jonte
Western Thunderer
Dear fellow Westerners
Has anybody any experience of this and possibly any examples/ideas they’d like to share?
I’ve had a quick look through the other threads in this section and also via the usual search engines and thus far nothing has come to light. Apart from Peco’s method of hinging the blades in their ranges, the only other mention I can recall, is that of Gordon Gravett employing it for his fabrications on his latest quayside layout. I think I read this in the article when it appeared in MRJ, but don’t recall him going into any depth about it.
My own initial thoughts involve possibly drilling the base of the moving rail (4mm scale) and soldering in a pin of some sort - and allowed to swivel in a brass tube of an appropriate bore perhaps - that slots through say a brass plate soldered to the base of the adjoining fixed section of switch rail, retained by a small washer soldered on crank pin style on a locomotive (if that makes sense?).
I’m aware that their are other ways of doing all this that remove some of the strain on the soldered joints of traditionally hand-built track work, but I’d be interested in exploring this anyway, hopefully with some good ideas from my friends on here with more of an engineering bent.
Prototypically, I recall someone once writing that this type of hinged rail was employed by the GWR in its earliest days; there were certainly plenty of examples in the miles of inlaid track of Liverpool’s docklands, in my own experience.
I look forward to receiving your thoughts on this.
Jonte
Has anybody any experience of this and possibly any examples/ideas they’d like to share?
I’ve had a quick look through the other threads in this section and also via the usual search engines and thus far nothing has come to light. Apart from Peco’s method of hinging the blades in their ranges, the only other mention I can recall, is that of Gordon Gravett employing it for his fabrications on his latest quayside layout. I think I read this in the article when it appeared in MRJ, but don’t recall him going into any depth about it.
My own initial thoughts involve possibly drilling the base of the moving rail (4mm scale) and soldering in a pin of some sort - and allowed to swivel in a brass tube of an appropriate bore perhaps - that slots through say a brass plate soldered to the base of the adjoining fixed section of switch rail, retained by a small washer soldered on crank pin style on a locomotive (if that makes sense?).
I’m aware that their are other ways of doing all this that remove some of the strain on the soldered joints of traditionally hand-built track work, but I’d be interested in exploring this anyway, hopefully with some good ideas from my friends on here with more of an engineering bent.
Prototypically, I recall someone once writing that this type of hinged rail was employed by the GWR in its earliest days; there were certainly plenty of examples in the miles of inlaid track of Liverpool’s docklands, in my own experience.
I look forward to receiving your thoughts on this.
Jonte