My local group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association declared last Saturday a modelling day. I would normally have attended for the refreshments and the banter any modelling completed being a bonus but circumstances prevented me from going.
Also with the day job being other peoples models my own stuff only gets done in fits and starts but in sympathy with the other day I declared the weekend a personal modelling day and worked on the Brymston RR even planning enough ahead for a trip to the shops to buy some stuff I needed.
Three things happened: –
- I got some modelling done
- I got my modelling mojo for my layout back
- I had something to write up for this blog
It was that last point that caused a bit of a jolt in that I realised that it was last February when I last added something to the Brymston RR part of the blog. There is actually quite a lot to catch up on so this could turn into a bumper update. I should get yourself a coffee or something stronger.
We left the tale of the Brymston RR at the point where I had done the CAD for a custom laser cut corner board with it to be my Christmas project.
Now we can cut to the part where the delivery turned up. I had been told the CAD had to be in by the end of November to be sure of getting it in time for Christmas. I met that deadline and the bits turned up only about a week later. This resulted in two forces tugging at me.
- On the one hand, it’s here in plenty of time and I need to gather a few more things together for the build. In addition I have a load of customers stuff I need to get done along with orders and kits to pack.
- On the other, I’m desperate to see if it goes together and if I have designed myself an impossible to assemble jig saw
Being sensible I need to do the business stuff first. In truth there’s probably a half day tidying up project to do before the build
space is available. Sensible is no fun though
I‘ve got a million jobs I need to get done before getting on with the new board, not least clear the space in the workshop to assemble it, but I couldn’t resist.
Two things occurred to me whilst unpacking it all.
- I get the impression that Grainge and Hodder pay the packing department by the yard of tape applied (bit like the fire brigade paid per fire)
- Colour matching the tape to the plywood colour is plain devious.
Having undone it all then its a simple step to taking a bit up to the layout room to see if the ends match the existing boards
It would appear at first glance that they do. A bit of adaptation was required to replicate the oval cut-out in the new board in the existing one. This is necessary because the layout sits on a countertop and wires connecting the boards won’t be able to dangle in the traditional manner.
HANDS UP IF YOU RECOGNISE THIS…….
Well, that’s bl@@dy annoying……..
- Years ago our model railway club used to buy in bulk and then resell pattern makers dowels before they were commonly available (we had a man in the trade)
- I bough some and stashed them away for a potential layout
- Across the years they’ve appeared always when lookin for something else.
- Each time they’ve gone back into their safe little home waiting for the “day of the layout”
Now……
- It’s finally `the day of the layout’
- I’m ready for the dowels
- Can I find the bl@@dy things
Don’t answer that!
I’d already had “where did you have them last” and “they’re in a safe place” and no doubt they’ll be found in the “last place I looked.” I did find some interesting and distracting things during my quest though
Well, there is only so long you can resist. Its bad enough when you’ve bought an established kit but when it’s your own design and your own self doubt has convinced you that you’ve probably created a snooker in the tab and slot design that means it can exist in kit form or fully assembled form but not be able to get between the two.
Well I hadn’t
Most I had to do was file a lead on a couple of the tabs to get the highest part on the top piece mainly because having to fit over the tabs that go into its face force a too high an angle of approach to the slots in the back. It might have gone if I’d hit but I thought the file a more subtle approach. At this point I ran out of steam!
Having had a few “interesting” days, well what I can remember of them, thanks to my booster jab my energy levels are akin to a knackered rechargeable battery.
One minute all green, fully charged and raring to go,
Then, not very many minutes later. It was then
- Armchair
- Coffee
- Biscuit (if I’m lucky)
- Knee full of cat
- Demonstrating how I can be reading my book through closed eyelids
DO NOT DISTURB _ ON CHARGE
One of the advantages of using PVA glue and having accidentally designed the board as a series of sub assemblies [accidentally, because I gave no thought to this during the CAD process] has meant that I have been able to dip in and out of this in natural breaks in other works.
Typically, glue/paint a bit of customers project, set aside to dry/cure, nip down to workshop to glue and clamp a bit of baseboard. The result is a glued and finished main construction with just some fiddly bits and details to do.
The pelmet section is removeable but has LED lighting fastened to it
So the project went from concept
To reality
Spring clip catches were fitted to hold the two boards together and dowels were fitted once both the replacements and the originals had turned up.
Some track was offered up as part of the visualisation of the layout. This was just a piece of PSC 0n3 flex track. It will be replaced by hand laid to look a bit, well, more knackered as is typical of a logging/mining operation.
