WEST ORTON

[Steve M]

Great progress Steve - it really is looking very neat and tidy. If you try Google Images "round point rodding" it does appear to have been used on the GWR.

Yes Barry, I have seen that along with comments along the theme of “round rodding was widely used pre-grouping, but was gradually changed to square after that.”

I hope that by the end of the week I will have a couple of mock ups ready to see what it looks like. I can quite easily get plastic square rod but that is a challenge to bend into drop links hence the preference for brass. Plus I can solder that to the cranks.

Puddles, having just put in some common wires my ‘birds nest spaghetti’ has returned.

[Brian]

<snip>
Looking back at prototypical practice, pretty much everything I have ever seen is square although I believe round rods were used in the very early part of the the last century.

But will it look right?

Round rod style of point rodding can still be found on Network Rail infrastructure today. Its only replaced with U shaped channel rodding when a rod run needs repair or upgrading. Though its use is becoming far less with signalling upgrades where electrically powered point operation is employed.

[Steve M]

Thanks Brian, that’s very useful. At least now it’s just about how it will look cosmetically rather than fall foul of any stray rivet counters.

[Steve M]

I fitted twelve Gaugemaster autofrog modules this afternoon, freeing up the switches in the point motors for the mimic board. That was straightforward enough so I thought I would just check that the point switches, lights and the points themselves, were all doing what they should.
Three failed point motors later and a couple of extra LEDs fitted I was just left with sorting out the lights for the slip.
It took a long time for me to realise or remember that the left hand motor determines the exit tracks on the right.
That’s an hour of my life I won’t get back.

[RogerB]

Double slip eh? Tricky blighters. R-

[Steve M]

Double slip eh? Tricky blighters. R-

Only a single in this case. A double would have had me commit ritual suicide with a soldering iron.

[Steve M]

The mimic board and point motors are all working as they are meant to, so it’s on to wiring of a different kind.

Point rodding!

I’ve been collecting various bits and pieces this week and have put together a kit of parts that should give a reasonable representation of the real thing. I could have used a number of Wills kits although their rodding is horribly over scale so instead I have around 100 rodding chairs from Wizard Models, and etched brass cranks from Roxey Mouldings. The rods themselves are a challenge. Ideally they should be square in section but square section Rod is not easy to find.

I do have a length of 0.6mm square section steel wire which is actually used to cut through the adhesive when removing car windscreens. Probably won’t use it for this as it’s a bit springy and slightly curved but useful to have in the box. Instead I have a significant amount of 0.5mm brass wire.

Not entirely sure how this will work (or even if it will work at all) but the plan is to fix the signalbox to a thin ply base and plan out the locations for the cranks. Then pre-drill holes for small brass pins to be put in at the pivot point for each crank.
Then I’ll bend each wire to shape and glue it into the chairs and solder it at the crank pin. Finally I will glue the crank in place on top of the wire - purely cosmetic.

And then there is the matter of threading my way around that junction!

2021-05-28_02-15-12 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

20210528_140306 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Steve M]

I made a start on the rodding as it leaves the signalbox. Hampered a little by the brass pins I ordered actually being brass plated steel - not as advertised - which is making the soldering more difficult than it need be.

First step was to roughly mark out where the lateral rods would be and set a couple of chairs into place on the plywood base.

20210529_102754 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Once I’d calculated where the pivots would sit, I glued the base plates then drilled a 1mm hole for the pins which had had the heads removed. Then each rod is bent to a suitable shape to include the 90 degree horizontal turn and a 30 degree up or down kink to allow rods to pass over another.
The rod is soldered to the pin then either pushed, glued or soldered (haven’t decided which works best) into its slot in the chair.
Finally a cosmetic crank is glued onto the bent rod to cover the pivot.

20210529_135021 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Walkingthedog]

Well done Steve.

[Steve M]

I settled on soldering the wire sizes to the rodding chairs (only melted one by accident) then glueing the cosmetic cranks to the wires.
I also trimmed the thin base to match the layout of the rods which should make it easier to blend into the baseboard once it is stuck down.
The rods lead either to the points on the line nearest the signalbox or gaps in the sleepers. The next stage is to layout the routes around the junction and start bending wire and threading them under the rails.
At least I have managed to source some proper brass pins for that job.

20210531_163741 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

20210531_163810 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr