Progress Report 59

We were blessed with fine weather through April (the sunniest since 1929 - coincidentally when one of my favourite narrow gauge railways closed - the Southwold Railway) and so there have been more opportunities than usual for me to get out into the garden to carry out a few jobs.

I have made a start on constructing the 32mm gauge feeder line to the Copper Mine (the Peckforton Mine Tramway - PMT); I completed the stone embankment for the PMT, relaid the tracks at the crusher shed, repainted and weathered the 32mm gauge diesel loco and made some more rolling stock for the PMT.

At Beeston Market station I have; moved the engine shed, embedded and ballasted the tracks, constructed a cattle dock, and made a start on the coal yard.

The Peckforton Mine Tramway

The trackbed

 After changing the configuration of the sidings at the Copper Mine (see Progress Report 58), I decided it was time to figure out how I was going to use the 32mm track and rolling stock which I have been acquiring (see How I added radio control to a small diesel loco, How I constructed a 32mm gauge barrel wagon) to act as the new feeder railway for the crusher shed and loading chutes.

Rather than disappearing immediately into the hedge as the non operational Gn15 feeder line did previously .....

...... I decided to make more of a feature of the feeder by bringing if to the front. Supports were fixed behind the main line between the Copper Mine and Beeston Market station and the trackbed fixed on top.

I decided that it might be useful having a 2' gauge line running to Beeston Market which could well have had a small industrial railway bringing sand from the sand quarry which was located behind the cattle market. Visually, it could therefore serve two purposes - acting as a feeder for the Copper Mine at one end and as a feeder for the sand quarry at the other.

At present, the far end of the line to the Copper Mine just disappears into the undergrowth behind Beeston Market station. Eventually, I will extend this behind the station yard and maybe lead it down to a sand and gravel pit and/or possibly the canalside.

The track has been laid and ballasted used some bird grit which included red pottery shards. I felt this would be appropriate for a line which transported red sandstone spoil.

I'll probably tone it down a bit with a thin wash of black/brown cement dye (see below).

The embankment

To carry the line over the sidings at the Copper Mine, I decided that the miners would have made use of the sandstone they were tunnelling through to construct an embankment (in the same sort of way that slate miners built their embankments from slate debris in North Wales).

The embankment took a while to construct (see How I constructed a 'stone' embankment ) - the stonework was made from balsa wood which was subsequently hardened with a wet rot treatment product, painted with acrylics and then sealed with matt varnish.

This will be left outside throughout the year, so I will be interested to see how the treated balsa survives the ravages of the weather.

The bridges

 A couple of bridges are needed to carry the 2' gauge railway over the 3' gauge Copper Mine tracks. By coincidence, the bridges would also act as scenic breaks for the 'hidden' link line between the Copper Mine and Beeston Market station. This link allows full skip wagons to be exchanged for empties - thus giving the impression that empties travel Down the line to the Copper Mine and return loaded (see Freight Operations on the railway and How I weathered a rake of tippler wagons).

So far, I have built one bridge over the sidings at the Copper Mine. I opted for a simple plate girder bridge (see How I constructed a plate girder bridge - pending) using a Wills Vari-girder bridge kit intended for 00 railways. I had intended to build a rickety wooden bridge, but there was insufficient room below for the struts.

 Some Plastruct I-beam cross members were added and I'm toying with the idea of adding a couple of longitudinal beams to support the tracks plus a couple of Plastruct members to stiffen the structure more.

It will eventually be spray-painted with Halfords grey primer and then weathered and rusted.

The crusher shed tracks

The original Gn15 railway split into two on the gallery for the loading chutes - one side to allow ore to be fed to the chutes serving the crushers in the shed, and the other allowing spoil to be loaded into the hoppers on the main line.

There was insufficient room for this arrangement to be replicated with the 32mm gauge track and so a single line would have to serve both jobs. To avoid having to heighten the canopy, I decided to lower the tracks by doing away with the sleeper bases. The rails were soldered to a row of brass panel pins knocked into the wooden sub-structure.

