Wantage Upper Yard

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Why do you think that the nuts are hex rather than square?

Given that you attend Peter Hunt's emporium for indoctrination into the ways and means of WMR, one might be excused for thinking that lost wax brass fishplates would be on the agenda - clearly not so I hope that I am excused for asking why such a method did not find favour.

Best wishes to Platelayer Sopwith, looks like he has a lot to do in the forthcoming days.
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Why do you think that the nuts are hex rather than square?

Given that you attend Peter Hunt's emporium for indoctrination into the ways and means of WMR, one might be excused for thinking that lost wax brass fishplates would be on the agenda - clearly not so I hope that I am excused for asking why such a method did not find favour.

Best wishes to Platelayer Sopwith, looks like he has a lot to do in the forthcoming days.

Self satisfaction in scratch building me thinks:D

Col.
 

Wagonman

Western Thunderer
Seriously impressive work, Steve. Six down and umpteen thousand to go... I have some of Karlgarin's 'enhanced' Code 100 rail waiting for when (if) I start on the Cwmtowy Mineral so I'll be watching with interest!

As to Hex or square, the fishplate nuts on our garden line are hex but may not be all that old. The rail is FB and about 6cm high so God knows what code that is ;)


Richard
 

Stevesopwith

Western Thunderer
In all the photos of sufficient quality to be able to tell, the fishplate, check-rail and cross tie nuts appear to be hexagonal. Other examples of their use on FB rails at Tanfield and MSLR at Brockford make me confident that the assumption is plausible. Also..... Scale Hardware only do hexagon nuts!

Code 100/7 roughly equates to 11cm, so I reckon your garden rail is about Code 55/7 Richard. :)

To be honest, cast brass fishplates never occurred to me. The WMR examples do a good job as functional joiners of standard length track panels, with jigged, pre-drilled rails. As with many castings, they benefitted from a bit of fettling, and their intricacy and hardness made this very time consuming. I'd had enough after 20 or so sets, so I have the utmost admiration for John and the team for completing the whole layout!

Also, as Colin suggests, it became an absorbing project to solve all the manufacturing issues, with pretty basic technical skills and equipment. Now, having all the components to hand, and an efficient bench set up, I look forward to about a fortnight of pretty relaxed assembly work.

P.S.
Sopwith is rather bored with trackwork, and currently has his eye on the 'Amusing Hobby' Neubaufarzeug PzKf.V1 Kit.
 

queensquare

Western Thunderer
I have only recently joined the site so am still working my way through what's on here but if this is anything to go by I'm in for a treat - inspirational stuff.
I'm a big fan of light railway subjects, albeit primarily in 2FS, so this is right up my street.

Jerry
 

Wagonman

Western Thunderer
Code 100/7 roughly equates to 11cm, so I reckon your garden rail is about Code 55/7 Richard. :)


Actually I said the rail was 6 centimetres high. Code 550 perhaps? I've attached a photo (I hope) showing a very rusty fishplate on a less used stretch of our garden line...


Richardfishplate.jpg
 

Dave

Western Thunderer
Hi Steve,

Could you possibly post the whole photo of this loco if I'm right in thinking it's the Manning Wardle class F?

index.php

Or some close ups of your own Manning as I am attempting to build the Slaters kit and the instructions are a bit sparse regarding where all the detail castings are meant to go.

Thanks
 

dltaylor

Western Thunderer
Just been reading through this topic Steve, an excellent project and a line I'm very keen on.
Is there any further progress to report?
All the best, Dave.
 

Stevesopwith

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave. I've not been doing much on Wantage for a little while, hence the delay in picking up your post.

Thanks for the interest......I've now completed all the metal fishplates, except those at real rail joints which are awaiting final cutting to length, and those which function as switch blade pivots. I've stuck down all the first stage sleepers, and devised a way to represent the check rail fixings and spacer blocks. The photo also shows one of my home-made track gauges, from telescopic tube and 1/8" axle bushes. The spring design grips the head, and would allow it to be used on other rail head widths.

When I re-focus, the next job is to refine the ideas for switch construction and operation... almost certainly manual rather than with point motors. After that, I need some insulating fishplates for crossings.... same basic design but made from 0.5 mm tufnol.

Wantage Crossing and Checkrail.jpg
 

Stevesopwith

Western Thunderer
For no obvious reason, ( apart from a guilty conscience ) , the Tramway worked it's way back to the top of the mental In-tray; after a long period of reasonably productive focus on other projects.

Thus, after a month of three to four hours a day, I have now completed Trackwork Stage One; which means all the previously prepared rails have been soldered to sleepers and the points assembled, complete with fishplated loose heel switch blades.

Stage Two involves fitting replacement sleepers with 1/16" spacing strips to raise the rail to allow the fitting of longitudinal baulk timbering, as detailed earlier.

Hopefully this will be completed a little more quickly :oops:

Cheers..... Steve.

Wantage Stage 1 Trackwork.jpg
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Great work Steve, a fascinating way to build up the track work.
I have to admire your dedication, I think the end result will be well worth it although it almost seems a shame that you are going to unsolder all the sleepers in the last photo :)
Enjoyed the update, thank you.
Steve
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Just thinking along the line for a moment.

The Wantage Engineering Company built a small number of traction engines... six comes to mind... and there is one in preservation which was painted a fetching yellow and bright green (or was when I saw the engine on Clapham Common in 1975). How about one of those traction engines on a GWR Loriot (maybe consigned to "Long Shop", Leiston?).

I recall that there an example of a WEC wagon in a photo in an early issue of Railway Archive.
 
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