Brummyrlb

On 08/11/2020 at 23:50, Dagworth said:

Are these the points with the little tongue behind the blade that goes under the stock rail? If so the tongues probably need cleaning or bending up very slightly 

 

Andi

Thanks Andi unfortunately they’re not that type 

On 09/11/2020 at 10:30, Free At Last said:

I was wondering what a Brummell was.

Eh ? 

can anyone help me with peco point problems ? Briefly , the problems are mechanical ( ‘ bouncing ‘ ) or failing to conduct electricity . I have over 70 on the layout , all controlled by the ancient triangle / Hornby passing contact levers . Unless I’m consistently doing something wrong , fitting the motor underneath requires an accuracy of less than half a mm , such accuracy being almost a lottery under the board with one hand free !  This can be the difference between working properly or not . I suspect temperature and or humidity are playing a part , the board is 12mm MDF . Even when the point changes perfectly with a clean snap does not guarantee conducting and a mere feather touch to the blade restores power .  At the moment I have 11 playing up , an all time record . 

 can anyone tell me where I can acquire decent loco yard lamps ? All I can find are those dreadful too short made in China things with a lamp hanging off a 90 degree bracket . The ladder rings are even rounded where they abut to the sides . Cheapo out  of scale junk  . 
The most common style is approx 20 feet with the lamp hanging under a vertically rectangular mounting on top of the pole . Can’t believe these just don’t seem to exist . If I get Re directed to another load of Chinese rubbish on e bay again I’m going to scream ! 
help ! Please ! 

 can anyone tell me where I can acquire decent loco yard lamps ? All I can find are those dreadful too short made in China things with a lamp hanging off a 90 degree bracket . The ladder rings are even rounded where they abut to the sides . Cheapo out  of scale junk  . 
The most common style is approx 20 feet with the lamp hanging under a vertically rectangular mounting on top of the pole . Can’t believe these just don’t seem to exist . If I get Re directed to another load of Chinese rubbish on e bay again I’m going to scream ! 
help ! Please ! 

Got the ballast pre colouring sorted but now I’m struggling to find a pva glue that DOESNT leave a glazed ‘snail trail ‘ across the sleepers - Tamiya matting agent noted Thankyou for that - yet to source it . Ballast bond works great but DOES NOT dry Matt ! There has to be a glue out there somewhere , no one seems to address the glazing problem HELP !

Thanks to everyone who commented on my ballast meanderings ! I do intend to do a final weathering with an airbrush , but I remain very dissatisfied with the colours ‘straight out of the jar . To date I’ve had some success colouring the ballast by shaking it with a dab of weathering powder . Caution with the work area this is a serious contaminant ! Trouble is , much of the colour is lost in the track wetting process . I’m testing Ballast bond currently , but it does not dry Matt as it says on the tin , glazing my painted sleepers . It spreads wonderfully on a wet bed , but tends to drag the ballast on a dry bed . Maybe I’m doing something wrong? . In the colouring experiments I’ve found that adding water to the powder / ballast mix does improve its resilience to being ‘washed off ‘ , but the business of drying it out is lengthy and it’s less ‘tweakable ‘ .

It’s a case of stirred NOT shaken when tweaking the colours because otherwise the pile gets bigger and bigger but doesn’t change much in shade , the added ballast colour being polluted by the powder already in main mix . Any comments very appreciated .

Thanks to everyone who commented on my ballast meanderings ! I do intend to do a final weathering with an airbrush , but I remain very dissatisfied with the colours ‘straight out of the jar . To date I’ve had some success colouring the ballast by shaking it with a dab of weathering powder . Caution with the work area this is a serious contaminant ! Trouble is , much of the colour is lost in the track wetting process . I’m testing Ballast bond currently , but it does not dry Matt as it says on the tin , glazing my painted sleepers . It spreads wonderfully on a wet bed , but tends to drag the ballast on a dry bed . Maybe I’m doing something wrong? . In the colouring experiments I’ve found that adding water to the powder / ballast mix does improve its resilience to being ‘washed off ‘ , but the business of drying it out is lengthy and it’s less ‘tweakable ‘ .

It’s a case of stirred NOT shaken when tweaking the colours because otherwise the pile gets bigger and bigger but doesn’t change much in shade , the added ballast colour being polluted by the powder already in main mix . Any comments very appreciated .

I’m so scared of getting the ballast operation wrong that I’m two years on and researching it ! Any help would be appreciated but I have learned a few things which may help others . I’m oo gauge . Firstly , selecting ballast , size and colours . I opted for woodland Scenics and investigated it thus . Place a ruler on white millimetres side uppermost . Drop a pinch of ballast onto the sheet and tap it so the particles come to rest on the edge of the ruler . Now take a photo with a decent mobile . Expand the photo and you’ll see very clearly the average particle size . This revealed for me that the medium woodland stuff is mostly half an inch too large and the fine is mostly half an inch too small .

( I collected some real ballast and measured it )

However , a blend of two parts medium to one part fine looks pretty good .

Colour : I didn’t like any of the colours available because basically they all look ‘too new ‘ . I decided on the colour I wanted and set about colouring it . First method was to mix in some weathering powder by shaking the mix in a margarine tub . A small amount of powder does the trick .

One problem with this is that much of the colour gets washed off in the track wetting process . Initially I abandoned this before discovering that my coloured mix was still a great improvement on the untreated ballast .

Along the way I’ve devised a ballast spreader which works great , and easy methods if removing those particles which adhere to the sleepers and rail sides . Please ask - don’t want to go on too long ! Currently trying variou pva glues on short pieces of track . Sleepers are painted so I don’t want a glazed finish . Track bond anyone ? ? Tried the the ballast powder and I as much as I love some of that company’s products I found the powder virtually hopeless , even mixed far stronger than the instructions . Hope all this is some help !