Construction of a Test Track

[JFS]

Many thanks for putting that together Allan - excellent job, well done. The close ups certainly remind me a of a number of detailing jobs to sort out! Given all the discussion above, I have to say that I am very pleased with how the ballasting came out - there are many otherwise excellent layouts which would not stand such close scrutiny!

Best wishes,

[Russ Elliott]

Nice pics, Allan.

[Allan Goodwillie]

Thanks Howard,

Your work is excellent, but as you said when we met it is 10 years into your 14 year project - just wait until it is 40+ years -there will always be things to finish off and repair, believe me they are all works in progress. It worries me sometimes (when I do not have enough to do) that we do have quite a number of perfectionists in our hobby, who expect nothing but perfection from the rest of us, but never seem to get around to showing us what they are able to do at exhibitions - strange that.

No, I think your efforts are well worth celebrating as I do with all those who take part in S4 exhibitions, there is so much to celebrate. I wish I had had more time off to go and photograph the rest of the show, but we have experts who do and who are able to spend the time. It does take time to do it well and proper sessions with the layout up are needed. My one great regret when I had Melrose Museum was that in the three years I had the trains running I never managed to get the time to photograph the layout properly. Digital has saved much time and can give far better results for more people than before. One or two photographs by old friend Bill Roberton appeared with a description in MRJ no. 47 that might just give a hint of what I was doing back then in the 1980's.

Thanks Russ for the kind comments - but the glory is all Howard's and Colin's (the later shots showing the final arrival show the beautiful modelling that Colin is also capable of and which fit so perfectly into the scene.) Well done both!

By the way Howard if you don't want them to be posted for any length of time here - maybe you have a magazine article in the offing - I will delete them once you and Colin have taken copies for yourselves. I will not be offended. It was just to say thank you.

[Le Corbusier]

[JFS]

Thanks Howard,

Your work is excellent, but as you said when we met it is 10 years into your 14 year project

Hello Allan,

Did I really say that? I must have been drunk! I might have said that I started it in 2010 - which is true - but for the first 4 years I was spending about half my life in South Africa so that rather limited progress, and its first public showing was in 2015 (at the AGM) so that is not too bad!

I might also have said (it is my favourite saying) that "XXX is planned for year 14 of the Second 10 Year Plan" - which might be interpreted as, yes I ought to get around to that but probably never will!

That said, this is not my first layout and hopefully it benefits from all my previous false starts and cock-ups - indeed, my first venture into P4 was in 1969 with my mate Graham whom you met at the show. My goodness - that is almost 50 years ago - though I did get side-tracked with a couple of 7mm non-starters once!

Regarding the photos, as I say, I think you did a great job and I am more than happy for them to stay up on the forum - Philip will no doubt be preparing the "official" ones recording the whole show as we speak

Best wishes,

[Colin Parks]

Thanks for the photos Allan!

[kelly]

Just going through photos from the show, and found these few of Minories

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[Colin Parks]

Hi Tim,

You mentioned that:
"I have my fingers firmly crossed that as I'm using Bullhead I will not encounter the problems which have dogged you on the flatbottom and that the exacto chairs I have bought will sit flat and square."

Well, keep those fingers well and truly crossed, because the Peco flatbottom rail and Pandrol bases have gone together perfectly. It is the bullhead that seems to have issues. Perhaps the current supply of Hi-Nickel bullhead rail does not suffer from the same problems as my three-year old stock does.

The examinations I have made of the rail and chairs leads me to conclude that the Exactoscale S1 chair mouldings (bought three years ago) are not suffering from enough wear to be causing the problems. It is the rail web and foot that are too thick, thus forcing the chairs to splay.

All the best,

Colin

[Le Corbusier]

Well, keep those fingers well and truly crossed, because the Peco flatbottom rail and Pandrol bases have gone together perfectly. It is the bullhead that seems to have issues.

Oh Dear .... misread your earlier photos - yikes. I will have to do an experiment with the stock I have and see what the result is. I am using steel track at the moment bought from the stores.

Tim

[Colin Parks]

Hi Tim,

It would be interesting to hear how your fare with the Stores' steel bullhead rail.

Colin

[kelly]

I'll have to check my stock of bullhead I got at Scalefour North, hopefully should be fine. Not bought individual chairs as yet mind.

[Philip Hall]

Howard, as you say I am working my way through the 'official' pictures as I write. I have to say that Allan & Kelly have some more interesting ones than I did, with a greater variety of stock. I was only able to make the one visit to photograph, having to take a selection of all the other layouts, plus all the showcase contents and some people as well.

As Allan says, it is far from ideal photographing a layout at a show, which is why (apart from being a record of Scaleforum, ExpoEM and sometimes Southampton) I don't do it. Certainly not for MRJ. I was also using my Leica (rather than my preferred 'models' camera, the little Canon S3) so the results are not quite what I often obtain for model pictures, but they will serve their purpose. The Leica has a better low light capability and a very sharp lens (great for pictures of lions and elephants in Africa!) but is strangely not quite as suitable for models.

Just to add to the photo gallery here is one of my shots, which may or may not get used in the Retrospective. Congratulations to you for a seriously inspirational layout!

Philip

[kelly]

Howard, as you say I am working my way through the 'official' pictures as I write. I have to say that Allan & Kelly have some more interesting ones than I did, with a greater variety of stock. I was only able to make the one visit to photograph, having to take a selection of all the other layouts, plus all the showcase contents and some people as well.

