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Pencarrow: nothing to see, move along please.


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Hi Chris

Are you eating in the same establishment to night,was it the soup they burnt.

Mike

Sadly I have to eat there every night or foot the bill myself. Might have deep fried haggis at the local chippy instead though.

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Now, where were we? Pointwork...

 

I'd printed off a second copy of the template around the common crossing area so I could see all the rail alignments without the sleepers getting in the way. 

 

Rails were cut almost to size and the tops of the bullhead rail penned in black to stop me getting confused! The bends were put in the rail using the subtle ' place screwdriver on the side of the rial and hit screwdriver head with a sharp tap from a yomma' method. Deb's shim gauges were used to locate the bendy rails (technical term there) against the vee. having recently built the two brass wagon kits I now have a good stash of the 'scrap brass' that modelling folk always refer to in the mags. A length of this was tinned up, placed under the bendy rails and vee. Hey presto, after some choice words and slightly warm fingers I had made my first ever common crossing!

 

post-6675-0-45211100-1393019393_thumb.jpg

 

The bits of scrap brass were filed flush with the rail side.

 
post-6675-0-39422600-1393019401_thumb.jpg

 

Big smug grin!!

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The next bit was to attach the common crossing to the sleepers by the use of Deb's roller gauges and putting the nose of the vee in what a number of articles say are the right place. 

 

post-6675-0-83123400-1393019816_thumb.jpg

 

Add some chairs and we're starting to look a bit point-like.

 

post-6675-0-61125300-1393019806_thumb.jpg

 

 

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A break for a spot of evening fodder allowed the glued chairs on the crossing to firm up. 

 

Another length of rail was cut to length and the yomma and screwdriver method used to put a 'set' in the curved rail where the point blade will touch. 

 

The chairs were threaded on and Deb's gauges used to fix the two chairs in place at the thin end of the point. 

post-6675-0-65177100-1393020302_thumb.jpg

 

After another wait for the chairs to bond, the gauges were out again to space the rail correctly in relation to the common crossing. 

post-6675-0-02284400-1393020313_thumb.jpg

 

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I was going to stop there but felt I was on a roll so cut one of the pre-made switch rails (from the original kit) to length. Took a while to work out exactly what that length should be though!

 

The switch rail, although machined, needed some finishing off with wet and dry and a wrong-way curve taking out of the tapered end. Very few tools were misused in this process.

 

post-6675-0-74833100-1393020873_thumb.jpg

 

post-6675-0-97725800-1393020864_thumb.jpg

 

And yes, I did remember to put an insulating break between the crossing and the switch rail!

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Having now got a pair of parallel running rails, it was too much to resist a play...

 

post-6675-0-60939000-1393021406_thumb.jpg

 

post-6675-0-54031000-1393021398_thumb.jpg

 

I was very pleased that there was no sign of wheel drop through the crossing area - a very smooth passage!!

 

I think this justifies the decision to go down the 31.5mm route.

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Now, where were we? Pointwork...

 

I'd printed off a second copy of the template around the common crossing area so I could see all the rail alignments without the sleepers getting in the way. 

 

Rails were cut almost to size and the tops of the bullhead rail penned in black to stop me getting confused! The bends were put in the rail using the subtle ' place screwdriver on the side of the rial and hit screwdriver head with a sharp tap from a yomma' method. Deb's shim gauges were used to locate the bendy rails (technical term there) against the vee. having recently built the two brass wagon kits I now have a good stash of the 'scrap brass' that modelling folk always refer to in the mags. A length of this was tinned up, placed under the bendy rails and vee. Hey presto, after some choice words and slightly warm fingers I had made my first ever common crossing!

 

attachicon.gifIMAG5043.jpg

 

The bits of scrap brass were filed flush with the rail side.

 

 

Big smug grin!!

 

Hi Chris,

 

The bendy rails are wing rails.

 

SS

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Hi Chris

 

Once you have a go at turnout building, it isn't as difficult as some people make out and progress is fairly rapid and brings it's own rewards.

 

SS

The hardest part is starting. After that it's just down to perseverance and re-doing the bits you're not happy with.

 

Mind you I still have the curved switch rail to add and to make the thing operational, so it could still all go pear shaped!

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some excellent work there Chris and finger ends survived well for once, the common crossing just looks the biz and amazed at the size of it all. keep the great work coming.

I do think the size of 7mm helps the track building beginner - most of the bits are more manageable and it's easier to see what's going on. I think I'd struggle in 4mm and I have absolutely no idea how folk like Jerry manage in 2mm.

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good job.

 

don't forget to think about your tie-bar arrangement......

I've decided that the tie bar and making things work is the most difficult bit. I'm therefore going to pretend it doesn't need one and that one blade is sufficient.... ;-p

 

From the first ever TG show I'm aware there has to be allowance in the tie for some rotation to stop the joints failing. I'm going to have a look at using the etches in the point kit and see how that goes. Point operation will be under the board and I'll probably go for tortoise motors as they have been trouble free on TG and DitD.

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I've decided that the tie bar and making things work is the most difficult bit. I'm therefore going to pretend it doesn't need one and that one blade is sufficient.... ;-p

 

From the first ever TG show I'm aware there has to be allowance in the tie for some rotation to stop the joints failing. I'm going to have a look at using the etches in the point kit and see how that goes. Point operation will be under the board and I'll probably go for tortoise motors as they have been trouble free on TG and DitD.

 

Brilliant.

 

Yes you do need movement because the blade is trying to score an arc where as the tie-bar can only move straight.

 

If you're using droppers, solder them on the switch first http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70855-highland-sulzers-lochgorm-works-inverness-scale-seven/?p=1144777

 

This is the arrangement I'm going for on HS http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70855-highland-sulzers-lochgorm-works-inverness-scale-seven/?p=1189749

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Chris,

 

Hopefully I have caught up with you before you make a start on the curved switch rail, if you put a slight curve in the rail before you glue down the chairs to the sleepers, you will find it will fix better as you are taking the tension out of the rail ( hope this makes sense ).

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

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