Seven Mills Sidings, from TOPS to the POD, Page 169 and Bench Road, Stabling and Fuelling Point from Page 245

[MarshLane]

DEY? All will be revealed very soon mate, so NO you haven't missed anything YET.

 

 

Thanks Andy,

We have like, agree, funny, friendly buttons - where is the one for sitting on the edge of my chair in anticipation! 

 

Glad to see your mojo has returned, and you seem to be doing well heath wise. Keep it going mate.

 

Rich

[PeterBB]

Thanks Steve, Mark marked out the end of the sector by getting a spare length of ply, putting a screw through at the pivot point, and then a small nail in the end where the arc had to be scribed. Once scribed, it was cut to shape, and then laid over the main board to transfer the arc to there as, hence a nice fit.

 

I will do the tracks and photograph them as I lay them for you mate. 

 

Mark is an absolutely superb craftsman ... I also know from experience.

[woodenhead]

DEY, are you missing RB?

 

That will be a challenge in TOPS

[Donw]

Nice work on the boards although I feel 9mm ply is a bit heavy I like my baseboards light 6mm works for me. 

 

There are true professional and those who call themselves professions just because they get paid for it.  DCC circuits are like either a ring or a radial circuit. If you have power disticts it is like having the various circuits from the consumer unit. Of course the wires don't need to be so heavy.  DC is more like a telephone system where each bit has to go back to the exchange/control panel and the wires need to be a size bigger.

 

Don

[Andrew P]

DEY, are you missing RB?

 

That will be a challenge in TOPS

????? Sorry lost me mate.

[woodenhead]

????? Sorry lost me mate.

DERBY

[Andrew P]

Nice work on the boards although I feel 9mm ply is a bit heavy I like my baseboards light 6mm works for me. 

 

There are true professional and those who call themselves professions just because they get paid for it.  DCC circuits are like either a ring or a radial circuit. If you have power disticts it is like having the various circuits from the consumer unit. Of course the wires don't need to be so heavy.  DC is more like a telephone system where each bit has to go back to the exchange/control panel and the wires need to be a size bigger.

 

Don

Yeah Don, 9 is heavy, but it's not meant to be a portable Layout I don't think.

[Focalplane]

I think 9mm is about right for 7mm scale as long as it is well supported.  Without a good regular spaced underframe it will sag.  The weight of a large Gauge O locomotive could create sinkholes!

 

Paul

[georgeT]

Hello Andy, l really like the boards cracking job, with the heavy diesels you have a solid base is a must...

[Andrew P]

I think 9mm is about right for 7mm scale as long as it is well supported.  Without a good regular spaced underframe it will sag.  The weight of a large Gauge O locomotive could create sinkholes!

 

Paul

Good cross bracing mate, and with holes for the wiring, all good stuff here mate.

[Andrew P]

Hello Andy, l really like the boards cracking job, with the heavy diesels you have a solid base is a must...

 

Yep, a 37  / 47 is definitely a board bender, there would be a lot of weight if 2 were parked in the same area.

[Donw]

I think 9mm is about right for 7mm scale as long as it is well supported.  Without a good regular spaced underframe it will sag.  The weight of a large Gauge O locomotive could create sinkholes!

 

Paul

 

I dont have a problem with 6mm ply even with whitemetal locos (Bulldog and Dean Goods) mind you those Heljan diesels do seem a bit overweight. 

 

Don

[georgeT]

Those Heljan diesels are a terrific weight, 9mm ply at least, on my newest venture l have gone for a cassette system and when you run a class 37 with two to three wagons on you must really watch what you are doing moving it around, the loco alone has cost with sound nearly £700 a time, makes you think ?..seriously thinking of the sector plate that you have Andy ??

[Andrew P]

Those Heljan diesels are a terrific weight, 9mm ply at least, on my newest venture l have gone for a cassette system and when you run a class 37 with two to three wagons on you must really watch what you are doing moving it around, the loco alone has cost with sound nearly £700 a time, makes you think ?..seriously thinking of the sector plate that you have Andy ??

Morning George, two reasons for the Sector Plate really, firstly I have no where to store the racks, and secondly the FEAR of dropping one, after all, even your average wagon is at least 40 quid, and nearer 80 spondoolies for a Heljan one.

[Simond]

I’ve been radical.

 

PD is built on well-supported 10x32mm stripwood edgewise, roughly every 300mm, supporting a top layer of 4mm ply.

 

So far so good...

 

Best

Simon

[Andrew P]

I’ve been radical.

 

PD is built on well-supported 10x32mm stripwood edgewise, roughly every 300mm, supporting a top layer of 4mm ply.

 

So far so good...

 

Best

Simon

That is radical, Simon, but if it works, and doesn't warp etc, then that's good. Do you need cork for sound proofing with the 4mm top?

