72 replies to this topic

[Loxborough]

Well, here I am, settled in Burundi with a managble job, but the family will be going home for a few months to avoid expected electoral violence over the summer. Which leaves me with some spare time. So, a challenge entry becomes inevitable.

Scale/Gauge; 4mm 00 (I experimented with P4 on Meakin Bros but just didn't get anything out of the messing about underneath; a few wagons and an 060 were enough to convince me that it was not for me)

Date; 1947

Location; Fictional GER rural (near Cambridge?)

Theme; sidings off a single track branch, hosting large agricultural merchants, fruit/veg wholesaler and a coal merchant

Number of turnouts; 5

Number of non redidential buildings; 5

Number of residential properties; 5 (disregard the sketch; will be sorted out)

Chance of it being complete on time; 5% (do I get points for that?)

Track plan (early draft with very rough buildings; IT snags have forced me, a Corel draw addict, to revert to Paint, and it's hard work!);



I suspect the run-round in the main siding is not especially prototypical but I figured it could just about be justified and would add a good bit of operational interest.

Comments, especiall corrective, welcome before I start cutting...

George

[Jim T]

Welcome George.

An interesting plan, subject and period.

I like the long siding / mainline(?) (I guess from the location of the terrace that it's at the front of the layout?).

I also like the layout of the yard. Is the short run-round loop a deliberate ploy to increase the operating interest?

Good luck with it...
Jim

[Loxborough]

Jim,

Thanks for your comments; The long line at the top is indeed the mainline (cassettes at both ends).

As for the front/back question, I am trying to do something a little novel; the layout will have east and west ends, so to speak, (to hide entry and exit and give some support for protective sheets, apart from anything else) but I am going to try to make it viewable from both north and south. Being in central Africa I figure the chances of a live public viewing are pretty small. This means that it will only ever be seen in photos, so backscreen can be photoshopped as appropriate.

The north edge will have some sort of waterway running along it and the south will have a road, the hope being to make both views interesting (front of terraces, action in agri merchants, as seen from the south, backs of terraces, coal yard, action in veg wholesalers, as seen from north) We'll see...

George

[Loxborough]

Well, not exactly cracking on here, but I have ordered the necessary for the trackwork from C&L (yes, I'm going to stick to building my own track, even in OO) and have found a carpenter who has some plywood and is making the baseboards (cheat, but I did not bring any wooodworking tools out here and I'm not going to buy a load just for one baseboard...). Also, I don't know where the carpenter got his ply from, but I can't find anybody who will sell me any.

I've started a little gentle modelling (photos in a few days) and have been giving some thought to the design of the Agricultural merchants. This is as far as that has got;



Next challenge is to find some white spirit; I may have to cadge a bit off a painting contractor as the two likely shops have run out and will not have any more for some weeks (this place is landlocked and everything has to come overland via Dar es Salaam; no ordering for next day delivery here!)

Not much of a post, really, but I will hopefully be back with something a little more substantive soon.

George

[Jaggzuk]

Hi George

Just come across your 2010 entry. Nice plan and I really like the 3D model of the agricultural merchants. It looks like is was done in Google Sketchup? How long did it take to create? Are you basing it on anything real?

I s hall be keep an eye on this one as it looks like a good plan I am hoping to build a 2010 fictional layout which will be based at the far end of the GER somewhere near Kings Lynn - named North Marsh Road.

All the best with the build.

Paul

[ChrisB]

I think you should get extra points for overcoming the logistical problems you're likely to encounter and levels of ingenuity you're going to have to employ to overcome them!

Good Luck

[Loxborough]

Paul,

A delayed response to your questions, for which I apologise. Yes, the graphic was done using sketchup. What a splendid application it is, too. As someone who started using CAD software in 1986 (yes, it did exist then, though it was pretty basic!) I am daily astonished by what is now available free.

The sketch took me, I suppose, about an hour (during a slow mornign at work; don't tell the client).

I will be following North Marsh Road closely; looks like an interesting idea.

George

[Loxborough]

The C&L stuff is in transit still and the carpenter appears to have fallen off the edge of the world so I am reduced to design work; Which is useful because it means I can get a big ordre of stuff ready to send off to an internet supplier.

Anyway, here is the fruit and veg wholesaler, showing the doors for direct transfer from wagons;



And here it is next to the Agri Merchants



Have a great weekend, all.

George

[Jaggzuk]

Looking good there George. That is very interesting building the fruit and veg wholesaler, is it models on anything in real life?

Paul

[Loxborough]

Paul,

The veg wholesaler's is, like most of what I do, modelled vaguely on a combination of memories of stuff I have seen in photos with a dash or practical "how would I do this if I was designing the building?" added in. I like to think that the result is reasonably protoypical while fitting in with the requirements of the model. We'll see...

I said a few posts that I had been doing a little gentle modelling; basically I really like the look of the NER V1 brake vans, and Slaters do a lovely little model, but they were all out of service by '47, when this layout is set. So, what do you do? Buy one, put it in the old NER livery, beat it up a little and build it four brick plinths to replace the wheels. Et voila; NER V1 tool hut (given the NER livery it has probably been out of service for at least 20 years, so pretty grubby). Grabrails and a few other little tweaks, like windows and sorting out the gap between roof and body, to go, but basically there;







What the hell it was doing getting written off while on GER territory is something we can only speculate about....

I also mentioned a White Spirit problem. I found some, but there is a snag with the bottle;



How long is it until I either take a slurp of white spirit or, worse, dip a paint brush in the beer?!

Happy modelling all,

George

[Scale7JB]

Don't joke, done it before... brush soaked in Carrs Green flux.... straight in the freshly mashed cup of tea !!!

JB.

[Loxborough]

No posts recently, but a little progress. Finally, on the third attempt, got the carpenter to produce something that looked a little like a baseboard (really wish I had my tools here). All a little lumpy and misaligned, but thankfully I am doing this one in OO rather than P4 so I should hopefully get away with it.

Templot complete and sleepering started. This is what it looks like so far;



and from one end, showing the track layout a bit better;



Hope to get on with the sleepering this week and, who knows, maybe even actually lay some rail at the weekend...

George

[Lord-Claud-Hamilton]

Loxborough, on 29 January 2010 - 13:04 , said:

Date; 1947

Location; Fictional GER rural (near Cambridge?)

Theme; sidings off a single track branch, hosting large agricultural merchants, fruit/veg wholesaler and a coal merchant
George

Great idea.

The name suggests a 'What If' somewhere along the Cambridge to Fordham Branch perhaps? Especially if you added an Exening/Fen Ditton style Halt.

[Loxborough]

Lord-Claud-Hamilton, on 16 March 2010 - 17:41 , said:

Great idea.

The name suggests a 'What If' somewhere along the Cambridge to Fordham Branch perhaps? Especially if you added an Exening/Fen Ditton style Halt.

Thought about that but decided it would all become a bit crowded for a challenge board. I do have a vague plan about another board with a halt or even a proper station on it, perhaps representing the place where the line changes from double to single...

Concentrating on finishing the job in hand (that I have only just started) for the time being.

George

[Chevetter]

Nice idea George, I use to live in a place called Upware (still have a boat there) and if you stop on the road towards Wicken/Stretham heading north out of the village you can definitely see evidence of where a single track branchline used to puff its way though the fields... maybe somewhere near to Upware is a good fictional location being on the main river at a point where it is still wide enough to accept heavy-ish vessels.

Anyways good luck with the layout - with regards to the 2010 theme, your location in Burundi wouldn't happen to be 4020 miles from somewhere in the UK would it? Or 6030km?

[Loxborough]

Chevetter, on 18 March 2010 - 17:55 , said:

Anyways good luck with the layout - with regards to the 2010 theme, your location in Burundi wouldn't happen to be 4020 miles from somewhere in the UK would it? Or 6030km?

I get the impression someone has been looking at Google Earth; Home in Burundi to the nearest point of the UK is 4050 miles, which I reckon must be near enough to score me some points?

George

[Lord-Claud-Hamilton]

Chevetter, on 18 March 2010 - 17:55 , said:

Nice idea George, I use to live in a place called Upware (still have a boat there) and if you stop on the road towards Wicken/Stretham heading north out of the village you can definitely see evidence of where a single track branchline used to puff its way though the fields... maybe somewhere near to Upware is a good fictional location being on the main river at a point where it is still wide enough to accept heavy-ish vessels.

Really? Could you be a bit more specific about the location by any chance please?

