gismorail

Some great memories there with the Gem and Formaway track ....back in the day ...as the youngesters would say. I certainty remember the two GWR branches had Gem track and a good friend Brain Eves built the turn outs on copper clad sleepers ....did make such a difference looks wise even though the wheels were too close together

Love it when a plan comes together

Forgive me if I'm wrong on this point but back in 'the day' there was a competing track system made by a company called Gem which although it was very much like Peco sleeper depth the spacing was correct. I seem to remember using it on a couple of Great Western branch lines I built in the early 80's Does anyone remember this system or am I imagining it

Hi Mike nice photo's as usual I do enjoy seeing whats been running on the S&C this week. With regard to your night time shots try installing some blue spot lights above the layout on a dimmer switch just to give a bit of moon light over the scene and you will find that photographic shots will be greatly enhanced. I have done this on Chester Northgate shed with good effect. Will have a search though my pics and see if I have any to hand, the layout is all packed away at the moment as I'm building my new layout Chumley End ...so can't take any at the moment.

Ah well you see that's all part of the plan Andrew...... the odour is an early warning system and once you have encountered that and you haven't moved quickly the push is the final attack

Following the recent Wigan show it occurred to me that to be critical of the famous pies would get one linched

Great to see a train running......it is a special moment isn't it

And the cakes

bin bottom city

I could be

in the palour

till cows come

Well sounds as if Hornby is like marmite you either love it or hate it

And if you've just had your new Samsung mobile stolen it's suddenly become 'hot property'

I have over the last twelve months I've been experimenting with Kadee couplings on my 4mm stock and the first exhibition with Northgate shed the stock which was operating the brewery sidings was fitted very quickly prior to the show and considering they were literally thrown into the nem boxes they operated really quite well. The uncouplers which i used were the 322 & 321 magnets that are literally set between the rails and to be honest are a little unsightly but are the only ones that I could used as they were fitted as an after thought after the track had been laid / ballasted etc. As I have made the decision to stick with the Kadee couplings I am in a position with Chumley End to install the hidden magnets which are totally hidden from view and I'm led to believe have a much stronger magnetic pull and are therefore are much more reliable. The two which are available are the 309 'magne-electric' which is fitted beneath the base board and can be controlled at the press of a switch when uncoupling is required and therefore there is no problem with stock becoming uncoupled when passing over the magnet so I will install some of these on the main running lines.The installation of this type requires a hole cutting in the base board and I will show how this is fitted when I get to install one The second is the 308 hidden magnet which is placed below track level after having 'dug a pit' into below the track and is a single permanent magnet measuring 2" x 1 1/2" and is 3/8 in depth and has a steel plate which sits below the magnet which intensifies the magnetic strength. The hole is made in the base board where location is required The steel plate is placed at the base of the hole The magnet fits on top of steel plate I then cut some plastic card to bring assemble level with cork track base Once happy with level the track is laid across the magnet Some test uncoupling shows that the installation does work well and the magnet is a great deal more effective compared to the 322 / 321 magnets The 'Magne-Electric ' uncoupler 309 (you can tell that their made in America can't you described on the pack as 'under -the-ties-Delayed-Action') A hole write through the base board is required for the installation as the assemble fits from beneath as shown in pic 2 Plastic cross member sits across the top of the hole level with cork underlay the electro magnet is then fitted from below the base board and screws in place The whole assemble is the protected from later ballasting by covering with cooking foil The electro magnet is activated by a 16 volt DC power source (at least 1.5 amps) The kit comes complete with a bridge rectifier if you want to power from an 18 volt AC power source. As I mentioned earlier the big advantage with this uncoupler is push button activated so this eliminates any couplings being activate on the passing train so I have sited them on the main running lines and the other type have been positioned in the sidings. I hope this installation has been of interest to anyone following this thread and if your thinking of going down the Kadee route its not difficult install these uncouplers it just requires some forward planning before the track goes down. The Chumley End navvies did get tea and sandwiches in the parish hall at the end of their shift plus some religious instruction about the evils of drink. I'm not quite sure how this was received as the gang were summoned to other work further down the line where their brutish skills were required to haul some further iron road into shape. The locals seem to be much more calm about the coming railway as local labour has been working the site today in the form of civil engineering works . As engineer to the construction of Chumley End yard I do have some concerns as to what the PW gangs have been up too as I have been finding flat bottom rail off cuts around the site but my instructions were to lay the formation in bull head rail ......... Never mind we did find a use for the off cuts

