of a mini, then 10 more, then 10 more... Thoughts of fiddling with cork abandoned, I am off to eat some more cereal. Bits of card testing commemces tomorrow.

that looks far too simple and straightforward.

Hopefully simple question : when track is super elevated going round a bend, is it always the case that the outer rail goes higher, or does the inner rail ever get lowered? I am going to be using a cork underlay, cut lengthways along the centre of the track, wondering if using two different thicknesses of cork (to support the inside / outside of the track) would be a suitable approach. Thanks

I have a feeling I have seen this before - has it ever been in a magazine? Nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a level of detail in N that I can barely achieve in OO!

Thanks, is that glue alone, or screws as well?

Thanks for the complement, photoshot does wonders! If only it was precisely cut, although I am getting better with practice. Maybe I should set up a thread on 'how many screws have you used?' I can't be the only one going through this sort of volume.

Ok, it sounds like I will need to buy more screws then (I was hoping to reuse them elsewhere once replaced by glue). I may try and find a compromise, where the 'important' joints are glued AND screwed, and the non-important ones are glued and pinned. Or something. For those of you with concerns about the volume of screws and over-engineering of my baseboards, here is one (of 9 needed in total). It is 4 feet x 2.5 feet (1200mm x 750mm). It has 3 x 1200mm uprights, and 5 x 750mm (approx. 1 foot spacing). Each join has 2 x 44x18 timber blocks (1 at top, the other at bottom). Each block has 2 screws (1 connecting it to the 1200mm piece, the other to the 750mm piece). That is 10 blocks along the front, and 10 more along the back = 20 blocks, 40 screws. When I get round to doing the same for the 1200mm centre piece, that will be another 10 blocks and 20 screws. When I get round to attaching the track beds, that will be, erm [pauses to use fingers] 20 screws for the each level (2 screws holding a softwood support to the baseboard, 2 more to hold the trackbed to the support x 5). And there we have it, 100 screws. (Also, I tried a 6mm ply 'sandwich' approach, but the ply felt too flimsy, like I could squeeze the 2 layers together and break them between the softwood blocks.)

So, it is that time of year when a young man's thoughts turn to 'when will my garage be warm enough for wood glue to work'. So far, my baseboards (9mm ply sides) are held together via screws into blocks of softwood at all the joins. I was thinking of replacing the screws with glue, or do I need both? A 600 x 1200 board is absorbing anything from 60 to 100 screws, with 9 boards to make, that is 6-700 screws, which sounds a lot? Or is this normal? Would panel pins + glue be a suitable combination? Are there different sorts of wood glue? I am not sure all my edges are straight and right angled, so is there something generally recommended with a filling-the-gaps element?

Hammer and nails, that's what you want when building a shed.

Blades - I use a Stanley knife, quite often long after it is no longer very sharp. Lots of strokes to cut through 2mm card. Once I understand how the kit fits together (for instance 2nd run through of a scalescenes kit), I use mountboard (1.3mm) instead of 2mm card where I can, even to replacing a double thickness of 2mm with a triple thickness of mountboard. Glue - I use children's PVA from hobbycraft. Takes ages to dry though. Squareness - Megabloks. I've posted a picture somewhere on my Knadgerhill thread if this does not make sense to you. Finally - curves are far more difficult to cut than straight edges. I really struggled with cutting for both a tunnel and an arched bridge. On the other hand, they didn't need any window holes!

I happened to notice a trailer for 'Undateables' during one of the advert breaks.

Everyone will have their own opinion, but I opted for the garage rather than attic for ease of access, and because I would be tramping about above my sleeping children, whereas in the garage I can use power tools with impunity. In terms of temperature etc, the garage is still freezing and dusty, it isn't lined or insulated. I haven't laid any track yet, so I don't know about expansion issues.

All good harmless fun, which is what is important. Best engineering solution so far: "We've lost radio control, get a big stick."

Has anyone else watched The Polar Express (Tom Hanks Christmas cartoon)? I'm fairly sure some scenes are not prototypical - punching tickets to spell words, crossing a frozen lake, questionable gradients... Not to mention ridiculously riding on the front of the locomotive in pyjamas. In winter?

I missed the start. Why are life jackets needed for working on dry ground? I cycled along the Crinan Canal in summer - should we have been wearing them? Health and safety gone mad, I tell ye. Why, when I were a lad....

Its been almost a month since I did anything on the layout. I’ve had flu, Christmas has been both busy and knackering, and the garage has been absolutely freezing. I haven’t had the time or energy to do anything. This week though, things are looking up. I’ve dug out a part-finished Metcalfe cottage, and tonight got back in the garage. Its still cold, but I have discovered an amazing technological solution – wear more clothes! I am starting to think about the next stages already, namely track laying/wiring, and replacing the current screws with glue. But screws are doing fine at the moment, because now that I have established the track bed locations, I need to take the saw to the baseboard framework again, for various reasons – to finalise the contours, to create access points for tunnel rescues and wiring runs. And to lose weight. My front end board is 750mm x 1350mm (2.5 feet x 4.5 feet), the back one is 600mm x 1350mm (2 x 4.5). Even though the back one is smaller by area, it is probably heavier because of its height – a hill rising to about 450mm covering tunnels that disguise the radius 2/3 curves needed. Both of them are to move of course, and will be more so once scenery is applied and I can no longer reach inside the frame to pick up. Unless I can find a way of including handles in the scenery? Hmmm, now there’s a thought. To take the back board as an example, it consists of 3 pieces of plywood longways, 5 pieces across. Each will need to be removed (one at a time so that the structure retains overall stability) and various parts cut away. I’ve made a start with the easiest to get at tonight – the very back most long board, a hefty 1200mm x 600mm (vertical) 9mm ply sheet consisting part sub frame, part backscene. I won’t bore you with a ‘before’ picture, since I’m sure you can picture it, instead I will bore you with the end result: Its not much, but it is a start. I will try not to show off every carving, tempting thought it is. Happy new year!

I've helped exhibit layouts that I have neither built nor really understand the rolling stock I am operating (lets keep that between ourselves). As I don't know the answers to almost all questions, my approach is more a running commentary on what I am doing (helps me get my own head around it), interspersed with plenty of not-at-all-embarrassed 'oops, that's not meant to happen' type comments as the wrong train moves etc. Which raises another question - to what degree should exhibitors come across as competent and professional, and to what degree amateurs doing something they enjoy?

Kind of my point. I think. The goal should be to get healthier, not to lose weight. Losing weight should be a by product, not the target.

What always irritates me about this kind of debate is that it is always about diet, and the other factor, exercise, barely gets a mention. While I appreciate that many on this forum may be past their peak rugby days, as a sweeping generalisation, I wish exercise would be seen as 'normal 'rather than unusual. The mental well being froma well exercised (as opposed to a correct weight but otherwise unfit body), is, I claim utterly un scientifically, rather good.