gordon s

That's two Yuppies then......

You should be locked up for those.....

Morning all....Looks like we need a plumber. Pulled back the curtains in the lounge and it seems we have a leak. Some ceiling staining from the bathroom above. I'm not allowed to touch anything domestic that involves water, so I guess a pro is needed. Other than that, looks like it could be another sunny one....

No flat caps, no whippets, no mushy peas......Give us a break, you guys have it all.....

Pure coincidence Mr H! Sitting here watching TOTP2 with my iPad and a decent glass of red....

Oh ###### it, here we go.....1000 pages! Who'd 'ave thought it....

Get well soon Debs! You're being missed already.... Had to give myself a blooming' great kick up the backside as I was in danger of going into the modelling doldrums. Ran out of ply last week and going to the wood yard is such pain. I get the 8 x 4's cut into 4 x 2's but even then have to strip out half the car to fit it all in. My boot is full of doggie stuff and bits of sports equipment that now rarely gets used. 3.5m lengths of 100 x 25 can stick out the sun roof once wrapped up in dog blankets etc to protect the car interior. Anyway, job done for another few weeks, so perhaps I might get back in the groove again...

If they seemed a bit flat Squeaky, I must apologise. I had one of their sisters for my tea last night.... She was stuffed with Mozzarella and garlic and was delicious.

Just sat and watched War Horse on DVD and I have to say I'm reminded of something that is said so many times on here. KISS.... Having sat enthralled and ultimately drained by the stage play in London, I have to say Spielberg has completely over egged the story. The simplicity of the play was it's strength. The film has expanded all the scenes so much and in doing so lost some of the simplistic power the stage play excelled at. I felt some of the CGI's were quite poor and the 'Gone with the Wind' lighting in the end scene was cringeworthy. Yes, it's entertaining, but the impact of the stage play was just so much greater. Oh well, you can't please all the people, all of the time....

Yes, sorry I missed you Mike. It really was a flying visit for me, so doubt if I was there for more than an hour. I wanted to see the West Ham game and had a few minor domestic jobs to fit in around the game. I've also made a conscious decision to try and not buy stuff unless I really need it, so tend to stay away from the trade stands. One thing that was a bit of a pain was the road works on the A329 which backed up into other areas of the town, but surprisingly there were still several empty parking places, even at 12.00.

I thought Drogba was outstanding. Far less of the play acting and he really showed quality when often he was the only one upfront. After Barcelona, there was no doubt the cup had Chelsea's name on it and even though it cost Tottenham their place in Europe, I was pleased they won. To be honest, I'm not sure Spurs are good enough/strong enough to really do well in Europe yet and there's little or no point in going out in the early rounds. I'd rather wait another season and then see what they can do. Memories of Feyenoord, Dukla Prague and Benfica at White Hart lane are still there and I'd love to feel that excitement again.

One for you, Pete. Got bored yesterday afternoon after the football. Bloomin 'eck, even the grass on ET needs cutting now....

Fried tattie scones or fried soda scones. Sheer heaven!...... Fond memories of my childhood summers in Glasgow. Grey and overcast and sported out. First West Ham and then Chelsea. A great day for London clubs, even though it cost my team their place in Europe next season.

Seems the scrap guys have been in overnight and nicked the top off the roof though.... Great pic Mike!

Hi guys, busy day one way and the other. Snooker followed by ExpoEM and then West Ham winning their way back to the Premiership. Managed to get my old display cabinet up on the wall. It's only taken two years and filled it with some US stuff, so I can play US trains on ET when no one is looking. I know it won't be right, but hell, who cares? Tonight will be taken up with food, a glass or two of red wine and then Chelsea in the Champions League. Could be worse I s'pose....

Just look for a tall, bald geezer. That narrows it down a bit.....and I'll be in my own old banger I'm afraid, nothing exotic. Playing snooker till 12.00 so won't be around until lunchtime. Where will you be? On a layout?

Book has just arrived DD. Was expecting Nanny's knitting and got a perfectly presented Harrods gift service. Immaculate and the book is great. Made me want to track down prints of several pics to adorn the walls of my railway room. I can't afford nameplates, so prints could be a good alternative....

