adrian
Flying Squad
Not that I've got a huge experience in these deliberations but for the few short pieces of track work I selected the Ebony wood dye for the sleepers as being most convincing to my untutored eye.
7mm Beaufort Mill
- Thread starter daifly
- Start date
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- Tags
- 7mm layout s7 scaleseven
ChrisBr
Western Thunderer
If course by then it was a slab and bracket chair under the nose, not a 3C….
daifly
Western Thunderer
daifly
Western Thunderer
I shall ponder on it but whatever I do, I doubt that anyone else viewing my humble efforts will have your knowledge so I also doubt that sleep will be lost!
Dave
daifly
Western Thunderer
I had hoped to go to the S7 National Show today, but my wife is going in to hospital on Monday to have a new knee installed and is obliged to isolate for three days prior. As a consequence, I become subject to the same restriction so used the time today to make progress with the baseboards.
The elevated track base is now complete. The near end is a short fiddle yard on both levels. The vertical faces will all be clad in stone - I have a cunning plan for that.
The bridge sides are from MM1. The screws will be fully countersunk and holes filled. The walls under the bridge will also be stone clad and the low-level tracks inset into the road.
A little bit of road traffic under the bridge will help set the time and place. (A Griff Fender van and a SWT bus to start with!)
The gap in the rear wall of the viaduct is where a low-relief Beaufort Mill with its loading platform and canopy will sit.
This is the inspiration for the Beaufort Mill siding with the preserved 1338 passing on 10Dec62. Photo provenance unknown. I'm hoping to incorporate the mill's bridge as a scenic break at that end of the layout.
Viaduct walls to create, underlay laid and then tracklaying to come. I may be some time.
Dave
The elevated track base is now complete. The near end is a short fiddle yard on both levels. The vertical faces will all be clad in stone - I have a cunning plan for that.
The bridge sides are from MM1. The screws will be fully countersunk and holes filled. The walls under the bridge will also be stone clad and the low-level tracks inset into the road.
A little bit of road traffic under the bridge will help set the time and place. (A Griff Fender van and a SWT bus to start with!)
The gap in the rear wall of the viaduct is where a low-relief Beaufort Mill with its loading platform and canopy will sit.
This is the inspiration for the Beaufort Mill siding with the preserved 1338 passing on 10Dec62. Photo provenance unknown. I'm hoping to incorporate the mill's bridge as a scenic break at that end of the layout.
Viaduct walls to create, underlay laid and then tracklaying to come. I may be some time.
Dave
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Dan Randall
Western Thunderer
It’s a shame you couldn’t make the S7 gathering today Dave, but it’s good to see you utilised the time on your layout instead. Looking forward to further updates. 
Regards
Dan
Regards
Dan
daifly
Western Thunderer
Whilst my wife was away in hospital for a few days, I separated the baseboards and painted their sides and did the legs too (they're also from Model Railway Solutions) in Farrow and Ball 'Charleston Grey'. This is a subdued mushroom colour and tones down the starkness of the birch ply.
The baseboards have now been moved back to the man-cave. Photos to follow when they are re-erected.
The baseboards have now been moved back to the man-cave. Photos to follow when they are re-erected.
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daifly
Western Thunderer
Slow progress over the last few months with other domestic distractions.
I’m using 5mm thick closed cell foam as a track underlay but was concerned about the edges being vulnerable where it meets the baseboard edge. I failed to find any 5mm thick strip wood at any of the local DIY sheds but then found in my timber stash that I had 20 metres of 5 x 20mm tulip wood and walnut strip that had been abandoned here by kitchen fitters a few years ago. This was perfect for the job and strips were cut and glued around the baseboard edges and then the space within was covered with sheets of closed cell foam glued down with a latex adhesive.
I made a couple of fiddle yard cassettes using ply and aluminium angle. A kit of parts.
This is the connecting/adaptor piece with chiselled rebates for the aluminium plug and socket joining. The design is based on a @Ian@StEnochs design on the S7 website (Members Only area - sorry!)
The completed adaptor piece. A couple of holes drilled in error visible! The ‘plug’ is at the top, the ‘socket’ at the bottom.
The matching cassette with identical attachments.
The cassette and adaptor joined together. Both ends of the cassette have the same attachment configuration.
The other end engaged.
Although they worked well, found that they I they were tedious to make with a lot of cutting, chiselling, filing, drilling, riveting and screwing. The power transfer to the cassette would be OK though via the snug plug/socket design.
Dave
I’m using 5mm thick closed cell foam as a track underlay but was concerned about the edges being vulnerable where it meets the baseboard edge. I failed to find any 5mm thick strip wood at any of the local DIY sheds but then found in my timber stash that I had 20 metres of 5 x 20mm tulip wood and walnut strip that had been abandoned here by kitchen fitters a few years ago. This was perfect for the job and strips were cut and glued around the baseboard edges and then the space within was covered with sheets of closed cell foam glued down with a latex adhesive.
I made a couple of fiddle yard cassettes using ply and aluminium angle. A kit of parts.
This is the connecting/adaptor piece with chiselled rebates for the aluminium plug and socket joining. The design is based on a @Ian@StEnochs design on the S7 website (Members Only area - sorry!)
The completed adaptor piece. A couple of holes drilled in error visible! The ‘plug’ is at the top, the ‘socket’ at the bottom.
The matching cassette with identical attachments.
The cassette and adaptor joined together. Both ends of the cassette have the same attachment configuration.
The other end engaged.
Although they worked well, found that they I they were tedious to make with a lot of cutting, chiselling, filing, drilling, riveting and screwing. The power transfer to the cassette would be OK though via the snug plug/socket design.
