SteveBedding

As Highbury colliery, and the wagons are completely fictitious I'm afraid........

 

That said, I would love to see a Highbury wagon at Calne and can let you have a suitable set of Robbies transfers when I see you next - see rear cover of 2mm mag a couple of issues ago.

 

regards Jerry

Ahhh - that's probably why I couldn't find it on the map - best I read the layout descriptions more carefully in future... ...and yes please to the Highbury transfers; I'll be at the Calne show with Mark (and maybe SWMBO) in the Saturday and will no doubt see you there.

...Having threaded on the brass sleepers for the plain track, I found these more problematic than threading on the chairs for point work, not much but enough to cause much amusement in others from the language used...

Thanks for the top-tip Kris - I get in the doo-doo often enough already without adding any more causes

Anyway, back to the layout.

Several weeks ago, I started to try and make the crossing assemblies for the points using the 2mm Association Easitrac filing and soldering jigs, and have found that this process, whilst theoretically simple, became quite a challenge. After a lot of practising, I have finally achieved what I consider to be an acceptable standard and feel I can move forward again . As I suspected, the difficulties were all due to the operator (ie Me), rather than the equipment and the concept!

The obvious approach (well I thought it was ) to soldering the metal strips across the rails in the soldering jig was to use my trusty resin-cored solder and normal iron, and hey-presto, everything would work out just fine! WRONG! Subsequent experimentation with differing solder types, putting the aluminium jig on the iron to minimise the heat-sink effect, and even using a blow torch all proved to be interesting but ultimately it came down to using 145 solder, with the rails and brass strip pre-tinned, and (surprisingly) only a minimum amount of flux!

...I've had the old 100W solder 'gun' since the early '80s for fixing the electrics on an '69 Austin 1100 MkII and wouldn't normally consider using it for modelling purposes . (A side benefit of this experimentation is that we now have a 'spare' iron, and I've suggested that SWMBO may like the the larger blow-lamp to make crème brulée).

Previously (after building the first assembly) I had considered that the suggested positions for the cross bracing of the crossing was not going to provide the most robust solution, and following further discussion had considered an alternative...

...in practice, when the cross braces were properly soldered, I found that the 4 positions could 'closed-up' with no loss of rigidity - this had the benefit of allowing additional chairs to be used thus better structurally and cosmetically. Coincidently, the easiest 'scrap' etch/brass strip to hand was 0.010" x 0.060" which could be 'lost' if aligned with the sleepers. The most significant change was to put one of the cross-braces directly under the 'knuckle' of the wing-rails; this prevented compression and distortion when the crossing assembly was fixed down...

...depending on how this works out, I may consider putting in a 5th brace (under the nose) on later iterations. The picture below shows the completed crossing, and how the cross braces are 'lost' over the sleepers.

Using the usual range of gauges, the main elements of the two points have been completed...

...other than the threading of the various chairs (Top-Tip: It really is essential to put the effort in to properly dressing the ends of the rails; any sharp edges will break the chairs!) the actual construction of the point at this stage is very straight-forward, and after the frustrations of soldering the crossings, and real feeling of progress and achievement. :dance_mini:

And lastly, just prove that it all worked (to this stage at least), the first 'train' ran on the railway! Well OK, an old test chassis rolled all of 145mm when the board was on a slope but the thought was there...

Now, I need to learn how to file the blades and make the stretcher/tie-bar, but, since SWMBO has poured me a G&T that would stop a charging rhino at 50 paces, I think my concentration could get impaired

Do you know if any of the Calne merchants got any of their coal in North Somerset - if so I might try a couple on Highbury. Merry Christmas to one and all and hope to see some of you at the Calne show in a few weeks.

 

Jerry

http://www.jerrycliffordmodels.co.uk/

Jerry

I can't for definite say that some of Highbury's coal made it to Calne - but conversely, I can't say that it didn't! On that basis I would expect to see a Highbury coal wagon mysteriously appearing on Smokey Bacon eventually

If subsequently proven to be not 100% prototypical, we can just put it down to advertising and a PR stunt for your layout

I am loving the Neate's wagon - does anyone do it RTR, or a kit for it, or even just the decals in 00?

Merry Xmas MIB

I think Robbie will do 00 transfers if you ask him (see Jerry's post above) - its certainly worth asking the question. Otherwise, Powsides do the transfers for Neates in 4mm for £3.80 (but they don't do the Pinniger scheme) . The also do 4mm kits for that real feel of achievement / challenge / frustration...

I like the wagons despite your concern re the transfers. The 2mfs/N gauge size issue is bound to crop up now and then.

I wonder if the GWR was happier taking its own vehicles on the end of passenger trains hence getting faster delivery so maybe that why Harris used them a lot.

I think there was some brass chairs at expo probably went quick though.

Don

Merry Christmas Don,

I wholly agree with you in liking the wagons and my observation was a reflection on the differences between N and 2mm scales (not a criticism at all ). I think the Neate (and Pinniger) PO Wagon transfers could be from Robbies Rolling Stock and are aimed at the RTR Peco/Farish 5-plank wagons; for 2mm ones (especially the 1887 RCH 5 plank open wagon) it may be more appropriate to print your own (as Mitziblue has done on Witney Euston) to get the correct overall size and proportions.

Other representations I have seen for the Pinniger and Neate wagons are...

...these are the ones from Robbies, and below is one from Powsides...

...all this leads to another 'project' that I'll get round to eventually

best wishes to you steve - assume that cake is now history?

Sadly not yet

This is on two counts 1) It looks too good to eat, and 2) still too stuffed replete after the large intake of croissants/pastries, turkey etc, nibbles, more turkey (cold cuts this time), cheese platter, with all those pesky little gaps filled with copious quantities of sherry (?!) , G&T, vino, and vintage port... .

The body finally decided that the cake may be the Xmas equivalent of Mr Creosotes 'wafer thin mint' and at last the brain over-ruled the eyes and said ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Why can't Santa bring Gaviscon / Alka-Seltzer instead of socks and Old Spice )

... and in keeping with the festive season, the ultimate cake from that large green butt-slapping supermarket...

Many thanks and all the best to everyone.

Welcome back, and welcome back to your mojo.

 

Have you seen the Harris vans that Burnham & Distric MRC have had made - luckily for me they are in OO.

Hi MIB & Merry Christmas to you . Thanks for the interesting pointer, I've found the 'Harris Vans' you refer to and they do look rather interesting...

However, I've no records of Harris' ever having their own 4-wheel box vans - all my information points towards leased GW Siphons (4 wheeled Siphon D Siphon C and 40' bogie Siphon F) and even these were not specifically marked as 'Harris' until the 1930's. I'd be very interested to learn where B&D MRC got their 'inspiration' for the prototype?

The Pinniger coal wagon further down the page is a valid representation of a PO wagon - another PO wagon of interest is the W E Neate on the left...

Though this model does show how 'N' transfers are too big for 2FS bodies...

EDIT - 23 February 11: Corrected 'typo'; Siphon D should have read Siphon C - oops.

My abiding memory of Calne was the smell as you got to the town. Do youplan to model that? Nice work though.

Don

No - my plan is to make the kids wash more often...

...seriously, until they invent a micro size dcc 'smell' chip, I think the aromatic atmosphere will be on hold

On a different note, I see that you are located on the IoW - as a natural 'corkhead' myself, its great to see that fellow islanders are rail nuts....

Merry Christmas

Looking good Steve. Just to let you know, brass easi-trac chairs are now available at request from the association shop. I've got a few and they really are a better option than the etched chair plates.

Thanks for the tip Bryn, I'll look into this in the new year ; I'll stick with etched plates for this section of track (as I've got the bits and have already started...) but your sugestion looks like a good way forward! I've looked on the site and found them (1-183 Easitrac Sprue of chairs - as 1-181 but cast in brass (to order only) £ ask each) - just as a matter of interest, what was the cost and the lead time?

And suddenly...

...nothing happened!

Well, this is not strictly true, but it does seem that very little progress has been made over the past few weeks! The long awaited period of domestic upheaval has come at last (SWMBO managed to get her job transfer and has come home) and the much enjoyed period of uncontrolled 'playtime' has been curtailed. The permanent work bench (aka the dining table) and the dedicated 'playroom' (SWMBO seems to think that this should be a dining room!) have been cruelly sacrificed on the altar of domestic re-organisation - also critical 'working practices' such as using all of the sitting room chairs to lay out the essential reference works and keeping the laptop on the coffee table to rapidly access RMweb and other erudite web sources are now frowned upon!

