Philou

Hello chums and chumesses, Update as promised. Yesterday and today were rather frustrating - though productive but not necessarily in a good way. Notwithstanding birthdays, I started to set out the trackwork at Dymented and it didn't want to go where I thought it should. Rather than fight it I had the bright idea that I should perhaps not use pointwork that I had already unpacked, but make sure that I account for all the trackwork that I need. I therefore unpacked everything that I had in stock and assembled the pointwork in the areas where needed. Frustratingly (I said frustrating day) I found that I am a complete double junction and 2 x Ys short of what I thought I had. There is a double slip to be found, but that's because I reflected on what would happen if I left a single slip in place. I also found that I have about 10 points (wrong handed or wrong radii) too many that I shall now not use - I know how that happened as they were points bought as a Christmas gift. I wonder if my favourite train emporium might consider a swap. I'm going to have to recheck the quantities just in case I've made error somewhere. The day did end on a high as we celebrated Mrs Philou's birthday at a nice restaurant in the evening. Today also fell in the frustrating category as M. le Maire thought that I might need some of my wood stockpile bringing closer to home so that I have a few week's worth at hand for the burner. Good idea. It was piscillating down this morning and I thought he might have called the whole thing off. Wrong! Wood was collected and restocked outside the barn and then off we went in the rain to cut a tree that was leaning rather dangerously over the highway - in the end we cut three down! It wasn't all lost as I got into the barn and started to set out Dymented again and it all fell into place - I even managed to move the 3-way point away from the station running line and into the siding fan. I did use up an additional point but I did have some spare! I have now something that should be more prototypical. I also started to mark ready to cut the underlay - and then - frustration 2! Whilst I was marking, the sun meekly poked its nose out and so off I went and cut all the stocked wood - so productive but not in the way I expected. I do have some pictures: ^ Here is Pontrilas with all the underlay in place. The indent about mid picture is the cattle dock and the goods shed. ^ Here we go. Dymented now set out. In the foreground are the sidings to the unnamed/unspecified industry on the left and to its right the goods shed. Their lengths are denoted by the red mapping pins. Beyond again to the right is the double track through the station. ^ This is a closer look at the fan of sidings. To the left is the headshunt and lead back to the goods shed and industrial sidings. To the right are the sidings that I shall use for the storage of the branchline stock and to the far right is the branchline back up to Ledbury. You may note also the new position of the 3-way point. I did also remember to put in a catch-point - it's wrong-handed but a correct one will be ordered with the rest of the missing pointwork. .Question: Do I need to have one at the bottom of the branchline slope to protect the station from runaways? I would have thought so. ^ This is just a different view of the sidings with the through lines, goods and industry sidings in the background. ^ Here we have a view of the end of the double station through lines leading to the branchline back up to Pontrilas and a head shunt to the right - I might have a coal merchant there just for visual interest. There you have it. I'm quite pleased as it all seems to be coming together (as a dry run). Cheers everyone, More tomorrow, Philip

.......... and she thinks it's possible that will happen once I get into the scenery and track laying. I have said to her a few times 'Don't worry dear, I'll be back at meal times ................. ' She did also think I was being serious when I said I'd get a camp bed in there eventually :)) . Update tomorrow as tonight is birthday night! Cheers everyone, Philip

