chaz

Yes Peter, I have done this in the past, and it works fine, but this afternoon it just didn't occur to me. Not the first time I've been reminded of a technique I was familiar with but seemed to have forgotten. Is there any hope? Chaz PS - no sign of a pyramid cap for the post so I will have to pick one up at the Bristol show.

A frustrating day, one of those when not much goes right. I did manage to make this fiddly little part for the signal. I had to have two goes at soldering it up. The first time I put the balance weight lever in with a piece of paper each side to avoid the solder locking every thing up solid. Didn't work! I suspect the solder from the middle of the lever (it's two pieces laminated together) caused the problem. I took it apart, cleaned up the pivot hole in the lever with a cutting broach and tried again without paper - and this time it worked. These extreme close-ups are pretty unkind on the work - and my fingers. Chaz

A bit more progress this evening.... I fitted the two ladder supports to the post and adjusted their overlong legs so that they would just grip the ladder. I have found that if a joint like this is flooded with liquid flux and the iron charged with a small amount of 145 solder the merest touch of the iron has the solder flashing into the joint without disturbing the fit. Before I did this I tinned the ladder on both sides with 188 solder. This has the effect of stiffening it a little, although it remains a fragile item. I removed the assembled ladder unit from the post to (very carefully) wash the joints with CIF, an alkali and a good neutraliser of an acid flux. The MSE fret that most of these parts came from includes some strip from which to form the ladder supports but these are very delicate so I used heavier section brass strip for a more robust result. I cut back the ladder supports with a pair of tinsnips. Providing the leg to be cut is held, rather than the ladder, this is the safest way of trimming these to length. You could, of course, cut them before soldering in the ladder but I prefer to trim after assembly. The next picture shows the ladder, the lamp bracket and the arm pivot installed on the post. It also shows that I sanded the base of the post down (using a power linisher not glass-paper - much, much quicker) and fitted it into a length of square brass tube. This is a telescopic fit in the largest K & S size (1/4inch), a piece of which will form a socket so that the signal can be easily fitted and removed. The last photo shows the signal post dropped into position on Dock Green to test the fit. The track behind the post is the line in and out of the yard. I'm hoping I can find a pyramid-style finial in the drawers for this post.... Chaz

I love model signals, for me they are every bit as interesting as the locos. So I was disappointed that, in a yard like Dock Green Sidings, where all the points are hand thrown all the movements would be controlled by hand signals from a shunter, with no need for any fixed signals. However the line out of the yard would be protected by a signal if it ran into an area where passenger traffic could be expected. This signal might well be connected to a signal box in that area and so out of sight beyond the yard. I did consider making a somersault signal, however I built one of these some time ago and it was a real fiddle to get working nicely, so I settled on an upper quadrant job. However with a nod to earlier times I used a wooden post (the LNER sometimes renewed a somersault as an UQ signal but retained the original post). The first photo shows the components laid out. The etched parts and castings are from MSE. The post was machined from beech on a planer/thicknesser using a jig to get the taper (I used to be a DT teacher and had access to such machinery). I had a finished and painted UQ arm left over from a previous project which gave me a head start. The next photo is a close-up of the arm pivot. With a wooden post I make all the fittings with wire pins that push into holes. This makes painting easy when the post is white and the metal parts in black. The fittings can be eased away from the post but with the pins still in the holes to be painted. The brass base for the pivot is 6 x 4mm and those wire pins are 0.7mm. You might be interested (?) in my working method for making such small parts. find a length of brass the required width (an edge of a kit fret in this case) mark out the length required and the holes but at this stage leave the strip overlong - I use a black permanent marker to colour the brass and then a scriber to mark out drill the holes for the fixing wires drill a hole in an wood offcut to hold the first wire vertical while you solder it to the base take a length of tube to suit the pivot wire - 0.8mm wire will fit nicely inside KS125 solder the tube to the plate - note the brass offcut near my fingers to keep the tube sitting level drill a hole for the first pin in the post fit the plate on the post using the plate as a drilling jig drill the second hole in the post fit the plate back on the wood offcut and drill a hole for the second wire pin whilst the plate is on the offcut solder in the second pin - be careful that the tube doesn't come adrift - a piece of card gently pressing down onto the tube does the trick cut the tube and the plate to length - it's very much easier to do all the other work if this small part is not cut to size until now clean up and test fit the pivot to the post Fittings like this, if fastened with two wire pins, are usually a snug fit. If they turn out a bit loose I find that bending one of the pins very slightly makes the fit tighter (don't overdo this or you will not be able to get the pins in!) I will post more pictures of the signal later. Chaz

Spent an hour or two yesterday making a couple of short lengths of wooden fencing.... First photo shows the first step in assembling a section of fence. An offcut of card has been marked up with guidelines. Two lengths of spruce are fixed to the card at each end with superglue. These are overlength and will be trimmed once they are detached from the card. The first fence post is glued to the two horizontal rails. All the timber and ply' was previously stained with very dilute black drawing ink. Next snap shows some progress. The fence boards, from 0.8mm ply', are cut to length with scissors and glued to the rails with CA. I added "nails" with the black pen (a 0.2mm tip). I used the offcut of blue card to carry small dollops of superglue which I applied to the fence with the cocktail stick - I find this much cleaner and more accurate than putting it on directly from the nozzle on the glue bottle. Third photo shows two lengths of fence. I released them from the card by sliding a scalpel under the glued ends of the timbers and then trimmed these to length. Last picture shows the fences installed on either side of the canal. I drilled holes for the fence posts that were a little undersized for the diagonals on the cross-section of the posts. I pushed these carefully into the holes, each one in turn - a bit at a time, the resultant tight fit holding them securely. Next task on the fences will be to add some grass and weeds along the base - once I have decided how the area in the foreground is to be finished. Chaz

Not too difficult to do. I found my cheepo disc sander very useful in adjusting the length of the pieces of replacement sleeper. I found the most difficult part was being brave enough to attack the first one. Chaz

Thanks Alan. It was a bit more work than I expected! Those S curve levers were held into the fret with six tabs (why?) and the fold down sides of the stand plates had to be cut back to get them to fit between the sleepers AND the slot needed to be lengthened. Still, I wouldn't have liked to have to try to cut the levers by hand. I will be "doing" the last four points today. One is an older style Y point which therefore has no "coffin" to remove. Chaz

For reasons too tedious to go into progress on Dock Green has been stalled until yesterday, when I carried on the work of modifying the Peco points. The picture above shows one of the points with the "coffin" cut away, one of the replacement sections of timber glued in and the sleepers on either side of the tie-bar extended ready for a point lever. The green piece (!) is a small offcut of card with a slot for the drive pin, pushed under the tie-bar to support it whilst I slice away the bumps on either side. As I think I mentioned before I bought some Ambis point lever frets at the recent trade show in Reading. Here's a fret (there were two in each packet)... If you look closely you can see two levers, one straight and one with an S curve. The H shaped piece is the stand plate (?) and there are also a number of tiny, tiny cranks and brackets which I put on one side. The levers have a slot in their tops to accept a handle made from 0.8mm wire. The slot is too narrow for the wire. The easiest way to solve that one is to flatten the end of the wire in a tool-maker's clamp. The picture above shows a lever (with its wire handle already in place) having a pivot wire soldered in. If you need to solder wire or tube into a flat piece you can keep it square to the surface by pushing it into a hole in a small block of wood. Note the card offcut to prevent scorching of the little piggies! (Sorry if that's old hat). I needed to modify the stand plate, extending the slot and shortening the fold down sides to get it to fit onto my extended sleepers. Here's the result.... A point lever (non-working, of course) finished apart from a little light weathering to tone down the glaring white. When I was looking through my copy of Peter J Coster's excellent album, "The Book of the Great Northern", I found some excellent pictures taken in New England yards. Some of these showed point levers like the Ambis ones with the mechanism and linkage boarded over - presumably to keep the weather out. I have added boards made from my favourite thin ply'. I bought three packs of levers, being enough for six points. Dock Green has nine points. I realised that if I made up three more stand plates I could use three of the straight levers (my first choice was the S curve type) to make up the shortfall. The final photo shows two Peco points transformed into something that looks far more realistic. The "coffin" has gone and the hand throw levers, de rigeur in a goods yard, add a nice bit of detail. A little work to do yet with a paintbrush. Those rail-sides need retouching - and the lengthman has been very idle, judging by the lack of grease on the slide chairs . Chaz

