Swing gate and final module complete

This week saw the completion of the final return loop module and the swing gate. I added the staging branch to the module:

Test fit everything:

Tested the gate:

Originally I had only screwed the cross-piece and the vertical piece of the gate arm to the gate module with a single screw in each. This wasn't sturdy enough, so I added a horizontal timber to the top, which is screwed between the gate module's support piece and the triangular pine piece that holds the gate together.

I also added a latch between the gate and the traverser module:

Checked out how it's all going:

 And added some walls to the module and gate to save my sanity if there's ever a derailment:

Before I had to leave for work today I managed to get the module and gate painted:

Next weekend I'm cutting and installing the track underlay. Will leave it for a week or so after that before I start track-laying though; I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment and I'm cautious of trying to do too much too soon. I've been waiting nearly 15 months to run trains and I can see myself throwing it all in if I rush the next stage and stuff something up.

The goal is to have a train running by the Thornleigh exhibition in June so I can start to take advantage of the ever-increasing mountains of rollingstock I'm amassing (for such a small layout). I've brought a Fasttracks turnout kit away with me to solder up this week, and another mid-week project I can get into later on will be converting my Traino 47 to DCC with sound. 

Looking forward to sharing some actual modelling with you all soon too.

Cheers!

Final Module Progress and Building a Swing Gate

This year I've started working in Canberra during the week and coming back home most weekends. The extra 6 hours this brings on the road every weekend is largely confining my modelling to adding a 'like' to other people's efforts on a modelling group I'm a member of on Facebook.

I picked up some putty at the Kaleen Model Railway Exhibition in Canberra two weeks ago, so with any luck I'll have finished the NRY this week that I started a few years ago. I'd like to have a crack at weathering it before my SDS variants arrive this month.

I have some time off coming up soon and I am determined to use it laying and wiring the track. The last obstacle to that stage is the completion of the remaining return loop module. I had been entertaining the idea of using a lift-up and drop-down bridge to allow access until my amateur engineering skills succumbed to my patience. Instead, access will now be via a swing-gate. 

The legs are adapted from my I'm-seriously-over-carpentry design used for the other return loop; 42x19mm DAR pine, braced, fitted with hinges for portability, and with adjustable feet in the bottom to compensate for mounting on carpet.

The module rests on top of the legs. I will eventually secure it, but I won't know where it all will finally sit on the legs until I've finished the gate. The track dangling off to the right will be a staging siding, representing the branch line to increase operations. I had wanted to design all of this module so that it could be scenicked, but right now I just want to get it to a stage where I can run trains. If I'm still keen on the idea of a scenic return loop in future, it can be something I redo.

With some trimming, the module is now in place against the traverser and layout. I'll cut the baseboard where the blue KLY is sitting on the new track in the distance to make the gate. Pivoting from the same spot, the gate will swing outwards from the traverser module towards the bookshelf. 

The next post on the blog will predominantly be photos to explain how this all ended up coming together. Hopefully a little more regularly too.

Cheers,
Ben

Traverser complete

Before I update the next stage of the layout's progress, I forgot to post this photo from earlier last month with the traverser completed. With the track height sitting at around 1300mm off the ground, the legs were wobbling a lot until I added the cross-pieces. I was suprised at just how much bracing the cross-pieces provide. 

I haven't determined fate of the diorama sitting on the bottom shelf. It was scenicked with the standard ground foam and dirt method in 2007. Shameless plug - if you want to read about it, find a copy of the Oct 2007 AMRM (Issue #266) and head to "Creating Realistic Australian Scenery. I'd like to redo the scenery on it as a practice for new methods I've learned since then - static grasses, dirt roads, weathering, etc. - but there's a layout to be built before then.

Cheers,
Ben

Connecting Modules

This week I finished building the last of the module legs, which hold the return loop from the layout to the traverser. This is constructed from 42x19mm DAR pine with three adjustable feet, offset on each 'wing.'

Compared to everything else this far it's a pretty simple design. Yep - at this point I'm over carpentry. It's solid. It's portable. It works.

Job done.

Originally I was going to attach the return loop module to the traverser and layout using two loose-pin hinges per connection. The smallest sized hinge I could get with a loose-pin was 70mm, so I decided to use one per connection and mount it horizontally, which has worked well. An added bonus is that the hinges allow the module a little more vertical wiggle room if I need to adjust the height of the return loop module at the layout's next home in future. 

Between Christmas and now I had a bit of a run of my new Trainorama 48 taking it to a relative's DC layout. I can't add anything more than what others have said, other than it runs quite well and managed grades and loads as capably as the 47 and 49. It does have good, robust detail; nothing dropped off and waiting for you in the box when you open it up. I'm looking forward to converting it to DCC and adding sound in future. The A5 station in this photo is a hand-me-down, and I had arranged it with the G2 goods shed in this configuration for about a week to get an idea for how I eventually want it all to look. The G2 is definitely too big to achieve what I'm after, and I'm now certain the gable-roofed A3 will more adequately represent the country junction station I'm after.

Until next time, Cheers.

Traverser legs completed, plus some actual modelling

Today I got the traverser up onto its legs. Most of the designs you see in this blog I’ve replicated and reverse-engineered from pictures on various people’s blogs. The design for the legs is no different, and although I can’t actually remember which of the many rail forums I saw this idea in, I’ll explain it in a little detail.

Nearly all of the components are built from 42mm x 18mm dressed-all-round (DAR) pine. Exceptions are listed further down.

As the whole layout has to be portable, I needed the legs to be removable. The legs attach to the traverser module through guides which are covered with a 3mm MDF stay. Because I built the guides independently of the traverser design, the screws holding the stays also keep the guides attached to the module.

A 150mm-long piece of 30mm x 30mm DAR timber is attached to the bottom of each leg. At the base of this timber I drilled out a depth of around 25mm and slotted in an M10-thread T-nut. A plastic furniture foot screw with appropriate thread screws into this, giving each leg adjustable height.

I also built a shelf from the leftover timber and MDF, which rests on top of the lower DAR timbers and keeps the legs braced at the bottom. My track height is around 1400mm off the ground, so until I attach some diagonal bracing to the top of the layout it has a pretty solid wobble.

For the first few days after I finished work for the year it rained. This made the humidity in the garage too uncomfortable to start the traverser legs. Determined to do something train-related, I grabbed my Columbia Models 1971 BCW and the Tamiya weathering powders I've had sitting around for a while and had a go. I've detailed this wagon as per Ray Zhu's article in the February 2013 AMRM, and made a few other additions in underframe detail, new roof made from a venetian blind and added brackets for the uncoupling levers.

I used Pack B of the Tamiya weathering powders. I'm not overly impressed with them - the sponge applicator started to degrade before I'd completed the third side. I’m still not satisfied with the roof – it needs more of a red rust colour – but the sides came out well. I shared this photo with another modelling group on Facebook, where a number of modellers pointed out that I hadn’t painted the wheels. There’s another skill to learn! As much as I’d like I can’t say the BCW is finished yet, but it’s certainly coming along. Having read an article on weathering cement hoppers with powders in Model Railroader, I'm keen to try out the 'snow' colour in this pack on my PCC hoppers along with a HB pencil to replicate the weld lines, but that's another rainy day project.

I’ve undercoated the NRY, but that’s going to have to wait until after the next round of the season’s festivities tomorrow night.


Lastly, I hope you’ve enjoying reading these pages this year. I mainly pursue the hobby outside of a club or a regular group of modellers, so your comments and suggestions have been much appreciated.

Here’s to running trains in 2015!

Cheers,

Ben

Planning perils - Or, How I learned to stop worrying and detail a meat wagon

After I finished the traverser things haven’t gone much further. The end of the year cycle at work has required a bit of travel recently and is chewing my enthusiasm to do much when I get home. Designing and building the legs is becoming a bit of a chore. Whinge whinge whinge, I live in a first world country, and my only worry is building a model railway. Woe is me.

After all that I've settled on a pretty standard design for the legs of timber with adjustable feet. The legs will secure to the modules by sliding into a sleeve built from the leftover timber I have from the rest of the layout's construction. I’m currently waiting on the feet to come through in the post, so more on that once I have something to show.

To get my modelling fix I’ve been working on building and detailing one of the re-released Sydney Hobbies NRY kits. My partner bought me a Nikon D5300 camera recently for my birthday, so with a decent camera now at hand here's the NRY so far:

The lamp hooks are from the AM models brass casting, and most of the underframe detail come from the AR kits underframe detail sprue. The rest I've scratchbuilt from leftover evergreen styrene parts and brass wire. When I'm home later this month I'll undercoat it and post a few more photos. 

An N-scale NRY was my first kit about 15 years ago, I've always had a soft spot for them. The NRY's were introduced by the PTC in 1973 and lasted into the 1980s - so it fits nicely into my era. I added underframe detail from photos I took of the wagon that was until recently sitting in Bathurst yard. (It's now sitting in the Oberon yard in the care of the Oberon Tarana Heritage Railway). I'm indebted to Rob O'Regan's site for other photos of the vehicles from the late 1970s

As is usual when you take forever to complete a kit, it's now being made in ready-to-run. SDS models have announced they are producing the NRYs in ready-to-run. Christmas list. Added.

Now to wait for the postman...

Cheers,

Ben

The Traverser

Finally I have something new to add.

This week I built the traverser. For anyone wanting to make a similar one, the frame is built from ply on the ends and top, and 65x12mm dressed-all-round pine. The frame is 1450mm x 450mm, with the left-hand entry being 250mm long and the right-hand one 200mm.

The table itself is 40x18mm DAR pine and ply on top, and measures 350mm x 990mm. I bought 300mm drawer runners from this company online and received them by courier within a week for about $27 all up.

Here it is with the table fitted, showing the construction

And when complete.

 The handles were from Bunnings and just add a nice finish.

I bought fully-extending drawer slides to maximise the traverse of the table and get as many roads as possible onto it. Part of this involved building the table one road-width wider than the drawer slides. As you can see in the picture above, the outer slide is affixed to the frame and the table is affixed 50mm from the end of the inner slide.

In the picture below, the table is fully extended out. When installed, the entry road will align parallel with the inner right-hand side of the table.

Once the drawer slides are fully closed, you can see that the entry road now aligns with the inner left-hand side of the table.

Pretty straight forward idea, derived from a lesson learned on my previous layout where the drawer slides I bought from Ikea only allowed for a 200mm traverse, despite being 300mm long.

Next job is to build the legs for this, and the right-hand return loop. Both should be fairly quick jobs, so it won't be long before there's some more permanent track down and I can move from carpentry to modelling.

Cheers,
Ben