More weathering!

As I work my way along the baseboard I am weathering the track with an airbrush and some earth/rust coloured paint. It takes the shine off the metal rail and makes the sleepers look more like they are old and worn - just like me!

As in previous episodes of this rather boring job I have mask off points and track joints to ensure no  electrical issues arise later. I can use a brsuh later to touch in these areas.

There is a fair amount of track on this baseboard and painting it all has taken some time. The four tracks towards the back of the baseboard will be hidden from view so don't need painting or indeed ballasting! 

 I believe that is all the track done on that base board now so a bit more wiring to do and then realign it all and glue it down!

Sleeper time!

Time to cut some sleepers from the copper clad strips that were in the WMD Stores. You have got to admire the Stores as they do have good stocks of required materials or as Mrs. Woody would term it, junk!

The sleepers were cut to match the plastic sleepers of the track. Where the rail is to be soldered to them I pre-soldered some spots which should make that process a bit easier. I also remembered to cut through the copper film so that there would not be any short circuits and just to make sure I had cut right the way through I tested each sleeper with a circuit tester - work smarter not harder as I get older!

The sleepers were then glued with superglue to the already glued in place plywood subbases. That s a lot of glue in one sentance!

Then the plastic sleepers were removed from the rails where they went over the copper clad sleepers. The four tracks at the back of the baseboard will need a similar procedure but as they will be hidden I have some copper clad sheet in stock which might make life easier.

Once I get the rest of the track in place, glued down and wired I can then cut through the rail. Hopefully I havent forgotten to do anything in this process or you could say I was sleepering on the job!

 

 

Spaghetti?

Things move on with my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout. They may be moving slowly but they are moving which given my usual rate of progress is about right!

Some more track underlay has been cut to size and glued down and a start on wiring the track has been made, I may be over cautious with the wiring but there is a basic principal that each section of track should have power feed which means a lot of wires! It does, at the moment, look like a scene from the WMD kitchen where my spaghetti cooking has gone somewhat wrong and Mrs. Woody is booking a table at a restaurant in order to get something edible for dinner! However, once fed through the baseboard the spaghetti of wires will be hidden until I reach the point of cutting through the tracks at the baseboard join and then being able to turn the board over which will make sorting the wires and connecting them so much easier - I hope!

With major work comes chaos - or at least when I am doing it. However it needs to be done and I just need to get it done as quickly as I can and keep thinking of the end product. Hopefully it will be a good product! Meanwhile I better cook Mrs. W's dinner which is not spaghetti but quiche which given it is bought in should be edible!

 

More track work!

Back to model track today after playing with the real thing yesterday. On my 00 gauge Last Great Project Layout I have glued the base board track joint sub bases in place as well as beginning to finally cut to shape and glue the track underlay in place. 

 Lots more to do so that will keep me busy for a few days if Mrs. Woody is reading this!

More greyness!

 Having woken up seemingly an hour earlier then normal due to the clocks going forward I peered out of the window into the greyness of the mist that enveloped WMD HQ. However I did not put me off going for a bike ride which brought my total for hi year up to 946 miles. Not brilliant but better than last year at this time. There was a glimmer of sunshine so I thought that it might brighten up for an afternoon ride but no! More greyness of clouds and drizzle! Well that is the delight of the Easter break. You never know what weather you might get and it is certainly better than two years ago today when I looked out of the window to be greeted by this as I blogged about - click here.

Anyway, having generated enough enthusiasm to get something done I decided I really needed to start on making the joints in the track between the baseboards on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout. On the first baseboard that I did this on back in July of 2023 it looked like this.

Those are plywood bases to bring the copper clad sleepers which are glued to them to the right height. The post about that is here. I am going to use the same method on the rest of the baseboard joints so the first job is to cut some plywood bases. Luckily I had an off cut of suitable thickness in the WMD wood store!

Out in the murkiness of the garden I cut the necessary strips using a fine bladed saw - always best for cutting plywood.

With the strips cut they were then cut to the required lengths which I had actually managed to measure before starting this work!

Once sanded they were then painted with, what else, but grey paint!

Even Milly the cat has seemed a bit grey in her  basket. I think though she has the best idea on a day like this - just relax inside! Tomorrows not looking any brighter and I am the Rocks By Rail Museum tomorrow working outside on the Easter Monday Quarry Day! Could be another grey day!

Looking forward to cloud and rain?

 

Sometimes a picture is better than words and this one of clouds and rain perhaps illustrates best the weather in the UK at the moment. I did not realise until this morning when I heard the news report that last night Storm Norman crossed the UK . I think we have had that many storms over the past few months that we have just become accustomed to them.

Anyway there is always an upside to a situation and that is if you cant do things outside you can get on with indoor jobs. Now, whilst Mrs. Woody might consider that an opportunity to reduce the size of her ever expanding indoors chore list for me I took it as an opportunity to finish off some ballasting on my 00 gauge Last Great Project Layout.

As I had put petroleum jelly on the point tie bar they remain operational as the glue sets and the orange electrical ducts have been fitted so hopefully all is well! Just have to run some trains to check it out. Maybe I might look forward to some more cloud and rain if I get to spend some more time in the Man Cave!

