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Author Topic: Designing and maybe making a portable model railway.  (Read 1823 times)

Stoker

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Congratulations on reaching a design decision. Sometimes that can be the toughest part of a build!
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Tony Bird

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Hi,

Decisions made and hopefully the finial drawings done; the boards for the two curved tracks, the general arrangement drawing though there will be four straight boards back and front not three as shown on the drawings and the two drawings for cutting the plywood.

Four sheets of 2440 x 1220 mm 5.5 mm thick plywood was cut by the suppliers to the drawings.  There was enough plywood for all the base board tops: 8 wide sections and 10 narrower sections along with all the edges.

A template to mark out the base boards for the curved track was made its edge joint being made with glue and staples.

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Regards Tony.

Tony Bird

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Hi,

Made a start; the tops of the boards that will have the curved track on them have been cut and glued and one of the narrow boards for the straight track has been put together.

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Regards Tony.

Tony Bird

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Hi,
 
The first of the eight base boards for the curved track has been made.  Plywood edges have been fitted as it is a lot lighter than the plastic that was to be used.  It gets a bit boring from now on!
 
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Regards Tony.

RedRyder

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Looks like a great project, Tony!


And... thank you for sharing your steam railway touring video.


Gil

Tony Bird

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Hi,

It’s the wrong time of the year in Old South Wales to do wood work.  My garage is too damp to even store timber never mind working on it!  So, the cut timber is now stored in the workshop where I am working on the base boards for the curved track.  Three boards have been assembled two of which are being hinged together to make a quarter circle.  As well as the hinges the boards are bolted together using a single bolt.  The positioning of this bolt in both of the base boards is critical to allow the track to line up (there are no fish plates used over the board joints) when the layout is dismantled and assembled again.  To allow this the bolt holes in the wood are bushed with an aluminium tube a friend visiting kindly machined a load of these tubes for me.  To drill the holes accurately in the wood a wooden jig has been made, this jig has to work for two different size holes one being for the aluminium tube the other the tapping size for a M6 thread. This was achieved by making a pair of steel stepped bushes back to back drilled with the relevant size holes.  The next job is to use the jig so the base boards are connected then go on to complete this quarter circle to check everything before going on the other six boards for the curved track.

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Regards Tony.

Tony Bird

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Hi,

Forgot to show how the layout’s corners are reinforced using a glued peg. After the holes for the bolts are drilled a modified ‘G’ clamp is used to push the aluminium tubes in; the thrust washers are glued in place.  The hinges are fitted while the boards are held together and lined up with a bolt.

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Regards Tony.

Tony Bird

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Hi,

Today I rested my hand on one of the boards and felt the glued and stapled joint give so a brace was glued underneath the joint.  The drilling jig was used to drill a hole that could be tapped M6 so a bolt could be fitted to secure an adjacent board.  A another jig was made to drill and mark out the aluminium angle brackets that would be fitted to the same board end as the bolt to support the bolted board.  The narrower of the boards that hinge together had a pair of guides fitted to locate the two boards when folded.

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Regards Tony.

Tony Bird

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Hi,

The first base board except for track is finished, there are seven more boards for the curved track to be made and then there are ten straight boards after them.  I am happy with this first board so I am now onto making all the aluminium angle fittings and if sums are correct there will be 80 in total, I have cut and machined 50 blanks so far.

The finished board has been sealed and had a coat of varnish; the layout will spend a lot of time stored in a trailer though dry it is very damp in Old South Wales.  All the nuts used are Ny-lock; from experience with the thousands of miles the layout hopefully will travel bumping up and down in the trailer would loosen plain nuts.  Only 30 blanks to go then cut and drill them and there are 28 legs to cut.

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Regards Tony.

jkbixby

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That's a lot of work Tony but it'll pay off in the long run - what a nice setup you'll have in the end!
Regards,
Larry

Tony Bird

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Re: Designing and maybe making a portable model railway.
« Reply #40 on: November 01, 2019, 04:20:05 am »
Hi,

Yesterday, Gordon a friend visited and with his help most of the fittings for the seven base boards for the curved track were made which used up 35 of the 50 pieces of aluminium angle that had been cut and machined.  In a few hours we depart for an exhibition at Earl Shilton in the Midlands so won’t be able to do any more to the layout until early next week when we return.

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Tony Bird

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Re: Designing and maybe making a portable model railway.
« Reply #41 on: November 15, 2019, 10:23:11 am »
[ Guests cannot view attachments ] Hi,

It is the time of the year that this species of bird flies South for a few weeks, tomorrow afternoon to be exact, I’ve been doing press-ups all week! Its been a little boring doing work on the new layout; six of the base boards for the curved track have been assembled and the legs with their fittings have been made for all eight boards.

I have also been working on a wheel clamp for the trailer I couldn’t find one that was made for such small wheels so bought the smallest I could get and modified it.  The clamp is as much for stopping the trailer moving on a slope as being security the other layout's trailer is large and heavy enough to have brakes.

So that’s it until December when we will be back for some weeks.


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St Paul Steam

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Re: Designing and maybe making a portable model railway.
« Reply #42 on: November 15, 2019, 01:18:53 pm »
Hi Tony , I'm just perusing all this while on my lunch break (not near enough time) very nice work thus far &  a very interesting thread. ...thank you 😉
Bruce, St. Paul Indiana, USA
"Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind."
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Tony Bird

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Re: Designing and maybe making a portable model railway.
« Reply #43 on: December 06, 2019, 11:11:27 am »
Hi,

We have returned from warmer places the 25-degree centigrade drop in temperature wasn’t appreciated in the early hours of Sunday morning!  Started back working on the layout; the eight base boards for the curved track are all in one piece needing only sealing, a coat of varnish and the handles arriving from China to complete them.  I was rather pleased when checking their stacked height that they were 10 mm lower than expected!  A start has been made on the wider base boards for the straight track, two of the eight tops needed are finished.  When all eight are in a similar condition a start will be made on designing and making their folding legs.

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Regards Tony.

txlabman

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Re: Designing and maybe making a portable model railway.
« Reply #44 on: December 07, 2019, 07:43:04 am »
Thanks for the update Tony.