The last couple of months have seen a lot of progress made with scenery, woodwork and some electrical work.
Unfortunately the scenery has been shoveling a few tons of blue metal, dirt and mulch from the front yard to the back yard, then into above ground veggie gardens, the woodwork has been making shelving to house my rather large collection of magazines and books, and the electrical work has been some extra power points and lights in various parts of the house.
However amongst the household duties I have managed to almost complete another set of points. This time I thought I'd try making a pair of points as a unit, as this is how they will need to be on the layout.
I figured it may be easier and quicker to make them like this rather than as two separate sets. I'm not sure if it was that much easier or quicker in hindsight, but it was certainly not any more difficult and I will definitely make any further sets like this.
Like most things, I tried a few different techniques with this set compared to the first set, and the next set will see a coupe of minor tweaks that I hope will make some small increases in ease of construction.
I think the next set I tackle may be a curved set as they look like fun to make, and will no doubt require some small changes in technique to get them just right.
7 comments:
Darren
Just keep in mind that to stop short circuits you have to gap the rails at the frog so that unfortunately makes it a bit pointless.
Ray P
Hi Ray
Yes that's true about the gaps, which I'll do once they are more complete, that it does take away from the advantage of having the rails in one piece, or as you said, makes it a bit "pointless" (bad pun?).
Cheers
Darren
Hi Darren
How do you intend to run your layout - will a train be doing multiple laps for mileage or will it only do one circuit?
Cheers
Shelton.
Hi Shelton
The layout as far as the Gunnedah section goes, will typically run as a point to point layout. With trains coming from "south" of Gunnedah, dropping off and picking up from the various oil sidings, main yard, silo's, cattle yard and meatworks etc on thier way to "north" of Gunnedah. Return trains will pick up or drop off as necessary on their way back south.
Having said that ideally I want to be able to have a continuous run for those times when I may just want to watch trains running around or running in engines or rolling stock.
Cheers
Darren
G'day Darren,
Looking good so far, well done!
Just curious as to what you have used to file your point blades? Have you gone with a fast-tracks tool or just by hand? Also what point # have you decided to go with?
Cheers,
Brendan
Hi Brendan
So far I've just been filing the point blades and frog by hand, and with the help of a 6" bench grinder. I have found that using the side of the 6" grinding wheel with gentle pressure I can get a nice fine point blade without too much trouble at all.
I actually find the frogs more annoying to do than the point blades, and am going to make a jig to make things a little easier.
I'm using no.6 point dimensions at the moment, but will also do some larger ones where space permits and once I get down to laying track on the layout (which doesn't seem to be getting any closer!) I'll probably make some custom sized curved points as well.
Cheers
Darren
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