7mm Tedcaster Sidings - Shock horror, permanent way at last.....

[alcazar]

Try Miliput, or car body filler.

 

[Rob Pulham]

As I predicted the riveted strips to represent the girders took a bit longer but it all went on with no problems and there was plenty of spare.







Next job is the guide wheels but not tonight I am going to the theatre to see Oliver.

 

[alcazar]

I'm watching this with interest, I have an eye one one of these in the future, just need to find out whcuh sheds had them fitted, not sure Kings X passenger loco did? Top shed might have had one fitted mind.

Do you mean a turntable like the above?
Kings cross had one at the station, where the diesel depot was, hard up against the tunnel mouth and retaining wall.
There is a picture in "The Colour of Steam" of 60500 in typically filthy condition at Top Shed, while the turntable in the foreground is being flame cut. It was, apparently, being renewed. The photo is taken from the top of the coaling stage, so a decent view.

 

[Dog Star]

An interesting conversation with Robin this evening... in which Robin was describing progress... and the realisation that there might be some confusion over the "chairs". Once we had sorted that matter then we realised that we did not know an important fact. Confused? Certainly. Resolved? Depends upon WT-members!

I thought that the "chairs" were to be used on the turntable deck - not so, the "chairs" are for the ring rail which supports the ends of a revolving deck. Ah so! Now the question... what type of chair is used for the ring rail?

My guess is L1 chairs (aka Bridge Chairs)... any one know better? photo would be very useful.

thank you, Graham

 

[Rob Pulham]

As described to Graham on the phone, the deck rails are sat in Peco fish plates which are soldered to the bridge deck - my first ever bit of permanent way!!!
Still moving forward although I haven't had much time on it this week. I have filled the screw heads with Milliput after one abortive attempt with solder.






The Milliput still needs to be rubbed down.

 

[lancer1027]

Looking really great Rob

Rob

 

[alcazar]

I shouldn't worry about getting it to completely blend in either, it will look like rusty patches.

 

[Rob Pulham]

I shouldn't worry about getting it to completely blend in either, it will look like rusty patches.

That's quite true, thanks for the thought.

I spent yesterday and part of today putting together the support frames/guide wheels that allow the bridge to rotate. This has been the hardest bit of the build so far and that wasn't hard so much as fiddly. It took a few goes to get the end U sections soldered square across the I beams with the right width at either end and that's despite having a template to bolt across it. The instructions suggest assembling this on a piece of glass which I did I still ended up stripping the wheels/bearings back of one of these to give it a further rub down to ensure that the guide wheels rotate freely.

Then most fiddly of all was getting all the 16ba screws/nuts on - all 48 of them. The instructions suggest having the nuts uppermost as being most prototypical.

How I managed this was to feed a couple of 16ba screws through from below. I used some short pieces of coffee stirrer wedged in to hold them in place while I fit the brass bearing in place over it. You need to be careful that you pair these up correctly of they don't fit - guess who had to take some of and start again to discover this......

Not having any 16ba nut runners I folded a loop on a piece of brass wire that passed through the nut. I used this to pick up and place the nut and then prodded,/tightened the nut onto the protruding thread with a cocktail stick finally tightening with a pair of pliers.

Which gave me these.



I also managed to get all the handrail/walkway support brackets folded and soldered up. The next job is to clean up all the cast brass handrail pillars and then open out the holes in the brackets to accept these.

The clear plastic plates are to insulate the guide wheels from the bridge.

 

[Steve Cook]

Nice work Rob, I'm enjoying watching this come together

I hope you don't mind me pointing it out, but your recent builds are looking very clean and tidy indeed

Steve

 

[Rob Pulham]

Nice work Rob, I'm enjoying watching this come together

I hope you don't mind me pointing it out, but your recent builds are looking very clean and tidy indeed

Steve

Thanks Steve, I don't mind a bit

 

[daifly]

I spoke with the chap on the Metalsmith stand at Reading and he hopes to have the pre-grouping turntables reintroduced early in the new year. Based on what I've seen on Rob's thread so far, I'm very tempted! Nice work.

