BBC Full Steam Ahead

Thursday nights won't be the same, we have just sat down to the final episode of +Full Steam Ahead on BBC Two. We've learn't so much about how steam has shaped Britain in the 19th century and thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm of presenters Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn! The comparison made between train operations and the internet was music to my ears and I am already looking at how I can incorporate this into my lessons!

I was especially captivated by Ruth's splendid fashion sense and Peter's demanding work as fire man. All episodes recorded for future inspiration when working on our model railway scenery. For any one out of the loop the episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.

We also ordered our own copy of 'Our Railways' wall poster from the +Open University to decorate our guest room turned model railway workshop.

Cutting track with Xuron 2175b

Singing along to the Carpenters, waiting for Mr Postman to deliver the +Xuron 2175b track cutters we ordered on Amazon. Without them no further progress can be made on our track and the wait is excruciating. The parcel fit through the letter box and without hesitation the cutters were put to the test.

Attempt number one 
I measured the length of track by comparing it to an existing +Hornby Model Railways piece, marking off a line with my pencil. Cutters horizontally in line as advised by numerous experienced model railway individuals from the fare we attended in Pickering.


Yes                        

No





Tight grip, eyes shut (for extra safety precaution). The track pings of my upper lip and I realise that additional safety precautions are necessary. Out come the swimming goggles, finally seeing the light of day. I peered into the bathroom mirror through the dust ridden lenses and in my reflection an uncanny resemblance to Boris the Animal (Men In Black III). I feel a bit better about having rarely used them for swimming, perhaps they would serve me better at Halloween. I was most pleased to see my best impression receive a twitter like response from Rick Barker, the creator of this terrifying costume.

Further attempts

Seeing the potential of these rather innocent looking cutters, the goggles did not increase my confidence. The track ends were relatively easy but I found cutting though the middle a little more challenging.  Further attempts weren't as even and flush as I would have hoped. Using a steel file helped me even out the lengths and flatten the metal ends. 

Provided that the track is flush the fish plates (rail joiners) slide on relatively easy with some force and a pair of long nosed pliers purchased in +Maplin Electronics Ltd. I was at first worried about the grip on the pliers, fortunately this feature did not cause any damage to the fish plates and if anything helped secure them in place.

Cleaning Hornby track with an abrasive Peco rubber

With +Hornby Model Railways track pieces old and new we finally finished our model railway layout hooraah! We put our trusty freight locomotive to the test, only to find it stopping and jerking in several places along our track. Thinking caps on. The loco only stops on the second hand slightly grubby looking pieces of track and so the process of elimination begins. Our best friend Google suggested three possible solutions to clean up the track and raised several issues with each method:

a) solvent liquids - can damage plastic tracks

b) oil based cleaner - difficult to remove oil residues and can accumulate more dirt

c) abrasive rubber - scratches formed in the rails make future oxidisation more likely

We came to a conclusion that using rubber abrasive would solve our problem for second hand pieces of rail. To avoid scratching the metal too much or spreading the oxidisation we will use solvent based track cleaner for future track maintenance. 

Here is the result of how using a +PecoTrain  abrasive rubber helped clean up the track allowing the loco to move through the track.

Building a table for a model railway

Our aim when building a model railway table was to make it easily portable and more manageable. 

We wanted to make full use of a 244x120 plywood sheet for our table and had it cut into 4 even sections. The frame to support our plywood sheet would split into three sections and be bolted together, allowing us to dismantle it into three separate tables when necessary.



We discovered that our plywood needed better support as it collapsed at the joins. We added more support beams directly under the plywood joins.

   

The finished frame looked like this, standing 1 meter tall. We could have taken more care to keep the legs straight but overall the structure is solid.



To prevent the plywood from warping with exposure to moisture I painted it with PVA glue diluting it as instructed on the bottle.



The finished product

What we needed to build the table

• 244cm x 120cm of 9mm plywood (cut into four 60cm x120cm sections)
• 2"x4" timber frame (six 80cm sections and nine 113cm sections)

• Four 2"x4" timber legs (we chose 1 meter height) 
• Eight 2"x2" timber legs of the same height for all inside legs.

• 120mm wood screws for frame
• 90mm wood screws for legs
• 130mm M8 bolts, M8 wing nuts, M8 washers to hold the three frames together

• PVA glue to seal the plywood