Monthly Archives: May 2015
Tracklaying Commences
Definite progress was made with Glenmutchkin over the last 10 days, in that the first portions of trackwork have been laid. At last, it is an embryonic layout!
This was started at the two platform faces as in practise this is one of the major setting out points. This is because it is about the only straight bit of track on the layout and also because the platform needs to sit on top of the most substantial baseboard joint on the boards – where the front and back boards abut. The platform will be a separate element of construction and will bolt over the joint, hence hiding it from view.
The scrap tak is seen here sitting in the branch bay. The branch bay platform face is to its full length, the main line platform face still needs to continue for 500mm – into the trainshed which presently can only be imagined!
Now that the first few bits of track have been laid, a sense of scale starts to become apparent. Not for me the “model to the railway boundary only” approach – I am very definitely attempting to portray the railway in its setting.
The other major setting out point for the layout is the link into the engine shed; which is a single slip from the main line and a cross-over from the main run-around loop. The baseboard joint is mid-way through the crossover, so deines this end of the layout.
highland miscellany 