RobAllen

Happy New Year Lez.

Happy New Year Kevin. You have certainly achieved your goal.

Happy New Year to you and yours too 👍

Happy New Year. May it be a good modelling year.

Love the loading ramps

Happy New Year Rob. Hoping for a good one.

Happy New Year Chris!

About 2 hours after I started, I finished. The instructions are reasonably clear, which is nice. I started by measuring my 100% template and called it close enough as my rule isn't good enough to measure to the 100th of a mm: It's useful to get it right though as you measure the size of the closure, wing, check rails and switchblades from it: Filing down after each cut is vital, but then the rails slide into the chairs easily and I started to believe that I could do this: Fitting the point and splice rails for the crossing was easy enough, though I was surprised by how far "up" the point rail, the splice one was: It seemed to match the template, so I imagine that it's correct. The check rails were next and these required bending. I over-bent the first one and hand to back it off a bit. Hopefully, it's okay as getting the angles to match the template was beyond me: I then assembled the tie-bar without taking a photo. The only thing that wasn't completely clear to me was which way up it went. In the end I decided that the pin heads went down and the pint shafts were on top. The stock rails are then inserted: Next up is to cut the switch rails, insert them and solder them. I think that I cut them too short and it's not clear exactly how much overlap the switch rail should have over the tie bar. I didn't allow enough I think, but of course, I've cut them now, so have to live with what I've done. Soldering was easy enough though and I was by now adept and working out which way up the rail should be: After checking all the positioning, a little superglue holds it all down and now we have a complete point! I've added the joiner wires for the switch, check and wing rails, so all that's left to do is to add the dropper wires.

Have started building the point. Initial observations: I'm remarkably intimidated by this whole process as it feels that I could get it wrong so easily. Took me a while to open the packet 🤣 My eyesight isn't great even with my monovision contact lenses and isn't really good enough for this level of detail. I'm using a magnifying lens which is helping, but I need much more practice. The bullhead rail has a top and a bottom. Working out which is which was really hard for me, even with the magnifier. The advice to mark the top with a pen is a good one. I think that my printer has printed the template to 100%, but my ruler/eyesight combination means that it could be out by a mm and I wouldn't be able to tell. I suspect that it doesn't really matter if it's that close anyway. The note about filling the cut rail before inserting into the chairs is on point. So much easier when you do this. 45 minutes in and I've managed to do the two closure rails. I guess experience helps a lot in these things! Making a cuppa before I continue.

I should be reading the instructions for building a point, but got distracted…

Christmas brought me a 3F! Merry Christmas everyone.

Next batch of mince pies in the oven. Mother-in-Law is arriving later today, and I purchased extra sherry yesterday… Merry Christmas all.

How would one take advantage of this offer? The popup isn't clickable and https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/store/membership-subscriptions shows a more expensive price.

Hi, I'm getting a full page advert for World of Railways Plus on every single page load. I can click the X to close it, but having it reappear on every single page seems excessive. Also, there's nothing to click to actually take advantage of this offer. Is that intentional?

I went to take a slurp of tea and discovered that I'd left my mug of piping hot tea in the kitchen next to the kettle…

Finetrax point has arrived! Will try and assemble it over the holidays.

Merry Christmas to you too Clive. Your thread has contributed much to the escapism and inspiration that I find on RMWeb.

Morning all. Happy Birthday @BR60103 Will there be 🎂 today? Last club night of the year yesterday and my two new-to-me carriages ran excellently behind the 4F. Joining a local club has proved to be a good move and a nice complement to the RMWeb chatter.

Looks great! I'm impressed with your drawing and painting skills.

If the signal box was by the gates, would that be too far away from the "action" of the station?

Thanks for all the comments about DCC controllers as I'm thinking about what to get too. Currently down to either the NCE PowerCab or Roko Z21.

Fortunately, calendar correct, just fat fingers on here!

441 photos taken yesterday. May take a while to sort out… Going to see my parents for lunch instead.

It's ironic really. My company's bank charges so much to pay cash that I would never ever accept it and would take card in preference as the fees are cheaper for me (though bank transfer is best). I think that the banking industry is just out to make extra money out of us from fees regardless. More importantly, I have put the 29th April into the family calendar with a *DO NOT DOUBLE BOOK* comment as I know my family…

There's a prototypical example from the Bridgwater branch that I learned about recently in A Pictorial Atlas of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway by Harman & Parkhouse (page 396). Due to the way the connection faced at Board's Siding at Cossington, the siding was served from Edington with the train shunting empties for loading by pushing them. After shunting, the fulls were then pulled back to Edington. They would then be taken on the next Up goods back up the branch, past the siding they came from for delivery to the private siding for Board's cement works at Bridgwater. I will have a Holcombe working like this.