Brook Street 1989 - 1991 Speedlink

[Phil Eames]

The time seems right to start a thread on the new layout which is based in the same time period as the old layout, namely the last years of the much missed Speedlink Network. The theory is, or with the passing of time, should I say was, that I could use stock and buildings removed from the old layout. The reality, of course, has not turned out like that as I felt dissatisfied with the level of detail on some of the stock and only a few building have been 'moved over'.

The 'mythology' behind the layout is that rail traffic to the Breweries in Burton on Trent, instead of petering out in 1974, clung on for a while longer. With the introduction of the Speedlink Network, traffic then began to pick up. The yard itself is on a truncated part of the main internal network from Wetmore Yard heading towards the Breweries and would have initially been served by a trip working from Toton. But when Toton lost its Speedlink service the trip was transferred to work from Bescot.

A surprising amount of traffic associated with the drinks industry was still on the railway in the period set, so hopefully the reasoning behind the layout is not too far fetched. If you want to investigate this traffic further, then I recommend the reading chapter 5 of this publication for a taste (or should that be a sip?) https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/product/5576/bookazine-the-changing-face-of-railfreight . At the time of writing It appears the Bookazine is still available.

[Phil Eames]

Baseboards

After a period of planning a track layout was finalised, so thoughts turned to the baseboards. There was only one place to go, which was Tim Horn baseboards. At this point I have to add that I do have connections with Tim. He owned the common fiddle yard for the old layout and helped operate it at exhibitions. Also, I have helped Tim on his trade stand over the years.

But having said that, I still had to go on the waiting list until it was my turn due to the design being a variation of a stock item. These variations included beefing up the baseboard top from 6mm to 9mm ply. Increasing the depth of the boards to accommodate fold up legs retrieved from the old layout, in addition to the depth of a Tortoise point motor and removing the pelmet from the diorama type boards. Finally, a cassette type board was designed for the handling of stock. When the boards were assembled and I was pleased with how stable they were.

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As alluded to previously the boards were designed to take the legs from the previous layout. Fortunately, it proved easy to reduce the width by simply sawing through the horizontals at the appropriate location. Removing the timber from the rebate, then gluing and screwing everything back together. Note the diagonals under the boards hadn’t been fitted at this point as they needed to be checked against the track plan for the best orientation.
When the layout is set up the removable end leg slides into a pocket while the folding legs are held in position by angled ply struts as shown. The struts are secured by M6 bolts and T nuts. For storage and transportation, the T nut in the leg can be bolted securely through the hole just visible in the baseboard side.

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While T nuts are wonderful in theory, those who have exhibition layout and use them know that they just fall out for no reason whatsoever. So, to prevent this occurring ‘keeper plates’ were made from scraps of thin MDF which were fixed into place with epoxy resin. Although shown on the legs, this method was used on all the T nuts used on the baseboards.

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[Terry Bendall]

Some neat ideas for the baseboards Phil.

While T nuts are wonderful in theory, those who have exhibition layout and use them know that they just fall out for no reason whatsoever. So, to prevent this occurring ‘keeper plates’ were made from scraps of thin MDF which were fixed into place with epoxy resin.

I have found the same problem. The idea of keeper plates seems good although i would probably use PVA glue and probably a small wood screw to be sure.

It will be good to see how this developes.

Terry Bendall

[ChrisMitchell]

Phil

Finally, a cassette type board was designed for the handling of stock.

Would be interested to hear a little bit more about what you mean

Regards, Chris

[Phil Eames]

Some neat ideas for the baseboards Phil.

Thanks for the kind words Terry

Finally, a cassette type board was designed for the handling of stock.

Would be interested to hear a little bit more about what you mean

Can you bear with me a little longer Chris, I have organised things into some sort of logical progression and the cassettes will be covered sooner rather than later hopefully. But, spoiler alert, it is a reasonably simple approach......

[Phil Eames]

I was told in no uncertain terms by Mr Horn that the bridge planned for the end of the layout mustn’t be at 90° to the trackwork. The reason being that on the prototype this is a very rare occurrence. For once I did as I was told with a ‘dummy’ backscene being built on top of formers as shown. At the other end of the layout the corner was infilled with a concave molding to eliminate any harsh change of shadows. Both corners were then ‘blended in’ using wood filler.

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On previous layouts the lighting had been an afterthought. But this time around the method to attach the uprights for the lighting pelmets was planned from the outset. As can be seen the T nuts to hold the uprights are again held in place with layers of MDF.

