Making a start.

[Ian Morgan]

With multiple bogies required, it would possibly be worth while making some form of jig that holds everything together in the right place while soldering takes place. It might need a sacrificial worm and gear to get the positioning right, and maybe nuts and bolts to replace an axle or idler shaft or two.

 

[Jayk]

20 hours ago, Klaus ojo said:

Jayk,

I can imagine that you are really glad that it works now. My own approach of a bogie looks much worse and thus I´ve thrown it into the corner- where it keeps waiting for me because I need several of that kind for my class22 and some czech models.

You seem to suffer the same problem at soldering like me: not enough courage for more heat and so you only get a tack solder joint which comes loose at the next occasion. I am not an expert, still a newbie and may be wrong as your pointwork looks good in my eyes. 

The bogie cost you a dozen P bronze bushes and you have used rather thick metal for the frame. Did you think about using 0.6 .. 0.8mm phosphor bronze sheet for the entire thing? It´s the same work but smaller holes to drill and ream.

Please show your further progress. You indeed have encouraged me to make a new start with my bogies. Thanks for that!

cheers

Klaus

 

   Indeed! My innocent and unknowing little brain thought that bogies would be easier than having to fiddle with all that evil quartering stuff, I still think that it probably is but not by as much as I thought. But everything is going to need them so I have to get comfortable with producing them. Maybe now that small scale etching is now possible some bogie sides could be a candidate for the learning process. It would certainly make meshing easier.

   The material used for the sides and spacers is just some double sided PCB, sold as 0.8mm but when I put the callipers on it came out as pretty much spot on 1mm thick. The bearings are actually the brass version rather than the phosphor bronze which certainly helps keep the cost down. It's possible that using some metal sheet and simply drilling out 1.5mm holes for the axle steel to run in but that would require way more precision in drilling than I am capable of, this way I can always open the holes out slightly so that the bearing can be slid across.

   The soldering issue I believe was down more to a lack of care as well as the materials used. Being PCB there's very little for the solder to grab on to and as they were all inside joints they were more prone to flex. Maybe. I also initially only used a small amount of solder. I swapped from my small soldering bit to the larger one because of the small ones inability to push heat fast enough.

 

   It's good to know you're going to pull yours out and give it another go, good luck with them!

 

 

18 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

With multiple bogies required, it would possibly be worth while making some form of jig that holds everything together in the right place while soldering takes place. It might need a sacrificial worm and gear to get the positioning right, and maybe nuts and bolts to replace an axle or idler shaft or two.

 

 

   It's annoying because I have a right angle that I can press the work in to whilst soldering and on the first attempt I did use this but when repairing / reinforcing the joints I randomly decided to forget about this. As far as a jig goes, I'm not sure how I'd go about making one that would be useful for more than the other bogie on this project though.

 

-Jayk

 

 

edit below to save a post.

 

 

   On the 2nd and 4th bearings you can see where I had to open the holes up to get things in to a much better place prior to soldering. Ignore the top part please. :D

 

   And here it is after a coat of paint and inserting the half axle pieces and wheels. Posed next to my only other item of 2mm stock, the tester wagon. I always forget how big the diesel loco wheels are, I tend to think of them as being of about the same size as a coach or a wagon when in reality there is a significant difference. These are the 7.5mm carrying wheels from shop 2, which matches the 3'9" diameter used on the class 25.

   It almost looks good, just need to cut 2 lengths for the worm. It doesn't need the isolation gap but I'm going to insert from either end so that I can apply a small amount of glue to the inside of the worm and not worry about it being pushed on to either of the bearings. Speaking of electrical isolation, I was good and checked that both sides remained isolated after adding each gear and also after adding the wheels. All good.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Jayk

[Jan W]

Jayk,

How will it be held in the chassis, I see no pivot point or something else to attach it?

