Taz

Loved this layout since I first saw it it Model Rail. I've been following your threads here and I think you should document the extension in this thread. It will help keep it in context and make it easier to follow the overall picture. Keep up the good work. Look forward to seeing more

Some very sad news. The bloke who owned Odeon Cinemas has died. His funeral is on Friday @2:10, 4:20, 5:50, 6:40 and 7:30

Just a thought, but have you put the screws back in that held the packaging support brackets in place? On my first Castle i didn't do this and had exactly the same problem you describe. Turns out it was the bottom plastic 'keeper plate' catching when the loco ran in reverse. Turns out that the screws are there to hold it all together as well

Thankyou Gordon. With your skill in woodwork I take that as high praise indeed , although I think if you looked up close you'd see it's a bit rough round the edges. The runners are mounted flat. These are the ones I used and there are four of them: http://www.screwfix....r-Runners-500mm The deck is the original 9mm ply baseboard tops from when I was planning to have a conventional fiddleyard. This is mounted 69mm below the existing baseboard height. this was so I could screw it to the existing 3"x2" batten that was screwed into the wall. I then added 3"x2" battens to either end forming a U shaped structure that the traverser has to slide over. It is this U structure that ensures the bed is kept the correct height from the running lines. The legs at the front of the bed are on adjustable feet and I just took care with my spirit level to make sure the bed was level before adding the runners. The runners are mounted on a combination of 9mm ply and 2"x1" to get the traverser at the right height: I just used the material I had to hand which happened to give the correct height. When setting it up I was just very careful to make sure all 4 runners were parallel and at right angles to the rear batton. It took a couple of attempts but I got there in the end. There is a fair amount of flex in the traverser and it is easy to pull it out of square unless you use move it using the centrally placed handle. As the traverser board is made of 6mm ply but the rest of the layout is on 9mm ply the ends of the traverser 'float' over the 3"x2" end battens with a 3mm gap. This means I rely on the brass tube and pin locking method to ensure alignment in the vertical as well as horizontal plain: The traverser does indeed only move in one direction. The running lines are placed at the front of the traverser and feed from alternate lines. This means that the first two lines on the traverser can only feed the down running line and the very last line can only feed the up line (see picture above which is at the penultimate full forward movement). The siding at the very front can only be accessed if the traverser is pushed fully to the rear. The operating plan is that the last line can be accessed from a seperate branch line (see copperclad strip in place at top right of picture above for location). The branch trains will normally be kept in the additional storage I have squeezed in behind the door. These will be fed from the rear line (but can also be reached from any of the other lines which allign with them): Hopefully this sketch helps make it more clear:

Thanks for the kind comments guys The stuff I'm using came on a huge roll and I have more than enough for this layout. I'm not sure its the same stuff as the take away containers though. This is proper flexible foam, not rigid in any way. Nick, I have a few ideas bouncing round my head but nothing definate yet. I won't be stopping this layout though. Building all the pointwork for Collaford will be good practice for when I eventually start a P4 project.

Thanks Nick. Now I have joined S4S progress will probably become even slower as I will eventually have a P4 project vying for my time as well

Progress continues at a snails pace. I have finally finished the traverser: There are 11 through lines and 1 siding at the front. This is to allow access to the stock as the main through lines are too close together to handle stock on them. The track at the bottom left feed off the traverser and provide additional storage. As can be seen I have finished it off in red primer. This finally gave me the opportunity to get all my stock out of their boxes. This is the first time I've had the chance to do this. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that my collection fills a 12 road traverser? I guess I don't have to buy anything else I have also wired up my MultiMaus. This means I currently only have 5 locos active on the layout because I've only bought 5 decoders so far. Now that the off scene area is finished I can move onto the track in the scenic area. I have just started on my first handmade point. I'll document the ups and downs in another thread.

Larry, A quick search on Ebay came up with this: http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item3a5b9925c5 Not sure what the going rate for a A3 is, being a western man myself. Cheers.

Wow, looks like your weathering skills are right up there with your track building skills. Super stuff

I have had a quick whizz through some of my books and have to agree, there aren't that many pictures of them. Most seem to be of single coaches intermingled with Collet stock on secondary or relief duties. I have found a couple which seem to show Hawkswoth stock and Mk1s together in the same consist. Could you elaborate about the gangways please Craig? I hadn't realised that different gangways were incompatible with each other. For example, as said above, I have seen plenty of evidence of Hawksworth and Collet stock together but also of Collet and MK1s together. So I'm guessing an adapter would have to be used in at least one of these situations. Would it be obvious from a modelling point of view? Cheers

John, Thanks for taking the time to give me your advice. I haven't started any point building yet so it's not too late to change plans if necessary. Regarding standards, I want to get it as fine as possible but still be practical. I'm planing on using the methods described by Norman Solomon in the excelent Right Track DVD series. So I won't be using the roller gauges to set the check rail spacings but will construct a U shaped jig out of three small pieces of copper clad sleeper. This will give a check rail spacing of 1.06mm. I have just checked the DVD again and Norman uses a test bogie with one wheelset set at 14.8mm b2b and one at 14.5mm b2b. I think what I shall have to do is get a 14.5mm b2b as well and use that as my minimum and adjust upwards if there are any problems. I am surprised at your comments regarding the wheels. I though most modern RTR used RP25 standard wheels which I thought was the same as required for EM. There certainly seem to be plenty of examples on this forum where EM modellers have just pushed out RTR wheels on their axles for quick and easy conversion to EM. I have no problem rewheeling my older stock (I am already most of the way through an exercise to rewheel all my older plastic wheeled stock). I will take another look at my test coaches which squeel though. I did check that there was free movement when I converted them but I can see that if there is any side to side movement in the axles then the wheel faces could rub against the sides of the bogies. As the issue only seems to affect a couple of axles in the entire 9 coach rake you may indeed have pointed me in the direction of the cause. Many thanks again

Rod, the Dolls house shop Nick may be thinking of is Davenports Dolls houses and Accessories 128 Cornwall Street PL1 1NJ 01752 666066. My mum is into Dolls Houses and I have shopped there several times for Xmas and birthday pressies etc. They are very friendly and am sure they would do their best to help you if they can. Cheers, Brian.

I walked passed the fridge earlier and thought I heard an onion singing a Bee Gee's song but when I opened the fridge door it was just a chive talking.

Excelent work as usual Tim (and at last I get to see a photo of your use of L section for tie bars ) Could you tell me what you use for the vac pipe? It looks like you have more than one method. Brian.

A wife treats here hubby by taking him to a lap dancing club for his birthday. When they get there the doorman says "Alright Jim, how's tricks?" The wife asks "how does he know you?" Jim says "er, I play footy with him" Inside, the barman says "The usual Jim?" Jim quickly turns to his wife "Before you say anything, he's on the darts team in me local". Next a lapdancer comes up and says "Hi Jim, d'ya want the special again?" The wife storms out, dragging Jim with her and jumps in a taxi. The driver looks over his shoulder and exclaims "Geez Jim, you've pulled a right minger this time!"

Sorry Chris, should have added that that is some superb work. As my parents live in Par I am quite familiar with the originals. Think I will have to find an excuse to visit Wadebridge this autumn.

If memory serves, I believe it was one of the Grand Design programs.

This is really inspiring stuff. It's projects like this which really could get me interested in P4. Whilst I can appreciate all the detail and effort that goes into some of the wonderful P4 end-2-end layouts, it has always been the larger layouts that really catch my attention. Superb stuff Brian.

It's foam underlay for laminate floors, from Screw Fix. It's 3mm thick and resonably dense. I am trying it out as an alternative to cork underlay. Once I have finished the traverser I'll give the whole lot a spray over with grey paint so it isn't so gaudy.

Thanks guys I know what you mean, but I started this knowing it would take years to finish. I'll get there in the end Yep, headboards are on the to do ( or is that to get) list. Yep, my Duette dates from my first 'train set' in 1982. Since then it has been abused, left in damp garages (note the rust on the casing) but it is still going strong. If it wasn't for going digital I would probably keep using it.

Time has been short recently but I have made some progress. To start with I am concentrating on the traverser. As said above I have loads of Peco Code 100 left over from a previous layout so all my offstage track will be laid with this. I have laid 1" strips of copperclad down the ends of the traverser boards and where the feeder tracks meet the traverser. The rails are then soldered to this. I have fabricated a simple allignment and locking mechanism with bits of copper tube and rod (curtesy of Eileens): Power is fed to traverser through two of the all metal drawer runners. These are each connected to one of the copperclad strips which are then 'gapped' with a disk cutter to ensure power only goes to one rail. Copper wire is soldered from line to line so all will be permanently powered. I have also rigged up a complete circuit of code 100 so I can at last start to see something running. One of the first runs - the two new castles on the Cornish Riveira Express: The loco in the foreground is one that started it all - a 1982 vintage Mainline Standard4. I have also settled on DCC and have purchased a Roco MultiMaus and a hand full of decoders. I chose this because I prefer rotary controlers, it's relatively cheap, and if the DCC bug bites big time it is comaptible with Lenz equipment Next to my venerable Duette which is currently powering the layout.

The only problem with doing what you suggest is that is that your new nameplate will sit proud of the front of the splasher (as the splasher front and existing nameplate are the same piece of brass). The Hornby pictures of the pre production model show what I mean:

I am planning to renumber my castles as well but it is way down my priority list at the moment. However these won't be as straight forward as some renumbering jobs because the name plate is part of the front of the splasher. So the entire splasher front will need to be prised off. You will then need to cut the name plate off and then glue the splasher front back on. The new nameplate can then be added. The existing numberplates are also printed on top of some rivet detail (see my photos above) so these will need to be filed flat before brass replacements can be glued on.

Paddy and his mates were on a mystery coach trip. They had a sweepstake to guess where they were going. The driver won 68 quid!