Junctionmad

Have you considered implementing VAT DDP , it’s makes things very easy

I personally don’t think switching to 21mm is worth. It.

"Yes but LJ seems nigh impossible to model unless one had the space for a 50ft long layout, LJ was just a long piece of string. The operation of the Waterford trains used to be interesting in the days before all the track was ripped up and they used to run behind the station building to the Waterford platform. Visually rather boring with only one very long platform, and that scissors did my head in. " I have a nice OO track plan that fits all the track work of LJ ( the original ) into 20 feet , there was a full scissors there originally , but in latter years it was only a half scissors. waterford main platform was also divided similarly into two platforms and in fact had a full scissors there also .

Finally cie have destroyed LJ . They tried several times before , but it’s now the same boring minimalistic concrete nonsense how this benefits travelers is beyond me , the whole idea of LJ was a common platform to facilitate interchange Dave

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Goodness me , it was labour intensive

Ive been asked this several times , so heres a longer description The foam is extruded Polystrene underfloor insulation , XPS300 , typically known as "XPS" insulation and is available in typically three densities XPS100, 200,300 , 300 is capable of withstanding concrete walls being built on top of it , so is a "bit" overkill here , XPS100 would be fine Its a good bit dearer then expanded polystyrene ( which is the nasty white crumbly stuff) XPS is cut with a " Knife saw " a handsaw shaped like a wood saw but with a form of knife blade . It can be cut with a conventional saw. we use a hot wire cutter and it can be shaped quite nicely with "surfoam " tools or or a sharp cheese grater on a handle It will not deform under thumbprints and create far less mess that the very inferior ( by comparison ) expanded polystrene ( which is often referred to by its Dow trade name , Styrofoam ) Most smaller builder providers may not stock it , but will order its from Kingspan or Quinn Insulation Note the stuff with the silver foil installation is somewhat different as its a very low density ( because its designed for non structural applications in walls etc ) and can crumble and deform ( even if it is extruded ) Its then covered in a thin layer of patching plaster ( mixed with PVA ) we expect to be doing the initial static grass next week , so some pics soon , Signals being installed thereafter

I engage in a hobby called model railways , the key is in the name , I try ( and often fail ) to represent railways in model form . Toy trains are entirely different , things like giraffes popping their heads at bridges etc. to suggest that a beautiful hard crafted model , or an exquisite hand built track layout is a “ toy “ is completely wrong and would most likely annoy the builder significantly this is different to say RC Model aircraft , which , while there is a “ scale” section of that hobby , most RC units are merely crude approximations to any actual aircraft , the purpose of RC being to get something to fly rather then an exact replica , as a result many RC” models” are very crude in comparison to the detail on a model railway model the model railway hobby is entirely separate from toy trains , which were largely marketed to children , and because of computers ( of one form or another ) that market has disappeared . Rovex ( ? ) I beleive pivoted Hornby away from frank Hornbys products aimed largely at adults to the then emerging cheap injection mounded “ toys “ the truth is model railways is largely an aging adult hobby , children arnt a component of that hobby and the hobby has gone from strength to strength despite alarm calls as far back as the 70s about the disappearance of kids from the hobby ( given it never was a kids hobby in the first place ) to this day Hornby has failed to accept or grasp , that the toy train market is dead , despite a temporary reprieve on the back of “ Thomas” had Hornby retained its IP material . Went up market ( and slimmed down ) perhaps entered the O gauge market as well , it would have faired better . It’s always suffered by being , just too big , for the market it should be in My own view is that Hornby is no longer relevant to the model railway hobby , and hasn’t been for some time , should it address that market, some part of it might survive, otherwise it will vanish , cause it can’t keep burning money forever ( even if it tried repeatedly ) I for one wouldn’t miss it , even though like many kids at the time (1968 ) my first train was a Hornby , but once I started subscribing to “ the constructor “ , I realized , I was interested in model railways not toy trains and by 12 , I was building white metal GWR kits ( appalling badly at first ) To me the core of the hobby , it’s the myriad of small suppliers doing kits , white metal , brass etchs etc because these enable some beautiful models to be made and I don’t mean locos and rolling stock. To me the gamut of “ model railways “ includes track , signals , buildings and lineside structures and to cap it all good scenery , whereas , for example, poorly modeled track or wacky track configurations are just as bad to me , as a poor model of a loco or wagon . Really good railway modelling , a standard aspire to , and most of the time fail to meet , should recreate a feeling of transporting you to the period being represented Dave

I would suggest you consider extruded polystyrene rather then expanded Also I would be interested to see how the torsional rigidity works out . I found that without diagonal cross bracing , the ply construction was rigid both across and along the horizontal axis , but exhibited considerable diagonal movement , now this isnt such an issue where boards are levelled before the layout is used , but we did add diagonals to our O gauge boards ( which are a good bit bigger the 1000x 500) and to all other ply and tape boards we have subsequently made up ( Over 40 at the last count ) The layout is so rigid when erected that the certain mal adjusted trestles often don't contact the floor , rather then the layout sagging I had considered a extruded styrene base , and also experimented with a lamination of ply/extruded styrene /ply using 3mm ply and 100mm extruded XPS300 , It has much promise , but really needs a vacuum bag , which I dont have . But this type of composite construction doesnt even need side supports for a frame ( other then for cosmetic reasons and joining boards together ) ) I would like to see your boards once they are finished Dave