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[bill wilson]

Hi Phil.
Good to see Brook St on here. Looking forward to following your progress and seeing Brook St in the flesh at the DEFine modellers day in January.

Regards.
Bill.

[Phil Eames]

Hi Phil.
Good to see Brook St on here. Looking forward to following your progress and seeing Brook St in the flesh at the DEFine modellers day in January.

Hi Bill,

I'm looking forward to seeing you and other people in person at Risley, its been a long time since Jan 2020. I did give my vocal chords a run out at Briston the other week and they still last the course thank goodness!

[Phil Eames]

Lighting Pelmet

The lighting pelmet on the old layout did serve its function reliably and there were thoughts of reusing it on the new layout. However, these were soon dismissed as it was deemed something with less weight using LED lighting would be more appropriate. Also, it would mean that we were no longer stringing up 240v AC about our heads!

During a visit to ExpoEM Autumn in 2019 the operators of the Pelaw Junction layout kindly allowed me to inspect the lighting on their layout. It was decided to use the principle of aluminium uprights from that layout. But the pelmets themselves would be based on those from the previous layout where they ‘overlapped’ at the join.

The 19mm aluminium box and flat sections were purchased from this supplier https://www.metals4u.co.uk/aluminium/c1 with who I have no connection other than that as a satisfied customer.

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The design was a collapsible ‘gallows’ type, with the horizontal being able to rotate around a 6mm bolt held by angle plates. The supporting strut was also held in place with a removable 6mm bolt allowing the strut to be fastened for both transportation and exhibition. It was suggested by Mark Lambert that, instead of using a removable bolt, had I considered using a quick release pin instead. Well, no I hadn’t, but it sounded a good idea. Some pins that are used for yachting were sourced cheaply from ebay, which eventually arrived on a slow boat from China.

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It was found that when the spring on the quick release pin was fully compressed, there wasn’t quite enough clearance for the retaining clip to rotate. So, after a little thought, a slot was cut in the upright to allow this to happen. Hopefully that saves a few minutes for the set up and break down at an exhibition. This will mean on a Friday evening we can get ‘refreshments’ sooner. While on a Sunday evening, we can get home and our feet up with ‘refreshments’ sooner as well.

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The positioning of the holes in the uprights were then tested against the T nuts in the boards. Fortunately, every upright lined up with the T nuts, I did measure lots of times! But it is important, for me anyway, that the uprights could be used in any position on the layout.

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[Phil Eames]

The pelmet itself was based on the old one, but was laser cut for me by some kind person. This image shows the kit of bits. Notice the two inner strips are offset with each other. This allows the pelmets to overlap when putting them on the uprights. As a first attempt it went well, but if more were needed to be done, there would be a couple of minor tweaks that it would be nice to incorporate.

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When in position, the lighting pelmets are fastened together using over-centre clips. Using some spare ply, the correct spacing was determined for the two halves of the clip using a template drawn in CAD. This was attached to the pelmet using Prit Stick and the fixing holes drilled. This in turn ensured uniformity to the pelmets to allow for interchangeability. As with the uprights, every one needed to go in any position. Well not quite, there is one pelmet which needs to be shorter than the others.

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The over centre clips were fixed to the pelmets with countersunk bolts and nyloc nuts. Then a fascia was glued over the top to hide the screws, along with the laser cutting on the inner face of the pelmet. When the glue had dried the pelmets were painted.

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[Phil Eames]

The LED lights chosen were 4500K neutral white, which for me is in the Goldilocks zone. Those lights which are 3000K being too warm, while those at 6000K are too cool. The angled aluminium LED holder was installed using silicone sealant. I did think about using the clips supplied, but the sealant was just so much easier. The flying lead shown is waiting for small chipboard screw for the P clip. The clip is to relieve any stress on the soldered joint put on the LED lighting strip.

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So now for the moment of truth, which was to assemble everything together. There was a huge sigh of relief when it all fitted together. The lighting also seems to light the very front of the layout reasonably well, which that on the old layout didn't.

It will be noted that track has suddenly appeared on the boards. This is because the sequence of the images is set out logically to guide the reader through the various build stages and does not reflect the order in which the jobs were actually done.

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Looking from the rear of the layout, this is the view of the cassette board. Here the LED lighting has been moved to over the rear of the board and is held in a flat aluminium holder. Compared with the old lighting pelmets its estimated that the complete weight is around 40 – 50% lighter than the original which can only be a good thing.

