chris

OK, time for a topic on tips on roofing felt. Possible discussion points... How to fix it in place Do you trim to the top, wrap round the side or wrap under the baseboard. When two sections meet is it best to overlap or line them up flush. With the benefit of hindsight...

I've yet to have a bond fail, but it is an issue with outdoor railways. One of the arguments against tunnels is "what happens if a bond fails in a tunnel?" Well here's my two suggestions. Have just one track joint in the tunnel, if the bond stops conducting then rely on the feed from the other end of the track which is outside the tunnel.Solder two bonds per rail per joint. With two wires in place you have a back up if one fails. It won't look pretty, but its hidden in the tunnel.Have long bonding wires that run the length of the tunnel. Rather than bonding a centimetre either side of the join, bond at the tunnel mouth which will remain accessible.

Great work, great photos. If you want to take a belt and braces approach to the section in the tunnel then I'd suggest soldering two bonding wires over each rail join so if one fails you have a back up. It may look a bit messy having a couple of wires on both sides of the join, but it's in the tunnel so who is going to see it. While I'm mentioning rail joints, if you trim the chairs off the end sleepers then that will make room for the fishplate and you won't get a gap in the sleepers at each joint. I wish I'd twigged on to that before I first started laying track.

I managed to get a good few hours of work in today, on the back of a couple after work yesterday. I've prepped my salvaged aluminium girders, they required a couple of lips sawing off at the ends and plenty of holes drilled so the can be screwed in place. The other main job was painting three 2440mm by 300mm boards, two coats, both sides and all edges. It was going swimmingly until the afternoon delievered rain showers Got them all done in the end so I'm quite close to being able to fit them to the shelving brackets that went up yesterday.

I'd got one within a couple of hours of Monk Bar Model Shop receiving their delivery of them. They were quite surprised to get them, they also through Hornby had given up and weren't making them.

I've been thinking about putting a Wind Turbine on mine. A company had plans to put some up near here, but some NIMBYs appear to have put a halt to it. I did work out that a scale model would be 190cm high

There still could be plenty of leg plugging opportunities, just because I've got a new camera, it doesn't mean I know how to use it. Took me ten minutes to workout why I couldn't get the pictures off it and onto my computer—it's a Mac, I'm used to these things just working.

I am now the proud owner of a camera and a Grand Central MK3 Buffet Car. Not sure which of those two I've been waiting for the longest.

Having gone down the bitumen route, I'm going to try out masonry paint on Phase 3. Not really looked into it. Will I need specific primer, and undercoat paint or will multiple coats of the masonry paint do the job?

Technically the broken camera is my wife's. The good news is that she'll needed to use a carmera twice this week, so we've decided that I should buy one when pop into York later on. The sarga of the Grand Central HST may also finish today

Following Ian's lead I've used Gypframe sections to brace my baseboards between brackets. On the whole I've been very pleased with them. I have learnt that I must do a better job of fixing them to the baseboards at the ends of the Gypframe and that they aren't up to the job of keeping a 30cm wide board from sagging between 200cm spaced shelf brackets. An additional central support was required. Phase 3 of Amblethorpe will be using 30cm wide boards to allow for more scenery around the tracks. I've been trying to work out whether I will need two runs of Gypframe under the boards or place the shelf bracket closer together (tricky when your fence posts are already in place). However. I've just done a bit of skip diving, in the hope of getting a couple of lengths of timber, but I came out with four 190cm lengths of Aluminium "T" Girder. These had been part of a conservatory roof and appear to be very strong yet rather lightweight. They could be just what I'm after.

When I started I had a long roll of Twin and Earth mains cable in the loft so I have used that as a bus cable which runs under the tracks. I do find the cables a bit thick to work with, it's 30amp solid core, but having a continuous run of copper below the track is useful, especially towards the ends as I'm always certain that I have a good signal on the bus. I have several droppers down to the bus in the shed, but only a couple outside. I find it best to keep the number of holes in the baseboard to a minimum, so far I've only put droppers in where they were necessary, ie after a point.

I'm surprised that we don't have a thread on the subject of track bonding... so I've just started one. http://www.selbygardenrailway.co.uk/sgrforum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=248

So, lets have your tips on bonding tracks. I'm cr*p with a soldering iron and don't like this job at all. Worst part is that it has to be done outdoor and I just can't keep my iron hot enough. One tip I picked up recently is to solder a short length of bonding wire to the end of each rail (so four short bond wires per track length) and then once the track has been laid outside you simply solder the bonding wires together, saving you having to solder the track outside. This does mean that there are three solder joints that can fail rather than two, but if the joints are better in the first place this should reduce the risk rather than increase it. Next time I'm laying track I'll give it a go and report back.

Still no camera

Some progress today. I've made most of the framework needed to support the baseboard where the track exits the shed. I also painted the top 20 cm or so of a couple of fence panels to see how they look as back boards. Will need to get a move on in the next couple of months if I'm going to get any more track down this year.

If you cut your 200mm heights in half with a jigsaw each piece will still have one straight edge which will be the top edge and you don't need to worry about the bottom egde. Just a thought

Having spent the week checking out the prototype, (I've caught 27 trains in the last 7 days) tomorrow will be my first full day in over a month working on my railway. Progress must be made.

Six days of rail rovering and I've visited Northumberland everyday. Did I mention that Amblethorpe was inspired by that part of the country.

I've been quite on this thread for a while. For Christmas I did get some coaches to go with the power cars, two 1st and two Standard. Since then i've been waiting… and waiting… and waiting… Then to my total surprise (I'd given up hope) Hornby released the buffet car. Now i've just got to buy one. I was going to pop down to Rails and buy one yesterday, but they've not got it yet. I went to Carlisle instead of Sheffield (the joys of a rail rover) but C and M Models told me they had sold out I guess I'll have to pop down to Monk Bar Model Shop next week and see if they've got it.

Not much work going on on the railway this week. My wife and I purchased rail rovers this mooring and will be spending whatever free time we have this week taveling around everywhere between Cleethorpes, Sheffield, Carlisle and Berwick. Today we popped up to Radcar for Ice Cream (Lemon Top!) and then up the Durham Coast to Newcastle and on to Alnmouth for pie and a pint in the Red Lion. Was planing on doing the Settle to Carlisle tomorrow, but there are 4 hour gaps between services on a Sunday which makes a journey break at Ribblehead a bit long stop over. We've got a B&B booked at Hexham tomorrow night to may change plans and do the S&C on Monday. But if we don't do the long drag, then where do we go tomorrow

No pictures of them on (or should that be under?) Amblethopre but you can se them in action here viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21#p51 on Ian's Kirkfield and Warmthorpe railway

Hi Rob, Welcome aboard. I've had a quick look at your web site and noticed the peco side mounting point motors, i'll have to look in to those for use on Amblethorpe, I've got one point which I'm still unsure about how I'm going to power it. I also noticed on the photo that your track pins appear to be rusting, I've had that problem and have now switched to using Peco's brass pins, they are a little bit oversized so I drill a 1mm hole in the sleeper first to make sure it doesn't split.

Trip to B&Q yesterday. Cost far more than I wanted it to, but phase 3 is now heading off tha drawing board and into the garden.

Scots Guardsman was back on SSE duties yesterday. 37706 was rescuing it today! Went passsed the house 2 hours late at 14:30, still on it's way to the coast.