Track pins = Very expensive for what they are. For the same price as a single packet of track pins you can pick up a pound (back to real measurements folks) of the finest veneer pins from your local hardware(*) shop.
Probably 20 to 30 times as many pins for the same price.
(*) Not "Do It All", "Homebase" and te like but your traditional chap in the apron behind the counter type affair.
What shaped and sized heads do veneer pins have???
In message , Greg Procter writes
Conical, small.
Jane Sullivan wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@yddraiggoch.demon.co.uk:
With a flat head
Personally, I don't use track pins. They look incredibly unreallistic and stand out a mile when you take photos of a layout. A better approach is to glue the track down with something like PVA or Evo Stick and then lay ballast with the traditional watered/PVA method. The result is far more reallistic:
I put track pins either side of occasional sleepers to hold them in place and then pull them once my track is ballasted.
On this occassion I asked because I want to simulate rivets on 1:24th scale models.
Regards, Greg.P.
However, I have a question.
Why the junction bracket in the background?
That looks like a secondary line, perhaps from a branch bay platform?
Unless the two lines going over the bridge are two separate but parallel single lines, surely the bracket signal is not required?
There is also no home signal to protect the crossover. :-)
-- Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway
Roger,
Just out of site around the corner is the station which has three platforms. The two main platforms are for the main line of which the loco is on one. The other platform is a loop and you can see the bracket at this end.
The bracket has two signals. The main route is the higher arm which signals a route from the passenger loop towards us and across the crossover to where the loco is in the picture. The secondary route is actually a shunt move which allows a loco to travel wrong line (other track to the loco) up to a limit of shunt which is just out of the picture on the right. There is also a bracket just out of the right of the picture. Perhaps these pictures might help:
Graham Plowman
Very nice Graham and thanks for the explanation.
You have more photos?
-- Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway
Hi Roger,
Yes, plenty of pictures in issue 8 of Model Railways Online Magazine:
Roger T. wrote:
Excellent, really nice model.
-- Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway
I've started doing something similar. Once the track is alligned correctly, I place something heavy on the track and put a small blob of PVA between two sleepers. If you do that at six-to 8 inch intervals, the track allignment can be tested before balasting. the small amount of glue can usually be removed if necessary.
I have to say that my modelling skills and standards are *very* modest. My reasons for using PVA to hold track are more to do with simplicity than realism.
Adrian
I should add that it's also 'prototypical'- in areas where clearances are limited, and where it is essential that track geometry remain constant, 'glued ballast' is used. An example that springs to mind is the very tight arches to the down side of Tonbridge station. Notices are to be seen,saying something like 'Glued Ballast- Do Not Tamp', both at the side of the track and on the arch structures. I do wonder how it's applied- visions of a two-man hypodermic syringe come to mind.. Brian
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