4mm Morfa - The race is run.

[Neil]

Morfa - Stirrer

There's no such thing as a free stirrer, they normally accompany overpriced yet underwhelming tea, or bewildering coffee, at establishments where I'm expected to have a nice day despite the corporate design obliterating any semblance of individuality.  Also even I don't have enough brass in my neck to walk out with three figure handfuls of the blighters. As it is some stall holder in the omnipotent bazaar that is e-bay will be sending me a pack of a thousand in exchange for £4.85 worth of beer tokens (two pints at today's value, oblivion and the mother****er of all hangovers in my youth) far less than it takes in petrol money to fire up cr@p car and go in search of a costa-bucks coffee outlet.

Sorry, got a bit ranty there, don't know what came over me, must be my age or something.

Anyway down to more tranquil matters. Each evening I've been playing with ever longer trains, it's made me realise two things. The first is that I need to put some side walls along the edges of the narrow bridging section to catch any escapees from the straight and narrow; a four and a bit feet plunge onto floorboards could be quite destructive. Secondly I need a program of 'engineering improvements' to free off a good proportion of my not very rolling stock. What goes ok in twos and threes on Shell Island, exhibits considerable drag when marshalled into big trains on Morfa. All in all, plenty to keep me busy.

 

[Alan]

Morfa - Stirrer

Coo!!!! can I live where you live, a couple of pints in my local comes to £6-20

 

[marsa69]

Morfa - Stirrer

What's a pint?  :vista:

 

[Phill Dyson]

Morfa - Stirrer

:scratch: A lot of the less exorbitant cafe's  do wooden stirrers too  ;D

 

[Neil]

Morfa - Stirrer

Proper cafes have tea spoons. Sorry almost started ranting again, will take tablets, will go lie down in a darkened room.

 

[iploffy]

Morfa - Stirrer

I know what you mean mate i remember BR used to use plastic stirrers i have nearly run out.

Ian

 

[JimG]

Morfa - Stirrer

I remember taking my grandson to the Games Workshop in Cribbs Causeway in Bristol for their workshops.  Quite regularly the instructor would tell them that they needed wooden stirrers for some scenic feature and a horde of kids would disappear into the Mall to raid the nearest coffee shop.  I often wondered if the shop owners noticed the heavy use on Saturday mornings. 

In a way,  I sympathise with Neil's rant,  but that can sometimes be tempered when I look at the price of their coffee. 

Jim.

 

[Neil]

Morfa - Playtime

Mr Tranquil has returned again and has been playing trains under the guise of sorting out the stock. I've decided to tackle the required fettling by taking a train then breaking that train down into individual items. As soon as one item is done (or I think it's done) I hook it onto the back of a loco and send it trundling round. Whilst the mileage accumulates, I lap equating to a scale three quarters of a mile, the next piece is tackled. When I'm happy it gets added to the train, which slowly increases in length.

[attachimg=1]

The first train up for attention was the mails, and the first piece of stock the Bachmann Mk1 brake second. I thought it'd be easy as it already rolled rather well, and had given no problems when at the end of a rake. As soon as I sent it whirling round it behind the loco it started to leap off on the sharpest part of the sharpest curve. A close look showed that the buffers were coming into contact when being hauled and the pressure exerted by the coupling caused the front wheelset to lift off the track. Filing the shank of the buffer down a touch so it would push an extra mm into the housing sorted this out. Over the past two days the rest of the train has been worked on, either taking up slack in the bearings or filing back the bogie inside faces to stop the outer face of the wheels rubbing has cured all tendency to bind. I've now got the basic mail train up and running.

[attachimg=2]

 

[Alan]

Morfa - Stirrer

I like that Neil. I do love a good parcels/mail train 

 

[Neil]

Morfa - Decking

Time to put the career as a political/economic pundit on hold, and turn back to thinking about toy trains.

Two months, one week on from the last post here and what have I done? I was tempted to say "nothing till this afternoon", but that's not quite true. Though I haven't started any work till today, I've been thinking lots about the timber trestle and how I was going to ensure that it fitted, flowed in a smooth curve and didn't fall apart as I was handling it. I think I have most of the challenges sorted out in my mind so it should be a smooth and trouble free build.

First job was to print out a template, the pieces of paper taped to what will be Cardigan Bay once all the track is complete and I can turn to making the layout look pretty. I used the 'Trax' track template generating program, setting the gauge to 'custom' at 85mm. Each section of three foot radius curve is 80mm long (the piling spacing) with a section break at one end which gives the spacing on the template when each curve is joined to the next.

