Hamdden Railway Co.

[Journeyman]

Hi Puddles, yes I’m well pleased with the casters, as well as locking the wheel the brake also locks the castor action, they are on the two front legs. Once I get some weight on the layout it’s going nowhere .
On my way home today I bought a sheet of 9mm 5ply it looks to be good quality so just waiting to pick up the track.

Dave.

[Bandit Mick]

Great start there. Wish I’d thought of casters.

[Journeyman]

Thanks Mike, I’m sure the caster idea came from somewhere on the forum.

Dave.

[Journeyman]

Bit of a hiatus on the railway but did manage to pick up the box of track.
Massive amount of all sorts!
Here they are spread out on some old boards.

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Some not magnetic but most is, mixture of Hornby, Peco and unbranded .
There is some Triang with a higher profile very chunky and robust it’s the same gauge but would need some sort of transition area to join up to the Hornby and Peco.
Lots of points, crossings, decoupling and strange things which I don’t know the purpose of!
Will sort it into brands and then into Curves, 1st 2nd and 3rd and Straits lots of deferent lengths, most of it is Set-track with just a few pieces of flex.
Have made up three emery boards, corse, medium and fine to clean the track so that will be an entertainment for a few evenings!

Dave.

[IanS]

The higher profile will be System 4 track, the others will be Series 6 or Peco equivalent.

R476 is the Hornby converter track piece. If any are included, they have fishplates on they will be on one side only at each end of the track. They're about the length of a 1/2 straight to look at although the precise length isn't the same. They're numbered on the back as R476 too.

System 4 track is often in poor condition but kept clean can be used. Older (Tri-ang or Hornby Dublo -two rail- ) locos will run on this better than the Series 6 but this only applies to 'some' locos. Other older locos work find on the newer track.

R476 track can often be found on e-bay, sometimes listed as part of a bundle and sometimes on their own.

Use of emery boards to clean track is frowned upon, perceived wisdom is that it scratches the surface and the finished result requires more cleaning than if other methods are used.

'Mr Snooze' on the UTube has a video of his method, which is long winded (as it involves taking apart and using chemicals) but his track seems to work fine once he's cleaned it.

[Journeyman]

Thanks Ian that’s useful info about System 4 will have a search and see if there is a R476 amongst the straits.
There is probably enough of the Series 6 to make this layout and I might keep the 4 to make another smaller one.
I could make up a tank and use electrolysis to clean the track but as some of it is quite pitted decided that emery boards would give me a good surface the fine is Grade 00 so I’m starting with Grade 2 then Grade 0 and finishing with 00 which if I was polishing metal would be used before I started buffing with compound or crocus paper.

Cheers, Dave.

[IanAlan]

Hi Journeyman,
You could keep the old-style Triang track separate from the newer Hornby/Peco on the layout. It would mean using another controller, but that can be fun. I've done this on my layout, and I'm pleased with the results.

[Journeyman]

Cheers Ian.
Could use the Triang in one of the sidings, looks like I have enough track for at least two layouts!
Here is were I’m at this evening, Laying the 9mm ply and fudging some 1/4" ply to fill in the gap.

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Think I’m going to build a small test track both for testing some of the non running engines and also to try out experiments with ballast and scenery.

Dave.

[Journeyman]

Having some non-runners I’ve been trying to get my head (and hands) round how to work on such small and delicate things, so far I have managed to get two of them running .
The main layout is a long way from being ready to run locos so I decided to make a test track first thing was to just solder two leads on to a strait, that proved they did run but it was hard to make a valid test on a bit of lose track so that evolved in to glueing multiple straits down on a piece of scrap board.

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This was also an opportunity to try out soldering up the wiring.

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Then decided it was a good time to start experimenting with scenery using what ever was laying about the workshop. Ballasting will be sawdust, scenery a combination of Oak Bark and rotten wood for rocks, carved stone walls from mahogany the whole interlaced with paper against a back drop using an old stick board.

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Any feedback and advise will be much appreciated,

[IanS]

As you're using this to experiment and test things out as well as learn new skills, maybe inserting one point would be useful. This will give the opportunity to practice wiring up points, installing point motors and test locos over points. Some older locos don't like newer points because of their deeper flanges. You could use your test track to find out which locos you have that have a problem before you spend a lot of time (or money) on getting them weathered etc if they're not going to run on Series 6 track over points.