Tortuga

Looking at that overall view, I’m considering the early stages of scenery. I also think I’ve made the trackbed next to the point for the goods shed siding too narrow - from photos and maps, it looks like the brook curves away from there rather than running alongside, sort of like this: (Green for the edges of the brook and a slope leading up to track level, blue for the brook itself) Thoughts?

Many thanks gentlemen! Certainly feels like I’m finally getting somewhere! Tuesday night saw work on the left hand point that will eventually lead to the goods shed siding and more track laying in the form of the approach track (or headshunt when in inglenook layout form). The point needed a minor modification as the sidings curve gently, so I followed the helpful “how to” that @LNER4479 posted on his ‘Hills of the North’ thread back in March 2023 (on the 27th: I’ve bookmarked it for useful reference) and ended up with this: A nice slightly curved point. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I took the opportunity to remove the angled sleeper from the heel end (which I also did with the 3-way point). Although it’s not a great shot, I feel I’ve managed to achieve a nice “flow” to the track, despite using proprietary points.

Looks like cork sheet painted light grey to me?

@NHY 581 I meant to ask on Sunday, but forgot (or I did ask, but I’ve forgotten): how big is the fiddly yard attachment for Bleat Wharf?

He did say it was moving at speed… 😁

Aaaaand progress! For which I blame Jay. And possibly Rob, but the majority of blame is definitely on Jay. I’ll explain. During one of our chats at Stafford, the subject of Shallcross came up and, long story short, I’ve decided to scrap reusing my mangled PECO 3-way point. I could carry on with modifying it, but since it’s the key point (no pun intended) on the layout and I’ve no real way of knowing if it’ll work reliably until it’s a complete PITA to remove, I took the plunge and purchased a new one from one of the traders. Which is entirely Jay’s fault for (quite rightly) putting doubt in my mind! I decided there was no reason to modify the new point: after all if Bleat Wharf gets mistaken for an EM gauge layout, why should I risk damaging the replacement point in order to make visual improvements that most people aren’t going to pick up on? The exercise with the stretcher bar has given me a solution to use for the hand built points on Alsop (which was one reason for building this layout), but was making this project more long winded than I wanted. Having said that, I did add feeds to the point blades: previous experience has left me reluctant to rely on contact between blades and stock rails for electrical continuity. The first one I had no problem with, but I struggled with the other three: although the wire got hot enough to toast my fingers, the solder refused to melt unless in direct contact with the soldering iron. Good job no-one’s going to see the underside of this point! Any ideas why I encountered this issue? With feeds attached, holes to accommodate them drilled in the baseboard, correct fishplates added and holes drilled for the two SEEP point motors (another two purchase from Stafford) the first track was finally laid on Whaley Shunt, quickly followed by two shortish lengths forming two of the three sidings. The two point motors for the 3-way point were screwed into place on the underside of the trackbed. I need to (carefully!) open up the hole in the baseboard under the right hand one as it doesn’t quite switch the point fully in one direction, despite my careful drilling. Oh well. Once that was done, I weighed down the track in position using the time honoured method of tins raided from the pantry together with MDF offcuts to prevent damage and left everything to dry overnight.

Sunday just gone saw me head to Stafford for this year’s Model Railway Exhibition (last year I shared my experience on the Alsop thread, so it’s Whaley Shunt’s turn). As promised there were loads of layouts to see and I spotted a couple I recognised from smaller local events earlier in the year. This time I felt the balance was slightly in favour of steam rather than diesel layouts although there was still a good representation of different scales. I also thought it was busier this year, though not to its detriment, and I still managed to see just about everything. It was great to see Bleat Wharf on its last outing and meet its operating team. I kept circling back for repeated chats with Rob and Jay and both gentlemen made me feel most welcome. I was surprised how small Bleat Wharf is - Rob’s photos make it appear so much bigger than it really is. As with last year there were a lot of traders. I purchased Volume 5 of ‘The Acquired Wagons of British Railways’ (which I’ve been promising myself since it was published), but aside from that and one, alright, three, impulse purchases (more of which later), I think my wallet got off lightly! By the time I got home I was exhausted - I narrowly avoided falling asleep on the train! - but I enjoyed myself immensely and once again, I’m looking forward to going again next year.

Nice to see you got back safe Jay. Really enjoyed meeting you (and Rob) yesterday. Hopefully my repeated circling back for a chat didn’t distract the operating too much!

Glad to see you made it back safe and sound yesterday. Really enjoyed seeing Bleat Wharf and finally meeting you (and Jay): thank you for making me feel welcome and putting up with my repeated circling back! Of course the real question is: did you make it back before the Rugby kicked off?

Much better and congratulations on taking the plunge to get it corrected improve it! I’m sure we’ve all been there (I know I have) and at least half the battle is psyching yourself up to take a knife to a model* that you were perfectly happy with until you noticed / someone pointed out some niggling error. (*or rip up the track again / demolish some scenery / pull down a wall / re-solder balance weights / etc. etc. etc.)