Peter has made more progress with bridge #4. He has added the "stepped" brickwork on the parapet walls. Looking impressive! Sorry about the flash photo but the background is very distracting.... Chaz

There is another aspect to consider when making the choice of track to use. The best arguement I have seen in favour of hand built track is that it allows the sort of flowing layouts and prototypical formations which are not possible using Peco. A simple track layout like Dock Green (or your Factory Lane Sidings, Alan) is quite possible with the fixed geometry without too much, if any, compromise. It's just a pity that Peco took a big step away from realism with their "improved" design. Chaz

Peter, who is building the second road bridge, came round today and we spent a few hours working on it. I built the sloping butresses, one of which features in the first photo while he worked on the span. There is still a lot to do, including the piers that sit on top of the butresses at each end and all the detail work on the girders. The brass fittings in front of the pier are the locating pins. These will be glued into the false floor before the camberred road surface is added and will drop into holes in the top of the front and centre piers to locate the spans accurately. We want the spans to be removeable. This bridge is going to be a really nice feature for the layout. It is based on the one at Loughborough which crosses what was the throat of the station and is now part of the engine yard. Below are three photos which Peter took to research the model. As you can see the bridge has metal plate girder spans with brick parapet walls. We have taken a few liberties with the bridge to make it fit the site on Dock Green, but have retained the main features of the design. On the left, behind the signal cabin, you can see the pier that sits on top of the sloping butress. We have no idea who the "yoof" was, dangling his feet over the bridge. It would be quite a fall.... The view above is from the other side and shows some nice detail work. The bridge is not particularly special, bridges like it are commonplace, just right for Dock Green. Peter took quite a few detail shots, including this one of the side pier and wing walls (although we dropped the wing walls on Dock Green). He spent some time with prints of the pictures counting brick courses to scale the photos and made several drawings to sort out the structure of the model. Chaz

One man's pedantry is another's attention to detail...... Oh alright, pedant I am (you're not the first person to pin that label on me!). Looks good with the adjusted horizon though. Chaz

Quite so! Keep up the good work. Chaz

Which is a good way of avoiding perspective problems..... Trees (masses of 'em - with no trunks visible) , distant hills or mountains can also work. Chaz

"The point about eye level is a tricky one as the height of the individual viewer will vary" Indeed it will, however the "get out of jail" card is that anyone looking at the layout is unlikely to bother overmuch about the perspective problems of the backscene, any more than they will worry about the baseboard edge at the front. It's in photographs that the problems are obvious - luckily as you can control the viewpoint with camera height you can get this looking spot on (just like you can make sure the baseboard edge is cropped out). Chaz

I'm glad you saw my comments as constructive Dave. In fact with that hedgerow in the background it's quite possible that someone standing on your station's platform would not be able to see the sea in that direction. But that would be a shame - go for a compromise? Chaz

I really like the hotel - the white painted pebble-dash (?) is extremely convincing. Also pleased to see the wall between the hotel yard and the station. Hope you won't mind if I comment on your backscene.... The horizon line of the sea is always at eye level. Next time you are at the seaside try this - take a snap of someone about the same height as yourself with the sea in the background (the camera needs to be at your eye level and you are both standing on the same level). it doesn't matter whether you are on the beach or up a cliff or on a tall building the horizon will line up with your subject's eyes. Now you can't actually get this right because it depends on viewpoint (of course!) but the sea in the (very nice) picture of the hotel in the previous post is far too high. Think about a scale figure standing by the corner of the hotel - at what level would their eyes be? Of course if you stand alongside your layout and get what I believe is called a "helicopter view" your sea will be just right. Where does that leave us? Maybe the backscene needs to be adjustable up and down - with different settings for different viewpoints. If you are planning lots of photos with the camera at a natural scale person height I'd put the sea lower to suit. I'll shut up now (sorry - in a previous life I was an art-teacher.....) Chaz

