Point rodding and fittings.
Extra cassettes.
It was straight to work this week as everyone knew what to do. While Geoff and Stephen returned to their particular point rodding tasks, Laurence restarted his cassette production line.
Stephen sieved some of the standard ballast to get some finer material, which was then sprinkled over dilute PVA painted into the clear slots between the three sleeper routes. Whilst that was drying, he assembled the three-rod unit feeding the two points at the tunnel end of the layout. The rod ends were flattened and tinned ready for soldering to the cranks. The furthest crank had been glued down previously and it now had its rod soldered to it. The other two loose crank units were soldered to their rods and the whole assembly adjusted for the best alignment. Card packers were used to lift the crank bases to the required height and both were glued down with weights on top, to secure their positions. The rodding supports were adjusted and packed to describe a slight curve and they they too were glued down and weighted.
Meanwhile, Geoff finished off the rodding for the two points adjacent the frame. Due to the need to reserve space for the distant pointwork, small cranks were generally used. (The gap for the remote rodding can be seen on the left).
Stephen cleared the excess ballast from under the rails. Rods were bent to shape and the ends flattened and soldered onto the cranks.
Finally, Geoff and Stephen then completed the rodding for the last remaining point. We weren't entirely sure how to deal with the small angle in the tie-bar rod, but the single swinging-arm seemed the most appropriate, as the real-life travel would be very small.
We still have the triple-rod assembly to extend from the board joint to the lever frame. The rodding at the board edge will be secured under a new timber step along the pathway and run down to the gap already created. At this point, three cranks need to be fitted in close proximity, but we have already found photos of this being achieved with curved-end cranks, which are available on our brass sprue. It's then a short run to the frame. After our initial concerns, the disruption to the layout has been far less than anticipated. Once we've completed the making-good to the ballast and foliage, and painting the new equipment, we hope it will all virtually disappear, to be found by eagle eyes only.
Those levers still need painting!