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[Phil Eames]

Trackwork

It had been a fair few years since I had previously built any track. The bullhead type on the previous layout was made using the principle of ply sleepers and plastic chairs, with every sixth sleeper having a rivet for additional strength. But it was a combination of Simon Stevens and Phil Tattershall that convinced me to dispense with the rivets.

Well nearly, Phil did a demo at ExpoEM Spring and Scaleforum in 2019, where he used a minimal number of rivets in the crossing V area for strength and a couple between the stock rail and closing rail for electrical continuity. It seemed a good method of building trackwork, so why invent the wheel?

It had been decided that for this layout a track plan and buildings would be drawn up to see if everything could be fitted in before any track was laid. At that juncture, although Templot could have been used, the choice was made to draw everything up myself in CAD. For me anyway this turned out to be a very good move as I was then launched on an odyssey of learning.

The best purchase turned out to be a copy of the Permanent Way Institutes Book on British Railway Track 2nd edition 1956. Although there are a lot of dry calculations at the rear of the book, there is also a lot of information at the front which was found to be useful. A lot of pennies fell into place while reading the book. It should be noted this edition covers both bullhead and flat bottom track, while the 1971 4th edition is mainly FB track. These were picked up for around £25 off eBay/Amazon at the time.

Before consulting this book, I would have just used the B6 and B6/B8 templates without really thinking about things. But it was noticed that for a B6 point in 4mm scale, while the switch radius was 1928mm the closing rail radius tightened up considerably to 1240mm. Now while this may not cause any problems for the ‘traditional’ era short wheel base wagon, the layout would be playing host to long wheel base air brake wagons and international bogie wagons, which caused some concern.

Digging a bit deeper, to my relief, it was found an A7 point had a natural radius, were the switch radius and closing radius are equal, of 1928mm in 4mm scale. While a B8 had a natural radius of 2452mm. These seemed a lot friendlier to the stock that was planned to be used.
So armed with this knowledge, the PWI book, the Exactoscale templates and prototype images of trackwork, drawing of an A7 and an A7/B8 interlaced points commenced. These were then shuffled around into various configurations before the final trackplan decided upon. Then the buildings were put on the drawing and again there was another shuffle until everything ‘seemed’ that it ‘could’ work, without any surprises.

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With the trackplan above the 'mainline' from Wetmore Sidings enters from the cassette board on the left under the bridge. It would originally have been double track but it has been singled the other side of the bridge to allow engines to run round the wagons. The line would have gone further into the breweries, but it has been truncated. The single line on the left leads to an off stage grain discharge facility. While the odd dog leg in the fencing is where there was a line to some maltings which have been long lifted. The maltings have subsequently been demolished and a new brewery built on the site.

[Phil Eames]

While all this planning was going on there was something that was needed whatever happened, which was building plain track. There are two schools of thought regarding building track. One is to build it directly onto the baseboards, the other to build it off the board. I have done both approaches and my preference is to build it off. But who is to say what’s right or wrong?

Two templates were printed of a 60ft track panel onto thin card. The sleeper spacings were then cut out from the card with a scalpel. These were in turn stuck to a length of furniture board, ensuring the outside edge of the rail was the measurement of the track gauge away from the edge of the furniture board. A brass strip was then screwed to the side of the board at the height that would match that of the rail on the finished track. This ensured that when the chairs were fixed to the sleepers with solvent, track gauges could be used to hold the rail in the correct position.

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The point work was built onto a large piece of flat glass. The templates were fixed to the glass using prit stick. Instead of using the normal double sided sticky tape I had the 'bright' idea of laying the sleepers on the template using prit stick. A test revealed that by wetting the paper template with butanone the sleepers were released, excellent! But if you decide to use this method, please take the usual precautions regarding ventilation etc.

All the pointwork was found to fit on the flat glass surface and then I had another 'bright idea’ of leaving the pointwork on the glass as it would be safer there than removing it. Fast forward three months and it’s time to remove the pointwork. Whoops! prit stick goes rock hard in three months and it took a little more effort than envisaged to remove the pointwork. But it did come off with gentle teasing and the rail wasn't distorted in the process. I need to double check this method of building before using it again. But the only way to do that will be to build another layout. So, I had better get cracking and finish this one....

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[Phil Eames]

But before any track was laid on the boards the cassettes for the off-scene baseboard were constructed. These were made from 16mm aluminium angle glued and screwed to an MDF base. One length of angle was glued with epoxy resin to the edge of the MDF, then when that was set the other side was glued on using a track gauge to space them the correct distance apart. Finally, when the glue had set, the angles were fixed down using countersunk screws. It’s all a bit belt and braces but very robust.

