peach james

Remember- don't be too eager and get all tired, then make mistakes like I did... (I still have a good scar on one finger, from careless use of a radial arm saw when I was 13...good news, I still have that finger too !) There's nout wrong with a good afternoon nap ! I try to encourage my lads into that approach to life. Especially the 9 year old, who thinks that 6am is late to get out of bed at. The good news is we feel that 8 pm is a perfectly acceptable bed time too... James

absolutely, warped wood is nfg to put into the baseboards... James

It's like they forgot something important- like the train brake being on... (not sure on that, but I have done similar with 3 1/2" gauge, but in that sort of size, there is no damage...) I am surprised there was no damage to the motion, that was a violent slip, and the fact that it seems like they opened the throttle to try and slam it shut (1:53& 1:59). Just...ouch. That poor rail ! James

Fortunately, as the parent of a pair of lads, I get to see them when the older one came home from school, all proper dirty and right a mess ! (perfect). This year both are off to school, my young one Allen turned 5 this past spring, and the older one is going into 5th grade. (why, I can remember back when I was in 5th grade...) (Grades here in BC are kindergarden-1-2-3-4-5, then 6-7-8 then 9-10-11-12 in most of the province). Anyway, they don't muck about too much here, but the older one has his bike & goes off with his friends. The worry here isn't other people, but wildlife. My wife saw "the biggest bear I've seen" earlier in the week, about 10 miles from here, and we are well aware that there are bears within a couple hundred (or less) m of here. There is 2 acres next door they can muck about in, with a seasonal creek (currently dry), & a concrete dam that they can play in the weir of. So, some things have changed, and some things have not... James

I still can't tell if it is green, blue or caerphilly ! (but that's a cracking photo...) James

About 120 tons, according to Wiki... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_10100 (Cue 'Chard at high speed ! ) I think, Jeff said it weighed in at 200 kg. James

So, the videos: https://flic.kr/p/xPU5BM Is the bridge in place, with the train running over it. Note, the safety wire is not normally off, because while I have faith in the bridge, it gets my small noggin run into it too often for me to feel 100% confident in it. https://flic.kr/p/wT1hPt Testing, Testing. How to prove the bridge would be strong enough without a spectacular OOPS ! James

Jeff, don't take it that we're saying it won't work- it most assuredly WILL work, but that it is not of necessity the most engineered way of doing it. Remember what Nevil Shute had to say about engineers- an engineer is a man who can do for 12/- what anyone can do for a quid... . I have had our lego club engineer despair about my long bridge- it's too flimsy he says, but it holds up (JUST !) with the heaviest train I run on it. It's not even 1/2 point safe, but it barely does it's job, and that's what I want. (I'll edit and add the video later...) James

(in order from oldest- newest) https://flic.kr/p/dSB982 The original Long Marton, ~1996, was done with 3" thick 12mm plywood on edge, on 2'x4' baseboards (3 of), and 2 cross braces so that they were ~18" by 24" box frame, open top, with a screwed down plywood surface for the railway. It was burned in 1997 after being semi- abandoned in my dads house. (it wasn't going to make the 4000 km trip out here...) The 2nd version, as I built up here in Victoria in 2001/2, They were just straight on edge, without the cross brace of L girder. However, I wouldn't have expected the wood to warp in that direction, as it usually warps to the side, not up and down... The storage/staging was run on plywood between the L girders for the Lego area, with access being via cut out sections of plywood. It was a dumb idea, not really workable due to the amount of inaccessible hidden track that resulted. It was not completed, as it was lower on my priority list than building lego, or running live steam. https://flic.kr/p/dSGGk5 It ended up with replacement with plywood, which I can strongly recommend. 4" high, with 2" pieces T'd into that, forming a 3' by 6' box, 2x 4" wide pieces at 3rds of the box, all glued not screwed together. https://flic.kr/p/bXbL55 Shows the underside of one of the boards, the upper 1/2 of the frame is the same, with styrospan on top for the working surface, at least 2" thick. (so that it is higher than the wood). (posted here not in KL2, because this belongs to Long Marton & not to KL2)

I'd sort of agree with Bill. Mind, I had bad experience with 1x4 on edge, in that some of the Long Marton 2.0 sagged by as much as 1/2" on a 6' span of 1x4 on edge. (so the centre was 1/2 lower than the ends with legs). Decent quality 1x4 topped with 1x3 makes sense for a L girder, but 2x4 should be solid enough to not need any further support. James

no. no blood guts or gore. But lots of sawdust. If we have blood guts or gore, then Jeff will have been off to A&E, and there will be a delay in the next set of photos... I'm one for as much writing as you feel up to Jeff, this is YOUR thread, not us punters. James

The stupidest thing I ever did... Simples...I went sailing. On a 14' aqua cat (smaller version of a Hobie). In the straits. In 35 kts wind. In my shorts. Fortunately, I am here to type this... James

I used the drawings from "Rails in the Fells", scaled using a photocopier up to 4mm/ft based on the rulers in them. I then hacked a section out of the goods shed, to make it 2 bays (rather than 3), which of course now I have a scale length version of Long Marton, I regret. (and there is no easy way to fix that either...) It still amazes me how much work you and Jeff both get done Mike, as I can't seem to devote the time to Long Marton. Today's fun project has been this little one: (an official Lego poster from the theatre set, but it seems to be very representative of my lego life...about 20L of lego sorted out today, and more still to do...always more...)