Of course as soon as there is some track and engine has to pose on it.
With the boards done it was time to revisit the track layout.
Christmas Progress on the Brymston RR.
There will be a larger update on progress and probably a blog update in the next few days but this bit of activity is worthy of a post.
Dratted Bendy Engines
I’ve been laying out track placement on the boards to figure out the layout and where the shed goes. Outline ideas involve using a Kitwood Hills shed ideally with one extension section in making it 21 ½” long. Length of the board sets the position of the shed front and means the approach to the left hand road will be on a curve.
I tried a Shay, a Climax and a 2-8-0 rod loco on this alignment and whilst I don’t yet know the door opening size they seemed like they would be OK then this turned up.
Eyes used to 0n30 may need reminding this is 0n3. Proper 3ft gauge at ¼” to the foot scale and the Uintah Mallet is a big 3ft gauge engine and it was designed for a real railway that went over mountains instead of round or through them.
I have an inkling this engine might cause a problem!
It does swing a bit wide on the bends
The pen mark in this picture shows where the front of the shed would be and there is still a lot of overhang of the loco.
The real things were quite bendy. This is the second one #51 on the test track at the Baldwin Loco Works
This set me pondering my options.
It might be that the Mallet’s are only occasional visitors to the Brymston Logging and Mining operation and as such could be limited to the right hand road of the shed.
I could use the shorter version of the shed at 15” which would put the loco on the straight by the time it arrived at the doors and would give room to stand a loco outside the shed. Trouble with that is that the 15” length precludes a couple of tender engines from going in the shed.
When first envisaged I was going to scratch build my own shed. I settled on the idea of using the kit because, well, there is only so much time. Ideally I need the shed to be 18” ish long. Now I am wavering on going back to the original idea of designing my own.
Results of the pondering are in and the result is inconclusive.
In the last post i was pondering shed sizes around using a commercial shed from Kitwood Hills Models. The only conclusion so far is that its two options on length plus a need for a bit of a compromise on width don’t suit my layout so I will build my own shed that is 18” long.
The 18” length allows one big or two small engines to be in the shed on either road with space for one standing outside the shed on each line. The big plus is that the shed front moves onto the straight so the Mallet will have to try harder to demolish it.
As you can see from the picture I knocked up a quick shed from foam board to help visualise stuff.
I then came up with some ideas for sheds and track layouts with my mocked up shed.
Option 2 [doing them in reverse order]
All the turnouts are stub switches and there are two three ways in it. All the switches are #4 which means a common crossing with a 1 in 4 angle.
The first one will laid out to have the bottom most line close to straight.
This will mean that a loco that can get round the entry curve but can’t quite do a #4 gets a straight run down the front edge of the layout. This helps provide the test track element whilst the layout is at home. The front track also provides the
only run round on the layout and a place where another loco can stand or a couple of wagons.
The length down the side of the shed could have some detail over it such as a hoist.
Option 1 is a thing because I then start worrying that I have crammed too much in.
In this version the run round and line alongside the shed get deleted. The straight(ish) run for testing now becomes the mid route through the first 3 way whilst the second just becomes a two way with the straight option into the shed right hand road. Scenically the shed gets a machine shop lean too. The now truncated spur off the first 3 way now becomes a siding that the caboose or another loco can stand on.
I can argue back and forth for both version and just end up as undecided as when I started!
After some discussion on the NGRM forum I’ve got to option 3 and for the moment, although not 100% committed, this is looking like the one.
Imagine the track in green to be on thin ties or direct on to the ply so its marginally lower than the entrance tracks. Its visual significance will also be reduced by it being basically rails in the mud. Also note that the two roads approaching the shed (Oh and the shed is now shorter than shown) will climb to the shed very gently to gain possibly 6mm. This is because I will build the shed on a piece of ply and can build it off the layout. Because I didn’t think of it earlier it will sit on the board top. I was originally annoyed about having not thought about cutting to board so I could inset the shed but now I think the subtle changes in level will actually look good.
This final view shows the yard with the shorter but too tall mock shed in place and a mock up of a sand house and oil store which will be right in the foreground.
That is where the track layout design stalled for the moment. Well that moment was around January 22!
With the pondering still going on I sought relief in doing some practical layout building on the new board. As this post has got quite long and the move to actual modelling represents a topic change I’ll end this post now and start writing the next one almost straight away.
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