Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen
Western Thunderer
For quite some time I’ve been considering build a small steam/diesel cross-over era loco shed. At the end of last year, I decided it was about time I got started.
First stage was a design and to help with that I thought I’d better learn how to use Templot. It took a couple of days but it has been really worth the effort., thank you Martin Wynne. My thoughts were that it was an old steam shed that had been modernised by the addition of a servicing facility for the diesel locos that were appearing. After a lot of trial and error the design was finalised as per the first photo.
Locos enter the yard at the top right. The end of the two top roads on the left will the location of a two track steam shed and the two below are for the coaling tracks.
The bottom left road provides access to a two-track diesel maintenance shed which will be situated on the far right bottom two tracks. Above these is a storage road for diesel fuel tankers.
The layout is 13’ 3” long and 3’ 6” wide, this being a size that will fit into the middle of my garage. It’s comprised three boards which whilst not designed to be exhibited will allow it to be moved fairly easily.
The track work is to be built to S7 standards. I wanted to speed up production as much as possible and so had a conversation with friend Phil Healey Pearce of Intentio models. His thoughts were to use the templot plan to laser cut the entire sleeper base out of 3mm plywood as a series of interlocking sheets. These could then be laid out on the baseboards, the surround supporting structure removed and the bases glued down. Twenty three sheets arrived from him and put in place. A great piece of work from Phil with no issues. Here's three photos to show the result, the laser cut sheets can be seen quite clearly
I'm now moving on to track building. One of the Love Lane team has machined the switch blades for me and I'm now working on putting together the crossing assemblies using the S7 jigs. Bags of chairs and other parts are on their way to me from the stores ready for track assembly.
More to follow in due course.
Tim
First stage was a design and to help with that I thought I’d better learn how to use Templot. It took a couple of days but it has been really worth the effort., thank you Martin Wynne. My thoughts were that it was an old steam shed that had been modernised by the addition of a servicing facility for the diesel locos that were appearing. After a lot of trial and error the design was finalised as per the first photo.
Locos enter the yard at the top right. The end of the two top roads on the left will the location of a two track steam shed and the two below are for the coaling tracks.
The bottom left road provides access to a two-track diesel maintenance shed which will be situated on the far right bottom two tracks. Above these is a storage road for diesel fuel tankers.
The layout is 13’ 3” long and 3’ 6” wide, this being a size that will fit into the middle of my garage. It’s comprised three boards which whilst not designed to be exhibited will allow it to be moved fairly easily.
The track work is to be built to S7 standards. I wanted to speed up production as much as possible and so had a conversation with friend Phil Healey Pearce of Intentio models. His thoughts were to use the templot plan to laser cut the entire sleeper base out of 3mm plywood as a series of interlocking sheets. These could then be laid out on the baseboards, the surround supporting structure removed and the bases glued down. Twenty three sheets arrived from him and put in place. A great piece of work from Phil with no issues. Here's three photos to show the result, the laser cut sheets can be seen quite clearly
I'm now moving on to track building. One of the Love Lane team has machined the switch blades for me and I'm now working on putting together the crossing assemblies using the S7 jigs. Bags of chairs and other parts are on their way to me from the stores ready for track assembly.
More to follow in due course.
Tim