I'll pop along and take a look.

[Jaggzuk]

Great to see the baseboard have become a reality. I hope your carpenter's work stands up as a suitable track foundation. What is the reason for the high backboards at the ends?

You mentioned in a previous post that you will be using C&L track system, which type are your going for? It will be good to follow how you get on building your track as I recently bought 3 B6 C&L point kits at the Doncaster MR Show for my North Marsh Road. Not built any track before so if you have any hints that would be good.

Have you made any progress on the buildings yet?

Paul

[Chevetter]

Lord-Claud-Hamilton, on 19 March 2010 - 23:24 , said:

Really? Could you be a bit more specific about the location by any chance please?

I'll pop along and take a look.

Well... having looked on Google maps, maybe I imagined it:

Link to google maps

Can't see from the aeriel photograph any evidence that anything lined up with that long thin field or evidence of a bridge over the river for the railway..... maybe I had a touch of sun stroke at the time or something

[Lord-Claud-Hamilton]

Chevetter, on 20 March 2010 - 20:26 , said:

Well... having looked on Google maps, maybe I imagined it:

Can't see from the aeriel photograph any evidence that anything lined up with that long thin field or evidence of a bridge over the river for the railway..... maybe I had a touch of sun stroke at the time or something

I wondered if that was what you was referring to. I think it is known as Spinney Bank, and is there to stop Wicken Fen draining away. I popped down for a look this afternoon and can understand how it could be mistaken for an old railway embankment.

For a moment I thought you'd discovered an Agricultural/Industrial railway I didn't know about. Especially with the Burwell Tramway not all that far away.

Anyway, I hope George doesn't mind us hijacking his thread for a short while. I'm really looking forward to seeing how his layout develops.

[Loxborough]

Jaggzuk, on 20 March 2010 - 07:51 , said:

What is the reason for the high backboards at the ends?

You mentioned in a previous post that you will be using C&L track system, which type are your going for? It will be good to follow how you get on building your track as I recently bought 3 B6 C&L point kits at the Doncaster MR Show for my North Marsh Road. Not built any track before so if you have any hints that would be good.

Have you made any progress on the buildings yet?

Paul

So many questions...

The high boards at the ends will be to disguise the fiddle yards, to support any possible lighting rig (plus the top of a 'letter box' if I go for that option, and to support protective sheets when I am not working on the layout.

C&L thin plastic sleepers with plastic chairs (the occasional brass one for connectivity) and Bullhead rail. I won't offer advice (as I am only just above total novice myself) but will show blow by blow so you can, at least, hope to avoid making the same mistakes as me.

Very slow progress on the buildings; waiting for material to arrive from the UK...

Anyway, the little hijack nicely disguised the fact that there was no progress on the layout. I have now, however, finished the sleepering, so I thought a couple of photos might be justified;

Firstly, an along the line shot showing the running line to the right and the sidings to the left;



Then a detail on the weathering of the sleepers on the crossover in the sidings (showing GER interlaced sleepering on the turnout; what a mess!);



I'll start threading chairs onto rail this evening...

George

[Jaggzuk]

Hi George,

Sorry about all the questions

I am very intrigued by the weathering of the sleepers before sticking the chairs on, I guess this is a much quicker way to apply the basic weathering.

I shall look forward to see further progress photos... perhaps I should get my B6 point kit out of its packet and make a start!

Paul

[Loxborough]

Well, not much progress, but I feel I should post an image of what there is; some stockrail and a common crossing.



Being fundamentally lazy I have given much thought to how to make weathering easy and am trying a small experiment; sleepers stuck down then weathered before rail or chairs go anywhere near them. Chairs threaded onto track, chairs and track weathered together, then chairs stuck to sleepers. Seems to be working so far...

Hope to have the crossover completed over the next couple of days.

George

[Jaggzuk]

Hi George

The weathered sleepers and rails look very good. Good job you did not totally paint over the track plan underneath the sleepers

I am intrigued as to what glue are you using to stick the chairs to the sleepers? And you have not found a problem with the sleepers being painted?

Paul

[skipepsi]

According to Brian (C&L) painting the sleepers is not a hindrance to the solvent gripping the sleeper, he was speaking about 0 gauge trackwork at the time but I assume the same applies to 00.