lash

Just spent an hour cleaning rails and test running .A couple of point blades giving problems but sorted with a Peco track rubber, cotton wool pads and white spirit .Good slow running has resumed all round .

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the strange and unaccountable purchase of a Bachmann pillbox brake van while on a Sunday trip to but a CDU , equally strangely and unaccountably this lunchtime I found myself in the Bell in Eccleshall enjoying a pint or two in a very convivial atmosphere . Nice place Eccleshall ( small country town near Stafford if you don't know this part of the world) and home to a few pleasant pubs ideal for intentional or unintentional forays . The result of this is less activity on Portsea Town than intended but progress none the less The track has been sprayed with sleeper grime prior to ballasting with point blades being masked first. The rail suface was then wiped with cotton wool pads before the paint fully dried . I need to test the tracks for conductivity again before starting ballasting and I am also going to mark out the platforms . All in all I am quite pleased with progress and I will now try to complete ballasting over the next few days Here are a few pics of todays work

This morning has been my first chance to work on Portsea in a couple of weeks ( work ,children ,snow, pestilence etc distracting me ) and I have started working on the tracks , but first a bit of a catch up. I completed the electrics a couple of weeks ago as reported in my last entry and here are a few pics of the completed job . Out of chaos some order has emerged and it all works

Lovely walk up The Cloud this morning ( big hill on edge of Cheshire Plain overlooking Jodrell Bank ) then drove over to Trident Trains at Dagfields outside Nantwich to but a CPU . Very useful as its open Sundays and I really wanted to complete the electrics this weekend . Job done and purchased one by Gaugemaster . Somehow also inadvertently bought a Bachmann Southern Pillbox Brake in BR bauxite , can’t understand how that happened but it’s a lovely little model. Fitted the CPU under the baseboard and wired it up to the 16v ac outlet on my controller and discovered I had original wired the motors to the 12v dc outlet by accidently swapping crocodile clips during temporary wiring to the controller. So I might not have needed the CPU but it works very well and gives the points a lovely thump which I didn’t get on my old layout without the unit. Point motors all tested and working and I trimmed the rails at the end of the baseboard and gapped the platform roads to create isolated sections for which I had already provided wiring . Test running with my Crompton and more dry solder joints on the isolated sections . I sorted these and now all the electrics are done and fully working That is a big moment for me because I can now return to working on the top of the board and be a railway modeller rather than a dodgy electrician , although I have had a lot of satisfaction in dealing with electrics. My decision to keep things simple has been vindicated because I have managed to maintain interest and reasonable momentum . What next ? Positioning platforms and clearances , working out installing the third rail ,ballasting and working out scenic layout …. Signal box ,retaining walls, road bridge etc. to be mocked up along with platform canopies and a bit of overall roof and maybe a footbridge to provide a midway scenic break. Its in my head and if could I would sketch it but my draftsmanship is about as good as my electrical skills . I have some pics to upload but am having problems with too many bytes Barnanby, thanks for the encouragement , your O gauge layout looks great fun so I am looking forward to it getting off paper and onto a baseboard !

Thanks Gruffalo will acquire CDU asap and checking alignment is good idea. I'll let you know how I do

Wiring to the point motors and switches all done and tested . A couple of the centre contacts of the Peco passing switches were shorting due to the wires from adjacent contact pressing against them in the housing but that is sorted . I do have problem’s because the point motors are not switching the points although they are trying and work when dismounted . I do not think it is bad positioning but rather a lack of oomph so a CDU may be the answer ? Any thoughts please

Totally brilliant and hard to believe is a first attempt. I don’t usually go for rural but this is inspiring , evocative without a hint of chocolate box . I was lucky enough to see Ivan Maxted’s Darenth many years ago at the Model Railway Club in Keen House and it was superb. This is easily it’s equal Thank you for sharing, if my grotty urban southern Portsea Town gets within a mile of this standard I shall be delighted ( and not a little amazed )

I made good progress with wiring point motors etc over Christmas but nothing done in the new year and it can't really be 9 January can it. So here are a couple of pics of the underside of the board showing work in progress , track wiring is blue, point motors white. All point motors , switches etc. are Peco as previously posted . Wires are fed through the board to two Peco banks of switches , 4 for points and 4 for sections or and 3 for isolated tracks at the end of platform roads . I am still happy not to have gone DCC yet but the electrical spaghetti does make you think I have a BR 2BIL on order from my local shop (HobbyGoblin in Burslem ) and also some code 60 rail and dummy Peco dummy insulators. . I am intending to ballast first and then fit the third rail but would welcome other’s thoughts The 2 BIL is so evocative and takes me back to those days sitting in the car at Fratton with my mum waiting for my dad to arrive on the Waterloo train and knowing it wasn’t one of those with the curved roof at one end of the carriage . All that and the prospect of the Kernow 2H too, definitely no cash for DCC yet

Track wiring done and tested . Discovered another dry solder joint to the track and that I and missed out an insulated rail joiner which caused a short but have sorted these. Wires are all attached to a terminal block and temporally to the controller , the underside of the baseboard is looking fairly neat and so all in all a productive evening .

Just seen the announcement of the 2BIL from Hornby. Number one on my wish list ,now will Bachmann surprise me with a 4 COR, too much to ask I one year I suspect Portsea Town may be getting its third rail sooner than I planned

Dave, I’m using Carr’s green flux . As I said it does them job fine and I love the name, which sounds like an Elizabethan medical diagnoses only curable by the liberal use of leaches , four a day taken after meals ( and yes I know the joke is borrowed from Blackadder ) All the track droppers are in place now. One I did yesterday had to be redone as it was a dry joint .but all sorted now . Next job is to flip the base board and complete the wiring for the tracks so I can do some comprehensive test running …..or to put it another way playing trains

Been soldering droppers to the track after a lot of practice and am really quite pleased . Not a melted sleeper in sight ( well not very ) and neat joints . I tried using flux and it made a lot of difference , the solder seemed to run onto the rail more easily meaning less contact time from the iron and less nasty stringy sticky accidents with sleepers. Cotton wool heat sinks in action too. I hope to complete final joints tomorrow and see if they actually conduct electricity.

Barnaby ,many thanks . I too have aged eyes so I hope this is better. As well as aged eyes I also have an infinite capacity to cock up anything to do with a computer, like accidently changing the font size ……. I just had a look at your King St Goods thread ,nice ideas, ok there’s plenty of track but it’s very compact . So in the spirit of mutual encouragement cape diem , seize the day ,get building and have fun

I’m using Peco switches for points and sections and thought I had loads I had picked up for very little at toy fairs only to discover I’ve about twenty passing contact switches and just one on off switch. I hate paying full price for these items and located three at a decent price on ebay so hopefully in a couple of days its all systems go with the wiring . I’m going to do the track first to get on with test running before painting rails and ballasting. Point motors can come later In the mean time I have been checking out soldering techniques on line and putting in some practice on spare bits of track, Think I’m getting there , well at least I have now soldered wire to rails with a strong joint and no melted sleepers . Early attempts produced dry joints and a nasty smell of melting plastic. I picked up the tip of using damp cotton wool on the reail either side of the join to act as a heat sink, seems to work.

Here is a pic of my efforts so far with my Compton and some parcels stock I have been running with temporary wiring to check track laying. All ok so far Pins mark the position of electric feeds and breaks, my next job

And I meant to say I had a good weekend’s work. Track laying is pretty well complete and I am quite chuffed with the results

I had checked clearances on the three platform roads and all seemed ok after a bit of jigging and jogging. I loosely pinned the track with drawing and map pins , traced the outline onto the cork track bed and marked the position of point tie bars so I could drill through the base board for point motor connections. Problem, the first hole I drilled was over the central cross member , so everything is moved an inch to the left and start again All ok this time and four holes are drilled and then the four points positioned and checked as one unit with appropriate live and insulate rail joiners. After a trial run the final track position was marked and then Copydex used to stick down the track. Having commented on its lack of stickiness before its great for this job and track can be gently adjusted while it dries. Plain tracks were laid in the same way using Peco track gauges, tracksettas, rulers and pins to achieve a smooth alignment . I even got to play trains with some temporary wiring Next job is last bits of track laying and then wiring so that I can thoroughly check everything before painting and ballasting

It’s been a long time since my last post and progress has been minimal but I am back in harness and have learnt a few lessons or rather relearnt a very big one ,for goodness sake keep it simple. So : Forget a double track terminus and go back to my original single track plan with a double track look Forget trying DCC, money is tight and time is precious at the moment and all my resources are better spent on the basics of completing the layout . I have everything I need for DC wiring and control without spending a penny. Third rail can be installed later Find some proper space to erect the layout and achieve some continuity of work That’s it, no excuses . The track is laid loosely to check clearances laying wiring and some test running will commence this weekend . Finally on base boards and twists, Jim you are probably correct but the board has not twisted and two boards built with similar methods in about 1984 and since used , abused, stored scraped and sanded are still perfectly true and flat. I did then and do now make sure I use decent quality timber and chipboard so maybe that has helped .