Dave
daifly
Western Thunderer
At Guildex, Stafford, I was able to look at the laser-cut MDF cassette kits produced by Intentio Model Railways and subsequently ordered some. They’re not cheap, but they are accurate, quick to assemble and work well once a method of powering them is devised.
The assembly and powering of these kits is documented in an article I've written for the ScaleSeven website here.
The cassettes have helped to fix the datum track level at the left-hand end of the layout. The design of the cassette system gives a railhead height of 10mm that is a perfect match for Code 125 rail held in e.g. Exactoscale chairs on wooden sleepers on a 3mm cork or closed cell foam base. As I have used 5mm foam I have added a 2mm thick MDF layer to the fiddleyard deck to raise the cassettes and adaptor to the correct height.
Exiting the fiddleyard between a couple of buildings, the track crosses a road with inset, checkrailed track before entering the railway property yard. Within the yard is the first turnout into the exchange siding loop.
Photos to follow when I've built all of that. Please don't hold your breath. I work slowly and intermittently!
Dave
The assembly and powering of these kits is documented in an article I've written for the ScaleSeven website here.
The cassettes have helped to fix the datum track level at the left-hand end of the layout. The design of the cassette system gives a railhead height of 10mm that is a perfect match for Code 125 rail held in e.g. Exactoscale chairs on wooden sleepers on a 3mm cork or closed cell foam base. As I have used 5mm foam I have added a 2mm thick MDF layer to the fiddleyard deck to raise the cassettes and adaptor to the correct height.
Exiting the fiddleyard between a couple of buildings, the track crosses a road with inset, checkrailed track before entering the railway property yard. Within the yard is the first turnout into the exchange siding loop.
Photos to follow when I've built all of that. Please don't hold your breath. I work slowly and intermittently!
Dave
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daifly
Western Thunderer
Actually, this is the stuff but in a large quantity!
C&L sheets were 1m x 0.5m x 5mm and cost £3 or £4 each several years ago. Say £7/sqM. The big roll price at £6/sqM in 2022 is not a bad price.
Dave
C&L sheets were 1m x 0.5m x 5mm and cost £3 or £4 each several years ago. Say £7/sqM. The big roll price at £6/sqM in 2022 is not a bad price.
Dave
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
I buy from Phoenix Precision as, like Dave, I cannot fathom the way through the C&L web-site.
Focalplane
Western Thunderer
I have a stash of noise deadening foam for my Riley restoration. Would never have thought to use it for this purpose!
daifly
Western Thunderer
The running rails and checkrails have been soldered.
Another view:
I had originally intended to use some very nice Skytrex resin cobbled castings to infill between the checkrails and also for the shoulders - represented here by the grey cardboard. Unfortunately, I had checked the width and they were fine but neglected to check another dimension - they are too thick! I realise now that they're meant to fit rail in chairs and my rails are flat on copper clad.
No matter, as the Swansea prototype had ash or tarmac between the checkrails:
These three views are of the same spot from diffferent directions in the 50s and early 60s. The bridge in the picture will be behind the van in my second photo above. The track will be blended in to the road surface on the layout - hopefully convincingly! I shall forget about it for now until I get to the scenic treatments. The wagon rolled happily - I just wanted to be sure that the very narrow ScaleSeven flangeway across the road was adequate. It is!
Next task is to bite the bullet and glue down the chairs of the point visible in the first photo.
As an aside, here's a fourth photo probably taken in the mid-20s before electrification (lifted from an auction site) from the other side of the bridge (visible in the background). In the first b&w photo above you can see a line (which I'm not modelling) branching off under the bridge. Up to the bridge the track belongs to the Swansea Harbour Trust railway. Immediately after the bridge and behind the two locos (belonging to and standing on the tracks of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway) is another branch running off behind the large brick building (part of Swansea Victoria Station). That line belongs to the LNWR and connects to their system at the back of the station. The GWR owns the track running across the bridge! Plenty of scope there for some interesting interchange movements!
Dave
Another view:
I had originally intended to use some very nice Skytrex resin cobbled castings to infill between the checkrails and also for the shoulders - represented here by the grey cardboard. Unfortunately, I had checked the width and they were fine but neglected to check another dimension - they are too thick! I realise now that they're meant to fit rail in chairs and my rails are flat on copper clad.
No matter, as the Swansea prototype had ash or tarmac between the checkrails:
These three views are of the same spot from diffferent directions in the 50s and early 60s. The bridge in the picture will be behind the van in my second photo above. The track will be blended in to the road surface on the layout - hopefully convincingly! I shall forget about it for now until I get to the scenic treatments. The wagon rolled happily - I just wanted to be sure that the very narrow ScaleSeven flangeway across the road was adequate. It is!
Next task is to bite the bullet and glue down the chairs of the point visible in the first photo.
As an aside, here's a fourth photo probably taken in the mid-20s before electrification (lifted from an auction site) from the other side of the bridge (visible in the background). In the first b&w photo above you can see a line (which I'm not modelling) branching off under the bridge. Up to the bridge the track belongs to the Swansea Harbour Trust railway. Immediately after the bridge and behind the two locos (belonging to and standing on the tracks of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway) is another branch running off behind the large brick building (part of Swansea Victoria Station). That line belongs to the LNWR and connects to their system at the back of the station. The GWR owns the track running across the bridge! Plenty of scope there for some interesting interchange movements!
Dave
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Focalplane
Western Thunderer
Dave, I have been searching for decent embossed cobblestone and/or granite sett sheets for Moor Street for what seems like years! The nearest decent example I have found was by Kirtley, but these are photographs and are not embossed. But they should fit nicely between the rails.
Paul
Paul