Riveting work

Just a short report today. As I’m packing and getting ready for our vacation in the U.K. starting on Sunday. I just booked a couple of tickets for return trips on the Ffestiniog and Tal-y-lyn railways for our days in North Wales. 

One detail that I’d decided to incorporate on the skip loading chute was rivets on the girders. Sixteen millimeter scale is large enough to warrant this level of detail. I had no idea what to use for the rivet heads, but a quick ask around some forums and tiny rhinestone jewels used for decorating fingernails was suggested. I bought a pack from Amazon. 7,200 of various sizes between 1 and 3mm for $8.99 should keep me going for a while.

I figured the easiest way to apply them is a dab of glue on the surface and then put them in police with tweezers. That was pretty much right. I also found that a scalpel to adjust the jewel to its correct spot was a good idea. After 30 minutes dabbing and adjusting I had one side of the loader started.

Can you see them? 

It’s certainly a fiddly job. But right now not too tedious. I certainly have plenty more to add. But it’s a good start. I also don’t doubt that someone, somewhere will tell me the correct pattern of rivet heads. But I don’t care. It creates a good effect, and that will do for me.

Traversing

 I’m officially stopping counting the days of construction now. The layout is now at a state of completion where it could go to a show as it is, or with minimal extra work done. Besides, I’ve seen layouts at shows in worse state of completion. So I’m happy with no more counting. We’ll call it 30 days and be done with it. 

I’ve had a couple of questions asked about the construction of the sector plate/train storage. As this is still a work in progress towards a finalized design, the details of the cassette are still under consideration. But, as the most important part of the sector plate is lining up the roads correctly. I can at least offer some views based on my experiences with that.

1. The single most important thing in marking a sector plate is finding the pivot point. That way the track centers line up, and the curved end of the sector plate can swing and not foul anything on the layout, (been there, done that).
It also goes without saying that if you have a curve going into a sector plate you’re probably making unnecessary trouble for yourself. Much like having flexible track joins on curves.
The tracks on my layout are dead straight, so it’s pretty easy to run a ruler along the inside edge of the rail and trace it back on the deck of the baseboard as in this top picture.

2. You draw lines from both sets rails back on the baseboard. Find the middle of them, draw those lines back, and where the track center lines intersect. That’s the pivot point. You should also try to draw as few lines as possible doing is. As you can see I drew plenty of lines, and mis-marked the centre. Which I didn’t discover until I tried to make the deck of the sector plate. 

3. Make a template for the sector plate deck. Decide what size it’s going to be. Cut some material or other (I’ve used foamcore) and mark a curve based on the radius you want from the pivot point. I went for 12” (305mm) on mine, working with the layouts T.L.U. (Train length unit). You might, like I did, have to mark the curve on both the layout and the sector plate deck. I trimmed the edge of the layout to the curve and then the sector plate deck template to the same. It should match pretty perfectly. Now the real test. Pin the sector plate deck though the pivot point. If you’ve done this right, the sector plate should swing perfectly across the baseboard edge. This was where I found out that I had drawn too many lines and marked the wrong pivot point.

4. & 5. The moment I realized I had the wrong pivot point marked. In the top photo everything lines up perfectly. The bottom one leaves a HUGE gap. So it was back to step 1. Re-mark the track lines and centers and carefully mark the new pivot point. This did necessitate a slight trim of the scenery but not much.

6. & 7. Now you can see that everything lines up perfectly. The curved faces of the sector plate and the baseboard meet perfectly. All I have to do is trim the rails back.

8. & 9. Look along the track and you should be able to make out that the rails and the lines of the track on the sector plate deck line up, and the perspective continues seamlessly.  

If you’re feeling brave there’s one last thing you can do to prove that everything is aligned perfectly. Line the deck up with the tracks on the layout. Put the pivot pin (I was using a T-pin) into its hole on the deck and it should drop straight into the pivot point hole on the baseboard. 

There, that’s how I did it. I hope that wasn’t too “how-I-blew-my-nose” for you. But I did go through multiple steps to make sure I did align things correctly.

Now I can finalize the design of the cassettes. They will probably be made from 3/16” (5mm-ish) ply. The pivot and hole will be a bit larger than T-pin size though. 

Finally, for those who are concerned about the cutting away of the baseboard surface to get the curved faces to align. This will be what you can see on the layout. 

If anyone has concerns about sector plates, I hope this eases your fears. I did over complicate things with mine, I thought I had such a good idea, overlapping the sector plate onto the baseboard to help with baseboard join alignment. But perhaps not, I got there without too much problem in the end though. 

I’ll see you another day.

Sit down. Take Stock.

There’s no doubt, the last three days had their stressful moments. Culminating in todays mess. However, I got through it and emerged on the other side. So, I thought it a good idea to pull everything together so I could see just how close to completion the layout is.

Seeing all this makes me feel much better. It was certainly worth the stresses of the last three days.

Day 27-28-29 Building the fiddle yard.

This was always going to be a tough one. I was dreading this more than anything. Adding the sector plate. Making something fit onto the end of the layout. It didn’t need to me much more than a foot square. In the end I went for 13” x 10” (330mm x 250mm). 

On the face of it it was a simple task. Build the frame, put a surface on it, (though that’s not entirely necessary, I just felt better putting one on) and set up the joining of it to the main section case.

Woodworking is never simple with me. You’ll recall my shock at competently building the case. The project used up all my good luck. It was downhill from here on.

Making the template for the fiddle yard end.

I shan’t recount the problems I had. Cutting wood to the correct length, getting the correct angles on the support struts. Even drilling holes for the screws was a problem. I stripped a couple of pozi-drive screwdriver tips and screws. I was at the point of quitting.

“If this screw doesn’t go in, problem free, this time. I’m quitting for the day” I was in the depths of despair. If the screw hadn’t gone in. I would likely have been in tears. Luckily it went in. It’s a shambolic piece of woodworking. But it is on there. Flat and level.

I hope you can’t see all the cock-ups.

I can console myself with the thought that the list of things to do on this layout is now so short, that the layout is almost finished. The wagon loading funnel needs rivets adding and painting, then it can be installed on the layout. Lots of detailing bits and pieces, (a never ending task). 

A system for the unloader needs to be devised. I know it can easily be done by hand. But I don’t know wether to do a hidden manual system or automatic tipping rail. I like to be “hands on” in operating the layout. I could do a simple hidden “pusher” to tip the wagon, or I could try to devise a more complicated system, where a figure could be seen to be tipping the wagon by hand. That would be neat. That would need some serious thought. 

Finally, the train cassettes need to be designed. I’d like an individual cassette to each train. One that could act as storage and protection away from shows, as well as during. I’ll probably have to design and make a few prototypes first. I have some ideas on this. On the strength of the past few days work, they certainly won’t be wooden ones. 

Fiddle yard thoughts Day 26-ish

Much thought has been devoted to the form that the offstage area will take. I have to stop calling it a fiddle yard. That suggests something far grander. I’m just in need of a small area to switch out train cassettes and switch between the two roads. 

After some consideration the best arrangement would be something like this.

Set up sketch

The drawing makes reference to an angled face needed due to the cutaway of the foam baseboard. This photo shows what I mean.

The join area

This was a bit of a cock up at the time. I was looking at the wrong end of the raised area as I lined things up and let the glue set. But right now it doesn’t look so bad as the tab will assist in the location of the offstage area. The rails need to be cut back a smidge, and a little curve cut in the foam, But it should all be good in the end.

Planting time. Day 25-ish

After two or three days of making various types of weeds, the time has come to plant them. As a result I also decided that it was time to commit and wrap the layout in its case. It might come apart to be painted but this is it. The layout is in its home. Besides, there will be no way to design, assemble and fit the fiddle yard until the case is done. So it was done. 

