Making Gauge ‘3’ track...
Making Gauge ‘3’ track...
This is possibly the most; boring, tedious, time consuming, and deathly dull thing to do. BUT if you want to make your own track -this is how I do it. The instructions come from the Henry Greenly Book "Model Railways" -I have the 1924 edition. The Gauge ‘3’ Society has provided the raw materials -in the form of: brass rail, white metal chairs and brass track pins, Brandbright have supplied the sleepers...
Going on the information gleaned from the text shows that the sleepers used in the 1920's were longer and thicker than the ones supplied by Brandbright -but not quite to scale and far more rough and ready. The Brandbright sleepers come pre-treated with a spirit based dark oak wood stain and preserver
This is the result of reading the books -I call it "The Track Making Xylophone". This a length of MDF with 7mm strips very carefully epoxied into position. The gauge for the track (63.5mm) is produced by upright 3mm bolts. The spread gauge for corners (64.5mm) is produced by sliding brass tubes over the upright screws.
The dark oak sleepers are then dropped into the slots. Some constructional difficulties and "words" were uttered to get the 7mm sq sections to glue absolutely square -I had to regularly scrape the glue oozing from the joint until it set.
The white metal "chairs", for the "bullhead rail" to slide into, are then positioned on the sleepers -and CA'ed into position. They are not symmetrical -but have a inwards facing 20deg slope:
Once everything has set nicely, the chairs are then drilled with a 1mm drill all the way through to the back of the MDF sheet, then a 2mm drill is used to open out the hole in the chair until it reaches the oak sleeper. There are two holes to each chair. A brass panel pin is then pushed through the hole in the chair and then grips the 1mm hole in the sleeper. Any excess is then cropped off when the section of track is completed. The brass rail is then slid into place, (I use washing up liquid as a lubricant), and the chairs "nipped up" with a pair of pliers. At the end of this I have made 40cm of track....
The completed 90cm length is then dunked in cuprinol overnight!!