Jan

[Jayk]

   That will hopefully be tomorrows job, assuming things turn up. I'm planning on using a 10BA screw passed through some washers and bits of PCB for the pivoting mechanism. So from the bogie up it would be a 0.5mm plastic spacer with the center removed to allow for the screw head, PCB with screw soldered through it from below and a washer soldered to the top as a rubbing plate. Then for retention on the chassis, again working up from the bogie, it would be another washer soldered to a PCB frame and a third washer soldered to the top side of that with a nut being used to stop it all falling apart. Depending on how it goes the nut may or may not be held in place with a dab of glue.

 

   Or it all goes horribly wrong and I'm left asking the same question 😬

 

-Jayk

[Klaus ojo]

Jayk,

do you already have a plan how and where to place the motor? Will it be in the middle with axially compensated cardan shaft couplings or will the motor shift? With the worm shaft held by bearings on the bogie chassis the shaft will be jugging out sidewards in curves and the shaft needs to be brought back to the middle, then being shorter, eventually needing compensation and extra support...

Without being an expert it seems to me that the skew cut gear to the wormmay be leading to some overengineering. Most RTR bogies are having a straight shaft in the middle, a very narrow top gear without any skew to match with the differnet angles to the worm when running through narrow curves. I think I´ll copy that concept.

happy modelling!

Klaus

Edited May 20, 2022 by Klaus ojo
I suppose the photos may be superfluous...

[Jayk]

   Yes, the motor will be mounted centrally within the loco and drive both bogies via driveshafts with the society 3D printed universal joints at both ends (so 4 of these in total). If I understand your concern correctly, I think I'm ok. There is around 0.75mm->1mm difference between the gap the worm sits in and the length of the worm. So, providing I push that towards the outer end when attaching the UJ cup and setting the length of the driveshaft with the bogies sitting straight then I have that much extra to work with for when the bogie rotates are the driveshaft would need to be longer.

 

   The use of a skew cut is something that I was advised was necessary and although I knew from disassembling rtr stuff that they used straight cut with the worm I couldn't find anything on whether you needed to use different tooth pitch to achieve this. So it was a case of better safe than sorry. But from the twiddling I've done, yes, I could use the M0.25 worm with a M0.3 straight cut gear. The only downside would be the change in gearing. The way I've built this I get 23.625:1 (23 5/8), removing the skew cut that would be either 16:1 or possibly 18:1. Again, this being the first attempt, I've nothing to use as a basis for comparison via experience. So I started by working on finding out the wheel rpm necessary for scale top speed and then trying to find motor rpm ratings so I could work out the gearing needed to achieve it.

 

   As for how much you'd be able to rotate the M0.3 against the M0.25 without thinning the M0.3 I don't know. But I've thinned a couple of the gears in this with nothing more than a minidrill and a file. Which was fun. I've definitely seen that approach used in one of the Japanese rtr chassis I have and I think @Izzy used the method you suggest with the class 15 they built for Priory Road.

---

 

   The pivot plate and worm are added to the bogie just to show what I was trying to describe the other day. Also had a bit of a surprise when the Postie arrived, she had my silicone tube! I made a bit of a mistake when ordering it with some other bits and pieces. Everything was showing a delivery date of 10th May -> something, so having got used to seeing that with the others when I got to the tubing I saw a "10th" in the corner and didn't look any closer. Turned out it was coming from China and the expected delivery date was 10th June -> 27th June. I didn't notice until after it was dispatched and while it would have been cheap enough to grab another batch from somewhere in the UK it comes in 5m minimum lengths and I'm not sure if I'll ever need the full 5m from the first order let alone what I'd do with a second lot 😀

 

   I'm still not comfortable with the sizes used in this scale. I'd settled on 0.5mm wire and this is 1mm OD, 0.5mm ID tubing. It's a bit slim! But the wire slides in it well enough so probably swapping back to making and installing track for a while, especially as I need to make a pair of flywheels. Ok, "need" might be a stretch, but I really want to give this loco every possible advantage I can. I'll cut back and revise things once I get something that works.

 

-Jayk

[Klaus ojo]

Jayk,

thanks for the hint with the Izzy´s class 15 , however, it´s a pity that the photos are currently not available.   

Sorry for the misunderstanding with worm and gear modulus:  I suppose both must be the same, so I´d use a 0.3 worm when using a 0.3 gear ( available at e.g. tramfabriek) Thinning of the gear width is to allow tighter curves the RTR locos from the photos above are designed for. 

...for the compensation I didn´t have in mind the axial shift betweeen the bearings for the worm shaft. I wish you all the best!

cheers

Klaus

[Izzy]

3 minutes ago, Klaus ojo said:

thanks for the hint with the Izzy´s class 15 , however, it´s a pity that the photos are currently not available.   

 

Yes, I'm sorry they are currently 'missing in action' but having re-posted the last years worth when RMweb recovered only for these to go walkabout I'm now waiting until it appears they won't come back on their own accord. It's just too much work otherwise and I think others feel the same.

 

With regard to making and powering diesel/dmu bogies I tried several different ways before giving up with the class 15 and using commercial parts. Partly because of the limited distance between the bogies, and also because the RTR makers have 'been there done that' with the various designs of powering them. There are several aspects to consider, not least being that carden shafts, and particularly u/j's have a limited deflection beyond which they just won't work. Basically the axis/pivot point of the u/j's needs to be where the bogie pivot is for them to work. Commercial ones such as the first generation chinese Farish products sit the worm at the front of the bogies rather than central in order to allow this. This also obviates the general need for a teleiscopic carden shaft.

 

Most designs have now adopted the original one developed by Graham Farish, a separate worm housing with the worm rotating around the worm wheel. As you so rightly point out this involves what could be called 'modification' of normal gear design. Very thin straight cut worm wheels and also overcut small diameter worm tooth forms combined with a fairly large gear size to provide maximum 'wriggle' room.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

[Jayk]

   First of all, a quick correction. I was a little confused with the specs for the worm and such, I'm using a M0.25 worm (3-371) with the 100DP 21T Skew cut (3-366) but the M0.25 worm does interact with the M0.3 spur gears at their current width. So the option to thin those and use them in a manner similar to the photos still exists. The biggest issue is that I've no idea how I would go about fabricating the pivoting mechanism such that the bogies could still be removed.

 

 

 

   With the bogie installed on it's pivot (the other end is supported with some blu-tac) the center of the bogie UJ would be approximately in line with the inner edge of the first small grill and the center of the motor UJ will be approximately in line with the inner edge of the second small grill. Wheels are 7.5mm diameter if you want to finger measure 😀

 

   When I first started imagining the bogies I actually wanted to run the worm off of the second gear (counting from the outer end) rather than the middle one but I didn't think I'd have the room. Looking at this photo it appears that I would have done which would also allow for the center line of the worm to be lowered - the black lump that is just visible is the bearing to support it.

 

   Starting to get a little nervous about the amount of rotation that will be available and I need to have a play with how it looks when sat on top of the plan. The consolation is that I have a working bogie and at 8'6" wheelbase it's a nice common size for many EMUs as well so it could find a home in something a fair bit longer. Speaking of which....

 

   Found the Bob Davies N-train website which has printed cab-ends available for the 302 the 310 and the 312 (albeit in N gauge rather than 2mm), all of which are very much of interest. Currently trying to track down a book on EMUs similar to the Marsden book on Diesel Loco's or at least some source of drawings, preferably dimensioned but at least to a consistent scale.

 

-Jayk

[Jayk]

   Well, it's been a while! Haven't really managed a huge amount of progress what with one thing and another but should be able to get another period of progress in. After much measuring and using photo editing software to measure things accurately I've decided that there really isn't going to be enough rotation available to the bogie if I'm driving it off of the center gear. Had a nice set of packages turn up with the post this morning.

 

 

 

 

   I needed an extra set of bits so I can make two that are driven off of the 2nd gear, I also ordered a set of Farish bogie sideframes and the battery box to make life a bit easier and finally a set of etches for the Freightliner Bogie Flats. I'm unsure if I'll use the battery box either as is or even as a base for building in to the larger one that I need but figured it would be better to have it than not, whichever way I go the battery box is going to get filled with lead to provide some nice low weighting as I think the majority will need to be stuck up in the roof.

