Western Union Modular Corners.

When the Western Union Modular group started we inherited an old set of corner boards from another group. After some rewiring they were okay, but required the whole of one members car to transport them and a lot of space to store them. This meant that he had to make two trips each way to bring his modules as well. Even one corner was too large to fit in my car by itself!

To solve this problem I proposed to build a set of folding corners, each folded set would be small enough that we could all fit one each into our cars along with our modules. I laid out the plans using a CAD program on my computer. This allowed me to workout the minimum amount of wood to buy and where to cut it. The plan was to use a construction method used by another club I belong to, which has been used on American, Swiss and British layouts. This method uses side members laminated from ply, a ply base and ply "W" members fitted under the base to stop the boards from twisting. Laminating the sides make for warp resistant sides and are very strong, the other clubs layout once collapsed with only one board left standing (the legs were not up to scratch!) The only damage was some screws being pulled from the hinges which connected the boards.

By folding the corners I found I could make them three foot long when folded, but still have a 42" inner track radius, well it averages out at 42", but because I used Peco curved switches the minimum radius goes down to 30", so far all our stock has gone around the curves, including 89' cars with rigid couplings. This means that there are eight boards which are paired together with hinges to save on the number of supports and connections needed at the joins. One member of our group was planning to build a long yard but didn't have space to cross from the two main tracks so we decided to fit crossovers to two of the corners along with a switch to allow access to the third track. My modules also had a third track so all corners have a connection to the third track.

By this time I had bought a small trailer and built a box top for it, so off to B&Q for two 8'x4' sheets of 6mm ply, hinges, 40mm drain pipes and fittings. The track and switches came from our local model shop in Tavistock, Tavyside Models, whilst the electrical gear was ordered from Maplins.

The sides of the boards are made by laminating two different width strips of ply together the resulting step gives a ledge to fit the ply top to, the inner strip is half the height of the outer strip to place the top half way up the sides. I also cut the tops the same size by cutting all eight at the same time with a circular saw. Seven of the boards are the same (note that with our design each pair of boards are mirror images of each other), The eighth is built upside down with a wider inner strip to place the top at the bottom of the board, if you see what I mean. This is to allow the maximum depth under the track for a bridge. The laminated sides were then cut to length and glued and pined to the edges of the tops, making the joints between sides as tight as possible to make the boards rigid. To stiffen the structure further strips of ply were then put in a "W" shape under the top making sure that the middle strip spanned the weak spot caused by the join in the side pieces. This is a lot clearer if you refer to the photos.

Each pair of boards are held together with a pair of strap hinges so when opened out a 90 degree corner is formed, at least that was the plan. Due some miscalculation they formed less than the correct angle. To correct this I inserted a 4mm spacer between the inner hinges and the board ends. Luckily I found this out before the track was permanently laid! The resulting gap was filled when the scenery was done.

An 8mm bolt and wingnut is used to clamp a board across the ends to protect the track ends when folded, and an over centre catch holds the boards shut. To lock the boards together when opened out I fitted loose butt hinges to the hinged joints and between each pair of corners. When unfolded a pin made from 4mm brass rod, bent through 90 degrees for a handle, is pushed through the hinges to lock the boards together. I also use this method to join the boards on my module, (I have used this method on previous layouts), it makes for a very strong, accurate and fast way to connect boards together. Note make sure that the centre lines of all the hinges (folding and locking) line up or else you may have to grind parts of the locking hinges off to stop them jamming when unfolding, guess how I found that out!

To make the two ends of the modular layout look different I built one set of four boards with the track bed on the top and the rest with the track bed raised about 1". This allowed one end to be in a cutting and the other on an embankment. Because of the different track levels this means that the two sets of boards have to be different heights, this is achieved by have different length legs. The legs are made from 40mm push fit plastic drain pipe. To fit the legs to the boards inline couplers cut in half are hot glued in to corners between sides and W members. To make the legs adjustable another inline coupler is fitted to the end of the leg with a blank fitted in the other end of the coupler, an 8mm nut is hot glued into the blank and a hand wheel bolt screwed through the nut to form an adjustable foot (see drawing). These legs are not too stable but that does not matter as the modules hold the corners in position, the legs just required to hold them off the ground.

A flexible handle has been fitted to one board of each pair to make them easy to carry.

The trackbed is cut from laminated floor underlay, which is like a softer version of Sundela, but cheaper. The track is standard Peco code 100, all the switches are curved, despite a sharper inner radius than wanted the flex track was used to ease into them. Also I flexed the switches out to make a wider radius. At the baseboard joins the rails are soldered to PCB tie strips which are hot glued down. The tracks across the hinged joins are flush to the board ends whilst the other ends have our standard modular 1 inch gap from the ends.

The electrics are very simple with the two main tracks and third track connected by the standard phono connectors which connect to the modules track busses, all cables run around the hinged ends. As we use DCC it meant that we do not need separately switchable blocks at the crossovers, trains run from a power unit on the third track across the inner power unit and out on the outer unit without any trouble, or interfering with other trains. The only other wiring is for the DCC cab bus which is connected to several 5 din sockets on each set of corners with four core screened twisted pair cable. If we decide to electrify the switches they will use DCC controls to save on extra wiring.

Scenery has just been started on the boards, the form is built up from foam and then covered with artex type ceiling paint. This paint is very thick and dries flexible so that it does not crack when the boards are being setup and transported. The artex is then painted and will eventually be fully sceniced. The track is now ballasted, which holds it in position far firmer.

So far the corners have stood up well to their monthly outings. A leg socket came away from one board so I used more hot glue when refitting it!

If you want to see the corners in action please attend one of our meetings of Western Union the South West Division of the NMRA. If you are on Holiday in the South West when one of our meetings is on we would be pleased to see you. See the Calendar page for our meetings.

Mike Ruby.