Looking at double track layouts in 00-SF

[MikeH_83]

There's no problem with using Modelu slide chairs, I think that the jaw has been altered to suit code 75 BH rail.

That’s good to know, Thanks!

 

[Hayfield]

Hey, Yes it is all hand laid with chairing. It's 3 bolt chairs for what I have done however my new layout will be more gwr so I shall order some 2 bolts. You can get the exactoscale chairs from EM gauge society and the P4 Society (you can also get C&L ones from C&L Finescale but obviously best to check about postage and stuff first. I have ordered some 2 bolt slide chairs from ModelU so will be interesting to see if they work well as I don't think they were specially designed for track making

Its worth noting the new C&L 2 bolt chairs now come with a pair of J (joint) chairs, a pair of L1 (bridge chairs and a pair of functionable H section fishplates, C&L also produce 2 bolt flexitrack in both EM & P4 gauges. The sleepers are in 60' panels with 12" sleepers at both ends and the appropriate sleeper spacings. Its has a thicker 1.6mm base

Examples will be at Scaleforum at the end of the month (pre-orders can be picked up saving postage) a limited selection will be available

I have used the Modelu 2 bolt slide chairs quite a few times, a great product. I used industrial grade superglue to fix them

 

[Phil O]

Great if you want 60 ft panels, but us branchline modellers would prefer 45 ft panels and even some 30 ft panels for sidings and anyway it's easier to distress ply sleepers and timbers than plastic. Also, if you plant your own timbers you don't end up with dead uniform spacings and ends, as per the prototype.

When I was in the PW gang on the ESR and were relaying a couple of panels, the sleepers were laid in by eye. When spot resleepering with new sleepers, the ends did not necessarily end up in line with the existing sleepers.

 

[LittleWestern]

Hey, Yes it is all hand laid with chairing. It's 3 bolt chairs for what I have done however my new layout will be more gwr so I shall order some 2 bolts. You can get the exactoscale chairs from EM gauge society and the P4 Society (you can also get C&L ones from C&L Finescale but obviously best to check about postage and stuff first. I have ordered some 2 bolt slide chairs from ModelU so will be interesting to see if they work well as I don't think they were specially designed for track making

I'm about to order my next bulk GWR 2 Bolts includig some brass crossing chairs, the rest I will order 3 bolt variants and modify to appear 2 bolt.
My copy of "GWR Switch & Crossing Practise" arrived this week, so lot's of reading ahead. Will post my updates on my thread - https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/gwr-branch-terminus-journey.445/page-2#post-4404

 

[Hayfield]

Great if you want 60 ft panels, but us branchline modellers would prefer 45 ft panels and even some 30 ft panels for sidings and anyway it's easier to distress ply sleepers and timbers than plastic. Also, if you plant your own timbers you don't end up with dead uniform spacings and ends, as per the prototype.

When I was in the PW gang on the ESR and were relaying a couple of panels, the sleepers were laid in by eye. When spot resleepering with new sleepers, the ends did not necessarily end up in line with the existing sleepers.

Phil

Sorry I missed your reply, in the absence of anything better remove either 6 sleepers from one sprue or 3 from both and you more or less have 45' panels, as you need 18 sleepers per panel you can use the surplus ones to make more panels.

There are pro's and con's for the material used for timbers and sleepers, many prefer the connivance of ready to lay. My main preference for plastic timbers is the permanence of the bond between plastic to plastic, something plastic to ply cannot replicate.

In the end its personal preference

 

[LittleWestern]

Great if you want 60 ft panels, but us branchline modellers would prefer 45 ft panels and even some 30 ft panels for sidings and anyway it's easier to distress ply sleepers and timbers than plastic. Also, if you plant your own timbers you don't end up with dead uniform spacings and ends, as per the prototype.

When I was in the PW gang on the ESR and were relaying a couple of panels, the sleepers were laid in by eye. When spot resleepering with new sleepers, the ends did not necessarily end up in line with the existing sleepers.

A question if I may, I found the document for making 44' 6" 18 sleeper panels in Templot, but I saw your comment regarding 30' siding panels? Was this normal? and is there a documented sleeper spacing guide I could programme into Templot? I'm trying to create some jigs to assist in my hand laying of track.

 

[Phil O]

Sidings would utilise anything 2nd hand that was usable 30ft panels could be old 85lbs rail cut in half as these came in 60ft lengths, usable sections of crippled rail, rail that had damaged ends would be shortened to remove the damage and cascade down.

What you find in sidings is pot luck, no hard a fast rules, as they are only low speed and not carrying passengers. They were mostly ballasted with ash, some to sleeper level and others to rail level in wheeled vehicle access was required. Areas of sidings with heavy vehicle traffic may have been cobbled or more laterly concreted.

Nobody is going to pick you up on it. On my quayside layout I am using ash and cobbles.

 

[LittleWestern]

Sidings would utilise anything 2nd hand that was usable 30ft panels could be old 85lbs rail cut in half as these came in 60ft lengths, usable sections of crippled rail, rail that had damaged ends would be shortened to remove the damage and cascade down.

What you find in sidings is pot luck, no hard a fast rules, as they are only low speed and not carrying passengers. They were mostly ballasted with ash, some to sleeper level and others to rail level in wheeled vehicle access was required. Areas of sidings with heavy vehicle traffic may have been cobbled or more laterly concreted.

Nobody is going to pick you up on it. On my quayside layout I am using ash and cobbles.

Hi @Phil O
This is good to know, thank you! I was more inclined to set rails in heavy ballast/ash anyway for effect, was simply curious as to the practice, if as you say, is whatever they had around then that works for me I wasn't able to find this information myself, so I am grateful. maybe I need more books!

