Boomers Wood

[marsa69]

A splendidly rapid erection

As the actress said to the Bishop!

 

[Neil]

Like Simon I'm impressed by the speed with which you've got it up, but I was looking at the first photos that show the boards in their entirety and was wondering how the legs locate. I've seen the bolt that won't budge, and I guess there must be some sort of hornblock arrangement that the legs slide into that stops them rotating, or is there some other artful dodge.

 

[Steve Cook]

A splendidly rapid erection. most impressed with the two "done" buildings

They came out alright in the end The Wills kit was a doddle and was done on Thursday after leaving yours, the Provender store was a bit of a git and took most of Friday I've attempted to hide my poor building skills by taking photos from a distance, it'll show up in some close up shots further down the line

 

[Steve Cook]

Like Simon I'm impressed by the speed with which you've got it up, but I was looking at the first photos that show the boards in their entirety and was wondering how the legs locate. I've seen the bolt that won't budge, and I guess there must be some sort of hornblock arrangement that the legs slide into that stops them rotating, or is there some other artful dodge.

Morning Neil
The legs are held rigidly in each of the corners of the main baseboard frame, the fixing bolt being about halfway up the side member. The legs are clamped into position before drilling the holes, with the top of the leg firm against the underside of the baseboard top surface - that way the leg is held against three faces which prevents rotation. Have a photo which should help explain it better


There is a bit more about building the boards on this thread here - I'll go back at some point and sort the photos out and close the thread as Newent is now Cac
HTH
Steve

 

[Steve Cook]

Quick update:
By the end of play yesterday, all of the wiring droppers had been soldered in, the soldered joints cleaned and the missing sleepers under each fishplate glued into place - no photos because it doesn't look any different. First job this morning has been the wiring on the fiddleyeard board


Time for a brew and I can do the same on the main baseboard.

 

[Steve Cook]

Watching with great interest Steve ..........I would like to tackle something like this, probably in 7mm at some stage

Looking forward to seeing that Phill
Wiring for the main board done, time to make sure the clearance holes are actually that, then it can go together again to check the wiring is OK...or not....

 

[Steve Cook]

Hate pictures of neat wiring... they always remind me that no matter how hard I try, my wiring always ends up looking like spaghetti.......

Sorry Can't offer much useful advice other than work from the rail back towards the control panel / bus etc. Cut each wire over length, create twisted pairs of wires by holding one end of a pair in vice (or if careful, when soldered to rail) and insert loose ends into hand drill - keep turning until you get a nice close twist. Twisting does use a bit of extra wire, but it helps keep its shape on longish runs. Chocolate blocks make it easier to fault find, though touch wood I've not needed that to date. Oh, and patience, good lighting and a simple track plan

 

[Steve Cook]

It Lives


First train was a Hornby Black 5, simply because it had a DCC chip in it and was the right gauge No shorts, and the first run was flawless, right up to the point that all the pickups were on the main board then it stopped....it started again when I plugged the two boards together - tw*t

Celebration brew then tidy up and hoover, nearly time for scenery (although I may shuffle a few wagons around first....)
Steve

 

[Captain Kernow]

They came out alright in the end The Wills kit was a doddle and was done on Thursday after leaving yours, the Provender store was a bit of a git and took most of Friday I've attempted to hide my poor building skills by taking photos from a distance, it'll show up in some close up shots further down the line

Really rather envious of you having something in OO to have available for instant play value! Is the fiddle yard the bit with the long head shunt and a partially hollow board, in one of the photos?

Bit confused by the above statement, though - you showed first of all a photo with the provender store and Wills kit assembled and painted, then you showed one with them just in primer - I wondered if you had acquired them second hand and with a dodgy paint job, hence the grey primer?

 

[Steve Cook]

Evenin' Captain
Instant play value is providing many smiles at the moment Sorry, yes, the fiddle yard is the board on the right with the hollow bit, there is a lid that fits on that and the DCC handsets fit inside said hollow.