 

BTW I did look for the pink shirt that you said you would be wearing at Telford on the Sunday.

[georgeT]

Hi Mate, l was wondering what you think, do l really need a cork bed for the track as it's only shunting wagons around the yard plus all the locos will have sound ...

[MarshLane]

Hi Mate, l was wondering what you think, do l really need a cork bed for the track as it's only shunting wagons around the yard plus all the locos will have sound ...

Hi George,

On my couple of past O gauge layouts, and on the new one I am building now, I’ve used cork on the scenic bits both for sound qualities but also to lift the track slightly and give that prototypical ballast shoulder. Honestly cannot tell a lot of difference sound wise between the scenic bit laid on cork and the non-scenic bit laid directly onto the baseboard, so I suspect that with pins to hold the cork in place, plus the ballast being glued, any sound is being transmitted through it anyway. Having said that there isn’t much non-DCC sound to be heard either way.

 

Rich

[Focalplane]

With my L Girder foundation I have 9mm ply with 2mm cork.  So far I have no large plywood sheets though (they will be used for some of the scenic modules) and so there is no possibility of drumming sounds.  Couple that with the prior use of the room as an acoustically dead home cinema and I have an excellent DCC sound to noise ratio.

 

There was a piece of Radio 4 this morning about road noise in the coming electric era.  I thought it a load of rubbish (!) because, as anyone who goes past Telford knows, the M54 road noise where the surface is concrete is incredibly loud, inside and outside one's vehicle and is due to tyre on concrete.  Only a Harley Davidson is louder!

 

Now, shunting is not the same as high speed running, so less or no cork could be suitable.  However, isn't it useful to have the track bed a little higher than the rest of the yard?

 

Just rambling thoughts!

 

Paul

[bgman]

If I may, having been into Millets a few weeks ago I noticed some dense camping mats in their sale which are now placed on top of my 6mm ply baseboards and I've found that there is very little sound compared to using cork, very pleased for just £10 for the 2 mats !

 

 

I've still got to cut the track outline and use Copydex to glue them down.

 

G

 

[pauliebanger]

Here's another use for those camping mats:

 

(please note that the email address shown is no longer valid).

 

 

Best regards,

 

Paul

Edited September 10, 2018 by pauliebanger

[tender]

I must admit having laid cork on my 4mm layout it made very little if any effect to sound deadening. If your looking to reduce board noise i would suggest foam as Grahame has shown above.

[georgeT]

l have made a start with the new layout and decided to go without the cork !  (rightly or wrongly) maybe if l had ten coach trains running round might have a different view...

[pauliebanger]

l have made a start with the new layout and decided to go without the cork !  (rightly or wrongly) maybe if l had ten coach trains running round might have a different view...

 

I'm not really sure why reducing the 'track sound' is needed, though I've always used cork as that was the 'recommendation'.

 

Nowadays,if anything, I'd suggest notching the track at scale 60ft intervals so that whatever type of stock is moving, the correct clickerty clack is automatically created.

 

This could be augmented by filing some 'flat spots' on the wheels of likely looking rolling stock. (authentic sound, but cheaper than DCC, LOL).

 

Best regards,

 

Paul

[Simond]

I know that Norman Solomon recommends foam, and I think I would tend to go that way on a "running layout".  Grahame's solution using camping mats seems eminently sensible (though rather a fetching colour!), but as I recall, Norman made the point (sorry) that there must be no "hard" physical connection between track and baseboard as that will, of course, transmit the sound.  This implies that any pins or screws used to align the track must be removed before ballasting is completed.  I haven't tried to do that, and I must confess that I have rather relied on gluing the track to the baseboards to ensure that the curves & particularly joints in curved track are, and remain, well aligned. I think that a larger degree of pre-bend would be required if not relying on the baseboard for strength.

 

The trackbed on PD is a mix of cork and direct-on-the-boards, and is ballasted with granite chips and watered down latex or some scenic stuff that looks like coal & ash, again with latex.

 

PD is a locoshed so there is very little shunting per se, but of course, loco's trundling about the place.  I have not found the baseboard to be objectionable from a noise perspective, it was assembled in June 16, so just over two years now, and the structure is holding up fine.  I maybe wrong, naive, foolish or just absurdly optimistic, but I don't think it will give any issues.  Reports will, of course, continue on the PD thread.   The downside, if I have got it wrong, is too horrible to contemplate, as all the track is hand-built, and I doubt it would be easy to lift without wrecking it.

 

Andy, shame we didn't catch up, I was wearing a particularly vivid pink polo shirt on Saturday (and a rather more muted one on Sunday!).

 

best

Simon

Edited September 10, 2018 by Simond