Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Tell us about your layout, where you put it, how you built it, how you operate it.
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Andrew Bluett-Duncan
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Andrew Bluett-Duncan » Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:31 am

Tony Wilkins wrote:
Andrew Bluett-Duncan wrote:Had I seen your lengthy post on the genesis of the project? Well, in fact I had started to read it, noted that I was (responsible) for something in you feeling moved to write this now, resolved to ask what it was that I said, and then got distracted by I don't know what. So I have now come to ask you the rather overdue question. What was it that I said, that you referred to?


Hi Andrew.
It took me about three attempts of reading this to understand your meaning and a good bit of searching back through the thread to find it and some playing with the format of this post to get it to display as I wanted.
Anyway, It was this post, halfway down page 10 on December 2018, so not surprised you don't recall it.

Hello Tony
Yes, having just reread it again I can see that sometimes I have a propensity to make very long sentences, punctuated with enough commas and brackets to sink a battleship, and that this makes understanding what I'm saying problematic on occasion. It's funny because at the time I was quite pleased with how much I'd been able to cram into a relatively short space... I'll not make any promises that I can't keep, but your comments have at least made me aware (of my shortcomings!). So thank you, and thank you also for going to the trouble to find the bit where we were discussing the merits of the history lesson. Glad I wrote it and that you recalled it after so long. Well worthwhile!

Kind regards
Andrew

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:31 pm

Andrew Bluett-Duncan wrote:
Tony Wilkins wrote:
Andrew Bluett-Duncan wrote:Had I seen your lengthy post on the genesis of the project? Well, in fact I had started to read it, noted that I was (responsible) for something in you feeling moved to write this now, resolved to ask what it was that I said, and then got distracted by I don't know what. So I have now come to ask you the rather overdue question. What was it that I said, that you referred to?


Hi Andrew.
It took me about three attempts of reading this to understand your meaning and a good bit of searching back through the thread to find it and some playing with the format of this post to get it to display as I wanted.
Anyway, It was this post, halfway down page 10 on December 2018, so not surprised you don't recall it.

Hello Tony
Yes, having just reread it again I can see that sometimes I have a propensity to make very long sentences, punctuated with enough commas and brackets to sink a battleship, and that this makes understanding what I'm saying problematic on occasion. It's funny because at the time I was quite pleased with how much I'd been able to cram into a relatively short space... I'll not make any promises that I can't keep, but your comments have at least made me aware (of my shortcomings!). So thank you, and thank you also for going to the trouble to find the bit where we were discussing the merits of the history lesson. Glad I wrote it and that you recalled it after so long. Well worthwhile!

Kind regards
Andrew


Hi Andrew.
You are welcome.
I suspect I could be accused of similar practice occasionally.
I once read somewhere that using long sentences is supposed to be a sign of greater intelligence. I don't know about that, but it doesn't always improve readability.
Anyway, best wishes
Tony.
Last edited by Tony Wilkins on Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Andrew Bluett-Duncan
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Andrew Bluett-Duncan » Sat Apr 03, 2021 5:03 pm

Martin Wynne wrote:
Tony Wilkins wrote:
the development of Templot really was the first step of turning my dream into something tangible
... ...
PS the Templot file is now up to version 15c.

Hi Tony, Andrew,

I get goose-bumps to think that the program I started dabbling with 40 years ago has helped so many to realise a lifetime dream.

Mystified and infuriated a great many more of course.

It's puzzling that in all that time there is no sign of anyone coming along with a replacement program, when you think of all the other developments of the digital age since the 1980s. Templot is stuck in a time-warp, and I'm too old to see a way out of it. I always assumed that by now I wouldn't need to.

But I'm inspired to keep going when I see you and others posting photos of track being built on Templot templates. Sometimes amazing trackwork formations that I would never have dreamed of when I started. So thanks for that, and the opportunity to have played a tiny part in your grand projects.

cheers,

Martin.


Hello Martin
I'll second what Tony has said and add that the part you played in making track constructible through the ability to plan on paper accurately before getting out the timber and rail, has given me (and many of us) a sporting chance of it both working well and looking realistic. So no not a tiny part in my/our success, a fundamental part. Being an 00 and EM modeler (so far in my life) I am, as Iain would put it, " a bit dot and carry one" sometimes in my approach and execution of stuff! But despite my shortcomings, your software has enabled me to make track that works really quite well, and I think looks lovely. Its been a bit like painting with numbers!
I think I owe you a lot
Thank you.
Andrew

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:37 pm

Well getting back to the business of actually building the layout, its back to preparing more baseplates. I am also going to have to make another batch of sleepers soon as well. Not very inspiring I'm afraid, but necessary. There has been some track laying taking place in the back ground allowing me to free up two construction boards for reuse. Two more are required to be able to build all the outstanding plain FB track I am going to need.
Regards
Tony.
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Andrew Bluett-Duncan
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Andrew Bluett-Duncan » Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:50 pm

Tony Wilkins wrote:Well getting back to the business of actually building the layout, its back to preparing more baseplates. I am also going to have to make another batch of sleepers soon as well. Not very inspiring I'm afraid, but necessary. There has been some track laying taking place in the back ground allowing me to free up two construction boards for reuse. Two more are required to be able to build all the outstanding plain FB track I am going to need.
Regards
Tony.


Hello Tony
When you say construction boards, I may have missed it, but I wonder exactly what you're referring to?
Andrew

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:11 am

Andrew Bluett-Duncan wrote:
Tony Wilkins wrote:Well getting back to the business of actually building the layout, its back to preparing more baseplates. I am also going to have to make another batch of sleepers soon as well. Not very inspiring I'm afraid, but necessary. There has been some track laying taking place in the back ground allowing me to free up two construction boards for reuse. Two more are required to be able to build all the outstanding plain FB track I am going to need.
Regards
Tony.


Hello Tony
When you say construction boards, I may have missed it, but I wonder exactly what you're referring to?
Andrew

Hi Andrew.
The construction boards are simply the flat sheets of 6mm MDF I use to construct my track on.
I couldn't think of more descriptive name for them.
Regards
Tony.
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bevis
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby bevis » Wed Apr 07, 2021 2:30 pm

Hello Andrew,
These sheets can be seen p21, the 5th March 2:58 posting by Tony. I have had the pleasure of seeing them in the flesh so knew what he was referring to.

Regards,

Bevis

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Andrew Bluett-Duncan
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Andrew Bluett-Duncan » Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:28 pm

bevis wrote:Hello Andrew,
These sheets can be seen p21, the 5th March 2:58 posting by Tony. I have had the pleasure of seeing them in the flesh so knew what he was referring to.

Regards,

Bevis


Hello Bevis and Tony
Thank you for the explanation and reference to the p9cture. All is now clear, and in fact i had seen the picture but not realised exactly what I was looking at!
Kind regards
Andrew

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Fri Apr 09, 2021 6:05 pm

Before I could continue, I had to go back two pages to find out which picture I last posted, which was more or less this one.
DSCF1219.jpg

From here the bridge was packed away and the paper carefully removed to leave the pins in place to relocate the track. The amount of extra cork needed at this end of the baseboard can be seen here.
DSCF1222.jpg

Yet the baseboard is well braced.
DSCF1225.jpg

Possibly using multiple layers of Sundela board and carving the ditch has compromised the structural integrity of the surface layer. I carved through the first layer, then glued and clamped a second layer of Sundela underneath and allowed this to set before repeating the process until the required depth of cut was achieved. Four layers in total. I don't know if this was the case, but the next baseboard suffered from the same problem.
Anyway, the next sections of track were laid and ballasted. The white pin was used to make sure the center of the main lines on the printout aligned with the center of the track bed.
DSCF1224.jpg

After cleaning up the following morning.
DSCF1226.jpg

Here are the next two baseboards with the other half of the ditch to the right with two sets of outflow pipes toward the far end.
DSCF1227.jpg

