BG John

Here are a few close up shots: This is the end of the sector plate. As I think I said earlier, the microswitches act as stops for aligning the outer tracks, and the centre track is aligned by eye. The microswitches switch power to the appropriate track when on, and to the centre track when off. I can't see this causing any problems on such a simple layout. The traverser that will be hidden under the train shed. The microswitches are the stops, and power is only switched when the track lines up. I'll have to make a removable piece of platform to cover it. The hole in the backscene is needed for the operator's hand, and may need a building to cover it. The operator will be able to see what's happening through the glazing in the train shed roof, and the viewing side will probably have to be in need of a visit by the window cleaner to hide it! This is the underside view of the screw the traverser slides on (the sector plate has the same arrangement in a curved slot). The spring is adjusted to slide easily while applying enough friction to hold it in place. I think this arrangement will be ok for light use, which is probably all it will get.

I've dug the layout out of the pile of jobs to be done one day in my workshop, and got out all the boxes of bits and pieces. So here is the latest situation, dust and all! I'd started changing it from being operated from the back, to being operated from the front. The controller has been inserted into the baseboard, and the sector plate operating handle has been put on the other side. I don't like it though, as it means that only the right hand end will have any scenery, so I'm going to change it back. I think I'll add a point to connect the isolated piece of track, so will have to rename the topic to something like "Small, Broad and Mostly Pointless"! The next stage will be to join the boards permanently, and get rid of the very obvious join, refit the controller into the plastic box and rewire it. Then I'll fill in the hole where the controller was, and build some more track.

Anyway, back to this sorry tale (rather than tail ). Some of you may be wondering why, when the topic is "Small, Broad and Totally Pointless", there are points on the layout. Well I'm afraid to say that there aren't any more . The layout was living in my trailer that tended to get damp in the winter, and I was also finding that although it was a small layout, working on it in the small space of my van was quite difficult. I'd also replaced the rear passenger seat with some shelves that I'd built, so I had more storage in the van. A visit to my brother's workshop resulted in the sidings being lifted, and the baseboards being attacked with a saw, to reduce the 16" width to 12". The boards then fitted on one of the new shelves in the van! So my 12ft x 2'6" baseboards had now been reduced to 5ft x 1ft! Here's the bottom of the cut down station board, stored on its new shelf, showing the sliding mechanism for the traverser at the far end: Here's the station board partly slid out to show where the siding was, and the bottom of the fiddle yard board. I'd moved the controller to the front of the layout, where you can see it set into the board at the top of the picture. You can also see the sliding mechanism for the end of the sector plate at the far end. I'd also added another one in the centre of the traverser, as I'd found that the Tufnol sector plate wasn't staying flat: This is a the top of the station board, cropped and rotated from the above picture: Then I got involved in other stuff, and didn't get any further. When I bought a house and stopped travelling, I decided there was no point having two boards for a layout this size, so the plan now is to permanently join them. I'll do that when I have some suitable bits of 4mm ply, or similar, to fix along the front and back edges. I don't know what I'll do with the sidings yet. It may just be one so there are no points at all, or I may sneak a point in somewhere to add excitement. So that's it for now. As I said earlier, I have a space to store it where it will be seen every time I get out of bed, so when the shelf is made I'll find it harder to ignore! I think my priority will be the new EM layout though, as I have more than enough stock to operate that. I'm sorting out a currently unused part of the house at the moment, to use as temporary meeting and office space. When it's ready, I'll try to get out the layout and stock, and take some more photos, and maybe make a plan.

I'm making fantastic progress, but not with the layout, although she is small (for her breed!), but certainly not broad, and not entirely pointless (look at those pointy ears!)

That site seems a bit old. Is anything still happening?

The horror story is yet to come! I'm afraid I've been distracted by a new four legged hairy thing!

Thanks Chrismears. I'm not sure if I said earlier, but I have a space reserved for it where it will be seen every morning when I get out of bed! Hopefully this will encourage some work, but I'll be giving priority to my new EM layout, that will be even more visible when I get out of bed!!

Thanks Graham. That saves me having to even consider spending any money, or having to buy some brown and salmon paint!

Just out of interest, although it would be tempting to have running powers on my GWR layout, why isn't there an LSWR livery one, and the O2 as well? Is it a marketing thing, or were there physical differences that rule it out?

Is this before he was killed by Dirk Bogarde, or after his resurrection?

The Broad Gauge Society do enough kits and components to build something small Skipepsi. Unless you can afford to get someone to build a loco for you, you need to build a fairly complex kit though, although if you're happy to start with something freelance, there are easier ways. I'm afraid the next episode will have something about over ambition in it .