As for the buildings, both were bought as new kits from Simon's shop on Thursday - the first photo shows them assembled and in an 'out of the box' state, ie no paint - hence the primer in the next shots. Less confused? I hope so

 

[Steve Cook]

mmm....maybe I shouldn't have named it Project Cac as its kind of turned to

Got the Hymek chipped and fitted with 3 links, made a coupling pole out of an old ejecting pencil and some 0.5mm brass wire and then set about shunting. Pulling stock through the points, no problem at all, propelling stock with the Hymek, derailment city The problem is the points are too sharp and the overhang on the Hymek buffers is too much, hello buffer locking . In fact, the points are just too sharp as the 08 can get into the same situation.
Bugger.
Its my fault for not checking earlier, I have to be honest I hadn't even considered it would be an issue, but it is, and a big one to boot. So, options

Throw it all away Cheapest option, but s*d that, I still want to have a layout and it would be a total waste of the time and effort spent so far.
Move over to tension lock couplings. Don't really want to go down this route, part of the appeal was using 3 links, and anyway I'd need to purchase more rolling stock as it would be very difficult to convert some of what I have (so the impact is the cost of six or so wagons and at least one Guards van, if not two).
Rip the track up and start again. Bit of a major p!sser this one as its only just gone down and been wired up. Still, at least I know how long it would take Stay 00, Code 75 rail, medium or long turnouts. Might be able to squeeze the same plan in with the odd compromise, financial impact probably the same as the option above, if not a bit less, but a hit on time and effort (re-doing the wiring etc) - current favoured option.
Stick 5p pieces to the Hymek buffers and be done with it

Any other options that spring to mind....?

Well, it ain't going to be quite as cheap as I thought

 

[Simon]

mmm....maybe I shouldn't have named it Project Cac as its kind of turned to

Got the Hymek chipped and fitted with 3 links, made a coupling pole out of an old ejecting pencil and some 0.5mm brass wire and then set about shunting. Pulling stock through the points, no problem at all, propelling stock with the Hymek, derailment city The problem is the points are too sharp and the overhang on the Hymek buffers is too much, hello buffer locking . In fact, the points are just too sharp as the 08 can get into the same situation.
Bugger.
Its my fault for not checking earlier, I have to be honest I hadn't even considered it would be an issue, but it is, and a big one to boot. So, options

Throw it all away Cheapest option, but s*d that, I still want to have a layout and it would be a total waste of the time and effort spent so far.
Move over to tension lock couplings. Don't really want to go down this route, part of the appeal was using 3 links, and anyway I'd need to purchase more rolling stock as it would be very difficult to convert some of what I have (so the impact is the cost of six or so wagons and at least one Guards van, if not two).
Rip the track up and start again. Bit of a major p!sser this one as its only just gone down and been wired up. Still, at least I know how long it would take Stay 00, Code 75 rail, medium or long turnouts. Might be able to squeeze the same plan in with the odd compromise, financial impact probably the same as the option above, if not a bit less, but a hit on time and effort (re-doing the wiring etc) - current favoured option.
Stick 5p pieces to the Hymek buffers and be done with it

Any other options that spring to mind....?

Well, it ain't going to be quite as cheap as I thought

Would it all work if you fitted sprung buffers to the Hymek?

Alternatively put unobtrusive fine wire between heads to stop locking?

I'd have thought it should work with 2 foot radius, it's probably the reverse curve bit that's the problem I guess?

Simon

 

[Phill Dyson]

I hope your not too downhearted Steve, at least you weren't daft enough to ballast it all like some I could mention ( me ). In my case it's a curve just beyond one of my platform roads, I will either tweak the curve enough for four wheeled stock to negotiate it, or with it being a platform road I could just not propel the offending four wheeled freight stock in there.
But in your case, at a reasonably early stage I think I would definetly bite the bullet & lessen the curves to a more comfortable radius if you can

Phill

 

[28ten]

Honest answer?? Id go for some nice handbuilt track and ease the radius, it will run better and look better, im sorry to say that I cant get past the look of Peco, never mind the derailments.

 

[Steve Cook]

Cheers for the replies and alternative solutions Guys, much appreciated

Would it all work if you fitted sprung buffers to the Hymek?

I tried using the 26 with sprung buffers this morning - it would need much softer springs (and they are pretty soft already) and the wagons to be very heavy and with sticky wheelsets to work.

Alternatively put unobtrusive fine wire between heads to stop locking?