Layout enclosed, pelmet in place.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a premises sign being tested.

With that sorted out. I got all of my 44 weeds, some white glue and a broggler, (a pointed implement for poking holes in things) to plant them in the ground, and set to work. 

I had no idea if 44 would be enough, so I just poked and planted away. In the end I used 42. (Waits for someone to make a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference)…

I saved a couple of larger ones for later, just in case someone at a show wanted to know how they were made. I could make up a little “how I did it” display plinth.

Goldenrod and Yarrow in the scrub

Yarrow around the siding end

Cow Parsley grows around the fence

Perhaps still more are needed. But I want to add some more long grass, and I really would like to try to make some nettles. So there will be more undergrowth around and about yet. But when the overgrown track looks like this, things are certainly looking right.

Typical industrial permanent way.

The next project really must be to get the fiddle yard/sector plate fitted. I’ll save that for next week. 

The next big step.

We all progress in this hobby. As we spend more time working on our layouts, we develop. We learn skills.  We become better at them, Then we learn new skills. Things that we thought impossible become easy. The bar becomes raised. Sometimes without even noticing it.

Then one day you do notice it. All the little steps amount to one big step. You’re left wondering how did I get here? 

It was only a few years ago that I learned how to make my own panel track seen in this image. That too was a big step preceded by lots of little steps.

In this image there are many of the little steps since then, that lead to this next big step. 

A 16mm scale Peter Binnie skip. This is a new scale to me. I actually don’t make many kits, and those I have started usually end up unfinished. I have half a dozen Slaters O scale wagon kits in such a state. This is a simple kit, little more than 10 parts so it got finished.

It’s battered and rusty. I don’t weather. I don’t trust myself. I don’t want to ruin really nice trains with some hamfisted dirty streaks. I buy R-T-R trains with weathering on them. The rim of the skip is banged up. As I don’t weather, I never thought about this before. This simple trick was suggested to me by another 16mm scale modeller. It’s a simple fix but it makes the wagon look like it’s been in service a while.

Static Grass. I have never used static grass until recently. While you were all covering your layouts with grass fibers from expensive, or even home built applicators. I was still in the last century using scatter materials. I had convinced myself that these fibers of grass were round whereas a blade of grass had width so the two couldn’t look the same. To a certain extent I still subscribe to that point of view. But the way those long fibers grow around the timber baulk buffer stop looks very pleasing.  

The timber baulk is distressed, something else I hadn’t thought about until recently all you have to do is drag a razor saw blade down it. That’s not hard.

Weeds. The weeds are the last step. I have no idea why I thought modelling individual plants was something I could do. After all, I had seen Roy C Link’s nettles in his Crowsnest Tramway book, and thought to myself. Never.

It just seemed at that moment something I wanted/needed to try. I remembered that I had made many tiny trees for my Hitsu and Gonou T scale layouts. It couldn’t be any more difficult than that. I made about half a dozen, Then another dozen, followed by 20 more. Now I have about 40 weeds, a mix of Goldenrod, Ragwort and Cow Parsley to plant. It’s probably not enough. They are individually identifiable plants. A new skill has been learnt. A new step taken. Strangely, I find myself wanting to model nettles now.

I started to plant a few weeds on the layout. Ragwort at the sand pit end because they like sand. I pushed the skip up against the timber baulk. Just to see what it looked like.

That’s how I got here.

Looking at the scene, and the image, made me pause. I was gobsmacked. Without realizing it I had just raised my bar. All those small steps and decisions have pulled together to create a whole. The scene has a sense of place, an atmosphere. To a certain extent I feel like I’m there. To be honest, I want to go over there and tip that rusty old skip bucket over. 

So I did.

 

So here I am. In a new place. A new realization that I can do whatever I put my mind to. I’m still a long way off the abilities of the true artists of the model railway world. But in my own way I think I’m with them. In spirit at least.