Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Tracks of my Tears

Well, the track laying is going sloooowly as I'm now spiking the rails down after gluing with Pliobond. It's driving me crayzee I must admit so it better be worth the effort. The bullhead rail and chairs arrived so I've put all the chairs on the rails ready for gluing. The rail is code 75 and the chairs are 4mm but the ballast will come up to about half way up the rail so the scale and rail size shouldn't be noticeable. This will be installed as Hill Top's loop. I also purchased some Uneek point rodding, adjusters and balancers which unfortunately, were not what I expected. The rodding and rodding chairs are OK but the adjusters and balancers are cast in relief so they won't be making it onto the layout. Instead, I ordered some etched 4mm parts from the guys at Wizard so we'll see how they look. Hopefully, the scale won't be too noticeable. There's a lesson here.....never, ever procrastinate when buying stuff. I was about to buy the rodding and ancillaries from IR Models when Ian shut down the business. Damn!! Hence the search now for suitable replacements. With a bit of luck, Ian will find a new owner for his etches and I'll be able to get what I need. God knows what I'm going to do for signals if this doesn't happen.
In the meantime, to keep myself from going mental, I built some backdrops for the layout out of 3mm ply. Here's how it looks

Near the roller Doors

The Other end

I've also ordered some Kadee uncoupler magnets for when I finally get to install the track and points. That is if I don't lose my mind in the meantime.

6 comments:

  1. Hello,

    this is the kind of pictures i like !!!the promiss of beautifull layout .

    best regard

    pascal

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  2. Rob, when you ordered from wizard, did you do it through their site or phone them up. I'm having no luck being able to complete a purchase on line. BTW I love the height of the baseboards and backdrop. You will be well 'into' the scene when it's completed.

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  3. Thanks Pascal, I hope the layout lives up to expectations

    Cheers,
    Rob

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  4. Hi Geoff,
    That's weird that you're having trouble with Wizard. I've done all my ordering online and have had no problems. Where abouts is it failing for you? You could try emailing Andrew at Wizard as well, his email address is on the home page down the left hand corner. And thanks for the kind comments on the benchwork. Cheers,
    Rob

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  5. Well Rob I discovered just where I was going wrong, using an Apple obviously does not agree with the website, lucky for me there's another Non-apple computer in the train room. So, all ordered and on the way! By the way I saw the photos in the latest AMRM and your models are a real credit to you! Great stuff, Geoff

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  6. Geoff,
    Glad you worked out the Wizard ordering problems, they're really good to deal with in my experience. And thanks for the compliments, I was amazed that they made it into the magazine in the first place. I feel very privileged.

    Cheers,
    Rob

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