murrayec

I saw this back in 2017 not sure of the levels now! Article from 2016 ''Bachmann sells half as much as Hornby does in EU'';- https://masterinvestor.co.uk/equities/why-has-hornby-come-off-the-rails/ Eoin

Lovely looking loco popeye. Eoin

Main frames now laminated and clamped down to the bench for the day, just in case they might want to take a warp! Next step is to mate up sides and ends for dowel pin hole drilling and to route the wire slots ...... Eoin

Hi Cm It was made by Tyco Model Trains and is HO scale, here is a link to a bit of history about Tyco;- http://hotraincollector.com/mantua-tyco-streetcars/ Eoin

I'd like one of those for on the road! very handy for those chaps that cut you off in the traffic! Eoin

Hi Dave This in a Gauge N baseboard module which is the same construction design as the one above except;- it was constructed in cheepo 6mm ply with the 40mm insulation for the deck but has no laminated internal frame like the one above. The flat gusset piece in the corners are glued to the frame and to the underside of the insulation, the insulation is glued in with 'No More Nails' glue on the 40mm edge which makes the board fairly rigid in all directions, each module weighs in at 2lb. These boards fit end to end. The end plates are doubled up with a rectangular slot to take the support system, fixing two boards together involves sandwiching the support leg between the two boards in the slot and using a C clamp to hold in place. These units can go on a table or use their own support system! but I found it was to light and liable to be knocked over so had to add Lidl lifting weights to the leg bases. Eoin

Hi Irishrailwayman Yes hot glue is handy, but the majority of this system is laminated construction, there is a laminated inner frame for strength- when this baseboard is at home it will be assembled and hoofed up to ceiling level in my sitting room- for easy access and maximum fun! Hot glue wont work for laminating so PVA & nail gun it will be... Hi Noel I have seen your glass fibre tape & PVA construction in your posts! I'm not to sure about this construction- PVA is a soft material and would not give the same rock hard finish that resin reinforced with the tape would do, which is what's normally used with glass fibre tape, what I thought when I saw your post was, if one goes to the trouble of taping the joins and painting on PVA why not go the whole-hog and use resin! and Noel when things are hot- 'don't Touch' as mammy always said Eoin

I'm setting up a Gauge 00 Exhibition baseboard 2000x1100mm which will take up to a radius 3 track plan, my design is based on lightweight construction so easy to move around, a four unit system 1000x550mm each, two x two of the units will bolt together making two closed transportable units which will fit on the back seat of my car. The baseboard will also be set-up at home to play with and to test models that I'm working on. This is a drawing of one of the 1000x550mm units which will be constructed in 9mm birch ply, it will have a 40mm expanded styrene deck (not shown) to keep the weight down, there are four M8 bolt fixings through MS dowel pins in each unit, to bolt the four units together. This is the 20mm MS bar stock that the dowel system is turned from- 1 dowel pin and 2 sleeves for each bolt which goes through the dowel and clamps the units together against the sleeves, the sleeves will be permanently fixed into each unit. The bolt and dowel pin are removed when disassembling so nothing sticks out the side for transporting. After a bit of turning, though not finished yet. A dowel pin and the two sleeves, one sleeve still needs a flange and a knurl put on it. And the 9mm birch ply frame parts kindly & accurately cut by baseboard Dave. Boards this size cannot be worked on in my workshop so I have made a ply worktable that fits to the coffee table in my living room with T Slot clamping system to aid construction of this and other jobs. Other items like sky boards, support system and scenery are planned and will come along later. The scenery is going to be based around Dun Laoghaire, Salthill and Seapoint- I hope, with keeping the baseboard compact we'll have to see how things pan out! Now for a bit of gluing......... Eoin

Excellent idea David, Looking forward to seeing this progress and how you handle the recycling transformation- an excellent layout that could go on for ever! JHB's book also inspired me to set up a drawing for a layout of the Achill station- one for the future...... Eoin

Excellent Ken, The makings of a lovely little train, looking forward to seen them painted. Eoin