Retrieving the straight baseboard meant clearing off everything that had accumulated on top of it over time and the start of another clear up.
It was when I connected these two boards together that I discovered that, apart from the inside edge, the cork strips didn't quite line up. Printing out the Templot plan with the track bed edges and overlaying it on the baseboard showed where the problems lay.
I had previously determined that the concrete sleeper track needed 2.5mm cork rather than the 3mm cork I had already laid and the track bed was too narrow, so having marked the center line by putting pins down the length, I marked the new mid point and lifted the errant cork with a chisel to be replaced with a strip of 2.5mm cork. I had considered sanding a ramp in the cork at the baseboard joint to deal with the discrepancy, but as it was under width I decided to replace and be done with it. The 1.5mm cork for the outside curve I added an extra strip along the outside edge.
DSCF1228.jpg


There were a number of watercourses present in the vicinity as can be seen from this map. I have highlighted them in blue.
For reference, the straight track along the edge of the baseboard is the one running alongside the factory and ends more or less where the black line goes vertical, where I believe there was a gate.
Brismdown1.jpg

That at the top left has an arrow pointing from left to right showing the direction of flow, but the other two are just marked Drain. I presume they are all connected, but there is obviously a lot of culverting between them if so.
By the time the line reaches Ponders End station, Brimsdown ditch flows alongside the railway as an open channel for some distance and it was this feature I wished to replicate.
It also shows the second road bridge (referred to previously) that I need to model as a scenic break.

It was at this point that I began to wonder if I had a potential problem as the track had to meet at three places rather than just two.
Because I had started laying my track from the industrial sidings because of the saw tooth joint needed, this created an additional reference point for the track, so I had a center reference as well as two ends to deal with. With this in mind, I decided to print out a crosswise sheet showing the next baseboard joint complete with the background map to see how they corresponded. The Templot track bed edges were a good match with those on the map, which was reassuring, but there was a discrepancy between this and the cork as laid of about 4 to 5mm. Not that much, but more than enough to cause alignment problems if I carried on laying the track from the curved end. The answer, I decided, was to work my way out from the center in both directions. This meant clearing the next two 1500mm long baseboards and finding a clear working space some 4.5M long to assemble the four baseboards I required to do this.
The two shown above plus these two.
DSCF1230.jpg

The loose ends connect into the up and down main lines.
DSCF1229.jpg

DSCF1231.jpg


Regards
Tony
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:34 pm

However, before I could do that, I needed to paint the PCB sleepers for that section of plain FB track. As I had originally intended to proceed from the end inward, these sections had not been done and whilst waiting for the paint to thoroughly dry after each coat, decided to continue laying the curved track sections across the next baseboard joint so I could at least complete the track laying for one more board. As there was a slight difference in alignment between the two sections of concrete based track at the joint, I cut some Peco rail joiners in half and used these to temporarily hold the rails in line across the baseboard joint while everything set ensuring correct alignment.
DSCF1232.jpg

Then I could get on with wiring it. The tag strips had to go on the outer half of the bracing as there was not enough room to get two screws in if they were placed on the inner halves.
DSCF1233.jpg

At least this baseboard and the next two are relatively straightforward, at least in my terms, being three stretches of continuous plain track, but still entail a fair bit of wiring none the less. The next baseboard is shorter still, but little less work to wire. These two boards form an almost self contained scene and I have always had it in mind to eventually attempt a semi dioramic scenario with them using my limited scenic skills.
Regards
Tony.
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Terry Bendall
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Terry Bendall » Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:57 am

Reading the latest post Tony, the painting of the underside of the baseboards caused me to look back at a post at the end of March when you mentioned a sag in the top of a board. I wonder if the sag was caused by painting the underside only? We have of course seen many pictures of the underside of the boards and painting the underside makes it easier to see the wiring but would it contribute to sagging?

Just a thought.

