News from the Wheeler Model Railway
Point 14 (which used to be Point 51) is the only point on the Narrow Gauge track, and until today was the only one still driven by a solenoid type point motor.
With some trimming, I’ve managed to fit the same type of point motor that’s used on the rest of the layout. This was an interesting challenge as there is limited accessibility under this part of the layout!
You can just see the thick wire heading to the underside of the layout; it’s this that moves the point.
Finally, after a wait of nearly 5 years, I’ve been able to buy a sensible ready to run loco for the narrow gauge track. This is a Bachman Baldwin, or more precisely, a “Baldwin Class 10-12-D 4-6-0T in Welsh Highland Railway Black”.
It’s the correct scale for a narrow gauge loco, but looks very small compared to the standard gauge wagons behind.
It’s also a bit bigger than my previous narrow gauge locos, so there will need to be a bit of track adjustment to come…
More new houses have been built to complete the Halt Village rebuild. Again, these are made using laser printed sheets, cardboard and glue.
This area will need some finishing off, and chimneys have yet to be added to these buildings, but at least the basics are now done.
Next job will be to sort out the level crossing and the roads.
The houses and shops in the village have been rebuilt:
The chimneys have yet to be fitted, and the surroundings will need tidying up once that area has been reconstructed…
For reference, this was the same area before:
I needed to accurately measure the edges for new platforms for our club model railway layout, so I updated my earlier design of track tracer:
The lower wooden block is grooved so that it accurately tracks the rail line; the pencil lead (with a weight on top to provide pressure) draws a line on the plasticard in order to cut it to match the track.
These are the platforms constructed using the tracer:
Each platform is around nine feet long and split over three boards. The platform edges are commercially available plastic mouldings.
The Goods Shed needed a new platform, so the project for this week has been to construct one:
A new goods shed and office has been built for the goods yard, replacing the old “Metcalfe” shed.
I’ll probably add an outside platform on the left hand edge of the shed in due course.
Finally, the halt platforms and surrounding area has been (largely) finished.
A couple of lamps have been added to the platforms.
Looking at this photos, I really must get around to finishing the backscenes on the wall properly!
After that, the next task will be the level crossing…
It was too cold to do gardening this weekend, so, finally, the halt station platforms were rebuilt.
The waiting shelters were ‘recycled’ from the previous station. As you can see, the surrounding area will need finishing off.
Very gradually, the track from the halt to the country end of the layout has been ballasted.
The area in front of the warehouses also needed a bit of tidying up (there used to be a short siding there). This will need a bit of weathering at some stage to match the new and old!
Some more grass was also needed in front of the houses by the country station:
The canal area has also been tidied up:
