SSC-construction update 2

The last couple of days has seen me able to spend some time working on the first module of SSC. Next on my list of jobs was to link the lever frame to where the points will be located. I wanted to use the flexi cable to link from one point to another. The cafe' curtain spring wire stuff that you buy from spotlight is spot on for the job, and best of all it's cheap! I bought one pack thinking it would be enough and of course it wasn't, so back I went into the place that no man should venture voluntarily. I mounted the lever frame in a simple box to allow me to scenic around the frame. I painted the interior matt black which will be the colour of the facias also.

I already had the Modratec bits for the linkages, and a couple of lengths of piano wire for the linkages. I had a discussion with Craig regarding the galvanised wire he uses and I did buy some so that I could try both types of wire. For the amount of travel and the distance covered I found that the piano wire worked better for me. It seemed that the galvanised wire moved around too much inside the curtain wire. I think that because of the small diameter of some of the curves that the galvanised wire became bound up because of its lack of strength.

The Modratec products work exactly as they are planned. The clutch system is simple but effective. It allows a greater amount of travel than required and you're able to adjust it easily by the location of the wir in tube.

Along with the wire in tube I also attached the front contoured terrain board which previously was just sitting in place.

The backdrop board is in place also and is drilled to hold the lighting pelmet, although I haven't put that in place yet. I was thinking that I'd give myself a bit of space to work on the scenery without the pelmet getting in the way.

During this week I have also glued down the cork base for the trackwork. I enjoy this simple job as it really shows how close you are to actually having some track to run on. I use just one half of the split cork that you can buy for HO, as I want the ends of the sleepers a little exposed as they were on 'Pioneer' lines.

The SSC layout is following the simple 'Pioneer' lines and I would like to make it seem different to other layouts, with its hand layed trackwork and uncommonly represented pre 1900 trackwork. The trackwork of the pre 1900 period had significantly different spacing with centres closer to 3' rather than 2' that is commonly seen both in the real world and the modelled equivalent. The length of the rail used was about half as long as that used later, therefore track joins will be an obvious addition. I got hold of some really nice fishplates from Detail Associates that I'll use for the joins.

I put a couple of points in place on the layout and started working out the manual connections and also the wiring. I will be using micro switches as done by Modratec to change the polarity of the frog also. A simple thing to set up and should work really well.

So that's about it, hopefully soon the backdrop will be painted. A couple of bits to get at the Ipswich Show this weekend, but that's a whole other post! Geoff.