Blowing The Winter Blues Away

November, December and January were very moribund months from a modelling point of view. To be honest, I just couldn't get going at all. This was partly due to an exhausting commitment to my job in the build up to Christmas. Also, I seem to suffer from lethargy over the Winter, tending more towards hibernation than hyper-activity, once festivities are over.

Some Progress, But Not Enough!
I did get a few small things done with the layouts over the last few months, despite my apathy. The platform side walls for Rothervale were built and painted ready for installation. Also, the track was painted. On Mount Royal, I more or less completed the station building. I also worked out how I was going to make the pier walls and did a bit of landscaping with expanded polystyrene.

On the down side, the suspension of the 2mm wheel turning service delayed my plans to get all the necessary wheels on locomotives and DMUs converted to 2FS standards. This has left me - for the time being at least - with nothing suitable to run on the middle track on Rothervale (mainly Dapol DMUs). I also have nothing at all available for the standard gauge on Mount Royal. This layout was to depend heavily on the use of American and Japanese chassis for motive power, in the short term.

Fresh Air
Thankfully, since the demise of the early January snow, there have been enough pleasant days in the East Midlands for me to get out and enjoy some fresh air and exercise. Slowly but surely, this seems to have put me in a slightly better frame of mind for railway modelling. Unfortunately, this has been rather too little and too late for me to expect to get either of my 2mm layouts ready for the Golden Jubilee Layout Challenge (GJLC), which is set for early July.

Kitted Out
In a fit of desperation to get something running, I did have a go at a BH Enterprises Hunslet shunter kit, which fits very nicely onto an old Arnold Kof chassis. I also assembled one of the new BR/LMS buffer stop etched kits from the 2mm Scale Association. These showed me that even relatively simple projects can be painfully slow to complete when you don't have the motivation.

Stunning RTR
I have to comment on the superb appearance and performance of some recent Farish models - in particular, the Class 24, the Class 108 and the Class 37. Frankly, I can't even hope to approach the standard of these models through my own modelling efforts. I have a close affection for the class 24 in particular, as my very first model train set included a Lone Star version of this locomotive. Needless to say, I couldn't resist buying the new Farish version once the 2mm Scale Association conversion wheels became available in January. This has now been converted to 2FS standards - and very pleased I am with it too!

Time For a Rethink?
The experience of the last few months has been a very hard lesson for me. Whilst I think it was possible to achieve my aims for the GJLC, everything depended on maintaining a high degree of motivation throughout. This has proved impossible, despite my initial enthusiasm.

So, where do I go from here? Well, I don't think there is any point in doing any more work on Rothervale or Mount Royal for the moment. I will take a break from these layouts and ponder what to do with them over the next few months. Both projects are far too large for me to cope with in my current, relatively apathetic state of mind.

In the meantime, I am thinking about a few smaller modelling projects, just to keep some momentum going. This will enable me to test out a few ideas and hopefully rekindle my enthusiasm for model railways in general.

Modeller's Block

Despite having much more free time since Christmas, I have been really struggling to work up any enthusiasm for model railways, of late. This does happen to me from time to time. It is unfortunate that it has come at a time when I should be working really hard to get my models ready for the Golden Jubilee Layout Challenge in July!

I have also become more than a little concerned about being able to prepare all of the stock required in the short term. The 2mm wheel turning service is temporarily unavailable, which seriously affects stock preparation for Mount Royal and Rothervale. Also, wheels and gears from the 2mm Scale Association shops seem to be in short supply. Additionally, the cost of buying lots of stock for Rothervale, which may well only ever be displayed for one two-day exhibition, seems a little over the top - especially in the current economic climate.

After careful thought, I have decided to take a break from 2mm modelling for a short while, by which time my appetite will hopefully have returned. I may also decide to withdraw from the Golden Jubilee Layout Challenge.

I do hope to carry on with my layouts in due course - especially Mount Royal, which has been a dream for far longer than I care to remember. I will keep the blog open and hopefully start adding new entries again as my enthusiasm allows.

A Pointer

I decided after all to do a couple of photos relating to my last entry in the blog. These illustrate the points, which have changed a little since the last time I showed them here. Click on the images for a larger view.

Firstly, the point on the scenic section -


This needs a lot of detailing work to make it look more realistic - but at least it works. The switching arrangement, using a DPDT switch, is temporary and will be replaced when I widen the baseboards after the GJLC.

And now one of the swiveling points on the corner boards -


These are working fine without any locking mechanism at the moment. I expect them to free up with use, so some kind of locking will probably be necessary for the GJLC.

Having built and tested the two I built for Rothervale, I am surprised that the idea has not become more common, as it really does work very well.

Richard

Power Surge

The three scenic boards and the two end boards have now been wired up. This has allowed me to thoroughly test the track for the first time. It was a wonderful feeling to finally get something running around so much of the layout - and very addictive too!

Wiring
The wiring has been kept very simple - at least for the time being. I will be using DC control for the trains during the GJLC. I will operate the layout with just one controller.

I ringed the layout with just 2 wires for the power feed, using bell wire. These are connected across baseboard joint with phono plugs and sockets. On each baseboard, I have installed a temporary plywood panel containing the on/off switches for the power to each track. Almost every track on each baseboard can be isolated separately.

No other electrics are required at baseboard level. There will be no uncouplers or point motors on the layout. Even the colour light signals will be dead for the GJLC.

The feeds to the rails have been fixed at the baseboard ends, where possible. Wires are soldered to the PCB strips under the rails. These will be completely hidden once cosmetic sleepers have been added on top. I installed feed wires at both ends of each baseboard, as it will be impossible to access the PCB once the ballasting has been done.

I intend to play a little more with the layout before I tidy up of the wiring, just in case I find any problems.

After the GJLC, I hope to do something a lot more sophisticated, so that several trains can run at once. I should then have the time to gradually convert the layout and stock to DCC.

Track Bash
The track has been thoroughly tested at various speeds and with various stock, to make sure that everything runs smoothly for the future.

The only (minor) problems were on the transition from the scenic boards to the end boards, where I had to switch from super-elevated track at varying heights above the baseboard, to a flat, slightly lower baseboard top on the end boards. A few tweaks with the soldering iron sorted this out fairly quickly.

In the long-term, all of the track on the end boards will be replaced. The difference in levels between the track on the scenic boards and the end boards is just a short term expedient for the GJLC.

Point Power
The pointwork is now fully operational. For the one conventional point on the scenic section, the set-up is temporary, as I hope to widen the scenic area quite a bit after the GJLC. I used a DPDT switch, attached to the tie bar by a brass rod in a brass tube. The switch also changes the polarity of the frog. The point still requires a lot of detailing, but this is not a high priority at the moment.

The revolving points on the end boards (based on Brian Tilbury's design) are temporarily operated by pulling or pushing with a finger. There seems to be enough friction to hold them in place whilst trains pass over. I will do something a little more professional before the GJLC, though no switching of polarity is required - just a locking mechanism.

No photos this time, I'm afraid - wiring is pretty boring!

There should be lots of pictures once I start the scenic work.

Richard

Rothervale Track Bash - Part Two

With the arrival of Easitrac concrete sleepers, track laying on the scenic section of Rothervale began in earnest. Here are the results so far - unpainted and not yet ballasted, but still looking good! Click on images for an enlarged view.

Plain Sailing
Assembling up the plain track was very easy using the recommended track jig. The only useful thing to mention is that I carefully filed the rail ends, so they slid smoothly into the sleeper bases. I assembled sections long enough to fit each baseboard - just over 1 metre each.

At baseboard joints I left a short section of rail without sleepers. Short lengths of flat-bottomed rail were soldered upside down underneath the exposed rail ends. These were later soldered to PCB that had already been recessed and glued into the baseboard top. The rail height is almost exactly the height of the sleepers, so this works very well.Before I started, I worried that the soldering iron might melt adjacent sleepers. In practice this has not been much of a problem.

The Easitrac was stuck down using diluted PVA adhesive. The dilution increases the capillary action, allowing a relatively thin layer of glue to creep over the tabs separating the sleepers. I aligned the track using one edge of the trackbed as a guide. The track was then held down with various weights until the PVA had set.

Here is a view of the southern scenic board. The DMU is on the point leading to the bay platform. The HST in the background is on the down fast line.

On my trackwork, the different tracks are laid a slightly different heights above the baseboard top. They also have different degrees of super-elevation. For this reason, I laid one piece of track at a time, waiting for each to set before laying the next.

To finish things off, bits of spare sleeper base will be cut up and added cosmetically over the PCB at the baseboard ends. This should result in very strong, stable ends to the track - and look good too. The exposed PCB is also being used to connect electric feed wires to the track, before it is covered with ballast. I don't propose to add the cosmetic sleepers or do any ballasting until the trackwork has been thoroughly tested - a bit of fun at last!

