Fixing things

While some of us have been lucky enough to be doing 'sexy' model making, others have been back to basics.

I've been doing an hour here and there this week checking up on my early track building efforts. This involved the exciting task of going over everything with the NMRA track gauge (did I say buy one. Its a must have as far as I'm concerned now). Mostly I've found that the flange ways are either too tight or too loose, or the track is out of gauge. What i have found easier to do is to mark any areas that don't conform with a red marker pen. after I've done an area I can then go back with the soldering iron and do everything in one go, rather than a start/stop process.

Here is an example. The circles labeled 1 have flange ways that are too wide. I simply slip a 0.8mm sleeper into the gap and then carefully close it up with the application of heat. the area labeled 2 has the opposite problem, and the remedy is to slide the sleeper into the gap while applying heat to shift things out. again this works fine. Number 3 is where the gauge is too tight.

After fixing these I then remove the red marker. It has been making quite a difference to the smoothness of the running, though there is still quite a bit of clunking round in some areas. Still in terms of looks (and possibly running) it does beat the hell out of the Peco offerings. As an interesting aside I now find Peco points hideous to gauze upon. Its right up there with not painting the sides of the rails. maybe I'm just getting too snobby?

Fortunately I have been getting better at making points as I've gone along. Having now made about 30 I think I have got most of the 'kinks' out. At some point I will make some videos to show how I have done it. Maybe even the convention organisers might be interested?

There has also been a bit of work done with the paintbrush.

'I've got too many things that are red'

I've also added pickups to the rear wheels. I'm not sure if they are doing anything useful. The tensioning of these has been a bit problematic. Too little and there's no contact, too much and the wheels (and hence the whole thing) don't roll. Tests on the layout have it now moving quite well forwards under its own 'steam', but not at all in reverse. Not really a big problem.