Having measured, planned and all that sort of stuff I'm back with the Border Counties route and its smaller stations with simple track layouts.
Thread here:
After the various things about Blog quality I've decided to go back to the 'thread' approach for the time being at least.
This is probably not the worst attempt at blogging (as I have been drawing useful feedback from it!) -but I do have to confess to not really knowing what I am doing with regards blocks/entries etc - and its not
Getting the APA boxes together has given me a better idea of what space is available, both within the boxes and in the space where they will reside when not in use!
There will have to be a few re-thinks. I was originally going to have a seperate fiddleyard attached to the end of the boxes, but the space for the boxes is absolutley filled by the boxes and there isn't really going to be space to store a seperate fiddleyard, whatever there is will have to be contained and self-contained within
I've researched the Northwest Highlands fairly extensively with regards to the HR proposals, of the ones not built I think the Ullapool/Lochinver ones stood the best chance, both for fish traffic but also to serve the western isles and Stornoway.
The proposals were brought to serve existing ports, a line from Garve to Ullapool would have encountered serious difficulties with terrain - the pennines are often referred to as the 'roof of England' and to me the terrain crossed would similarly be
Well I decided to give the point buidling another go today:
Changed a few things from the last attempts, the flux and the place I was working on the stuff!
Seems to have been a better experience altogether, now got the stock rails into this B8 loco release crossover, and although it is seen here in very raw form things do seem to be coming together.
I've yet to take the decision on whether to go the full 2mm hog or to put the crossing and checkrails to N standards.
At the
I probably need to ask more about couplings?
last time I had N gauge it was impossible to remove one of the wagons without overturning the whole train, but that was with the standard couplings!
What are DG's? and how fiddly are they?
- how far off are the magnetic knuckle couplings as per micro trains style?
Well it seems to be getting dark early and we've even had sleat today!
You may remember I was having doubts over the new 'small scale' despite the chances of having nothing more than a VERY small plank in 4mm.
The 2mm stuff does seem very fiddly, but I think I'll just try persevering. Someone mentioned the idea of doing a simple layout in the style of my old EM one, Deadwater Burn, based on the Deadwater on the Border counties route- the more I think about it it aint such a bad idea. I h
.. they are def. here!
Cheers Pete, that is an idea I had when I took on the 2mm FS but they say you shouldn't make a model of a model! I am very tempted though!
I see from the 2mm scale newsletter that Banff has been 'done' which removes me from any further obligations!
Well we had a wonderful holiday in Lossiemouth, Banff station well theres not much to see these days! Macduff retains some station buildings though.
Top trip was Spey bay for the viaduct walk!
I've got alot of thoughts as to how I'm going to progress the hobby this year, and in the smaller scale which is essential for house-room purposes, I think I am going to be calling the 'box shifters'!
finding anyother than the easitrac plain track a right pain in the arse and the buildings are
Spent a few days in the vacinity of the Ballachulish branch last week, a fair amount of which can now be cycled and walked along. Strangely this did not provide the same lure as looking at pics of the old railway operating.
This is an unusal phenomenon for me as I often find visiting the sites prove to be more interesting than the old photos. I think I might have come to the conclusion that because of the location in relation to the 'tourist traps' of the West Coast may have dulled the attr
As predicted the increase in daylight in the evenings has corresponded in a much bigger uptake of my non-model railway hobbies! I'd become a bit stalled as I mentioned last time with the Banff based layout and it is now stored for the summer.
I mentioned a boxfile diorama which I had started and this is now at track laid and scenics started level.
A few record shots here just to show what is going on though to be honest there isn't really anything worth showing yet.
operations
Thanks for all the the suggestions and general morale helping in respect of the frustration of the last entry, I'm not giving up on 'Banff-ish' but I am putting it away for a bit. Thanks also 'scanman' for the pm I will get back to you regarding questions/suggestions pretty soon. A decent day on the first day of BST has also confirmed 'modelling time' will be taking a bit of a hit- here's what its up against...
The baseboard has been mended (yes I did kick it across the room - a
Having spent another evening of swearing, throwing things about the room and generally not enjoying myself I think I am coming to terms with the idea that the making anything more complex than a simple-ish structure from scratch is outwith my skills!
- In fact its taken me a couple of beers and a favourite relaxing CD to even get to the stage of being able to think about my problems!
Come to think of it this was the achilles on with the 4mm stuff and the station building was much more
As mentioned in previous entry I had found I needed to shorten the length of the layout, if you remember it is to be stored end-on in a cupboard space, which I had found to be slightly smaller than the board as built, whoops!
I'd thought a whole 'new start' might be neccessary, but thinking a bit more has led to deciding the following should be ok.