Looking forward to seeing Bleat Wharf (and hopefully meeting your good self and your assistant) at Stafford on Sunday. I’m intending on catching the train - hoping the vintage shuttle bus service is in operation again this year (must double check) - but if not, hopefully Klementine is up for a little drive!

I might just look to get hold of some of that myself. Daft question, where would I find it?

Bit of careful prising with a scalpel at the glued joints? I‘ve managed to get those levers off once superglued before using this method - don’t use a brand new blade, work around the joint as much as possible and wear eye protection just in case!

The bend to clear the axlebox on the brake lever is the on wrong side of the lever guard? How do you build up your 51L brake gear @Graham T - solder or superglue? Could you detach the levers, straighten them out and reattach them?

That wouldn’t have been the LMS Roadstone Wagon would it? I remember seeing that as a “coming soon” on the website, but next time I visited, Cambrian was under new ownership and there was no sign of it.

Can you not do the same, but use a longer length of brass rod bent to shape around the NEM block? Or alternatively two much shorter sections of brass rod, one on each side of the NEM block? Scratch that. You’d already come up with two alternatives! I didn’t want to suggest removing the NEM block in case you needed it, forgetting you use scale couplings! Looks good by the way and even though it’s barely visible, it’s one of those things that’ll jar if it’s not there and you know it should be.

Didn't you mention something about moving into the Garage Rob?

Thanks for the advice gents. I’ve a feeling I already have a self latching SEEP motor floating around somewhere in the railway room, so I’ll dig that out and invest in another to use on the tandem point @JustinDean. I might as well try using the inbuilt switch for frog polarity. If it turns out to be unreliable as you both suggest @dasatcopthorne and @MarshLane, I can always look into an alternative method.

In that case, rather than a barrow crossing, why not have the ballast built up level with the sleeper tops, similar to what you’d find in a loco depot?

Right, I need some advice. 1) Having dispensed with the PECO spring mechanism, should I be using a self latching solenoid or would this one do the job? 2) If this one will do the job, will the auxiliary switch do for switching frog polarity? 3) If I need a self latching one, does anyone know if it’s possible to adapt what I have to be self latching? (I’d like to make use of it if possible…) Cheers in advance!

Wot? Diesels?

The opportunity for a bit more progress presented itself tonight and was duly seized with both hands. With the point and its blades in place, a trial and error approach was adopted to get the spacing of the toe end of the blades correct. Several attempts later and this was the result: This is a variation on what I aim to use on Alsop where the point blades are operated by thin wires passing from the tip of each blade, through the baseboard, to the operating mechanism underneath, with the stretcher bar keeping the blades to gauge. I want to avoid soldering the wires directly to copper strip, hence the pivot arrangement to eliminate stress between the blades and the stretcher bar. With Whaley Shunt I also need the stretcher bar to operate the point, so, apart from the operating bar being on the upper surface of the baseboard, I need a similar pivot between the blades and the stretcher bar. The “tab” at the left-hand end will take the operating wire from the solenoid point motor, but I didn’t think plain strip would be rigid enough hence the extra deep stretcher bar forming a partial T-section on the top of the operating bar. Just to show how it all looks: Set for the straight road and… …set for the diverging road. Despite careful measuring and drilling, I’ve ended up with about 1mm clearance between the blade and the stock rail, rather than the 2mm of an unmodified point. Trials involving pushing a wagon and a couple of locos over it didn’t result in any derailments, but I guess I won’t really know until I get the whole thing wired up and running properly… First I’ve got to repeat the whole exercise with the other set of blades!

Ah, see I got my pack from Wizard. It’s a set of LP4 ready assembled jobs - I guess I can remove the end link of each one and replace it?

I’m going to try three links out - I’ve already got a pack of Smiths ones - but now you lot have got me worried! On Alsop they should be fine as stock will probably remain coupled together most of the time, but I’m intending to use the same wagons on Whaley Shunt…

Last night, while T’missus and Chaos One were out at some football match and after tucking Chaos Two up in bed, I screwed up my courage and fired up the soldering iron. Since the original means of fixing the blades to the rest of the point was dodgy (at best, absent at worst), my solution was to solder fine brass (hand rail) wire into the fold of each blade to make fine wire “tails”: I also cut off the “tab” at the toe end of the blade and soldered on an ‘L’ shaped bit of handrail wire: Holes that were a tight fit for lengths of 30 Thou (0.75mm) diameter brass tube were drilled through the baseboard in the centres of the point’s blade pivot holes: Thus the wire “tail” fits inside the brass tubes to form secure pivots for the blades while the ‘L’ shape will fit into shorter lengths of 30 Thou tube and form pivots in the stretcher bar. Under the baseboard, the “tails” from the blade pivots will be bent at 90 degrees to secure the blades and I’ll solder feeds for the blades to them when I get round to doing the electrickery. I ran out of time last night to sort out the stretcher bar, but initial tests were promising! At least with these bits in place I can get the blade spacing on the stretcher bar right!