Cheers,

James

 

[Phil O]

Hi James,

The, published information tends to concentrate on the standards for passenger carrying traffic, not the lesser trafficked lines, such as freight only and sidings, where a mishap less likely to result in serious consequences, just inconvenience.

I only found out by working in the PW gang of a preserved railway and getting hands on experience, not in text books. Nothing beats getting your hands dirty, for getting the information. When I did a bit of PW work on the Plym Valley Railway there was an 80 year old retired ganger called Les, who laid out a tandem turnout by eye and a bit of string, to line up the crossings.

 

[MikeH_83]

Hi all,

Well I have spent some time ripping out all my old trackwork and altering baseboards for this new trackwork (except I have ran out of 9mm birch ply and the cost of it is astrominical at the mo)

So after laying out the trackwork on the new baseboards I have came to abit of a dilemma, The Lye-By for the slow goods as shown between the blue and orange circle is currently 6ft in length which visually looks quite small and was hoping for it to be a tad longer, however I don't want to extend it further south because I would like to leave some space there. So a few options for me..

1) Leave as is, Only stopping any goods trains that are 6ft or less in length (as most will be anyway bar 1)
2) Remove the blue set of points and have trains reverse in.. This means they would pass the signal at the end of the station and be half on that curve heading into the fiddleyard before reversing for that 1 long goods train. (Not sure how that works with signalling)
3)Move the orange set of points back 1ft and remove the blue points to increase it to 7ft in length and have the length from orange points to end of the platforms be 7ft

Given the fact that my fiddleyard space is limited im slightly inclined to go with option 1 or 2 and just run more smaller goods trains but sometimes its nice to get the opinions of those more experienced with railways in the real or model form.

This will be set in GWR (with probably some lms or lner or southern mixed in at times for shared running veriety)

Cheers

 

[Phil O]

How about a bridge of some sort just after the branch junction, to disguise the fact that the loop is somewhat short?

 

[MikeH_83]

How about a bridge of some sort just after the branch junction, to disguise the fact that the loop is somewhat short?

Not sure if the supports will fit so well inbetween the track spaces I have but certainly a good idea and worth looking at! If all else fails maybe a big oak tree on the corner to just block line of sight or something...

To be honest the station isn't that long anyway, Probably just a tad longer than 5ft. With not having a long stright line space I have had to be somewhat creative on how to fit everything in without it looking too silly. Hoping it all pans out in the end

 

[richard_t]

Hi all,

Well I have spent some time ripping out all my old trackwork and altering baseboards for this new trackwork (except I have ran out of 9mm birch ply and the cost of it is astrominical at the mo)

[snip]

Cheers

I think the whole birch ply ship has sailed. Where I used to get mine from, import direct from Russia, so unless there are other sources in the world for it, I suspect it will be a very long time before we're able to get it and I can't imagine what the cost will be. My last full sheet of Birch ply was over 100UKP.

I've decided to go for a high quality MDF with the appropriate dust extraction and PPE. Without tempting fate, with the new house and model layout space, I'm lucky as my eventual layout will in the house, and not exposed to extremes of temperature or changes in moisture.

Shame, as I love the look of birch ply - especially when varnished/waxed/sealed/?? with Osmo Poly-X matt.

All the best

Richard.

 

[MikeH_83]

I think the whole birch ply ship has sailed. Where I used to get mine from, import direct from Russia, so unless there are other sources in the world for it, I suspect it will be a very long time before we're able to get it and I can't imagine what the cost will be. My last full sheet of Birch ply was over 100UKP.

I've decided to go for a high quality MDF with the appropriate dust extraction and PPE. Without tempting fate, with the new house and model layout space, I'm lucky as my eventual layout will in the house, and not exposed to extremes of temperature or changes in moisture.

Shame, as I love the look of birch ply - especially when varnished/waxed/sealed/?? with Osmo Poly-X matt.

All the best

Richard.

I think your right there. It's looking like any decent sized sheets are getting to around the £200 mark, There's no way I am paying that for some wood that im going to cover in scenics! Is sealing it a good idea then? Mines been in the loft for about 7 years without any issues but I havn't actually dumped any water on it from ballasting etc yet

 

[Nigel Brown]

I use marine ply.

 

[MikeH_83]

I have made some slight changes to the bottom half of the layout. Instead of having a small straight section on the left hand side I have tried keeping a shallow sweeping curve instead to see if it looks and flows better. I decided to try getting rid of the branch as it followed the mainline far too much and instead tried adding in a junction. Not much space for the fiddleyard mind. I still need to tweak the industry bit but if I can pull it off I think it'd look better. Not sure what else to do with the branch line tbh

 

[Tony W]

Hello Mike.
You could try moving the junction back into the curve to make more room. As the slip road is on the outside of the curve it would work.
Box file attached.
Regards
Tony.

 

[MikeH_83]

Hello Mike.
You could try moving the junction back into the curve to make more room. As the slip road is on the outside of the curve it would work.
Box file attached.
Regards
Tony.

That's a good shout tbh! Thanks for the edited file. It's funny how I started it wanting a nice countryside station on the GWR in the 30's and before you know it there is track everywhere lol

 

[Phil O]

If it's a 1930's GW layout, the crossover at the bottom would be trailing, not facing as drawn. Sorry to be a bit picky.

 

[MikeH_83]

If it's a 1930's GW layout, the crossover at the bottom would be trailing, not facing as drawn. Sorry to be a bit picky.

Always appreciate the feedback. It might not be clear on my plans but the spur at the bottom is basically a branch line splitting off from the mainline so that’s why I have it facing. It basically comes out of the fiddleyard and heads up the mainline before crossing over into the goods loop line and into the 3rd platform.