Progress on signalling. The signals have constructed, and their plug-in bases temporarily fitted into the baseboards. Proper installation will have to wait until the boards come off their trestles (see below), when the loft room is rearranged.
As can be seen, the boards aren't yet aligned. The junction one needs to go down a little, before joining bolts are fitted.
The signals are 3D printed. with the exception of operating wires and Lill pins for "axles", plus the wire handrail on the junction signal. Glasses are theatre lighting gel.
In this photo. it's an unusually sunny day in the Tanat Valley. On the left, uncared-for green Ivatt 2-6-0 46521 is waiting to run round its train of ballast hoppers, before taking them to be loaded at Llanddu Quarry sidings just up the Nantmawr branch.
Beyond, another Ivatt* 2-6-0 (a cleaner black-liveried loco) is approaching with a an ex-GWR B Set from Llanfyllin, bound for Oswestry. This never happened, to the best of my knowledge, mainly because the junction with the Llanfyllin branch faced the wrong way: east towards Llanymynech and the Welshpool/Oswestry line.
* this has still to be renumbered as one of 46510/11/12, as its current Bachmann number isn't a loco that worked in the area.
I suppose that the left-hand Home signal could be "off" whichever way the point the loco is passing is set, and interlocking just proved that it wasn't "half & half". It must also have required the near point to be correctly set, to access the platform road.
Towards the end of the line's use this side of the overbridge, both these points were removed (by 1957), and running round couldn't actually happen. It may well have involved running back from the quarry with the engine and brake van at the same end of the train.
Here's 46521 with empty hoppers. It's standing on top of the loop catch point, but the signalman has turned a blind eye. From photos, it appears that a train of wagons to be run round, was usually left in the platform road, as this was longer between the points.
On the left, is the only point rodding and signal wires done so far - there's also plastic rodding (to avoid shorts) across to the point on the right.
Point rodding was assembled off-site on a length of wood, as it seemed much easier than attempting to get the stools level and inline in situ.
The layout's centre baseboard stands on two trestles. These are made of 50 x 25mm timber, with 6mm plywood stiffening plates. Having carted about trestles for the Cambrian Models stand for many years, I felt that they took up too much room when folded - they were 75 x 25mm legs, and had crossbars and a diagonal on the outside of the legs. Each one was thus about 100mm thick when folded, and took up quite a lot of room in the car, especially when, originally, there were three of them.
Instead, the design shown below was adopted. The two halves pivot on a length of 6mm studding at the top, with a centre "bearing" to stiffen the studding. The outer legs are notched to fit the baseboard frame, and there are short extra pieces on the inside of the frame that match the slope of the legs, trapping them against the end timber of the baseboard. The inner legs go inside the outer ones when folded.
The legs are kept at the correct splay by two lengths of 6mm studding which have nuts and washers each side of the legs. It should be possible to adjust the front to back level, by tightening one side's studding a little more - to raise that side.
The end baseboards rest on protruding lips on the centre baseboard, and only have a single upright pair of legs at the outer ends, made in the same way as the trestle "halves". These will probably have diagonal struts up to the baseboard - still have to decide how these will be attached.
Blender 3D drawing (done to prove that they would fold as required!) of trestles:
