4mm Morfa - The race is run.

[Simon]

Nice one, Mister. The play value just keeps going up and up.

OMG too much company with young people if you ask me - I blame that young blade Cookie

Great progress Neil, I'm contemplating a possible tiny bit of EM-age of something or other for future "furrin" trips.

"Nice one mister" indeed, he'll be buying a white Evoke next

Simon

 

[Captain Kernow]

"Nice one mister" indeed, he'll be buying a white Evoke next

Get down there, dude!

 

[Neil]

How long has it taken to get to this point Neil? ....

Well, depends what the starting point is defined as.

We moved to mid-Wales five years and three months ago, my first model railway related job was to build my workbench out of a recycled wardrobe so I had somewhere to start making things. (5 years, 2 months)

However the first timber order for the baseboards was carried up three stories by Tim and Simon on their first visit. (4 years, 11 months)

Thanks to the RMweb archive I can date the first substantial section of board built as January 2008. (4 years and 9 months)

I think it's probably fair to say it's been on the go now for five years, which compared to the progress that many make is cripplingly slow, though given that I'm easily distracted I'm pretty happy with. There was also the bat poo related upheaval that negatively impacted on the timely delivery of an on course realisation of initial targets going forward.

Like it!!! Neil pure bodgeit and scarper engineering, can I make the smallest observation please as the bar is flexing to take up the longer throw of the switch should you not sleeve the rod where it goes under the running rails as I would hate to see it flex upwards and cause a pesky hard to find short.

You may and before the near point is fixed down I will be adding insulating material. It will be a bit superfluous though as there's reasonable clearance between rod and rails and it's the drive arm out from the slide switch where 99.999% of the flexing occurs.

.... Great progress Neil, I'm contemplating a possible tiny bit of EM-age of something or other for future "furrin" trips.

Good man, the more the merrier.

"Nice one mister" indeed, he'll be buying a white Evoke next .....

Well he'll be able to get here even quicker and carry a large selection of pragmatically gauged toy trains with him too.

 

[Pennine MC]

that negatively impacted on the timely delivery of an on course realisation of initial targets going forward.

Just thought I'd mention that I spotted that

 

[Ressaldar]

Like it!!! Neil pure bodgeit and scarper engineering, can I make the smallest observation please as the bar is flexing to take up the longer throw of the switch should you not sleeve the rod where it goes under the running rails as I would hate to see it flex upwards and cause a pesky hard to find short.

Hi Neil,

could I also make one small observation - would it be better if the main shaft was moved one sleeper spacing to the left so that the 'drive' would then be more 'in line' and thus make the operation easier?

regards

Mike

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

..... that negatively impacted on the timely delivery of an on course realisation of initial targets going forward.

Just thought I'd mention that I spotted that

So can you translate it for us, then..??

Re the time period it can take to build a home layout (my own loft layout makes slow progress) I say "What's the rush anyway?"
Does it have to be done to a deadline? Not like it's going out on exhibition or anything - surely the point of a hobby is to make an activity we enjoy last for some time? Once we have track down, which I suspect is done fairly quickly with most layouts, we can take our time over the rest of it, and get things how we want them, instead of rushing it all until there's only playing trains er... I mean operation left, which is all very well, but spells the end of the creative (and possibly more interesting) part of the process.

Just my excuse 2p-worth....

 

[Neil]

.... could I also make one small observation - would it be better if the main shaft was moved one sleeper spacing to the left so that the 'drive' would then be more 'in line' and thus make the operation easier? ....

Thanks Mike, the camera angle doesn't show it but the the drive under the next sleeper along would be compromised too and it would make fitting the switch and drive to the next point on the left 'challenging'. As it is there's a nice easy action to the whole thing though it looks as though there shouldn't be.

.... I say "What's the rush anyway?" Does it have to be done to a deadline? ....

There isn't, and, it doesn't.

I think the issue of time cropped up from Jim's question. I could imagine him extrapolating my work rate and feeding it into the amount of work he has to tackle for New Street and either laughing or shaking his head in despair. Though I'm pretty relaxed about my low rate of progress, I think there are very valid questions to be asked about free time, work to be done, personal indolence index and useful years left ahead of one. Even at a fit and healthy early fifties there would be bugger all point in me deciding to fill my playroom with Kings Cross, Waverley or Temple Meads. I have sufficient years (I hope) and enough free time, but I work at a snails pace and am easily diverted from a single endeavour. It would feel like I was entering a race against my own mortality, not something I'd want to do.

 

[Simon]

It would feel like I was entering a race against my own mortality, not something I'd want to do.

A very good point and sometimes I think I have sent the entry forms off for just such an enterprise with my garden monster.

I reckon the trick is to enjoy the "journey", today is a good example. Not in the shop, H&C at home, and the sun keeps coming out. Charlie has been baking cakes (we now have a carrot cake with damn near rail blue icing to look forward to) a friend I met in the shop has been over with his GUV project (in gauge 1) so the trains are out. Scalextric is running, cars have been repaired and H&C have "modified" a couple to tow caravans around the track (bloody Clarkson), I'm sat here drinking tea and waffling to you whilst also running D6319 up and down the garden via my new fangled Multimaus thingummy.

