Atlantic's works: Portable layout update

[Woodcock29]

Looking good Graeme.
Andrew

[Mercator II]

Great update Graeme, moving along nicely

Must arrange for a meet up soon

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm hoping to test-assemble the full set of boards some time within the next few weeks. That might be a good time to meet up Brian. Could be close to the time of the Immingham show too. Speaking of which, I now have the perfect excuse to post this:

[Dave]

Layout is looking good.

Nice to meet up at York and thank you for the buffers. Did you talk to Sir and mention lining.

[Atlantic 3279]

Of course, as well as mentioning his remarkable failure to respond with "sex and travel"...

[Atlantic 3279]

A "breeding pair" of fiddle yard approach quadrants now.

I'm glad that bit is over. It involved plenty of lifting, bending, leaning over or twisting to reach, crouching down to work, having to be very careful about setting things out, and wondering whether it was actually going to work out full size when it had only existed previously as a 1/8th size plan, with the associated limitations on accuracy. Had the weather behaved more nicely, I could have done the work with better access and comfort either outside or in the garage...

[Mercator II]

I'm hoping to test-assemble the full set of boards some time within the next few weeks. That might be a good time to meet up Brian. Could be close to the time of the Immingham show too. Speaking of which, I now have the perfect excuse to post this:

File1847.jpg

Sounds like a plan, I'll drop u a DM

[Atlantic 3279]

More progress today, after force-mowing the relentlessly growing, monsoon encouraged, ultra-lush lawn:

The newest boards were temporarily braced in position with track levels lined up with those of the adjoining scenic boards so that accurate pilot holes for the eventual board-to-board fixings could be drilled. With that done, and simple screws inserted for the time being, the two curved ends of the "irregular oval" of the final layout looked like this;

You'll notice that a couple of pieces of track are missing from one of the assemblies. I'd run out of handy off-cuts of track long enough to fill those gaps using a single piece, so I'm waiting to see whether some suitable pieces are left over when I do the straight portions of the fiddle yard. I see no reason to cut into fully intact yard lengths at this stage.

I mentioned previously the framing I had added to the new fiddle yard curved tops. I had made the tops from 6mm hardwood ply, bought from a local independent merchant, a little thicker than last year's allegedly "5mm" (actually under 4.5mm when I measured it) stuff from B & Q that I'd used on the curved scenic boards. I wanted the thicker material for the fiddle yard curves because I knew that I would have no need to cut and manipulate it to produce cuttings and embankments, so I hoped that the extra thickness would allow me to get away with less bracing underneath. The bracing was provided by frames made from strips of 9mm hard ply, two and three quarter inches wide. Corners were braced by short pieces of 34 x 34mm PSE, screwed + pinned + glued. I did consider using curved framing for the outer edges - I'd done that on the scenic corner sections, in that case achieved by laminating two strips of the thinner ply - but I couldn't persuade the 9mm ply to bend sufficiently. My second choice was to just use straight framing, and rely on (or hope that) the strength and true flatness of the 6mm tops would allow me to leave the overhanging outer edge unsupported. Annoyingly, once I'd got that straight framing in place, with the tops thoroughly glued and pinned down, it was very obvious that the outside edge of the "flat" ply that I had hoped for was actually wavy in areas that would have to carry track. I therefore had to add the additional pieces that create the kite-shaped framework seen in the image below.

In anticipation of the imminent need to test my ability to pack the full set of baseboards into our current cars, in such a way as to arrive at a destination un-damaged and easy to extract, I've also done a trial (for a single pair of boards) of my intended method of boxing them together, top-to-top, using removable end boards. So far, so good.

[Chas Levin]

Looking very impressive! Are you yet having to stand on a chair to get sufficient height for the sections to be in frame?

[Atlantic 3279]

Not quite yet - so long as they are on the floor.

[Atlantic 3279]

I've now borrowed the lounge for about 24 hours to try out the full assembly and get rid of any nagging worries that it might not all go together. To my relief, with that final pair of bare, repurposed boards just added, the ends fairly willingly met up "squarely".

[Chas Levin]

Superb: I'd lose the two armchairs though, just have the sofa in the middle - prime position. That's all set now - lovely!

[Dave S]

I'd be more in favour of a swivel chair in the middle, preferably one that doesn't unscrew if you keep going in one direction.

[Woodcock29]

Looking great Graeme
Andrew (currently in Belfast)

[Atlantic 3279]

I'd be more in favour of a swivel chair in the middle, preferably one that doesn't unscrew if you keep going in one direction.

Beware of the swivel chair that seems to rise if you keep going anti-clockwise?