4mm Podimore: proper pannier
- Thread starter AJC
- Start date
AJC
Western Thunderer
A bit further on. The industrial sidings, and exit, are now laid so I just have to complete the loop in lightweight flatbottom rail. I think the contrast with the bullhead looks really nice though it's taken a bit of packing to make the heights match. You can't tell, but the far siding is on antique Ratio EM bases... What this picture also hints at are the changes in level. The sidings in the foreground are level, the mainline goes up at 1 in 100 and the left hand line that feeds into the goods loop rises at about 1 in 60, enough to require the operator to be careful, but not so much for runaways to be completely catastrophic. It's also perfectly usual on the real thing - the goods yard at Hythe on the Fawley branch was a bit like that, but we modellers tend towards the straight, flat and square (I think I remember @Simon saying something like this years ago in relation to Pomparles Siding which is more or less none of these things).
One bit of fun that I couldn't resist was these improvised buffer stops made from curved rail. I've seen something very like these somewhere online, but can't find them again. Making them would need a fair bit of heat and some Weetabix, I suspect, but they're effective and more fun than bolt on stop chocks or an 'ordinary' buffer stop.
The test wagon will need a bit of touching up when all this is done!
Adam
One bit of fun that I couldn't resist was these improvised buffer stops made from curved rail. I've seen something very like these somewhere online, but can't find them again. Making them would need a fair bit of heat and some Weetabix, I suspect, but they're effective and more fun than bolt on stop chocks or an 'ordinary' buffer stop.
The test wagon will need a bit of touching up when all this is done!
Adam
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AJC
Western Thunderer
It's been a little while but now all the track is down and the rails across the baseboards are cut, but before I get started on wiring everything up, some scenic treatment thoughts need addressing.
At the left hand (east) end of the layout, there's a dairy, offscene, and the bridge that's already been featured, carrying a farm lane and crossing the railway at the very end of the platform. I'm currently considering how to manage the transition and here are the current thoughts rendered in cardboard box form with the station building and platform edging roughly in position.
I was thinking that a small stand of young elm scrub to the left of the bridge might obscure the mousehole quite effectively, along with the skewed lane - the exit of the lane is hidden by the station building - and the bits of mounting board stand in for the road. The boxes are going to be a mess of dairy buildings with, at the rear a short run of railway cottages based on similar buildings put up for workers on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway which look a bit like this: Google Maps (the end houses have been extended).
Looking across (from somewhere the normal viewer won't see) this mockup looks quite effective, I think? I like this view as, with the track in place, it shows the changes in level really nicely. Thoughts, please.
Adam
At the left hand (east) end of the layout, there's a dairy, offscene, and the bridge that's already been featured, carrying a farm lane and crossing the railway at the very end of the platform. I'm currently considering how to manage the transition and here are the current thoughts rendered in cardboard box form with the station building and platform edging roughly in position.
I was thinking that a small stand of young elm scrub to the left of the bridge might obscure the mousehole quite effectively, along with the skewed lane - the exit of the lane is hidden by the station building - and the bits of mounting board stand in for the road. The boxes are going to be a mess of dairy buildings with, at the rear a short run of railway cottages based on similar buildings put up for workers on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway which look a bit like this: Google Maps (the end houses have been extended).
Looking across (from somewhere the normal viewer won't see) this mockup looks quite effective, I think? I like this view as, with the track in place, it shows the changes in level really nicely. Thoughts, please.
Adam
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Jon Gwinnett
Western Thunderer
Ah that takes me back. School cross country runs along the road to Cliddesden, finishing by jumping into the moving Bedford CA school minibus...
Mike Garwood
Western Thunderer
Adam
I've only just noticed you have a gradient running from and to a set of points...have you trialed this aspect of the layout yet? On Hengoed I have 2 sets of points turning left and heading downhill (both on differing levels but running side by side). Did you find this particularly taxing to get to work?
More pics please!
Mike
I've only just noticed you have a gradient running from and to a set of points...have you trialed this aspect of the layout yet? On Hengoed I have 2 sets of points turning left and heading downhill (both on differing levels but running side by side). Did you find this particularly taxing to get to work?
More pics please!
Mike
AJC
Western Thunderer
Adam
I've only just noticed you have a gradient running from and to a set of points...have you trialed this aspect of the layout yet? On Hengoed I have 2 sets of points turning left and heading downhill (both on differing levels but running side by side). Did you find this particularly taxing to get to work?
More pics please!
Mike
Hi Mike,
Not too bad in the scheme of things, though the mainline railway wouldn't indulge in this kind of silliness, rail tolerates it quite well. This bit of the layout is short wheelbase 0-4-0s and 0-6-0s (compensated), and short wheelbase wagons. As yet, wagons are the only things I've tried, but the sprung PMV woks perfectly happily and that's good. I'll nip down the garden and take a snap to show how extreme it is shortly. The thing is only there as a loco release really and it's not intended that loaded wagons will go over it. I mean, they will, but they shouldn't...
Adam
AJC
Western Thunderer
Here you are, @Mike Garwood. First the hump, which is a rather scruffy bit of track building, but it works - the far, hidden, rail is better!
Note the packing - ballast will hide all this!
Finally, the best view yet showing the levels - flat through the station, up 1 in 100 from the baseboard join to the exit, down 1 in 60 to the end of the exchange siding and so on.
Adam
Note the packing - ballast will hide all this!
Finally, the best view yet showing the levels - flat through the station, up 1 in 100 from the baseboard join to the exit, down 1 in 60 to the end of the exchange siding and so on.
Adam
simond
Western Thunderer
Adam
Unless it’s a deliberate feature, do you not think a bit of vertical curvature in that rail would be a good thing? I think I’d be inclined to remove the packing and use a pair of pliers to persuade the rail to follow the ground line a bit more smoothly.
you’re well away from the crossing so I doubt you’ll have issues on that front.
atb
Simon
Unless it’s a deliberate feature, do you not think a bit of vertical curvature in that rail would be a good thing? I think I’d be inclined to remove the packing and use a pair of pliers to persuade the rail to follow the ground line a bit more smoothly.
you’re well away from the crossing so I doubt you’ll have issues on that front.
atb
Simon
AJC
Western Thunderer
Yes, I've been thinking about that - just no time at present. As you'll have guessed it's not deliberate...
Adam
EDIT - now attended to. Update once the glue has dried.
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Mike Garwood
Western Thunderer
Adam
Thanks for taking the time to do that. Bending rail with pliers in 2 equal plains - not sure that's going to give a consistant result. But it has set me thinking. Simon is right, there does need to be give and shape to the rail, I'm not convinced that pliers are the answer.
Thinking cap on...."I'll be back".
Mike
Thanks for taking the time to do that. Bending rail with pliers in 2 equal plains - not sure that's going to give a consistant result. But it has set me thinking. Simon is right, there does need to be give and shape to the rail, I'm not convinced that pliers are the answer.
Thinking cap on...."I'll be back".
Mike
simond
Western Thunderer
Mike,
I’d like to think I’m on the right lines, but being “right” is a responsibility...
I suspect I’d use my flat pliers, I think they’d fit between sleepers, and with a thumb firmly on the uphill bit, I’d apply a little clockwise twist between each sleeper to turn the end down a little. Gently at first, can do more on the second and third passes, definitely easier to get it right first time than to un-bend it later!
Real rail is heavy stuff, and it will sag due to its own weight. This is a case of physics not scaling well. It needs a bit of help!
same is true for model catenaries, the wire is too stiff for its weight which spoils the illusion unless you’re clever, careful or lucky, or all of the above, of course.
Atb
Simon
I’d like to think I’m on the right lines, but being “right” is a responsibility...
I suspect I’d use my flat pliers, I think they’d fit between sleepers, and with a thumb firmly on the uphill bit, I’d apply a little clockwise twist between each sleeper to turn the end down a little. Gently at first, can do more on the second and third passes, definitely easier to get it right first time than to un-bend it later!
Real rail is heavy stuff, and it will sag due to its own weight. This is a case of physics not scaling well. It needs a bit of help!
same is true for model catenaries, the wire is too stiff for its weight which spoils the illusion unless you’re clever, careful or lucky, or all of the above, of course.