-sawn off board, the board will be cut along the length of the black line, slightly shortening the scenic section, but nicely matching a
A few things have come to light over the last week:
Firstly, as built the board does not fit in its intended storage place, in spite of my best efforts of measuring up etc.
Secondly, I'm going to scrap and totally rebuild the goods shed so far having compared it with the plans of the real one on which its based.
Thirdly, the train shed building has been revamped, it did not need a total rebuild progress shots soon.
The first bit is currently the biggest problem, I've got a repl
A start has been made on the trainshed buildings, much confidence gained from getting the plans for the real one, thanks to a fellow RMWebber, much appreciated.
as mentioned before this layout will be 'inspired by' Banff, not a meticulous rendition.
- the building is definitely to be compressed lengthwise, having checked the plans, the full size would not fit in (and the one I've started building only just fits in- there may have to be more tweaks to the track )
I'm much hap
a bit of a problem getting decent pics in this small scale, suppose I will get used to it!
- the goodshed will be on a plinth/platform which will make it correct height, just checking clearances here.
Sea wall progress- foamboard or plywood has been used for support on top of which is Slaters 4mm dressed stone, I've gone a scale up to get those 'big stones' effects you get with large sea walls. The gaps are slowly being filled with scrap polystyrene and/or pink foam - messy! nee
Following on from the 'basic version' I measured up what was left of the board with a 16" length for fiddleyard, thats a type 2 and shortish freight train (approx equivalent to 2'6" in 4mm which was length of Deadwater cassettes )
So I now have a straight:
banff a4.pdf
and a curved:
bannf curved A4.pdf
version, think I prefer the curved, a few tweaks and I think its nearly there.
EDIT : just to add the tweaks,
bannf curved A4.pdf
a simple alteration to the goods shed line to stra
Definitely a night off the buildings tonight, both meself and my eyes very tired!
Time to veg-out with the laptop and think what to actually make this stuff into...
as mentioned before Cromdale and Blacksboat have simple-ish track layouts, they are both through stations though with the resulatant waste in fiddleyard space.
I remember also a thread on the old forum by Neil Ripley (Rippers) titled a '1001 layouts I'm not going to build' !There was a plan for a minimalist version of Ba
Well after getting the station windows something like, straightening out as the glue went tacky reduced the 'pinging off' effect and subsequent swearing.
Maybe I got complacent, measured out and cut up the plasticard for the goods shed, put it all together tonight, tested it with a box van and erm, it doesnt fit through the door - so thats the first time I've been underscale - I'm thinking then that N gauge is slightly larger than 'true 2mm' then - the door should be a scale 10ft wide and
Amongst other things (including posting off the order for track) have been looking at plans and buildings today, for the trial run I am looking for simple plans and came back to the idea of building another Deadwater but in 2mm or looking at the Speyside line from Nethy Bridge to Craigellachie.
Heres a few picutres from a previous visit
- would anyone care to hazard a guess to the dimensions of this magnificent goods shed?
I've been looking at the kestrel kits that I ha
Having had more deliberations, and particularly having seen the 'circular' Woodhead layout I think its time for more thought on the final layout. I'm now thinking circular is the way to go, which is what the man who forwarded the article said! (cheers Stewart! )and looking to see how either Helmsdale or Forsinaird stations on the Far North line would fit into that, they are both stations which in real life are quite curved in nature and so would look none the worse for being in circular format
One of the stations (and villages) I love to visit up north is Helmsdale, I've seen so many old pics of steam and also BRCW diesel days, reading some articles today has made me think this could be modelled convincingly in a 3'6 to 4 ft diameter circular layout, you can tell I've been reading the RM article about the 2FS Woodhead route!
Helmsdale has the advantage of being situated on a fairly tight curve anyway, and also has prototypical scenic breaks.
Whilst the layout I'm dreaming up is neither huge nor unduly complex, I am having a little trouble getting to grips with the actual change of scale - and the various point-building systems in 2mm
The couple of scratchbuild plans for buildings and stuff I've drawn up are just not looking right and tending to overscale. Starting to wonder if another little test-tracky type diorama might serve a purpose in getting used to the scale before making a move with a serious layout.
Having looke
Well after a lot of different ideas competing for an end on, stacked up space in a small airing cupboard, its hopefully time to tie up all the loose ends.
That 'clear moment' type thing came not only looking at a beautiful blue Loch Fyne yesterday, but also that there are some fairly big gaps in what I want out of N gauge RTR, I dont have the position time-wise to build alot of things and the combination of a new and decent-ish 24 and the prospect of the Dapol 26 becoming reality are what a
