4mm West Halton Sidings

[James]

Back in Yorkshire, nights tonight playing with the big train set - some sleeper laying this afternoon

There's some interesting placement of timbers in the centre!

 

[simond]

James,

is the spacing correct when going from one long to two short timbers top left left?

Maybe it’s me, but it looks a bit generous on the nearer track?

atb
Simon

 

[James]

is the spacing correct when going from one long to two short timbers top left left?

Maybe it’s me, but it looks a bit generous on the nearer track

You're right, but some bits are deliberately bad! My experiences of the make do and mend of industrial track maintenance is part of the inspiration for the layout.

I remember questioning this once but the guy explained spacing between the timber and first sleeper was correct, I mentioned it meant the second one had a massive gap the reply was but the first one is in the right place! The foreman just shook his head when he came back!

So it reminds me of this time at work

 

[James]

A nice example of how industrial track can look -

Level Crossing? by West Halton, on Flickr

 

[James]

Preparing for laying the rails - Vero board pins are secured in the last three sleepers to which the rail is soldered.

Martin Wynne suggested these on another thread and it works really well, securing the rails very well indeed.



I also add a pin at the crossing nose.

 

[James]

It's been a while since the last update, summer, holidays, birthdays, etc have all taken precedent over the last few months but there been progress!

We've laid a lot of sleepers!



I did make full use of child labour too! Abbie's made a decent job of the sleepers she's laid, probably between a third and a half of this board.



My wife was helping me thread chairs as some days I struggle and she tried laying plane track. She's very good at it so 90% of the plain track on boards two and three is Kerry's work

I've been concentrating on the yard point work - one issue has been the rail I have, some lengths, have a slight vertical curve. On plain line it's fine as the chairs anchor the rail but on switch blades, enough to have the ends of the blades stood of the slide chairs so a couple have had to replaced.



I do enjoy track building but I'm also looking forward to finishing it!

 

[Phil O]

James,

If your stretcher bars are long enough to slide under the adjacent stock rail it will hold the switch rail down as it does on the prototype.

 

[MarkR]

Hi James,
Very impressed! What supplier/source are your sleepers from please?
Many thanks
Mark

 

[James]

Not much to report recently, I've been distracted!

7mm - National Railway Museum Workbench

The National Railway Museum houses a large 7mm layout based around half of David Jenkinson's first venture in the scale - he was the Museum's Education Officer at the time. It's been in daily use since 1981! I've been one of the volunteer team looking after for eight years or so. I thought...

www.westernthunder.co.uk

 

[James]

And distracted by yet more Playmobil!

 

[James]

All Change at West Halton

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest and sometimes that change can take people by surprise. Do you ever feel that there’s no end in sight with a project? Maybe it’s partly that I jus…

westhalton.wordpress.com

 

[Overseer]

All Change at West Halton

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest and sometimes that change can take people by surprise. Do you ever feel that there’s no end in sight with a project? Maybe it’s partly that I jus…

westhalton.wordpress.com

What a good idea. And carried out with such gusto. Where's the fun in building accurate models of prototypes on scale track? P4 out, PM in!

 

[James]

You didn’t really think I’d ripped it all up, did you?

You didn’t really think I’d ripped it all up, did you? No I haven’t ripped it all up and sadly there’s no Playmobil exhibition layout. But I do think a Playmobil layout woul…

westhalton.wordpress.com

 

[James]

Fettling pointwork in the exchange sidings - bizarrely one chair needed an extra 10 thou packing to give a smooth top. The result of tweaking has resulted in the test wagons and bogie rolling through much more smoothly.

 

[James]

A lovely find on eBay, a drawing relating to the opening of Normanby Park North Signal Box in 1912.



The box was Widnes West in previous life.



Yorkshire Mines SB closing at the same time.

 

[James]

I've dug out my Janus built from the Judith Edge kit modified to Scunthorpe specification to begin painting.

Despite being a bit of a shelf queen but did run very smoothly despite this

 

[James]

A package from West Hill arrived this morning.

A pair of their cosmetic class 37 bogies to see if they might be suitable to fit to a set of Penbits sprung bogies.



They're cast bogies which suits the chosen loco.

 

[matto21]

Hi James,

Funnily enough, I wondered about using these too - just didn't do anything with the idea!

Very interested to see how you get on!

 

[James]

I've been thinking about it for a while now - possibly not great value for money when you throw most of it away! But hopefully the results will be worthwhile.

 

[steve50]

Hi James, I've been reading your article in MRJ on the 08 and it inspired me to have a go at a pair of Bachmann 08's. I made up the cab steps for 08 689 using the method you used and they are way better than the 3D printed ones used on the grey 08 530. I want to try fading the Grey one using the tinted varnish method and was wondering the ratio of white paint to varnish and have you ever tried it on BR Blue?