Atb
Simon
AJC
Western Thunderer
Thanks both - Mike, the horizontal alignment is actually fine: the fact that flatbottom joins bullhead here makes it look other than it is so it was simply the vertical curve that was the problem and I did what Simon suggested, helped by having used only the minimum number of functional copperclad sleepers. The combination of a bit of bending and altering the packing, with yes, some light dressing of the join with a file, has resolved matters to my satisfaction. The slight 'click' that was present has now gone, but the downside is that the test wagon really flies down the slope! There will be some have to be some model signage (eventually) warning drivers about loose shunting!
Thanks again,
Adam
Thanks again,
Adam
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
If you made the trees overhang the road it would darken the area slightly and further obscure the 'mousehole'
. Some trees and/or bushes placed in the V between the lower and upper tracks in front of the road will aslo help disguise the 'mousehole' when viewed obliquely.From an artists aesthetic view you may wish to make these trees higher than the tallest building on the right so you have a 1/5, 1/5, 3/5ths ratio.
It's nice seeing this develop and I do like the concrete pot sleepers in the right foreground.
AJC
Western Thunderer
Not much to report, but some inspection of pictures and an afternoon stroll with the boy to the Kent Coast electrification extensions to Hildenborough station's platforms (we know how to have fun, the 18 month old and I) revealed that my suspicions that PECO's interpretation of concrete platform faces weren't quite right. Simply, they're too tall and the supports too closely spaced.
The platform coping should be 3' above rail level and the coping slabs themselves 2' 6" deep with a 4' spacing between supports. The result of the PECO platform faces look too tall and an already short platform looks shorter. That said, the supports are nicely profiled and I've already paid for them, so out with a sheet of 60 thou' and off we go...
Adam
The platform coping should be 3' above rail level and the coping slabs themselves 2' 6" deep with a 4' spacing between supports. The result of the PECO platform faces look too tall and an already short platform looks shorter. That said, the supports are nicely profiled and I've already paid for them, so out with a sheet of 60 thou' and off we go...
Adam
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Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
A vast improvement already.
It does make you wonder what drawings or prototype PECO followed. The height may be to compensate for modellers using cork or their underlay under the track only.
It does make you wonder what drawings or prototype PECO followed. The height may be to compensate for modellers using cork or their underlay under the track only.
AJC
Western Thunderer
Pass - the profile of the supports looks spot on and I suspect that PECO had a drawing for these (highly likely) but the spacing was guestimated/botched. The height must be to be compatible with Code 100 (and it's certainly made some otherwise good layouts look wrong because of the relationship of the carriage footboards to the coping: now I know why).
Adam
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
Strangley enough it was one of the items I photographed for the weathering at Wokingham when visiting friends in 2019.
AJC
Western Thunderer
Well, I've completed the frontage, though it'll want a touch of filler and perhaps a bit of extra work if I decide to mount the ground frame on the platform. I'm particularly pleased with the additional relief and the coping stones, cut from strips of 60 thou' with the characteristic grooves along the edges added using the tips of my digital Vernier (tool abuse, yes, but Laurie Griffin does the same and I don't suppose it's just us). They don't show up that well in the bare plastic, but never mind.
Note that the surface hasn't yet been added as I'm looking at producing a mix - ash and tarmac - but that can wait until installation and bedding in. It's a rather short platform, but demonstrates that Podimore is really an over developed halt (it's about the same length as Meeth on the ND&CJLR and the platforms on the Culm Valley branch, or Polsham on the Wells branch, all unabashed influences, so my conscience is clear). From the Sherborne end, we have the necessary extension to accommodate the toilet. The original buildings from the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway seem to have had a wooden screen: Podimore will have the benefit of more of Exmouth Junction's finest concrete panels.
And finally, a ganger's eye view in position on the layout:
Thanks for looking.
Adam
Note that the surface hasn't yet been added as I'm looking at producing a mix - ash and tarmac - but that can wait until installation and bedding in. It's a rather short platform, but demonstrates that Podimore is really an over developed halt (it's about the same length as Meeth on the ND&CJLR and the platforms on the Culm Valley branch, or Polsham on the Wells branch, all unabashed influences, so my conscience is clear). From the Sherborne end, we have the necessary extension to accommodate the toilet. The original buildings from the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway seem to have had a wooden screen: Podimore will have the benefit of more of Exmouth Junction's finest concrete panels.
And finally, a ganger's eye view in position on the layout:
Thanks for looking.
Adam
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