Track at Baseboard Joints (part 2)

A further report on method 3 from my previous posting......

Not sure if this has been done before but it is only a twist on the plywood and rivet method. At the baseboard edge, holes have been drilled through the plywood sleepers, and through the balsa underlay into the plywood track base. Then 20mm long panel pins have then been pushed and lightly tapped into place.

Panel pins in place

Pin heads were cleaned with a light rubbing of a file and then tinned with a little solder. The underneath of the rail was also cleaned with a file and tinned before soldering the two together. I still need to apply cosmetic chairs to cover the joints. My soldering technique has been a little dodgy of late but after a little demonstration the other evening from a P4 area group member (Gordon), I'm hopeful that these joints will hold.

The start of the next point with chairs and rail in place.

As can be seen from the above photo, I'm going to trial plastic chairs glued directly to plywood sleepers on the opposite side of the baseboard joint to this point. If these fail I can always revert to another method..............

Track at baseboard joints

On arriving home yesterday evening I had the surprise of finding a nice bulky envelope containing two Ultrascale wheel conversion packs. One for another Bachmann 8750 Pannier (to be 4694) and other for a Bachmann Class 08 Shunter. Better get my next order placed......... AND place my order for some 08 cranks that are being etched by my local P4 area group (Hi guys... could I have three sets please?).

As for progress on the layout............. my evening modelling time has again been difficult to find recently but track laying is progressing on the plank, all be it very slowly. One thing I've been struggling with is how to secure track at baseboard joints. I've been mulling over options and it looks like I'm going to trial at least three different methods.....

Method 1) At the joint at one end of the layout I'm trying C&L's Baseboard End Track Protectors. They look like they will work well but I'm a little concerned about the width of these protectors and the difficulty in disguising them. At the end I've chosen they are the perfect width for soldering the running rail and check rail to. This end they will also vanish under a covering of hard standing. I may be able to disguise them at the opposite end of the layout but at the middle joint I'm not sure how I can without extending the hard standing area across the baseboard joint.

C & L Baseboard end track Protectors (C1012)

Method 2) One suggestion that has been made by a member of my local P4 group is copperclad sleepers and brass chairs. At the moment I'm not that keen as, so far, no matter how hard I've tried I have not yet been able to paint a copperclad sleeper to match the wooden ones. I'm still going to give this method a trial on the layout though.

Brass chairs and copperclad sleeper

Method 3) I'm also thinking about hammering some panel pins into the plywood track sub-base through pre-drill wooden sleepers. Rail can then be soldered to the head of the pin and cosmetic chairs applied.

Pin and rail test solder

I'm now going to set myself up to be shot down in flames by all those who have much more experience than me. So here goes............

Method 4) With all the above said I still have a thought about using plastic chairs glued to wooden sleepers at baseboard joints. My theory is.....as the glue joint between chair and sleeper will be a weak point any damage should at least leave the sleeper and ballast intact. The above three methods would possibly stand rougher handling but any damage might be drastic. Not only would there be damage to rail and chairs but there might also be damage to sleepers, ballast and possibly the balsa underlay. With plastic chairs any damage should only require the rail and any damaged chairs removed then new rail and chairs installed. Hmmmm..... not sure if I'm brave enough to give this a try though................ I'll wait for the sound of those guns being fired..........

Hopefully with the longer evenings setting in I'll manage a few more hours each week and a few photos of my meagre progress.

Buffer stops

Last night I spent a most enjoyable evening with one of the local areas Scalefour guys (Clive) discussing a buffer stop for Tredethy Wharf. Up until a few days a go I was going to use an old Mikes Models LSWR kit for a buffer stop. That was until I discovered, in my collection of photographs, a three quarter side view of the buffer stop at Dunmere Wharf. I remembered Clive offering me some jigs he'd made for building buffer stops on his layout so I'd asked to borrow them. But it's never that easy, on close inspection of the photo, we discovered the Dunmere stop has some seemingly unique features. More research is needed and Clive has asked for a scale drawing as a new jig might be needed..... Hmmmm.....but hopefully, with his help, I'll be able to build a reasonable representation for Tredethy Wharf.

I am quite excited by this little project..... more updates to follow...............

RCH 7 Plank wagon (Part 5)

It's been a while ...... and track laying on Tredethy Wharf is progressing slowly. I'm beginning to realise what I've started by using individual LSWR chairs........... and this is just a small/test plank layout!

As a slight distraction and with the encouragement of a recent article in the MRJ 200, I've picked up the RCH PO wagon again. A few months ago I'd put this wagon to one side after becoming dissatisfied with my attempt at painting the internal planking. It has been a long time since I've used enamels as all my wargaming painting has been with acrylics. The other barrier has been a mental one about painting a weathered wood effect. In my OO/EM days I'd made a few attempts at this and tried to represent replaced planks, and I never really captured the effect I was after.

Mulling things over I'd started to consider using acrylics when MRJ 200 arrived with the excellent article by Craig Welsh. This lead to a quick purchase of paints followed a couple of hours work, and I'm starting to feel I'm getting somewhere.

It's early days yet........ the planking needs toning down a little with grey washes; the metal work needs rust applying; the whole wagon needs weathering; need to apply running numbers...... but over all I am now feeling more confident about painting wooden wagons. Thanks Craig.

Photographs by Ian Dinmore

I have come across a small selection of interesting colour photographs taken by Ian Dinmore. All are on the Railscot site. Three show weathered clay wagons and one is of the water trough at Pencarrow Woods with no train obscuring the view.

Boscarne Junction with a view of a short clay train from the guards van taken in 1982 here which also shows excellent detail/condition of the inside of a empty clay wagon.

Bodmin General with empty clayhoods here

Pencarrow Woods water trough here This is the first photo I've seen without a train in shot. Must have been taken from a Guards van.

Dunmere level crossing here

I like the last two photographs as they do show the intimacy that this line had with its surroundings. I do hope I will be able to portray this intimacy on Tredethy Wharf.

Germany game

While watching the Germany v Australia game on Sunday I was privileged to be able to put one board on the coffee table and start laying sleepers. Little did I know that I was being photographed........

At this point I was looking at an old Mikes Models LSWR buffer stop while waiting for the glue to go off under weighted down sleepers. I could vaguely remember purchasing a buffer stop many years ago but was starting to think I'd lost it. The previous evening, after one last ditched attempt at searching for it, I eventually found it in one of the many boxes of old railway stuff in the roof. In checking out what buffer stops were used at Wenfordbridge and Wadebridge it should be OK for the siding at Tredethy Wharf.

As for the game, Germany seem to be back to their normal tournament best and look to be a hard side to beat. If England get though the group stage lets hope they don't meet Germany in the quarter finals.

Sleeper staining

500 sleepers are now stained and ready for laying.

The last batch laid out to dry

Had a problem with my staining mixture. Ran out of my first mixture and when mixing some more to the same recipe it came out too strong. After a little thinning down, with some more isopropyl alcohol, I think I got close enough. I'm trying to achieve a faded grey/brown colour to the sleepers with that almost silvery look they get when weathered. Hope to post better photos once I start laying the sleepers on the layout.

I'm using Exactoscale 1.6mm thick sleepers hoping I'll get some good variation of depth to the ballast. May well be extravagant and use wooden sleepers even where they will be completely covered by roadways and hard-standing in the Wharf area. Initially I'd purchased some copper clad sleepers for these areas. Now my thoughts are as the hard-standing looks like it was compacted earth, not completely up to rail height, tops of chairs and sleeper edges may well be seen in places.

(Note to self - Staining recipe used for this batch : 100ml water + 100ml isopropyl alcohol + 4ml black ink + 5ml sepia ink - each sleeper individually dipped quickly and shaken)