Terry Bendall

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:01 am

Hi Terry.
I wonder where you got the impression that I paint the underside of the baseboards, because I don't. What you see is the natural colour of the Sundela board. Years ago it used to have a fawn colour, but now its grey. I am convinced that most of my problems with sag come from the board not being flat from day one and despite all the bracing built into my baseboards, it still manages to stay curved in between (despite what the instructions that come with the Sundela board would have you believe). It is I'm afraid, going to be a perennial problem with this stuff and each baseboard in turn has to be scrutinised and leveled, in so much as one can, as part of the track laying process. It is something I am learning to live with.
Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby grovenor-2685 » Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:38 am

Sundeala had a reputation for sagging 50 years ago although not as bad as 'insulation board' which I once used as it was cheaper. I wouldn't touch either now.
Regards
Keith
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Thu Apr 15, 2021 12:49 pm

Hi Keith.
I can understand that viewpoint. I have had second thoughts about that decision more than once, but there is no going back now.
Would I recommend the product? From my personal experience, not for baseboard tops, that's for sure.
Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:45 am

Tony Wilkins wrote:I wonder where you got the impression that I paint the underside of the baseboards, because I don't.


Thanks for the correction Tony. My mistake. Sorry.

Tony Wilkins wrote:Would I recommend the product? From my personal experience, not for baseboard tops, that's for sure.


I agree. For me nothing less than 12mm thick birch plywood with suitable supports where needed.

Terry Bendall

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:59 pm

Anyway, problems or not one perseveres.
Going back to this picture,
DSCF1230.jpg

I have since fitted an extra bolt under the trackbed in order to get this joint a bit tighter. It was also at an apex which didn't help. The sub-frames will need leveling again at some stage.
I needed to remove the 3mm cork under the Down road to deal with the difference in height caused by the deeper concrete sleeper base
DSCF1234.jpg

and replace it with 2.5mm thick cork. While I was about it, I took the opportunity to deal with some humps and hollows, but Sundela is awful stuff to sand as bits tend to peel off producing an uneven surface. Fortunately the replacement cork covers most of this. Some additional strips of cork were also added where needed to deal with any misaligned edges.
Once all this had dried, further sanding sorted out any remaining variations in level, then the edges were sanded to produce the characteristic sloping edges of the ballast shoulders
Then the fun began, setting out all the intermediate sections of track to find out how things line up or not.
The strip across in the middle is the reference sheet that showed up the potential discrepancy.
DSCF1235.jpg

The track sections to the right are spurious lengths of Exactoscale Bullhead track.

As I always make sure some lengths of track are slightly longer than needed, they need to be trimmed to length as I go, but the results of all my hard work are finally beginning to take shape.
DSCF1236.jpg

The subtlety of the curves is something that can really only be appreciated when viewed end on.
Having convinced myself that it does all line up, the concrete sleeper lengths were added. I knew I was short of a few lengths, but compared with the time taken to make the rest of the Flat bottom track that was a five minute job.
DSCF1237.jpg

When I first laid the concrete track and looked down the length, something did not look quite right. On closer examination, I discovered that I had placed some of them with the curvature the wrong way round. When I made them I cut the web between every other sleeper on the inside of the curve only as even at this large radius the track base will keep the rail straight even with pre-curved rail. So it was relatively easy to spot any missing webs on the outside of the curve where they shouldn't be. There is still some final trimming and fitting to do, but will be attended to as I proceed.
It does amuse me sometimes that although the layout is nominally a double track main line, the only two track section is a short length over and either side of the level crossing.

So on the basis of this, it was back to sticking down track from where I had left off, which is here.
DSCF1238.jpg

Although it looks like a full circuit of track is nearing completion, the reality is that there is still some way to go yet. Everything you see above needs to be laid and wired and things like signal placings and consequent track section breaks to be considered. There is still about two baseboards worth of FB track to make, all BR1 baseplates, but I am increasingly optimistic it will happen sometime this year.
Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Sat Apr 24, 2021 9:50 pm

I mentioned the strip of paper that showed up the discrepancy in the previous post. Here is a picture of it.
DSCF1243.jpg

This has been printed to include the track bed and Cess edges and you can see just how well they agree with those on the map, which was reassuring.
I eventually came to the conclusion that the error was with where I had previously laid the cork as the tracks seemed to line up as expected.
So having laid the track shown in the last picture, I spent some time over the last couple of days wiring it (and yes, there is a baseboard under that lot piled up in the background)
DSCF1241.jpg

DSCF1242.jpg

and today have turned my attention to the next baseboard.
DSCF1240.jpg

A few minor tweaks still needed in places and final trimming before gluing and ballasting, which took place this evening.
DSCF1244.jpg

This took every single lead weight I had.
These last few boards have been relatively straightforward as there is only plain track to deal with. That is about to change.
Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Wed Apr 28, 2021 8:13 am

Here it is without the weights after removing excess ballast
DSCF1246.jpg

and on my desk where it is part way through being wired.
It is a bit piebald in places but will be touched in later.
DSCF1248.jpg

No progress yesterday as I had to visit my dentist to have a tooth that had broken, removed. The snag was that I still go to the dentist in London 140 miles away, so not a short trip. However, he is retiring soon and I have been going to him since he came out of dental college, so a long time.
Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Thu Apr 29, 2021 8:43 pm

No pictures today, but I have finished the basic wiring of this baseboard. The underside looks similar to that of the previous two only longer and straight.
In between times I have been giving some serious thought to the control system for this layout and have spent much of today putting together some initial ideas. However knowing what one wishes to achieve and implementing it are two entirely different things. In the meantime preparation for gluing down the track on the next baseboard has begun.

Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Thu May 06, 2021 5:03 pm

The next baseboard is where complications start to arise. It has turnouts, which for one implies point rodding and associated rodding runs. These need to be considered before gluing down the track. I printed out the relevant part of the trackwork at 40% as this allowed me to fit the area on one sheet of paper and set about marking out the rodding runs. This also meant studying the photos for prototype information. This half of the layout, being to scale, I could just copy the real thing. The half North of the signal box will have to be worked out from first principles being so heavily compressed. There was a 5 rod run down the length of the platform and photos showed the position of 3 of the compensators. I will have to work out where the remainder need to go. I also noticed there were wood support blocks for the stools between the sleepers and have made a note of the position of these on the construction size Templot track printouts.
I therefore needed to mark and cut out the trenches across the tracks before I could start gluing the track down.
DSCF1252.jpg

The timbering needs to be arranged to avoid the trenches.
Working my way along.
DSCF1255.jpg

As far as I can make out from the one decent photo I have of this area, the kink in the alignment of the trench is prototypical.
The two red marks are the electrical track section breaks.
Four rods cross under the tracks at the centre of the crossover and the other at the toe of the switch.
DSCF1254.jpg

After a couple of gluing sessions I have progressed this far and means I have another baseboard that I can start wiring.
DSCF1256.jpg

The platforms start where the left side cork ends.
One more gluing section will fix the rest of the remaining track shown here and then things will come to a halt whilst I make the remaining straight plain BR1 Flatbottom track. The first stage being reducing another sheet of PCB to sleepers.
DSCF1253.jpg

I just hope this will be enough.
Regards
Tony.
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Dave Holt
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Dave Holt » Thu May 06, 2021 8:08 pm

Beginning to look mightily impressive, Tony.
I'm impressed by you forward planning and foresight to dig point rodding trenches in the cork prior to laying the track. I wasn't that organised when doing the track on Delph/Holt. In the end, although I dug a few holes to accommodate sunken rodding stools, I just laid the rods direct on top of the cork underlay where they passed under the track, having painted the cork dark grey beforehand.
I'm really enjoying watching the progress with this project.
Dave.

