A Winter project

[swisstrains]

Come on lads. Play fair
Tony's Winter project thread is hardly the place to be discussing who's got what and how much it costs to insure it.
Start your own thread.

[62440]

I agree with that idea, John. Is there any chance the Mods could move the insurance bit to it's own thread , please?

Regards, 62440.

[Tony]

Hi guys,
Back from a great holiday in Spain. Getting sorted as quickly as possible; catching up on the website, catching up with friends and washing etc. I will post part 3 within a couple of days when things have settled somewhat.
Regards, Tony

[swisstrains]

Hi Tony,
Have you considered the new Dapol N-Gauge magnetic couplers for your layout? The ones that I have experimented with work very well but burying the magnets in the track on an established layout is a bit of a pain. Installing them at the construction stage would be much easier although reading back I see that you have already ballasted your track. Just a thought.

[Tony]

Hi John,
Yes I have considered the new Dapol uncouplers - then I saw the price!!!!! I think that Dapol are pricing themselves out of a very lucrative market. When you think of the number of them needed on only a small layout, in my case about 30, then the cost runs to well over £150 - for couplings? Large scale production should bring the price down to a more accepable £2.50 or even £25.00 for 10.

[swisstrains]

Originally Posted by Tony

Hi John,
Yes I have considered the new Dapol uncouplers - then I saw the price!!!!! I think that Dapol are pricing themselves out of a very lucrative market. When you think of the number of them needed on only a small layout, in my case about 30, then the cost runs to well over £150 - for couplings? Large scale production should bring the price down to a more accepable £2.50 or even £25.00 for 10.

Couldn't agree more.
I just bought a couple of packets to experiment with and although they seem to work well I don't think I will be buying any more. Far too expensive even if I was just to use them on locos and on the outer ends of block trains and coach rakes.
I think they do look slightly better than the normal Rapido couplers but I have also found that they are a couple of millimetres longer than the standard couplers on my Minitrix and Fleischmann wagons so the gap between them is visibly increased which is a backward step.

[Tony]

Part 3 of the saga details the ballasting. Photo 1 shows the entrance to the station. Well washed and sieved beach sand was used to simulate newly ballasted plain track. The station platform tracks were ballasted using dark brown and the sidings using black.
The various ballasts were laid a few square inches at a time using a soft haired artists brush to get it level and into place forming the track shoulders. It is very time consuming but well worth it in the end, after all, the layout should last for several years.
When about 18 square inches were laid to my satisfaction, a 4;1 mix of water and PVA glue was dropped onto it and left to dry. The areas of point blades were covered with pieces of paper to stop any ballast moving around the blades. It is important to soak the ballast with the mixture otherwise you might have to start again when bald patches appear!
Once the ballast was dry the trackwork had to be cleared of stray rocks - it certainly felt like that - using a small screwdriver and craft knife. Running a couple of wagons by hand along the tracks soon shows up any imperfections.
This phase of the job is very fiddly and took several days but successful running later gave a great feeling of satisfaction.

[swisstrains]

I see that you have also painted the track since the last update Tony.
I have been doing some ballasting myself recently. As you say, very time consuming but worth it in the end.

[John H-T]

Looks good Tony. A job I will be tackling soon once I have finished all the wiring.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

[Tony]

Hi John,
Thanks for spotting my mistake! I painted the whole baseboard and track with brown emulsion paint before ballasting. The underside was covered with thin ply to cover the wiring and then the sides and underside were painted with matt black emulsion. The ballast has not been painted at all (yet!).
The tops of the rails have to be cleaned of paint and I found it better to let it dry first and it chips off easily. If you wipe off whilst it is still wet, I found that a very thin film is left which plays havoc with electrical pick up and this film is quite hard to remove.
Anyway, if you keep checking the electrical supply and point operation at every stage, you won't go far wrong.