See you there then Mike. It's only five miles or so down the road, so would be rude not to.....

Congrats guys! Looking forward to following your build programme....

I wouldn't worry about the pole, DD. Someone will nick the plaque long before the pole rusts away.....

Escape to the Country this afternoon was from your neck of the woods DD. Ruthin, Caerwys and Mold. Beautiful countryside.... It'll probably be on iPlayer if you are interested..

Just heard my favourite Disco Diva from the 70's, Donna Summer has passed on. Yet another one in their 60's gone. Keep going that old heart of mine....

Distinct absence of Granny's knitting or crochet at this end.... No problem though, I'm sure it will arrive tomorrow.

Yes, you're right Ray, the planing 'jig' is simply a block of wood with two lines marked on it to show the planing length. I'm not that pedantic to make sure the planing is exactly to that length, it's just a guide for me. Align the end of the rail to the edge of the block and clamp the rail to the block and the block to the bench with a single clamp. I just happen to use a quick release version, but any clamp will do. A half inch wide medium file applied at a slight angle from the vertical and moved in a straight direction along the rail will soon thin the blade down. Once I have 15-20mm of rail filed down to the web, I turn it over and just take the bullhead projections off the other side. A quick clean up on the top and bottom surface edges with a flat needle file will take the rail back to a smooth finish and that's it, job done. I deliberately chose 1.06mm sleepers as they are easy to cut with an old pair of Xuron track cutters. Once cut, I run my finger nail across the cut ends just to make sure there are no slivers that can bridge across the top and bottom surfaces. It's just one more safety check to reduce chances of a short later on. Takes a second or two but could save you hours in the long run. Yes, you could use 1.6mm pcb strip and 1.06mm for the tie bars. The only issue then is supporting the 1.06mm material beneath the rails, which will be 1.6mm from your flat surface. It is possible that solder will wick under the switch rails and solder them to the outer rails if the tie bar is not close to the underside of the switch rail. If this happens don't panic, just apply heat to the outside of the running rail and just as soon as the solder melts, move the tie bar away. I'd normally make a new one at this point as it's quite difficult to remove all traces of solder from the tie bar and stop it happening again. I'm not sure that SMP can supply double pcb strip. The C & L ones are fibre glass, whereas the single sided cut sleepers supplied by SMP appear to be the cheaper paper material board that early TV and radio manufacturers used. It's no problem dealing with two suppliers, although it would probably be ideal just dealing with one. Both give excellent delivery and service performance. (SMP comes from Marcway in Sheffield)

Hi Ray, many thanks for your posting. This has always been a blog substitute for me and just some rambling tales, rather than a call to action posting. Nothing wrong with blogs at all, other than I'm a bit long in the tooth to learn new IT skills and the process has passed me by, so I have stuck with the normal post process. As such it's always good to know people are reading your scribbles and I'm very happy to answer any questions that may be posted. Even though this thread started back in 2009, there were earlier ramblings in versions of RMWeb which have been lost into the ether. I retired at the end of 2008 and ET pre dated that by a few years, so this tale must have been going for 6 years or so....and still nothing runs...but this time it will. It hasn't been a pain free journey as these pages will testify and to be honest the failings have been down to me not listening to those far more knowledgable and experienced in building layouts. Far too complex, impossible gradients, inaccessible areas, a complete failure to recognise how long jobs actually take and above all, a level of expectation that totally exceeded actual skill levels. So yes, it has been littered with failures, but each of those has been a learning curve and I'm still smiling and still enjoying this hobby of ours. OK, underlays. Quality of running for me is my first priority. I have seen so many beautiful layouts at shows where loco's bump through point work, dead spots abound and derailments are common place and even though the scenic elements may be to die for, the inability for a train to move smoothly and effortlessly over even simple track, kills the illusion for me. Smooth running starts with a solid base, hence my over engineered baseboard frames and 12mm track base. Yes, it's heavy but this is not a layout that will leave home. If ever we move house, it will be carefully cut into sections and a programme of rework can commence, although in all honesty any new railway room is unlikely to have the same shape, so a new layout would be on the cards anyway. I started with cork strip for underlay on plain track, but as you know, once this is glued and ballasted, there are no sound deadening qualities at all and it's simply a shaped trackbed onto which ballast can be spread. It was fine for plain track, but point work became more complex. Getting ballast into pointwork, particularly the more complex arrangements, has been a nightmare for me with either insufficient ballast in all the small nooks and crannies on slips etc or worse still, I ended up with the moving parts gummed up with glue. Eventually I settled on glueing and ballasting point work at the same time by just bedding turnouts into wet PVA and immediately sprinkling on loose ballast. Tip off the excess and job done. The only down side is that the depth of ballast is not as deep as my hand painted PVA ballast method used on plain track. So cork is OK, but don't use it as a sound deadening membrane. Then I tried some foam underlay, available in 3mm sheets to match up with the cork. Biggest problem was glue melting the foam, but the right choice of adhesive would overcome that issue. The other problem was indents in the soft surface and the inability on my part to maintain a constant thickness onto which to lay the track. I'm sure those less ham fisted than I would do a good job, but personally it was too fragile for me. Martin Wynne tipped me off about 3mm balsa sheet and this has been successful, particularly when building point work away from the layout. Each turnout can be glued to an individual balsa template and ballasted away from the layout. The completed sub assembly can then be moved to the layout and fixed to the track bed. I have done this in the ET station area and will continue to do so in all visible areas. What has probably confused the issue is that I'm using 3mm cork tiles in the hidden areas. This is just for speed and that fact that all track in these areas is unballasted. Turnouts are built on my bench and then simply glued in place onto the cork. So to summarise, I will use 3mm cork on all plain track which has to be ballasted. I still have half a dozen 100' rolls of cork, so will use that up first. Turnouts in visible areas will use 3mm balsa and will be glued/ballasted away from the layout and then added as a sub assembly. Hidden areas will use 3mm cork tiles. Min Radius for 00-SF? I don't know is the easy answer. My own minimum radius is 3'. I'm quite rigid about this, probably irrationally so. There is nothing less than 3' on all my main running lines and most turnouts are much larger than that. If really pushed in an area where where only small shunters would run, such as industrial sidings etc, I would probably drop to 30" if there was no alternative, but certainly nothing less than that. Planing jigs? These are not for turnout blades, only for forming the angles for the crossing vees. Turnout blades are filed up using an old block of wood and a quick release clamp. I bought the jigs from the EM Gauge society so can't help you with the manufacturing techniques. I can only guess the rail slots were milled out of the steel. These jigs are made from hardened steel and will outlive me, so you don't have to worry about wear and tear. Even using files against the steel, only 'polishes' the surface, so they are a good investment. Yes you are right, the nose of the vee, should be situated on top of a sleeper and never in a gap between two sleepers. Templot sets this out for you, so apologies, I take it for granted and it's something I've never had to think about. The only critical area for bends opposite each other is where the wing rails flare either side of the crossing vee. This is dictated by the angle of the vee itself and again I haven't given it a second thought as it's dictated by the crossing geometry. Rail gaps for insulation are cut with a Dremel type slitting saw. Life is too short to fit dummy fishplates and it's one of those compromises I have accepted. I'm in awe of the track on Peterborough North that was build by Norman Saunders, but then he doesn't has baseboards to build, stock to weather and modify and scenery to build. What I do though to increase reliability is to cut a sliver of black Plasticard about 3mm wide and stick this in the gap with Superglue. Once dry it can be cut and shaped with a scalpel to match the rail height and outline. This acts as a stop to prevent gaps closing up under temperature changes and will stop those annoying shorts that can occur once the sun comes out and the ambient temperature rises. The copper strip and rail I buy from C & L. They do offer flex track, but from memory it is designed to match their 1.6mm sleeper height whereas I use 1.06mm pcb strip. SMP track is a much closer match to that height and I've used it from the outset, so have stuck with it. I do however use pre cut sleepers from SMP as C & L don't offer pcb sleepers, only plastic ones. Once again, thanks for taking the time to post in my thread. I really appreciate any feedback from RMWebbers whether complimentary or constructive. I still have a lot to learn, so always willing to listen to suggestions how to improve the build process or track plan. Feel free to ask anything if my ramblings are unclear and I'll do my best to assist or clarify.