   There are still some bits I need to get for the class 25, it's all rather got away from me. The original intent was simply to have something that moved under it's own power and if it looked vaguely like a loco then so much the better. But I now want to also grab a pair of flywheels from NBrass as they do some 4mm thick ones, I'm hoping that if I ask nicely I can have the hole opened up to 3mm in them so that the UJ outers can fit inside them since I'm cramped for space. They also do some rather chunkier looking UJ pieces that fit on 1.5mm rod which I think I'll be using in the larger mechanisms.

   The flats I'm really looking forwards too though. They're not quite the exact ones I was after but I believe that the only difference is that the larger rectangular openings on either side of the bogie pivots are covered from below. It's a fantastically simple design and should prove a relaxing build. But it looks like they'll end up being rather on the light side since I don't think there's anywhere to hide weight apart from on the bogies.

 

 

 

 

   On the track side of things, I'm nearing completion of the second turnout. I'm not as happy with the V as I was with the first one but this turnout is curved through the frog whereas the first one was straight. The other parts I'm much happier with however and I even remembered to flare the wings around the V this time! The check rails are also vertical rather than in at an angle and the order of construction / use of gauges was much more comfortable. I've also got some track lain although at the moment it's limited to that first turnout and the plain track leading from it to the board edges, but it's all wired and the turnout is operating from the spdt slide switch Araldited down. Once this second turnout is mounted and wired in I can run some plain track from the toe out to the other end of the board so I'll have a full length to test things on.

 

Not really a huge update, but I think I'm definitely getting the hang of things; it's about having more things under / awaiting construction than you have completed.

   -Jayk

Edited August 17, 2022 by Jayk

[Jayk]

   Work for the Class 25 is still ongoing but I'd been putting off a job. I wanted to add flywheels just to help give it the best shot at running nicely as possible, but the restricted space which meant having to redo the bogie also meant that I would need to countersink the UJ's in to the flywheels. I'm sure this wouldn't be an issue with the right tools at hand, but no drill press meant it was going to be a case of doing it the awkward way.

 

   So out came the trusty twin pinion hand drill and with some ultra high tech securing of the flywheels to the desk (blutac) I set about drilling a 4mm deep, 3mm diameter hole in to the 6mm tall, 9.5mm diameter flywheels. I actually drilled a little shallower and chamfered the end of the UJ's a little to nestle a bit better in to the cutting lip.

 

 

   And there we have them! The UJ's stand a little under 0.5mm proud of the flywheels. So happy to have got these done without any mishap, it's back to the relaxing task of soldering chairplates to sleepers and rails to chairplates then onwards with the bogies.

 

   -Jayk

[Ian Smeeton]

On 16/08/2022 at 23:01, Jayk said:

 

 

 

   On the track side of things, I'm nearing completion of the second turnout. I'm not as happy with the V as I was with the first one but this turnout is curved through the frog whereas the first one was straight. The other parts I'm much happier with however and I even remembered to flare the wings around the V this time! The check rails are also vertical rather than in at an angle and the order of construction / use of gauges was much more comfortable. I've also got some track lain although at the moment it's limited to that first turnout and the plain track leading from it to the board edges, but it's all wired and the turnout is operating from the spdt slide switch Araldited down. Once this second turnout is mounted and wired in I can run some plain track from the toe out to the other end of the board so I'll have a full length to test things on.

 

Not really a huge update, but I think I'm definitely getting the hang of things; it's about having more things under / awaiting construction than you have completed.

   -Jayk

 

 

Just looking at your turnout, the 'Set' seems to start a little too far to the right.

 

It may be my eyes (or the Photo) , but you may find a tight spot or two there.

 

Best of luck with the build

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

Just looking at your turnout, the 'Set' seems to start a little too far to the right.

Agreed. The set should start at the tip of the switch, or even slightly before that.

