Mam's Socks

In the wake of all the new sock making, my Mam asked if she could have a pair of socks made. (It was more a "you haven't made me anything in aggeeessssss" kind of remark.) But I really enjoy knitting socks, so I was very happy oblige.

These socks were the second ever that I had made on a circular needle, using the magic loop method. The first sock I made on a circular needle was my scrappy sock, I made it mostly to see how a 60 stitch sock would look and feel like on a 2.5 mm circular needle. The scrappy sock was only an ankle sock, but it fitted well, and seeing as Mam has the same size feet as me I thought it would be fine.

I used my trusty sock pattern I found on love knitting, which I wrote about here. I have to admit the pattern isn't great for knitting on a circular needle, it gets a little tight but it is doable. I am going to look at doing heels differently, because there are many different ways of making heels, and I have an urge to try and learn every one! Maybe just make every one once...

The socks did take me a little while, they had been on my needles for ages and I made quite a few other things before they were done. The top part of the sock I made 12 cm long, which is a little bit shorter than my other socks, but Mam is a little bit shorter, so her socks were too.

The socks were finally finished in Tywyn. The toes were kitchener stitched up whilst watching the 11:40 departure from Wharf Station on the Talyllyn Railway. Mam at the time was volunteering in the booking office, so they were made and delivered to her through the booking office window!

I did make the socks one at a time, which meant there was a small amount of second sock syndrome. One of the reasons for learning the magic loop method of making socks, is to learn how to make socks two at a time, but that might be for next time.

Mam was very very happy to get her socks, she'd been waiting a little while... oops... but she was happy, and I hope they fit her well. I did try them on, and the cuff was a little tight. So I'm going to try knitting with 64 stitches for me next time.

Llyn Fach

For a long time I have had a 009 gauge model railway. It is small enough to fit inside a cabinet bookcase, and I used to spend time working on it with my Dad. The past few years the railway has sat inside the bookcase, looking half finished and a little bit sorry for itself.

The railway has a little engine, its a generic saddle tank, and is named Sam, (after Peter Sam in the Rev. Awdry books), Sam also has a few coaches and a couple of trucks, that are shunted here and there around the few sidings.

Loading Gauge Issues

 A couple of years ago, I'd got the layout out and identified where some track needed replacing. Namely around the left side corner, where there was a slight track gauging issue... Some of the little plastic clips which hold in the rail had snapped and the engine would often derail there. I had bought a new length of track to fit there, but that too had been sitting in a box in the corner of the room waiting to be fitted. So I finally decided that I was actually going to do it. And I did.

I got out the layout and set up the controller to see if I could reassess the problem. What I found, instead of having track slightly wider than It should have been, was that actually we had a slight loading gauge issue around the road bridge. In my experience vehicles hitting bridges is never good. So I was faced with two options: move the bridge, OR move the track. Seeing as the bridge scenery was partially done, and I was going to replace the track anyway, I started going about replacing track.

The track around the bridge was also interesting. There is a station just before the bridge, loosely modeled on Wharf Station at the Talyllyn Railway, and so there is a platform and just before a loop. At some point there has been some bodging of track work when the loop was put in, and we were left with a rather untidy few sections of track leading out of the loop and under the bridge. The first of which seemed to be causing problems before.

Untidy Track

My plan,with the length of track I had, was to replace the entire curve up to the loop point, including the little messy piece. This is what I set about doing, pulling the track pins out, and saving the serviceable ones, and just chucking the old bent ones that weren't of any use. There was only one problem I came across, and that was that most of the corner is covered by the road across the top of the bridge...

Ultimately the only thing I could do was to take a knife to the cardboard bridge to get it out of the way. I had devised a way to cut up the bridge so that there was minimal damage.

I cut the bridge along the rear road boundary and completely lifted the back piece out, which gave just enough access to get in and remove the track, as well as lay the new piece.

Taking the two old pieces of track out was an interesting experience, as the track practically fell apart as soon as the track pins were out and it was slid out of the fishplates. I was rather glad I was replacing it.

The bridge coming off

Once the track was in and pinned down, and the bridge loading gauge issue was sorted, I slowly ran the engine around the curve to see how it ran. Unfortunately it did brush up against the wall at part of the curve, but that was solved by cutting out a section of the cardboard wall. The hole cut out is below the line of the top of the bridge, and will also allow some extra access to the curve once the bridge goes back on.

I was pleased with the curve once it had been relayed. The loading gauge problems were solved, and the curve looks a lot better, hopefully the engine will also run nicely too!

Done!

Carriage Brake Maintenance

This weekend the factory of things had taken a break from making, and went to Wales for some fixing!

This weekend I have been fitting new break blocks and adjusting the breaks and triple valves on the Talyllyn Railway, the world's first preserved railway. This is the railway that I do the most of my volunteering on, as is well worth a visit, to ride on or watch the little trains trundle their way up the valley!