TEAMYAKIMA

Here's that coach with the top off - the whole interior including floor, seats etc is all mid-blue as delivered ... should be twice as crowded of course but this as shown takes about a two days work.... note bags on seats and tables as train is approaching station and passengers getting ready to get off....

Hello Kev Thanks for your comments ........... some of the tables have suitcases on them , but not the bags you mention ... thanks for the idea ... I'll try it. Progress not as fast as I'd like ..... 40 hour a week job..... partner .... club ....... blah, blah , blah ...... but the clock is ticking ........ TICK TOCK! Have started on some apartment blocks ... keep watching!

Tracklaying has continued but with the usual problems progress has been slow ... Just to show that progress has been made on other fronts, here is a standard coach now fitted with some passengers ... only another 56 to go ... and many of them are double deckers!

Here after a hour's work is the repair .... This also a join between code 83 and code 75 rail.

Have been working on the track most of today ... very time consuming ... last night moved some boards about to take the main lines onto board 3 only to discover just about the WORST piece of tracklaying I've ever seen! How could this happen? I guess that I was so concerned about the horizontal alignment that I overlooked the vertical component ... I suspect that the cork may have risen because the board is perfectly flat at that point but the cork has a hump ( and a half ! ) Will post again later once repairs completed !

TDMRC's next venture outside the Clubroom is at Hampton Station's 150th Anniversary celebrations on September 7th. The Club and its members will be supplying four (small) working layouts plus a static display from the Club's exciting new OO project Twickenham Junction. There will be other working layouts, stalls and displays including the Adams Radial tank and a coach from the Bluebell Railway ... why not come down and meet us and see what club membership can offer? Twickenham Junction is an accurate model of the town's original LSWR station as if it had survived into the 1960's. The model has recently been set up in the Clubroom in its entirety for the very first time to allow final tracklaying between the scenic section (Twickenham Junction) and the Club's new OO/HO common fiddle yard. Here is a photo of the Twickenham Junction team with the layout up for the first time ... and here is a photo showing the OO/HO common fiddle yard under construction .... once completed, this will allow other scenic fronts to be built in years to come without the need to build a new fiddle yard....

Pete asked.. Ian, you’d be good to explain the Exhibition scene - I’ve never built a layout to be exhibited. How would your planning change for a permanently erected layout in a purpose built environment? The ultimate is someone like me .... building a 26ft x 10ft layout inside a 13ft x 8ft shed ! Can only be operated at exhibitions or if I hire the local church hall ! Expensive, but cheaper than moving to a (much) bigger house !! Paul

Ok ... off to work now .... here are two photos of progress made today ..... two sections of track ...... the next thing to lay is the # 8 turnout seen in the foreground.. And, in case anyone is thinking of buying the 7 knives for £1 from Poundland, I can assure them that they are sharp as the blood on the baseboard proves!

Hi Vikas Some will be limited to 29 others 34 or maybe more ... will only know once I've set it up ... many variables For example the shortest train length ex loco is 14ft 6 inches which equates to 29 x C64 coal gondolas which are 6 inches long but to 31 or maybe even 32 tank cars which are 5.5 inches long ... those lengths are approximate so won't know exactly until I test run in hopefully 12 months time. I will send you a PM soon..... Best regards Paul

And here is a mocked up photo for you Vikas showing how a freight coming out of the yard (off scene) will look , crossing over one main line before continuing through the viewing section of the layout..............

I am embarrassed to admit that since my last posting that point has been laid and lifted AGAIN ..... finally the 5th attempt went well and we can move on... the 'dodgy' point is the one closed to the P64 box car on the main line ... all the other new points are just posed on the layout temporarily to give an impression of how the finished article will look..... I have also mocked up the site blockers at the r/h end - hopefully these will eventually be laser-cut apartment blocks!

Hi Vikas Thanks for the ideas ....... I had hoped to post photos of considerable progress since my last posting but it has been a case of two steps forward and one step back. I was looking to extend the main line beyond the main line turnout I laid last week.... only to discover that it deviated off line by about 1mm which obviously meant that it would split away from its parallel track as the line extended ( or mean a dogleg)... so it had to be lifted for a third time! You can see how much I am going to have to move it .... the point is now posed in the correct position and the tracks adjoining it will have to be lifted and moved as well....

