4mm Podimore: landscaping.

[Yorkshire Dave]

A noticeable colour difference to my effort which suggests a bit more work is called for.

This would provide an opportunity to use acrylic paint washes (artists acrylics are suitable). I would start with a very pale brown umber wash to see the effect. If not quite right as a pale wash of burnt sienna. You may have to add a touch of yellow.

It's time consuming as you have to let each wash dry. The washes can be built up until the desired effect is achieved.

 

[Pencarrow]

As the resident (un) civil engineer, definitely more light brown/yellow required but the structure looks great. Always pleased when people take the effort to model bridges correctly. Well done that man.

 

[Steph Dale]

As the resident (un) civil engineer...

Hehe, Chris, you're in good company. A colleague of mine recently remarked that as an engineer he can be both antisocial and civil at the same time.

As a manufacturing/safety engineer I'm not sure I'm in a position to argue...

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As the resident (un) civil engineer, definitely more light brown/yellow required but the structure looks great. Always pleased when people take the effort to model bridges correctly. Well done that man.

There's nothing worse than seeing a model bridge which in reality would collapse. Unless it's held up by art.

 

[simond]

Hehe, Chris, you're in good company. A colleague of mine recently remarked that as an engineer he can be both antisocial and civil at the same time.

As a manufacturing/safety engineer I'm not sure I'm in a position to argue...

Steph

as the Bard would have it, I’m just a rude Mechanical...

atb
Simon

 

[AJC]

as the Bard would have it, I’m just a rude Mechanical...

atb
Simon

You have no idea how hard it is for me to resist making a bad joke at one of my former VCs expense at this point (though that is how we in humanities sometimes referred to him).

Adam

 

[AJC]

Not a lot going on with Podimore as the layout is at the other end of the garden and it's a mite cold right now. That said, the key bit of trackwork that I hadn't built was the catch point for the visible end of the goods loop. And if you're going to do that you may as well make it workable (maybe interlocked if my brain will let me do that).



Just a single-bladed version; it is a light railway after all.



I've fettled the blade a bit since and replaced the plastic fishplate with a PECO metal one and soldered some spacers under the rail. Once the cosmetic chairs are added I can think about sticking it down. Well, once it's warmed up a bit.

Adam

 

[Gerry Beale]

Very nice work Adam - and you've no idea how timely your posting is! I have recently started to work on the remaining trackwork for Maiden Newton and am working at the Dorchester end of the layout. Two catch points are required - one for the 'down' refuge siding and another for the 'Bridport' siding. I have been pondering how to make these - having never built any before - and reached a conclusion just yesterday evening on how I might do it. Then this morning up pops your posting and you have built it exactly as I had planned - so thank s very much for the confirmation. And I know exactly what you mean about going 'up the shed' when the chill wind is blowing! I shall shortly go and switch the heater on for a while before going up later on to continue with the track.

 

[AJC]

Thanks Gerry! It’s good to hear that I’m not the only one who struggles to visualise these things. Actually making it took almost no time at all, so there’s a lesson there, somewhere...

Adam

 

[cbrailways]

There were many types of catchpoint. Here are the GWR versions:

 

[ullypug]

Did this for Cheddar, no idea what it's called but its prototypical!

 

[AJC]

That's very posh, Andrew - not at all like the cheapskate LSWR! I've just nipped down to the shed to pop it in place and trim the sleepers to fit. That'll do for today as it's perishing. The next thing I need to think about is supporting the rail ends at the baseboard joint. Any thoughts anyone?

Adam

 

[cbrailways]

Did this for Cheddar, no idea what it's called but its prototypical!View attachment 137859

Hi Andrew. Thats basically two Type B catchpoints (see drawing in my post above), one in each leg of the turnout. That was fairly common practice where the turnout splitting into several sidings into a yard had to be close to the main running line due to siding length constraints. Very nice to see it done properly. Well done.

 

[jonte]

Hi Adam

That’s a smashing job you’ve made there!

May I ask how you intend to operate the blades, please?

Hope you don’t mind but this one I cobbled together in OO Gauge from some scraps of PCB, b/h rail and leftover C&L chairs.



As you can see, there was no ‘set’ in the curved stock rail, having resorted to the old dodge of filing a slot in the stock rail for it to nestle into.

Looked okay I think from a distance, but the rail should have been raised to suitably accommodate the chairs (the rail being merely soldered straight to the PCB).

I simply soldered the single switch rail to the sleeper and you might perhaps just make out the operating tab attached to the side of the ‘moving’ sleeper, the intention being to operate it via SPDT switch linked to wire in tube.

The top photo shows what was intended (the under sized sleepers were to be buried in the ballast/detritus of the yard).

Hope you don’t mind, Adam, and I’d like to hear how you intend to operate it.

Best wishes,

Jonte

 

[Phil O]

That's very posh, Andrew - not at all like the cheapskate LSWR! I've just nipped down to the shed to pop it in place and trim the sleepers to fit. That'll do for today as it's perishing. The next thing I need to think about is supporting the rail ends at the baseboard joint. Any thoughts anyone?

Adam

On Pottery Quay, I trimmed down some lace making pins to about 12mm or so and tapped them in where the template showed the rails to be and then when I had fitted the rails, I soldered the ends to the pins.

 

[AJC]

Thanks all. @jonte - I’m going to make some actuators that mount underneath the baseboard from plastic sheet and some square telescopic Plastruct tube. These will be linked to the blades with a bit of brass wire acting as a dropper. More when I’ve made them. A DPDT slide switch will deal with the polarity and I’ll probably use some bike spikes as pull rods: simple, robust and cheap.

The catch point I’ve made will just need the one dropper.

Adam

 

[jonte]

Hi Adam and thanks for your reply.

I think I’ve an idea of what you mean but look forward to seeing it all the same.

Best wishes,

Jonte

 

[cbrailways]

Here is a photograph of a prototype version of the double catch point within a turnout as discussed above:
Edit to add: Photograph taken whilst on inspection visit with no trains running.

 

[AJC]

While the snow was on the ground, a bit of building work for Podimore in the form of a field barn, a structure that would have predated the railway based on one of those buildings in search of a modelling application. The real thing is on the edge of Thorn Coffin, just outside Yeovil. The posh squared and faced frontage contrasts well with the brick of the rest of it an the double Roman pantiles (not original) are a typical feature of the area.





Helpfully, it's also half-buried in the field and in my world will be relocated five miles or so north east and in semi-relief, with a corner cut off for the backscene. Quite a straightforward shell of 60 thou' plastic sheet with overlays - the brick is easy, but the stonework will be hand scribed. Just marked out for the minute:







Adam

 

[AJC]

As it’s warmed up, the head of steel (ok, nickel silver) has advanced towards Sherborne, or across the baseboard boundary at any rate. The actual track laid is perhaps less interesting, just a catch point and two panels of concrete pot sleepered track in a gentle curve. The turnout currently being weighted down has also been gently tweaked to suit.



Now, assuming it stays mild, do I lay the yard access point and platform road, or work on the switchback exchange sidings?

Adam