Sasquatch

Quite right Julian, having learnt that the hard way I can concur! What I've been trying to get away with after filing the tips is to coat the tip with high temp solder and switching to the 20 watt setting to use Miniatronics electrical solder. Everything's held up so far. Apart from a couple of joint failures but that's most likely down to my ham fistedness and ever deteriorating eyesight!!! I do have three other cheap 30W irons, so it's not the end of the world!

Hi J. You know I'm not sure. They are a screw on type with a 1/4 inch thread I'm not familiar with. Two other brand new, chunky tips are in the soldering iron drawer, so I'm thinking of taking them down my mates and milling them on his metal lathe but I don't know if they'll be any good as soldering iron tips afterwards. Perhaps someone with better soldering skills and knowledge might advise me on that. Regards Shaun Edit: Having thought about that I wouldn't actually have to mill the actual tips! I'll give him a call right now.

Totally inspired, a whole evening was spent in the garage. Certain things needed urgent attention. The turnout accessing the turntable had lost its over center spring. With no spare available and ballast firmly affixed, the easiest fix was to replace the point motor with an old H&M unit. There's about a dozen of these in the inventory which I've used to get over problems in the past! Note also the idea of using a bit of scrap rail as a mini bus-bar to connect all the orange common wires at top left. The rail acts as a heat sink when applying many daubs of solder and sweating on the wires! The arm should be easy to hide. Last week (just when our nephew wanted to see the trains run) there was a total points failure across the whole of Bradford and Goathland. This took a while to diagnose, one of the momentary toggle switches was faulty! A case of using CDUs to avoid catastrophe here! The switch had to be replaced but first the soldering iron needed attention. This problem is infuriating. There's nothing wrong with the iron or the unit/station just that it's a Radio Shack product (which is no more.) and the tips are no longer available! A google search revealed that there are several used stations for sale on the internet but no tips. Seems like I'm not the only fella with this problem! There was an old tip floating about which cleaned up nicely, so we'll see how long that lasts. The storage cupboards have been modified by relocating the center munts to the left door. This allows 6 little plastic file drawers, used to hold stock, to fit in each of the three double cabinets. (Yes, that's a lifetime of accumulating and building trains). Next job was to install LEDs in the storage loops under the back of Queensbury. The idea here is to install a camera (or two) which will be linked to my old Laptop so that I can see what's under there. Another much needed task was to Velcro the Exchange handheld unit to the side of the baseboard. It's crashed to the floor on more than one occasion, so best sort that out before there's an expensive disaster. Spot the nice screw on tip in the soldering iron? Now for some trains. J50 sorting a parcels train on the goods departure siding. Unusually, one of Stanier's passenger tanks making a stop at Queensbury on the short viaduct with a pair of Hornby's splendid LMS crimson suburban coaches. (Bit of a mouthful). N2 about to depart Goathland with more suburban stock, only this time, more appropriately teak! And, hot on the heals of the N2, a fish train. Fairburn 42105 t the helm. . There's a new addition to this train, the 6 wheeled example from Chivers Finelines. As supplied this kit comes with fixed plastic center wheels. This one had an axle fitted with Romford wheels which I had intended to float on the axle. Like all great ideas this required some tinkering to get it to function properly. After quite a few years sitting in a stock drawer I decided to dig it out and see what could be done. Turned out to be a simple fix which involved spreading the W irons apart to remove the wheel set and open the holes in the wheels with a broach! The others in the rake are a Cambrian models LMS type... Two Parkside LNER dia.134 vans. (Nice kits)... Followed by an earlier Bachmann short type, my scratch-built dia.37 long wheelbase open louvered van, dia.23, also scratch built and a standard van. I know standard fitted vans were used to carry fish on the LNER but which types they were I'm not sure of. This one is a wartime build, so probably the wrong sort! Hope you're having a good weekend. Squatch.

Oh ye of little faith... Scrap that last...couldn't see the joke. The penny drops eventually.

Recently a mark 2 type has been developed for Bradford Exchange which uses the spring from the Ratio point control kit. The spring doesn't work over long runs so some square brass tubes have been purchased with a view to making a simpler mechanism. More on this as and when it receives attention. Regards Shaun.

Hi Graham. Going back about 6 or 7 pages the conversation turned to getting a little done each day, (How do you eat an elephant....etc.) a philosophy which I have found only works until something or someone gets in the way. Take today for instance. I'd planned the day well with a nice "to do list" of jobs, all railway related. Before breakfast there was a text asking for an urgent door to be made. Next thing I know it's dinner time and after cleaning up the workshop was too tired to pick up a 00 paint brush. Then... ...I found your wonderful and inspirational thread! (the mind boggles as to how I haven't found it before). So the evening hasn't been at all wasted!. Will try to borrow a few hours catching up on here from somewhere in due course. Keep up the good work (and the trains running). Regards Shaun.

This week was spent in the woodwork shop building the framework for the lift up section. A bit complex this, there is one rising gradient at 1 in 80, one falling the same and another below falling at 1 in 50. The need to make things as light as possible has given rise to the open look of things, each rib and section of framework was carefully marked up to allow for removal of as much material as possible with 1 7/8" left all round constituting the actual frame. Unlike previous builds, this one is all screwed together without glue in case I need to make any modifications. To finish I routed all the cutouts with a 1/4 round in the trimmer. Gives it a nice finish. So far, I have cut out the track beds but not fixed them in place yet as I need to check the fit against the edge of Queensbury. Another idea was to have this section sort of dovetail into position as it is lowered. The mill town end has a 2 degree inward slant and the counterweight mechanism will be mounted also on a slant. We'll see how this pans out! Sorry, no trains. The track needs cleaning again after excessive use of the Dremel and a smoky summer using an old AC unit. I've been checking out "mini splits" online as a means to replace the unit and a much-needed heat source for the winter. Looks quite easy to install, just need to find a reliable one at a sensible price. Squatch.

All looking grand Terry. Are you far enough north to be in the tropics and if not are there seasons where you are?? I know Queensland is pretty big, (3.5 times the size of France or bigger than Alaska) so I bet you're a long way from any cities. My grandfather was stationed in Aus. during WWII as a RAF radio operator/traffic controller over the Timor sea, he always wanted to return and was waiting until I was old enough to accompany him and appreciate it. Sadly, he passed away when I was in my teens, but I've always wanted to do the trip in his honor. If that ever comes about, I'll take a detour and pay you a visit. Don't panic on the layout front, it won't be any time soon though! Regards Shaun.

Hi Chris. Thought you might have been on your hols! Last time I was in Porthmadog we did all the same stuff and climbed Moel y Gest, unforgettable as there's a hillfort on the summit! Hope you all had a great time, regards Shaun. Oh! P.S. Great job on the station entranceway😁

Yes, you are right! On the model during that particular running session the train had left Bradford and travelled through Queensbury as if it had come from Keighley, then down the long incline through the hidden loops behind Goathland. Upon terminating at the Castle junction I then reversed it through Goathland in the correct manor using the loop! It then went on to the hidden loops behind Queensbury and back the way it came only this time I had to run it wrong road because quite a few trains were backed waiting to enter Goathland!!! I'm very excited to get the whole layout finished so that all these weird running sessions can cease. Regards Shaun.

The past two weeks just flew by, we have my in-laws staying so there's not been much hobby time. Now that we have their truck and trailer packed with all the stuff they had stored here when they moved "back East", I uncovered the piece of aerobic walking equipment that had been given to me with the express purpose of making a lift up section for GUN. I began by dismantling it which was just too easy and cleaned all the parts with car-wash. Then drilled out 8 holes in the foot plates and filed these square to accept 1/4" coach bolts. (The only hard bit of work involved). The first idea was to have the layout mounted on both of the foot plates and have a counterweight mounted centrally. Having rebuilt the device this way I found the combined weight of both foot plates to be too heavy, so returned to the drawing board. The requirements are to have six feet of clearance when the section is in the raised position and to keep it all as light weight as possible. Realizing that four bolts should be adequate enough to support the section I decided to mount the counterweight on the other foot plate which then balanced things out as built which means I won't need so much counterweight. Version 2.0 was assembled off set with the layout moving upwards and the weight down below to floor level. Version 2.5, had a few adjustments but still without the six feet required. 2.6 lost two bolts off of the counterweight footplate which enabled me to stretch the frame. Finally version 3. With two lengths of local cedar, milled out to a tight fit which pokes into the aluminium raceways the top one dadoed out to create room for the cable. This is the raised position which also shows the end of Queensbury in relation to the side door and the need for a lift up section. Any other method such as a hinged section just will not work in the tight corner! That was a fun little project, something which needed attention before construction of the mill town can move forward. Hope that you found that interesting, (something different usually is!) Squatch

Now we're talking! Didn't think about sandwiching, that would provide the possibility of producing all those rivets!! Not to mention the added strength factor. Good idea Julian. P.S. Looking at that picture again, if the etch was carefully thought out, the entire overall arch could be designed in. Sort of overlapping parts which sandwich together!

