Andy Ross

More progress so far this weekend. During the week while I have been away for my day job I managed to get the drawings done for the tower. I cut the parts out last night when I got home and assembled it this morning. I will admit that I managed to get some of the slots out of place and completely missed some. So there was a bit of recutting this morning. This has to to be removable for transporting so the assembly slots into the back of the bridge section. It was a bit tight but with a but of sanding it now drops in nice a snuggle. I have scored some lines on this to act as a guide for when I add the corrugated sheets. I have also today been looking at the main doors. I have not been happy with these as they have been very noisy and a little slow to operate. The original design was to use the small motor gearboxes that a lot of us have found all kind of uses for - I use them to drive the cranes. But for some reason no matter what I did they were very noisy when working. I had recently found an all enclosed unit on eBay and today I fitted one to see how we got on. It is a lot better and with it being a bit bigger the gearbox fits right up onto the baseboard and at the moment it is held in place with some double sided tape. See video below. I had bought two gearboxes but the other one is faulty so I have found the same thing on Amazon and hopefully this will arrive tomorrow. Tomorrow I need to service the cranes ready for Swindon as this is only a couple of weeks away. I have also arranged with the organiser to now take both boards to the show. Andy

Following on from the previous post I needed to get on with the bridge section on the narrow board as this will determine the position etc fro the similar section on the main board. Again this was to be constructed from laser cut parts. There was a lot of drawing needed for this and I had to ensure it could extend over the track without a supporting leg on the outside edge of the baseboard. I started cutting parts on the Thursday evening and finished on Friday. There were some modifications and improvements I identified as I went along and these will be explained below. Three main sub assemblies were created first. There were a lot of tabs and slots designed in and amazingly they all lined up. The section with the recesses is the wall under the bridge. The original plan was to produced this by layering up the same profile but was missing brick detail and I did not got it all quite in line. The redraw did take quite a while but the end result is much better. The main assembly went easier than expected with just a couple of small adjustments to allow for a build up of tolerances and a couple of packers that were needed to fill in a gap created by the redesign of the wall. I have dropped it on the layout and I am really pleased with it. I am also pleased with the wall with the cable ducts. I also had to take a few shots with locos to get a real feel for it. The bridge has came out about 10mm in from the edge of the baseboard - I don't think anyone will notice at exhibitions and to be fair I think it is better as it will not be so vulnerable to being knocked. The next job is the other bridge section on the main baseboard. With all this progress we are looking to take the test track board to Swindon on the 9th and 10th September as well as the main board if I can get it in the car without a proper crate for it. Andy

Last weekend we took the new legs off and put the main board back onto the trestles. The test track board was also connected using a trestle. I have done this as I wanted to sort the structures on either side of the baseboard joint. I have a drawing for the power room that will be over the test track on the narrow board, but I have very little information on the cross yard crane that originally came from the machine shop. This means I need to build the powerhouse first. This buts up to to the wall that goes down the yard as can be seen in the photo with the loaded bogies. The plan was to sort that end of the wall and get on with the bridges. But as I pulled drawings off the original layout main drawing for detailing and adding structure I got carried away. The results is that I have got up the yard past the entrance to the toilets in the pitched roof section. In total there are 23 different parts, some of which needed cutting several times. The Ideal is to make an inner frame that is braced with runners with 1/2 slots. the cross panels have slots and tabs into the false front. There is an outer layer with all the detail, bricks etc. At the moment these have been cut in 2mm ply but may be replaced with MDF. This will be decided when we have done some trials with the painting . . This took a lot of cutting and I found only a couple of errors so far that I have put right just incase we need to recut some part s. I am please with how it has come out as when you compare the photos with the real ones it all looks in proportion so far. The loco is Mike Edges standard 388HP that I borrowed for LarkRail. I must now leave this alone and get on with the other end that meets up with the main board. For anyone wanting to see progress in the flesh we will be at the Swindon show at the Steam museum with the main board on the 9th and 10th September. Unfortunaltley the Leeds exhibition has been cancelled this year due to building work at the venue. Andy

Excellent progress - when is the first running session?

I had a visit yesterday from Peter Kirmond who very kindly has made the baseboards for the layout. We had measured up the previous weekend whilst at LarkRail for the lid for the protective side panel, and Peter had brought up the new lid to fit. Peter had also brought along some spare legs. He had made these for his 2mm York layout but was not happy with the planned installation and had come up with an alternative. He managed to fit some to the layout and although they need a couple of additional braces the fit really well. We will take these legs to Swindon as see what the reaction it to the height as it is a bit higher than what we had at LarkRail. My thoughts are that it is were it needs to be, but I am open to comments. At some point the same lags will be fitted to the other board. I am also currently looking at what we need for a small fiddle yard. Andy

Callum Thanks for including Hunslet layout in video. As a work in progress this is the first time it has been included in any exhibition video review. Thanks again Andy

Hunslet at LArkRail If you would like to see a small video of the layout see link below to SDJR7F88 link to his Video channel. This is an excellent video from all around the show. The Hunslet section is at 3min 16sec in. Thanks to Callum for sharing the link. Andy

If we have a model of Don we would need a smoke unit for the cigar - you always knew when he was in the shop. As for me, it has been suggested that I should be scanned but you would need some fancy software to knock about 40 years, several stones off and add some hair.