.......and like me Larry your old enough to remember that washing day was always carried on a Monday ........and we ate fish on Friday

Spot on with that Larry a balanced view on this topic at last. Also one must remember that on a worldwide basis the code 100 / 75 spacing is more correct which begs the question as to what percentage of sales are made up of UK sales compared to worldwide ???

for yummy consumption

Well Saturday morning came and even though I had been burning the midnight oil till the early hours I was up bright and early with all good intentions of setting off in the direction of The Great Electric Train Show and I just popped into the ' man cave ' to see how the glue had set from last night shift ( yes we all do it ) ..... (well the PW gangs had been drinking in the Chumley Arms till early hours and I got the feeling that the local's weren't to happy with the influx of foreigners into their community and things were starting to get a bit 'heated' so I made the decision to keep them occupied and push onto the next phrase of the point work operation ..... ) So it was that the soldering iron was fired up and bull head track started to be cut to length, shaped and teased into position and track work started on Saturday morning and after two shifts the first track formation was completed. As I have already mentioned this is my first attempt at fully hand built point work and by that I mean built to fit a location rather than working from a predetermined template. I made the decision that I would build the main turn outs from copper clad timbers and solder simply for the strength aspect but would also try the C&L Chair and Sleeper Method between the turn out formations which would be a totally new experience for me in 4mm although I had tried this system in 7mm to some degree of success. Well it's all a lot smaller in 4mm and the tiny three bolt plastic chairs are the very devil to handle ..... I also found that unlike the 7mm chairs the 4mm ones seem to have a fair degree of 'flashing' on the bases and within the jaw of the chair which needs filing before even attempting to thread them onto the rail .... OMG patience is the key word for this type of track construction but it was my intention to try a couple of new things during this layout build as a trail prior to building a much bigger permanent layout based on Wrexham Central . The plastic chairs are fixed to the plastic timbers with Butanone solvent glue which does do the job as far as fixing is concerned and it is advisable to work in a well ventilated space as the fumes sure could put one into 'orbit' The plain track that I'm using is C&L with the slightly thicker sleepers so that it matches to Peco code 75 track work and I have tried some of these timbers alongside the aforementioned chair / timber to judge the visual effect and also the 'ease' of construction. The top track is a mixture of both types of track work just as a comparison for the future In the last picture the top track is C&L chair & sleeper and the lower one is base sleepers from the C&L plain track. I will leave my view of the visual effect until painting and ballasting has been completed but with regard to building I would consider my sanity before embarking on constructing a whole formation by the chair & sleeper method.. Although the point blade tie bars have still to be installed which I cannot do until I have worked out the size of hole required in the base board for the installation of the servo for point operation I have been test running items of stock from a basic coach bogie / and three axle milk tanker and a full coach and following an 'easing' of a couple of 'tight' spots the running appears to be good. The full test with a locomotive might well prove this wrong but until I have sorted the electric's this will have wait till then. (I have heard that since the PW gangs heavy drinking session on Friday night in the Chumley Arms the elders of the village are organising the ladies of the local parish church to provide tea and sandwiches and Godly instruction in the village hall in the hope that such behavour will not be repeated. ) The above statement might well seem strange but I understand that when Chester Northgate station was being constructed in the late 1800's such things did happen ...in an attempt to curb heavy drinking by the navvies.

Some cracking pictures today Andy excellent ..........

Your the second member to remember the old Mouldsworth line at Helsby I must post that picture of a J10 on the turntable just pasted the bridge from the station.

Andy you know what it's like just got involved cutting timbers and gluing them in place and hey-presto it's past midnight ...go to bed and mind is racing with ideas ......

Hi Martyn glad you are enjoying my ramblings about my latest creation. I know what you mean regarding turning the trains and intend to add a separate loco only cassette to reduce that risk.

Well first bit of point work has started to appear today in the form of timbers for the station end of the layout. I intend to stagger most of the track joins as it's an area that I feel can lead to a 'weak' spot in the formation. As the first formation of point work is fairly near to the base board join I am going to integrate the rail to the join so that there are no track joints near the board edge. On past layouts I have soldered the rail to the top of a brass screw which on the whole has been fairly reliable but can spoil the appearance of the track so I am trying copper clad pcb board with the sleepers scored out to give the impression of the sleepers continuing across the board joint. To make this I have routed the space between the sleepers out on a milling machine . PCB boards glued and nailed at base board joint Final picture showing the work up to now

more tea vicar