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To lead the cassettes onto the layout proper, short lengths of angle were cut and drilled to not only be screwed to the threshold, but also to accept the electrical wiring. The wires being connected to the angle with eyelet crimp terminal using countersunk screws. Care was taken with the holes to accept the bolts for the wiring to ensure are offset on the inner lengths of angle. This is required for clearance due to the these being quite close together. It was feared that once attached to the boards that if ever the screws came loose, there would be no room to do a repair. But fortunately, there is, just!

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It will be noted that electrical continuity between the threshold and cassette is made using bulldog clips. At 19mm they are the smallest size available and it was found the clips had to be bent to provide clearance with the rolling stock. Although this may seem ‘low tech’ it was found to work very reliably when used on the many appearances of Brendan Walsh’s Anderstaff Yard layout.

[Phil Eames]

Before proceeding with track laying, the baseboard tops were stained with wood dye. This makes the ballast laying so much easier as if there are any small gaps in the ballast they are not as apparent as with with a light colour showing through. The trackwork itself was glued to the directly to the baseboards using PVA glue. It was held down to set using some mild steel section which had been stove enamelled as has been used on previous layouts.

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The next section to be laid was the pointwork itself on the middle board.

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Then the gap between the pointwork and the adjacent running board filled with plain track. On the last layout either side of the baseboard joint where the rail was, a brass panel pin was located underneath and the rail soldered to it. This seemed to work reasonably well to strengthen what is a weak point where the rail could get knocked. A pilot hole was drilled in the baseboard at an angle and the panel pin knocked in. When sufficient depth had been reached the exposed part of the pin was knocked vertical.

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Then using a bit of Evergreen strip as a guide, the pins were trimmed back. Finally the pins filed down so they just cleared under the base of the rail.

[Phil Eames]

For the track which crossed the board at an angle a slightly different approach was taken due to the clearances. A couple of sleepers were removed from the track panel and a hole drilled in the sleeper to receive the panel pin. Then all the pins and underside of the rail were tinned. The track panel was then laid with glue. Once it had dried the pins were soldered to the underside of the rail.

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Then the rails were cut over the joint. With ballasting and weathering the pins are barely noticeable.

Progress was made laying track towards the end of the line. Just for a bit of 'fun' I cobbled together three bufferstops using left over sections of rail. These were modelled from photos I had taken in the local area. Two types were built, one with twin rail uprights and an economy version with one upright.

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[Phil Eames]

Phil

Finally, a cassette type board was designed for the handling of stock.

Would be interested to hear a little bit more about what you mean

Regards, Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your patience, I hope that answers your question. Its not very sophisticated, but it works.

[Will L]

... On the last layout either side of the baseboard joint where the rail was, a brass panel pin was located underneath and the rail soldered to it. This seemed to work reasonably well to strengthen what is a weak point where the rail could get knocked.

I too have, in the past, adopted a variant of this approach which I found nearly eliminated significant damaged to the rail ends on a layout that spent much of its life being manhandled from one exhibition to another. I say nearly as there is no such thing as the total elimination of careless handling, particularly when everybody is keen to get home, but, where damage did occur is was slight and easily repaired). My variation was the use of fine 3/8 brass screws (doubtless there is a metric equivalent), as these could have their height finely adjusted by turning the screw.

[stephenfreeman]

Another solution I have seen is the use of milled PCB plates, rail soldered, plates screwed to the baseboards. The use of a milling machine resulted in sleepers being in relief. You could either solder direct or use metal chairs.

[ChrisMitchell]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your patience, I hope that answers your question. Its not very sophisticated, but it works.

Thanks, nice and simple

[garethevans1986]

The trackwork itself was glued to the directly to the baseboards...

Phil, how come you didnt you put cork down underneath the track?

Gareth

[Phil Eames]

Thanks to Will and Stephen for their input regarding securing rail at baseboard joins, as the phrase goes 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'. But the deed is done here and its too late to change the method now. But the way shown in this thread has worked for me over the past 20+ years now and I have a lifetimes worth of brass pins to use up.

The trackwork itself was glued to the directly to the baseboards...

Phil, how come you didnt you put cork down underneath the track?