A pretty near perfect day I reckon, now let's press F3 for a bit of serious bee-baarpage and run that freight train up country

Simon

 

[Simon Dunkley]

I reckon the trick is to enjoy the "journey", today is a good example.

Many years ago, before we were encumbered with small children, Mrs. Dunks and I were on holiday in West Dorset and somehow we found ourselves in Beer - she enjoyed the tram, the BHLR and Pecorama, so all was fine. It was out of season and therefore easy to have a go at the "drive a train" they had out at the time. The missus drove a passenger train hell for leather, but I was really happy to trundle a Lima 33 + 3 minerals slowly round the other circuit. It was very restful...

personal indolence index

At last: the meaning of pi!

 

[Simon Dunkley]

Here's what I came up with ....

Leading off from the tiebar is a length of 1mm dia ns rod supported by pedestal bearings at each end.

Just a thought, but you may wish to put some paper on the underside of the rails, where the rod passes beneath, to avoid risk of short circuits...

 

[Simon Dunkley]

OMG too much company with young people if you ask me - I blame that young blade Cookie

Does that apply to you, too?

 

[Neil]

Just a thought, but you may wish to put some paper on the underside of the rails, where the rod passes beneath, to avoid risk of short circuits...

Might I direct the honourable gentleman to these earlier comments.

.... can I make the smallest observation please as the bar is flexing to take up the longer throw of the switch should you not sleeve the rod where it goes under the running rails as I would hate to see it flex upwards and cause a pesky hard to find short.

.... You may and before the near point is fixed down I will be adding insulating material. It will be a bit superfluous though as there's reasonable clearance between rod and rails and it's the drive arm out from the slide switch where 99.999% of the flexing occurs. ....

I shall now do my best to resist the 'should have gone to specsavers' smart-arsed comment and move serenely on to say that Slaters 'plastiglaze' was my insulating material of choice. Cut to an exact fit it's spookily unnoticeable, very little thicker than paper and I will be able to see if any wear patterns emerge. Also this afternoon I finished wiring up the diamond crossing. Only one glaring error was perpetrated and soon sorted out, and I'm pleased to say that my locos waltz over the dead frogs without deviation or hesitation though repetition was the order of the day. Just the three points and some plain track to go now.

 

[Simon]

......Also this afternoon I finished wiring up the diamond crossing. Only one glaring error was perpetrated and soon sorted out, and I'm pleased to say that my locos waltz over the dead frogs without deviation or hesitation though repetition was the order of the day. Just the three points and some plain track to go now.

Great news!

 

[Simon Dunkley]

Just the three points and some plain track to go now.

You are Ian Futers and I claim my £5!

 

[Neil]

You are Ian Futers and I claim my £5!

Funny you should mention that. The weird way in which coincidence works had me reading one of Mr Futers articles in a recent Railway Modeller a few days ago. I set me thinking about some of his mid-seventies P4 circular layouts set in the border country. They were magnificently minimal, but even though my spotty teenage self was into complex track and operation they have stuck in my memory far better than most of their contemporaries. I wonder if these were the starting point of the 'less is more' strand to our hobby?

 

[Simon Dunkley]

I am not sure, but I can tell you that Ian found them incredibly boring to operate!

But yes, there was something about them, I was, am and always will be, impressed by his model of Longwitton, which awakened me to the potential for train in the landscape type modelling.

Edit: PS. The strange thing about coincidences is that you never notice the number of times they don't happen.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

I am not sure, but I can tell you that Ian found them incredibly boring to operate!

Mmmm... methinks any layout could seem "boring" to operate after a whole weekend of it at a Show...

Edit: PS. The strange thing about coincidences is that you never notice the number of times they don't happen.

The next "Quote of the Year", that one!!!

 

[Neil]

There seem to have been many, many, words since the last picture. It's probably time to punctuate the thread with yet another snap of the staging sidings.



This is the current state of play. I'm awaiting supplies of fishplates and track pins, so work has come to a halt. I realise that the tangle leading to the choc-block is a mess. It will be tidied once all the points are operational (honest) but I will be keeping to the surface mounted pattern as it's easier to fault find/repair/alter.

 

[Simon Dunkley]

The weird way in which coincidence works had me reading one of Mr Futers articles in a recent Railway Modeller a few days ago. I set me thinking about some of his mid-seventies P4 circular layouts set in the border country. They were magnificently minimal, but even though my spotty teenage self was into complex track and operation they have stuck in my memory far better than most of their contemporaries.

As a side issue, the circular layouts were 00 (Glen Douglas) and EM - Otterburn was Ian's first P4 layout.

But, you have sent my mind down its own curious pathways, and in a circular manner (see what I did there) this has helped clear the "progress constipation" in my modelling, which has been increasingly severe of late...

More of this, eventually, when I have some actual progress to report!

Thanks, Neil!

 

[marsa69]

clear the "progress constipation" in my modelling, which has been increasingly severe of late..

That makes two of us