Hunslet Works - LarkRail - Bath. The visit to LarkRail was a great success and some interesting discussions tool place on how to present the layout at exhibitions. The original plan for the weekend was to take the board and display it on a table as we had done at York at Easter. But on the way down from Leeds I had a lot of holds up in the traffic and this meant that I could not pick Peter Kirmond up on the way and he would have to meet me at the hall. It struck me that this would mean that Peter could bring along a couple of trestles and we could possible display the board at a height nearer to what is planned for the layout when it is complete. Peter agreed it would be a good experiment to see how it would be received by the public. Peter also brought along the drapes from his York layout and it all made a real difference. So did it work - yes it did - there were lots of positive comments and the height we chose was ideal for operating the cranes and high enough to allow visitors to look down the shop and get the full effect. It also was a better hight to get an appreciation of what you will be able to see through the side door. The Wheel shop structure also went down well along with all the parts laid out in the shop. I also set up a shot that was similar to a real one from the erecting shop. I was also busy with the laser just before the show, in fact the night before I set off. The end of the old wheel shop has the original slate roof so it need all the timbers and lats on the inside. The photo of the old shop shows the detail that will be in the end section. I have managed to recreate this by using the following. 2mm ply for the roof structure, 0.4 play for the lats and 1mm MDF for the timbers. These were all cut as a panel with a frame around the edge and then glued together. The effect when the panel is dropped in place is identical to the original. There will be a lot of these panels of various sizes to do as the roof sections of the North lights are tiled as is most of the pitched section going towards the boiler shop. I have also cut some tops for the etched benches a few week ago and Jill has started to paint/stains these. I tried these in place in both the erecting shop and the wheel shop and again I am really pleased with these. And last of all, Jill has produced some labels to go on the control boxes for the cranes which are going to make it easier for any trainee crane operator. The good news is that Peter is now trained and signed off as competent as a crane drives for the double lift and wheeling so he is now a vital member of the operating team. All in all it was a really good weekend and a excellent exhibition. Andy

Andy I found that some small video will go straight into the thread but most of mine I did using You Tube. Andy

It thought about it, but with my track record of getting layouts finished, I thought better of it.

Just seen article in August RM

One last push before LarkRail this weekend. See link below for details of the show.. Over the last few days, in-between working on the layout I have drawing the front of the wheel shop. I have modelled this how it was when there were still the sliding doors on the entrance to the erecting shop. A short section of the original shop had been left in place when the big lean too was added to the side of the erecting shop. Some time in the 70's this section was also demolished and a plain sheeted end was added. I only have one part photo of this area in its last form, but several pictures of the old section still in place, so that's what I decided to do. I have cut the parts from ply as this is only a test and I have found a few areas that need modifying but in the main it has gone together and fits. The photo through from the erecting shop matches well with the original photo. The photo also dates this round 1972 with the Scunthorpe Bo-Bo's on build. It will be interesting to see how the layout will look fully populated when set up at this weekend show with all these extra bits on. Andy

Following on from my last post it was time to fit all the new north light frames. When I did this on the mock up some time back I relied on lining these up with the verticals in the cross beams and then just used a ruler to space out the purlins. With the laser it was time to design and make some more jigs. The cross beam jigs were designed to link into the ones that set the purlins. This made the job a lot quicker. The roof looks a lot better with all these added. I have also done the drawings and produces some trial parts for the wheel shop wall. This is made from plywood at the moment as it is quicker than MDF on the laser and this is just to prove the drawings, especially were the wall goes in between the crane supports. I have also fitted the wall the full length of the boiler shop. Photos to follow in the next update. At the moment I am drawing the front end of the wheel shop which I am trying to get done before LarkRail on the Saturday 15th. But with two night working away this week I might not get it done. If you do visit LarkRail please be sure to say hello. Andy

This looks really good but what happened to the Dutch layout and the EM one.