@JeffP Unfortunately over here they seem to go by some names that bear little or no resemblance to what we would name things in the UK. PVA = colle blanche (expensive) though there is some that is reasonable available in Office Depot type stores and goes under the name of Cléopâtre - safe for kids. Vinyl paint = terrible quality and horribly expensive. Can't beat Dulux Trade Vinyl, goes under the name of Dulux Valentine over here - nowhere near as good. I go to Conforama for paint as it's the same stuff as B&Q (but more expensive natch). Brass = cuivre jaune (yellow copper). I've ordered my 5L of Evo-Stik PVA via Amazon (UK supplier) and it'll be here next week. In the end I also ordered from the UK Amazon site a hot-knife for the polystyrene (I have a UK adapter plug already to go) and an oil-stone to resharpen my Stanley blades (again ordered by the 100s from the UK). The green underlay dulls the blade very quickly and so I'll resharpen them ready for cutting card and plasticard later. Today, chums and chumesses, I couldn't get my act together this afternoon as I felt down. I think it was because I had set all the pointwork up and then had to put it all away again before lunch. Anyway, I perked up later and set about cutting the green stuff to size which I did. As I still had some PVA mix to hand I then stuck the underlay down - the whole of the station and yard is now in green. As I did a slight mis-cut it'll mean a small sliver of underlay to be cut and then stuck - I could probably get away with it and make it disappear under some ballast ;) . No picture today - be the same as the Ledbury one of underlay with lots of mapping pins! Tomorrow is Mrs Philou's birthday so I'll be around the house more and I doubt that I'll get much done in the barn. If I can so do, I shall stick the underlay in the throat area up to the branch line. I shall let that go off and turn my attention to Dymented, by which time my glue should have arrived - yay! Cheers everyone (possibly no update tomorrow), Philip

A late start due to hunting out big bottles of PVA - none to be had locally. The 'other' M. le Builders' Merchant had some 1L bottles of the stuff (good named brand) but at €17 a bottle, I had to decline as I can order it in 5L quantities via Amazon for the same price. It won't matter to me whether it's branded or not as it's to slosh about under and over the underlay and then to glue the polystyrene together and following that, the decor. I did set out the track and pointwork at Pontrilas (I did say lay yesterday, but this is a dry run only) and I was feeling rather proud with myself ...... well, you know that saying ................. I had to take most of it back up as I'd overlooked one thing - three really - the catchpoints. Fortunately there were none as part of the running lines over in the Ledbury area. There are two but they form part of a point and I shall make them to suit (good grief, doing some modelling!). Got the CPs out of my stockpile and inserted them where they should have been and much faffing about later, the track was back in place - now I'm proud of what I've done. Tomorrow I shall do some measurements BEFORE lifting so that I'll know where the track should go once the underlay is stuck in place. Using my marks I can also cut the missing underlay to size. I also have some photos including the now glued underlay at Ledbury: ^ There you have it. The whole of the Ledbury station and yard is now covered in underlay. I left the pins just for show - they were out shortly after to be recycled at Pontrilas. The underlay towards the viaducts (to the right and behind the camera) has also been glued. ^ This is mainly the goods yard with the main lines to the right. The lengths laid are incomplete as I didn't want to cut odd lengths just yet, that will come later when done for real. From the left we have two storage sidings though there may well have been a crane near-to the end of the right hand one of the two. In the centre of the fan is the goods shed siding proper (the curve looks tight but it's not - camera distortion). The pins, yellow and white (as opposed to the white and yellow ones), mark the end of the goods shed siding with the goods shed set back some 200mm back from the end. Given the position of the crane, it is possible it was used to service these two last sidings. Further to the right we have the bay siding, this being marked by the white and yellow pins. To its immediate left was the release road to the bay that was extended as a spur to serve a cattle dock. The length of the spur seemed to have served no more than about 2 cattle wagons and terminated at the same point as the bay. At the extreme right are the main lines - I didn't lay any track here as there's no pointwork involved - so no point really ;). ^ Next we have a close-up of the pointwork in the throat leading to the mainlines with an up and down goods loop to each side curving uphill towards Hereford. The single slip will be replaced by a double slip in due course when I can source one. The gaps are where short sections of rail need to be cut to size to maintain 60mm centres (the 10'). The branch swings off to the left at about midway. To the extreme right is the chemical works siding. I've left this out for the time being as at this stage, I want to deal with the pointwork in the throat. ^ Finally, a view looking downhill from the Hereford approach with the branch on the far right. I am very happy in the way the trackwork is evolving. Here and Ledbury will be the two areas where there's little room for error and it does seem it's looking good even at this dry run stage. So what's next? As mentioned above, tomorrow will be taking some measurements just as checks for when I come to do it for real. I will also mark out where the underlay is to go in the station area. Whilst I'm marking, I shall also mark the edges of the underlay ready for chamfering. Then it'll be lifting all the track (again!) together with the underlay, trimming and tidying the underlay and glueing it in place - Wednesday I think, for that. Cheers everyone and more tomorrow, Philip

