Petermac's Railway

Much better Peter and a lot more realistic especially when coaches go around!

Yes indeed Phil - much better all round.  Some longer wheelbase locos were struggling on that right hand curve.

Totally agree……..so much better :thumbs .

I guess you now have more space for fixed (or rarely moved) scenery on the upper level without fouling the fiddle yard below?

Have you decided how the upper level will cross the doorway? 

Hope the re-pointing doesnt take too long  :lol:

Best wishes

John

Sorry John - I didn't answer your question about how I was going to get the upper level across the doorway.

Having found the requisite photos, I can now give you my answer.

Whilst I do have the odd original thought from time to time, I'm a true master at plagiarism so I plan to "borrow" some ideas from a couple of layouts that really inspire me.

My idea is to have a dropped lift-up section to incorporate a canal.  A low level bridge will carry the lower level mains whilst the upper level will be on a lift-out curved viaduct.

The late Dave Shakespeare had a masterpiece on his Tetley Mills:




An another master modeller who constantly inspires, John Dew, cemented the idea with his Granby III canal.  On mine, the bridges will be reversed with the tall viaduct in the background and probably a plate girder bridge at the lower level. 



I can't ask poor Dave if he minds but I hope you don't mind my using your ideas John……………………it isn't the first time and it almost certainly won't be the last !!  :cheers

Brilliant…….obviously I approve:thumbs
The photo of building the canal at Granby sure takes me back!

Cheers

John

Maxmill had the pleasure of a fleeting visit from Bill (Longchap) and his wife today although rather stupidly, I didn't take any photographs to record the event.

He did however, see a much depleted and rather forlorn looking layout of which the whole Beeching family would have been proud.

Most of the left hand side of the layout has now been stripped out in preparation for a rebuild.  It has revealed that much of the trackwork turns out to be Code 75 with Code 100 slipced in here and there for no apparent reason.

The problem is that most of the electrofrog points lifted from Maxmill I are Code 100 !!!

Additionally, some parts of the baseboard will either have to be strengthened and refixed or replaced on that side.  Not only is there that annoying "hump" to correct, one central board seems to have quite a pronounced sag.  Fortunately, I did retain a heap of baseboards from Maxmill I so, other than the extra effort involved, it's no real problem.

With John and Bill having visited, that now makes 3 members who know roughly what I'm talking about in my ramblings ………………

Great to meet up with you and Letsie Bill - hope you have a safe journey home.  :cheers

Hi Peter,

Safely home a couple of hours ago from our holiday thanks and just had a light lunch in the local resto where we'll return later with our house / cat / clients' sitting friends before they depart back to Normandy tomorrow, to look after their own house and cats.

A huge thank you Peter and Liz both, for such a warm and rewarding visit, not to mention an unexpected lunch. You have a beautiful home to enjoy life from and Prudence is a most friendly meeter and greeter.

For all Maxmill followers, Peter's mobile self contained layout has provided a wonderfully interesting conversion project to entertain both himself and us all. Despite some challengers, it's all doable and Peter is eager and more than able to overcome a few challenges and the result will be a joy.

The high level branch and hidden storage roads is an elegant solution in providing more prototypical working and I was so impressed to not only see, but also hear a GWR pannier on the layout. Just some green paint needed!

Seeing the commencement of the work Peter, is giving me the itch to start clearing out my railway room location and I'll report sooner rather than later, now our Brexit fuelled holiday cottage season is almost over and I have some time to get to progress the project.

Looking forward to further progress Peter and in seeing you and Liz again.

Very best,

Bill

Thanks for your kind words Bill - perhaps I ought to add that Prudence is a dog - for those who had other ideas of what our "meeter and greeter" might be ……………………… :hmm

I managed to spend a few hours with Maxmill today - Liz was out to lunch so the mice could play ……………..