There were two types of which I think 16 of each will be needed! I don't know much about 3D printing but wouldn't they be too flimsy! Looking at them I don't think it would work due to the ornate whorls. Like the originals, they just might have to be cast! Regards Shaun.

Hi Steve. No! I do have some very good images, so what I was planning on doing was to go old school like I did with the tunnel and scale the image on the laptop, then trace the details. The latest idea is to have these made of dense card on a laser cutter! As for the actual columns, I was aiming at scratch building a master and making a two-part mold in which to cast the rest! Regards Shaun.

Despite having a 24 hour power cut during the week, which wasn't funny with temperatures in the 100sF, the panel for all the levers on Exchange did get finished. This time I managed to get a better fit, probably because it's a bigger hole if that makes any sense. It wasn't so easy cutting out the holes in the ribs for all the cords to pass through. Looking quite neat. 21 levers on this board, 10 uncouplers, 5 starting signals, 5 calling on arms and a ground disc. A more satisfactory result with the fit of the lifting ramps was achieved this time too. As is usual at the end of these progress updates, here's some trains. B1 Roedeer passes under Cowarth Bank road bridge as it departs for Pickering as a Bradford Corporation bus drives over with day trippers visiting Goathland. J50 tank running light engine towards Holmfield (Bunker first). What looks like a V3 coming to a stand on Queensbury viaduct with a Skipton to Leeds special. The possibility for through trains to and from both Keighley and Halifax via Stanningley to Leeds was provided at St. Dunstans, also a triangular set up. Most services did call at Bradford Exchange and without any loco release crossovers provided there, these trains would have been propelled back up the gradient to St. Dunstans, then back under the L&Y mainline before stopping and reversing loco first through St. Dunstans on a different line again and on up the steep gradient through a deep cutting to Hammerton Street. If only I had more time and space!!! Regards Shaun.

Following a bit of a heated discussion with mum just now I'm writing to Andy Y. to ask him to change the name of the forum to TSweb in order to alleviate any further confusion. I swear my brother pictures me on the carpet pushing a train around on blue track making choo choo noises! Had to have a rant, it's put a smile back on my face!!

Yellow or blue, it's a cracking bit of modeling in my view! Regards Shaun.

Yes! of course, that's why I need the uncouplers. The plan is to make the original fan design to the end and have that ugly fascade that was added at the start of WWll as a sort of removeable overlay! I still haven't worked out a cost-effective way of producing all the delicate iron whorls and curves in the brackets. To do it any justice I'll have to sell some stuff and fork out to have them etched. Circa 1912. 1960s. Remember I'm only modeling the West side of the station (near side in the above picture and Left side in the one below). Unfortunately it's the L&Y side, not the GNR half. If only I had a bigger garage. More reading here... Disused Stations: Bradford Exchange Station. http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/bradford_exchange/index.shtml Regards Shaun

Seeing as how the Exchange terminus has become more fun to operate, it only felt right to go ahead and improve on that, so I spent my spare time over the weekend making the uncoupling devices for it. 21 will be needed if it's worth doing so I got myself into full on production mode. I ended up making 9 more which will be needed for the mill town. This time I stuck with the mark two version which uses the spring from the Ratio remote point control kit only deviating from the original design by making some of them left-handed. (Something which I found might come in handy after trying to squeeze them into tight spaces.) Any two-part plastic used to cast previous lifting plates had long since dried up and rather than spend a small fortune on having some shipped, I have decided to make the plates this time around. Some hard mahogany was ripped down to the same thickness as the cork underlay, Using the super tacky glue generously, I added some old crappy snap track (rails removed) and applied some scatter to represent the ballast. Real granite ballast can't be used for this as it will destroy the band saw blade which I then used to rip the sections up the following morning once everything had hardened. Next, I have several broken Ratio levers, (nothing ever gets thrown out). Once again being the skin-flint that I am, decided to make some replacements levers. Ratio used to market the levers in packs of two but since Peco have taken over these are no longer available. The last thick sheet of plastic card ran out, so I sourced some nice thick DPM brickwork columns from a box of scraps instead. This plastic is much harder, so is better suited for the job and I seem to have an almost endless supply! Luckily, there was some Evergreen plastic tubing left over as I'd used many of the original bits making ground signals. Weather forecast for today is 110F and a red flag warning is in place from 4-8 pm. Just right for crawling about under the layout yet again to fit the first ten in place. 2 each on the 5 platform bays of exchange! Trains terminating here include the Bradford portion of the Yorkshire Pullman in platform 2 and parcels services as was typical in platform 1. This picture also demonstrates the need for the uncouplers. Some of the trains frequenting services recently include... D49 on passenger duty. J39 with a similar train. (A favorite). L1 also with a Gresley twin. A visitor to the North York Moors Railway. A pannier tank! Lovely runner this one, just right for a pick-up goods service. After the uncouplers have been installed it only seems decent to provide all those passengers with some platform on which to alight. Regards Squatch.

Start again then.... Can't believe it's Friday already. Where did that week go?? It's not been wasted. All this very hot weather might explain why I seem to have spent most of the week under the layout yet again. The cold concrete floor is the coolest place to be found! Many tasks have been attended to including (but not limited to) Adjusting signal and uncoupling mechanisms, wiring in switches to the lighting circuits, swapping over crossed wiring (some turnout switches were mixed up and some back to front), I also removed the scissor crossing circuit because the built in switches had stopped working due to arcing (money has been saved on a CDU for the mill town too). It all adds up to better running sessions!! This week's big job was Exchange's turntable. Having opted for the medium Walthers offering which got built a while back, I'd never got around to tackling the wiring even after installing the drive unit. A start was made by installing a DPDT switch from the hand- held controller so that I can switch between train control or turntable operation. I hooked up the power and turned up the speed. Herein lies the challenge. It wasn't at all smooth and the revolving deck rails have conflicting polarity when rotated 180 degrees. Another DPDT switch maybe. No! Too simple and I'd never remember which end was which. Too confusing! So, scratches head and hatches a cunning plan.... A quick rummage around in a few tubs produced some sets of reed switches. The turntable was dismantled, one of the magnets was mounted under one end of the bridge deck and two wires soldered to a reed switch which I then hot glued to the underside of the well. After tapping into the 12V relay supply I connected this to the reed switch and hooked that to an old relay I've had left over from a project in middle school (Getting on for 50 years). So far so good, so I went ahead, figured the wiring out and soldered all that up. All this was mounted to the turntable mechanism housing with more hot glue. Next, I set about lubing up the drive and checking for tight spots etc. I knew it wasn't going to work first time but went ahead, put it all back together and gave it another test run. It all worked, so what the eck, I went further ahead and reinstalled it. Following a 180 degree turn I heard the relay kick on so stopped it and flipped back to track control but the test loco wouldn't budge. After much crawling about with a multimeter and quite a few short outbursts of nasty short words, I narrowed the problem down to bad kit design. There are two brass rings separated by a plastic washer that slip over a hollow shaft under the bridge deck which is a one-piece molding. Acting on this are two thin copper strips. These strips are just too big, being the same width as the rings. The upper one was fouling on the big drive gear causing not only the juddering but also the wiper to lift off of the ring! Note also the square hole which had to be cut out in order to locate the wipers. It all got dismantled a second time so that I could thin the copper wipers. For good measure I also made a decent plasticard washer before putting it all back together and installing once again. A quick video. Not bad, even if I do say so myself. Just need to fix the inlet track down properly. Here's 4771 Green Arrow posing for the camera before returning to Queensbury with her train, the right way around. What should I tackle tomorrow??? Squatch.

Dollar store actually!😁 Dam and blast. Now I've lost all the text I typed up because of the stupid pop-up. I hate pop-ups. Someone remind me why do we need them exactly???????

The missing pictures have reappeared now. Strange!

Anyone else having problems with images disappearing off of their posts?

You know I'm not sure. It was rescued from a skip on a building site! It's insulation foam! The secret was using a large flat file to bring the face down flat below the level of the half round portal stones. One day I'll have a go at doing a big derelict mill! Regards Shaun.

The acrylics make all the difference!