 First one rail was soldered ........

.......and then a simple gauge (35mm wide) was used to mark the position of the second row of pins (32mm gauge plus the width of the rail). The second row of pins was then knocked in.........

.... and the second rail was soldered to these pins. A couple of short lengths of 4mm OD brass tube were then soldered to the end of each rail to help with the alignment of these rails to the rest of the system.

The freelance diesel loco (Linda)

I have previously described how she was modified to radio control and auto-shuttle mode (see How I converted a small battery diesel to radio control). I decided she needed to be further detailed, painted and weathered.

She was given a coat of dark green acrylic to which a small amount of talcum powder had been added to dull the gloss finish. Rusty patches of varying shades of brown were stippled on and a length of chain glued on - assuming that this would be used to tow skip wagons from awkward corners.

A new driver (from ModelTown) was painted with acrylics (primed in black and then dry-brushed with gradually lightened tints of the base colours). In deference to his age, I decided to fashion the Blutak blob by which he was attached to the seat into a cushion. The petrol can which disguises the fuse was painted with acrylics to resemble a BP can, a picture of which I found online. By the way, the Deltang Rx65b receiver/controller automatically detects the voltage level of the li-ion battery and cuts-out when it falls below its safe level of 3v, thus offering a further measure of protection.

Some weathering powders were then added to the chassis and around the engine compartment - and then she was given a couple of light coats of matt varnish from an aerosol to seal everything.

Rolling stock

I am slowly accumulating rolling stock for the tramway which is proving to be a lot more cost effective than it was for the 45mm gauge mainline. The wagons which will be used on the tramway will be small in both size and in number, and I'm finding that kits for appropriate models are fairly cheap (around £10). So far, I have constructed a barrel wagon (see How I constructed a barrel wagon from a £10 kit) .........

and three skips (see How I constructed a Binnie skip wagon - pending).

 They have been finished in Halfords red primer and will be heavily weathered and rusted - as you can see the skips have already been distressed with the heat from a candle flame to add a few dints.

I will probably invest in a few more skips, a couple of small passenger wagons from the same source as the barrel wagon, and maybe a brake van of some sort

The Simplex loco (Emma)

This is presently under construction, being made from an IP Engineering kit. The parts are mostly made from whitemetal and, rather than using epoxy resin as I have done previously, I have opted for low-melt solder for its construction. I am finding the use of solder to be a lot less problematical than I expected and quite enjoying seeing the model slowly coming together. When it has been completed, I will share my experiences in another posting.

Beeston Market Station

Extending the station

The boards holding the station were extended when I created storage sidings in the garage (see How I created some storage sidings in the garage). This has enabled me to lay out the sidings in a more realistic way than previously, when the goods yard comprised two short parallel sidings with no space between for loading and unloading.

Although still cramped, the goods yard now comprises two longer sidings, plus a carriage siding.

The rather severe R1 points which led into the sidings have now been replaced with Trainline R2 points. I would have used R3 (either Piko or LGB) but I have had the Trainline points knocking around for some time and felt this was an ideal place to deploy them.

The original two short sidings have now been replaced with a single siding serving a cattle dock (see below) and one of the R1 points has been used to create a short siding off the link to the Copper Mine, serving the Permanent Way Department at the back of the layout. The siding at the front of the layout serves the Engine Shed (see below).

The Engine shed

The two-road engine shed was constructed in 2011, from plywood and coffee stirrers (see How I constructed an engine shed). Until I extended the station, the engine shed was crammed in beside the run-round loop at the end of the station.

After extending the station, I toyed with the idea of keeping it at this end of the station by doubling the track leading from the run-round loop, but this would have impinged on the goods yard, so I decided to move it to the opposite end of the station by adding another couple of sidings off the main line.

This entailed the widening of the baseboard at this point and the installation of an R3 point (Piko) in the mainline and an R2 point (Trainline) leading to the shed.

Once the track had been laid and tested it was embedded in coloured concrete (see How I ballasted Beeston Market station yard)

When I added the cattle dock (see How I constructed a cattle dock from Jigstones mouldings), I decided to change the layout of the sidings for this area - and at the same time added a siding to serve the coaling facilities (to be constructed) by the engine shed.

Eventually, I will add a coaling stage (see How I constructed a coaling stage) and water tower between this siding and the engine shed roads.

The cattle dock

I toyed with a few ideas for the construction of this feature before opting for Jigstones mouldings. I had moulded the sections several years ago with no particular aim in mind awaiting the occasion when they would be needed. As it turned out, I had just about the right number of mouldings to complete the cattle dock - so maybe fate intervened (see How I constructed a cattle dock from Jigstones mouldings).

The stonework was dry-brushed with acrylics, the railings were made from brass rail and brass rod and the gates adapted from GRS paling fencing.

Embedding and ballasting the track

 Rather using my usual dry-mix method of track ballasting (see How I ballasted my track), I tend to embed the track at stations in a wet-mix of concrete. Not only does this, I feel, better resemble the type of ballasting which was used in the stations and yards of narrow gauge stations, it also helps to keep loose stones out of point mechanisms.

There was a lot of new track to ballast at Beeston Market (see above) and so it took three portions of my ballast mix to cover the tracks - and even then there are some sections adjacent to the platforms which I left for my dry mix method.

Once the cement had set, I then used a dry-mix approach, blending sifted soil, sand, bird grit and crushed coal.

After the glue had set, I felt everything looked a bit too stark and artificial and so gave the whole area a light wash of brown and black cement dye to tone it down.

I must admit to being very pleased with the outcome.

For more information on my approach see How I ballasted the track at Beeston Market.

The coal yard

Work has started on the coal yard at Beeston Market station. The coal bins have been made from thin pine stripwood and balsa, suitable shaped, filed, scraped and drilled to represent recycled sleepers.

 The wood has been treated with wet rot hardener (as with the embankment above) and will shortly be stained, painted and weathered with acrylics.

Crushed coal of various grades will be added to the bins, together with an office, coal sacks, weighbridge and general clutter (see How I created a coal yard).

Next on the Agenda

There is always something to do on a garden railway - I doubt it will ever be finished. This suits me fine because, although I enjoy running trains and carrying out various freight manoeuvres and shunting operations, if I didn't have at least one construction project on the go I'm sure I would become bored. My present to-do list covers around three A4 pages and so I am likely to be kept busy for some time yet to come. Here's a flavour of the jobs awaiting my attention:

• Finish off the Simplex loco
• Lightly weather all locos and passenger stock
• Lettering for coaches and wagons
• Lighting for station areas
• Complete the semaphore signal radio control equipment for the remaining four stations
• Add sound to the locos presently without it
• Finish off the viaduct
• Give personalities to the staff and passengers using local census data
• etc
• etc
• etc

How I made a cattle dock with Jigstones mouldings

 Having extended the raised boards housing Beeston Market station (see How I created some storage sidings in the garage ) and reorganising the trackwork (see Progress Report 59), I decided there was now sufficient room to accommodate a representation of the cattle dock which would have been required to load and unload livestock for the Smithfield Market.


 Several years ago I acquired a set of Jigstones moulds from the UK supplier - Back2Bay6 (now regretfully no longer trading). One sunny summer's day, I set-up a picnic table in the garden and churned out a series of castings.

The principal ingredient was a small bag of Extra Rapid cement.

 As the detailing in the moulds is quite fine, I bought a bag of budgie grit to act as the aggregate for the concrete mix.

 These two ingredients were dry-mixed in a cheap mixing bowl with a ratio of one part cement to three parts sand.

Water was then slowly added to the mix and stirred .......

....... until it was the consistency of pourable double cream.

 The moulds were lined-up on the table and the mix poured in. The table was then tapped to encourage air bubbles to rise to the surface.

After 15-20 minutes, the concrete was sufficiently dry  ........

 .......... for the mouldings to be gently prised from the moulds.

.  they were then laid out on another table to fully harden.

I then stored the mouldings (sets for dressed stone and for brickwork) awaiting the day when they would be needed.

Before starting work, I positioned the mouldings against all three designs of cattle wagon which the line possesses - scratchbuit, IP Engineering and Accucraft (see Stock List) to find the ideal height. Rather than cutting-down or resting the blocks on a sub-base, I decided it would be easier to raise the trackwork.

Some off-cuts of 8mm thick exterior plywood were positioned under the track and the track screwed down.

The first course of blocks was then glued into place alongside the track using exterior PVA.

A second course of blocks was then glued on top of the first course.

To make the ramp, a couple of blocks were sawn in half diagonally using an old wood-saw,

In addition to the moulds for creating the main blocks, it's important to also buy the mould for making the small interlinking pieces - I found out the hard way when I failed to buy this mould for the brickwork sections.

The base was then left a couple of days for the PVA to fully harden-off. I realise that the dock is probably about half the width it should be, but plead modellers' licence by arguing that the rest of the dock is off-stage towards the front of the layout.

I left the blocks for a couple of days to allow the PVA to fully set, and then mixed the concrete for in-filling. This was a mix of three parts sand, one part gravel and one part cement. I made the mix quite sloppy so that it was pourable. It was then poured into the centre of the cattle dock mouldings and smoothed off with a small trowel.

 Jigstones paving slabs were glued with PVA along the edge of the dock and the surface of the wet concrete was then lightly stippled with an old paintbrush to give it some texture.

Brown, red and black cement dyes were added to the rest of the concrete mix and it was applied around the dock (see How I ballasted Beeston Market station yard). The blocks were dry-brushed with the dye-covered paintbrush to pick out the blocks.

The railings

Fourteen 85mm lengths of Peco code 200 rail were cut to form the majority of posts,. The rail was salvaged from a length of Peco SM32 track which, as you can see, had previously been used outside. It was cleaned up a little with a sanding block:

One end of each post was rounded off with a powered grinder

The posts were then marked at 15mm intervals, 5mm from the top. Five marks were made; four to indicate the positions of the railings and the lower one to indicate the depth to which the post would be embedded in the cattle dock.

2mm diameter holes were then drilled in the posts.

Five pieces of LGB code 332 rail were also cut and drilled in the same way. These 'corner' posts also had holes drilled into one side.

The posts which would support the gates for loading and unloading the cattle trucks had two additional 1mm holes drilled to take the wire for the hinges. These holes were 5mm and 48mm below the uppermost hole for the railings (these positions were determined from the positions of the uppermost and lowermost railings on the gates - see below).

1mm diameter brass rod was then soldered into each hole using a simple jig (ie a 5mm deep 1mm hole drilled into an offcut of plywood). The jig ensured the amount of rod protruding was 5mm and that the rod would be soldered upright. ........

.... well nearly upright!

 The excess was then snipped off ........

...... and the two hinge 'hangers. bent upwards with fine nosed pliers.

After carefully measuring the optimum positions on the dock for the gates for unloading the cattle trucks, 2mm diameter brass rods were cut to length (these were 168mm between each set of gates), and the rods were then soldered into the posts ........

 .... using my hefty 75watt soldering iron (and asbestos fingers!).

 The excess solder was tidied up with various needle files.

The gates

After experimenting with plasticard and discovering that making consistently spaced gates was darned difficult, I opted for a partially readymade solution.

I had to hand, some station picket fencing which I had purchased from Garden Railway Specialists (GRS)  a while ago and had not yet installed.

From each side, two gates, each with six railings, were trimmed.

I had originally thought of using these as gates in themselves, but some research on't web showed that cattle dock gates generally had horizontal fencing rails. The pointed ends of the railings were cut off, and one horizontal rail was removed with a cutting disk in a minidrill.

The remaining 'lumps' were then sanded down with a sanding attachment.

 A new vertical rail was then added, using some 3.2mm (1/8") square section Plastruct.

Diagonals were also cut from the Plastruct.

The hinges

Having previously constructed my own hinges for the engine shed doors (see How I constructed the engine shed), I decided to adopt the same approach for the gates.

3mm wide strips were marked out on a 1.2mm wide piece of 0.8mm thick brass sheet. These were then snipped into small strips using metal cutting shears.

Each piece was then carefully folded using a pair of pointed nose pliers .....

.... and then rolled around ......

...... into a loop.

I found that I could do this quite quickly after I'd shaped the first half dozen. 

 I then drilled two 1mm holes in each hinge

And soldered a piece of 1mm diameter brass rod into one of the holes. (I did try soldering rods into both holes but this proved to be too fiddly and unnecessary).

A 1mm hole was drilled into the gate railing at the appropriate position (this varied owing to the slight inconsistency in my hinge construction techniques).

 The hinge was placed in position and then pushed into place with the tip of the soldering iron. This melted it into the plastic, providing a very strong bond.

To improve the appearance of these rough and ready hinges (I'm sure those with more accomplished metal-working skills could fashion something more exquisite), I decided to add some plasticard cosmetic covers.

2.5mm wide strips of 1mm thick plasticard were cut into 15mm and 20mm lengths.

These were marked at 5mm intervals, 2mm from one end.

 Cosmetic bolt heads were snipped off the fret from Cambrian Models.

The bolt heads were then carefully glued on to the hinge plates using solvent adhesive.

The hinge covers were then superglued into place over the hinges - the longer covers at the top of the gates and the shorter ones to the bottom.

Fitting

To account for any slight variation in their construction, the various railing assemblies and gates were custom-fitted to the cattle dock. Holes were drilled with masonry bits into the concrete of the cattle dock to take the posts.

 The holes sometimes needed a bit of tweaking to ensure the posts were correctly aligned and upright (the wide angle lens distorts the viewpoint - the posts to the right are upright!).

Once the railings had been loosely fitted they were double-checked.

..... from all angles......

 .... to ensure they looked right. Some final trimming will need to be done to the bottom post to tidy it up.

 The cattle wagons were then parked in the siding to ensure the gates actually did match up to the doors.

Considering I have three different types of cattle wagon, the match wasn't too bad. The station staff will have to do some sine tuning when it comes to market day!

The railings were then dismantled to go back into the workshop for finishing and painting.

Finishing and painting

The railings were given a couple of coats of grey primer from an aerosol and then two coats of white car enamel (again from an aerosol can).

Light weathering in the form of rust pockets was applied to the joints between the railings and the posts, a think wash of Burnt Sienna and Deep Red acrylics.

Simple loop latches were made by bending 25mm lengths of 1mm diameter brass rod into a U shape....

.... and then bending the ends with a pair of pointed nose pliers.

 A 1mm hole was drilled into the top of the vertical on one of each pair of gates ......

 ..... and the wire loop inserted. These were then painted black.

The hinges on each gate were also picked out in black acrylics.

The railings were then carefully positioned into the holes on the dock - a few minor adjustments to make sure the posts were vertical ......

A 2:1 mix of filler and sand was then mixed together with a small quantity of black cement dye. This was used to fill the holes around each post.

It also provided a surface for the dock......

..... and was used to fill any gaps in the Jigstones stonework.

Excess filler was wiped off the stonework with a damp sponge ....

..... and the stonework touched-up by dry-brushing with a sandstone coloured mix of acrylics.

 The railings and gates were then lightly weathered with a very light wash of black and brown cement dyes.

And a train of cattle wagons was posed in the siding for a photo-shoot.

The cattle dock has now entered service and will hopefully perform its duties at the next operating session.