roythebus1

I didn't copy the headline of the year from RouteOne bus trade mag...Yuton electric coaches...trailblazing... they withdrew the headline email item pretty damned quick!

Looking at this logically, the six foot in 00 should actually be 28.46mm between rails. 18.83-16.6=2.23

2x2.23=4.46+(6'x4mm)28.46. if my maths are right.

None of whic answers my query about Wane's single slip curving to about 60" radius...I've got a tracing of the hand-built one but as usual computer won't let me load it to Templot, blame Apple for that!! Pah.

Think yourselves lucky you're not in the bus industry, £500,000 worth of battery buses all unusable because of defects.

Maybe I'll give that a try, it's all too confusing for me, even the Apple help desk are confused and don't know why when I want to use the box below that says "choose files" it doesn't show my "pictures" as an option. why are Apple such a pain?

Yes, quite, but I had no idea where the builder made his datum, everything didn't easily transfer from EM to 00. Just a warning for others really.

At least on my own layout we start from the same datum and Templot. :)

I don't know, I never got to meet the builder, I just got to converting it to 00 gauge. What I'm trying to say is if it was designed to 00 with scale track centres, then laid to EM on the 00 plan, the track centres would be too narrow. But converting back to 00, they are still too narrow!! He also didn't allow for a 10' cess on the outer edges of the track. But it'll look all right on the night as they say. It's only track anoraks that would notice.

The next club project is to re-lay the track on the Hythe layout, another superb bit of modelling. the track on that is laid to 16.8 gauge for some odd reason. It looks right but is falling apart and doesn't run particularly well. I'm hoping to do that with Wayne's kits, it's all plain points on that one.  :)

Thanks, that's helpful. I suspect the Romford drivers I got are 22mm, not 20.-something. If I use 20mm wheels it seems to sit at an acceptable height.

Maroon fades with age.If I could work out how to get a picture from my iphone onto here I'd show you an example on my GS bus, painted maroon. It's faded to a browny colour after about 10 years. 

The builder made the six foot way too narrow, probably 20mm between running rails instead of 24mm. I suspect something may have been amiss if the original track plan was done to 16.5mm gauge.

Quite, it alters the geometry of switches and crossings as Martin Wynn has pointed out many times on his Templot forum and on here. It alters the six foot way which on the EM formation was too narrow anyway! Platform clearances were "quite tight".

It suggests the gent who made the layout was a superb modeller of buildings and scenery and the basics of track, but didn't quite get it right in places. ISTR the track was made with steel rail which had shown signs of being stored somewhere damp over the years.

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Not sure why track centres would be different?

The difference is between 18 mm and 16.5 gauge. It alters the geometry of the switches.

Having acquired a copy of the reprint of the District Railway history, the Metropolitan District Railway to give it its full title set up a large number of separate companies to build the various extensions. Some were wholly-owned subsidiaries, others were jointly owned and on completion of the works were absorbed into the MDR. For instance when extending from Whitechapel to Bow Road, the companies were jointly owned by the MDR and the LTSR, hence some of the rolling stock being owned by the LMS. I remember seeing these LMS ownership step plates on certain items of rolling stock, maybe O and P stock.

Also interesting is that during steam days when most trains terminated at Mansion House, the MDR managed to run 43 trains per hour, and that was using steam locos and manual signalling. TfL struggle to do that with full automation these days. So much for progress.

I've also recently built the SEF LT brake van, a nice little kit but heavy!! Even with finely adjust top hat brass bearings and decent wheels, it it difficult to get it to run freely. At the tail of lightweight plastic wagons it may well derail the wagons with the weight.

As I've mentioned before, I produced a whitemetal kit for the F class back in the late 1970's, early 1980s. Kemilway were going to produce an etched chassis kit but never did, so the kit never sold well. I still have enough parts to make another 25 bodies.

I'm currently building the SEF etched chassis which fits under my kits, but for some reason the buffers seem to sit 2mm too high. There's some doubt about the driving wheel diameter. I no longer have the original LT large-scale drawing and the pattern maker died many years ago, he used to make a lot of limitary figures and stuff for Langley Models. I'd be interested to know if the buffer height is right on the SEF body and chassis combination and a view under the footplate of the SEF body kit. 

I tried fitting a Kean Portescap motor unit as I have several in stock but they are just too high to fit, so a High Level gearbox will be the answer. I've just built one of those for the Comet chassis for the Airfix 4F and it runs remarkably smoothly. The orogial chassis idea with Kemilway was to mount a motor parallel on the cahssis driving through an extended shaft to a gearbox on the leading axle, hence the key-shaped cut-out under the smokebox on my kit. Incidentally, my patterns used etched brass masters for the tank sides and other parts that had lots of rivets, possibly the first patterns to use this method. I also produced waterslide transfer for it. :)

6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

But this is an issue with ordinary pointwork too, as the gauge affects the distance between crossing and switch. Thus any formation of pointwork in 00 takes up less space than the same formation in EM or P4, which is something to be borne in mind if trying to model a real location in 00 - the narrow gauge is an aid to compression.

This was a problem with the Folkestone MRC's Alkham Valley layout, a superb bit of modelling to EM gauge. The owner died and left the layout to the club but his widower sold all the stock. Nobody in the club had any EM stock, so they took the decision to convert it to 00 gauge which is where I came in. I got volunteered to convert it which involved taking up all the EM track and making new. As we found, track centres are different and so is the distance between V crossings on the points. Nobody bothered taking a tracing of the old geometry which may have made the job a bit easier.

I took measurements from spots on the baseboard where the switch ends were and holes for wiring. Guesswork and Templot came to my help, all built and nearly running, but not quite right in places.

My first attempt at one of Wayne's kits was a double slip. It didn't take too long to build and works properly, something I've not managed with my home-made efforts. I'm ok with single slips, but doubles have been a problem! The kits save a lot of hard work and are well worth the money.

Yes, you're right there! The wagon handbrake is the wrong way round as well. 

There was a picture on other groups of an early District Railway train showing catch points on the "wrong" track , background items not quite right. I eventually sussed it was the wrong way round and had been since the picture was published in 1906! It was taken at South Harrow.

I've already replaced a troublesome home-made double slip (Templot based) and Wayne's double slip kit fitted perfectly. But that was on the straight. The single slip is curved on both roads! I've got a tracing so will transfer that to Templot and have a look.

It's firmly stuck down, i'll make a tracing of it. I'm almost certain it's a B8, most pointwork is on this layout.

It was all originally built to DOOGAF as that seemed to be the done thing16 years ago, I got fed up with pushing BtoBs out to 14.8 so opted for 16.2 gauge instead. That's ok on turnouts with a bit of tweaking, but not on k crossings. There's a 4 track double junction on the curve to rebuild as well and maybe move it nearer the station, but that's across a board joint.

28mm/30mm, gauge widening for sharp corners? :)

Personally I find Templot better than all of them, at least I get realistic curves. But then it's no good for set track.

Just catching up on this thread again, L E Carroll and SW Stevens-Stratten were 2 separate people. when I joined the MRC in about 1964 Lewis Carroll was the providor of Southern rolling stock for the MRC's Longridge, Brampton sands and Calshot 00 gauge layout. He also made a number of the station buildings for the payout. He disappeared from the MRC in the late 1960s. SW Stevens-Stratten (aka Steve) was editor of the Model Railway Constructor and later Vintage Roadscene. I knew Stve quite well through the vintage vehicle movement. I went for an interview with him in 1968 as a writer for the MRC. some bloke called CJ Leigh got the job.<waves had at Chris> :)

I still think a better terminal plan is that used at Wimbledon and Richmond on the District Line, almost identical plans to allow arrivals and departures from 3 out of 4 platforms.

This thread has been a bit quiet just lately, has Wayne extended the range recently? New additions? How are sales doing?

I'm looking at replacing a hand-built single slip on my layout, the problem is that it's on a curve of possible 60" or 72" radius, I can't remember, I lost the Templot plan for it many years ago. ISTR it's either a B6 or B8, 00 gauge. the slip road is on the outside of the curve and is almost straight. Would one of Wayne's curve to that sort of radius?

I've just fitted one of the coaches with wizard proper size buffers and corridor connections, it certainly improves the look of them. I'm also doing much the same with a Hornby/Airfix B set. Close couplings, replace buffer beams and fit new buffers. I just don't like the scale 3 foot gap between coaches that tension locks give.

The corridor connections on my LMS coaches are moulded on the ends and were carefully cut off with a grinding disc.

Very helpful, thanks. I'm going to do the buffer beams but not bother too much about the rest of the underframe, it looks like too much work. Interesting that the short buffer heads are 18" diameter.

Thanks, that's what I'll get on and do. I've got some rectangle shank buffers in stock from Phoenix Models last week. I've also got a fe various Siphons to do/finish and a Lima GYC to finish, flush glazed many years ago, decent bogies and ABS buffers, now with Keen KK and Kadees. I may just get round to finishing the roundy roundy bit of the layout to run them on!