As Allan says, it is far from ideal photographing a layout at a show, which is why (apart from being a record of Scaleforum, ExpoEM and sometimes Southampton) I don't do it. Certainly not for MRJ. I was also using my Leica (rather than my preferred 'models' camera, the little Canon S3) so the results are not quite what I often obtain for model pictures, but they will serve their purpose. The Leica has a better low light capability and a very sharp lens (great for pictures of lions and elephants in Africa!) but is strangely not quite as suitable for models.

Just to add to the photo gallery here is one of my shots, which may or may not get used in the Retrospective. Congratulations to you for a seriously inspirational layout!

Philip

That is a great shot Philip. Howard's layout each time I've seen it has given me 'yes, thats the sort of look I want' with my own layout plans. Inspiring stuff.

I'm currently uploading my photos to flickr. I borrowed my other halfs Canon 700D rather than using my usual Panasonic Lumix GF-3. Has taken me a bit of trial and error to get used to the 700D in comparison to the GF-3 (particularly the extra bulk). If any layout owners (or others) want higher resolution copies of photos on flickr I'm happy to oblidge.

[Philip Hall]

Thank you Kelly! I am however a little disappointed that for some reason the picture has not been displayed as sharply as the original, something I shall have to investigate. I posted it direct from my iPad which means there should have been no compression. Very odd.

Philip

[kelly]

Thank you Kelly! I am however a little disappointed that for some reason the picture has not been displayed as sharply as the original, something I shall have to investigate. I posted it direct from my iPad which means there should have been no compression. Very odd.

Philip

It is possible the forum software edits the file and compresses it as part of the upload process. That or the iPad does something to it when you try to upload it.

Either way, it is a great shot.

[Phil O]

Sorry for the delay in replying about the C & L chairs, my mate is building a 00 layout using the chairs and I have been putting a scalpel blade down the jaws of the chairs this seems to take a very small sliver of the key which certainly reduces or in some cases eliminates the bowing. Mind you it is a bit soul destroying.

Phil

[JFS]

Apologies to Colin for hijacking his thread with all this Minories stuff (but then he did build the 4SUB!)

Many thanks to Allan, Philip and Kelly for the very flattering photos and kind words.

Kelly's third photo shows a big problem with EMUs - the SUB is obviously departing, yet it is showing a Headcode instead of white blanks on its derriere.

Small prize on offer for anyone who can come up with a workable solution to this one - but please start a new thread for any ideas!

Best Wishes,

[Le Corbusier]

Thank you Kelly! I am however a little disappointed that for some reason the picture has not been displayed as sharply as the original, something I shall have to investigate. I posted it direct from my iPad which means there should have been no compression. Very odd.

Philip

Philip,

When the Scaleforum photos do get loaded up ... do you know if there is a way that would allow us to view at full Res if we wanted ... I always find it frustrating that the images are so small. Its really great on the photos loaded here that you can zoom right into Howard's track work and drool

Tim

[kelly]

Apologies to Colin for hijacking his thread with all this Minories stuff (but then he did build the 4SUB!)

Many thanks to Allan, Philip and Kelly for the very flattering photos and kind words.

Kelly's third photo shows a big problem with EMUs - the SUB is obviously departing, yet it is showing a Headcode instead of white blanks on its derriere.

Small prize on offer for anyone who can come up with a workable solution to this one - but please start a new thread for any ideas!

Best Wishes,

It is akin to the tail lamps on the wrong end or the loco having red lights when not light engine.

Certainly a difficult one to get right without resorting to turning a entire 4-12 coach train (one currently paused plan has plans to accommodate 10 or 12 car 3rd rail trains at a later date). I can think of a couple of ways to do the roller blind type. But it starts getting fiddly fitting stuff into a 4mm body shell.

[essdee]

Strong magnet in body behind headcode number, white-painted stee/tinplate cover panel, handled with plastic tweezers?

Back to my pre-Group 'kettles'.......

Steve

[JFS]

... what did I say about a new thread....

[Le Corbusier]

Hi Tim,

It would be interesting to hear how your fare with the Stores' steel bullhead rail.

Colin

Colin,

I have just had a chance to fit the exactoscale chairs on the steel bullhead ... pictures below.

Whilst the camera is quite unforgiving, I was reasonably encouraged. The chairs have a little movement in them such that you can set them square with very little if any applied pressure prior to applying the butanone. The pronounced curve evident on Colin's chairs is much less pronounced on these and I suspect is not down to the bottom flange thickness but more to do with the mould itself. Interestingly on the ones that do have a slight bow, if you press them flat with the rail the base in some instances fractures on one side and the base sits flat ... this doesn't appear to adversely effect the grip on the rail or the support capability of the chair.

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[JFS]

Phew - back on topic at last...

Further to Tim's post above, here is a shot of an Exactoscale chair fitted to DCC Concepts stainless steel rail:-

DCC C Rail.jpg

I think it would not be exaggerating to describe the fit as "perfect" - there is no distortion of the base at all and the chair is perfectly square to the rail.

I have to admit that I have not built any complete track with this rail yet, but I have made a couple of crossings with it using the Carr's "Brown" flux (which is not the evil it might sound) and that went fine. I will have a go at building some complete formation in due course, but in the meantime - and based on a sample of one chair - I would suggest that this stuff is worthy of experimentation.

Best wishes,

[Russ Elliott]

That DCC Concepts bullhead doesn't look particularly bullhead to me.

What's the head width, btw?

[Philip Hall]

Sorry, not quite on topic but related to the pictures and the enquiry from Tim. I do not know the answer about resolutions on the Retrospective, best to ask Webmaster John about that. I just provide the pictures! I have, however, raised a query with John regarding my specific problem and if there is an answer I will post one.

Philip