It all came to a sticky end. I was into the PVA today and all Ledbury and the approach from the viaducts are covered with stuck-down underlay - yay. I've also started to lay out the track through Pontrilas station and the throat, taking care to align everything (mainly by eye). I've also employed a bit of point-stressing just to achieve a slight curve and it seems to work - the difference just a degree makes. Tomorrow I shall be cutting the underlay to shape - I will need to get more PVA before getting stuck-in. No picture today as all that would have been seen are segments of underlay with lots of mapping pins holding the bits down. I'll post some up tomorrow showing the (hopefully) dry underlay and the trackwork in place at Pontrilas. I think it's looking good. More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Oh, I've already done the shortening to achieve 45mm centres some time ago for some modules for the club (I posted a picture a page or two back) but that was Code 100 and stock that I had bought eons ago - the packs, unopened, bore the price of £1.95 for the points so I didn't mind too much if I got it wrong. It's just that we're now talking of brand new Code 75 stock which is expensive (probably no more so than the 80s values though). I've just given the last of my Code 100 stock to the club, the double slips were still priced at £5.95! Yeah, I used to buy lots of bits and pieces in the 80s, that became the 90s and 00s for 'that layout', and then the barn came along and so did the attraction of Code 75. I have been to see the 'Hills of the North' in the past but missed the track building bits. I'll go back there and re-read. Thanks for the heads-up. Cheers, Philip

@lezz01 I knew about the web cutting quite some ago - but I've no need for too much curving - just a tad. IIRC, you can cut the webbing for the most part except in the vicinity of the frog itself. There were a few threads some time ago regarding variations of complex pointwork just using Peco points (some were dire) but some looked exceedingly professional. This was just an exercise of 'what will happen' without any tools. My angst will commence once I have to shorten the crossovers to get to my 45mm centres! Cheers, Philip

That's an interesting photo - to me anyway. Part of the pointwork is made with an early form of concrete sleepers that are interlaced rather than continuous from one side to the other - nice and eclectic. Apologies to @Dunalastair: I couldn't grab your picture as a quote.

Hello everyone, Today was a tin-and-pin day. 'Eh?' Read on dear fellow RMWebbers: The weather was not really conducive to working in the barn - intermittent rain and very strong winds that have now abated a little. As I was 'slightly' damp from walking the dog I decided to 'do something' in the barn anyway. Joy! I found three partly-used bottles of PVA, still liquid, and I diluted the one down slightly, poured it into the next, rinsed and repeated until I had a litre of nearly-neat PVA. Result! I raided the kitchen cupboards for all the reserves of big tins (Mrs Philou wondering what was going on) and grabbed (if that's the right word) all the remaining map pins and headed back to the barn. One 2" brush and a suitable recipient later and 75% of Ledbury station yard is now covered with stuck-down underlay. There's only the main-line through the platforms and the bay plus siding to do and Ledbury is completed - yay! This I shall do tomorrow as I ran out of tins'n'pins!! If all goes well and the green stuff has stuck, then I'll finish off and then start cutting out the underlay for Pontrilas yard and station. I shall do another dry run of tracklaying there and once happy I'll stick the underlay there as well and then move over to Dymented. I also made a discovery that made me very happy - some of you may know of this already. Without resorting to any tools of any sort (saws included) did you know that you can 'bend' Peco points? I was musing on the point having one in my hand and decided to see if there was any give. Applying gentle pressure, that was a little click and slight movement occurred and indeed the point had bent over so slightly but enough for me! What happened? If you turn the point over you will see that the plastic webbing is made of two parts, the break being two sleepers towards the heel (the frog direction), after the blade hinges. This is a weak point allowing the point to bend just there. It's definitely not a curve, more of a kink I suppose. The kink is reversible, so much so you can bend the other way too. It's only a degree but it's enough to fool the eye into thinking it's a curve, albeit a very shallow one. I checked the plain crossing and the slips but these are made from a continuous piece of webbing - so no give there. My Tillig outside slip does have some slight give over it's whole length but the plastic used is much softer. I'm very happy with my finding as it means I can now create an almost continuous shallow curve throughout the Ledbury mainline (crossings and slips excepted). I will have a similar thing to do within the Pontrilas station throat. :)))). More tomorrow, Yours excitedly, Philip

