Scalefour Forum

Five turnouts, a diamond and a single slip, enough to get the up and down Consett main lines laid. My thanks to Stephen Freeman of Borg Rail for these.

First lot of track and droppers have been fitted on boards 1 & 2 so I can now run a train over 12 foot of track making it 3 times longer than any other track work I've ever had. Turnout is wired but the operating mechanism is not fitted yet.

With a bit of luck, I'll be able to run a train over the full length of the layout by the weekend...

You'll soon be needing a 9F...…
Nice to see progress John.

Pete

pete55 wrote:You'll soon be needing a 9F...…

Cheers Pete, you fancy building a Bradwell chassis for me

Seriously, try a re wheeled Bachmann.....you might be surprised!

pete55 wrote:Seriously, try a re wheeled Bachmann.....you might be surprised!

Well, I've already got the wheels so no harm in trying I guess...

Progress, the down Consett is now completely laid and wired.

So, over the last couple of days, for various reasons I've made the decision to scrap the existing track (it will eventually find a use in the fiddle yard so it won't be completely wasted) but I figured before I do that, I'd better have a go at building some turnouts and the single slip. I've built turnouts before but always from kits so I've never had to build a crossing v for example.

Here's the result of a couple of hours work tonight, I love the flow that the track work has when built as a single unit...

Lots still to do and some of the vees need a bit more work but, even just taped down, I can run wagons through the crossings.

John Donnelly wrote:So, over the last couple of days, for various reasons I've made the decision to scrap the existing track (it will eventually find a use in the fiddle yard so it won't be completely wasted)

Sorry to hear that, did you have problems?

John Donnelly wrote:S.... I love the flow that the track work has when built as a single unit...

Looks great to me ... will be fun watching this develop.

Trackwork is progressing:





John

No progress on the layout as such as I'm waiting on some things from Tim Horn but I've not been idle and I've ventured in to two areas I've previously had no experience with, semaphore signalling and electronics.

First up is an LNER tubular post signal from the MSE kit, by far the fiddliest thing I've ever soldered but after much swearing and burnt fingers it is complete apart from the rear of the signal arm which I'll do after painting. I've made a couple of mistakes along the way but, despite that, it works as intended:

https://youtu.be/eZTfIqAWs8g

For the electronics, I'm starting with turnout operation and I've decided on a Cobalt Lever Frame, MERG, servo combination so I've made up a MERG SERVO4 board, programmed a servo and connected the lever:

https://youtu.be/y-kAotgsafQ

The signal looks good. MSE do a nice mount for servo operation of signals so they can also work from the Servo4.

grovenor-2685 wrote:The signal looks good. MSE do a nice mount for servo operation of signals so they can also work from the Servo4.

Thanks Keith, I didn't know about the mount so that's good to know.

Plywood from Tim Horn (superb service) with the track plan etched in to it:



Three quarters of the layout:



John

Brilliant way of sidestepping the potential for grief when aligning and fixing paper templates! Did you arrange for any part of the plan to be mirror-etched on the underside of the board, e.g. to assist location of droppers or other connections that needed to be made through the deck?

John Palmer wrote:Brilliant way of sidestepping the potential for grief when aligning and fixing paper templates!

One of the reasons why I did it this way, I also had visions of the glue holding the paper down failing over time and the track lifting.

John Palmer wrote:Did you arrange for any part of the plan to be mirror-etched on the underside of the board, e.g. to assist location of droppers or other connections that needed to be made through the deck?

No, but I'm hoping to surface mount everything including the servos for ease of access.

John

I'm not a great fan of the "Like Button" but If I'd had one I'd've used it.

All sleepers are down and I've finally got some track, all 4' of it, laid with droppers fitted:





I think I may have some gauging issues though...

NYMR meets S Pelaw!!
Was Rich driving the rat?!

Pete

Party due to the current health crisis, SPJ (two thirds of it anyway) has a new, temporary, home, my rather unfinished living room. It's a bit of a surprise to see how big even two boards are in a normal environment rather than a 160' long room.

No excuses for not cracking on with it and it gives me an excuse for not finishing the house as it is in the way

Lovely trestles, who's make are they?

RAO wrote:Lovely trestles, who's make are they?

Screwfix

It beats looking at the television. LOL. I can't see my wife agreeing to allow me to do this in our front room.

Keep Safe

Dave

Serjt-Dave wrote:It beats looking at the television. LOL. I can't see my wife agreeing to allow me to do this in our front room.

As a widower, there is no domestic authority to object...