Hi joe123 Here is a thought- what about removing the two acute bends and have the return loop there! that may be an economical solution. Eoin

Hi joe123 If the temp road bed is held down somehow so that the chain cant push it up that might help! The chain relies on the under road surface to keep it down when there is to much friction. The reason the chain pushes up is because of friction on the bends- the chain on front is going slower through the bends than the chain following behind, the chain behind will go where the least resistance is- that's up if it can push the road surface out of the way! More motors and return loops on those acute bends should help with countering friction- but do try fixing down the road surface first and test again. It would be best if the chain glides around without the road surface on! Eoin

Hi joe123 Thats a lot of Magnorail. When you say 'cant get the right tension on the chain' - what do you mean? Is the chain connecting up? or, Is the chain slipping? or, Does the chain run OK without cars on, and doesn't when their on? In the third photo I see a rather tight curve! for a curve that tight one should use Magnorail's return loop (modified) which will reduce friction. For 6 meters of soft curve rail you should have at least 3 motors- which may run up to about 6 cars. With the layout you have done and if you want to run more than six cars I would put a motor in per meter of track = 6 motors! If you use the return loop unit on the sharp bends or increase all sharp bend radius you may get away with 4 motors. Am I right in saying that you have two separate Magnorail tracks of 6 meters long each? If thats the case you'll need to up the motors on both! I know that might be not what you want to hear, but Magnorail is really designed for nice wide radius loops and small layouts! Eoin

Another paint spraying jig. A 'two axis rotational jig with interchangeable parts cradles';- And turn it this way..... And that way...... And the cradle dismounted for the next part to be loaded! I've made four cradles of this type and a few more variations are on the drawing board yet to be cut out. Eoin

Hi I have some knowledge on Magnorail- What is happening? What length is the Magnorail chain? if over 1.5m do you have more than one motor? What are the radius curves your using? Any other info you can give may help- especially photos of the Magnorail layout Eoin

Hi popeye The test styrene side is scored with the Cameo Silhouette knife for the bumps so not like a model side's deep and wide relief, I used a few drops of PVA in the water as recommended by Railtec's instructions, they say this is preferred to MicrolSol, also to avoid MicroSet. I could not encourage the decal to sit down into the score lines but that might have been expecting to much! But the decal is pretty strong as I had to manipulate the lining with a stick and bud to get it in position with no tares, reckon it will work OK on the actual model sides. I have another styrene side which I'm going to put the high relief vents on and test again. Door handles and guard went on after the decals. Eoin

Here is a test of the Railtec Transfers on a piece of flat cut out styrene for a 6 wheeler lav coach, the green paint is Humbrol 3 and after transfers were on finished with semi-matte Alclad II;- I reckon the colour for the lining looks quite good. The pinstripe is only on the narrow line but looks clear. I bought the 4mm-5635 n674 sheet as it had the smallest logo for this type of coach, but as popeye mentions above the numbers are a problem! - you get enough of the small logos to do ten of these coaches but only enough 1, 2, & 3 numbers to do four & a half of these coaches- it would be great to see the numbers 4 to 0 changed to 1, 2, & 3 on the sheet! If there is to be an edit on this sheet regarding the numbers I would suggest making a separate sheet for the 6 wheelers and I would suggest scaling the logo and numbers down by a .8 factor..... Otherwise I will be using these. Eoin

Next Train & Model Fair;-

Hi Heirflick Do a sharp pencil sketch around the edge of the part on white paper- as close to the edge as you can get it, also measure the overall length, the thickness of the part, the diameter of the pins, the height of the pins and include them on the sketch, scan the sketch to a jpg and send it by pm to me .... and we'll see what can be done! Eoin

I love Brendan's Crane. Great layout and stock, Well done lads..... Eoin

Hi Riberac For fun switching operations I reckon the more sidings, the more movement operations can be done? For funny switching operations you could always tell jokes while running the layout Eoin

Hi Wayside Just click on the two links I gave you above last night and all info is there;- First one is a long running thread since it was removed from Malahide. Second one is up to date news by the chap building the OO layout. Eoin