Further to my earlier post re the layout, I just thought it would be good to update everyone on the situation.
The six wear worn point have been removed and replaced with four points and two transit curves from the warm up areas to the main lines. It was discussed and thought that the points deleted were not wholly necessary and caused more grief than they were worth so we now have a smooth transition from the ’coaling and firing‘ positions.
A gaggle of large fine scale points along with code 100 and code 75 Flexitrack is par for the course..!
As you can see, the end result is a better solution for the deployment of locos to the main line.
All new points have been laid on fresh 3mm cork bedding, being stuck down only with Copydex adhesive and all the cork work has been trimmed and bevelled were possible.
The point control mechanisms had shown some wear and tear and in some cases started to deconstruct themselves so this has been rectified too.
As the inner loop siding point has now been deleted, a space has been made available for some extra storage of resting locos, so some extra track has been laid to accommodate this.
All the inner Workings of the sections have been checked and due to a robust initial installation, all wire work is all tickety boo!
All track has been cleaned and rail heads polished with 2000 grade wet and dry paper to provide a super smooth transition over all points and joints
My next task is the replacement of the front public track work which is very worse for wear and will improve the appearance and operation on the front of layout.
back soon with the final tale.
One late point worth mentioning are the Triangle shelves for the Pylon supports.
Out of a total of 30 shelves, 26 had some measure of breakage to the slim wooden locking tabs which are only glued onto the underside of the shelves.
This damage is caused by lifting the shelves from the front edge introducing an angle to an existing angle which in turn, causes a fulcrum effect to the locking tabs and breaks the glue joint, thus compromising the layouts strength when set up at a show.
Can I please stress that when the shelves are removed from the pylons at breakdown that the complete shelf should only be lifted vertically in a flat plane by tapping with knuckles GENTLY in the MIDDLE of the underside of each shelf. This will enable the shelf to pop up without putting undue strain on the locking tabs and causing joint failure and structural integrity. Also taking a little time to dismantle will go a long way to avoiding the above senario.
(Steps down from soap box!)