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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Fri May 07, 2021 10:59 am

Hi Dave.
Thanks for your compliments.
I must admit to being quite impressed with it myself. When I first laid that section I thought this is going to look something when it is done and when I finally cleaned off the excess ballast and looked down the length, I just stood and stared at it for several minutes. I have since noticed a slight wiggle in the loop line alignment and am in the process of dealing with it. I first noticed it in the photo above. Funny how photos show up problems.

As for the rodding runs, I wish I always had that much foresight as I forgot about this with what pointwork I have already laid at the North end.

Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Fri May 21, 2021 4:10 pm

Having mentioned the unwanted wiggle in the loop road, this was well wetted and left under some plastic until the glue had softened sufficiently (about 8 hours) to be able to just shove it sideways enough to realign it.
DSCF1258.jpg

It was then weighted and left to dry out again.
This left one more prepared section of track to glue down and ballast and this is where I run out of pre-prepared track.
DSCF1257.jpg


Having done so, I was left with a choice of jobs, either wire these baseboards or make some more baseplates in readiness for the outstanding plain flatbottom track I was going to need. I began drilling 1 mm holes for and placing dropper wires in the baseboards, for fear of losing the holes later on, but as I needed to wait in for a delivery, decided to make a start on the baseplate fabrication. 6 frets would allow me to make the section of plain track on the next construction board (one of four outstanding). The bad news was that they were all double track from here on in. I have to say that the novelty of making FB plain track this way had well and truly worn off by this time and the repetition was becoming somewhat mind numbing. In the end it was just shear bloody minded determination that kept me going. I had initially hoped to complete the remaining plain track construction by the end of May, but got to the stage where I just wanted to finish it and get it out of the way and here it is, the last section of track for the layout, completed Wednesday.
DSCF1259.jpg

The figure in the bottom left corner says 13 and is the last of 13 construction boards containing FB plain track I needed to make for a complete circuit. It is at times like these that I am grateful that I don't have 45 feet available and a further 20 odd feet of FB track needed.
There is still a lot more to do as the track needs to be painted as I did the previous batch and there are still a couple of baseboards lacking cork to deal with, but in the meantime I have more wiring to do to those recently laid.

Finally some stats.
The near on 1/2 scale mile (88 x 60' panels to the mile) of FB track required 34 frets each containing 56 baseplates, total prepared 1904. I hoped it would be 1884 used, but here's the funny thing, I ended up with 3 unused baseplates. How could I possibly end up with an ODD number? The obvious answer is that I had lost one, but I had actually gained 1. I kept a tally of how many I had prepared, needed and used. I should have had just 2 left and as I had wrecked 2 trying to adjust a couple of soldered joints, should have had none left. If I had missed one out when assembling the track, I think I would have noticed when soldering each baseplate in turn.
Just one of life's great mysteries.
Regards
Tony.
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Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Fri May 28, 2021 1:18 pm

So having build the remaining track it was back to wiring the baseboard I had already started.
DSCF1263.jpg

The tracks at the top curve round into the Enfield Cable Company sidings.
Here is the underside.
DSCF1261.jpg

Whereas most of the baseboards have two inter-board connectors, this one has three. The middle one was recovered from a redundant extension board for Green Street, so saved some work. Although there are points on this baseboard, no point motors have been fitted as yet. Only two are required for this baseboard as the point nearest the top of the board will be fixed as this had been disused for some years by my time frame. The Up point has been temporarily pined and the crossing jumpered for the main road. The electrical sections of the Up and Down lines are also temporarily jumpered to create one section for each. This was a conscious decision to save time, the aim being to complete the Up and Down circuits of track in the minimum of time. This September will mark five years since I seriously started on this project with the aim of having a circuit of track in two years and I don't want the timescale creeping into a sixth, so shortcuts are inevitable.
There is also the fact that the control system has yet to be designed, and that won't be quick as it will probably be a process of working it out from first principals as I go. I know what I want the layout to do, it is a matter of implementing it. The one decision I have made is to use a Mk2 society lever-frame for the signal box (42 levers, 1 spare). These are currently on order.
I now have a standard routine with each baseboard, which involves checking for humps and hollows and correcting before track laying.
DSCF1262.jpg

This is the latest being dealt with and has only plain track.

