Scalefour Forum

Don't know if this is helpful - I've concluded it's a lot easier to adjust the rods than the chassis, using the stepped axle jigs. Recent builds have had two layer rods, or I've used Gibson universal ones, that adjust to the wheel spacing. Not sure if there is a problem of expansion/contraction when...

I bought blades primarily so that I would know the stockrail side would be mating properly with the stockrail, flush all the way, once it is straightened. So the tip of the diverging blade is 0.15ish or less - pretty damn fine for a joggled switch. It's 1.9 high or maybe a tad over, 1.95. The Web on...

Simon it's been great reading your thread. You've mentioned the problems of painting. I made all my locos as you do, compensated with a fixed wheel, until I made a High Level kit. That was a revelation in that it showed me how to do several things I'd been realising I needed to do. 1. To have all wh...

I wonder if the excellent advice here could be summarized into an article for the Snooze? Without drawings of exactly what is being talked about I've found it not totally easy to follow. Or is the conclusion that JB's article already says it all?

There is a conversation here https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7028&start=75 on E Switch chairing with several drawings. Hello Ted My main issue now, having been enlightened by your post, is where to first fix the switch (how far from the tip) as I think I read on Tony's tu...

Hi Ted and Tony Many thanks both for all this help. Would it agreeable to you if I copy and paste that exchange onto the turnout question thread? I've got a limited choice remaining in etched chairs.  There are running chairs, slide chairs, and block chairs to choose from for this area.  The block c...

Hello Ted I'm very grateful for your assistance. I didn't really expect anyone to come up with an answer to my question, or even that anyone would be reading it! It's a relief that I've cut up the rails to the right lengths. My main issue now, having been enlightened by your post, is where to first ...

Thank you Tony and Keith for your help there. I've got a bit bogged down setting up the stockrails. Previously I showed setting up the stockgauge. However I found that the rail used for the switches I've bought is slightly wider. Result undergauge stockgauge. So I had to re-do it and thought while I...

This curved turnout is massive. 20210318_205249.jpg The radius is vast, so I'm assuming/pretending the planing is straight. I've followed the instructions for making the stockgauge on the Templot site. 20210329_171102.jpg Then done this to get it straight, which was the procedure on the first side t...

Follow the prototype, make your switch so it sits fully against the stock rail naturally without any forcing, assemble it like that. Then the tie bars pull it away to open it rather than pushing to close it. The way flexible switches work is that the switch blades (points) are sprung against each o...

Really a great series Tony. Thank you for all this work showing us and future readers how it's done. For the moment I'm unlikely to be making any FB track. But as a matter of interest, I wonder if you'll include anything about the fixings. On plain track the much more delicate fixings, as chairs are...

Thanks for feedback everyone. I've edited the first post and attached an updated download. Apologies that the whole thing is not really absolutely finished. It is not in any way meant to supplant or change anything that Tony and Martin have written. It is drawn from them but as you say Richard may m...

I started making P4 turnouts about 6 years ago. Since then I've learned a huge amount from this Forum and the Templot Forum, and particularly from the Templot "Real Track", now at https://85a.uk/templot/companion/real_track.php I've summarized it recently. I've written it as though I was s...

That looks a good way to go. Seeing Geraint's post above reminds me of these (Turnout Ground Connection Kit) that you can get from the Society Stores. Scalefour Soc stretcher bars.PNG I made them up a few years ago but they needed modification to get this result. They work fine at keeping the blades...

The set needs to be just the right angle, and in the proper place. I always understood that that was the critical objective and the set compensates for the width in the switch rail. Any planing of the switch tip is to guide the wheel onto the switch rail and not to compensate for its width. Hi Rich...

Simon, your turnout is working, that's the main thing. As you show, just a few strokes of the files make the undercut blade perfectly practical. Tony Wilkins describes it all in full detail https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5727 with this result Switches 45.jpg He says that the...

That's great news Simon. I agree with your idea of springing the wheels rather than just rely on them dropping. How heavy are these little wagons? The tips of switch blades are often prone to a tiny track undergauge, Allan F Allan, is it not the case that, "if you think about it" (as the p...

https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7028&start=25 https://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?id=3805&forum_id=6 Hi Neil The 2nd of those links is perhaps more helpful... I think it depends what your criteria is/are. Are you intending they actually actuate the blades or are more by wa...

The Pickersgill 4-4-0s were handsome locos, even without smoke ix wing plates. They were long lasting and looked really good in lined BR black. Jim P Would they have been one of Pickersgill's most successful classes Jim? The redesign of the single slip (so it is straight not curved) necessitated re...

Dave i have had it sat on a piece of plate glass to make sure it has all four wheels down. Its all straight & i have checked everything as i have gone. As soon as it hits the point blade its lifting. Simon you've got to the nub of the whole thing here. It's extraordinary how P4 flanges can just...

Quite agree Philip. Just to answer the question

Wizard copperclad sleepers 1.6

Rail height with Masokits etched chairs 4.2 on Wizard sleepers

(Possibly over liberal tinning may add around 0.1 to rail height.)

So etched chairs give rail to sleeper gap 0.6

Old copperclad 1.1

Old FB rail 2.1

My bullhead rail currently in use is 1.9mm high. Bought some 20 years ago as EM track from SMP. Masokits etched chairs raise the rail bottom 0.5mm (maybe a tiny bit more) above sleeper. I've got two kinds of pre-cut copperclad sleeper on the go, more recent glass fibre(?) stuff from Wizard is thicke...

Lovely absolutely filthy finish :) I echo Steve - how do you do it? I really like the ground level camera perspective. Regarding slow speed running, assuming you've got exact correlation of wheel spacing and rod lengths, crankpins exactly matching each other for throw and angle on each side, and qua...

Thanks for the advice Terry and Will, and the encouragement. It's Pickersgill's version of the Dunalistair. (Not sure if they were found to be any improvement on McIntosh's final version which look very similar.) This was the only vehicle that climbed one of the switch rails, going backwards without...

Hopefully the paint has dried sufficiently. This poor old Compound keeps getting put aside and I've decided to interrupt the Kyle layout project to finish it. Here is the first effort at lining. I've assembled several bits of Modelmaster transfers here. I wonder whether anyone has any hints other th...