My dog died last summer (that didn't make me smile ), and I wasn't ready to get a new one yet, but yesterday afternoon a rescue group I'm following on Facebook posted an urgent request for a foster home, for a dog living a few miles from me, who needed to be got out quickly to avoid being put to sleep. So I couldn't not offer to help, could I?

On 13th September 2008, the layout made its first, and only so far, appearance in public, at the Broad Gauge Society's exhibition in Newbury. With borrowed locos that actually work, it ran for the first time, and with no problems, although the goods yard wasn't usable, due to lack of rails!

Also by mid September 2008, the layout had been wired, but nothing had run on it, as I discovered that both of my locos had faults! This is the control panel. The plastic box had previously been used as a hand held panel on an old layout, connected by a ribbon cable, hence the excessive number of holes for switches. Only two were needed this time. As you can see, it was fitted to the back of the layout in the fiddle yard. This is some of the wiring under the layout, showing the baseboard connection using a D-plug. When separated. the cable was held by a spring clip you can just see on the right hand board. In the bottom left corner of the photo is the underside of the sector plate sprung fixing, running in its curved track. This is the electrics connected to the sector plate. It's wired so that the two micro switches switch power to the right track. When the sector plate isn't in contact with either switch, the centre track is live, but I can't imagine this causing many high speed crashes, so is no problem! The spring under the baseboard tensions the sector plate so it's held in place by friction, and the track alignment can be adjusted by moving the micro switches. It has to be aligned to the centre track by eye. The traverser is also switch by two micro switches, but in this case there is no centre track, so it's dead when being moved. Again the micro switches also act as adjustable stops for rail alignment. If it's visible under the trainshed, the platform will have a removable section fitted.

It's not a little engine! It's a mainline express engine (in as much as anything on the South Devon Railway was express!), and totally unsuitable for a small branch line

By mid September 2008, I'd got this far. The card mockup of the bridge and wall hiding the fiddle yard had been replaced by one made from plasticard, with Wills stone walls. There wasn't room for a road, so this is more of a footpath, or bridleway. There was still a lot to do to it of course. I can't spoil my track record of not finishing things! You can also see part of the platform, built from strips of plywood with Wills stone wall, sandpaper surface, and edging made from a strip of plasticard with the gap between slabs made with a file, and roughed up with sandpaper. I think the platform surface is too course, but it's what I had at the time! The copper clad baulks were all in place for the turnouts, and rail attached to the plain track. Transoms were cut from matchsticks, and stuck in place with a drop of superglue. The aim was to ballast level with the top of the baulks, so the finished appearance should be reasonable. The train shed is still the card mockup, that covers the traverser.

A month later, and I had decided to add another siding, to make the goods yard into an Inglenook Shunting Puzzle! This required a 3-way point. Making baulk road turnouts was an interesting challenge, especially in the way I was making the plain track. I started by making a template by tracing standard turnout templates onto two pieces of greaseproof paper, and then overlapping them. These were attached to a piece of plywood face down, so the bottom of the turnout faced upwards. Copper clad strip baulks were stuck down with double sided tape, and I think were glued or soldered together in some places. To hold the lot together, I glued lengths of ply sleeper strip across them, at all sorts of odd angles, to make it into one unit. Slots were cut out of the cork underlay to take the ply strips, and it was stuck down with Evo-Stik. (This photo is actually jumping forward a couple of months, so you haven't missed the wall building!) This may seem a bit basic, and asking for a bad outcome, but the mixed gauge pointwork on my previous layout, which was on cross sleepers, had been made pretty much by trial and error, and worked very well.

I wasn't exactly rushing with this project, even when I was working on it! This is where I'd got to by mid July 2008. You can see the rather compact conditions I was working in. At this time the layout was living, and probably bouncing around a bit, in my trailer. I was standing in the kitchen when I took this photo, and somewhere in the van was usually a fairly large dog (although he may have been outside when I took this)! I'd started building the track, and you can see by the template that I was planning two sidings in front of the fiddle yard. This is the sector plate. I must have paid another visit to my brother, as a chunk has been cut out of the backscene to give access from the back. I raided the family stock of useful materials, and found this nice piece of Tufnol. The rail is soldered to copper clad sleepers, and stuck down with, I think, Evo-Stik. At the far end it pivots on a screw. At the near end, the screw between the rails runs in the curved slot, and underneath is a spring between two washers, held at the right tension by a nut. It's operated by the brass handle, and held in place by friction. I'll take some more detail photos another day, when I dig the layout out of a pile of stuff in my workshop. The track is made from copper clad sleeper strip, with Broad Gauge Society bridge rail soldered onto it. I had to buy an 80 watt iron to do this, and could really only use it when I was on an electric hookup, although I may have tried it on my 12 volt system with an inverter! The baulks (sleeper strip) were stuck to the cork underlay first, using Evo-Stik. I made gauges out of plasticard to get them in the right place. Once set, the rails were sweated on. Last time I checked, it was still in gauge, but I think it's time to recheck. If I had built the layout quickly, and it had gone out of gauge, it would ruin so much work, which seems like a good reason for taking it slowly! You can see the half turnout, with the crossing rather close to the baseboard joint. This is the sector plate at the buffer end of the runround loop. It's made out of two thicknesses of Tufnol, joined with epoxy I think.The bottom layer has a gap, so it slides on the guide at right angles to it. The brass handle is screwed to the traverser, and is held in place by the guide block made from Tufnol. As with the sector plate, it's held down by a screw running in a slot (hidden under the handle), tensioned by a spring. This will all be hidden under the train shed.