How interesting - yes really. I would never have guessed that such a railway would have existed - nay - needed. I suspect similar to the lines laid between brickworks and brick clay fields. In Essex there were a few and in one case the Highway Authority built at great expense, an overbridge as part of a new road construction over such a line. Insofar as I am aware the bridge was never used by the railway! I wondered where all the white dog poo went as you don't see any anymore - lots about when I was a kid. Is it all exported to Marrakesh? ;)

Hello chaps and chapesses, Altogether a better day today. I lifted all the temporarily laid track and started again. I traced out a 24mR curve at the foot of the cutting where the banker siding was. From there, centres were marked at 60, 45 and 60mm and I worked outwards from the siding. It was all about a nudge here and a smidgen there and eventually it finally came together. I have a very shallow curve at the end of the platforms (perhaps not quite as sharp as the prototype) and the curve will continue right through, with the pointwork making up some of the curvature ( and no dog-legs!). Tomorrow, I shall measure the gaps between the points so when it comes to laying the trackwork permanently, I shall have some idea of what goes where. Here are a couple of pictures: ^ A view from the viaducts. You will say 'not much difference to the other photos of a couple of days ago'. You'd be almost right but the mainline has been skewed slightly to the right but it means I have to trim a little off the right hand bridge abutment - about 10mm. The bay and sidings are now at a slight angle to the mainline which is prototypically correct. The signal box is there as a placeholder! ^ Now looking from the tunnel end. We have the long crossover that forms the single line into the up and down main. Beyond is the ladder leading into the goods yard with the rest of the pointwork (and signalbox) in the background. The track nearest the camera is the rest of the headshunt to the banker's siding. Not only was it indicated on old OS plans that the cattle dock was along here, but so was the coaling stage. My interpretation of 'reading' the old OS sheets, I came to a view that the cutting may have been slightly unstable as there is an area where the coaling stage used to be, that has a 'circle slip' shape in the hillside where it may have slumped. Perhaps because of that the cattle dock and coaling stage were moved. Where the headshunt ends in the photo there is a retaining wall (you can just the the corner of it) leading all the way to the tunnel mouth. This wall is not shown on the earlier maps and I think there was slumping of the cutting along there too. Tomorrow, I cut the one missing piece of underlay and then I shall glue the whole lot down. I've already marked in pencil where they're to go. I think I may well be under way again - yay! Yesterday, I went to the other builders' merchant and bought what was left of his 50mm EP - all 4 sheets! He does also have some 60mm in stock at €6.30 a sheet that is no more expensive volume-wise. I now need to source the hot knife AND a large tub of PVA that I can slosh about. Definitely more tomorrow! Cheers everyone and enjoy the weekend as it's now started! Philip

And I believe you're right. I haven't seen the book in a long time and couldn't make reference to it. I've never been to Marrakesh ........ perhaps I won't purely based on the smell!