Regards
Tony.
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Inspiration from the past. Dreams for the future.

Tony Wilkins
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Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:57 pm

Re: Brimsdown-The last grand project.

Postby Tony Wilkins » Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:02 pm

The above baseboard was needed before I could finish the track laying on the previous baseboard and across the joint as the baseboard joints nearly always need truing up. Although it has only plain track, the track in this area is far from plain. There's bags of detail in this picture and it is one I shall be referring back to.
Brimsdown015.jpg

Although undated, I would say it was 1961 as some of the details (in particular, the pegs down the middle of the six foot related to the replacement of the Bull head track by Flatbottom underway at that time) appear in other photos dated that year.
Here is an enlargement of the area of current interest, mainly concerning the 5 rod run along the platform face. There are signal wires as well not visible in this shot. The metal strapping across the sleepers is also of interest.
Brimsdown015 detail1.jpg

The salient details are the rodding stools and their timber bases. It is usual for the top of the rodding bases to be level with the top of the sleepers, but here they are evidently higher and I suspect the reason is because there are compensators underneath the rodding and I have marked the edge of the platform opposite each of the three visible in this picture. The top one comes off rod one (furthest from the platform). The middle one (difficult to see) comes off rod five and the bottom one comes off rod four.
It should also be noted that there are several catch pits (drains to you and me) at intervals along the six foot. There is one more or less in the center of the picture although not very obvious, just in front of the third peg.
The positions of all these need to be found as these will need to be planted before the track can be laid and ballasted.
U channel rods are made in 15' or 18'6" lengths (round rods are 16') and I managed to determine that mine were 18'6", which helped tremendously in plotting out the base positions as the bolts for the joining pieces are clearly visible in the pictures. These were marked on the Templot printout
DSCF1264.jpg

and in close up. X marks the spot.
DSCF1265.jpg

The red lines mark the individual lengths of rod. C marks the position of a compensator. 24 is the number of sleepers on each track panel and the red X marks a mistake! The base positions are transferred to the baseboard by hammering Peco track pins through the printout into the baseboard.
The track panels are then removed from the printout and re-positioned on the cork. Any mistakes can simply be hashed out.
DSCF1267.jpg

I needed 10mm long strips for these bases.
I chose to make my low bases out of half thickness Crossing timber strip and the high bases out of thick Crossing timber strip. For the ramping up and down I simply glued 1, 2 or 3 layers of 8 thou card (a 1/4 of the difference) to the underside of some thin Crossing timber strip. These correspond to the numbers in this picture.
DSCF1266.jpg

This is what they look like glued into place.
DSCF1268.jpg

It is vitally important that any adjustment of rail lengths for final fitting is carried out before fixing the positions of the rodding bases on the cork,
as there is not much room for error and this is particularly the case if the base happens to coincide with a rail joint as there is negligible clearance and once the base is fixed in position it may stop the track from being correctly placed later.
DSCF1269.jpg

I also needed to cut some catch pit covers from 40 thou plasticard and paint them concrete coloured before gluing into place.
This is what the area looked like minus track
DSCF1270.jpg

and with track.
DSCF1272.jpg

The joint was then re-cut with a scalpel.
DSCF1271.jpg

A close up of the ramped area.
DSCF1273.jpg

This means I now have another baseboard in the wiring queue.
However as I still had two baseboards in need of cork, I decided to tackle that next.
DSCF1274.jpg

This is an area I had put off due to it involving the lifting flap and the change in level for the goods yard.
The task actually didn't seem that bad once under way the current state of play is.
DSCF1275.jpg

There remains some filling of dips with cork and much sanding to achieve the levels I require, but things really are beginning to look promising and progress most encouraging.

Regards
Tony.
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Inspiration from the past. Dreams for the future.


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