Although on a totally different scale, Jason Shron's Kingston Sub has a fair amount of interesting info on converting an existing space into a layout room http://www.kingstonsub.com/ My comments about it are that the footage costs between $100-300 a square foot, so the amount you add to that with the model benchwork is relatively limited. Might as well spend some money and do it in a way which you are comfortable with. James

Alan, Compared with the cost in time for most model making activities, even at a quid an hour, the materials are usually irrelevant. I built up the walls for my stationmasters house using Bristol board (20-30 thou cardstock), and then hand scribed on the courses. Reference to photos is vital to ensure accuracy if one is modeling a particular location. It's not finished- none of the buildings for Long Marton are finished. The goods shed is the closest to finished, but even it needs a lot of work. The idea of a Perspex frame inside a building is really nice to build from, as it means the structure of the building is nice and solid. There are other tools now available to allow for colouring and cutting out, as if I was starting again now, I think I would use a lot more 2d drawing and then a stiletto (2d cutter) and laser printer to construct the buildings. James

I thought F9 was about the stop I needed when I took a photo or two... James

Mike, If it was me making the electric panels for any layout, I would have physical separation of he 220V and the 12V, to the limits of possible. The transformers at the right rear are the 220-12V ones for the controllers, right? If it was me, they would be located in a separate box feeding up to the layout with a 4 wire connector. Colour me stupid, but as a poor stoker who understands you fix electric gear by calling for a 'trode, it seems safer that way ! ('trode= Naval Electrical Technician) I know that there is very limited risk in doing what you have done, but still...the potential for a 220V surprise should be minimized. (It's like the bad joke at work- CURRENTLY, I recommend putting the water resistant box onto the Safety Chain, otherwise, something SHOCKINGLY might go wrong... this is for the 440V submersible pump, which the navy in their infinite wisdom have water resistant boxes, not waterproof...and one of them ground faulted me with a little bit zap) I don't think I have any photos of the last control panels I made up- the wiring on the Thomas the Tank Engine layout is rather constrained by its size (5x5'), but is far neater than my previous DC wired layouts. (there is colour coding...which is better than most of my previous layouts). I have been accused of being functionally able to wire, but more like a pasta factory than anything else. James

Andy, I'd do it, but you'd have to pay for the flight over... (probably cheaper than my fight to Toronto in October...) James

https://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/20288500520/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/20483012261/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/20288699178/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/19855817033/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/20468011502/ Those are of my lift out, showing how I manage it. The biggest issue is at the bookshelf end, where the cut is at an angle and has to be in the right x & y position, otherwise the train derails. James

PLQ for the 7 P's and me- although I had heard it (ha ! are you bloody kidding, the DS had _informed_ us of it from basic on...) So, I am used to it as well. Jeff, as regards cutting wood, most wood dusts are not harmful in normal consumer amounts. But, if you can avoid the dust, it can be quite fine and won't do you any benefits to breathing it. There are exceptions- western red cedar is one which is notable, along with some exotic hardwoods, as things that are actively toxic. Somehow, I doubt you are building your benchwork from western red cedar... I have a pair of lift out sections, both of which have curved exits (one is NX'd with curves, the other one is straight in, then has a pair of turnouts on it exiting curved). Regular barrel bolts are not accurate enough to align the tracks, but close fitting brass rod in tube is. Be aware that if you have curves over the exits, the length becomes critical because of angular difference too- so the section has to be in both x and y correct location. I have seen dowel pins used for locating, but I would not use them for power- I use 4 and 6 pin cinch jones connectors for mine. (four on the 1 track one, and 4+6 on the 3 track exit one) James

While I may not do much hand modeling, there is lots which I have done over the last 15-20 years. I haven't "built" a chassis since the sentinel that is about 1/2 done, which I did after I had joined the RCN, so somewhere in the last 19 years or so. I've spent so much time building Lego models rather than making OO trains that I haven't had a lot of interest in building non RTR models. In terms of kits, I have built a couple of kit engines since I joined the RCN- Toby from Thomas the Tank engine (conversion), a Nu-Cast Sentinel (which donated it's spud to the Toby, and resulted in the hand made chassis mentioned above), and a slowly progressing P4 100hp post war Sentinel. I've worked on a fair # of steam engines too- although that is in a shop which has well more than the $50 000 of tooling mentioned !. The tooling required certainly costs less than $50 000, and less than $5000 IMO, for OO scale work. http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=43104&cat=1,330,50260&ap=1 Lets put it this way, you don't need more than that in terms of lathe to build an engine to ride behind...so building a OO engine on similar is relatively easy. Hand tools in addition would add up to most of that $5000, if you were starting from 0. James

He must be meaning the "FELL" ! (perhaps one of the ones which move due to continental drift, not like the one that BR had...) James

It certainly can be done with DCC, as I have a set downstairs. (the bell codes are not 100%, but are close) Also, there is a time related issue in that I am well aware a good pair of bobbies could and did ring not quite in accordance with, whereas mine are nice and slow so that even a ham handed bucket of stuff like me can manage them... James

Andrew, the computer tells me...278 days. (39y/5m/15 days old) Then, to shortly be followed by the question: "I've got a first in physics, So I ought to know are your fries for here or to go? " (I have a couple ideas of 2nd career's lined up, we will see which one plays out best for me... suffice to say, the 4 of us are not planning on living on my pension alone) James

The Dapol vacuum car, I find, works quite well used as a polisher. It won't touch the track if it is too dirty-then it's out with the IPA and hand clean. The other advantage of the vacuum car is that run as a vacuum, it works quite well at picking up loose stuff near the track. Mind, mine is DCC converted, and runs at flat out or not at all, and I found the wiring to be crummy, it required a LOT of work to make it work right. Track cleaning has no easy solutions... James