Would you believe that its a year to the day since I last mentioned my experiences with the Wills point rodding components?
http://radnorailways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Point%20Rodding Since then I've finished the installation apart from the FPL fouling bars as I've yet to decided on a method of modelling them, in fact I might leave them out and assume that the locking was achieved by track circuits, in which case 'Economical facing point locks' (EFPL's) would have been used. Had I been using scale components of the type produced by both MSE and Brassmasters then the fouling bars would have been soldered up from brass wire and strip but they would look wrong when mixed with the larger Wills plastic components. Don't get me wrong as I've not given up but am merely experimenting with a few ideas, whether they work or not will be open to question?
Anyway moving on, I carefully refined the Wills components as so.........
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| I trimmed the rods down by running a new curved scalpel blade along all four sides and then finished them off with nail boards and fine wet and dry paper, introducing a gentle taper towards the top in the process. I also ran the knife blade along the edges of all the other components in an attempt to reduce their size as much as possible. The styrene reinforcement pieces were filed down once set and also tapered along their edges. It took me around twenty minutes to prepare each piece, at first I suffered a few breakages until I got a feel for the job. I've included an MSE stool casting in the photo so you can compare them with the Wills components. Was it worth refining the parts? - well I like to think so. |
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| Purist please look away now as the art of compromise has been practised yet again :-) Here we have the final bits and pieces being added prior to the last section of track being ballasted. Its far easier to lay all the rodding before ballasting otherwise its difficult to set everything up level, once the ballast has set around the bases the whole installation becomes very secure. |
Up until now I have stopped short of posting any photos of the track directly in front of the signal box and there was a good reason for that. To put it simply I mislaid my stock of Carr's ash ballast and didn't fancy buying fresh supplies if I could avoid it. So I decided to wait until the point above had been ballasted and the rodding painted before posting any photos. Fortunately the missing ballast turned up last week when we dug out the Christmas decorations, yeah, well, don't ask :-) So I got cracking, completed the job, then painted the rodding with Precision paints weathered wood enamel.
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| Now for a quick word about the job we all love to hate, ballasting. I've been using Carr's ash ballast for some years now, on Penhydd I brushed neat PVA between each sleeper and then tamped it in place but on Llangunllo and at the suggestion of Jim Smith-Wright I applied the ballast loose and then touched the edges of it with brush loads of 'Johnsons Kleer'. I must admit I was a little dubious but the 'Kleer' was quickly drawn into the ballast by capillary action, making light work of what can be a real chore, cheers Jim. |
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| Twenty four hours later the ballast had dried out to a more natural colour and I weathered the rodding and cranks by dry brushing them with Humbrol dark earth until I was happy with their appearance. Using the Wills components is not a cheap option and to model this small length from the level crossing to the trap point I needed two packs. This was because there are only two compensator's in each pack and I needed three, I also ran out of medium downset drives and small base plates for the cranks. Two other things to bear in mind are the amount of time and patience required when assembling the parts and that applies whether you thin them down as I did or use them as intended. |
The other options for point rodding in 4mm scale are to use the almost scale castings and etches from MSE or Brassmasters. I used the former on Penhydd but could hardly see my handiwork once it was in place on the layout and painted.
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| Here we have some MSE components left over from Penhydd, whilst the etch of cranks, pulleys and base plates is fine I think I would use the Brassmasters etched stools rather than the castings shown above. |
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| With the ballast and rodding in place I was able to start work on the cottage and signal box area. First of all some fencing was glued into pre drilled holes in the baseboard, I used a section of Ratio GWR station fencing salvaged from Penhydd, it will eventually be extended around the side of the cottage then painted and weathered as I see fit. A small shed for the cottage garden has been constructed from styrene and a wooden walkway has been built from sleeper strip to cover the point rodding in front of the signal box. |
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| I'm not a fan of helicopter views but they do have their uses, the rodding is far from perfect but at least it can be seen and I'm happy with the results which is all that matters. |
No doubt the Wills components could be used as intended with Peco or other similar track systems but I feel that it pays to modify them. More information on the subject of point rodding can be found in MRJ No's 113 & 115 in which Steve Hall gives an interesting account of both the prototype and modelling it.