Back to the ballasting!

Yes! With the track glued onto the underlay its time to start ballasting again. Not the most exciting job but it has to be done! There is a few days worth of work so I better get stuck in! just hope the ballast is stuck when I finish!

Seeing more progress!

Having had a good weekend playing operating trains on my Last Great Project 00 gauge layout, especially my bargain DCC sound fitted Class 47, it is time to make some more progress on building it! To that end the far corner has seen the track underlay glued in place, the track and points wired with power feeds and the track weathered before being glued down ready for ballasting.

The underside of the track underlay had a good coating of PVA glue.

Whilst that was drying I soldered the various power feed wires onto the track. These pass through the baseboard and will, when I get to turn the baseboard over, be connected up to the power supply. With wires in place I weathered the track using a brown mix through the airbrush - makes painting something like track so much easier!

Some of the weathered track drying. I masked up the critical electrical parts of the point sand any fishplate joiners in the track to avoid paint interfering with electrical continuity. Those areas will be brush painted later.

With the track dry it was time to lay it onto the glued underlay but not before I had applied petroleum Jelly to the tie bar of the points. It prevents the glue from the ballasting gumming up the point movement.

The track was glued down with more PVA to the underlay once the power wires had been fed through holes in the baseboard.

With all the track glued it was weighted down with anything handy, including model locomotives!

Not sure how long it will all take to dry but hopefully I can get this section ballasted soon to see some more progress!

Getting to the point when you can actually see progress!

With the baseboards joined and baseboards screwed down I can start work on getting the track permanently laid. That means more wires and soldering! Never my most liked job but it has to be done so I started simple to get my brain back in the zone as it were. The inner most curve was wired up by taking it to the bench.

With it on the bench soldering is much easier! I did also get the wires round the right way to match what is on the layout already. Colour coding and knowing what those colours mean actually makes wiring a lot easier!

Ready to go back on the layout.

That went fairly well! Hope the rest do! Once the wiring is al done then I can think about ballasting which will move the layout on and actually looks like progress! Its just getting to that point that takes the time!

Working smarter not harder as I get older 2!

Further to yesterdays, working smarter as I get older, I have to admit to yet another failure to adhere to that phrase! I had been struggling with the drill bit which was slightly undersize for the bolt I was using. I used the drill itself as a sort of grinding tool and a round file to open out the hole. Then it struck me! Why wasn't I using the flat drill bit that was staring me in the face? I fitted it and found because the shank was longer the drill was easier to use and it opened the hole up in seconds! The other hole also took seconds to open up and the third and fourth holes less then five minutes to drill and fit the bolts! Dooh!

Anyway, lesson learnt - think harder!!!!

With the boards joined I also need to screw down the base board tops which were still loosed in places! Again, another job I put off! However at least it was not the struggle I had yesterday unbder the baseboards!

With the tops screwed down I could cut the slits for the point motor pins to plug into the point tie bars. A series of holes drilled, joined together by using a blade to cut the material between them and then opened out with a small flat file. 

Two points needed the slots cutting which was done fairly easily - it must be my lucky day! With that done I cut the foam underlay to size and split it over the baseboard joint. I have also cut away pieces to allow for plywood pieces to be glued to the baseboard at the board edge onto which copper clad sleepers will be glued. These will allow the rail to be soldered to them giving a rigid joint at the baseboard joints to the tracks. It worked before so hopefully again! Just need to work smarter not harder as I get older from now on! 

Working smarter not harder as I get older!

I often highlight thing n this blog with the phrase 'Working smarter not harder as I get older!,. And as you get older you learn by experience - usually! I say usually because what should have been a half hour job to bolt two baseboards together on my Last Great Project Layout ended up taking two hours just to do half the job! If I had been smarter I would have bolted the baseboards together when I built them. It would have been easy with nothing in the way. Instead, and for reasons I cannot recall, I left it at the time thinking that I would do it later. Well a year and a half later I am doing it and its hard! I had to clear stuff from under the baseboard just to get access. Even then with the way the boards are supported I had limited access. 

Eventually I got the first hole drilled.

Two hours later the first two bolts are in and my back is out! Ouch!

 Just the other two at the other end of the board to do and hopefully my back lasts!

Underlay and filming!

A bit more progress on my 00 gauge layout with the newly aligned track now sitting on my laminate floor underlay. It looks a little more harmonious and at least gets the track on the same level as that n the completed board which should improve running - hopefully!

I have also been doing a YouTube video on where I have got to. It should be live in a few days.

It will bee a great spring!

I am not giving any weather predictions as we have snow forecast later this week in the UK but I was somewhat surprised to find this bee in the garden today. 

It must be a sign of a good spring!

Back in the still Winter like Man Cave more work on sorting the track on my Last Great Project 00 gauge layout saw the four loops at the rear sorted. When I initially laid them I just literally made the track fit without too much concern about the finesse of  the geometry. However that is now sorted and as the pictures show there was a need to add additional lengths to make it all align.

With all the addition pieces of track added it looked a lot better. Final alignment will be sorted when I glue the track down on some underlay.

Then of course it needed testing! Or is that just an excuse to play operate trains! It seems to run well! 

Next I need to spring into action with some wiring!