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Saturday 22 July 2017

Project 17 - Support Frame

Not quite what I had in mind. I wanted a lightweight folding frame that is open beneath the scenic module with lightweight boards at each end to support storage cassette fiddle yards. What I ended up with is essentially a fully blown baseboard upon which a full length model railway could be built! Whilst it could be supported on legs or trestles, I intend to simply lay it across a table for running sessions.

To save on expenditure I was determined to use up some of my spare stock of wood. The softwood frame is as planned, hinged with two butt hinges so it can be folded for storage. The two end boards are quarter inch plywood and therein lies the problem. They are too heavy causing the frame to bend at the hinges when placed on a short table. To spread the load I also boarded the middle open frame. It now bends less but needs long, loose beams under the length to keep it flat.

The scenic module is a slice of railway line not a dead end and therefore requires fiddle yards at each end. Each end board is long enough to hold a train of two MK1 passenger coaches with tender locomotive, ample for the two coach push pull train with M7 tank locomotive common at Swanage in the early 1960s. It turns this 00 gauge micro layout into a model railway nearly 3 metres long, which kind of defeats the object of a compact model railway!

To Part 24.

To Part 1.  






2 comments:

Maria Flores said...

This is actually quite perfect for those who wants to keep their toy trains and tracks neat and organized. It is more like a mobile layout where you can store at anytime you do not intend on using it. Nice wood working skills also! Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing!

David Smith said...

Thank you for your encouragement - much appreciated. Some modellers may take exception to your toy train reference. The model trains are scale replicas of the prototype with such high level of detail they would not last long in the hands of those who play with toys. This could open a debate about railway modelling as a sound adult recreation. My opening statement at the very top of this Blog page probably says it all.

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