Km Or Mile Posts Some Installed On The Dr

dunnyrail

dunnyrail

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I am constantly asked by visitors how long is my Railway? A fact that after much measuring and counting of Yard Track lengths I was able to answer on my old line in Hemel. Here my RoundToIt has just not kicked in yet. But wait Incan do something a little better than that I thought. So my mind went over to adding Km Posts to the line. They will have a variety of uses:-
1 allow a precise measurement of the run between places and the complete line.
2 when recording faults etc I can refer to "between Km 1.5 and 1.6.
3 add a little more detail to the line
Not a big list, but hey why not. First I had a look at the real thing a couple of weeks back whilst I was on the Harz. Here are some pics that I was able to take from moving Trains:-

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Not sure if the above one is a Km Marker or a Crossing Marker. So discounted.
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The above one is rather nice, I did see some other Stone or Concrete rendered ones around.
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Bits of old Rail, now you are talking.

However all the above except for perhaps the Middle one would cause difficulty with my method of Printing the Markers using my Dymo Labeller. However there was another one that I did not manage to get a pic of. This is again a piece of Rail with a Tinplate Top bent over and the Km's marked with Holes. Difficult to make but a slight adaption allows me to make a small compromise. After all is not compromise what we are all into with our Railways?
JonD
 
The build and Modelling Considerations.
First up a bit of Math is required. Using a scale of 1:22.5 I divided 1000 Metres by 100 then that by 22.5 to give me 4.44444 Meters for each 1/10th Km Post - doh not a simple number so I rounded it to 4.5. That will take care of sloppy measuring around corners. I cut a Piece of String the required Length with a Loop at one end to hang it to a small hammer. The other end had a knot to define my 4.5. This I used when planting the Marker Posts.

So next up the actual making of the things, I decided to make the first Km to see how things go. Thus 10 posts in all, Km 0 not having one as it is behind the Engine Shed at Gernrode.
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Above pic shows the Construction. The Rail is around 25-30 Mm long, great way of using up offcuts of expensive Rail. Bent 8 Thou Copper Sheet is 15mm x 10mm soldered to the Rail with a bend to give a 10mm Square. This matches my Dymo Lettering well, up to 9.9Km Post anyway. But I will not be going over that. My line is long, but not that long.

A Brass Pin with its Head Cut off has been Soldered into a Drilled Hole in the bottom. I used my trusty Drill Press for this hole, no other way would work with such a small drill and bits. However you could solder a small plate on the bottom as a compromise, sticking the Markers in place.image.jpeg
Above the first 10 awaiting a spray of Matt Black. The flat where the Labels fit was cleaned off once the paint had dried. Posts have all been planted in a small hole drilled into the baseboard, I used the Pola Kit Glue to Glue them in place. Surprisingly my broken small drill worked on the Paving Flags that some of the Line is mounted on.

Below 3 posts in position. 0.5 is at the Junction by my Sternhaus Station. Real distance from Gernrode 5.7 or 6.9 on the prototype depending on which Sternhause you are at.
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Next below is Km 0.7 in my Magdesprung, 10.2 on the real thing.image.jpeg

Finally the 1.0 Km post at Alexisbad, 14.5 on the real thing.image.jpeg
Some serious compromise on real distances, still I guess that I will have to accept this or win the EuroMillions. One other thing, during this Post I noticed that the Markers use a Comma to denote the Tenths. Dooh. Still I can get the next 30 or so right when my RoundToIt comes in. Rainy day forecast for today!
JonD
 
:p I got a real half mile post planted (now overgrown) somewhere on the Taita Gorge Railway..... does that count?

Hat, coat, fast train ticket....
 
Finally on Tuesday got round to completing installation of my Km Posts. The whole Railway has now been done. This gives me a run from my Terminus round the loop to a point where the line is rejoined of getting very close to 72 Metres. Much more than I thought. The Harzegerode Branch adds another 7 Metres to that. Final couple of pictures show the last lot of Posts Prior to Installation at the 1.7 Km Post with my Trusty Piece of String and Hammer being used to measure out the location of yet another Post.
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I managed to make 5 more Posts than I required. Never mind, they may come in for something else. Certainly not another Land Grab Extension, no space left in the Garden!
JonD
 
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