Ideas sought for a couple of track issues

[darrene]

Well, off the back of Andys thread, I thought I'd post something Gauge One related

I'm hopeful the collective genius of MECH may come up with some cunning engineering ideas.

Having been granted permission to use the side garden, I built an elevated layout with my son last summer. It was G scale at the time and he adores running his Thomas around it, which I've converted to battery RC. We also have an RC prop-driven thing just for laughs. I prefer to run my K27 which although battery RC, I've tweaked to have main and cylinder drain 'steam' along with a servo controlled reversing lever and rear coupler. I'll post a few videos of the locos if there's any interest.

Back to the issue in hand!

I have since pulled up all of the commercial G scale track in order to make use of the much more charismatic wooden sleepered, handmade Gauge One track and pointwork I had stored away. It seemed a travesty not to use it.

The sleepers are mounted on a pair of wooden battenswhich vary in thickness between the track sections. I need to standardise this in order to connect them.

The options I've come up with so far;

1) Plane everything down to the height of the thinnest batten - a non starter I think, as they're pinned to the sleepers

2) use packing strips to being everything up to the height of the thickest batten

3) Remove all battens and replace

My other issue is that some are set in a radius. Many of which I need to straighten. The only way I can see to do this is to cut or remove and replace the batten on the inside of the radius, allowing me to straighten it.

The common denominator seems to be removing the battens. Does anyone have any other options to address either issue?

Darren

[barlowworks]

Hi Darren
As I see your options, if you plane the battens you may ruin the planer blades on any pins or screws in the timber. If you remove the battens there is a risk of damaging the sleepers and chairs so, for me, the option would be to pack up the sections that are a problem. If you are putting down any ballast it won’t be seen anyway. As for the curved sections, I would remove the battens, salvage what you can and start from fresh. Just my two pennyworth but that’s what I would do. Please let us know how you go on and I would love to hear about your loco, it sounds fascinating.

Mike

[darrene]

Mar 27, 2021 11:12:29 GMT barlowworks said:

Hi Darren
As I see your options, if you plane the battens you may ruin the planer blades on any pins or screws in the timber. If you remove the battens there is a risk of damaging the sleepers and chairs so, for me, the option would be to pack up the sections that are a problem. If you are putting down any ballast it won’t be seen anyway. As for the curved sections, I would remove the battens, salvage what you can and start from fresh. Just my two pennyworth but that’s what I would do. Please let us know how you go on and I would love to hear about your loco, it sounds fascinating.

Mike

Hey Mike, Thanks very much  for the suggestions. It definitely helps to get another perspective.

Agreed. the batten pins really preclude any planing or sanding. I did wonder if I could accomodate the different batten heights through the use of ballast in fact....it'd mean putting some sides on the Hardiebacker baseboards to hold it but I could perhaps then 'float' the track sections in that?

I prefer your idea of using packers to work with what I have otherwise - it seems a better approach than the risk introduced by taking straight sections apart.

Likewise for the curves, I think I'll have to bite the bullet and pull the battens off and see how it goes. Gentle prising seems to be working on the test piece I tried. I'll see how I get on!

Here are some photos and videos of the various locos.

Test run of a cheap little Hogwarts Express which I tried quickly bashing into a GWR Mogul

Roundhouse SRRL gas fired loco which I've tried adding a fair bit of detail to

I also thought it would be interesting to get a thermal video of it whilst it was in steam

My battery RC conversion of a Shay and a Climax. I particularly like these locos as they're interesting to watch mechanically

Lastly, here's the K27 testing

[barlowworks]

Some very nice models there Darren. Are they DCC..

Mike

[darrene]

Many thanks Mike,
Yes indeed. The last three use a Revolution TX/RX control system which is DCC-capable to send commands to ESU DCC decoders in the locos
The GWR Mogul uses a Railpro TX/RX system which isn't DCC but does allow programmability of sound and light outputs.

The other live steamer I have is a Mikado which used to use an antiquated AM radio control system. I've converted that to a 2.4GHz system. Again, being gas fired, there's no blower to worry about. Just regulator and reverser.
At this scale, steam whistles tend to sound very aenemic I think, so I fitted that with an authentic MP3 whistle sound, triggered through a spare third channel on the radio. The Mikado is an interesting live steam implementation. It was the only loco I know which uses a thermoplastic boiler shell on top of a steam boiler - something a lot of folks seem to struggle to get their heads around It also has a safety that vents beneath the loco. Predominantly as a safety feature for novice owners but which also adds a bit of interest when running. The lubricator is a displacement type which is cunningly hidden as an air tank beneath the running boards.

[iant]

Personally Darren, I think I'd replace the batons if you can do so without too much damage. You will end up with better laid & better looking track.

To straighten the curved track, best route would be to remove the rail and straighten it with rail rollers but the chairs look to be white metal castings (?) and are probably quite fragile now (and will be easily damaged as you remove the track pins) - so you may have to leave the track assembled and do the best you can. I don't know if you can still get separate G1 track components like this any more - most folk have gone over to plastic sleeper/chairs these days.

All my (Gauge 3) track is built from scratch with white metal chairs and brass bullhead rail by the way - also unusual in G3 these days.

Regards,

IanT

[darrene]

Many thanks Ian!
I think batten removal is likely to end up being the case for most of it anyway; the vast proportion of track seems to be large radius curves, so the straightening is definitely going to be a lot of the sections. I believe chairs are still available through the G1MRA, although I've amassed a fair collection of spares so should be okay from in that respect.

I went through the track sections, reconditioning them when I first got them and so removed a few sections of rail then. It seems to be something of a mixed bag but on the whole, any chair breakages were extremely low. Perhaps I was lucky...

[overner]

An interesting collection there Darren and a good application of electronic engineering. This thread so much easier to read than on FB too ..
I am afraid I have nothing to add regarding your track issues but keep the posts coming ..

Andy

[darrene]

Thanks Andy!
Thanks too, for jogging me for an update.
The track is been de-battened and is now getting re-battened. It's a slow process but at least there is one, so I should be able to re-lay it soon

The Aristocraft Mikado has had it's first steaming under my ownership. It ran beautifully but I noted the pressure gauge under-reading. I don't think it's efficient enough to run at 10psi somehow!

Darren