Project 20 - 0 Gauge Layout - Part 11

An 0 gauge scale drawing of a Southern Railway rail built buffer stop appeared in the April 1972 issue of Model Railways magazine.

I considered 3D printing the whole thing but as I had rail off-cuts from track construction then these are more prototypical and were used instead. In fact nearly all the off-cuts were put to use here.

I found fixing the rails together quite difficult and fiddly. First I tried Superglue but it was not strong enough. Soldering worked well but getting all the parts to align was troublesome and of course heating one part caused solder joints on others close by to fail. Judicious use of metal clips as heat-sinks helped to preserve previously made joints

The buffer beam is 3D printed.

The model was sprayed with Halfords grey primer. Rivets were then applied using acrylic matte medium on the end of a cocktail stick. Brushed acrylic paint provided the colours and pastel scrapes were dry brushed on for a bit of weathering.

There are two sidings that need buffer stops. For a buffer stop at the other siding I am thinking of using a cut down wagon permanently fixed to the track to give the impression the track goes beyond the end of the scenic section.


To Part 1.

Project 20 - 0 Gauge Layout - Part 10

The first fiddle yard has been built comprising an open wooden frame and wooden cassette. The cassette is recycled from a previous layout and another two need to be made. One cassette will be for a  fiddle yard at the other end of the layout.

Each cassette can accommodate one diesel loco and two wagons or a small tank engine and four wagons.

The two outer tracks on the scenic section can connect to the cassette(s).The middle track is a dead end siding. Power connects to the end of a cassette track rails by crocodile clips.

So far I have not had to deploy electrical connectors and cables between boards. Electrical connectivity uses the metal hinges between boards and  'sliding wire in tube' at the fiddle yard cassette join. The latter also provides track alignment.

When I soldered the tubes to the rails of the scenic section I failed to set them all identically. Consequently a cassette could only join to one track. This was remedied easier than expected by adjusting position of existing ones on the scenic board, where possible or remaking them.

Now I must spend time operating the layout to check track is reliable before embedding the rails in tarmac and continuing with scenic work.

To Part 11.

To Part 1. 

COVID-19 Impact

This is the first year in 10 that my son, grandson and myself have not visited the Basingstoke & North Hants Model Railway Society exhibition. This saddens me because it has been an annual event for my grandson who has visited the show with us since his first year of birth (now 10 years of age). It also saddens me because if others have taken the same decision as us then attendance figures will be poor. I just hope the club covers its costs for the two-day show.

The show is usually very crowded with people in an enclosed environment cheek to joul. We just felt it was too much of a risk of infection as the new virus epidemic is due to go exponential in the UK. Having just viewed an enthusiast's video of the exhibits on YouTube he made the comment that it is the quietest Basingstoke show he has known, i.e. fewer people attending than normal.

So as not to be too disappointed I staged my own event in my railway room for my family, much to the delight of three grandchildren and fathers.

Stay well.