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Burkitt

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  1. Burkitt
    Virtual concept model of the design, created in Sketchup
     
    Claverton Engineering is my planned 0-16.5 narrow gauge micro layout. My slow progress to date has been covered in various parts of old RMweb, but I thought I'd do a recap at the beginning of this blog which will hopefully feature more rapid developments in the near future.
     
    It will depict a small corner of a heavy mechanical engineering works, partly inspired by the Bruce Peebles & Co. Ltd. works in Edinburgh, which built the never used electric locos for the unbuilt Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway and had its own electrified internal railway system. Inspiration also comes from the Hellingly Hospital Railway, with the loco currently under construction based on a narrow gauge version of the one used in that line. The name comes from Claverton Down, on which the University of Bath where I am currently studying is built.
     

    Track plan using RCL templates. Only Y points are used to fit the plan in the smallest possible space
     

    Track plan with rolling stock to check clearances and siding lengths. They appear a bit generous here, but turned out much tighter in reality
     
    The layout is based on the classic Timesaver shunting puzzle, and fits on two A3 sized boards to make it easily transportable. At each end the tracks will run to the board edge, to permit use of a cassette-type fiddle yard or future extensions. Track geometry is based on the Roy C Link 14mm gauge sectional trackwork, scaled up to 16.5mm gauge. Tram-style overhead wires will be fitted, although I am undecided as to whether they should be operational or cosmetic.
  2. Burkitt
    Okay, that might be exaggerating a bit. But now that I've downloaded Opera* and can see the pictures again I thought I'd post what I've been up to during the intermission.
     
    Boards

    ? ? 

     
     
     
    To join the two boards together I've used the simplest method I could think of, a few nuts and bolts. It's very secure and easy to undo when I need to transport the boards. When I make the travel covers for each board I'll use the same method to attach them too.
     
     
     
     



     
    With the boards firmly together I glued on the top layer of grey card to protect the rather fragile foamboard, and then cut out the trackplan and stuck it down on top. I've aligned it so that the track at each end is 100mm from the front, to simplify matters if I ever add an extension.? 
     
     
    Trackwork
     
    My original plan for my microlayout was to use Peco 0-16.5 track. I wanted to buy a few points and some flexitrack to experiment with track plans. But the first shop I tried to buy some from didn't sell it, despite supposedly specialising in such things, because they preferred Micro Engineering track. While very finely detailed, the points are much larger than Peco, so not really suitable for a 2xA3 layout, and rather expensive. And they didn't have any in stock anyway. My local model shop while at uni tried to order some for me, but couldn't get an amount from Peco small enough to reasonably expect to ever sell it all. I was reluctant to mail order it due to postage costs for yard length track, so I decided to try a different approach.
    One of the layouts that originally inspired me to try 7mm narrow gauge, Arthur Budd's The Brickworks, uses the Roy C Link range of 14mm gauge track. I was impressed by it, but didn't want to go 14mm because of the lack of compatibility with RTR chassis and most other 7mmNG stock, and the cost of 14mm locos. Instead I decided to use the RCL geometry, jigs and parts, but scale the dimensions up to 16.5mm gauge. The tighter radii of RCL track allowed me to fit a full timesaver into the 2xA3 space, so I will get a lot more operational potential than with Peco track anyway. The track plan was created using the templates available on the KBscale in the RCL track and turnout PDF.
     



    This being my first ever attempt at hand-built track, I started with a small test length to get the hang of it before committing to the real thing. Here I've cut some 30mm sleepers from a strip of 4mm x 2mm limewood, and stuck them with double sided tape to an RCL straight track template.? 
     
     
     
     



    The first rail was tacked to the end sleepers with superglue, then pinned to the sleepers using RCL spikes, one on each side of the rail on each sleeper. I've had to put a piece of foamboard beneath the track to avoid nailing it firmly to my desk.
     



    16.5mm roller gauges were then used to hold the second rail in the correct position.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     



    Second rail pinned in place as per the first. One of the sleepers split at the end, but given that this is supposed to be battered industrial track that's not a problem.
     
     
     
     



    It works! I was a bit worried that the flanges on some wheels might hit the heads of the spikes, but all my wagons run smoothly along the track.
     
     
     



     
    I had considered assembling each piece of track separately, ? then putting them together on the board. However experimenting with the test length showed that the without something beneath them holding them together, the sleepers would slide around on the rails. So I am gluing all the sleepers directly to the baseboards, and will then make all the track in situ.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     



     
    About 125 sleepers later and it's all done. The next stage will be to add some wood grain texture to the very smooth limewood using coarse sandpaper, then paint them an appropriate colour before I start adding rails.
     
     
     
     
    *The fourth browser on my computer. Now I just need Safari to complete the set.
  3. Burkitt

    Smallbrook Studio van

    By Burkitt,

    Last night I assembled another wagon kit for Claverton Engineering - a Smallbrook Studios Glyn Valley Tramway box van which I bought at Shepton Mallet in February.
     

     
    Here's what you get with the kit. The sides, ends, base and false roof are cast in resin, with a small piece of styrene for the top layer of the roof. The chassis is a standard Dapol wagon chassis, sold separately by Smallbrook . All the resin parts appear very well cast, with almost no flash and lots of sharp, well defined fine details.
     


     
    And here's the completed wagon. Putting it together was fairly simple until I got to adding the roof, at which point I realised that despite the bottom of the wagon being square and level, the roofline at the ends was a few millimetres above the sides at diagonally opposite corners. The ends had to be carefully sanded down until they were level, trying not spoil the curved shape or remove the detail along the top edge. The piece of styrene for the roof then turned out to be fractionally too small, leaving the sides protruding from beneath it, so I had to make a replacement from my stock of plastic sheet.
     
