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Paltryville Ridge & Peak Railroad


chris
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10 hours ago, chris said:

....Feels like real progress now. Should be sticking down roofing felt and laying track soon.....

Progress indeed - it all seems to have come together in no time at all. The pebbles actually create a very neat setting that complements the coaches really well.

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All the strips of roofing felt are now stuck down. I can't say it has improved the look of the scene so I haven't photographed it.

Should be track laying today. Cracking weather, if the wind is low enough, soldering outside may only be a small pain in the arse.

I'm interested to see how easy it is to solder the O-16.5 track, its exactly the same Code 100 rail, but the sleepers are further apart so there may be a little more room for the iron.

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I had forgotten how long it takes to solder up so many rails. Spent all afternoon on it. Fortunately I’ve many to do all but the last few sat at the kitchen table. 
Might actually pin down some track this evening. 

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The last couple of lengths of track were cut. The dozen or so remaining bonds were soldered up, thankfully in a very light wind. My DCC system was clipped to the end of the track and the first train did trundle along the Paltryville Ridge and Peak.

I filmed the occasion and will post it tomorrow.

I then got very confused about my electrofrog points. They worked absolutely fine, yet I convinced myself that they shouldn't.

I'm so used to having to power the frog I had forgotten how they actually work. I've done some reading online and recognised that it's all OK. I think O-16.5  Narrow Gauge turnouts have a bigger throw on the switch rail, this gives more room for the flange to pass and less chance of a short circuit. They certainly don't have the gaps in the rails that enable the frog to be powered.

Not sure how long the point blades with conduct the power for. I'll have to wait and see.

Anyway. The loco ran really well. Tomorrows job is to pin down the track.

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13 hours ago, chris said:

....Not sure how long the point blades with conduct the power for. I'll have to wait and see....

I went down that route with some of the points in the attic Chris and it proved to be an error of judgement. It wasn't long before I had to start getting the fibreglass pencil out to them. They're still working like that as I can't be bothered to do anything about it just yet but I fear I'll have to eventually.

I think I remember reading recently that Peco have changed the design of their electrofrog points? Will be interesting to see what the new design, if that's right, might be.

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Dues to the design of the points there isn't a great deal I can do. All the metal bits in the middle are wired together and I don't fancy removing those wires from a very cramped space below the frog.

When the switch rails stop conducting from the stock, I'll wire in a frog juicer, I've already soldered a wire in place thinking that they would be needed from the start. I only have one juicer at the mo, so at least I can hold off for now on buying another 3.

 

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With the Paltryville Ridge and Peak Railroad operational, the next task was to create the link to the Snicketway.

This was a two part job. A short 90º bend to needed to be built and the Snicketway Baseboards needed short legs to lift it to the correct height of the PR & PR. I'd previously cut a suitable piece a of 18mm ply  for the link board. I had to worth though how it would attach at each end. I added another piece of 18mm ply at a right-angle to enable it to be screwed to the Snicketway. I'd previously cut a step out of the aerated block for the other end to sit on. 

The track was pinned to a simple curve. Carefully alined with the Snicketway and fishplates used at the Paltryville connection.

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I cut 6 short legs for the baseboards and screwed them into the existing insert nuts. This took awhile, my saws are blunt after cutting the aerated blocks.

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And I was up and running.

With the weather playing nice I left it all set up overnight.

Yesterday morning I put in a permeant power feed. Dropping off one of the bus zones for Amblethorpe, I added a DPDT switch to allow me to switch it off while running my OO setup. 

The MacBook relocated to the shed and I was soon running using my old iPhone as a throttle.

I then went the whole hog and got all the buildings, backscenes and people out on the Snicketway.

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I spent most of the time with a trolley circling and a shunter shuttling wagons back and forth. I have a magnetic uncoupler installed on the Snicketway. I need to add another in Paltryville. I may install that today.

 

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1 hour ago, chris said:

.....This took awhile, my saws are blunt after cutting the aerated blocks.....

  Lol! Didn't I say use an old saw for the block cutting? I've got a garage full of similarly useless saws!

The whole setup looks excellent. I bet you're well chuffed with it.

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3 hours ago, ba14eagle said:

And I thought my garden was full of trains 🤣

There are more bird boxes and feeders than trains. A quick count up and there are 4 bird houses and 12 bird feeders in that photo. I hope I've modified them enough that I don't get residents. 

Edited by chris
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Half my On30 rolling stock has been stored loose. With Paltryville up and running it is time to improve the storage for the rest of my fleet. Today I converted a box file to hold some 4 wheel wagons and coaches. I was going to house some locos in there as well, but it wasn't suitable for my 2-6-0. I used the space for my cars and vans.

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I have a simple technique using cardboard, polystyrene and a hot glue gun.

I've got another box ready for the loco fleet. Probably time to crack on and finish the job of DCCing my Porter, which has been in bits for more months than I care to remember.

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  • 1 month later...

Spent a bit of time sorting the Kadee's on my rolling stock so they are at the correct height for the magnetic uncouplers. The easiest option for some stock was to rewheel them.

Had a play. Uncoupling and shunting wagons is a lot easier. It is fun rather than frustrating.

Some branches I've had lying around the garden for 3 years finally got chopped to length for my logging cars.

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I connected up my Snicket Way baseboards and ran onto them. Turns out the track power connector between the two layouts is wired the wrong way wound. My red rail at the front, black at the back rule should prevent this kind of cockup, I'll have to figure out what I've got mixed up. Its a 2 minute fix with the soldering iron.

With the recent DCCing of my Porter it was its first run on the 20cm (8") curves of the Snicket Way. There were no issues.

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I'm currently thinking about the buildings for Paltryville. They need to be weather proof. Mainly because I'm running out of space to store all of my moveable scenery.

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From this photo it appears the there is a strong gradient to the peak. There isn't, My camera was a few degrees off level.

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  • 1 year later...

Scratch built some buildings for the PR&PR. It On30 so they are bigger, but they are plastic so they can live outside.

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I developed a new technique. I use a 4mm thick sheet of clear acrylic the size of the front wall. The walll has its doors and window apertures cut out and then stuck to the acrylic. Doors and window frames are cut to size out of very thin styrene using my plotter cutter. I paint them and stick them to the clear acrylic.

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The hotel was a bit more involved. The columns were from a Peco OO station roof kit. The balcony railing is metal mesh, which may rust! The roof is black styrene, the tile pattern was scored by the plotter cutter, with HOTEL painted by hand. And the trim on the adjoining building was made on my mates new 3D printer.

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Edited by chris
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  • 7 months later...

Focus on Amblethorpe has kept me from playing with The Paltryville Ridge & Peak Railroad. Earlier this week I decided to leave it alone this year and postpone works until 2023.

Yesterday inspiration hit. The PR&PR is back on the to do list.

I connected up the Snicketway baseboards. I couple of issues need resolving. A loose leg required a dab of epoxy. Trains were shorting as they bridged from PR&PR to Snicket. A minute with the soldering iron switching the the red and black wires on the socket sorted that.

DCC comes from the Amblethorpe feed. I can run with iPhones and iPads through the same JMRI setup. At some point I'll create a JMRI profile specifically for it.

All locos and street cars ran straight out of the box. That was a very pleasant surprise.

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On to the Inspiration.

The PR&PR is an end to end railroad. Garden railroads lend themselves to continuous running.

With the Snicketway at one end I have a loop that trains can run on to.

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But the other end is a railroad into thin air.

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In the back of my mind there is an extension into the shed. This will require a major reorganisation of the shed. Shed improvements is a different project which i've been mulling over for half dozen years...

The new idea is a return loop. There is a 700mm wide space outside the shed (over 2m long). This is wider than the Snicketway baseboard. This means that anything that any rolling stock that can loop round the Snicketway can could navigate round a return loop outside the shed. I'll also need to squeeze a loco release siding into that space and allow for that possible extension into the shed.

The next job is to come up with a track plan.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I decided to motorise the turnouts on the PR&PR before I started work on the return loop baseboard. It turned onto one of those jobs where so many decisions had to be made, things ground along very slowly. I got two points motored before the frustration become too much and I decided to step away for a few days.

This did give me the time to realise that I have space for a return loop at the other end of the line as well. Getting a bit carried away with my thoughts, I've figured out how I can make a lift-out return loop which can connect to both the PR&PR and Snicketway. Twin return loops will enable continuous running, always a nice feature on a garden railway.

Yesterday I decided to focus. I need to crack on and do the shed loop first. Today I searched the house high and low to find all the suitable pieces of wood I could use to make a baseboard. Moving the bits round on the lawn, like a tile puzzle, I figured out which bits would go where. I then took on the task of clearing out decade of cobwebs that have accumulated on the junk I've been keeping in the corner under Amblethorpe. 

I think I've got to the point where most of the figuring out has been done. This should mean that progress is quicker. But it will now have to wait, tomorrow I'm off to Pickering for a 5 day break.

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