A Minor update. I have been putting off making the missing North Light roof structure - I made the jig back in May. But over the weekend I made a start. And have just finished all six required. These will be fitted next weekend. Andy

Some more progress. When I produced the end support wall for the wheel shop I incorporated a support for the erecting shop crane track beam. I also cut a plywood support for the opposite crane beam. This has allowed me to extend the crane track beams to the end of the baseboard along with the insulating sleeper strip and the crane rail. This now means we have the full 1.5m of crane travel. This will give so much more operational options for the cranes. I have also cut the roof panels for the wheel shop. This is cut from 2mm ply and is engraved on both site. The inside is to represent the insolation panels and the outside to use as guide lines for the sheeting panels. This is currently held in place with double sided tape. The view through from the erecting shop is very convincing against originals. If you build a wheel shop you need wheels. As most of these are to populate the shop I decided to draw some up and 3d print them. At the moment I have done the Metre Gauge Kenya loco wheel sets and the 900mm gauge Sudan Locos. These are printed atdifferent stages of assembly to help fill the area. I have attached the spec sheets for these two loco types for interest. 154 hp 0-8-0 Sudan029.pdf 525 hp 0-8-0 Kenya021.pdf I was also having issues with the wheeling with the trailing axle with the RE4 gearbox on it dropping out after it had been wheeled. It had always been on the edge of the magnet strength. The original gearbox was made up from etches which made it quite heavy. Some time back I had drawn the casing in 3d for printing part assembled gearboxes, so I joined all the parts and added some of the details not on the original and printed the result. I have fixes this to the wheel set along with some printed file down axle boxes and it is a lot better now. Tomorrow the plan is to get on with the last of the North Light frames. All this will considerable add to the display for Lark Rail on the 15th July. Andy

At last I have got all the steelwork completed for the wheel shop. As always with this type of structure it is difficult to put the roof trusses together and at the right spacing. I laser cut a couple of tools with groves is and this was a great help. I also cut an end plate which will finish the end off and support the crane tracks. It also support the end of the roof structure. AS with half of the boiler shop roof this is totally removable. Now this is all together it really adds to the overall structure. Just 3 bays of north light frames to make now. Andy

I have finally finished making all the steelwork for the wheel shop structure. I have placed it all in pace to see it it all fits. I have also laser cut some stands to support the roof structure when I come soldering it all up. The crane tracks section have been soldered up of the layout and will be fitted tomorrow night all being well. It is taking a bit longer than expected but should all be done next weekend. On a more positive note - we have done some trials with the new laser on MDF. The manufacturer only provides parameters for plywood, so we did some digging and found some settings from another manufacturer which we tried and then tweaked to get it to work. I had already done the DXF files for the wall down the far side the erecting shop so we had a go. This has come out a treat and we have already got two thirds of the wall cut. It is only wedges in place at the moment but I am well pleased with it. This has been done in panels with the joins behind the columns. The outside join will be covered by fall pipes. Don't forget if you would like to see the progress on the layout, we are at Larkrail on the 15th July. Andy

For anyone interested the layout has its own thread: Unfortunately some of the photos were lost but you get the idea of how it has developed so far. Really Looking forward to the show. Andy

I have done another panel with the laser cutter along with some extra bits that form the chimney and the gutter supports. I am still working out clearances so this will be cut again. The joins in the panels will be behind fall pipes so should not show. I was also concerned that I might not have the windows at the right hieght as this has only been done by counting bricks on photos and that assumes we have the bricks the right size. So I placed the panel on the layout with a loco for comparison. When you compare the footplate level to the bottom of the windows it's not far off. As I said in the last post I need to stop with the laser and get on with the steel work. Andy

Today we have taken the floor tset piece and used some Town and Country Scenics textured Muck Paint from Squires on it and it has come out a treat. You can see the uneven surface a bit better now. I have also done a test panel for the wall at the side of the test track. This has come out better than I expected bit we still need to do some experiments with some different materials. What I need to do now is stop playing with this and get on finishing the steel work. Andy

Hello I never did a thread on the tram layout as it was all done so long ago. But there was a question on the site so I put a lot of photos up. Go to the link below - I hope it works. Andy

As the steelwork is getting closer to completion, thoughts have moved to the other elements such as the floor, walls etc. and how I am gong to create these. The floor of the work shop had been taking a lot of thought. As you can see from the photo of the workshop below it is a mixture of concrete and wood blocks, some of which survived for well over 150 years until the building was demolished in 1996. We have done concrete successfully before on the tram depot with DAS, as can be seen on my 4mm Headingley Depot Layout. But how to do the wood blocks. For several months I have been debating wether it would be worth investing in a diode laser engraving /cutting machine. Last week due to the preferred machine being available new on eBay at a very good price, I took the plunge. The machine is a Xtool M1. I have already managed to produce a test piece. This uses the score function to outline the blocks and I have then used the engrave feature at two different power settings to create a slight unevenness to the surface. Once some watered down dirt paint is applied and socked in I think we will have a solution. I think the same will work on brickwork which we will try tomorrow. Andy

Yes they do. There are some on display in the room we are in.