Cambridgeshire Progress Report

[Peaky 556]

John - treading on dangerous ground aren't you?
To quote a lady's age is seriously frowned upon, but to quote a weight is tantamount to suicide...
We must assume she was shod with leaded divers boots.
Tim

[John Candy]

Old "music hall" joke....."That's no lady, that's my wife!"

Perhaps next project should be a "dog house"....I'll just go and order some plans!!

John.

[John Candy]

"Rain stops play" .... that has been the story for last few days but every cloud has a silver lining!

It has forced me to stay inside and have been constructing turnouts (using Cliff Barker parts).

So far have completed four 15ft radius turnouts (1x"Y", 1xLH and 2xRH) and have just started on the fifth (another RH).

So, as soon as the Sun shines again, I shall be in a position to complete the "Up" goods loop, goods yard and carriage sidings.

John
......with very sore fingers from forcing chairs and fishplates onto rail!

[Geoff Nicholls]

John,
could we have a G3 made simple article on how one builds Cliff Barkers turnouts? I'm going to need to upgrade my track fairly soon and I've never built points in any scale.

[cabbage]

Try here

http://www.cabbagepatchrailway.co.uk/g3track.html

regards

ralph

[John Candy]

Geoff,

I will do a simple guide, specific to using Cliff Barker parts; it differs in detail from the instructions given by Cliff but it is the way I find easiest and quickest.
First one took a whole day to build (learning curve) but, having refined process, can now do two per day.

I suggest you buy the two filing jigs sold by the G3S and 3 track gauges (I use one roller gauge and two of Cliff's gauges).

Regards,
John.

[454]

There is a Youtube video of Cliff building a turnout with spoken dialogue. At least i looked at it several months ago should still be there if I find the link I will post it.

Dave
454

[Andy B]

Here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfo6I6s8gDo

Andy

[John Candy]

Brief update before trip to Sussex.

The loop/carriage sidings/yard on the "up" side at the "down" end of the junction have been completed, as have the line climbing from the junction station to the southern end of the viaduct and the "Y" junction at the northern end of the viaduct (together with the loop round back to the main junction and the third side of the "wye" junction which leads to the MPD and main terminus area).

Best news is that one of Carol's brothers came to stay for three days this week and we filled in the pond .... which means I can now easily access the area behind the pond to lay the missing section of the double track mainline (previously had to balance, precariously, on the welded steel mesh gratings which the previous owner had placed over the entire pond).

Thursday saw the delivery of one ton of white limestone chippings from Derbyshire, which will be used to backfill  areas where the track is currently just above (the excavated) ground level. The chippings came on a pallet in 57 plastic sacks which had to be barrowed from front to back of house.

Next job is to order and fill another skip to dispose of an accumulation of pallets, a mass of steel grating (which first needs attention from the angle grinder) and other assorted "grot".

Three more turnouts are required and then both the high level and low level lines can become completed circuits....getting there but it is heavy going.

A new branch is being added (the "tramway") which goes deep into the undergrowth and emerges near the shed as a Wenfordbridge type of line off the high level track.

A few photos to illustrate progress will be added later.

John.

[John Candy]

Forgot to mention that another alteration has been made to junction station layout : A bi-directional through road (between the low level route platform roads) has been added, so that there will now be three through roads on the low level mainline, three on the high level route plus a bay serving both routes (a total of five through platform roads, a bay accessible from the north (down) end of the station plus a mainline through road which will enable "fast" trains to overtake goods/slow passenger trains).

Below is link to slide show of recent work.

http://lakes-pages.com/page3.html

[MikeWilliams]

So that's why you were not at Rothley today!  Looks superb John.  Large, interesting, but still manageable.

Mike

[John Candy]

Not at Rothley because I was surplus to requirements.
As it turned out, that was a welcome turn of events, since I need to leave for Sussex early tomorrow morning.

I reckon it will be possible to have nine trains (radio controlled) in operation on the three continuous routes at any time (plus movements on the branches, at termini, etc.).

Will require a competent "controller" plus at least two signalmen for intensive services (it looks as though three signal boxes will be required with pneumatic and electrical control of points and signals).

Regards,
John.

[John Candy]

After several days of rain, the Sun shone all day yesterday and Ted (Sadler) spent the day helping with work.

The remaining gap in the high level circuit viaduct has been bridged (with a removable section to allow access for the mower) and the first 30+ feet of the goods-only branch (aka "the tramway") has been excavated, with 7 Cwt of concrete mixed and poured to form the footings for concrete block and brick supports. Another 15ft remains to be excavated and more aggregate/ballast needs to be ordered for concrete mixing.

Only set-back of the day was the "no-show" of a promised (very large) delivery of timber.

During the rainy days, I started on scratch-building a "Southern" K-type furniture container (and designing the "Z" transfers which are "Maunsell" green with "Portland stone"  lettering outlined with a thin orange line....not easy, even with a graphics +  DTP package). About 50% built so far but am looking forward to completing it in "sea green" livery.

Using a drawing supplied by Mike (and prepared by the late Geoff Williams for use with his Aylesbury High Street model) I prepared a pattern, made moulds and cast some timber/earth-filled type buffer stops. It took more than 2Kg of silicon rubber to make the moulds and each casting consumed 700 cl of resin. I ran out of resin before casting the cross beams for the four stops so far cast but a photo of the main (one-piece) casting is attached, with the plastic pattern for the cross beam temporarily attached to illustrate a completed item. The stop will be fixed by drilling vertically through the "earth-filled" area and using long screws. The countersunk heads will then be filled and the area coated with epoxy and covered in fine grit.

Hope to receive a delivery of resin before end of week and will then cast the cross beams plus a few more complete stops for my own use.
I will then pass the moulds to Mike...so if you would like one, please, ask him and not me.

Now need to re-charge the camera batteries but more photos of garden progress soon!

John.

[blagdon]

John,

you should see the Carrog Valley Railway,a truly inspirational line. Thinking of 'Cambridgeshire', you could add a high level line accessed by a spiral.

Ian the Gauge '3' Pirate

[John Candy]

Rain has interrupted work repeatedly over past week but I have had time to cast 11 sets of sleeper-built buffer stops!

The carriage sidings/mileage yard now has stops fitted, as well as the headshunt for the branch terminus.

Three more have been allocated to the harbour/tramway branch, leaving a few spares for mixing with my rail-built stops (ex-John Witts) to complete the mainline terminus, etc.

Other recent work includes in-filling excavated areas with limestone chippings to disguise the concrete/brick foundations of the junction area, excavation and laying of concrete foundations of harbour branch and cutting/creocoting of timbers for the trackbed supports (trackbed will be recycled plastic board).

Had hoped to have the three continuous circuits completed for testing by end of July but weather and delays with pointwork assembly has put back the clock by several weeks.

Here are a few photos to show progress and the new buffer stop casting ..... if you want one you need to ask Mike.

Headshunt at branchline terminus.




Carriage sidings/mileage yard at main junction.






John.