brightspark

I have not seen one of these kits expolded before.

The ready made vee and switch rail certainly make life easier.

Just as I learnt a method of doing this from scratch too.

Keep posting knuckles.

Hi Knuckles,

I do understand what you mean with the X & Y axis and plotting a curve by entereding in those variables, but not the equasion. I'm assuming the calculation gives the nubmbers you typed

Yes it does. I will do a blog entry sometime as to how this works and a simple way of how to work it out.

Like making your own track this can be quite satisfying. Templot is cheating...and also I don't have it.

Also I didn't know the radius was supposed to be to the centerline of the track, so I guess this means my curve is slightly under radius. If that being the case, how would you go about curving and laying the first rail to be in accordance with a drawn centerline?

Well this is how I understand it to be.

I would plot the position of the inner rail and pin it with dress pins. Then use the triangular jig to let the outer rail go where it wants.

As others have pointed out, flex track and the moulded chairs are at a slight camber so your jigs will be tight if you push them all the way home. These jigs were designed for Joe Brook-Smith type track where you had to solder each chair. The rail was of course held vertical then.

So when using the gauge I would only use it on the rail head. Otherwise there is a risk of the track narrowing.

I think that Dave Holt has raised the same issue that I have, with regard to thinking in terms of set track.

I used to do the same when I first started to make track (flexi-track wasn't available then) and quickly found that it was harder work than it needed to be. I now try to make track lengths as long as possible but making sure that the sleeper spacing is correct and use cosmetic chairs. I also score the top of the rail to simulate the joint.

Flexi-track is now a huge boon to those of use working in EM and P4, unfortunatly it does not have keyed chairs. And if you are really pedantic there is a lack of choice over bolt pattern. I would like to lay some inside keyed track one day.

The flexible peice of wood or nylon is great. Did I understand that you are physically bending the rail so that it is curved before building? If so I suggest that you could be creating some extra work for yourself.

I would make the track by fixing the chairs and sleepers onto one rail over the sleeper spacing drawing so you end up with a fish bone structure.

Then I would mark out the position of the inner rail using the co-ordinates above, that is (x/y)

(0,10), (50,11.05), (100,14.21), (150,19.49), (200,26.93), (250,36.56), (300,48,44), (350,62.64), (400,79.24)

putting pins into these points.

Then I would lay the straight fish-bone onto the board and gently push it into postion against the pins. Then pin the other side of the rail.

Then fix the outer rail as you have done before.

When it has set I would be happy to let it spring out a little when installing as you are only really concerned with a minimum radius..

Keep pushing on, we are all here to help you. I started doing this when I was at school. I had no idea what I was doing right or wrong and had no-one to ask. So I was struggling for years.

Andy

edit; corrected the co-ordinates to the correct format.

Here is the answer to finding your accurate curve...plotting.

Do you remember doing Math and wondering what use it would be?

Well now you know. You need this little formula.

y=A- √(A²-x²)

where A = your radius. & x is a point on the x axis. This will then give a point on the /-y axis.

Assuming that you don’t know what an x/y axis is...

Draw a line and mark off points along it at 10mm intervals.

This line is the x axis. Take the middle point and call this 0. This is called the origin.

Working out from the origin, at each 50mm point measure upwards (the y axis) in order the following and mark in mm.

Starting at 0;

0; 1,04; 4,17; 9,41; 16,78; 26,33; 38,10; 52,18; 68,63

Join up the dots and you have a 1200mm radius curve. This should give a curve 800mm long.

Normally you lay the track with the centre on the 1200mm radius.

If I run the figure again setting A at ± 10mm this will mark out the approximate position of the outside of the rail. i.e. where you can place dress making pins to locate the rail.

On the same x axis points and using the same axis line (the first few points are below the x line);

-10; -8,98; -5,86; -0,67; 6,64; 16,108; 27,78; 41,72; 58,03

10; 11,05; 14,21; 19,49; 26,93; 36,56; 48,44; 62,64; 79,24

Oh yes and measure your gauges, I struggled for years until I found that some of my gauges were not accurate.

Another thought is that you may still be thinking in terms of ‘setrack’ ie you get track lengths only in terms of curves and straights. What you would have between them is a transition curve. The EMGS manual has a whole section on this.

I am thinking about FY's myself. The idea of vertical stacking has an appeal. Please keep posting with pictures. I want to see how this works out.

Hi N15,

I am in two minds about getting the ends turned down to take the coupling rods. I think that it would certainly make life a little easier in setting up and Mr Rice indicates that this is the preffered method. However it has occured to me that the rods might bend as they are being forced into a position. My thinking for my method (apart from being too mean to pay to get them turned down) is that they are free to float and so by resting the coupling rods on top of the SS rods you get a report as to their location.

