Scalefour Forum

Hello all.
I've long wanted to make a model that shows a section of the London and Croydon Atmospheric railway. At first this was going to be a large(ish) static diorama, on a 4' x 2' baseboard, but I decided I'd like to see the trains moving, so hence my reason for joining the Scalefour Society.
I'm busy doing some background reading on the subject, and I have the LB&SCR carriages book by Ian White et al. and also the Charles Hadfield book 'Atmospheric Railways', but I'm struggling to come to a conclusion on the track dimensions. I understand it was pretty much a standard gauge version of the Brunel type of track, with Vignole rail, and the atmospheric pipe down the middle, but does anyone know the sleeper dimensions/spacing/chair types etc.?
The other question is, will it be possible to model this to any degree of accuracy with the items available in the Society stores and elsewhere?
I understand 5&9 models do cast resin atmospheric pipes, so there's one part covered, any good advice on the rest?

Kind regards

Stewart.

The section of L&C rail, as described on Wikipedia under Vignoles rail. Nothing much like any rail-section I've seen modelled. However, if this was laid with the sleepers boxed in, you might get away with using an over-scale rail chosen to match the scale width of the head.

Difficult to model I guess, i may have to use a certain degree of modellers licence. Nobody is going to see it but me anyway.
I wonder if it would be possible to pull a wire section through a die to produce vignoles section? Probably not. Just thinking out loud.

Bit of a late response but perfectly possible. I saw a fellow student pulling square section wood dowelling through a home made die as she wanted a section she couldn't buy. My dad used to make the dies for a wire works 70+ years ago. The wires the company made were used in colliery winding gear, Tamar Suspension Bridge and Emley Moor TV mast, amongst others.

I've recently been given a copy of MRJ #1and there's Andrew Wiles making broad gauge track. He cuts a slot in the baulk in which to lose the foot of bullhead rail. After that it gets very complicated but you could add a new foot in 2 pieces on top. Just a matter of working out the details.

You'd have to learn a lot about wire-drawing before even considering that route but there's been examples of squashing sections between 2 ballraces - the 2mm society used to turn round wire into flat stock for rail this way.

DaveB

There was some code 40 flatbottom rail that looked like that from an American manufacturer, I used it about 50 (!) years ago for some narrow gauge work.

If only making a short length, perhaps soldering small strips to the sides of the foot of some flat bottomed rail would do. Or gluing some styrene strips down once the rail is mounted. In both, choose a profile with a good head width and overall height.

Stephan