Gareth

One of the reasons people give is to reduce the noise of their model railway. For me personally its not a problem as the layout is only operated for testing purposes at home. At an exhibition, the hall is bigger so that you don't get the sound waves reflected as in a room at home. Also the background noise at at an exhibition is usually greater that the noise of the layout. Hence that is why cork hasn't been used.

[Phil Eames]

Electrics

When it came to installing the electrics, the choice was already made due to having DCC equipment recovered from the previous layout. However, the old control box would have been far too big for this layout so a new polycarbonate box was purchased. The power requirement was 15v DC for the DCC and 12v DC for the accessories. Originally as shown, there was a 2mm and 2.5mm jack plug for the different supplies, the theory being that this would prevent the plugs being put in the wrong socket. However, in practice this proved to be impracticable due to the sloppy tolerances involved and it was found the plugs could be put in the wrong socket. These have since have been replaced by colour coded phono plugs.

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Inside the box can be seen a tag strip that is used to distribute the power. There is a power district breaker for if a short occurs, with an LED repeater on the side of the box. While in the bottom left-hand corner is a wireless receiver for the handsets. The latter may seem a bit of an extravagance on a small layout but it will give the operator the chance to move at will and operate the layout from the front if required.

The 12v DC and 15v DC are provided by laptop power supplies purchased from eBay. There is a word of warning here which is to be very vigilant if buying these from eBay as there could be some suspect items which can catch fire with dire consequences. Those purchased came from sellers who gave full technical specs online and they have been soak tested here. Also make sure the power supplies have the CE mark.

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A tag strip is also used to distribute the wiring underneath the boards. These have the outside tags joined together using a length of bullhead rail. The inner tags being used to distribute the pairs of cables. This image shows the installation under the board on which the points are laid. This is before it has been tested and the wires tidied by using tie wraps. Tortoise point motors are used along with MERG accessory decoders to operate them as I have a lifetimes supply of these from the previous layout.

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The point motors are fitted to the baseboards using Exactoscale bases. I find these quite reliable, but there is one feature that I wasn’t happy with from the old layout. This was that the recess for the screw is countersunk which allows the head of the screw to rotate if you are changing a point motor. The head of the screw being inaccessible, which means the base has to be removed if changing a point motor.

To overcome this the countersunk was enlarge as much as it could. Then a 3mm bolt with a hex head was fastened into position using a washer and nut. Solvent was applied to the countersunk to soften the plastic. Finally, the nut was tightened which resulted in the hex head becoming embedded in the base. This operation was repeated on a number of occasions, until the head was not sticking proud of the base. The bolt is now captive in the base and will not turn if you need to change a point motor. If you want do this, please observe all necessary precautions regarding ventilation.

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[Phil Eames]

Mention must be made of the method used to operate the magnets for the Alex Jackson couplings. A MERG accessory decoder is used that has been ‘hacked’ to provide a 5v DC output by removing the 12v driver. The 5vDC then being fed to the base of a Thyristor which allows the current to flow through the magnet when required. The MERG decoder being programmed to operate for its maximum of 2.55 seconds. I must thank the electrical guru Simon Stevens for coming up with this solution for the problem. The upshot is that the magnets can be operated via the DCC handset meaning there are no switches carrying a large current to break down.

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As before these decoders were available from the previous layout. If I was starting from scratch, I would certainly look at using the programmable Arduino processors for which there are both propriety and DIY options available. Again, the wiring has not yet been tidied up in the image. The polarity of the magnets were checked so that they were all the same polarity using a compass.

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As each board was wired a unit test was done. Then with all the boards set up, a system test was done. While not 100% correct, I was very relieved that the work done didn’t take an excessive amount of time to fettle up.

Phew!

[Phil Eames]

That brings the position of the layout up to date. It had been intended to post this earlier, but progress ground to a halt around July 2020, with the only substantial work done being the lighting mid December 2020. After a couple of false starts it seems that there will be time to allocate to the layout going forward. Though I only expect this to be of a modest amount initially.

With an invite to appear at the Define Modeller's day in Jan 2022 https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7685 as a layout under construction, it has been set up in the workshop for the first time in 10 months. After being stored for that amount of time I am pleased to report that the layout behaved itself very well, with only one point blade needing 5 minutes attention to sort it out.

The big project will be to start on the scenery, the intention being to do the bridge on the entrance to the layout first. But I doubt very much if there will be any progress to show until next spring.

However more mundane things can be achieved ,such as looking at the rail sides which were only quickly painted spring 2020. Also to make sure that there is serviceable stock for the visit for the visit to Risley. Though this stock may not reflect that ultimately intended for the layout.