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About this blog

Ian Holmes' collection of Model railway ramblings from a serial Railway modeller...

Entries in this blog

Rambling thoughts (1)

Look at that, six and a half years since I posted to this blog. Is it worth it? It's not like I've been inactive.  I have blogged in the old places, posted on the forum side, and kept active on Facebook too. I just didn't use this blog. Six months after that last post here, I had a nervous breakdown, so my mind was a mess anyway. But I have that mostly sorted out.  I still see too many inspirational photos of things that I feel I must model. So my mind is still messed up in the sa
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

4

Granite City Train Show analysis , debrief

So, another Granite City train show is in the books, and once again a great time was had by all. This little layout was probably the most labour intensive of the layouts I've shown there. The coal loading really making it a 2 person operation for smooth running. The working coal loader really grabbing peoples attention. A couple of people asked about the rolling stock as it was British outline, but most people were just content to watch the layout work. The coal loading was, as I've said, quit
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

3

Throw some light on the subject

I said yesterday that today I'd work on the lighting and paint the frontage. As good as my word that was what I did. In the end I opted for a light grey to paint the display rather than a black which I thought would be too overpowering. For the photo I also knocked up a quick nameplate on my computer. It looks OK. The lighting is not so good in the basement where I work usually so please excuse the darker lighting but it does show how effective the IKEA "KOMPLEMENT" lighting strip is at lighting
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

0

One week to the show

One week to the Granite City Train Show. There hadn't been much progress over the past few weeks. The Winter Road Rally season had been in full swing and the wife and I had been competing and organizing around Minnesota and Wisconsin. Highlight of which had been sliding into a snow bank on a forest track that when I got out to push turned out be a three food deep ditch full of snow! But I digress... Today I was lucky enough to be able to devote the whole day to working on the layout. The impor
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

3

A Workers platform

So, quite unsurprisingly after the previous post I disappeared into the basement and into the model railway room to work on the layout The idea of a workman's halt really appealed to me so I set to on the project. Mostly it was a "make it up as you go along" project using embossed styrene sheets I had to hand. The working out and building of the structure grabbed my attention so much that other than a trip up to the kitchen for a cuppa (which actually was two trips as the first time I switched t
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

4

Better get working!

Well, the Granite City Train show is on March 1st this year which isn't so very far away especially as I still have a few road rally commitments with the SCCA (including putting on my own event). So lets get busy! Right then. First things first, in order to get the creative juices flowing I whacked the US outline stock on the baseboard to see how it looked. If you remember this is one of the selling points of the layout, able to be worked as both English outline 4mm scale and US HO scale. The
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

Enforced absence

The last entry on this blog was back in October. It was shortly after that that my father in law was taken ill and ended up sadly passing away just after Thanksgiving. The layout has lain untouched since the last entry. Hopefully the new year leads to a new start. The layout is booked at the Granite City train show in St. Cloud, MN on March 1st.
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

0

Hop(per) to it...

Much of today has been spent working on the working hopper system. It's very much a bodged, cobbled together system that developed as I worked on it. It's a fairly simple idea. Coal or ore (or whatever) will be poured into a receptacle behind the backscene which is then tipped into the wagons through a tube and... Well, I think the picture illustrates the idea well enough. Overall, how does the layout look? Like this. Looking like a layout and now looking "bare". The structures need stairc
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

2

Proof of the pudding

Ever since I started the construction of this APA box layout I have had the belief that the structures would be sufficiently anonymous to enable the layout to be operated using British outline OO scale stock and US outline HO scale stock. I think the two attached pictures back this opinion up. The backscene might be a bit of a letdown for the iron range of Minnesota as I would plan for this layout (a few more trees and no wheat fields) but other than that I think it's OK.
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

0

Study time

I spend a lot of time looking at the layouts I build as they progress, I really do. It wouldn't surprise me if I spent as much time looking as I do actually constructing. The relationships between the size of the structures and the space between them is very important to me. I've seen way too many nice looking small layouts ruined (to my mind anyway) by the builders need to cram track or features in there. For example, I'm sure there are modellers who would think it a good idea to have a sidin
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

One last update picture

I really like this. I really, really like this. The tall low relief structure in the middle needs its "other half" but that will have to be stuck onto the backscene so that will have to wait until the end. As you can see, the corn field is becoming less and less noticeable. Its been a worthwhile couple of days work.
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

3

Looking like a layout now

There's always a certain stage in layout construction, that when you reach it. You say to yourself. "Yes. That's it. It's feeling like a layout now. " I reached that stage today. It happened when I fixed the ScenicKing background in place to get a feel for how the light colored structures would stand out. This background works quite well, much of the wheat field (for this is the "wheat field" background) will be hidden behind a high wall and other structures. The hole in the wall exit to t
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

0

Just like old times

This afternoon it hit. The enthusiasm. I felt the need to start work on the APA box layout. Perhaps the nearing deadline of the Granite City Train Show prompted me into action. Whatever, I felt the need to work. I'm 4000 miles from a location that doesn't exist anymore so fidelity to the prototype isn't an issue with regards to size. Especially so as everything is supposed to fit in an APA BOX. So I just cut card to the right sort of shapes and sizes, measuring it against hopper cars and l
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

Blogitty, blog blog blog.. A new layout is described

I have way too many blogs. Four on RMWeb and about six on blogger. All to do with various different layouts and schemes. Not to mention facebook...I've come up with snappy names and titles to suit concepts which have then run out of steam, (pun most definitely intended) I need to cut down. So I've retitled this blog "4mm scale agonies" because that was one of my favourite titles. So this is where I will blog about the upcoming 4mm scale APA Box layout. This is a rendering (it's not good eno
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

2

Now With added colour!