 

Jim

[Jayk]

7 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

Just looking at your turnout, the 'Set' seems to start a little too far to the right.

 

It may be my eyes (or the Photo) , but you may find a tight spot or two there.

 

 

   I have to admit that up until the discussion over the easitrack points I had no idea about this aspect. I've been very much winging it so far and just trying to follow the templates. Looking back the first turnout has the same issue but the starter wagon will roll through both routes of both points in both directions under gravity so I think I've gotten away with it. But it's definitely something I'll need to pay attention to on the next one and will hopefully make things a little easier when shaping the blade.

 

   Definitely glad I decided to start with a test track though, a little roughness and weirdness here and there will be a good shakedown for any rolling stock. It was also very much the intention to learn and make mistakes here so that "the layout" will be more competently put together.

 

Thanks for the catch,

   -Jayk

[Jayk]

   Had a flurry of activity this week, got the second turnout installed and the approx foot of track leading to it as well as the reverse curve leading off of it. Having got sick of cutting up tiny bits of solder I picked up a bottle of 0.65mm diamater balls intended for use with BGA chips. It was so much better, with a foot of track being approx 60 sleepers and with each sleeper requiring 4 applications of solder it made the whole thing actually pleasurable to construct.

 

 

 

   The view looking across my second attempt showing the reverse curve leading to the other half. It's 15" radius with no transition between the directions outside of whatever I may have introduced while putting the first rail down. Although it can't be seen rather than burying the operating wire sleeve in filler as I did the first time I opted for simply laying it on top of a bed of wet araldite as I went a bit to firm on pressing the filler down and it's made the first one a little stiff in operation. Pushing the switch forwards will operate it as expected but pulling the switch back does nothing but open the omega loop. Happy to say that this time I can just use the wire coming up through the switch.

 

 

 

   A second shot showing both installed turnouts for no real reason other than to show both a straight and a curved frog. The difference isn't something I'd have even thought about or probably even realised was a thing before starting with this. You'll have to excuse the centered blades in both shots, I took them while I was waiting for the araldite to set so the switch is in the middle of it's throw as well so that there's equal pressure in both positions.

 

 

   Aside from that, I also managed to get a good way in to making the replacement bogie, shown below with the outer end to the left of the image. Being the second definitely made a big difference in terms of speed and ease of construction. With the first one I was checking and adjusting everything each time I did any work to it due to an abundance of caution and not knowing where the critical junctures of the build would be. I'm still considering thining the worm housing even further to enable the UJ to be as central as possible, I can get it 1mm closer to the center of the bogie, but it does take the worm right down to the minimum number of teeth. I might tack it all together first and see how it lines up when offered to the chassis.

 

 

 

   But it does run nice and freely, I had to use the "definitely a small lathe and not just a mini-drill" to reduce the diameter of the 18 tooth gear on the right axle a little and then deepen the cuts as I'd not quite got the previous gear in precisely the correct place but since the other 4 all ran silky smooth I figured it was better to do this rather than attempt to reposition both bearings the fraction it needed.

 

-Jayk

[nick_bastable]

15inch radius is rather tight for 2mm I know some have made them work and should be ok with a Bo-Bo  i suspect a 0-6-0 may have problems

 

Nice soldering

 

 

[Jayk]

   @nick_bastable Thank you!

 

   And yes, I realise that it is on the tight side but as always the ambition is greater than the space. I can stretch to 36" wide on "the layout" so this is very much about testing the feasability of a loop - I'd really like to be able to watch the trains go round. Luckily I'm about those block freights and multiple units so the worst I'm going to encounter will be a Class 47 bogie with axle spacings of 14.5mm (total 29mm). I really should mock one up now that I have a length of curve to push it along, no fancy bearings just holes in the PCB should work.

 

-Jayk

[Jayk]

   Not much progress made this week as I've run out of primer and due to living in the middle of nowhere it's a ~35mile round trip on dodgy, hilly roads which translates to about an hours worth of driving. So until the next expedition I threw together what is definitely a class 47 bogie.

 

 

   See, it even says so! Obviously it's just a box with the axles spaced correctly but with the btb set at 8.5mm it navigates the 15" radius curves without sticking. I initially had issues as I set the calipers using the wheels in the wagon and that caused sticking, but on inspection those wheels were set at 8.7mm which wasn't what it said in the book.

 

 

   Aside from that I've made a start on the design for "the layout". It was inspired by something I saw over on the N gauge forum, which was a single track dogbone with one end made in to a reversing loop and the other end had a loop which also provided access to an upper level. I saw something slightly different in that if you made a twin track dogbone and connected the outer and inner loops from one side to their opposites on the other side and did this in both directions you had the ability to run a train from one loop to the other and reverse direction at the same time. If you also wire the 4 rails of the two loops up in opposition to each other you also don't need a reversing switch. This lead to me thinking about a junction station where 2 lines cross / meet and this is what I want to focus on. So here's the first mock up of those thoughts:
 

 

   The green areas are the station platforms, the blue area would be used for some storage loops and the red area could provide room for a small yard - probably permanent way. So the visible station throat is where the two lines meet and then they separate again through the station. The idea is to increase the radius of the track through the upper platforms and also to introduce more of a curve in the lower platforms so that the whole thing looks to be on a curve. I want either enough visible space on the lower platforms to accomodate a 3x4 coach EMU consist or have the platform extending off-scene on the left such that it appears there is space for that. I won't be running such behemoths but even the local stations where I grew up were all capable of handling such services and it's this sense of size that I really want to capture.

 

   I'm still basically incompetent with Templot at this point with my experience limited to creating a couple of turnouts and linking them up for the test track. So I'm using XtrkCAD to sketch things out and as it offers an export to BMP function I'm hoping that I can use that and then import it like a map in to Templot so I have something to work over. I'm hoping it's not going to get too complicated, I know that there is an option to create crossings from intersecting plain track and I *think* you can do something similar for creating turnouts so that I'm not stuck having to tinker with the turnout creator to find settings that match the plan / space. But before all that I need to get the sketch in to something I'm happy with.

 

-Jayk.

 

[Jayk]

 

   Tidied up a bit and added a yard and the storage loops. The storage loop highlighted in red is connected to both loops and therefore would need a reversing switch if the 4 rails of the 2 loops are wired as suggested. The yard sidings feel a little short with the shortest being only 22" long, but I'm not sure how else I could arrange it.

 

-Jayk

[Jan W]

I see two things you could change:

 

1) Maybe replace the two turnouts that give access to the yard with a double slip, it would give a bit of extra space.

 

2) you can change the backdrop to a more elliptical form. Tighter curves on the sides and nearly straight in the center.

This would expose the turnout on the left near the end of the sidings but I don't think that will be a problem.

 

Edit: I see another thing that could be changed. Why not start the complicated trackwork on the right of the station closer to the platforms?

It would ease out the sharp curve in the outer loop.

Jan

Edited September 19, 2022 by Jan W

[Jayk]

4 hours ago, Jan W said:

I see two things you could change:

 

1) Maybe replace the two turnouts that give access to the yard with a double slip, it would give a bit of extra space.

 

2) you can change the backdrop to a more elliptical form. Tighter curves on the sides and nearly straight in the center.

This would expose the turnout on the left near the end of the sidings but I don't think that will be a problem.

 

Edit: I see another thing that could be changed. Why not start the complicated trackwork on the right of the station closer to the platforms?

It would ease out the sharp curve in the outer loop.

Jan

 

   Thank you, in reverse: I didn't really want to start the interesting trackwork right on the end of the platforms as that felt wrong. It's probably been done in many real places, but I wanted a gap between them so that it would feel less train-set-y? I am rather concious that this is more of the trainset I always wanted and less of a scale model. I was also unsure exactly how much space it would take up and how much space would be required to complete the station area so I opted to initial smoosh it all up hard against the right hand end so that I had the maximum amount of space to work with. With the plan above having a platform (I'll call it platform 1 and work up the plan) long enough for 12 coaches and my original idea that by representing the platform continuing off-scene to the left would allow such a long train to be feasible. So I can always shorten the platforms a little as well to give the junction more room to breath.