[attachimg=1]

My new razor saw and mitre box has been deployed in anger for the first time, cutting up lots of my stock of coffee stirrers for the decking. Once sufficient pieces are cut it'll be a dunking in the wood stain for them followed by more cutting of stripwood for the longitudinal baulks. The plan is that I'll stagger the joints on the baulks; hopefully the deck will be rigid enough to be handled in one piece. Then I'll tackle the piling supports as separate sections before sticking the whole lot together.

 

[Neil]

Morfa - Decking

After cutting sufficient decking planks to size, I initially boobed when it came to the staining process. The test pieces were done so long ago that I forgot how long they were soaked in the tank (a margarine tub) for. I guessed at half an hour, the timbers coming out near black rather than the silvery grey I was hoping for. My hope then was that a couple of hours on the drying rack would get rid of the surface stain to reveal a more subtle shade underneath. Quite how I wasn't sure, in the end all that happened was the realisation that at times I'm driven by foolish optimism. Extensive rinsing finally brought the finish back to something like, though I'll need to wait till the timbers are thoroughly dry before final assessment. Optimism holds out the hope that all will be well but leaves me with the extra work of putting every other bit of timber for the bridge through the same over-stain, leave and wash off process.

Do I get extra brownie points for avoiding use of brick wall and fan - shit smileys?

 

[Pennine MC]

Morfa - Decking

. Optimism holds out the hope that all will be well but leaves me with the extra work of putting every other bit of timber for the bridge through the same over-stain, leave and wash off process.

This probably sounds shockingly decadent, not to mention stating the obvious, but for what they cost I'd be inclined to bin the dark ones (assuming you've not done hundreds) and do a new batch.

 

[Neil]

Morfa - Decking

Are you building the decking right side up, or has it been inverted so that you build from the top upwards?

Sort of. I'll be constructing the deck inverted, so first down on the template will be the decking boards, the longitudinal baulks that sit on top of the piling sections will go on top of that. However there are further longitudinal baulks on top of the deck that the rails sit on, these will only be fitted once the bridge is substantially complete and fixed in position. I suppose you could say I'll be building it from the middle out.

This probably sounds shockingly decadent, not to mention stating the obvious, but for what they cost I'd be inclined to bin the dark ones (assuming you've not done hundreds) and do a new batch.

I did consider this, but there's been a lot of cutting to size already invested in the project so far (all the decking stained in one hit) and as the only real penalty with replicating the staining is of an extended waiting time and I quite like the finished colour of the timbers I think I'll carry on with what I've got so far. The only slight worry I have is that the different sections of timber I've sourced all appear slightly different in tone in their raw state and I only now realise that my one bit of each test samples may have been inadequate to properly judge how harmonious the final colours may be.

 

[Alan]

Morfa - Decking

Nobody else has suggested it so i will. Would a sanding down help lighten the colour?

 

[28ten]

Morfa - Decking

Nobody else has suggested it so i will. Would a sanding down help lighten the colour?

or even a mild solution of bleach?

 

[makhis]

Morfa - Decking

Taking a leaf from the dark side modellers, try Isopropyl alcohol and black/brown boot polish as a stain. ;D

 

[Steph Dale]

Morfa - Decking

You can get IPA in sensible quantities from electronics stores.  Such as Maplin: http://www.maplin.co.uk/search?criteria=Ipa who should even be able to mail order it to you...

Steph

Update to point out that by IPA I meant Iso-Propyl Alcohol (Isopropanol).  Not Indian Pale Ale.  Or, at least; this time I didn't.  You won't get Indian Pale Ale from Maplins.  Sorry for any confusion.  ;D

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Morfa - Decking

For what it's worth, I stain wood with a black ink wash to get the weathered wood look then dry brush.  Here's my attempt (complete with Colonel Stephens, again another one of my efforts - this time figure painting).

Dave

 

[Neil]

Morfa - Decking

Taking a leaf from the dark side modellers, try Isopropyl alcohol and black/brown boot polish as a stain. ;D

Whoa, back up. You mean they do polish for shoes?

[attachimg=1]

 

[Simon Dunkley]

Morfa - Decking

Do I get extra brownie points for avoiding use of brick wall and fan - shit smileys?

Chocolate ones.