Noel. The most problematic construction, in my experience , is dissimilar woods , In far too many cases Ive seen the 2"x1" being stabilised by the ply and not the other way round. Then to compensate for what is a fundamentally bad approach , the thickness of everything is beefed up, ( and gets corresponding heavy ) While this " solves " the issue , its really a poor way to go about it . This is even truer today , as commonly available deal is often forced growth, poorly dried and inaccurate. Th timber and ply commonly available in local builders providers is invariably rubbish and is the cheapest around type of stuff as most purchasers dont care about warpage or humidity issues That method of construction largely evolved because it was what people could easily get in their local hardware store, getting good quality ply is still very difficult to this day and requires use of a specialist provider , glue and tape construction is not common to the average DIYer or railway modeller, ( nor is laminating or other specialist methodologies ) hence we have the Deal and ply construction Its easy to make something strong and heavy , its easy to make something light and weak , the trick is strong and light. Note that many construction systems will allow you to " walk on the boards", the issue is what is the resulting deflection !, and more importantly over time how they react to moisture and changes in humidity and temperature . Everard Junction has an interesting discussion on what went wrong with his baseboards over the years. IN my opinion , ply on ply construction ( however you approach the particular construction ) using good quality ply is the best approach while still avoiding terribly exotic materials or advanced construction techniques . Laser cut , all ply boards ( which we tested for the O gauge and discounted ) makes exceptionally light and strong baseboards, but requires all the baseboards to be accurately designed in advance. The use of interlocking tabs in laser cut , makes the joins very strong and in fact the test boards we made up ( which can be seen in the club) didnt need tape and glue. There is a multitude of baseboard methods, and many will " suffice " , some are " good" and a few are class leading. Again it all depends on what you want as the design goal, cost, weight , strength etc This leaves aside discussion on other forms of compressed sheet , other then ply as, thats another ball game entirely , or composite sandwich foam types ( which I did consider for the O gauge and still feel has promise Dave

I would say however that the method is not suitable for cheap Malaysian ply , my experience with it suggests the layers are not well bonded , and the surface tends to be more dense and less absorbent then birch ply.

As the person who designed the O gauge ply and glue construction , it’s true the method works best with fibreglass resin and fibreglass tape However our experience with the O gauge is that while the main baseboards are resin and are effectively bomb proof , the pva baseboards are surviving the rough and tumble more then adequately the sides are not designed for lateral loading, their primary purpose is to stress the top and keep it flat the end cheeks are 15mm ply ( all ply is high grade birch ply , either MR glue or WBP glue , I would reccomend staying well away from cheaper grades of ply ) The biggest stress area , can come on the end cheeks as they are dismantled , any vertical movement with the steel dowels still engaged effectively causes one board to act as a lever on the end check joints . Roughly abused the pva units will fracture , however interesting the hot glue is so strongly bonded it usually rips the surface lamination fron the ply in the process. Hence in the pva /hot glue variant a lot of strength comes from the hot glue it would seem in the original fibreglass design ( my own layout is all resin ) there is appreciable additional strength from the fibreglass , the ply will completely fail before the joint releases. The pva variant is a compromise albeit a good one and it’s difficult to badly apply pva whereas fibreglass laminating resin needs some experience and a room temperature over 15 degrees C , not to mention the all persuasive styrene monomer smell that lingers and really requires breathing filters having said that I glassed mine in my back spare bedroom , during a winter !! ( I have a tolerant wife ) i put one test board in my outside steel garden shed for 6 months of the winter braced at an odd angle , no distortion or delamination was observed the primary advantagous of the method are (1) exceptional ridigity combined with low weight due to the use of 6mm ply yet fast construction , an experienced person can assemble a 5, x 2.5’ in 40 minutes fully glassed (3) if diagonally braced , good resistance to torsional stress , tests show on a 5’ X 2.5’ board raising the opposite corner 4mm will lift the diagonal opppsing corner (4) the use of computerised cuting delivers dimensional accuracies without resorting to fully designed up baseboards like laser cut (5) no on site specialist equipment is needed nor any carpentry skills other then a couple of squares and a few clamps , a decent chop saw is useful but not essential (6) no screws or nails used in the main body of the board (7) the hot glue method means the board is instantly transportable and can be glassed in another location , brought home in a car etc (8) the design is such that variations can be accomdated without recourse to more computerised cutting ( ie curved baseboards ) , lift sections (9) the construction method can produce open frame variants (10 ) did I say it’s strong , a 5’ by 2.5’ supported just on its bare ends exhibits 2mm sag when a 10 stone man sat in the middle !! , yet such a baseboard can be comfortable carried by one person There are some disadvantages (1) the use of legs fixed to the sides is not really supported , as the 6mm ( 120 mm deep ) sides are not designed to handle significant horizontal loading ( as opppsed to vertical loading ) the design is optimised for self standing trestles (2) the same issues arises with structures that leverage the side frames , like lighting supports and pelmets , these really need to be free standing from the floor even if tied to the sides for stability (3) not everyone is comfortable with polyester laminating resin The design was subjected to some limited finite stress analysis in fusion 360 . If anyone would like to discuss the construction method , the O gauge layout will be at Easter WMRC , Belfast , august 2019 and Dublin ( Blackrock 2019) dave

pity its not O gauge

chaps , I just realised that I have to reactivate my IrishRailModels account , but the link from 15/5 fails with " password reset error " ? dave WMRC