 

   The demarcation of on-scene and off-scene was more down to me visualising how I would be creating the breaks. An upper level station and forecourt such as you can find at, for example, Barking, Wimbledon or West Croydon would work for the left hand side and the for the right I was considering a flyover carrying a major trunk road. But either way, you're absolutely right, a curved backscene or break looks better and also uncovers more of the track to view.

 

   Finally, good idea! I don't know why it didn't come to mind - possibly some weird mental block again associated with trying to avoid it looking too train-set-y. Still, below is an updated version without the colours but with the suggestions incorporated. I think it's definitely an improvement.

 

-Jayk

 

(edit:- the curves through the junction are now at 40" radius but I'm still stuck with the 15" radius curves visible to the right of the lower exit of the junction and also for 9" or so on the left end of the station. If I can't find a way to open those up I'll have to come up with a way to cover them up.)

Edited September 19, 2022 by Jayk

[Jayk]

   There's always something that you forget about when planning things out. If I want to go twin track at such a small radius do I have enough space for stock to pass each other? With XtrkCAD I'd opted to use 1" spacing between track centers just because that was a nice and easy number and then while fiddling in Templot I kept to the same dimension. It's greater than the prototype would typically call for but only by about 2mm. But I don't know if that extra ~2mm is enough. I tried a check with a pencil held to the side of a mk1 coach and that seemed to suggest it would be fine then I got to thinking about the other stuff I might want to run. I have a Eurostar set that would be fun to use if I can get the wheels sorted out but that isn't really any different to the mk1, but I also have a 442 EMU kit sitting around which is based off of mk3 coaches and then maybe it would fun to pick up a blue/grey HST next year when Dapol rerelease it.

 

 

 

   The pencil method with a mk3 wasn't looking great so I ran off some templates at the correct spacing and placed the coaches appropriately. Maybe. It looks like it should be ok but depending on how accurately I managed to locate the bogies, maybe not. So it's time to add a second line to the test track, thankfully there's space so I've cut along the outside of the sleepers on the inside track to give a spacing guide for adding the new templates and glued them down.

   When I originally ordered some stuff from shop1 I just grabbed a few of what looked like I'd need it, this was before even planning out the test track. So I ended up not quite having enough chair plates for both plain track and turnouts to finish it. Now I have a firmer idea of where I'm going it was time to submit a second order to start getting odds and ends together for when I needed it. Particularly I wanted to grab some extra coils of the N/S flat-bottomed rail, I picked 1 up for the test track figuring that even if I messed up the entire length it was £3 well spent and I'd have develpoed the skills to make the most of the nice straight stuff. I had no trouble with the bending vertically, presumably because of going with soldered construction, so no reason to not plan on using it going forwards. Knowing it was WSL I wasn't expecting to get enough to do the whole thing, but using it for the 15" and 16" curves seemed like a good idea as it meant I could avoid any joints on them. Unfortunately I was too late and it's all gone! Ah well, since the vast majority of these curves won't be visible I might go with  abutted sleepers where the joint is.

 

-Jayk

[martin_wynne]

4 hours ago, Jayk said:

If I want to go twin track at such a small radius do I have enough space for stock to pass each other?

 

Hi,

 

Templot has a dummy vehicle function for that very purpose. in the utils menu:

 

 

1. set the dimensions of the vehicle (length, width, bogie centres, desired clearance).

 

2. make a copy of it on one track.

 

3. swap to the other track.

 

4. roll the vehicle along it to a conflicting position.

 

5. adjust the track centres with the mouse until they clear.

 

Ask again on the Templot Club forum for more info (I wish I had a pound for every time I have written that on RMweb) 🙂

 

Martin.

[Jayk]

Acceptable.

 

[Ian Morgan]

To be able to do that on a smooth surface is more than 'acceptable'.