With the old adage ‘no point crying over spilt milk’ reverberating around the space between my ears, fellow Westerners, I made a start trying to put some wrongs to rights.
Firstly, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that while conducting my tests, one of the existing short lengths of track on board one had ‘died’. Thinking that traces of primer were still clinging to the head of the rails on either one or both side of said section, I gave the area a darned good polishing, but all to no avail. So that was my first point of call. Turning the board over, I soon discovered why:
I think I pulled too hard earlier with the pliers when removing a clip that was needed for a new area of wiring elsewhere that was failing to cling on. An easy fix.
So now it was into that more pressing of tasks: removal of the hump.
You may recall in my earlier post that to the eye - or mine at least - it wasn’t too pronounced, but it became so when the 8F passed over it in the direction of the fiddleyard. I tried it on a fast speed and was lucky that it didn’t leave the track
Why didn’t I just build it myself….. Yeah, I know, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record
So it was time to make a start, by removing the short section of track from Board one. Thankfully, this was only one of two sections that I didn’t glue down, figuring that being soldered one end and joined to a glued down point the other would be sufficient. A bit of luck for once! So turning the board over once more, I removed the set of feeds from the bus, before turning it the right way up once more and pulling out the track pins in one or two places. Whilst doing this, the soldering iron had become nice n warm, so with a dash of flux on the joint and a dab of solder on the iron, the joint was weakened and the rails prised up from the brass screws one at a time. Then it was just a case of lifting one end and sliding it free of the joiners at the point end, before removing the screws which still displayed enough slot to just about engage my screwdriver. Thankfully quite a simple task, but those soldered joints were solid, which is good to know for the future
But that was about the only head start I’d get, as the next section on board two was glued fast with a concentrated solution of pva. That said, it was eventually partially removed by sliding an old Stanley blade underneath the sleepers which thankfully didn’t damage the cork below. Here’s the result:
At this point I decided to see what was going on. There was definitely a step caused by the ply inserts at the ends of the adjoining boards causing a gradient:
Not the clearest of photos but I think you can just make out where the rule touches the ply to the right hand side creating a gradient.
Then it was just a case of rubbing, first with sandpaper which made no difference to the ply, then with the coarser purple papered stuff that I can never remember the name of which wasn’t much better, so out came a piece of what appeared to be section of paper from an industrial grade sander that I recall hiring several years ago, although what for exactly, I can’t quite remember
Now, that did make a difference:
It makes it look like the adjacent track has a shouldered edge
To see what it looked like, I connected up a piece of sacrificial track which I pinned down in places. It showed that on one side, the track was floating, but on the other, it was seated on the newly altered ply surface. I took a couple of photos to show the situation, but it was difficult to get in either the phone or iPad to get a decent shot. Here they are anyway for the record:
Yeah, they’re absolutely useless, fellow Westerners; I offer my sincerest apologies. I guess photography’s not my bag either.
The benefit of this is that the gradient finishes further back than before on board two, thereby all things being equal, it should reduce the angle and hopefully that ‘drop’ in height causing the annoying see saw effect of the loco. The proud edge of the ply has also gone.
Next, I’ll gauge off a ‘horizontal’ from adjacent tracks, and slip card supports under the rails so that stock doesn’t attain a jaunty angle when traversing; that’s all I’d need
. Once satisfied in the lie of the sacrificial track, I’ll lift it, screw in some new brass screws in the appropriate places, then replace the track. All sounds too easy, doesn’t it? What’s the betting there’s a fly in the ointment. There appear to be no free lunches with this build.
But it will have to wait, as when I last left my den, my specs were beginning to slip down the bridge of my nose due to perspiration caused by the heat.
No, I think a cool beer is now the order of the day.
Cheers for now.
Jonte
Then it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps the tender had pick ups? Removing the tender revealed that I was right. In all honesty, it’s unlikely I’ll be using large tender locos such as this so I can’t see it being too much of a problem, and if I do, I might just have to consider removing the pick ups: or just concentrate