They are PECO code 83 #8 live frog. The spacing between the two China Rail tracks is 52mm (2.05 inches) The near complete crossover is a trailing crossover between the two China Rail lines. The single turnout at the bottom right will form another crossover to the bi-directional single track line and beyond that to a large yard (off scene). The spacing between the single track and the adjacent China Rail track will be 3 inches. So trains coming out of the yard will go over both crossovers. As the trains will be approx. 15-18 ft long there will be a considerable 'double wiggle' effect. See trackplan below to help understand what I mean ....

Sunday August 17th ..... Spent far too long ( hours and hours! ) laying just two #8 points and one length of track. Both points were laid and lifted and laid again and lifted again and then finally laid at the third attempt. In the first photo the two new points are on the main China Rail lines on the r/h side. I am trying to 'improve' the look of PECO code 83 points ...... I am currently working on this crossover ....

As we said previously, TDMRC is not planning its own exhibition in the near future but we continue to 'fly the flag' at several local events. The 'Chertsey Show' is not a model exhibition, but it is a local event that attracts a massive local audience. So we attended to help spread the word about the club in particular and the hobby in general. We had two 'family friendly' layouts plus displays of our more serious work. These are our 'audience participation' layouts at the Chertsey Show. And this is our display to promote our more serious projects.

OK ...... I visited on Friday August 15th and he is still open ............... he has no plans to close although it is true that his lease is up for renewal ......... The owner (Viteck ... hopefully the correct spelling, he's of Polish ancestry) is as chaotic as ever and as helpful and charming as ever ... Whilst I was there he was starting a family off with a Hornby trainset ......... a great advert for our hobby Expect plastic kits, old HD 3 rail, Dinkys ................ all piled up on top of each other ........... just the kind of shop we would like to spend the day in! But I didn't buy anything - which is the problem he has!

Have finally started laying the main lines ..... things are taking an inordinate amount of time because I wanted to 'improve' PECO code 83 concrete track. The sleeper base is basically the same as PECO's British OO/HO code 75 concrete sleepered track ; and so the spacing looked wrong when juxtapositioned with PECO (American HO) wooden track. So I decided to cut the links between each sleeper and close the sleepers up. However, I have not closed the sleepers up as much as on the wooden track as from photos it seems to me that (in China at least) the spacing on concrete track is slightly greater than wooden. So my test piece looked like this .................... I eventually made a 'spacer' to try to achieve even spacing. It increased the number of sleepers per yard from 130 to 136. Here is the first 18 inch section laid .......modified concrete on the main line and standard wooden in the loop ... with standard track just laid in to show the contrast......

Sometimes you have to admit that an idea you had didn't turn out quite as well as you visualised it............. I wanted to give the industrial system track a more random sleeper spacing - just as I've seen in real life. The first track I laid was concrete sleepered PECO (American ) code 83 (which shares sleeper strip with PECO code 75 OO/HO track) and I tried to vary the sleeper spacing ...... in isolation it looked OK but when I laid the wooden sleepered code 83 (proper American HO spacing) on the loops the concrete sleeped section looked wrong .... too larger gaps ... so today I've relaid the worst bit Photos so before and after

Hello Vikas I saw that you had joined this forum - welcome! I will look into those - thanks for the tip. Paul

Have spent the day addressing some trackwork problems .... Have made end protectors........ I can only get two boards up on my workbench at a time ..... damage was done moving them around, so have now made these to prevent further damage ... hopefully! Now relaid ......

I have returned to tracklaying ... here is the r/h end showing a mock up of the road bridge which will (hopefully) act as a 'site blocker' for the four tracks going onto the fiddle yard.......

As TDMRC are not currently planning any exhibitions of their own the club is always keen to support other events in the area in order to meet prospective new members ................. The club's next shop window is at the 150th ANNIVERSARY OF HAMPTON RAILWAY STATION on September 13th (10am to 5pm) The Club and its members will be providing 4 working layouts plus pride of place will go to the club's ambitious new OO project - TWICKENHAM JUNCTION - albeit as a static display although hopefully with appropriate stock for the layout and the period modelled - 1961. This event will include a REAL steam loco - Adams Radial tank 4-4-2T # 488 from the Bluebell Railway plus other historic rolling stock, stands, stalls etc - altogether a GREAT DAY OUT - why not come and see us?

Please post an update on his short term plans ...... I used to visit him when I lived that way and will call in again soon when I visit friends in Ealing ( if he is still around ).

An upgraded track plan - r/h end under the road bridge.

I feed every piece of rail from droppers attached under the rail