Get with the 21st century Ian. You've got photoshop why don't you use it to add some colour to your layout sketches? I like to see other peoples visualisations of their layouts even more so when they pop them in photoshop an give them that added zing with a bit of colour and texture. You know who you are... People who work with Photoshop all day find this task easy I expect and finish the task in a few minutes. Whereas I, with my laptop on my lap learning as I go along find it takes ages. B
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

In the minds eye

As is my wont I have been messing around with a pad and paper trying to visualise how the layout would look.
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

Track talk and things - a quick update

It's the 4th July. American Independence day and as a result my email inbox has been full to overflowing with emails proclaiming all kinds of wonderful holiday deals. The one from Caboose Hobbies bit me. So I bought some PECO code 75 track for the forthcoming project. (Is my typing of PECO in all caps indicative of some kind of brain-washing from the Pritchard Patent Product Co.? That's the way I've always seen the word courtesy of Railway Modeller. It just looks wrong written any other way. Pec
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

0

Back across the pond

The title of this entry does not allude to any forthcoming trip back to blighty, (oh that it did) but the desire to build an English outline layout. I've been umm-ing an ah-ing about it for a long time. I even joined the Scalefour society in the hopes of being able to start a finescale 4mm English layout. But with no 4mm finescalers in easy reach to talk to the enthusiasm faded. So I periodically find myself being blitzed with the urge to model in English 4mm scale and not being able to do anyth
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

2

As a bonus...

I have mentioned many times the industry of Deltak, now Hamon Deltak, across the road from work. Here's some film of the UP delivering a flat car to the premises. Notice how delighfully scenic the location is for being in the middle of a major industrial park.
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

0

Loads of loads...

OK only two... I thought I'd take time to share a few pictures of some outsize loads I've made as traffic for the APA box layout. This first one is based on a picture I found on the internet somewhere, I've lost the link now but it was built to fit the car it's on the proportions look about OK. So I'm happy with it. It looks a bit over simplified but that's pretty much how the inspiration looked. Besides its only a load on a freight car it will be moving all the time folks are looking at it...
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

3

Update

It's been a very busy few weeks. Not all model railroad related. Things were coming along very nicely with the APA box layout then we had a flooding in our basement. Luckily the layout was not damaged but quite some time was spent sorting the mess out. Which, of course left me precious little time to get the layout ready for the Granite City Train Show. I kinda sorta had it ready to exhibit. There was a bit of a bodge job in the fiddle yards but everything worked OK on the day and the layout imp
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

3

Crisis of confidence

It had to happen, a weekends hard work and some good progress made. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. Then the doubts started to come. It concerns the single storey warehouse, front left. The one that I planned to have the detailed interior in. I'm thinking it's not right for this small layout. Getting down close to the layout and looking at the close up views of other shots have caused this re-think. Take a look at these pictures below. All are lit in the same way... My feeling is
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

2

Some progress Photos

I've been busy this weekend. Saturday afternoon I ballasted the layout. A layout this small doesn't take much ballast and doesn't take long to do it. Then on Sunday brim full of confidence I set to and worked on the fiddle yards . Of course 'fiddle yard" is a very grandiose for what these will be. Just some plain baseboards with lengths of track fixed to them. Its all I need for such a small layout. However, once again my woodworking abilities failed me. Things like allowing for the thickness
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

Lighting the way

So, you've bought your APA box and built a layout inside it. Beautiful it is. So you pop the lid on the APA to finish it off and Lo and behold your wonderful creation is plunged into darkness! But fear not those wonderful folks at IKEA have created whole systems of lighting suitable for the purpose. Strip lights, spotlights and LED's are all there to be used and like the APA box, reasonably priced. For my APA box I chose the INREDA 22" It comes with all the fixtures and fittings needed as well
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

1

Presidents Day off

Thank goodness for American Presidents! Without them I wouldn't be gifted another day off work! So once again I'm making good use of the time off and working on the APA Box layout. Today I've done lots of little jobs. I made an abortive start on the fiddleyards, that got aborted when I discovered I didn't have enough 2 x 1. A case of not measuring twice I'm afraid. So after that I set to and sprayed the track, gave the ground a basic coat of earth colour, rounded the corners in the back of t
Ian Holmes

Ian Holmes

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