Nothing fancy Nigel, I'm using the KISS principle  

 I was thinking I might screw another piece of ply to the bottom and make a sandwich, but it might take too big a chunk out of my £100 target.



Ed

Hi Ed,

Do that and you'll miss out on polishing up those wires with Brasso.

Nigel

I decided before Christmas that I would need some additional motive power for the puzzle plank as the 0-4-0s I have, just wont run through the insulfrog points without stalling at the sort of low speeds required.

I already have a Bachmann J72 which I had (eventually) chipped for DCC operation, but with the change of theme on Latton Fields I un-DCCed it and screwed some Kadees on in place of the tension locks.


(sorry about dark pictures)



 had a search around that well know auction site for some more 0-6-0s, which with more wheels and pickups aren't a problem through the insulfrog points and managed to win …



Needs a clean and Kadees fitting but it's the older Hornby J13 version based on the jinty chassis (ol' reliable), not the newer J52 which has traction tyres, and it sort of sticks to a LNER theme.

I also found this……..



What a beauty, don't think it's ever been run apart from testing. Geared brilliantly for shunting, runs really slow even at full power.


Of course that got me interested in  a bit of history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wemyss_Private_Railway

Fascinating stuff.

Since I didn't really need more than 1 loco I'm not including these in my £100 budget for the plank.

My game, my rules,……………. and I don't care 


Well, it is Christmas.



Ed

I like that orange beastie, Ed.   :thumbs

I just had a read of the Wemyss story in the link, Ed.

There's a topic for a layout there.   :cool:

Would make a good freight only layout Max.

I think someone in Liverpool was building something, but not sure how far they got.

http://wemyssprivaterailway.info/

There appears to be quite a lot of information about and I did see some books advertised, but they're a bit pricey.

http://www.buckhaven.info/html/wemyss_private_railway.html

https://www.railscot.co.uk/locationnew.php?loc=Wemyss%20Private%20Railway

Been mainly playing with Kadees over Christmas.

I’ve used #5s for the wagons and although the draft boxes stick out a bit, they’re cheap and work pretty well.

The Bachmann J72 has #18s fitted by drilling a hole through the coupling and reusing the original screws.

The Hornby Austerity (J94) has a #18 on the front and a #19 on the back using the same method.

Tried both the Kadee 321 and rows of 5 x 3mm Cube Neodymium magnets.

Don’t know how everyone seems to get 3mm cube magnets to operate when flush with the sleepers but mine are N35 and won’t operate the couplings without a thin strip of styrene underneath to raise them slightly.

The J94 must have deeper flanges than the J72 as it’s wheels kept catching on the now raised cube magnets, but didn’t have a problem with the Kadee 321.

Finally the penny dropped that although the top of the Kadee 321 magnet is 0.4mm above the rail top on code 100 rail, it’s only 13mm wide.

I could have altered the back to back on the J94, but doubted my ability to move the wheels by a fraction of a millimetre after taking it all apart.

The answer was to shorten the row of magnets by getting some 2mm x 3mm x 3mm Neodymium magnets.

Three 3mm cubes plus two 2mm cubes is 13mm, same as the width of the Kadee 321.

Couplings appear to be working ok and the wheels don’t catch the magnets.




Bit messy, but I've glued and removed magnets quite a few times between these sleepers.
Bit of ballast, lick of paint, it'll do 

Kadee 321 down the other end.



Bit of foam against the axle of a van to act as a brake.



Old coins no longer legal tender, acting as temporary weights.



I already had some Kadees in stock, so if I say add £10 to the cost of the plank it's now around £70.

Don't think I'll manage scenery as well for less than the target though.



Ed

Another problem solved, Ed.   :cool:

To be fair Max, as you know Kadees are designed for HO US outline stock, so any OO British outline use is always going to be a bit of a workaround.

And it does keep the old grey matter ticking over 




Ed

Ed, mixing the two sizes is something I had not thought of as I had found fitting the five  3mm cubes can be VERY tight  so you have come up with another idea to join the list just like Gary with his vertical method.

Just lucky that I found some 3mm x 3mm x 2mm cubes with the poles on the 3mm x 3mm faces Ron.

I tried four 3mm x 3mm x 3mm to give a 12mm length and it's not quite long enough to make the trip pins work properly.

Kadee have obviously made a pretty precise system with a 13mm wide magnet.

I made a slightly tidier job of the next one.



Still a bit of a fiddly job and probably not as easy as Gary's vertical method.



Ed

Slow progress as family illness has made domestic duties a priority.

However, a few buildings I dug out of a box in the garage originally intended for Latton Fields but no longer required.



Yard crane and some accessories which came free with (I think) Railway Modeller Annual couple of years ago.



Last week I painted the board brown and managed to create a back scene using a picture downloaded from the web and a wall using some Metcalfe Stone Sheets I already had. 



No additional costs, unless you add a colour ink cartridge for the printer which I needed anyway.

(I'm still working on the joins.)

Created a base for the engine shed out of card and painted it black.






Had to do a few repairs to the shed as one of the main doors and one of the back doors had fallen off.

I've also stuck the lamp above the main doors back on, but where the lamp above the notice board on the side and the finial on the rear of the roof have gone is anybody guess.




Fits quite snugly but the question is, do I remove it and risk damage when it's stored separately every time I move the plank, or do I stick it 'in situ' which might make cleaning the track inside the shed a bit more difficult.

Think I'm going to try painting the track next.



Ed

Some nice bits and pieces there, Ed.

I've got a double track loco shed on my HO plank.  I'm glad that I made it removable each time I clean the rails.

Just about to stick it down Max, but now you've got me thinking  :hmm

My attempts at painting the track and the beginnings of some sort of ground cover.



The track doesn't look as orange as in the picture, think it's due to the camera flash.

I bought the coaling stage to give a reason for a wagon to be 'spotted' in front of the engine shed. Took a rather large bit out of the £100 target at £8.20, but I like it.



The coal is from Javis at just £1, but I think it's way too big. If you compare the guy's shovel with some of the pieces of coal he'd never be able to pick it up.

The wagon uncouples at just the right point…….



.. and I've just noticed from the picture that the lamp above the engine sheds doors is hanging off.

Time to get the glue out, again.

I've 'spotted' both these wagons with the loco (honest guv, I didn't cheat) and the van has to be uncoupled and 'Kadee shuffled' back to the provinder store.



Feeling quite chuffed….. it works!



Ed

Congratulations, Ed.   :cheers

Thanks Max.

It's coming to life Ed and is taking on an air of purpose.

You deserve to be rightly chuffed, well done!

Bill 

Thanks Bill.

Although it's only really a shunting puzzle, doing some sort of scenery seemed a good idea.

I'm not in the same league as many of the modelers on here, but practice makes perfect ………. or so they say  



Ed

Did a bit more ground cover and started creating a coal yard last week.





I decided I didn't like the Superquick Goods Shed where it was as it's a bit too big, so probably just a loading dock going in it's place.

The Superquick Water Tower has gone as well to make way for the coal yard.

Think I've nearly blown the £100 budget as I've just bought two lorries (trucks if your outside the UK) and a Ratio weighbridge.

Problem is, what started out as a shunting puzzle is turning into a mini layout/diorama  :oops:



Ed