First rail is critical for Pembroke turntable

Tonight I finally started laying rail for the turntable. As with the staging yard turntable before it, the sequence of rails is carefully planned. Unlike last time, it’s only in my head — something I may regret. Tonight I glued down one end of the turntable rails themselves, as well as the near rail of […]

Cinders not quite right on Pembroke roundhouse tracks

Last night I glued down ballast for the tracks around the turntable. Now engine service areas are often ballasted with cinders from the engines, but I assume that it takes a little while for these to accumulate. After six years, would they have had enough to cover the area? I didn’t know, so I mixed […]

Joint bars at the limit of 3D printing

VanRail 2015 took up the whole weekend, and so, nothing much happened with Pembroke. I received a some test joint bars from Shapeways on the Friday. This made for some fun times as I handed them to people and made them guess what they were looking at. Packed together to minimize material usage, they look […]

Six-year old turntable ties require delicate staining

I got up early this morning to do a little sanding on the ties around the turntable. It turned out that the edge timbers were particularly proud – on one side, they lost about .010″ (.25mm). There is still a step of about the same to get on one end of the turntable. I think, […]

Wood screws not to be trusted for Pembroke turntable realignment

Just once, I wish something would go easily! I installed the turntable in its pit the other day, and the observant among you may have noticed something is not quite right with the vertical alignment. It’s more than I can easily correct with sanding, but fortunately, the reason was easy to diagnose: the wheels were […]

Let a decorator choose the fascia colour?

I spent yesterday painting the garage. At one point, I had a roller full of primer, and so, I went about the house looking for things that needed to be primed. The fascia has been waiting for just such a moment since Andrew and I installed it seven months ago. So, I quickly spread out […]

Turntable and roundhouse requires handlaid track

Over the last couple of evenings, I’ve put in the ties and timbers for the tracks around the turntable and into the roundhouse. It’s hard to imagine how you would achieve this without handlaying the track. Mercifully, for most of us, it’s all just plain track – no turnouts – and so, relatively straightforward. Handlaying […]

Timbers at turntable edge should overlap

I had been wondering how to deal with the rather tight curvature of the timbers at the edge of the turntable pit. In my head, they were ties, with a scallop cut into them. That could work for the two outer tracks, but what about the middle track? It either gets no tie at the […]

Roundhouse doors may be too close for magnets

It’s been a rainy weekend here in Vancouver – at last! The kids and I spent a lazy afternoon raking through the Lego. They’re working on some very inventive cars, and I’m plugging away at mocking up the mechanism for the roundhouse doors. I foolishly went out into yesterday’s storm to get some magnets at Lee […]

Roundhouse pits should be oversize in baseboards

What was I thinking when I routed out the inspections pits in the baseboard? I made them just slightly over 4′ wide, which is the correct width. However, I left almost no space for a veneer of any sort. The result was that I was forced into making concrete pits with .010″ thick walls. Following […]