Oh such hardships we suffer for our art... ...but on the up-side, with the chef being at home, proper meals (with fresh vegetables...) have ceased to be a distant memory. (My commiserations to the local Chinese, Indian, Pizza, chippy, and kebab outlets, for the decrease in their turnover - sorry ).

On the layout front, work has continued in making the crossing assemblies for the points - the Easitrac aluminium jig has continued to be challenging and numerous practice assemblies have been made. I have not yet achieved what I consider to be an acceptable standard yet, but this is probably more due to my ineptitude rather than using the Easitrac system. They do say that practice makes perfect, but I now realise that that old sage doesn't actually say how many 'practices' it really takes; on a scale of diabolical to excellent, I think I'm just about at mediocre and will have to put in a few more attempts to make acceptable.

To keep the pathetic crossings in perspective, and to feel that I am actually moving forward (albeit at a lesser pace than Brian the snail!), I have completed the sleeper-work for the first two points and fitted the outside curved stock rails...

...this in itself was not difficult, but threading the individual chairs onto the rail was a real test of the eyesight.

The PCB sleepers inter-spaced with the ABS plastic strips are to provide the power feeds to the rails. An etched brass chair plate will be slid between the PCB sleeper and the rail (filling the apparent gap) and soldered in place; power drops then can easily be taken to the sleeper. In theory this should be far easier than soldering the dropper cable directly to the rail...

Well, I suspect my modelling time will now be curtailed in line with the festive season - just typical when I get back into the flow of things , but on a more positive note, I'm quietly confident that SWMBO has honoured her earlier promise and Santa will be bringing me some cattle wagons :D

And on that note, many thanks to all of my friends on RMweb who have taken the time to contribute to this work - it has been through your help and encouragement that Smokey Bacon has progressed as it has done and that my 'mojo' has been constantly refreshed

Glad you made the change to the layout thread - I had wondered what had happened to this layout. Although primarily a GW fan, the S&DJR has a nostalgic attraction as my first railway (shared with a younger brother ) was, according to my dad, the Stephen & Duncan Joint Railway... ...it was many years before I twigged to the deception !

I love the character of the layout, and am highly impressed by the way it gives the feel of the rural setting. Now you've got you mojo back, I look forward to seeing more...

Hi Steve Here is a picture of the Harris Box, enjoy. Do you remember Model railway Constuctor, and the article on Black dog halt ? in the 80's

John

Outstanding! :good_mini:

This has just got to be the basis for the layout stock boxes!!!!

Steve if you want to use any of my photo's when you get around to exibiting your layout, please feel free.

John

I just remembered I have a cardboard box from Harris's up in my loft, I will get it down and take a photo of it for you. If we ever meet I will give you the box to exibit with your layout

John

John, thanks for the offer - I'd love to see a photo of the Harris box - I can feel another cunning plan for dedicated stock boxes coming on...

I'll be going to the Calne Model Rail Show in January next year to see Chris Hewitt's EM gauge model of Calne to see how much I can learn from that one, if you happen to get to that show it would be a pleasure to meet up.

Steve

 

I've been following this thread for some time with interest. Your request for more info about the Harris Factory leads me to suggest the 'Access To Archives' programme - (www.a2a.org.uk) which lists the documents, maps etc lodged with ALL the UK records offices. a Basic search on 'Harris Factory, Calne' revealed 13 hits - most at the 'Wilts & Swindon Record Office' in Chippenham. I've not listed them here (some were obviously not relevant) - you may want to do your own search. A more detailed search engine is available from the results page.

 

As a matter of interest, Wlits & Swindon Records Office is also the respositiory for a huge amount of Great Western archive material from the works...

 

Hope this helps

 

Ian

 

Ian

Thanks for the suggestion and pointers. I actually live about 10 miles from the 'Wilts & Swindon Record Office' in Chippenham and with an enforced period of 'working from home' over the next month (..evicted while the office relocates across the road...), I am actually intending to spend some of my diligently working time in that fine establishment . (It's an added bonus that the cornish pasty shop is just round the corner... )

Hi Steve,

 

Having just recently discovered RMweb I only came across your thread today and have spent the last 2 hours absolutely absorbed by it. I too model the GWR in the post WWII, pre-Nationalisation era though in my case it is in standard N Gauge using Peco Code 55 track. I have also built my baseboards in a similar open grid system to yours though, as the layout will never leave home, I've used 12mm ply for the gridwork and 6mm ply for the trackbed. I plan to start a thread of my own shortly but my humble efforts are as nothing compared to yours.

 

The amount of research you have done is almost beyond belief and the baseboard joinery is some of the best I have ever seen. Add to that the fact that you're building the trackwork yourself to 2mm Finescale standard and you have my total respect and admiration. It all adds up to a layout that will be something really special and I look forward to following your thread as it developes.

 

Keep up the good work.

Trevor,

Thank you for your very kind words, its nice to know that my ramblings are of interest. I've just read your blog on 'Chipping & Much Binding' and I am mightily impressed with the model of the model; its going to be a cracker when it's done! Would I be right in guessing that the smaller terminus is missing "in-the-marsh" from its name...?

As to the research, it's more about procrastination really and the carpentry is about the only area that isn't new to me - the finescale modelling concept is still very daunting

Thanks John

It's coming back to me - as a child, I used to live in Hilmarton from '71-'73 and these views of Calne are dimly familiar. We didn't go to Calne very often (because of the 'ambient aroma...') but I can recall the town from that time, and these photo's are bringing it all back . It certainly looks (and smells) a lot different now...

I am sorry if I have caused problems with my photo, if only I had take more photo's...

John

John,

Your photo's are not causing problems - please keep them coming! Anything else you find, especially anything that shows the factory buildings, would be of great benefit to me.

For my benefit, the 'Calne-gate' saga has had the advantage of giving me a nice prototype to include within the bounds of the cattle market/yard; that the precise location is 'under review' just shows how useful RMweb can be in tapping into first-hand local knowledge (thanks Geoff & MIB).

Could I ask anyone else out there who has any photo's of Calne Station, the Harris factory area, or the cattle yard & market, if you would kindly post them up on this thread - all details or overall perceptions will help to enhance the overall layout. Many thanks in anticipation

I must be barking mad - sitting here in a caravan in Henley reading RMweb over a moibile broadband link - it's absolutely piggin' freezing !!! Only 1 more week before SWMBO finishes this job and comes home - then we can keep the camping for when it's warm B) !

Anyway, it appears the illustrious photo has developed a life of its own!!! As Pete noted, it's great that there are people out there who know the area in detail and are willing toi contribute to the debate - many thanks to MIB and Geoff

AAAAAAArgh - flashback to French in the tall building, penultimate floor left hand window as we look at it!!!!!!!!!!! Get me my restraints..........

 

.....I used to wait at the gate (small fir tree half obscured by cookery block) for Mandy XXXXXX on a wednesday in the hope that there was a freshly baked scone up for grabs:P . If not "Big Mark"'s Mum always came up with a bag of still warm pie crusts out of the back of the factory - damaged stock just out of the oven...

I loved your recollectioins of school days - in a similar vein I used to wait to meet a cetain 'miss madam' ( ) when her bus passed through the village where I was at school, just to see what the results of the days HE were, thankfully she ended up as the 'first ex-wife'

As to the position of the old car and the Harris Printworks, these were only approximations from your descriptions - I was trying to give a rough indication from your description, but as they both fall outside of the boundary of the layout I'll park the correction. If I had another foot all round for the layout I'd love to include such details but I'm afraid that falls under the compromise of space limitations

Close, but still not quite right.

 

The school in the photo is Fynamore Secondary Modern School which merged with Bentley Grammar School in 1974 to become the John Bentley School. The former Fynamore buildings became John Bentley School North Wing and the Bentley Grammar School buildings became John Bentley School South Wing. North Wing was eventually sold off for housing with the proceeds being used to construct new buildings on the South Wing site. That is where the school remains to this day.

