Page 15 - May June 1998

Safety First!
Please use sensible precautions when using power tools. Eye protection and electrical residual-current detectors (RCDs) are essential.
close to the joint. After taking a deep breath it was decided to use track which butted up to each module end and rely on precise alignment of the modules. Rob Funnell very kindly donated two pairs of brass alignment dowels as used successfully for this on the Aldridge Indiana lay- out and these have worked very well. They are shown in fig 4. To fit them, the two modules were clamped together, being very careful to ensure that their top surfaces were aligned. Next, a single hole was drilled through the two clamped end plates for each pair of dowels. After separating the modules, the dowels were epoxied in place. The track was laid directly over the joint and cut using a razor saw. More details will be given when we cover track laying.
The dowels we used are no longer available, but almost identical ones are available from Red Dog Baseboards who advertise in the British
magazines. The modules are held together using the usual G-clamps when the layout is being operated.
Strong backdrops were added to both mod- ules. These allow the modules to be mounted face-to-face with all structures in place and transported as a unit. I also added removable end plates as shown in fig 5 to give a box about 2ft x 2ft x 4ft for transportation. This fits in the back of a Cavalier hatchback (just!). It was intended to operate the pointwork using toggle switches and this required a narrow shelf along the rear edge of the modules. The shelf was incorporated in the construction of the backdrop as shown in fig 5. An incidental benefit of the “box” arrangement is that the layout may be stood on end for storage - only taking up a floor space two feet square. There is a kidney shaped cut out in each end plate
which serves as a carrying handle.. I would have preferred to have several of these holes to give more flexibility when carrying the layout but this was not possible because there are structures close to the ends
The benchwork is very robust and easy to build. However, it is heavy and the two-module unit needs two fairly beefy people to transport it. For a personally-owned unit you could reduce the weight by having removable legs and lighter side-rails or adopting a more lightweight design.
Peco point templates were used to finalise the trackplan, and then the completed boards were transported the hundred miles or so to deepest Devon for Bob (Jawn Henry) Phelps to get to work on the track.
We will cover this in the next installment.
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