First job was to remove the old lift-up in preparation for a new one: 




Then, most of the trackwork on the "Beeching boards" was lifted - well soaked in water with a drop or two of washing up liquid softened most of the ballast although a fair bit of the cork trackbed refused to budge.

A narrow piece of baseboard along the front edge was removed so I  could gain access to the main board to find out why there was that  annoying "hump" in the middle.  The lifted board sat above the 4 screw mounting block seen middle right.





This was the culprit - a bearer has pulled through the surface panel allowing the board to drop.  This shot was taken after removing the weight of the front board (a 1" x 6" chunk of solid timber  :???:).




The track was cleaned up with a stiff brush whilst the ballast was  still "mushy".  A real mix of track - Peco Code 100 and Code 75, Hornby  flexi and Hornby set track (rusty steel !!!).




And a pile of deadfrog points, most of which will be "moved on" as I'm determined to replace everything with electrofrog (well, almost determined ………….. :roll: :roll:)

Plenty to get your teeth into Peter !  I would definately consider replacing those boards with ones from Maxmill as you have stripped the old ones anyway ?  At least then you know its your OWN dodgy work your dealing with, not someone else's !                     

Cheers

Matt

I removed the problematic baseboard yesterday together with the corner piece (which, it turned out, was only supported by the main board).




I was very surprised to find that none of it (the layout) was actually fastened to anything !!  That would explain the unexpected level of transit damage.  What legs there are, are simply loose fitting "props" and nothing is fixed to either the floor or walls.  Maybe he'd planned to strip it out and sell the office unit separately ……………………….

The removed board was a traditional frame with chipboard top: 




I had originally thought a quick soak with "wet" water would loosen the roadbed and ballast but I think he must have used araldite or Cyano to glue it all down - it was well and truly stuck !!  I even tried boiling water - not too much because I didn't want to risk ruining the chipboard, but that had little, if any, effect:




At one stage, I even considered binning it and starting all over again.  Finally, I used an old 1" wood chisel as a scraper, a bit at a time, followed by sanding with a coarse sanding belt and eventually ended up with a pretty "clean" board which will be topped with "clic"  flooring underlay panels rather than the traditional cork.

A work of art there Peter...

I've often been called an "artist" Sol - just not sure what type of artist ……………………………….

I'm much happier with it now - it was sure a mess before. :thumbs

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

  Finally, I used an old 1" wood chisel as a scraper, a bit at a time, followed by sanding with a coarse sanding belt and eventually ended up with a pretty "clean" board

A bit of fine gentle modelling then Peter  :lol:


Ed

Sounds hard work that ! I would have tried unscrewing the top and turn it over. . . Then burnt it and started again  :thumbs
Or pored self levelling comp all over it :hmm

Keep up the good work, glad to see your managing to dodge domestic duties for some light wrecking work  :doublethumb

Cheers

Matt

Hi Petermac.  Nothing wrong with that. Quite a nice job in fact. I am surprised about your comments on the layout not not being fastened down to anything. Nice legs, on the trestles that is. Best wishes Kevin 

[user=1338]Ed[/user] wrote:

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

  Finally, I used an old 1" wood chisel as a scraper, a bit at a time, followed by sanding with a coarse sanding belt and eventually ended up with a pretty "clean" board

A bit of fine gentle modelling then Peter  :lol:


Ed

Yes indeed Ed - as a child, I wanted to become a brain surgeon.  I ended up in fireworks - close eh ?……………………..

Ed

[user=2080]Barchester[/user] wrote:

Sounds hard work that ! I would have tried unscrewing the top and turn it over. . . Then burnt it and started again  :thumbs

 Or pored self levelling comp all over it :hmm    _{Now why didn't I think of that Matt ………..}

Keep up the good work, glad to see your managing to dodge domestic duties for some light wrecking work  :doublethumb

Cheers

Matt

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

………………………………………………………….. Nice legs, on the trestles that is. Best wishes Kevin 

I had to look again Kevin - didn't think I'd been in the shot ………….. :cheers