I discovered the other day, that I have room to build a shelf layout over one of my benches.  I've been following the guys doing Rr&Co, and I thought a tramway might be a way of having a go at it.




Here's the framework and the nook where the computer is to go.




. . . and from the other direction.




Aha!  An interloper.  Caught in the act of ebaying!  I'll sneak up on her . . .




Rats!  She heard me coming . . .




Our youngest, Alice.  You can see she takes after her Dad - same tummy!   Well, she is having a baby, so there is some excuse.  ;-)

More work tomorrow.

Our youngest, Alice.  You can see she takes after her Dad - same tummy!   Well, she is having a baby, so there is some excuse.  ;-)



 

OK, well then what is your excuse :question

[user=95]Sol[/user] wrote:

Our youngest, Alice.  You can see she takes after her Dad - same tummy!   Well, she is having a baby, so there is some excuse.  ;-)



 

OK, well then what is your excuse :question

Did not like to ask but now Sol did, i would also like to know the exscuse, is it age , and also how come she got the looks, i mean look at your piture of yourself

Phill

Now i thought you wernt going to build a tramway Max

I look forward to you doing the tramway

It will make a lovely layout and with it using R &R like you are planning it will be great to watch while you are working at your bench.

Phill

The reason Alice is smiling she is looking at Max and thinking "Im glad i look like Mum"

cheers brian

Watching this project with some interest, Max, as I had hoped to be able to somehow incorporate a tramway in a layout of my own.  The idea got rejected at an early stage but the underlying interest is still there.

Let's hope I can do it justice.  :shock:

[user=9]phill[/user] wrote:

[user=95]Sol[/user] wrote:

Our youngest, Alice.  You can see she takes after her Dad - same tummy!   Well, she is having a baby, so there is some excuse.  ;-)



 

OK, well then what is your excuse :question

Did not like to ask but now Sol did, i would also like to know the exscuse, is it age , and also how come she got the looks, i mean look at your piture of yourself

Phill

Why are people so unkind?

Because we care about you Max, :thumbs

Phill

Max

Its going to be interesting seeing you create roadways within the rails around the double slips you are mentionining in the R & R thread

cheers Brian

I like those shots Max - particularly nos 3, 4 and 5 - there's some lovely scenery there !!!

I note once again that there's no cheap "rough cut timber" for you - that superb aluminium tubing.  Just wish it was cheaper here - certainly makes a stron, good looking baseboard support.

I'm looking forward to seeing what our resident "electrickery kid" does with a tramway.  It should prove very interesting.

It should indeed though I'm trying to think of where a double-slip is used on a tramway and failing.

Tramways would probably use back-to-back Y-points to permit the same moves in a restricted space.  

There are plenty of street-corner intersections where a # crossover (or "H") is also equipped with curves to make turns.  Melbourne has one complete "Grand Union" with all four turns, and several with three out of four possible.

But no actual slip diamonds since these are actual curves with their own sets of points separate to the # crossing in the middle.

Confession time, Peter.  That is steel tubing (RHS) rectangular hollow section.

The double slips will be in an open, unpaved section.  The Bay tramway has a grassed right of way between Adelaide and Glenelg.  It's really only paved at the ends, stops and crossings.  I'm hoping to hide my double slips outside the terminus precincts in the undeveloped areas.

The St Kilda Museum Tramway has all the turnouts in grassy, unpaved areas.  Bushes and trees overhang the tramway and almost touch the trams as they pass.  The ballast is the same height as the surrounding dirt, sometimes lower 

Another way I could do it is to have a single turnout, running the main lines into a single station, but I think that won't look as interesting as a double track station.

At the end of the day, the point of the exercise is to play with Rr&Co.  The tramway is just a bonus.

Max

You spoilsport i was loooking forwrd to you tackling roadway around double slips

cheers brian

Double slips, or compound switches, or puzzle switches occur on tramways throughout the world. Double compounds are featured on Tramways in Victoria , Australia.  the definition of a tramway is a light railway that uses existing roads for its track UNLESS it is absolutely neccessary. Many rural tramways will have a permanent way especially constructed but as long as the majority of track is built at the side of ,or on  existing roads, its a tramway.

Today I made a truss for the downlights.  I found when I started my main layout that I need lots of light to work.  I figured I may as well put the downlights up at the start.  I'll be able to see better and the scenery will show in its right shades.  Whenever that happens. :shock:

Here is the truss:-




It's another length of RHS.




The two wires which carry the lamps are tensioned from one end and there is a tension wire over the top.  Light, but strong.

The chains are doubled to allow the assembly to be lowered for maintenance and to complete the work.




These are the three pairs of wires over the main layout.  I used high tensile fencing wire and pulled it up with turnbuckles.  Because I'm using solid state transformers, the downlights can be dimmed.  The dimmer rack is that white floating square on the left.

Thanks Max

It's always good to see the "big picture" around layouts and to understand how each of us has tackled issues such as lighting.

Model railways require much more thought sometimes than just the model railway!

That's an interesting lighting gantry over your layout Max.

Are the lights the type that screw-contact onto a constantly live wire runner or are they fed separately and the wires just carry them ?

Lighting is, to me,  always a problem with "fixed" layouts - what to use and how to keep them high enough to allow access for working and yet still close enough to give decent light.  Less of a problem on exhibition layouts because they can be built into a fairly low "pelmet".

Peter - I have seen excellent use made of up lighting from behind scenery which sometimes provides more even and superior illumination of the layout area than does down lighting from bulbs or spots.

What works for Max may not work for others and vice versa since we all have our layouts in different situations.  Even outside where most of my lighting is natural I have strip lights high above the layout which give reasonable illumination over about half of it at night and some illumination to the rest.

Don't you just love how potential layout space jumps out at you every so often.

Will also look forward to seeing how this plans out as I had considered a tramway prior to opting for a smaller scale.

Peter, the wires just carry the lamps.  I'll try to get a shot of how it's wired tonight.  The lights are becoming a bit redundant on the main layout now - what with all the LEDs!