Apologies for not explaining the problem properly (my excuse it was late and I posted in a bit of a hurry), the buffer locking occurs on the outside of the buffers, see photo below - guess you could fix it with wings on each buffer

The photo shows just as the Hymek buffers slip past the inside faces of the wagon buffers. The wagon is effectively on straight track at this point, the Hymek on a 2' radius curve (double checked radius with tracksetta this morning and its bang on 2').

I'd have thought it should work with 2 foot radius, it's probably the reverse curve bit that's the problem I guess?

Just a 2' curve on its own seems problematic

If you will use 19th Century couplings....

...and I will I like the way they look and I quite enjoy using them

The options are, as I see it;
1 - If you keep the track & UK outline you do need auto-couplers of some sort.
2 - If you keep the UK outline and 3-links you need wider radius (hence longer) points, which will impact on capacity.

Agreed

3 - If you but don't mind what you run on it, then come over to The Dark Side and model your own freelance Short line.
The process is fun, painless, quite cheap, and frees you up from a lot of rules and rivet-counting....

I've already had a bit of toe dippage into the world of the Dark Side, was good fun, but time for some UK stuff I think (plus I like mainline US stuff which doesn't really go). I'd need some different buildings as well then

 

[Steve Cook]

I hope your not too downhearted Steve, at least you weren't daft enough to ballast it all like some I could mention ( me ). In my case it's a curve just beyond one of my platform roads, I will either tweak the curve enough for four wheeled stock to negotiate it, or with it being a platform road I could just not propel the offending four wheeled freight stock in there.

Thats a bugger Phill Hope the fixing goes OK. I'm not downhearted, just annoyed really

But in your case, at a reasonably early stage I think I would definetly bite the bullet & lessen the curves to a more comfortable radius if you can

That is looking the best option

Honest answer?? Id go for some nice handbuilt track and ease the radius, it will run better and look better, im sorry to say that I cant get past the look of Peco, never mind the derailments.

I agree with you on the looks of the Peco track Guv, but the original aims of the project were cheap, quick and easy, and the Peco stuff fits that admirably. Plonk and play, I wouldn't need point motors or separate frog switching. Handbuilt track would look much better, but it would take much longer and would need some method of point actuation and switching, I was trying to avoid that. This is a short term, quick fix project to shuffle wagons around and I'm not sure that it deserves handbuilt track. I might find out that a loop and a siding isn't enough to keep me entertained, so it could have quite a short lifespan....

 

[Geoff]

Hi Steve,
Sorry to learn of your problems but having been in the same situation in the past I have to agree with the Guv.
Whilst I appreciate what you are trying to achieve, unless you use an auto coupling or larger radius points I feel you are wasting your time.
A wire across the buffers will stop them locking but will make it more difficult to couple your 3 links, which will add to your frustration.

Geoff

 

[Simon]

Steve

If its as marginally problematic as your photo suggests, then I'd be very tempted to fit nice sprung buffers to the wagons and fit slightly over-sized buffer heads. The proyotype varied in size & type anyway and I'd say those on your wagon look to be on the small side. I can't now remember what types I used to use in my 4mm days but I'm sure Captain Kernow does, he probably has a shoe box full of the blighters salted away in his boathouse.

Before giving up it is also worth also checking the sideplay on your wagon, limiting it might help you. I would also work at the Hymek buffers to give a more "domed" front face with thinner edges, this would help and would better (I think) represent the real thing. As far as buffer springing goes, it needs to be very very soft to have any useful effect - most model buffer springs are way too hard to be useful in this context.

I'm sure you can get it to work with enough fiddling

Simon

 

[Old Buffer]

Steve,
I am in agreement with Simon, tighten the B-B and fit slightly larger buffer heads to the wagons and include softer buffer springing all round (probably cutting the springs in half and stretching them slightly may well do it). Also is it possible to tighten the B-B on the loco's.
Alan

 

[Neil]

Contrary viewpoint coming. Looking at the photo of the buffer locking Hymek and wagon two complementary strategies spring to mind. The first is that slightly bigger buffer heads may give a fighting chance of avoiding buffer lock. The second is that (from memory) there's quite a bit of slop between rail and track in OO straight from the box, when pushed this slop is positively unhelpful as the pusher and pushed will want to move away from each other. It may be possible to ease out the wheels on their axles to take out this play. A combo of both might get you past the buffer lock issue.

Edit, not so contrary I see old buffer has beat me to it.