I think I did start a topic on the old forum. I'll have have a look some time. If I was making progress at the moment I would have started a topic before now. My current plan is to build my new EM layout first, but doing that creates space for visible storage of this one. I'll see it every morning when I get out of bed! I decided the destinations, but Charlie was usually happy, as it often involved riding on steam trains, or cycling on closed railways!

I'd sold my house in July 2007, my dog and I were wandering aimlessly around Britain in our van, and after a while I thought it was time I did some modelling. With hindsight, it would have been easier to build an EM micro layout, as I had plenty of locos and rolling stock. I even bought a few SMP point kits. But in the end I went for a broad gauge one, although it meant I needed more stock. So I got the two small baseboards out of store. In January 2008, I spent a few days at my brother's, using his very useful workshop, where I made the traverser and sector plate. While on the road, I built mockups of the train shed, platform and the bridge/walls to hide the fiddle yard. The train shed used photocopies of the drawings of Ashburton from the Great Western Branch Termini book stuck onto card. There isn't room for the station building, so I will just make the platform side wall. I also stuck down the cork underlay. In April 2008, I spent a couple of weeks volunteering at the community at Monkton Wyld in Dorset, and while I was there used the workshop to do some work on the baseboards. They needed some finishing off, and I added the backscenes.

In 2006, I finally got round to thinking about using the boards for a layout! I can't remember now if this was because I'd discovered micro layouts, or if it was an RMweb Challenge. I think a Challenge to build a micro layout motivated me at some time. So the board that was cut in two was made into two boards 2ft 6in long (the width of the old boards), and about 16in wide, I think, to fit the framing. And this mock-up of the plan was produced: The idea was that the loco release crossover would be replaced by a traverser hidden under a train shed, and the pointwork for the other end of the runround and into the goods yard would be replaced by the sector plate in the fiddle yard. So I'd only need to build two points. The buildings were from Abbotsbridge, and only temporary, especially as the goods shed was narrow gauge. The goods shed is a scratchbuilt model of Abbotsbury, and the station building the Hornby Dunster Station kit covered with embossed Plasticard, rather than the paper overlays supplied. I'm afraid the remaining two complete boards got scrapped when I sold my house and went travelling, as it was too expensive to store them, and I didn't have time to rehome them.

After about 15 years stored in two lofts, the boards finally found a use, but not for a railway I'm afraid! I was a director and half owner of a renewable energy company, and we needed an exhibition stand. Being tight, I remembered what was stored in my loft! So I cut one board in half and attached each half to one of the complete boards, and added legs from my ancient EM exhibition layout Abbotsbridge. The dropped bit was reduced in size to fit a computer screen, and neatly finished off with some architrave. And that's how it spent the next three years, until I left the company. Then it was back to the loft!

I've just posted the first part of this horrific tale Marc, while I have a break from committing violent acts to my house! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70418-small-broad-and-totally-pointless/

Once upon a time, many years ago, and inspired by Barry Norman's lightweight ply baseboards, I started building my first 4mm broad gauge layout. It would have been some kind of harbour layout on three 4ft x 2ft 6in baseboards, so definitely not a micro! In the end, I decided it was too big a project, and built the smaller Hinton Burtle (that I'll write about one day), using heavyweight chipboard baseboards! I got as far as building the baseboards, and proved that using 4mm ply could produce very strong and long lasting boards, as they spent quite a few years in my loft. These photos were taken some years after building. The first two boards were like this: I think the construction is fairly self explanatory. Everything was 4mm ply, except the timber packing pieces in the frames. Here's a closeup: The third board had a dropped section that I think was going to be where the water went. I can't remember if there there was ever a track plan, or quite what I had in mind. The dropped section was where the architrave is in this photo, plus a bit that was filled in above it. To the left of the dropped bit was a strip at baseboard level. The lower photo shows it from underneath. I'll explain the architrave in the next part of this horrific story! The boards were certainly strong, and didn't warp over a lot of years. The only problem I had was that it was easy to squeeze the frames together between the packing, and break the glue joint to the top, so if I did it again I think I'd put a thin strip right the way along the gap.

Oh OK then. I'll think about it