Dave

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Dave, it a very enjoyable build so far.

A couple of days off work has seen a lot more progress on this. Having made up all the supports and cleaned up/opened out the stanchion castings ready for the rails last night, today saw them fitted and the handrails too.

It was all quite straightforward apart from having packed the tops of the supports that fit under the winding platform so that the winding platform, was at the same height as the deck. I realised that my hand rail would then come out at a different height from the rest at that point.

After a bit of head scratching I soldered a thin strip of scrap etch along the outside edge where there was no support (the supports not coming out that far from the deck)



I then drilled through for the base of the stanchion and opened out the copper clad to sink the stanchion base into it and bring them back to the level of the rest.

Giving this..





I still need to fasten the guide wheels on but that's a job for tomorrow.

 

[lancer1027]

Hi Rob.

That looks Excellent.

Is it difficult to build.?. My soldering is so do you have to be good to get the accuracy to get the table to turn nice and smooth.?

I look forward to the next installment.

Rob.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Rob,

No I don't think so - the soldering is for the cosmetic bits - the main assembly is nut and bolt.
You could probably glue the bit's on that I have soldered. Soldering is like anything else, it gets easier the more you do and the best bit is that if you don't get it right you can just heat it up take it apart, clean up and start again.

For example I think that I took the ends of the frames for the guide wheels apart about 5 times before I was satisfied that they looked right - they would probably have run OK but now I have the confidence to do so I fiddled until I was happy.

Before I started I suspect that I had built it up in my mind to be more complicated than it is in reality.

I would urge you to have a go, there seems to be a few of us that have built one now so help and advice is close at hand. I have highlighted the places where I have made/deviation to the instructions - not many.

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Rob,

some great work there mate, keep it up.

cheers

Mike

 

[Rob Pulham]

With the impending visit north by Graham and Peter I thought that I had best make an attempt at some permanent way (so we will have something to talk about Graham).

Nothing fancy for my first go, but it is home brewed permanent way none the less.







And the gauge........ 31.5mm

I have taken on board some of Graham's many informative postings on the subject so I pre-stained the sleepers, and painted the chairs while they were still on the sprue - the airbrush made short work of this I used an initial coat of Vallejo game colour "flat earth" I had some spare in the airbrush from spraying an LNER horse box and once decanted and let down you can't put it back (there wasn't enough to warrant putting it in another container either), followed by Vallejo Air "rust". Although I did have to hold them in my hand, they just kept blowing around the spray booth otherwise

What I haven't done is paint the keys separately.

I have to say that it was very satisfying, you never know a turnout may follow......

 

[dltaylor]

That turntable is a stunning piece of work Rob,
Cheers, Dave

 

[Dog Star]

Nothing fancy for my first go, ... it is home brewed permanent way none the less.







... I pre-stained the sleepers, and painted the chairs while they were still on the sprue - the airbrush made short work of this I used an initial coat of Vallejo game colour "flat earth" ... followed by Vallejo Air "rust". Although I did have to hold them in my hand, they just kept blowing around the spray booth otherwise

What I haven't done is paint the keys separately.

I have to say that it was very satisfying, you never know a turnout may follow......

Hello Rob,
Very satisfying for you, equally for us to see you building track and producing a good looking result. The colouring looks good for main / secondary lines.

How about blackening the rails before assembly? This is worthwhile because (a) the blackening acts as a primer / basecoat for subsequent dry-brushing and (b) doing all of the rail prevents any shiny / unpainted bits showing if the rail moves in the chairs at a later date.

If the air-brush is blowing the sprues around, try lowering the air pressure a tad(caster) or "fixing" the sprues to a piece of (card)board with either double-side sticky tape or blu-tak.

Not painted the keys? --- .

regards, Graham

 

[Osgood]

Do you mean chemically blackening, Graham?

 

[Dog Star]

Do you mean chemically blackening, Graham?

Yes - I use Birchwood Casey products... steel goes dark blue-black with ease, nickel silver rail needs a bit more time and elbow grease.

regards, Graham