 |  1/4 inch scale narrow gauge |
April, 2009
Getting the stuff
19 April, 2009
Sourcing items needed for various parts of a model railroad has never been easy here. Especially when what I'm doing is a bit out of the ordinary. Holding foamboard modules together is not the same as if I was using wood. I want to keep the weight down and at the same time, minimize any possible damage points.
I had considered using rare earth magnets to keep the units together, but it was the thought of, "how on earth will I take it apart without breaking anything?" - that turned me off these. So the next idea was to use telescoping plastic tubing. It took a week to find plastic tubing that will telescope, even then I'm going to have to line the inner one about a mil, so I have a perfect fit. Next I wanted to find nylon bolts or threaded rods with nuts to hold it tight.
For those who live outside England, consider yourselves fortunate. You can get the items needed with relative ease (I know, I've done it). In the UK the exact opposite applies. You have to spend hours, days or weeks (in most cases) trying to find what you want and also have to maneuver the usual barrage of lies told to you by British businesses - how pathetically sad these people have become since the 1960's. Whatever happened to the truth.
I gave up phoning these morons and some hours later found some on the web. Samples are being sent to me. I'll check these out to make sure everything is okay and let you know how to get them. If this supplier can be trusted, then I'll put up a link to them. If not - maybe I need a rogues gallery on the site......
Even though this is major hassle, I am saving myself a lot of weight. I reckon the base unit and track/scenery supports in wood would probably be over 30lbs in weight - so far it's 6lb 4ozs.
Also I have begun collecting my scenic material. I've got a lot of different colored dirts to add to my collection of ground foams (Woodland Scenics and Carr's). Next will be an expedition to get roots, especially tree roots - if I can find an uprooted tree anywhere. Most of my old stock of stuff is long gone. Track ballast will be to a minimum as the Peco track is going to have those awful ties hidden - I just want to get this up and running soon (next time I build my own trackwork).
Next time you say Ted? Yes. The whole thing is convertible. Sort of Bauhaus* effect. 3 units make the base with another three units for the track/scenery. The top parts will be detachable with the insides of scenery (like hills) being coated with fiberglass resin to make them less breakable. All I do is swap the tops and I have a different layout.
* Bauhaus was a community of artists, architects and engineers in pre-Hitler Germany. They came up with the concept of modularization. Hitler started killing them, the rest escaped to the States and other countries.
posted on: 11:04