Tortuga

Thanks for the advice gents. In the short term, I’ll look at getting some tip restorer and, if I can, some more replacement tips - if I remember right I got the soldering iron as a Christmas/birthday present when I was still living with my parents - but I suspect they’re long out of manufacture, so it’s probably time to invest in a new soldering iron… To move the project on, I’m going to scrap the copper clad sleepers - not happy with their appearance tbh - and reinstate plastic sleepers at the board joints, though I’ll reinforce their positions using track pins through the webbing for added security.

I’ve got one fresh tip left. I’ll hook that in and try tinning it. I’ll ditch the brass wool and stick with a sponge in future. No idea on temperature. It’s a 2.4mm chisel tip. When I’ve been trying to tin the ends of wire, I’ve held the iron on the wire until I can’t hold it, but the solder won’t melt into the wire… I’m leaning toward the tip being knackered. I’ll try the remaining replacement, but it looks like I’m going to struggle getting any more: recommendations for a new soldering iron anyone?

It was a fresh tip. I was using brass wool to clean it, but recently got a stand with a sponge so I’ve been using that as the brass wool didn’t seem to be doing much to clean the tip.

I think so. It’s the solder and flux combo recommended by C&L Finescale for attaching feeds to their pre-assembled frogs. I did try some other solder - that came with the soldering iron and has no details as to what type of solder it is - but had the same result with that as well. I don’t understand why either solder isn’t sticking to anything or tinning the bit. I didn’t have any issues when I carried out similar soldering work on Alsop and was quite encouraged by how easy I found it having dreaded having to do it. Now it’s turned into a dark art again and I’m feeling like I’ve wasted my time.

After about 30 minutes of burnt fingers and solder going everywhere but where I wanted, this was the result of my attempt at soldering rails to copper clad sleepers: There’s eight soldered points there, none of which have actually secured the rail to the sleeper and all of which are a right mess. What am I doing wrong? It’s a Weller 2015 model. The solder is Carrs 145 detail solder. The tip is clean and I’m using Carrs orange flux. I can’t get the solder to melt unless it’s in direct contact with the tip of the iron and then it just forms balls or slugs that don’t actually stick to any surface. I can’t even get the solder to stick to the tip of the iron in order to tin it and I can’t even tin the ends of wire. Can someone who has ANY experience of soldering please please please suggest some advice?

Is there clearance to mount the rodding underneath the board?

Surely that depends on which end you take the photo of when one side is visible? I mean, if you paint one side and one end Express Dairies and the other side and end United Dairies, won’t you get two wagons for the price of one? Side on you can only see the side facing you and the same when end on. 3/4 view you’ll see one side and one end so as long as the end matches the side, surely it’ll look right? Of course, Squadron Leader will have to avoid his overhead shots…

Looks good Chris @chuffinghell. Is that one of the Serious Play sheep? PS: maybe it’s not wearing leg warmers, but wrinkled stockings? Maybe it’s Nora Baaatty?

Took a couple of hours off from wardrobe construction to visit a small local exhibition this afternoon. About fifteen layouts with a high proportion of N gauge ones and a nice range of prototypes. Quite liked the Eastern Region shed layout (“Heathcote” I think), as it had a lot of (apparently) automated movements, and there were a couple of nicely presented Western Region shunting layouts as well. Came away with a couple of cheap (ish) wagons to try out weathering printed finishes on - I want to get that almost-completely-gone-original-owners-livery effect common to ex-PO stock in the fifties - and a hopper wagon to bash into something approaching prototype dimensions.

How are you doing your drystone walling Jay? Both Whaley Shunt and Alsop are going to have that Derbyshire type of walling (a LOT in the case of Whaley) and I’m not sure how best to go about it…

Very neat painting and shading. Which part of Warren is that?

That’s not such a bad idea…

Looks to be another interesting project Rob. What’s the underside of each table like? Is there room for bolts below the surface to fasten the tables together or would it be a case of over-centre catches on the outer edges? Are you intending to infill the surface up to the top of the lip or just build up a trackbed leaving 8mm for scenic development below track level?

I think sheep breeds are yet another potential minefield - different breeds in different areas and different time periods - same as everything else once you get down to the details. I still think the Modelu sheep are a bit on the small side, but they’d probably be perfect toward the back of a layout or somewhere where there isn’t another obvious point of reference for size (ie not with Farmer Hoggett or next to a five bar gate). The other thing that might be throwing me is; what breed are they? They look fairly chunky with quite a woolly head, so perhaps my brain is saying they should be one of the larger breeds? Or maybe it’s because I’m used to encountering larger breeds of sheep when I go walking?

Also the Modelu sheep don’t look intimidating enough to mug you for your jam sandwiches or Bakewell tarts.

The Modelu sheep look too small to me - Farmer Hoggett’s collie is the same size as they are!

Work on the extension has been progressing slowly, but I’ve now got sleepers for all four tracks laid on the extension board apart from the ends beyond the loop release points. I say sleepers as I’ve still got holes for four droppers to drill on the long siding (left hand-most track) and the left hand road of the loop. I’ve also got to sort out the holes for the solenoids on the loop points as they’ve somehow ended up being too far to the right, no idea how. After that I’ll make up the copper clad sleepers on the Inglenook board then solder all the relevant rails to them. On that note, I’m still having issues with my soldering iron. I changed the bit for a fresh one, but couldn’t for the life of me get it to tin.

Having just completed wrestling two medium radius points into the correct 6’ spacing (as per your excellent tutorial) and had a bash at building my own track, um… …both methods have their merits and drawbacks?

Looks good to my eye. Doubt it would be massively rusty during your time period.

Don’t forget the tea caddy and bacon sandwiches!

Results of the last couple of evenings work: Lengths of sleepers stuck down on all four lines (they were laid with rails in place), sections of sleepers removed from the two lower lines pending replacement by copper clad sleepers to keep alignment and work started on narrowing the gap between the two points of the loop crossover. Getting there slowly!

Hence the quotation marks! 😜

Popped up on my FB too a couple of days ago. Looks to be mounted on an old 6-wheel tender frame (centre wheels removed) - possibly Webb? I like the “buffer stop” in front - doubt that would survive a heavy shunt!

Or not. Turns out that the equalised timbering of the PECO Y point doesn’t lend itself to reducing the distance between track centres without more effort than I’m prepared to spend on it (especially given that it’s lost the wire to it’s frog); so, guess who’ll be visiting his local model shop tomorrow?

Photos of last night’s track laying - first up, with weights and track protectors (tm) still in place: Will it all still be aligned? With the weights removed: all seems to be as I left it - and stuck solid, which is a definite plus! Next to deal with the centre track, but I’ll need to commit some point butchery a la @LNER4479 first...