G,
Great looking start as usual. Looks like 28.5 mm to me or there abouts.
That is tyco 15944 HO is that matters to you.
HTH
4 Likes
Thanks for the kind feedback Ryan, it’s much appreciated, 
.
A big thanks for the track dimensions, it’ll allow me to mark out where the track will go, whilst I order a length so that I can build up the area around it, 
.
I’m glad I didn’t go with the 16.5mm, and I can check if ‘Tyco’ is comparable to ‘Hornby/Peco’.
Thanks again my friend, and cheers, 
,
G
1 Like
Glad I could help, looking forward to seeing how this progress.
1 Like
16.5mm refers to the back-to-back distance between the rails. That’s inside face to inside face, and sets the gauge for the wheels.
Bumpers/buffers are used wherever they are needed. Yards. Spurs. Branch lines. Industrial stubs. At least in North America. Here’s a good article:
I like this article:
Both. Sidings can also be “passing tracks” which allow opposite direction trains/higher priority/faster trains to pass the the train. Or a siding can serve an industry, or even serve a purpose like a RIP (Repair In Place) track.
It is time to show my progress.
The wheels were glued to the axles and squared. But the slots for them in the bottom of the s.SP. were too narrow for the wheels, and closer than the width of each wheel set. They must be intended to roll because there are retaining brackets to hold down the axles. But they don’t fit at all. Fortunately, the tightness of the wheels in the slots securely held them until cement was applied.
The superstructure consists of five plates. They are thin. Uni Model molded them with beveled and indented edges so that they mate together. Good idea. But they also tooled their large connectors to extend into those thin, fine mating surfaces. Bad idea. I carved out as much of them as I could but thin as these edges are, a hundredth of a millimeter of excess styrene will cause fit problems.
Uni Model could have molded couple of slot and pegs on each interior surface to assist with alignment. They did not. So it takes a steady hand and patience to align and position each side on the roof plate at the right angle. I tacked them together with good ol’ “non-toxic” Testors tube glue that I’ve had for 20 years. It held long enough to get some Tamiya liquid glue along the joints. Later, CA was used to reinforce the joints.
Now to assemble the guns.
6 Likes
Thanks to Tom for the dimensional explanation of 00/H0 track, and to Fred for the excellent article on creating stonework, all education and help is always appreciated, .
Nice start to the armoured carriage Fred, .
Thanks again both, and cheers, ,
G
1 Like
Hi all,
Today I formed the slot that the track will drop into so that it’ll appear recessed in the cobbles.
I also tidied up the edges of the end quay wall and added ‘metal’ bars to the ‘drain’ and gave it a primer coat and base colour.
The stonework still needs some of the scribing accentuated, and a lot more work on the colour to get it looking okay.
Cheers, ,
G
5 Likes
Sorry to have so many total newb questions. There’s got to be a book on basics of train operations that talk about all these interesting questions one would have when building a model without coming from a train background. My father-in-law has a friend with a basement mega train which he’s been working on for years. The railroads were his day job and now they are his retirement avocation. I scratch my head when I think about that as I want nothing to do with what I do for a day job once I’ve retired. But I imagine he just knows all this stuff. Maybe I should go visit him…
Anyway, today’s newb question: what size ballast (woodland scenics please) goes with 1/35 track?
Phil, ask all the questions you want. We were all newbs once. The difference between a new newb and an advanced modeler is the advanced modeler asked questions and learned from information used.
Woodland Scenics provides this chart to gauge their ballast: https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/TBBallast The closest to 1/35 is O scale, what they label as “course.”
Model railroading has a 1/32 scale, “No.1 Gauge”. You can also consider G gauge ballast. (Too big.) Armor 35 makes 1/35 ballast.
Books on running trains? Look at Kalmbach Publishing.
Realistic Model Railroad Operation: How to Run Your Trains Like the Real ThingBy Tony Koester
Track Planning for Realistic Operation
This is a 144 page Track Planning for Realistic Operation Book from Kalmbach Books.
l12148
3 Likes
Hi Phil,
What size ballast? I got curious and went to the source(s).
What I found is the majority of ballast is 3/4" -1 1/2". In 1/35 a 2" stone is 0.0571", which is about 1.4mm. That is Woodland Scenics’ Coarse ballast, which they state is 1.27-2.08mm: https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/images/NewWSWeb/BAL-B_f_3.jpg
Most of their coarse would be too big for 3/4" -1 1/2" rock in 1/35, so I would use their medium ballast.
Graniterock is a ballast producer and the following is from their website (Graniterock. Wilson 1 1/2" x 3/4" Railroad Ballast. [Web.] 2021.)
Wilson 1½" x ¾" Railroad Ballast is a clean, 100% crushed granite. This Ballast isproduced daily at Wilson Quarry to meet the American Railway EngineeringAssociation (AREA) #4 Ballast Specifications as well as ASTM C-33 Size #4. Thisproduct has been used by the Railroad as Ballast Aggregate since the late 1800’s. This type of rock is typically gray in color.
Additional source: this appears to be European as it measures in metric and refers to rail cars as “wagons.”
http://122.252.243.98/Departments/openline/cnm/Manuals/Enginfo/Specifications/Track_Speci/Ballast.htm
2.3 SIZES AND GRADATION:
2.3.1 Ballast should satisfy the following size and gradation:
a) Retained on 65mm Sq. mesh sieve 5%Maximum.
b) Retained on 40mm sq. mesh sieve * 40%-60%
c) Retained on 20mm sq. mesh sieve Not less than 98% for machine crushed
Not less than 95% for hand broken.
- For machine crushed ballast only.
Finally, a c.2000 Army tech manual describing ballast: Table 6-8. Recommended Ballast Gradations
My choice for ballast is this company (link to their G scale ballast) Arizona Rock & Mineral Company
Trivia and sources:
Very good article on ballasts
Excellent and easy scale converter: Model Train Scale Calculator | ExactRail - ExactRail Model Trains
Very good primer here:
Thanks! This will be on my front porch Monday!
1 Like
Thanks for doing so much detail on this. It sounds like I should go with Woodland Scenics medium ballast for ease of access, but I’ll look at the Arizona Rock and Mineral Company offerings.
1 Like
Happy to help. I haven’t compared cost between WS and ARMC. One thing that I don’t know if it matters, but WS ballast isn’t rock. It is crushed walnut shell.
I love ballast because of all the colors depending on region. I grew up in a region of limestone so I am used to nice ‘bright’ (relatively speaking) crushed limestone. In other regions it can vary in color, including the “Pink Lady” on the CNW.
I don’t know about all over Germany but I recall much of the ballast there is a brownish color, although the ballast shown in The Great Escape is a light gray. That said, I just found this German language store of German ballast types:
This is a good discussion on one of my haunts, Railways of Germany:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/germanrailfr/ballast-colour-t934.html