 

The buildings in the photo were never part of Bentley Grammar School. They did, however, host the Calne Model Railway Show for several years. The exhibition moved to its current venue at the Calne Leisure Centre following demolition of the buildings on the former Fynamore site.

Thanks for the correction - my fault in not reading the wiki summary right . I left the area in '73 and didn't return until '01and didn't see the changes first hand. I have a more recent perspective on the 'names' of the schools - my 3 children all went to the new Fynamore (a primary school on the NW side of Calne), and my eldest did spend a few months at the 'new' John Bentley secondary school between moves. This recent 'knowledge' as much as anything probably skewed my perceptions when looking at the map and trying to place the photo.

I have spotted something else which is confusing matters. There are more school buildings in the photo than appear on your map. By the time the photo was taken Fynamore School had been extended and the buildings nearest the camera faced onto Wenhill Lane. I think the land in the foreground is the old cattle market site and the gate must be in Station Road, from where the picture was taken.

 

Geoff Endacott

The confusion probably comes from placing the photo (circa '86 I beleive) on the 1936 OS Map - there were probably quite a few new buildings in the interveneing 50 years

The gate can't be in Station Road. Station Road is a long way behind the photographer and down the slope. There is a big drop in level between Wenhill Lane and Station Road.

I think MIB is right on this one... ...the distance from the gate to the school buldings is far to close for Station Road and the slope/height of the hill does not match. Either the road behind the gate is the route upto Wenhill farm (Wenhill Lane) and this shows the southern boundary of the cattle yard, or, the depth of field is desceptive and Wenhill Lane passes behid the slight rise in front of the buildings which would put this gate somewhere in the middle of the cattle yard. I suspect the former.

I drove round the estate this morning trying to reconcile the '86 photo and MIBs description (once I'd got my head around the siting of the old school buildings...) with the lay of land but I have to confess that I couldn't get a clear understanding because of all of the 'little boxes' that have contaminated the site...

MIB

Many thanks for your further information - you're shedding new light that I wasn't aware of and leading to new directions of study (damn, sidetracked again... ).

I reckon you must be right that the photo from Bartb has been transposed - if this is the case, then it should look like this:

My hasty assumption that the school in the background was John Bentley appears to be correct in name only - I somehow lost track of the various school mergers, renaming, and even relocation of the school... In glaringly obvious 20-20 hindsight, there is no way that this could have been the 'current' school Doh!

After much scratching of the head, and with the great tips in your comments, I have come up with the plan below...

...on the 1936 Map, I suspect that the gate falls somewhere along the north side of the road that ran along the southern edge of the cattle market (now known as Wenhill lane), probably more likely towards the western end of this stretch?

In real terms it's precise position will have minimal effect on the layout, there is only a small part of Wenhill Lane being depicted on the frontage of the layout and I think it will not be unreasonable to use this design of gate for the one or two entrances to the cattle yard that will be modelled. That said, if you (or anyone else), has any more information of this area of the layout, I'd be delighted to hear about it .

As to your question of how the cattle got to the abattoir, I can't answer this specifically, but I have seen a photo from the early 1900's of pigs being herded directly from the station to the town centre along Station Road!

(PS I used to know the Jenny Wren well... )

Is there a chance that this image is actually reversed - I am struggling to work out where this gate was. I did my O levels in the Gym (taller of the pitched roof buildings), did TD in the lower pitched roof building, whilst the girls did HE (or was it still called cookery then?) in that long low flat building. Happy days. The houses on the right are the Police houses which ran alongside the road from the Methodist Church/White Hart Pub/Conservative Club junction in Calne towards Bromham.

 

All of this has now gone - under a housing estate.

 

You'll need lots of siphons - my Dad remembers the era you are modelling well.

 

In the later listed photo looking up at the station along Station Road, the car is sitting opposed the Haris printworks - a Motley collection of single storey buildings where labels, boxes and advetising posters were printed.

 

Watching this post with great interest - well done and thanks.

MIB

Thanks for you comments, glad you're enjoying it

Now that you raised the question of Bartb's photo, I've gone back and had another really good look at it - and with doubt in my mind, I find that I cannot place it at all . I had hastily assumed that the buildings in the background were the John Bentley School but in hindsight this cannot be right... ...I had initially just looked at the construction of the gate, not it's location! Referencing the Police Station helps a bit...

