My post of 30th April 2019 shows the intended trackplan with all 125 turnouts.  A good number are located in the storage area where I want to be able to select a track and just drive a train out.  This luxury has cost me about 2 dozen sets of points!!

It is my intention to float a shopping list to Hattons and Rails to see who is prepared to offer a discount for a bulk buy - if I can pursuade them that I am not opening a rival model shop!!!!  I might also ask Peco direct for a quote, especially given the number of yards of plain track I also need.

Who dares wins…………

p.s. Sorry Sol, a "Bex" - I thought that was a type of lager  

Barry

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

My post of 30th April 2019 shows the intended trackplan with all 125 turnouts.  A good number are located in the storage area where I want to be able to select a track and just drive a train out.  This luxury has cost me about 2 dozen sets of points!! …..

Barry

 

What? That's almost twice the number on my entire Westown layout. Are you really sure about this "Going Large" thing?  :twisted: 

Colin

[user=2170]Colin W[/user] wrote:

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

My post of 30th April 2019 shows the intended trackplan with all 125 turnouts.  A good number are located in the storage area where I want to be able to select a track and just drive a train out.  This luxury has cost me about 2 dozen sets of points!! …..

Barry

 

What? That's almost twice the number on my entire Westown layout. Are you really sure about this "Going Large" thing?  :twisted: 

Colin

Currently my empire runs 95 turnouts with another 6 being added.

 
With apologies for the sideways pictures (iphone photos ALWAYS do this to me!), I present the results of Dr Beechings work in the Yarslow area.  The first photo shows the baseboard framework being dismantled.  I used 2 inch x 2 inch (nominal) for the main spars and 2 inch x 1 inch for the cross bracing every 12 inches.  This supported a 9mm MDF top which did not warp at all during its 8 year life.  Legs were 2 inch x 2 inch.

The second photo shows the benefit of asking how to lift ballasted track.  Thanks to the inputs of the guys on the forum, I have rescued all but 1 section of track.  The bit I lost was on about its 3rd layout anyway so nothing lost really.  All of the pointwork was saved along with the vast majority of wiring and, of course, all of the point motors.  The short bits of track on the shelf in the first photo is the "junk track" pile - 5 short sections!!

The non-scenic side of the layout was all Peco Settrack and this will be passed on to my grandson although I might hold back the curved points as he is only 8 and I am not sure I can explain the geometry of them!!

I estimate that I will not have trains running now for about 2 years as the house move and inevitable renovation progress.  I will have access to my day-to-day tools but not the bigger stuff like airbrushes, soldering iron etc.  With this in mind, I am keen to get into making a few Parkside wagon kits and maybe even some more Ian Kirk coaches if I can find them.

Its already feeling strange to have broken Yarslow down and packed everything away.  The mental health benefits of a layout are, I am finding, somewhat underestimated.

Barry

It is mentally devastating Barry i know myself when my wife announced it was time for us to move a few years back.
At the time it was a mental kick in the teeth although i knew at some point it would occur.

All i can say is myself and others have been through it and once you have your new place that layout enthusiasm soon bounces back.

Brian

Best foot forward.

I have now completely dismantled the layout and most of it has gone to the local recycling centre aka the tip.

The pile of saved track has been cleaned up and totals 72 pieces of re-usable lengths.  Most are 36 inches and about 20% are over 24 inches.  There are also a dozen shorter sections and I rescued about 40 12-inch sections from the old loco cartridges.  Every bit saved is one less bit to buy.

Despite all I hear about Brexit (and everything that's blamed on it) the house sale is warming up and we have bought a small flat as a foothold in Southport.  The idea is to move from here to the Southport flat and then find a house/layout room combination that suits at our leisure.  It takes all the stress out but I reckon I will be lucky to see trains running within 2 years. 

That doesn't bother me as I continue to tinker with the detailed design and I will put a series of You Tube videos together telling the story of the design.  The idea is that I have made loads of mistakes to get the design to the current state and if that helps others avoid making the same ones, all well and good.

The hardest thing is not having my library - everything is packed so I have no reference material to hand at all.  That hit me this week when I noticed that Hattons had a number of Mk I TSO and SO coaches for sale at bargain prices.  Ordinarily I would dive into Steve Banks' books to review how these vehicles were used and whether it would be worth getting some.  No can do  

Ah well, at least it saved me some money!!