Here is a view from the end of the baseboard. Notice the different track heights above the baseboard and also the super-elevation on the main lines - 2nd and 4th from the left. The up slow and the bay platform line were laid without super-elevation.


In addition to the concrete track, there is a short section of bullhead track at the terminal end of the bay platform. I am just waiting for the new 2mm etched buffer stops to become available to finish this off.

Pointwork
I had already made the pointwork some time ago - the bay platform point and a relatively high-speed point for the crossover between the down fast and the bi-directional middle track at the south end of the layout. In the end I decided that the high speed point was too close to the platforms, so it has been dispensed with - temporarily at least. I still have to add a tie bar, operating mechanism and detailing to the one remaining point.

Here is the revised track plan for the front of the layout. Click on it for a larger image.

In the long term I would like to add one more baseboard at the southern end and 2 or 3 at the northern end (right-hand end on the above diagram) - but not for the GJLC. The high speed point can then be used on the centre track at the junction of the Sheffield and Rotherham lines.

No more pointwork would be necessary in the modelled area, so the outer tracks will still be able to run stock with N gauge wheels. Only the centre tracks will be finescale-only. At the back of the layout, I would than build 3 separate sets of sidings in the fiddle yard. One bi-directional yard for the finescale road and 2 separate yards for the outer tracks - one up and one down.

End Board Trackwork
Most of the track on the end boards, which are not scenic, was laid some time ago. I have now added the connecting trackwork to link this with the track on the scenic boards. Following the abandonment of the high speed point, one of the tracks at the south end is redundant. I still have the last few centimetres to lay to connect with the fiddle yard at the back of the layout.

The hidden ends of the middle track each have 2 isolating sections. This will allow me to operate 3 DMUs in total - a Northern Spirit train for the Sheffield-Worksop service, a Central Trains unit for the Robin Hood line service and another Central Trains unit for through trains.

Platform
The island platform has been started, as I can't do the ballasting until the side walls are installed. I am using Peco brick platform walls, which will probably be painted to represent engineering bricks. I will add a top of plasticard to represent modern platform edging. More of this another time.

Conclusions
I found the Easitrac very easy to work with. Progress so far took just over a month in all, but that was almost entirely due to a severe lack of spare time. The only awkward part was over the baseboard joints where, to be honest, most people would not find it necessary to try anything quite as complicated as my own idea. Having said that, I would now be tempted to try something similar even if I were laying bullhead track.

The final result is by far the best flat-bottomed track I have seen so far in this kind of scale. I am also impressed with the smooth curves and super-elevation achieved by using individual, thin wooden strips as the trackbed.

Many thanks to all the people who made concrete Easitrac a reality. At last, we can model realistic modern image trackwork quickly and easily!

Concrete Jungle

A large consignment of Easitrac concrete sleepers arrived today, thanks to Owen Adams, proprietor of the 2mm Scale Association's Track Hypermarket (shop 1). Despite showing as "not yet available" on the 2mm website, Owen informed me that they were in fact in stock, so I put in a very quick order.

I procured enough Easitrac and rail to lay the whole of the scenic area - plus a track jig, which is strongly recommended for these track bases. Here are a couple of photos of the product.


First impressions are very good! I hope to start laying all the track on the scenic area of Rothervale over the next few weeks. Needless to say, there will be an update in due course!

Richard

Parking Zone

Work is definitely slowing down on Rothervale, as my job takes up most of my life at this time of year. Even so, I have managed to make good progress on the train storage area at the back of the layout.

Short Term Parking?
I decided that the cassette route was the only way forward - even though some of my trains could be up to 2.5 metres long. I was only really looking for a short-term solution to get me through the GJLC next July. Not exceeding the layout area limit is currently far more important than operating convenience.

The Long And The Short Of It!
The baseboards consist of short, narrow stubs of softwood, used to support the cassettes when in use on the layout. Either side of these is a cassette storage and handling area made from the sides of cheap wooden CD racks. Cassettes for the longest trains will be stored here, so that all I have to do is slide them sideways when needed. The shorter cassettes will be stored elsewhere and lifted into place when required.

Cassette storage is not counted towards the 9.42 sq ft limit of the GJLC, so the baseboard area is much smaller than it seems at first sight!

This all means that the baseboards are now pretty well complete and ready for me to finish off the track-laying. I also need to build some cassettes, though the cost of all that aluminium angle is worrying me a bit!
Buried In Concrete
The Easitrack concrete track bases have now been announced by the 2mm Scale Association, but are not yet on sale. As soon as I can get hold of some, I plan to start the track-laying at the front of the layout.