As Alfie Bass would have said, 'Never mind the quality, feel the width'. Just an observation, I have some continental stock dating from the 60s and to be frank, unless you bought Fleischmann, the rest was pants - even some of the cheap end of the Fleischmann looks - well - cheap. I'm glad we have our 00, it doesn't look out of place on the club's layout over here and I believe it to be more correctly proportioned (track/scale notwithstanding) than some offerings, especially steam, made right now on the continent. I would much prefer that we got away from 'it's gotta run on 2nd radius' and have 'proper' models - goes for the continentals as well. Cheers, Philip

@lezz01 Thanks for the heads up regarding London Road Models - I can't honestly say it was on the tip of my tongue! I had a look and their 42' turntable looks to be about right - even though Ledbury was in GWR territory. Mike @The Stationmaster may throw some light on the origins of the turntable as he kindly sent me some photos of the turntable and other bits, that I lost in a hard drive failure - but does look like it. I did also spy a signal box that was entirely built in shiplap that could be adapted for the one at Pontrilas - and the North-West was definitely in LNWR territory. I think you may have successfully spent some money for me! :) Cheers, Philip

Another 'not much happened' day today. I did reset the angle of approach of the double track which seemed to alter things very slightly, but I'm not quite there yet. The other alternative is that I set out the track, taking the long curve into consideration, and trim back a bit on the pre-affixed slopes. I have a nice and sharp Japanese saw that'll have it done in a jiffy - but another look tomorrow in daylight. IF I'm happy with the dry-run, then I'll start glueing the green underlay down followed by a coat of white paint. I can then mark everything out really properly. From Google Earth I was able to determine the curve of the track through Ledbury at about 20mR scale-wise. More tomorrow - not promising any pictures though ;). Cheers, Philip

............ and I understand dog poo was collected by the bucketful by the street urchins in London at 6d a bucket for use in the tanning industry - hence the nice brown colour to the leather - and the awful smell. I think the name given to the poo was 'shining' (read about it a long time ago in a book on Victorian life but can't recall the details). Cheers, Philip

Oh pooh .........

Lime is used in acidic areas - I don't know about East Anglia, but acid soils can be found where there are fir trees and peat - think Welsh and Scottish uplands. I've seen lime being used round here on certain fields occasionally - but I have no idea what crops had been grown before and what was to come. Cheers, Philip

Oh dear, how did I miss this? (We hadn't had the telly on for a couple of days). He is/was my 'local' supplier. Been there a couple of times for bits and pieces and a hard-to-find rail set for one of the grandsons. I wish them well for the future. Philip

Right! I'm back - fingers at the ready. Now, where was I ...........................? Oh yes, 'brzzzzt' and off went everything into the aether, never to be seen again. Here's the jist................... 'Hello chums and chumesses, Today (now yesterday, of course) was a very much better day and I started to cut up some green underlay for the track through Ledbury station and yard. I got so far and decided that I should loose-lay the track and points to ensure that nothing was amiss. I started with the main line through the station platforms as there is no pointwork until the eastern throat. I laid out all the ladders not forgetting to overlay ends as necessary (I'm having 45mm centres on the main - about 27mm to trim off eventually). I had to allow for the transition that starts part way along the platforms. As the curve is very gentle - in the order of 20m radius - it helped in setting out the RTP pointwork. Here are some photos: ^ This the view from the Bromyard Road bridge with the turntable road on the extreme left, cattle dock road and bay platform. The turntable was IIRC a 40' one and I'll need to make the cutout for that and it will protrude into the operating well by about 25mm (1" in old money). There was also a covered coaling stage, GWR-style water tank on brick pillars set into the hillside, a brick-built engineman's (the banker driver and fireman) hut and a corrugated lamp hut. The cattle dock may have moved a bit as it was at one time shown to be mid-way between the turntable and the tunnel. I don't think the bay was ever really used for passengers, though there is an oldish photo showing what may be a workmen's train along there, otherwise it seems to have been somewhere to stock assorted goods wagons. Then come the up and down main held in place with map pins - jolly useful, map pins. To the right is the fan of goods sidings. There are a few photos showing that it was a very busy station at one time. The one shows four locos in steam - two on the main, crossing each other and two shuffling around on the various goods lines. The cattle dock seems to have ended up alongside the signal box with access to it from a fenced off section of the main platform. There was also a side loading dock on the second left siding, adjoining the station building (lower centre right). The stationmaster's house was alongside the station access road (the mis-shapened ply bottom right). Right at the back are other goods lines (see next photo below). The fan of tracks are not complete as I wasn't going to cut track at this stage. ^ This is the view from the tunnel end. To the left is the goods shed siding. The goods shed was quite substantial being built in clapboard and brick and having two cranes inside for loading/unloading. There was, I think, a third crane outside beyond the goods shed towards the buffers - perhaps for heavier/bulkier items? There are then two storage sidings, the up/down lines (omitted here) plus a further siding to their right. Here waited the assisting engine waiting duties. The ladder that you can see in the near-centre comprises: trailing L/hand, plain crossing, double slip, outside single slip, 3-way and a R/hander. All these were observed (well, my interpretation) on various OS plans and drawings and from a few photographs. If you think I'm wrong - let me know as I can still alter things (see further below).' Today's update: From swinging dodgy upside down day before, today went less well. I cut some more underlay, this time for the goods sidings either side of the platforms and so doing, I thought that I should relay the track and points in place with map pins rather solely by eye as I did yesterday - and that's when the wheels came off. I found that the inner most rail (banker siding) just wouldn't sit square against the foot of the cutting. It's a question of a degree or two but as our guests were off this afternoon due to this approaching storm, my afternoon was curtailed and I'll look at it afresh tomorrow. Nothing is yet fixed so if you think the pointwork is 'off' please do let me know as it can be altered (within limits). One good thing happened yesterday. I called into the other builders' merchant to collect some 50mm EP. Not only was it €5.20 a sheet but he had lots in stock - I took 10 and I'm going back tomorrow to see what's left - yay! Now hopefully I shall hit 'send' and the world should light up ............. Cheers everyone and stay safe as this storm seems to have put the wind up (sorry) everyone over here, Philip

Well! I had written a large amount of text plus photos and all of a sudden 'Brzzzzt' it all disappeared. Oh well, I'll re-write it tomorrow. I'm using a laptop with a touch pad and it's doing weird things - too much static electrickery in my fingers. Not the first time it's happened either! Update tomorrow with pictures, Cheers, Philip

Not much happened today but I did start to lay out the green underlay starting at the tunnel end. There wasn't enough done to justify a photo so I'll do one tomorrow - hopefully it'll be most of the station yard done. Cheers, Philip

As mentioned in yesterday's update, not much happened today - in fact, nothing happened. We were invited elsewhere for lunch with our visitors and the weather was not conducive to working away from the warmth of the wood-burner anyway. I did nonetheless take a photo of the loose-laid track running through Ledbury station showing the curve towards the tunnel. Looking at photgraphs of the layout taken from the footbridge, I have a feeling that the curve should be a little sharper - however distortion through the camera lens will have occurred. The OS sheet does show the curve as being shallow. The fact that the curve is relatively flat will help in setting out my proprietary RTP pointwork as I will be able to fudge it more easily and not have to remodel the Peco points - or indeed do some modelling and make my own!! Here is the photo: ^ Not forgetting that the track is just loose-laid in the photo, you can see the tracks on approach from the viaduct (behind the camera) crossing over Bromyard Road and entering the station on the straight. The junction to the branch will normally be in the centre foreground. The end of the platform is actually slightly short of where the right hand track (the Hereford line) stops. When the rails are laid for real, the track will be double almost to the tunnel mouth. The start of the transition leading to the curve starts within the platform about where the platform begins to slope down forming the ramp some 450mm back from the current end of the Hereford track. The prototype shallow curve continues until it reaches the tunnel mouth and is then straight within the tunnel until it arrives towards the eastern portal and starts to curve again. Compression has dictated that the model tunnel will be curved throughout and naturally the curve to allow this to happen has to start within the confines of the station area. Mrs Philou has reminded me that we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, so I think any work will be limited to the morning only :( . Cheers everyone and stay safe, Philip