A final thought has hit me.  Yarslow is a name constructed from "Yarmouth" where we have a house on the Isle of Wight and "Hounslow" which is the London Borough where I live.  If I move to Southport, do I have to change to Yarport or even Southmouth!!!

Barry

Yarport sounds better, Barry....

Yes indeed - Yarport flows  off the tongue very easily.

You could have "Livermouth", "Yarpool" or "Yarsey"  as being in the same sort of area……………………….

South Yarport

Barry,

Re iPhone photos' orientation, my solution is to email the photo to my non Apple PC, open the photo in whatever photo editor, rotate as required and do a "Save As" to save with new name. That fixes it and since I'm posting from my desktop there's not that much extra work involved anyway.

Colin

Cheers Colin  :doublethumb

………..or just take the photo with a camera ……………………….. :hmm

Why not call the layout your Surname Barry  thats a good sounding Layout .


"Miltenburg"


Brian

It would need to be continental Brian ............................. :hmm

Hi all

I only took the photo with the phone because I have packed the camera somewhere and couldn't find it when I wanted it!!  I have now located it so should not suffer from malrotationalism any more.

Brian - Miltenberg is a town in Germany that I have been to ("berg" = "mountain" in German).  Probably a bit too germanic but a nice idea all the same.

Guys - I have been contemplating the name thing and will probably stick with Yarslow although South Yarport sounds good.  The first half dozen layouts I built were all called "Midworth" simply because I liked the name and I'm a creature of habit.  The other proposed layout names (Highmarsh and Trinity Square) have also been with me for decades - its funny how some things just stick.

Finished stripping out the old Yarslow shed today so nothing remains of the layout other than the entire interior is painted sky blue and there are bits of scenic flock stuck to the backscene which I can't get off.  I have rescued a load of 2" x 2" (nominal) timber lengths that look useful and about 200 screws that held it all together.

On a more constructive note, I have found all manner of tools and stuff that I have lost over the past few years - found down behind baseboards and piles of shed contents.

I'm also saving a small fortune by not continuously buying wagons and stuff!

We are heading north again in a couple of weeks to continue the search for a railway room/house.  During recent discussions, I laid out 24ft x 16ft in our present garden just to get Mrs M used to the idea of the actual size.  I am still feeling somewhat guilty that we have found loads of lovely houses but nothing yet with the right space for the layout.  I have started wondering whether I am being too ambitious but Mrs M simply said "We are not compromising - we'll find something to take the layout".

She's an angel……….

Barry

Hi Barry. Nominal  2” x 2” does that mean the timber that we got  â€œlumbered “ with since we joined the EEC?  I preferred real 1” x 11/2” or two be two , that way you knew where you stood. Best wishes Kevin 

Agreed Kevin - I much preferred the days when you could buy timber from a timber yard run by an old grumpy bloke in a brown workshop coat.  We all knew what "2 by 2" meant.  One of the joys of the Isle of Wight is a chain of shops called "Hursts" where that still happens.  I can buy nails by the pound and cord by the yard.

These days, I have to find my metric converter app on the phone and my reading glasses to work out whether I need 50mm or 44mm timber.

I must be getting old.

Barry

Dimensional lumber is almost always nominal now. What 50+ years ago was a real 2x2" is now 1.5x1.5" . 2x1" is now 1.75x0.75" . It all started when old growth trees ran out and smaller trees were being used. You can get it 2x2" from a mill shop, or whatever size you want,  it just costs more, especially if you only want a few feet. Or cut it to the size you want on the table saw.  Strength wise there is no real difference between actual or nominal. 

Those old guys in brown coats were usually just as useless as their modern day equivalents. Mill shops and speciality lumber stores excepted, where they make what they sell. 

 
Nigel

I know Bunnings is a dirty word in the UK, but here their Structural Timber is what it claims to be dimensionally; 70*35mm is just that and with a bit of care can be bought reasonably straight!  However as I noted over on Westown, in WA you can only get Treated Structural timber, the whole state seems to be built on one enormous termite mound! (sorry to anyone from WA).

 Colin

My experience is that rough sawn timber is the stated dimension.  It's in the planing that the dimension disappears.

1.75" x 1.75" started life as 2" x 2" but, in planing, they removed 0.25".  I don't think it is now but, several years ago it was specified as PSE - planed, squared and edged.  In the old days, the planing, squaring and edging was done by the carpenter on site.  Except in construction, hardly anyone uses rough sawn timber these days - we all like our smooth, neat square timber.