It's been a while since an update and things have moved on. This project is all about small targets and deadlines - sometimes moving if it helps with motivation! My last target was to have all of the trackwork complete by Christmas. This would mean building the five turnouts for the goods yard starting in October. Considering my limited modelling time, generally glacial workrate and the fact I've only previously built a couple of C&L turnouts, this would be no mean feat. Whilst, I'm happy to report that work is well underway with the first four complete, it looks like I'll miss this self imposed deadline as other non-modelling matters have colluded against me. Still I'm pleased with the work so far and as the image shows there is just one turnout to place along with a small section of plain track. All of these turnouts are slightly curved, following the track plan. The turnouts are just loosely placed the the moment awaiting final tweaking once the last one is ready. The pieces of scrap timber show roughly where the bridge and cutting will be at the Queensbury-end of the layout.

I will only briefly summarise the build as there are already many good right-ups on RMWEB.

The turnouts have been built to 00-SF standards using Brian Tulley guages. I've mainly used C&L components, augmented by copperclad with some etched brass chairs (sourced from Pete Harvey). Vees were created using the almost idiot proof Brian Harrap method and common crossings were built in-situ - I initially tried building them as a unit on the workbench but this didn't work well for me. My dropper system also doubles up as a support for the common crossing - a small hoop of brass wire with a tail at 90 degress is soldered onto the copperclad under the vee/wing rails with the tail dropping through the baseboard. Any excess solder is filed off and the vee/wing rails are then soldered to the resulting support platform. The same method is used to supply power to the stock and switch rails. The tie bars are made from a gapped copper clad sleeper cut in half so it ends up about 1mm wide. Onto this is soldered an 'L' bracket made from spare etch. The long horizontal of the bracket (about 4-5mm) is soldered onto the copper clad and sits under the switch blade and adjacent stock rail and the short upright is soldered to the inside of the blade. The smooth plates prevent the switches from rising up. A small loop of wire will be soldered in the centre to receive the actuating bar.

I will take a small break from the layout build in order to complete my 3d printed N1 prototype.