I have been watching this thread for months and this is lovely stuff, the track looks brilliant with non scale boulder sized ballast. I know Bacup a bit and the terraces are just right. I have mixed feelings about Copydex and have never really used it successfully. I used it to stick cork sheet to the baseboard on Portsea Town (soon to be awarded the prize the layout with the slowest progress on RMWeb ) after unsatisfactory experience of using PVA for this on my previous layout, but it seemed to lack stickiness which is a pretty useful property in an adhesive . For scenic stuff and ground cover the Woodland Scenics products are very good I have been watching this thread for months and this is lovely stuff, the track looks brilliant with non scale boulder sized ballast. I know Bacup a bit and the terraces are just right. I have mixed feelings about Copydex and have never really used it successfully. I used it to stick cork sheet to the baseboard on Portsea Town (soon to be awarded the prize the layout with the slowest progress on RMWeb ) after unsatisfactory experience of using PVA for this on my previous layout, but it seemed to lack stickiness which is a pretty useful property in an adhesive . For scenic stuff and ground cover the Woodland Scenics products are very good Sorry my comments were so profound I repeated myself

Not much time for modelling with domestic and work commitments , but hopefully that will change this week and serious track laying will commence . I have been amusing myself trying to make working Ratio lattice signals , very fiddly and I suspect I shouldn’t have started with a bracket involving cranks and pushing and pulling bits of wire . My sanity is just about intact. I visited the toy fair in Stafford today and found myself a lovely pristine DCC ready late BR M7 ,push pull fitted and ready for the new Hornby Maunsell push pull set due out later this year. I often visit fairs and find them great for decent second hand track and electrics in particular. I love a bargain and the M7 was just £50. Next time I will report some proper modelling and progress I hope . I am totally in awe of the rate of progress others seem to be capable of

Busy week at work and visited the Derby exhibition yesterday so not much progress. However I realised during the week I could make the design double track without losing platform length and with not a lot of extra work, so here it is in playing trains mode. And yes I realise what it looks very like but it uses different turnouts to a classic Minories , the approach curves the wrong way and loads more I’m sure. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprise that if you want to model a three platform urban terminus in a city short of land you end up with something loads of modellers have done before . I’m still having fun building Ratio lattice signals and intend to get a little closer to insanity doing that this evening . Help in this please , were the oil lamps white , black or what ?

I have been messing about with the track design using bits of track and peco templates but I think I am there now and have pinned out the turnouts and cut track roughly to length to test it all hangs together. I think it does . Comments very welcome before I start drilling hole for point motors ! The idea is three platform faces of unequal lengths. At the back platform 1 will take a 3 coach dmu or emu or 4 coaches with an extension to the baseboard under what will be an overall canopy at the end . There will be an island platform with 2 faces with minimum accommodation for a 2 car emu or dmu, and again these could be extended . The pics show what I have in mind but there will be two long tracks/sidings parallel with the single track main line to give the appearance of multitracks It will all be in a cutting with retaining walls ( think Fratton to Portsmouth and Southsea where the line follows the old Portsmouth Canal) with a road bridge over about half way as a visual break before the platforms and the tracks disappearing under another at the far end . I had a go at building a Ratio LNER latticed bracket signal kit for the end of the island platform and have got some MSE Stevens LSWR style finials to finish it off . All quite fiddly but these are still nice kits even though I think they have been around since the 70s.

The scenic baseboard is complete . Very traditional 2x1 timber and 12mm chipboard top . I used plastic corner joiners , screwed and glued the top with pvc glue and added 1/8 cork stuck down with Copydex (maybe not the best choice for the job on reflection) . The basic construction is the same as I used about 30 years ago for a couple of boards that have been used and abused ,in and out of storage and are still solid and flat if a bit heavy . Pictures of baseboards aren’t exactly riveting in themselves , but they do hint at endless possibilities ,which is my problem at the moment . My mind is wandering on what I can fit in , drifting away from the original simple idea and not getting on with any track laying. So with fresh determination I will keep it simple and remember Ian Futer’s wonderful layouts with 3 or 4 turnouts and the other examples on RMweb.

Thank you for the encouraging comments. George you are a bit older than me ,born 56 ,so I was too young for spotting in steam days but I have a clear memory of goods trains on the dockyard branch, Colin as to track plan I am thinking of something like the mock up in the photos which owes quite a bit to Ian Futer’s Victoria Park. I don’t do Templot and other computer generated magic but rough ideas out on lining paper cut to baseboard size with a supply of turnouts and bits of track largely acquired at the regular toy and collectors fairs in Stafford . Hoping to complete the baseboard tonight so must get on with it now

I have messed around with model railways for years and actually built an inglenook which was a great experience. There is nothing quite like actually modelling rather than thinking about modelling and learning from your mistakes ,so many in that tiny layout I should be a genius. Portsea Town will be a secondary terminus somewhere around Portsmouth or Gosport with passenger ,parcel and suitable freight traffic. Time is the early sixties with memories of waiting for my dad to come back from his London commute in the car park opposite the old signal box at Fratton. So steam and electric maybe if I can model the third rail. I have adopted the discipline of limited size for “completeability†and portability so we are looking at 6ft by 1ft, a bit bigger than a micro but not much. My inspirations include Ian Futers and the wonderful and sadly missed Carl Ardent, but I suspect I want more than three turnouts for Portsea. The frame for the baseboard is done and the top should go on tomorrow. I have never blogged anything but RMweb is great fun and I met such a friendly crowd at the members day last year I hope I get inspiration and encouragement to make something of my ideas