"perhaps for your next layout you might like to try a turnout or two" Nice idea, Don. In fact my next layout (strictly non portable I'm afraid) is already started. It's an essay into the world of American On30 and all the track, including the switches (it is American!) are hand-laid. Wooden ties and spikes! Jig built turnouts. I've had to put it on hold for the last nine months as I concentrated on Dock Green but in due course I will resume as rails proceed up the Furness Valley..... Chaz PS Thanks Don and, yes, I am proud of it!

Quite so, Jack. And if it appears that all I want to do is to slag off Peco - well I am using their points after all! The point I was making (sorry!) is that although they are not perfect they are an acceptable compromise for anyone, like myself, who hasn't got either the time, the skill or the inclination to make their own. And if they can be improved cosmetically, why not? Chaz

A friend, Peter, is building a second road bridge for Dock Green. Some time ago he built a 4mm model based on the Empress Road bridge at Loughborough (GCR). He is now tackling the same prototype in 7mm. This morning he brought it over for a trial fit.... As you can see the bridge spans the yard between the canal and the goods platform. There may well be a separate footbridge adjacent to this one (as there were on several bridges on the ECML at the southern end - the Twentieth Mile Bridge at WGC springs to mind) in due course. The bridge is intentionally quite narrow and there is no pavement or footpath. Right from the start I wanted to divide the layout up into a number of smaller scenes - overbridges provide a realistic way of doing this. Chaz

"The problem with the Peco turnouts" - how long have you got? Using them for Dock Green was always going to involve a huge dollop of compromise. By cutting away the "coffin" in the four foot I have only removed the most obvious fault. The huge flangeways, the jointed switch rails etc etc remain. I chose to use these points because I wanted to be able to finish the layout within a couple of years. The overall impression is more important to me than relatively small defects like unsupported switch rails. However I have nothing but admiration for those people who eliminate all these compromises by building their own track. Chaz

Ken, I did spend some time with Google and various word combinations but couldn't find it again - but I'm fairly sure I remember seeing a photo of a modified 7mm Peco point. Chaz

Thanks for your comments Marc. You will appreciate, if you have read my postings above, that I used this method because the track was already fastened down. Dock Green was originally a cooperative effort and my partner in crime laid the track. He dropped out leaving me to go solo. It was only when I started to take photographs of the layout that I realised that I didn't like the "coffin" in the four foot on the Peco points. If you are going to modify Peco points for a new project there is a method which I have seen on the net - sorry I can't remember where - which involves cutting away the three sleepers and the "coffin" completely and replacing them with PCB sleepers and cast brass chairs. A Google search might turn up this alternative (I believe the modeller concerned is Australian). Whether it's a better method I can't say but it's obviously not available if the point is already installed. Chaz

I did indeed find some at Reading. Phil, of Hobby Holidays, had some by Ambis that look as though they will serve very well - will have to be careful with them though - thin etched brass levers sticking up near each point will be a bit vulnerable. I will probably do what I have done in the past with signal ladders - "plate" them on both sides with 188 solder - stiffens them up a little (188 because it flows nicely to a thin even film). Not much interesting progress on Dock Green to report - lots of little touches - missing bits of brickwork etc. Next siginificant item to be added will be the second road bridge. The piers for this are imminent, I'm told......WTS

Yes, David, I think you are right. Of course the one person who will always notice those joints, along with every other error and compromise is..........? The other thing to bear in mind is that photographs always make errors show up rather well (badly?).