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Hi,

So far so good, I think.

Areas of concern:
Nothing to do with Templot but I think you may have to be very careful when you come to ballasting. Any water based adhesive (i.e. PVA or Copydex) could cause you great problems as they are likely to affect the wallpaper, which could well shrink on drying resulting in distortion and possibly worse (same goes for any templates left in situ).

as to the 1mm flangeway, I'm sure others will point out that the critical measurement is not the actual check-rail flangeway width itself but the distance from the inner face of the check-rail to the inner face of the crossing wing-rail.

Borg-Rail wrote:

Hi,

So far so good, I think.

Areas of concern:
Nothing to do with Templot but I think you may have to be very careful when you come to ballasting. Any water based adhesive (i.e. PVA or Copydex) could cause you great problems as they are likely to affect the wallpaper, which could well shrink on drying resulting in distortion and possibly worse (same goes for any templates left in situ).

as to the 1mm flangeway, I'm sure others will point out that the critical measurement is not the actual check-rail flangeway width itself but the distance from the inner face of the check-rail to the inner face of the crossing wing-rail.

Thanks for your very helpful reply . I had held off printing the templates until I received a reply and, just as I finished printing, in came your post .
Thanks for your comments regarding the wallpaper. I think I shall abandon the this approach for the reason you have given and because of the issues I have found with flatness and vulnerability. I guess I am going back to the traditional cork sheets instead.
Your comments about the templates are a worry. When building turnouts with copperclad I was able to remove the templates on completion of the build before fitting them to the baseboard. Ballasting was no problem.I have found though that the ply sleeper and chair method of construction does not produce the same same degree of stability when the templates are removed and distortion can easily be introduced. I am using balsa cement to secure the sleepers to the template and Butanone to secure the chairs to the sleepers. Is there a real problem ballasting with the templates in place? If so, is there a better way of construction on the template allowing easy removal?
I have just received a bag of small chairs E4CH 203A from C&L which will reduce the amount of trimming required of some of the standard chairs.
On the flangeways, I shall check these carefully as I build the track. I have the full set of OO SF gauges.
I always start at the crossing V section and work outwards when building the templates.
Once again, many thanks.

Peter

If it is any help, the small (London) C+L stand has the E4CH 403A 0.8 mm chairs which we use for both 4sf and em gauges. The small stand is at Southampton this coming weekend, perhaps someone is willing to pick up a packet if you cannot make it

Turnouts normally use the bridge chairs E4CH 201A I have also found that by using both E4CH 501A (additional) slide chairs and E4CH 502A common crossing chairs no cutting of chairs is necessary

I am currently trialling building a turnout with a pre made Vee and using the special chairs functionally in setting the wing/closer rails, similar (but not the same) to the way the C+L ready made turnouts are built. This may make the building of turnouts much easier for some

Hi,
Ballasting with the template in place is very likely to result in the paper template stretching and deforming and then shrinking, however if glued to something more rigid like cork, it is probably going to be less of a problem than with foam.

Separating the turnouts from the templates is always going to be a little tricky and usually requires the application of a solvent that doesn't affect the plastic timbers or chairs to soften the adhesive. White Spirit usually works for double-sided tape. I'm not sure what you could use for balsa cement.

PeterD wrote:

Borg-Rail wrote:

Hi,

So far so good, I think.

Areas of concern:
Nothing to do with Templot but I think you may have to be very careful when you come to ballasting. Any water based adhesive (i.e. PVA or Copydex) could cause you great problems as they are likely to affect the wallpaper, which could well shrink on drying resulting in distortion and possibly worse (same goes for any templates left in situ).

as to the 1mm flangeway, I'm sure others will point out that the critical measurement is not the actual check-rail flangeway width itself but the distance from the inner face of the check-rail to the inner face of the crossing wing-rail.

Thanks for your very helpful reply . I had held off printing the templates until I received a reply and, just as I finished printing, in came your post .
Thanks for your comments regarding the wallpaper. I think I shall abandon the this approach for the reason you have given and because of the issues I have found with flatness and vulnerability. I guess I am going back to the traditional cork sheets instead.
Your comments about the templates are a worry. When building turnouts with copperclad I was able to remove the templates on completion of the build before fitting them to the baseboard. Ballasting was no problem.I have found though that the ply sleeper and chair method of construction does not produce the same same degree of stability when the templates are removed and distortion can easily be introduced. I am using balsa cement to secure the sleepers to the template and Butanone to secure the chairs to the sleepers. Is there a real problem ballasting with the templates in place? If so, is there a better way of construction on the template allowing easy removal?
I have just received a bag of small chairs E4CH 203A from C&L which will reduce the amount of trimming required of some of the standard chairs.
On the flangeways, I shall check these carefully as I build the track. I have the full set of OO SF gauges.
I always start at the crossing V section and work outwards when building the templates.
Once again, many thanks.

I've used crafting double-sided tape with some success in the past - the tape designed for pasting stuff into scrapbooks. These are designed to allow people to move stuff about in their scrapbooks, so don't have a lot of grip - but just enough grip.

The only trouble, as ever, is the cost - it's more expensive than normal double sided.

The stuff I have is "Scotch Scrapbooking Tape", 34-8700-9324-1, and came from either HobbyCraft or Staples, here in the UK.  Here's the link to it on Scotch's webite:

http://www.scotchbrand.com/3M/en_US/scotch-brand/products/catalog/~/Scotch-Double-Sided-Removable-Scrapbooking-Tape?N=4335+3294529207+3294603433&rt=rud

 
[edit: to remove incorrect link to Amazon]

For building track, I stick the templates down off site (on a piece of MDF, using magic tape around the edges; could also use double-sided tape for extra stability). I then lay strips of double-sided tape over the templates, bottom side still with protective covering, also fixing these with magic tape on the ends and in places around the edges. So long as you can see through the double-sided tape to the templates you can then lay the timbers in position on top of the double-sided tape.

When the track-work is finished, cut through the double-sided tape adjacent to the magic tape and then you can lift the trackwork, strip of the backing and lay. The double sided tape keeps the trackwork fairly rigid even with the backing peeled off. You have to be fairly careful when laying the track on the layout because once it's stuck it's not easy to reposition.

This is in 3mm/ft. In larger scales of course you're dealing with larger chunks of track, which may be more awkward.

Cheers
Nigel

Hi,
As far as tiebars are concerned, have you considered Masokits? Normally for P4 or EM but can just about be used with 00.