The Burnbake and Woodyhyde Railway

[berryr99]

Copydex isn't good news - I used some about 12 months ago on a layout that no longer exists and apart from smelling awful it yellows and degrades over time

Bob

[clayliner]

Here track is going down at the other (?eastern) end of the line:


more tracklaying by clayliner, on Flickr

The standard gauge transfer siding is in the foreground, and the mixed gauge crossing further back. The n/g line will hopefully one day run onto a simple landing stage on the left, for which I will need to drop the board down a bit, to 'sea level'.
For the scenic break at this end I plan a pair of overbridges - I've long been intrigued by the pair of road bridges to the west of Norden station on the Swanage Railway, standard and narrow gauge side by side, and hope to do something like this. The n/g line will run through (the wall), of course, while the standard gauge will probably end in a mirror(!)

David.

[clayliner]

This shot under the baseboard shows the joining blocks connecting the two halves, and the bicycle spoke arrangement for the 'digital' operation of the points:


under the baseboard by clayliner, on Flickr

The 'tails' soldered on to the spokes run through holes in blocks of insulation material, which provides friction and stability the arrangement.

David.

[Tigger]

And a darned sight more elegant than the method I used!

[B.Meldon]

Are you using any point frog polarity switches?

The reason I ask is that the electrical switching in the points where the blades contact on to the fixed rail tends to be a bit unreliable in the 009 points. My experience is that even with regular cleaning they fail at the most inopportune times!
Because of this I now fit frog polarity switches on every point on every 009 layout I build.

Brian Meldon

[Tigger]

Trust me folks - he's SO right!

It's not even a wiping contact which would give a self-cleaning action!

I'm gradually going around my own layout installing switches as and when needed - ie, when I get fed up with having to hold the blade over by hand to get the traction current through!

[tedp]

Although I fit switches in many recent cases, I have several Peco points not fitted with backup switches, notably at Inverlochan and the siding at Glenclachan Road. They have worked without problem for 20 years, without regular cleaning. The problem is often glue or paint residue left during painting and ballasting. So I would suggest it's not as absolute a problem as often perceived. So I didn't feel the need to fit them to the points of the Nixnie layout. ;)

[clayliner]

Thank you, Brian, for raising the question of polarity switches - somehow I thought you might! - though that of course doesn't make the question any less valid.
The short answer is: no. But I do recognise (from comments elsewhere) the issue here and that I might one day (be forced to) decide to install them. Although the line is not yet operational I have done quite a bit of trial running and experience to date shows things work pretty well, and at this stage I think I'm happy to wait and see how things work out. But if it were an exhibition layout I think I'd accept that switches were obligatory for the sake of reliability.

David.

[clayliner]

Do other people have moments of madness?

I've continued working at the eastern end of the line and mocked up the pair of road overbridges which will form the only 'formal' scenic breaks (elsewhere the line just disappears / emerges from behind vegetation and embankments). But the result wasn't good...


old bridges by clayliner, on Flickr

...and it ended up looking more like Gasworks Tunnel than a pair of rural overbridges. The problem was obvious - there wasn't enough separation between them, and while one side of my brain tried to tell me that it would look okay in the end the other was insisting that radical action would have to be taken to try and improve the situation. (I only threw the full-scale plans away a week or two ago so I can't see how I intended to do it originally!)

So - nothing for it but to send in the p/w gang and start ripping up the track. The remedy was basically simple: to slew the s/g transfer siding to the left, away from the n/g line (which couldn't be moved as it is here heading for the hole in the bedroom wall). The real problem was the mixed-gauge flat crossing which was in the middle of all this, and was the main reason why I was loth (or possibly even loath) to tackle the job. But I knew this would probably also benefit from a rebuild, so I bit the bullet and pressed on.

A few days later and the worst of the job is done:


new bridges by clayliner, on Flickr

There is now some decent separation between the bridges (if still a bit less than the prototypes) and I think that with the embankment in place and smothered in vegetation it will look okay. (The loco is checking clearances - it's a bit gloomy because it's getting late in the day and the p/w gang have just knocked off.) Just need to get the guys to replace the ballast which will also help to tie it all together. The crossing is also rather more secure than before, so all in all maybe it wasn't such madness after all?

[clayliner]

Slower progress than I'd hoped on the bridges, I'm afraid, but we're getting there (as someone used to say):


twin bridges by clayliner, on Flickr

Although I'd always thought of them as a 'pair' of bridges it was only when I really got down to model them that I realised how many differences there are (apart from the size, of course). But the n/g (Fayles Tramway) bridge was built twenty years after the standard gauge one so it's not surprising they're not identical. The left-hand (s/g) bridge should be significantly wider which would emphasise the difference between the two - the Swanage Branch was built for double track although single track was only ever actually laid - but as it's a scenic break I needed it to be as 'tight' as reasonably possible.

There's still stuff to do and they'll look happier when they're bedded in with foliage etc. (though I couldn't resist a bit of scenic dressing at this stage...) I'm hoping, though, that eventually the whole unit will lift out to aid recovery of the inevitable derailed stock in the depths of the right-hand bridge.

There's just one question now: do I need to paint the back of the unit and the part of the baseboard on which it rests, or just forget about the bits I can't see? I imagine some people couldn't sleep without the hidden areas being finished as well as the visible ones, while others would say life is just too short. What do other people do?

David.

[tat2drod]

. . . while others would say . . .

Life's too short.

[petersmith1942]

I agree lifes too short so long as your trains appear to go under a bridge or into a tunnel not just a bridge front or tunnel mouth and these two do
Peter Smith

[Graeme Dunbar]

Re: painting the back etc. - entirely up to you  :laugh:

If, every time you see it through the bridge opening it is going to annoy you then do it now. If not, don't bother.

Being very clearly a shelf layout I don't expect it will travel far, but for exhibition layouts when it comes to painting fiddleyards and the like, a certain amount of "headology" rules the day (followers of Angst Lesspork will be familiar with the term).

I do not like to see scrappy off-the-scene track.  It might not be "on show" but it is inevitable that the audience will catch sight of it. With neat businesslike track, if something were to go wrong, the audience thinks "what a pity", but if it looks scrappy and there are problems they think "hardly surprising".

I worked briefly for the BBC as a student. We were taught no matter how simple the repair to the equipment always get out the cleaner and give it a good polish. Then the broadcast staff know it has been fixed.

[Tigger]

I worked briefly for the BBC as a student. We were taught no matter how simple the repair to the equipment always get out the cleaner and give it a good polish. Then the broadcast staff know it has been fixed.

And if a piece of equipment is reported for an intermittent fault, even if you don't manage to cure it, cleaning and polishing the case will often stop people reporting it! ;D

[JulienW]

I worked briefly for the BBC as a student. We were taught no matter how simple the repair to the equipment always get out the cleaner and give it a good polish. Then the broadcast staff know it has been fixed.

And if a piece of equipment is reported for an intermittent fault, even if you don't manage to cure it, cleaning and polishing the case will often stop people reporting it! ;D

That explains a lot... ::)
:laugh: