Lacathedrale

Thanks Ian, David from the stores suggested 120-180 grit which seems a bit on the rough side - I'll get a selection and see what sticks. This morning I got up early and managed to snag another half an hour with the 2FS track. I have a half laid 15' long 4mm layout too, but it's in the garage and particularly chilly mornings render me much more likely to sit down at the dining table in my slippers than trudging through the mud. A few posts back I showed a back-to-back picture of the point work I was looking at finishing up, and I brought one previously completed B6 to the party. As I went to solder up the next lot of rail, I realised it had a funny profile to it - almost like it was a piece of folded over etch that wasn't laminated together. Under closer inspection it turns out I had soldered the ENTIRE LENGTH at a 45 degree inward cant. Quite how that happened I have no idea, but with my newfound knowledge and experience I was able to re-gauge it from the curved closure rail and everything has turned out fine. In addition to I got the vee and stock rail soldered up for the last piece of pointwork, ordered some wet & dry paper, and I have the ply ready for mounting the completed formations onto - in the format of butterfly meme: Could this almost be a layout's trackwork finished? (I am already planning an outslide-slip into tandem-threeway spaghetti, but I think that must come after this is at least fully working and functional.

Check rails in, and still working OK. (click for big) If I raise the PCB up by 0.5mm or so in order to bring the rail-head level with the easitrac rail-head, how will I keep the switchblade pegs positively registered into the tie-bar holes? I think I will need to glue tiny risers underneath.

Confound it, I'm away on the London Model Engineering Exhibition in ally pally

Hi Chris, that's really kind of you to say - I realised after my final post there, that I just don't yet have the skill to lay the complex trackwork that Caterham requires, nor paint and line the locomotives - the project is in limbo (hence it's location here in 'Design' rather than 'In actuality') but I'm very happy you found enjoyment reading it.

Here's the crossover, completed but for the check rails. Wagons run through in all directions without derailing - success! I cut the rail too short on one of the legs, but felt confident enough to snip it off and perform some surgery and it came out OK - a sign that I'm finally 'getting' it? This has been a confluence of a number of factors and lessons learned, I'll try to summarise incase they may help other beginners like myself, but I hasten to add I am in no way ANY kind of authority on this: - Following the order of construction laid out in the 2FS 'Track' book is extremely helpful. For example, I have found it imperative to read and re-read the section on what to gauge, from where, and how. My first turnout was no good because I inadvertently gauge narrowed it by using a three point gauge on the curved route, for example. - Jigs are absolutely my friend and doing this stuff freehand is Nth level wizardry. For example, I drilled a hole in my workboard to take the peg from the switchblade (seen above) so I could file down the excess safely without risking it being bent/etc. - Test wagons needed to be at least moderately weighted - the grey wagon above with nothing in it and no liquid gravity was so light that it could be blown around, but that meant that it was TOO light to reliably identify actual problems with the track. The van was also hilariously out of gauge with buckled wheels. - Building longer 'tails' for the turnout roads where feasible just makes everything easier for me - space to run a wagon through and space to align with the next assembly. The switch-blade filing jig's wet and dry is already smoothed out so I'm trying to find out what to replace that with before tackling my last turnout.

Bad luck Luke, when I had an american layout I used a cocktail stick inserted from the top and twisted - worked perfectly every time. That said, it was very much a hands-on layout rather than the cameo type thing you have here.

Today I got the main formations soldered up and the wires drilled for frog droppers and actuating wires, and some feeds to the centre section. There's a bit of wiggle room but they're effectively set in place now. The boards will be fed at the joins too, and the plan is to screw and glue PCB sleepers at the board edges for solid alignment. Before I start that I need to get the station board cork laid. The CCD track at the front will be lowest, at 5mm below the main lines and the carriage siding at 2mm below. Again, this is all very subtle and I don't know if it's wasted time but I feel like it will help. The thing that jumped out at me the most when I got the boards together (this is the first time that I've seen then with track on, as opposed to just planks of wood) was that they are LONG. It seems almost decadent to have a 15' long layout that has precisely two platforms and two sidings. I haven't had a chance to glue anything on the station board yet, but here's the state of play: Looking across the station throat from the coal concentration depot track at some PGA hoppers: All quiet in the station area, but for a solitary BCK at the end of Platform 2

I assumed I would be ruining the point blade as a matter of course by removing it, so twisting and yanking away from the PCB timber was the name of the game - but I realise you're quite right about ensuring I don't delaminate the timbers. Thank you. The switchblade filing jig is very useful, or at least, ends up consistent (so far!) but I need to replace the wet & dry affixed to it already: does anyone know what grade I should be looking at? I'm going to go with 240 unless I hear otherwise.

Thank you, looking now - I didn't really think that 'miniature engineering' as opposed to modelling would be so fruitful but with your help it's now obvious that's where the sweet spot is One question that's related to this, is around drills - I see one of the cheaper sets available in those looks like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/US-PRO-20pc-HSS-Metal-Micro-Tiny-Mini-Small-Drill-Bit-Set-Metric-0-3mm-1-6mm/301382753809?epid=23011034778&hash=item462bcfde11:g:1RYAAOSwT-Bbv2jy:rk:3:pf:0 and I have one of these already, but I can't for the life of me work out how to properly open it? Sliding the plastic shell parallel to the length of the box catches on a nib, and only the slightest bump means all the bits jump around and get disordered. I was thinking of getting this, just so I don't have to deal with it: https://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/101pc-Number-Drill-Set-with-Pin-Vice---Case-25535.html - is that a good bet?

That page has an invalid SSL certificate, I would be very wary about sending any confidential details (i.e. logging in with a password, logging in to Paypal, etc.) through it, since any transaction will be fully visible by a man in the middle intercepting it.

Thank you for the advice on the springs, I just took it for granted but that makes alot of sense. It's not really a problem per-se, but all of my joints are flex to turnout - I want the roads that run onto other baseboards to be fixed at the baseboard edge, so I guess I can solder up the middle section (basically a minories throat stretched out to around 3') and the perimeter tracks, and leave expansion gaps between them all around it, yes? Pete can you please clarify why insulating and re-feeding is required on DC but not DCC? I'm aiming for DCC eventually, but need to wait for my bits to get into stock first so will be operating on DC in the interim. Cheers,

As an aside to this, it seems that 0.45mm is a common size for whatever reason - but I've snapped my only 0.45mm drillbit. Is it worth getting another set (imperial vs metric) or just buy a stock of 0.45mms?

I'm sure this is very much par for course in this subforum, but I am super proud of this switchblade: I used the associating switch file jig (I gather I'm meant to replace that wet and dry?) and the easitrac tie bar jig - and behold the stars have aligned and it's all square and will (probably) work. Only another five to go...

Hi guys, I just wanted to be clear on this before I make any awful mistakes - the peco bullhead unifrog points look like they can have regular metal rail joiners on all rails on all corners, since the frogs are isolated and independently powered by the dropper - is that the case? My plan is to solder droppers to the rear/underside of each rail section since I've only got a dozen or so. I have one 5' baseboard that contains all of my pointwork - would it make sense to solder it up, or should I leave half (or both) sides of a rail join unsoldered? I gather if I'm using servo actuation I should remove the centre-over spring, but is it possible to remove it while the points are in-situ so I can flick with my finger for the time being? Lastly, I'm thinking of using decorators PVA to tack the track down - it's got a long curing time and I'm expecting the ballasting to more firmly grip the track when that happens. Is that a decent approach? Anything else I'm missing? All the best,

The one true answer is to go 2FS - loco chassis and wagon kits for a few pounds

I think the issue with £/scale is that price doubles(or halves) whereas the model's volume is cubed (or cube-rooted) - so that to occupy the SAME SPACE 0 and 00 are equivalent in price, an N is much worse off. If you model the same scene/object then the price in N and 00 is equivalent, and 0 is much worse off.

Thanks Martin, that's very helpful I injured my back this morning but managed to get a few minutes in the garage to cut the ballast cork. It was a little challenging to work with, because it kept curling up on contact with the PVA - but I used some track pins to hold it. Here's the track just placed for now. The engineer's square is the track-side wall of the gravel shed: limited clearance signs mandatory. It's only a few MM but I'm also not going to have the gravel shed line raised on the 2mm cork. There are alot of subtle level changes which I hope capture some realistic contours. Looking from the old goods yard at the gravel house, as a brake composite slides into Platform 2 from the down main. An opposite view, showing the Mk. 1 aiming directly at Platform 1, and the sidings to the goods yard fanning off to the right

Hello sir, I'm not really sure what to say, this is the measurements from google maps: In other news, my bullhead track arrived and I managed to get it laid out on the layout boards - there's an intermediate layer of cork for the track ballast still to come, but I think it's looking pretty good. In the packet, your eye is drawn to the sleeper spacing and it just looks strange, because (I believe) one is so much more used to seeing HO-scale sleeper spacing on the usual ready-to-plonk turnouts. In situ however, they look very authentic to my eyes: Superimposed over the C&L B6 pointwork, they're basically identical other than a) being about 5mm shorter and b) being fully rather than semi-curved - both of which are not very noticeable to me.

I'm sorry, I know it's rude to call attention to ones own question when the conversation has moved on - but I was hoping I could get a quick yes/no as to whether I can safely remove and refit switchblades to a completed all-soldered PCB turnout, in the sense that I will be able to use standard roller/button gauges to get new blades re-laid correctly? My assumption is yes, since I can use roller/buttons to gauge the curved switchblade against the curved stock rail, then roller/triangle gauges for the straight - but I'd much prefer to get confirmation than ruin an otherwise perfectly fine piece of trackwork!

I've obviously been treating my files very badly - they are just in a pen tray in my toolbox

In the words of Simba's father from the Lion King - everything you see before you, is my (2mmFS) kingdom: The two workboards are back to back and form one continuous curve. My very tentative plan is to Desolder the switch blades in the turnout middle-left Drill clearance holes under the tie-bar ends for all turnouts Create a bundle of new, correct length switch blades. pegged for Easitrac turnout bars to fit all turnouts Somehow validate if I want to use the association 1-100 turnout operating units, or direct drive via servo (any ideas?) Mount the whole lot to a slender 5mm ply sub roadbed

The lighting is fantastic - how do you achieve that look?

Excellent, thank you all

It's such a simple plan - the operator in me is screaming ' but there's nothing to do!' and the pragmatist in me replies 'yes, but you could actually finish it, couldn't you?' I haven't seen Shelfie and google turns up nothing - do you have any links?

Here's a templot rendering of the plan: