Woody goes Hi-Tech!

For many years I have had a flat screen TV with built in DVD player on my workbench. I inherited it so don't know much about its past. I have never used it let alone even tested it to see if it switches on preferring the less distracting radio or CDs or even showing my age, my collection of cassettes! However, having a collection of railway and model making DVDs which I never get the chance to watch as Mrs. Woody is watching the latest murder mystery TV show on the main WMD TV or I am in the Man Cave listening to the radio/music I thought I would just see if this flat screen TV works - and it dose so I have gone Hi-tech! So I have been watching some Steaming Around Britain DVDs which is great as I have never seen them before and surprisingly not that distracting as I tend to just glance up to see what sounds the interesting parts - just like communicating with Mrs. W - I really hope she doesn't read that bit!

The proof in not being distracted is that I finished the other end of the platform base. As you can see this coincided with a splendid bit of film of a steam train heading for Mallaig in Scotland!

Putting the platform top on temporarily, saw a cab view from a class 156 DMU heading for Fort William!

Finally clamping the platform base to the workbench to avoid it bending in unplanned and unwanted directions happily coincided with the end of the DVD - all very Hi-Tech!

I can now start thinking about adding some brick facing to the bae and some edging stones to the platform surface. Wonder what Hi-Tech method I will come up with for that?

Looking like a girder!

Now Mrs. Woody sometimes comments on my rough appearance looking like some old rusty bit of metal but in this case the delights of cardboard engineering butchery have resulted in me constructing something that does indeed look like a girder!

I have completed one end of the platform base which includes the ramp at the end of the platform. Now someone with skill and technical knowledge could well have calculated the various lengths and angles needed but not being skilled or of technical knowledge - remember the brute force and ignorance post of not so long ago - I just put things together and made rough guesses which surprisingly have worked out OK! Just don't ask me to construct anything which is safety critical!

As the photo below shows further cardboard butchery has also seen the girder type construction finished at this end of the platform.

The thing with cardboard is that whilst it is relatively easy to work with and can bend as you want it, it can also bend as you dont want it whilst you wait for the glue to dry. Now much as the Man Cave is an inviting place for me I had no desire to sit in there for 8 hours waiting for the glue to dry so I could make sure that the structure did not bend the way I did not want it to. I therefore used some clamps and clamped the straigh edge to the work top. Hopefully that will work and I can get on with the other end!

Crossmembers!

Having got my platform surface to the right shape as highlighted yesterday, it was time to add to some sides and crossmembers but not happy members! There are some specifications which real railways follow as to platform heights and roughly interpreted these amount to a 17mm highwall in model form. I have cut some mounting card walls to this height and also some crossmembers.

Just to get a feel for things I placed the platform surface on top which shows it is looking OK!!!

Having checked that my measurements and shaping were correct it was possible to start some more constructive work on the crossmembers. Hopefully the mix of right angle and diagonal crossmembers will keep things both flat and strong.

My glue of choice at the moment is this special card glue made by DeLux Materials and very good it is too.

I have progressed but this will take a few days to build but I am in no rush as whilst doing it I am also running trains on the layout - I just don't tell Mrs. Woody that bit!

However I did tell Mrs. W about these tulips when we called in at Easton Walled Gardens. 

As Mr. Beecham, he of cycling prowess and model making skills, pointed out to me when I sent him some pictures, the red of the tulips is the colour of the paratrooper's berets. It is of course the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden which took place in September 1944.

Doing something different!

Whilst not fully finished by any means, I am at a point with the track laying and wiring on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout where I can leave that work alone for a while as I let my brain unfuddle itself from the various issues and mundanity that this work is! I can run trains which is the important thing and I am in no major rush to finish this layout. It is supposed to be a relaxing hobby after all!

I am therefore moving over to the different aspect of platform building which is indeed doing something different! I cannot use commercially available products as the layout of the track is unique so no ready made platforms fit. I could use one of the plastic or card kits but again they would need a lot of work to make them fit. That leaves scratch building one and my material of choice is mounting card of which there is some in stock in the WMD Stores - they seem to have everything!

Work strarts by getting the platform surface to shape which may seem a bit strange in that it is being built from the top downwards. However, getting the shape right is crucial.

First piece trial fitted.

The ends now cut to shape and eventually the ends will form ramps. What I forgot at this stage is that I need to trim back further at the curves to allow for the overhang of the coaches.

An overall view showing that the platform will just take a 4 car DMU which is just what I wanted.

Looking from this direction I will also need to trim a little off the width of the platform surface but that will be done when I cut back on the curved parts.

Doing something different like this has actually been good for the mind! Too much track laying and wiring can make life somewhat repetative!

Talking of something different, here in the UK there has been some unseasonal agricultural activity. I have never seen ploughing and harrowing going on at the end of April before but I guess this is the consequence of the very wet Winter we had - in fact yu can still see some water in the photo below. Not sure how this affects food production but I suspect the price of certain things will be going up in price again.

86 Wires!

 Whilst these two WMD HQ moggies look as though they are wired together as they curled up in the comfort of one of the many cat baskets that have appeared over the years, I was busy finishing the some wiring in the cold of the Man Cave!

To make life easier where the rails go over the copper clad strips I had pre tinned them.

With everything in place, the track had been glued, it was time to add solder and wires!

And there you have it - the final wires of the 86 that I have soldered in place on this board! Once I cut the rails so that the baseboard is free I can turn it over and cconnect all the wires - all 86 of them - Gulp!

Headless?

There is always something that attracts my attention when I go to the Rocks By Rail Museum. Whilst cutting the grass....

I noted that David had arrived and had a rather unusual passenger with him.

Don't worry, there is nothing sinister! This mannequin is destined for the weighbridge where he will be clothed and sat at the desk looking as though he is noting down the weights of passing wagons as they go over the weighbridge. Just one small problem - he will need a head and I am not volunteering for that! In seriousness the head should be easy to find but apparently male mannequins in a sitting position are rare. David went to a specialist who has a barn full of the things but they are mainly ladies. I never knew there was a market for such things but the film industry do hire many of them.

This where the mannequin will end up - once it has a head!

Wonder if there is ahead in that safe????

A lot of plys!

I had to ply this baby bird out of my garage. It flew in and decided that for 20 minutes it was going to explore the inaccessible rear regions of the garage that I haven't seen for years. Eventually my encouraging sounds and gestures for it to leave paid dividends but it stopped on the way out for a photo opportunity. Not sure if it is a baby blackbird or thrush but I do hope it survives.

With one end of the baseboard having all its track wired and soldered in place it was time to think about the other end. I had already determined that I needed to thin down the sub base plywood to lower it and avoid a hump in the track. I had done this on the first two parts by using an electric sander ti sand off one ply of the plywood. However, in my never ceasing ventures of brute force and ignorance I thought there must be a speeder way of doing this and decided I could simply ply the one ply of ply that I needed off the plywood sub base! That is a lot of plys but I trust you see what I mean from the photo below!

My idea actually worked! Must tell Mrs. Woody!

The now one ply less ply was glued in place.

The glue was going to take some time to dry so I amused myself by going to the middle section of the baseboard and applyed myself  to adding some more track power feeds before gluing the track down

I better apply myself to getting Mrs. W's dinner ready!

Isolated!

With the hump issue sorted and the thinner sub bases glued in place the pre-pared copper clad strip was superglued on top and I was ready to solder some track!

Being lazy I also used the opportunity to solder the power feed wires to the copper clad strip rather than the rail itself. All this will be hidden from normal view so the cosmetics of it don't matter too much. However, much as I may feel isolated in my Man Cave, Mrs. Woody only visits on rare occasions for some reason, I was sufficiently thinking ahead to put some isolating track joiners in place. I need to be able to isolate the loops as once they are covered and out of sight I need some way of knowing that the train has stopped! 

Cutting wires to length they were prepared to be soldered in one go with the rail when it is soldered.

Half way through soldering the four tracks the wires are soldered in place and need to be pulled through from under the baseboard.

Looks a bit neater with the wires pulled through.

All tracks soldered and wires in place. Just need to put some track power feeds in the middle of the loops and then repeat the process at the other end of the baseboard not forgetting the isolating rail joiners or the loops wont be isolated!

Avoiding a short circuit!

 With the hump issue sorted and the thinner sub bases glued in place the copper clad strip needed to be cut through at specific points to avoid short circuits. It was far easier to do this off the bench but I had sensibly marked out where the tracks would go. This gave me a guide as to where to cut through the copper.

The copper is not that thick but it still takes a bit of effort with the saw to cut through it to the plastic base under it.

All the joints cut and with the multi meter I made sure that the there were not going to be any short circuits when finally in place and the track soldered on to it  - I hope! This is all time consuming work  and to be honest getting a bit tedious and mine numbing but doing a an hour or so each day means that the project moves on - even if it is at glacial speed! 

Finding the hump!

Back to the issue I left for a day or two that had given me the hump - literally! Whilst setting out the storage tracks at the back of the baseboard I found that adding the copper clad strip created a hump in the track. Leaving it would just have caused future running problems for the trains so it needed sorting. Having pondered for a day or so I decided that whatever the sub base strips needed to be removed. A screwdriver wedged between the sub base and the main baseboard resulted in the sub bases releasing their hold. I did see that there were two screws under these which on examination were slightly proud of the baseboard surface. Eureka! I thought this must be the issue! Out came the screws and the baseboard was further counter sunk so that the screws tops were now most certainly below the surface. Clean up the sub bases, reposition them, put track in place and slide copper clad strip in place. It should have been the solution but the hump was still there!

 

So plan B came to fruition. Use some thinner plywood. I cut four strips and put these in place and then the track and copper clad strip. The result was a huge  gap between the rail and strip. far too big to fill with solder and have a strong joint.

I then moved onto plan C! This was more drastic as the electric sander came out and I literally sanded off one ply of the plywood. Took a while but would it work?

Sub bases back in place, track back in place, copper clad strip back in place and wagon with my fingers on top run over the track. It had worked! no hump! So the sub bases have been glued back in place with some suitable weights on top, ready for the copper clad strip to be glued.

I can only think that whilst the plywood was 5mm thick, it varied slightly to the plywood I used for the sub bases on the removable section of the baseboard that I created early last year. Those sub bases had no hump issue. Just need to sand the other two sub bases at the other end of the baseboard now! Just hope that Mrs. Woody doesn't take the hump that I have spent so much time on this problem rather then sorting out some jobs on her chore list!