Parallel Curves - Messing around with track

Well, the weather abated for a bit in recent weeks but my bad back continued with a bout of sciatica which only started to disappear about a week ago.  I still have a bit of tingling in my big toe, and the occassional pain in my hip.  I supervised Ann in digging up a Yucca that would get in the way generally - of people, access to the garage and the railway.   It has however given me an idea for an extension to work on after the initial loop.  After a weekend away I had last Monday off to get supplies in for this jubilee bank holiday weekend.  So, it was more decking boards, more blue bricks and on Saturday Ann went with me to carry home some decking planks and went to Screwfix to get me some mending plates and screws.

I have had to give up some proposed real estate though to the siting of a compost bin since I'm now becoming the chief "weeder".

As everyone in the UK knows however, after Saturday the rain started - well for us it started on late Saturday afternoon.  So, not out today much.  I have been wrestling with a problem though.  On the "ideal" circuit I have a loop with nothing smaller than LGB R3 curves, to be able to cope with all locos, and to have an "up" train and a "down" train, then the inner circuit is PIKO R3 and LGB R2.  The problem is meshing these together via points.

A friend has lent me the LGB Track Planning and Technical Guide.  I'd be looking to buy my own copy if the copies around (Amazon etc) weren't so expensive.

Reading through this though and the track planning guide diagram - which is repeated in the catalogue.  

But what this doesn't make clear,until one starts to look at it closely is that there is no connection between the blue (R3) track and the Green (R2) track.  R1 (Yellow) and R2 (Green) would appear to be designed to mesh together easily but not R2 to R3.  

I have the added difficulty of the Garage not actually being at 90 degrees, more likely 80 degrees, so coming out of the curve, then the available space narrows.  Picture and playing around with railmodeller below.  

The green rectangle is a check of parallelness between the two sets of track.  

Another day off tomorrow though, so hopefully more progress and if nothing else at least restoration of a running to be able to get the trains out if I want.  Review and analysis of another corner has suggested the need for a R3 point so I'm watching and bidding at the moment on Ebay.  

A quick look last night at something else also brought out one of the first hazards of garden railways - Snail on the track !

The Grand Plan

Following on from a hard day's navvying then I thought it was time to share the grand plan, and that "Houston we have a problem" moment....  See the two maps from Railmodeller software.

Model railways often have a bit of give and take on curves etc because the track is put together with fishplates and it moves etc.  Well, its a good job that I'm not surveying this for real.

The challenge now is to tweak this to include R3 curves (possibly) - the almost "must have" minimum circuit to avoid any big locos having problems, the buildings (platforms and stations) that I have, and to include enough operating challenges and passing loops to make it actually fun to use.

Concept sketch

What Railmodeller tells me I've got if all track is aligned perfectly. 

What I have effectively got - there is an expandable track to ensure it joins, but I haven't understood how to achieve that yet in the software. 

Bottom left corner if I go to LGB R3.  Inner curve is PIKO radius 3 (920 mm radius), Outer curve is LGB R 3 (1195 mm radius)

Top right corner if I go to LGB R3.  Inner curve is PIKO radius 3 (920 mm radius), Outer curve is LGB R 3 (1195 mm radius)

A hard day's navvying - fine detail

I promised more on the fruits of the May bank holiday and here they are.  There's some lessons learned as well.

Track supports - LGB 50612 / 50613 and 50614.  Clip together plastic track supports.   After the first day's running with the grandchildren from next door then there was the realisation that the garden was very not level, and that bits of cardboard stuck under the track weren't really a solution.  I knew that these existed but not especially cheap but surprisingly some came up on ebay or from one of the dealers, and then I tracked more cheap ones down to a shop that was heaving a clearance (I suspect getting rid of the last of its LGB stuff that had been lying around for years).  With the ability to clip them together then they are adjustable and just the sort of thing whilst I'm planning.

Here's a view of the top right (see later post with map) curve showing the LGB supports in action Add caption

Here's the top left, coming out of the flowerbed - again showing the supports.  

Here's the far side passing loops - not really big enough to take much in the way of trains but again part of planning. 

New recruit since Christmas.  I hadn't planned on getting one quite so soon, but the offer of one came at at reduced price so I took it.  I've had it chipped with the Massoth bus sound card.  

I was a bit concerned about overhangs on the route though.  The Bus has quite a pronounced verhang and there's a couple of 45 cm long coaches (pictures yet to come) that are newly acquired and which might pose problems.  What I hadn't envisaged was another problem that came up on the first circuit.  This was catching on a wooden bridge (Ebay purchase) - the ladders on the side of the bus catch the sides of bridge.  Reminds me of being a student when the bus drivers used to fold their wing mirrors in to get through the Westgate at Canterbury.   For comparison I have photographed it on the LGB Plastic girder bridge - which does have enough clearance.  