Well! Not a lot more today, but we do have some photos. As mentioned yesterday, a short section of the mainline was set up and tested yesterday with Hawksworth coaches. Today, I got the 80x coaches out and they too passed each other with a some air-space between. I had a lightbuld moment with a bit of whataboutery - what about Centenary coaches? These were made to a more generous width by the GWR and out they came and onto the track. No problem with clearance but I was surprised that there was less than the 80x coaches. The whole exercise was repeated but with the track canted by 1mm. All the coaches passed the test run, so I will now do a proper section correctly set out and ballasted - just for fun! :( . I couldn't gather my thoughts properly this afternoon and so I had a tidy-up with dust-pan and brush and all my surfaces are clear of dust and off-cuts ready for the laying of the green stuff in the station areas. I didn't mention yesterday but in realigning the main line, I have gained 50mm on the length of the station area of Dymented - so waggle room in abundance. As I had a little time after the clean-up, I thought I would set out the trackwork through Ledbury station to try and establish the curvature needed as it is very shallow indeed. I think the angle of approach from the viaduct isn't quite as acute as it could have been (only a degree or two) and the curve is shallower than intended - but the Mark I eyeball says that it looks good. I didn't take a photo as the camera was already back indoors, so I'll do one tomorrow. There won't be any work done as it's Sunday and we've visitors who are staying ALL week. Onto some pictures - they're all similar so just a few including the realigned mainline: ^ The realigned mainline with additional land space at Dymented - it won't make an awful lot of difference but I can align the trackwork in the station more satisfactorily. I did check the headroom for the branchline dive-under! ^ Here are two Class 80x coaches on the curve - due to the camera angle there doesn't appear to be much space between them - there is about 5mm. ^ Two Hawksworth (or are they Collett) coaches on the same track but now canted. You can see the 1mm card on the inner left-hand track. All the coaches passed each other without issues. I can't really see a difference between the canted and uncanted tracks on the outer edges - can you? I'll do a short section later and have it decorated just to see what it looks like. Have a good weekend everyone, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, The news is good. The elevated section is completed bar a piece of underlay. Bad news is that I didn't take any pictures - they'll have to keep for tomorrow - boo. As the weather was again grim, I amused myself with my jig and four pieces of flexi-track and set out a short section of the 4-track line out of Pontrilas. I set up the pieces on a 1500mm curve at 45mm centres for the main and 60mm for the loops. They were only loose laid but it was just to get a feel of what it could look like. The jig worked, but I had to be gentle as the track was loose so the jig would 'grab' it if I removed it too quickly. The good news was that two Bachmann Hawksworth (or were they Collett) coaches would pass each other with oodles (OK a few millimetres) of clearance. Tomorrow I will dig out my MkV (Class 8xx) coaches and repeat the exercise. I could see them, but they were at the bottom of a rather big container and time was up for me for today. I will also cant the outer rails with some 1mm card and see what effect that has as well. I will report back with pictures. One thing I have understood is that I shall have to mark out clearly a good centre line to set the track out on a 'proper' curve. I can't say that what was loose-laid was dog-legged, but it could have been better ;). I happened to pass another builders' merchant today in our nearest large village (I usually avoid as his prices are no better than my M. le Builders' Merchant). I asked his prices for 50mm EP and he had some in 500mm x 1.2m sheets (but only 5 sheets) at €5.20 a sheet which is €20.80 equivalent large sheet - now we're talking - and he's having some more delivered soon. So Monday, I shall buy up what's left (couldn't do it today as I was off elsewhere in a rush as usual!). Hopefully lots more tomorrow. Cheers, Philip