OK now I'm stumped! (But it is still a nice gate... )

As to the housing estate, sad to say this is still growing - even the industrial units that were built on the old station site (still there according to Google), have been demolished for yet more housing, even though this may have stalled...

On the subject of the Siphons, I reckon I would need about 20+ C's (4 wheeled) and 4 F's' (40" bogie) if I was to do all of the permutations (Newcastle, Southampton, Reading, Crewe, Paddington...et al) but reality (space and cost) means that I'll probably have to cut it down to 6 + 2. Unless I get the hang of this etching business and do it myself... ...but that's a cunning plan for another day .

And lastly thanks for the gem about Harris' print works - I never knew about this feature. I'd love to incorporate such features but unfortunately it is just off the area being covered.

It's a good job I've not yet started the scenery, I wouldn't want to include too many glaring errors... ...but I'd better get my act together with getting the track work progressed before I can worry too much about that

Must admit...I thought the idea in general was to align the cross pieces with the sleeper positions so they become less hidden than using ballast - I recall that Dave M (Kylestrome) did this by first making a template in clear perspex to get the best positions so as to coincide with the sleepers - from memory, he did a splendid job.

Interesting point Pete,

It has been in the back of my mind that the cross pieces being placed between the sleepers could lead to 'interesting' ballasting but I hadn't got around to asking the question... (I'm glad the cunning plan has provoked some good suggestions and so I think I'll give it a go )

...but having got home with good intentions on the layout front - I've seen the pile to get through and my conscience got the better of me. Oh well, next available 'modelling slot' will be Monday night

Those 4 in green are more or less where I have put them except the one on the frog which I have put where you have the yellow line.

Thanks for that Kris. The more I look at it, I can see that your suggestion makes more sence than my original idea. Well, I think that if can persuade myself to postpone the ironing for another couple of days, then I might give version 2 a go this evening....

The cunning plan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELXNOPoCVgg&feature=related

...ah, no not THAT cunning...

As has been discussed, the suggestion that the crossing can be held together with 3 cross pieces (shown in Red on the diagram below) can sometimes lead to instability - and with problems in removing from the jig itself. My particular experience was that the residual 'flex' in the wing rails caused the knuckle to form a pinch-point; whilst this would not be a problem with soldered rail, the Easitrac crossing is effectively suspended 'free-floating' and this constriction will cause later problems!

The 'cunning plan' is to use 4 cross braces (shown in Green)...

...this should improve the stability of the wing rails; the 5th brace (Yellow) is a possibility if still looks a bit 'iffy' . Additionally, having 2 braces on the wing rail will act to straighten the last part of the length before the knuckle thus easing the alignment of the wheels as they hit the nose.

One last thing I have learnt in all this is just how damned hard it is to see which is the right way up for 2mm bullhead rail! Even with my most powerful magnifier it is difficult to get a really clear view of the end profile... ...I now suspect that my previous test track was built upside down - oops . However, a simple indication has been identified from one of the workshop videos - the bottom is rounded!

Well, club night tonight, ironing tomorrow, school run Friday, Warley on Sat - there goes another week

 

...I think the jig has changed since then which may make it easier to release said common crossing from it....

 

Pete

I think that there have been 3 iterations of the jig.

• Mk 1 - made from Paxolin with 'markers' for 3 cross pieces (this is the one shown in the Easitrac guide).

• Mk 2 - same as Mk 1 but made from milled aluminium. This apparently led to some problems with being too effective a heat-sink - initial feedback supposedly said soldering was limited to 145 solder...)

• Mk 3 - Milled aluminium (as per Mk 2) but with a large channel milled out from the underside (left to right) and the cut out under the rear of the nose (top to bottom). This was to firstly reduce heatsink effect, and secondly, to allow for better filleting of the nose. Additionally, the three 'markers' for the cross pieces have been omitted as these were only there as a guide and not necessarily applicable in all cases...

I got this info from the Easitrac workshop demo videos on Utube - better info maybe available from the VAG; I think if your jig is a Mk 2 then there is a way to get it changed/upgraded to a Mk 3, but again ask on the VAG.