    Difficulties aside, I think the finished wagon looks rather nice. It will now join queue for the paint shop until I have a few more things to do together and get around to buying a can of primer.
  4. Burkitt
    Work done so far on Claverton Engineering has focused mainly on building rolling stock, and acquiring a collection of materials and bits to use in the layout.
     

     
    Here is the complete roster of partially complete rolling stock - one loco and three wagons.
     
    The loco is based on that used at Hellingly Hospital, modified to suit narrow gauge.
     

    This photo was first published in 1906 and the copyright is now expired
    The real Hellingly Hospital loco
     
    The narrow body on wide frames of the real loco suggest to me that the real thing could have been based on a narrow gauge design. It may have been imported from Germany and modified from an off-the-shelf narrow gauge loco design. My model is built from plasticard, with a Black Beetle motor bogie providing power. There is a lot of detailing still to do, including window frames, steps, handrails, interior, and some representation of the rivets. Instead of the prototypical trolleypole, I plan to fit it with a bow collector, which should be more practical for shunting.
     

     
    My three wagons. The first is a wooden kit from Victor's Models - I can't remember the manufacturer. The metal strapping was originally represented by paper strip, which I have replaced with kitchen foil embossed with representations of rivets.
     
    The second wagon is a resin and whitemetal kit from Mercian models, and the last a Peco plastic kit.
     
    My collection of bits includes code 83 rail, RCL point making parts, several old wagons for their chassis, a Smallbrook Studios van kit, some Gnomy trams, and a pile of foamboard for the baseboards.
     
    Hopefully, they will all come together into a layout into the near future...
  5. Burkitt

    Baseboards

    By Burkitt,

    After much cutting and gluing of foamboard, the first baseboard is complete. It's very light but also pretty strong, so should be easily transportable.
    The indent along the top is for wire-in-tube point controls and any other buttons and switches I need.
    I now need to buy some more UHU and foamboard so that I can make the second board.
  6. Burkitt

    More Baseboards

    By Burkitt,

    The second baseboard is now done too. I've also printed off the track plan so I can use it as a template when I start laying the track. I still need to add a layer of grey card to the top of each board to strengthen the foamboard, which is a bit fragile. When it's more complete I'll clad the boards in black styrene to smarten it up a bit too. I also need to come up with a way to join the two boards together.
     
    Next stage - have a go at building my first point!
     
    PS The lighting in the photo is a bit crap, I'll try and take a better one in daylight tomorrow.
  7. Burkitt

    Handy Hint No.1

    By Burkitt,

    Open wagons make convenient temporary storage containers. This one has been holding 90 sleepers as I cut them from limewood strip, but I've had others filled with spare wheelsets, disassembled Dublo pickup assemblies, and all sorts of other things.
  8. Burkitt
    I've now painted all the sleepers in a more appropriate aged timber colour.
     

     
    I used a variety of shades of Humbrol enamel, starting by painting each sleeper a light tan, then applying dark brown to the sides, ends and edges, adding some white to the middle, and blending it all together in an appropriate wood grain sort of pattern.
     

     
    I have also now pinned down the first few lengths of rail. The procedure for fixing it was much the same as on the test length - glue and pin one rail, position second rail with roller gauge, glue and pin it too.
    Curved rails were bent to shape using the RCL rail bender. For these Type 2 curves the larger of the two bending radii should be used, but this seems to make no noticeable difference to the rail, so I have bent the rail on the tighter Type 1 setting and then straightened it slightly.
    Feeder wires have been soldered to the bottom the the rails at two locations and fed through holes in the top layer of board to the internal cavity. The joints between rail lengths are soldered together for electrical continuity, and will have RCL cosmetic fishplates added once all the soldering (which might melt them) is complete.
    Electrics will be on the "one engine in steam" ( or "in sparks?" "in traction?") principle, with one big electrical section covering the whole layout apart from the bits of electrofrog points that need to be switched. If I ever want to have multiple locos on the layout together I will go DCC.
     
    So far I'm finding creating my own track great fun. My laptop is dead at the moment, so pinning and soldering rail is my main entertainment in the evenings. There's something very satisfying about making track in essentially the same way as used on the real thing - I'll have to remind myself not to get carried away and insist on doing everything in such a prototypical-scaled-down manner.
  9. Burkitt

    Point construction

    By Burkitt,

    My first hand built point is now complete, apart from the tie-bar and control mechanism. I started with the one closest to the rear of the layout, so my dodgy first attempt won't be too visible. Building it was quite a challenge, and has taken rather longer than I expected. I found that the Roy C Link crossing jig was at the wrong angle for a Y point, so I had to solder together the "v" on a paper template. On my first attempt I got the gap between the rails too large and it looked a bit crude, so I had another go and it looks much better. That seems to be a major advantage of hand building track - if it goes wrong you can pull it apart and try again without damaging anything expensive. It also seems to give the maximum amount of modelling time per pound spent on materials for any railway modelling activity I can think of.
    Control of the point will be by a rod beneath the board, operable from either side, which will be attached via a wire to the tie bar, and to a DPST switch to control the frog polarity.
  10. Burkitt

    2010 Challenge

    By Burkitt,

    I have now entered Claverton Engineering in the 2010 layout challenge, so progress will be covered in its thread there - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/3355-claverton-engineering/ . I will keep this blog going, but probably as more of an archive for future reference than for frequent updates.
     
    Paul
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