On the wooden bridge.  

On the LGB bridge.  

Front view on the wooden bridge - ladder scraping sides

Front view on the LGB bridge.

So, another lesson learned about buying stuff and using it.

A hard day's navvying: First loop

The first bank holiday in May saw me put the first loop around the garden down.  I'd also promised Ann I'd put smoke fluid into one of the locos.  My back was much, much better although Ann did lots of the actual track joining after I just put it down on the ground.

The plastic track joiners came in very useful during this exercise, as did the packs of track supports that I bought as we could vary the height to ensure a reasonable level track.   Achieved a simple loop with a couple of passing loops on the far side near the fence, and some sidings this side.  The flowerbed on the  right proved to be higher than I thought, so track coming off it couldn't go straight onto the decking boards which are up on bricks.  Likewise, the far end of the garden - which I knew was raised and rolling is on a par with the flowerbed.

Saturday - a hard day's work 

Chief finance office inspects the track. 

Wisp of smoke just about visible. 

Front view with more wisp of smoke.  

Finally - the video of the whole thing:

Curves in the Sun (Actually February 2012)

This was something I did back in February - when it was sunny and dry unlike the days we seem to have had for the last umpteen months.

The relevence of this will come out in a later post as I update the blog. Once again, it proves that nothing quite beats laying bits of track out on the real estate.    Having made the decision that I was going to go around the edge of the lawn, then I needed to kick around ideas of fitting what I had, with what land there is on the grown.  Following photos show the results.

I think this was alternating curve and straight to see what wide really meant.  Takes up too much space and not enough curvature  to come out on the back.  

 The Yucca below does get in the way somewhat.  As later planning will show, ultimately I think it is going to have to come out.   Ann's Rosemary - the brown woody thing meanwhile, now seems to have vanished.

Gravel Sidings

Not been back for a while - doesn't mean I've not been doing anything but combination of bad weather (rain and lots of it) and bad back, plus couple of weekends away have meant I've not got out in the garden.

My plans are very much for operations - rather than just watching trains.   One of the recent purchases was a couple of secondhand 3 way points.  Not something that comes up very often on ebay (these came via a shop) but from the viewpoint of making the most of space then something very much for me to consider.

One of the things I've been kicking around is a gravel siding - using the Radio Control crawler crane previously featured to load (eco friendly) chick peas into tipper trucks.   The problem therefore became two fold - access for the crawler crane to load, and sidings for the gravel train to shunt.   A recent purchase gave me three more second hand tipper trucks, so I can run two trains each of three trucks with a final rectangular truck to function as a caboose/guards wagon with a rear flashing light.  The rectangular trucks (I got two) were a very early purchase and I now realise have homemade, non standard couplings - which is presumably why I got them cheaply.

So, I played around with Rail Modeller, and then today (which has been a dryer day than before, althogh I had it off work to fix the shower/bath seal) I put some track on the ground.  The first problem was that any train that arrives at the head of a train will have to go backwards with a loaded train.  A quick call to my train loving chum satisfied me that this was in fact very normal practice.  The picture below illustrates some of the planning:
(the blue rectangle being the train, and orange/red rectangles tipper trucks).

I then came to put this on the ground, with a tweak of further sidings...

As originally put out - the three trucks to be loaded, and the shunter can turn in the end bay of the three way point. 

Overhead view - not enough clearance to get the shunter past that last truck.  It overhands the points by a little - not much, but enough to prevent an engine getting past it.   

Arrival - not enough room to get the shunter around the loop and then shunt the trucks into place on the siding.     

The garden soon gets eaten up by track.   

In conclusion, two engines working together offer up much more possibilities - as does lengthening the middle straight bits to allow more flexibility with just the one engine.   It the centre straight becomes long enough to accommodate the 3 tippers/1 small truck then one engine on its own may be able to do things.  These boards are the small 450 x 450 mm ones available from B&Q.  They have a summer special of some 500 x 600 mm boards, and the "standard" size is 600 mm square.  The wide board should offer me another track - I'd hoped to have an Engine shed and a miscellaneous siding for things like a diesel tanker or box wagon with spare parts.  It's also possible to see where the boards have stood for a length of time, and I'm beginning to wonder if something like roofing felt or preserving the bottom surfaces needs to be done.    

 

Increase in security and ground clearance

It had always been on agenda to improve security and privacy but various reports on the forums meant that progress has been made.   Ground clearance has also taken place.   The missing fence panel in the pics is for access from next door for the work to be done and will ultimately be replaced.   The Garden feels bigger and in bit there might some decking etc being put down...   The panels are 6 foot, so gives you an idea of the space to play with.