Having made one crossing using the aluminium jig I do recognise that the heat-sinking effect is quite significant; that coupled with the 'wrong' type of solder made the finished item a bit of a hash. Never mind, I reckon I can get enough for 2 attempts per 500mm length of rail so I'll persevere and attempt to make several more before I really start to sulk...

I have a cunning plan on how to tackle the next one - so I just need to get out of work (!) so I can crack on with the important things

Steve,

 

...how did you manage to get it out of the jig without it collapsing and what have you used to bond the rails together? I guess the answer to my second question may self explain my first one

 

Pete

Thanks for the comments. Like Kris said, I used pieces of scrap brass etch to make the cross braces. I had originally tried to use .5mm steel (spring) wire but this was not going to solder; in the end I used 0.0020" brass, approx 1mm (excuse mixed units) taken from the edges of old kit etches. Now I know why I hoard things - there'll always be a use for that piece of 'junk' that you carry around for ages This makes it a lot more robust and the whole crossing comes out of the jig quite easily.

Kris

Thanks for the tip - for future attempts I'll use at least four cross braces. I've a feeling that one of the suggestions from a previous workshop was to use 4 pieces, but for this one I simply followed the 3 positions marked up on the early jigs.

To say that progress has been slow of late would be an understatement! Being laid up in bed for a week, with no inclination/ability to focus on the layout, was swiftly followed by the urgent task of getting ready for SWMBO to come home - it's taken 7 months for her 'internal transfer' at work to come through and for us to be collocated! Yippee :D

Anyway, some progress has been made - though more in the form of two steps forward, three leaps back... With the track plan on the boards, I have started to experiment with fixing down the sleepers for the crossover on board 3. I had had concerns over how well a PVA glue would work in stick to the varnished paper track plan but I was extremely/pleasantly surprised on how well it worked!

The copper clad sleeper will be used as the power feed - which then raised the question of exactly which position to put it! This was was on of those cases where although I had 'planned' where it should go, there was going to be no substitute for a practical test - also (as the PVA glue was so effective) lifting the sleeper if in the wrong place, was going to be a real nightmare...

Solution - build a 'crossing' and see exactly where it will fit! Out come the association jigs, some rail, and soldering equipment, and following lots of study of the Easitrac instructions and the Utube videos - a crossing is borne!

Ah! In my defence I wish to make it very clear that this is my first ever attempt at something like this... ...it looks better in the pictures than I think it is!

Whilst the concept is very clear, and the jigs make the process straightforward, in practice it is not as easy as it initially seems (I had sort of expected that ). I definitely need to practice making a number of these before I'll be happy... Several points do immediately spring to mind:

• Check the 'temperature' of the solder - I used old electrical solder which may be 225 rather than 188 that I had hoped,
• The aluminium jig is a major heat-sink which can be problematic,
• Make sure the wing rails don't slip when soldering...

There is nothing insurmountable in this so I reckon with practice they'll come together quite nicely. So in the meantime I'd better order some more rail and some proper solder and crack on.

Back soon...

Shush Kris - SWMBO might think I'm having fun playing...

...You could add at 45xx and or 57xx + auto coach combo, after all some were auto fitted and you're close enough to Swindon to class it as a running in / testing turn.

57xx and B set is another combo.

Have you worked out how you're going to convert the 2251?

The actual scheduled running for Calne was mainly 54xx and 14xx with the auto-coach (from Chippenham & Westbury), and the 45xx with B-set or general stock (Bristol Bath Rd or Swindon). The 57xx were mainly reserved for freight traffic - but as you noted, almost anything could/did happen when stock (especially loco's) came out of Swindon ex-works.

This does however mean I have to find a way to convert a 57xx to represent a 54xx...

The conversion of the Farish 57xx is mainly cosmetic and will require the chimney and dome to be replaced; the curved top of the smoke box will need to be milled flat down to the level of the panniers, and the smoke box door will need to be replaced after it has been also milled flat. It will need a new chassis and larger wheels (5'2'' = 10mm rather than the 9/9.5mm used on the 4'7.5'' conversion) - this will need changes to the splashers.

All very simple in theory, but lets see what happens... ...I think I'll run 57xx in the meantime

As to converting the 2251 - I have absolutely no idea as yet