21mm track question

[Robert Shrives]

Hi ,

Just a quick one - at Derby show I got some timber strip, rails and chairs to make a a bit of 21mm gauge bull head track - what length should the timber sleepers be.  Plus what is the generally accepted sleeper centres ?

With lack of a 21mm track gauge from C&L I was going to make my own usinging studding ,nuts and washers .

Track intended for a trail and hopefully will include some pointwork in time.

Thanks for any info

Robert   

[KMCE]

Hello Robert,

 

The sleeper length is 36mm (9ft) if I recall correctly.  In terms of setting the track out, templot is what is generally used.  It's free to download and use, however it is a bit clunky to operate initially.  You need to set up the scale you want (5'3" gauge is there) which sets out all the necessary parameters to allow you set out sleepers, track lengths, and points etc.

For spacing, I bought the gauges from Scalefour society (there may be others?)  which are not expensive - you could make your own, but for the sake of c. £5, is it worth the effort?

 

Hope this helps,

Ken

[Glenderg]

Ken, I popped into Lenihans hardware in Dublin, bought a few long bolts and some nuts, total spend of €1.36 and have a few working 21mm track gauges. The ones from Scalefour only work on Code 75 track, so anything more exotic (this clown here is using code 100) requires a homemade solution. 

 

[Broithe]

The new wooden sleepers on the loop at Ballybrophy.

[Broithe]

This should be reasonably accurately scaleable for the sleeper length. This is what came up when the main lines through the station were replaced with concrete sleepers a few years back.

 

[Glenderg]

It works out at 100" or 8'4" - in scale 33.33mm for 4mm. As regards spacing it varies a fair bit in those photos, but 32" centres appears to be a mean dimension - 10.67mm centres in scale. HTH. R.

[Robert Shrives]

Thanks for all the info - what about the concrete sleepers alongside, for completeness , and I have some FB rail tucked away I find..

for points I guess I can step back some timbers and would need a few longer longer ones to compensate. 

Regards

Robert 

[GNRi1959]

17 hours ago, Broithe said:

The new wooden sleepers on the loop at Ballybrophy.

Great bit of modelling, the ballast looks so authentic 

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, Robert Shrives said:

what about the concrete sleepers alongside, for completeness

I definitely took a vertical picture of the new (concrete) track from the footbridge, but I just can't seem to find it at the moment.

Sorry.

19 minutes ago, GNRi1959 said:

Great bit of modelling, the ballast looks so authentic 

Could do with a run of the track-rubber along the top...

[Glenderg]

1 hour ago, Robert Shrives said:

Thanks for all the info - what about the concrete sleepers alongside, for completeness

 

26" centres - taken at Athy - 8.67mm in 4mm. 

[Mayner]

6 hours ago, Glenderg said:

It works out at 100" or 8'4" - in scale 33.33mm for 4mm. As regards spacing it varies a fair bit in those photos, but 32" centres appears to be a mean dimension - 10.67mm centres in scale. HTH. R.

It looks like ordinary wooden sleepers are supplied cut to length from sawmills in Scandanavia & Australia. Sleeper length appears to have been reduced from 9' to 8'6" as an economy measure at some stage after 1914.

William Mills "Railway Construction" 1910 speaks about sleepers for gauges between 4'8½" & 5'3" being brought over from the Baltic in  "blocks or logs 8'11" some square some round, each block sawn down the middle gives two sleepers".

I use SMP EM copper clad sleepers for 21mm gauge flatbottom track which are 34mm long.  http://www.marcway.net/list3.php?col=head&name=PCB+PRE-CUT+SLEEPERS

SMP & C&L Finescale both supply short sleepers to disguise the narrow gauge look of OO track laid on 32 or 36mm sleepers