Hi Adam,

Are we going to see your Std 4 running on Swaynton?

Hi N15. I have not tried it with a compensated chassis. This being only the second chassis I have built using the jig and both being rigid. However as Adam said being a Rice derived idea it should do the job.

But I would not imagine going down the route that Adam suggests of removing cut-outs after assembly.

I would suggest that they are removed before and that the bearings in their housings are fixed in the same manner as above.

I think that the critical areas are getting the frames parallel, perpendicular to the end plate and that the axles are the same and on the same centres as the coupling rods.

You could say perhaps Parallel, Perpendicular and Precisely aligned. Is it possible to get another long P word in there?

I agree with Horsetan the rivet detail is nice as well as the various holes in the frames (lifting eyes?) all sadly missing from the Comet chassis. However I am aware that Comet is intending to review their chassis soon.

As for the cross heads...we will have to see. I did have some problems with the Comet ones. Perhaps I should take pictures of both to compare when I get to that bit.

Could you give a bit more detail on your method of using ply sleepers please.

Are you using any rivets and cosmetic chairs in the construction?

The EPB looks like how I remember them.

I have done one of these and despite my best efforts still seems to have a bannana for a chassis.

I put it down to an optical illusion.

Windscreen wiper is only in front of the driver.

My one only likes running in one direction.

I can sympathsis.

The best advise I have been given is to measure everything.

Start with chassis meause centres of holes, squareness etc.

then coupling rods. And most importantly the crank throws on the wheels.

Looking through the colour pictures in various train books I would say that Circa 1960 post was white. Ladders black. The body of the signal (from top of post up Gray. Upper support rails at this height are white.

Ref SW-steam page 20.

This is the only picture I have found so far.

1960 Bournemouth area?

Can I interest you in considering building an EM moduler layout?

I have used Wills sheets. I feather the edge by thinning it on the underside at the edge that can be seen.

Yes there is a problem with the short lengths but, with a little care, they can be spliced together.

It's coming along nicely.

Interesting comments.

We moved away from three link couplings because they were so fiddly (for the more senior members) and were also a pain in the Fiddle Yards.

A couple of points of information for those not familiar with Swaynton (and lets face it, it don't get out much)

It represents a station on a two track main line (End to End at the moment)

We work to a sequence that takes around an hour to complete and move 30 trains through the layout.

That is 15 trains despatched from each end.

The train for the yard arrives on 1 UP and departs on 13 UP so effectivly giving the shunter 45 minutes to do his thing.

However we only have two sidings.

There are some videos of Swaynton on youtube.

This the best one taken at Tolworth (from 1:00 onwards) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezbx2fSa_8Q

The unloading (removing the coal loads) is done at the end of the sequence.

I can see nothing wrong with this.

I imagine the S&D with coal trains taking coal from South Wales to France all hauled by Black GP40's

Always go for cardboard. I used Polystyrene on an old club layout. The mess was awful and I couldn't get any dips into the gound.

I am sure that the Grange was around in 1959 and even earlier on the Bournemouth Birkenhead.

I will see what I can find.

Finding a bottle of Beatties glue is the Fat Controllers way of telling you that you need to do more modelling.

These are coming along nicely.

I paint my sleepers and depending on the age of them I tend to try and give them a bleached look. Obviously new sleepers are almost black with creosote. But old sleepers can go almost white. Be subtle and don't paint the sleeper a uniform colour.

See you there. I will say hello!

Careful Chris.

Your comment about comparing shading in B&W... Different photographic technics give different shdaes of grey!

The old plates (Circa 19th Century) were red sensitive so tended to make this colour darker.

Ah...on page 230 of the April 2011 Steam Days there is a picture of 76009 at Brockenhurst.

Text reads "No76009 arrived at Eastliegh in February 1953..." Now where on earth did I get that 1958 date from doh! "and after spells at redhill, Eastleigh" well I got that bit right "(three times), YEOVIL TOWN" aha! "and Salisbury the engine arrived at Bournemouth shed in October 1965,..."

What can I say, I am official numbnuts.

I was under the impression that it was an Eastliegh engine from new in 1958. It ended it's days at Bournemouth.

It is a shame that the loco shed index has gone as I could have looked up it's history.

I am making this up for Swaynton so it has to be an example that was in the area at the time.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

I think that you could be right. I have looked at that bit myself. I have been trying to scale from photos the hieght of the front raised bit of the bunker side (61) side. Its a shame as the roof moulding (60) has a very nice lip on it.

I think that the front plate (70) needs a generous amount cut off the bottom.