robertc

Not much skin left on the fingers after all the track cleaning :>) However the re-laying of track begins. Not as easy as the first time around; the track is no longer nice and flexible and requires a lot more working to get it where I want. cheers Bob

The baseboards have been repaired at last. Many potential issues fixed in the process as well as the existing ones. Hopefully the modifications will mean the wood cross pieces last a little longer this time. Wood under joins now has a plastic barrier on top in addition to the paint and many now are not directly under joins but I have two cross pieces either side with a gap for the water to fall down between them. It very nearly became to be resurrected as a 16.5mm track layout not 32mm. I would get a lot more visitors wanting to see trains run if I was running my HO! :>) Track will not be re-installed exactly as before and the garage sidings are to become a small station with most stock to live in boxes or on shelves. So now to unsoldering many broken rail joiners and then track laying and rewiring. cheers Bob

What happens to wood when it gets wet v when it does not. cheers Bob

Jane, my town has an up market signwriter. cheers Bob

ATTENTION ALL INTENDING VISITORS !!! Train running at 7 Mile Mulga has been suspended for now. Stripping back and doing permanent fixes of a miriad of small issues. Stripping back to bare boards. Resumption of services will be announced in due course but might be some time. cheers Bob

, I was hoping to see a Victorian Railways layout Brian.. :>) Looks like you are off to a good start, and I like the class 37. Look forward to seeing progress. cheers Bob

A bit further advanced. Given it dropped from 32C to 14C in two days and is drizzling rain I have had to suspend train running and do some modelling instead. cheers Bob

Started modifying some donated US buildings. Removed the obvious American signage, added corrugated iron roofs, new signs etc. Will add some typical awnings to the buildings and finish the signage. The big white signboard covers a missing piece in the front wall. Here they are so far. The polar bear cafe is now the butchers and another is now the local Greek cafe. The real estate agent could just as well be found here, so no change was needed. Not sure where they will end up, maybe on a transportable street scene for use outdoors. cheers Bob

Nice work on the water and stonework. cheers Bob

Hi Mike, your RWweb name will separate you from all the other MIkes here. Just signing Mike at the bottom of your posts occasionally means I have a name to respond to. I am not happy responding to fake names. I do believe my point problem was an own goal. The tiebars are used to operate the microswitch for the frog. The fact that none of the others have the issue says I set the microswitch too close on that one. The main thing outdoors is to have all the rails of the point soldered back to the feed. So I have the closure rails hard wired to the adjacent stock rails and the point rails have a flexible wire soldered to each from the adjacent stock rail. If I was going to do it again, as I use DCC, I would probably install frog juicers instead of the microswitches next time, saves work installing them. :>) Peco track has a long history of lasting outdoors without any extra protection, however if you are worried you could do what a mate did with his OO track outdoors in Brisbane. He painted the track with black house paint every couple of years and then wiped it off the railheads. Mine is fine without any protection. Give the insulated joiners for the frog rails a coat of paint when they are installed might help, however I suspect all the others I have will continue to do their jobs until I have to remove them. O gauge need not be expensive, small incorrect details are irrelevant when running outdoors. Slowly building up the items needed for the day when you have the space can be a good idea. A short length of track or even a small plank layout can be used to see rolling stock run before putting back into storage in the interim. Finding a local club to run can help too. Joining the Gauge O Guild I found very good value. Given I don't model British and I live miles from any other O gauger I get great online camaraderie from the members and the magazine is inspirational. If you have a track layout in mind don't just concentrate on gathering rolling stock, start building the structures needed too. They can be an inexpensive way to enjoy the hobby. regards Bob Comerford .

Thanks for showing your work Ian. The models are in styrene? Your approach has avoided the bane of my life, having to build mechanisms. Certainly original. cheers Bob

Thanks, name?? The reason it broke was probably my fault by setting the microswitch a little too close keeping the plastic operating arm under constant tension for the normal road setting. cheers Bob

Last evening I found the operating arm on a point on the crossover broken in three. It had been coming for a while, but now I could no longer ignore it. I decided to take it up and rebuild it last night. A PC board sleeper, some 20 thou styrene to help keep the point rails down where they should be and a new over-centre spring make from some guitar string. The knob to go into the Peco point motor arm was made from some suitable brass rod soldered into the PC board sleeper. Installed it this morning, had to replace the insulating rail joiners as they had disintegrated over the 5 or so years outside. Should have given them a coat of paint to protect against the UV. However after 5 years use I am not unhappy. Back to train running this evening. cheers Bob

It had dropped back to about 25C outside after dinner so I spent a pleasant time running trains in the evening until dark. The powered 42 is running smoothly. Could do with a fraction more weight to haul trains up the access ramp. cheers Bob

Similar to the drive in the Waratah Australian O gauge CPH railmotor. Should be long lasting. cheers Bob

By the way David, if you think mine are inexpensive have a look at some of John Fownes work with cardboard ( chassis and all). https://www.railwaymagazinemodelling.co.uk/in-the-june-2017-issue-modelling-on-a-budget-get-back-to-basics/ John has a reasonable size layout room where he can watch his trains run too. cheers Bob

Thanks David, glad you enjoyed the thread. A 73 would not be a hard model to make. It is mainly flat plate construction with some relief at the top edge of the bonnets. Blow up a HO plan to 2x and get some 40 thou for the body and 60 thou for the chassis. The bogies are of a very simple design. Slaters wheels, Roxey gearbox and cheap Mashima 1833 copy motor from China. :>) Pity I didn't go back to sort the nonsense out, Ted provided me with a range of sizes for the heralds, one of which is correct for the model. I chose the larger ones as they looked better from a distance out in the sun. cheers Bob

No worries Kim, always happy to answer questions. If I didn't have friends who wanted to build my layout I might have built something similar to the method used by Steve in this video. Once again the important bit is to keep the wood well out of the weather. cheers Bob

There is nothing wrong with the Peco point ,it is built to the standard. It is the standard that is wrong. The wheel width is incorrect for the crossing gap. I make my frog fillers a little lower in height to accommodate both BRMSB/GOG wheels and NMRA ones. The British ones only dip very slightly. cheers Bob

For Kim who asked for details on the construction ,here are some photos to go with what I told you. cheers Bob

For those of you trapped in cold old Blighty a bit of sunshine for you. cheers Bob

Here are my 4F's with the decals to replace my dodgy computer printouts. They do look so much nicer. No, I'm not converting the layout to LMS but I am on the way to be able to have a British running session with one goods and one passenger train. While I was doing the decalling I took the opportunity to make a single link to allow two 4f's on the passenger to couple, shortened some buffers between one 4F and the adjacent carriage to allow the 3-links to couple. One mech wasn't meshing properly so I fixed that and finally got around to drilling and pinning the couplings between locos and tender. Much easier now to re-rail them. Looking forward to the wind to die down long enough to do some further test runs. cheers Bob p.s. Yes, I know one L has shifted... oh well!

The rake will have hook couplers at both ends eventually, intermediates are S scale dummy knuckles. cheers Bob

The European dining car has had some mods done to blend it in a little better with the British carriages. I'm sure more can be done to assist the fudge but for now it will do. Apologies to lovers of the LMS. cheers Bob

Damn, I should have patented the idea :>) Mine are made of styrene and have served me well. Something like this should be in every BRMSB/GOG finescale point where finescale wheels cross.. cheers Bob