Looks very impressive now I see the big picture

It's a diorama no question.

BUT

If you popped a platform on there and ran a DMU in and out of it to and from a fiddle yard. it would be layout. No question.

Put a simple platfrom kit up there on top of the embankment. You know it makes sense

Ian

O.K then Ian,

This must mean my last winters diorama was a micro layout ?

That has a station - a working (flickering) oil light - and a point - and a working signal, but is shorter. Sorry about the backstand - I'm no artist !!

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On second thoughts it may not be longer - The original 'plan' for this one was to use a base the size of A4 paper, but earned an extension (part hidden by the barrow crossing)

Geoff T.

Looks like a layout to me Geoff, and very nicely done too.

Ian

Paperclips for the culvert railings... very nice, might nick that idea myself.

Particularly like the "open" feel of that first siding board, I always seem to cram track into every square inch of board that I can, and it all ends up looking like Clapham Junction on steroids rather than the run-down country feel that I sought to achieve - and you seem to have.

Hi Cromptonnut,

You're not alone in trying to put too much track into the 'picture', let's face it we all enjoy running trains, but think of your layout as a 3D picture. It's very much an art form in getting the civil engineering, landscape, people to look right, and remember the digital camera can be very cruel, but if that say's it's O.K. then you've done well !!

Anyway to continue with this programming track. The stream under the culvert is resin 'water', sadly my oldest set had gone 'off' with the hardener looking like sugary white crystals. I had bought another small set last November and when found that was fine.

As this mixture 'creeps' for almost 24 hours I'm hoping I sealed the tunnel walls with enough PVA when building !! Otherwise it may look like the summer of '76 drought.

Back to working up a plasticard foot bridge for when this 'water' is dry .....................

Geoff T.

My biggest problem - and I guess I'm not alone in this - is that I have about a quarter of the space I wish I had, so I'm still trying to squeeze in 12 carriage expresses when I only have room for 4.

I'm deliberately making this project an "end to end" which will limit my train length to about 4ft due to using a traverser (to save space) rather than my usual "roundy roundy" as I just don't have the room at the moment for that. Of course, it wouldn't be difficult to update the layout to a roundy-roundy if I get more space in the future but at the moment I just have 12ft x 2ft or thereabouts.

I really like the "lifted track" effect you have achieved there, and particularly on an embankment. Scenic breaks will enable me to run longer trains than the visible section. Watch this space!

Hi cromptonnut,

Space is always the problem, with most of us it's not having enough, however think of those living in bungalows with all that loft space ?

Oh yes, that also can be a problem, look how much it'll cost to fill the available space !!

My first layout is an end to end jobbie, just under 12 feet of visual track, although the full thing is just over 15 foot. It's simply impossible to have even 4 coach trains operating as the platforms are simply too short. My way around that helped by being BR blue diesel era, is to just use DMU's up to 3 car length.

The other dodge was to join the local (11 miles) MRS where the track has seen my railfreight 33 pulling up to 29 x 45 tonne oil tanks !! With an 8 coach train behind a 33 or 47 it looks fine - although even the station there will only accommodate 6-7 coaches.

Anyway - the rain has stopped and I'll see if I can get out to finish a little more embankment.

Geoff T.

Right, couldn't do much between showers, but decided I had to sort out the vegetation around the deep culvert mouth before I could fix the small hikers footbridge in. The plan is for tallish reeds, dried out at the rear with shorter slightly more greenish in the stream edge.

Here it is after the first fix with the very wet PVA showing, the bridge is just resting in place at present.

I may try to add some depth behind these, but can't add any more until this session is fully dry.

I must be mad ...... all this for a programming track. Still I wouldn't have done well as a racing cyclist if I'd never done any training, and that's what this is 'training' learning what various materials do and how to handle them.

Geoff T.

Mind if I steal some of the way these things are looking for my O gauge project?

Hi cromptonnut,

You can pinch any ideas you fancy. I picked up ideas from websites and perhaps even more important where to get certain materials. I'm out tonight again !! but have done all the embankment vegetation and now just need to add some more reeds in the stream to thicken them up.

Depending on weather, because I photograph outdoors, I may be able to add a couple more shots tomorrow evening.

Busy old life - At the new DCC club on Monday; Bletchley Park with MKMRS Tuesday; Out to Aylesbury toningt to the aircraft modelling club, then running trains for Bletchley Park tomorrow afternoon !! Being retired is hard work !!!

Geoff T.

Can I ask what you used for the culvert? I'm assuming you're modelling in OO - it looks a bit like an N gauge single tunnel mouth? Or is it one of the Woodland Scenics products?

I've discovered that the "standard" for a twin track embankment works out about 8 inches in 7mm and I happen to have some 8 inch wide pieces of MDF that are just the right length. Am thinking of having the embankment perhaps just an inch or two high (less than yours when you scale it), with the back of the embankment dropping slightly towards the backscene which will be quite close to the back track.

The rearmost track will be a now singled ex-double line, and the visible part of the second track is a headshunt/siding truncating several feet from the exit of the layout on the left, in a very similar manner to yours, with the rest of where that line would have gone leaving sleeper indents etc. The front part of the layout, on a lower level but above baseboard level (so I can put in the stream/culvert) will have sidings for an industrial unit - which, at present, I'm struggling to fit in - but good plan progress today after months of deliberation so now thanks to your inspiration I've got an idea what I want, it's just a case of how to fit it all in!

O gauge is much bigger than I ever expected...

Looks very impressive now I see the big picture

It's a diorama no question.

BUT

If you popped a platform on there and ran a DMU in and out of it to and from a fiddle yard. it would be layout. No question.

Put a simple platfrom kit up there on top of the embankment. You know it makes sense

Ian

The Heljan "Takeley Station" kit would do the job just nicely ...

Hi cromptonnut,

I didn't realise I'd not said what it was - yes it's '00', nominal 4 mm scale. I did think about leaving sleeper indentations, but decided it would be a messy job as well as most lifted track seemingly leaving little trace. I don't know if there was a programme of removing, cleaning and reusing ballast ? I believe it is done with modern equipment on lines still in use, but that's re-using at the same location. Indentations on 7 mm will probably work well.

I would have thought matchsticks would still be useable for fencing on 7 mm scale, on 00 a nominal 2.25 mm matchstick represents a 6.3/4 " fence post so at 7 mm slightly under 4 ". Height and angle of embankment need matching, you'll notice I have much steeper (unrealistically so) at the buffer end, but in my minds eye the land rises here, rather than box the sides in I kept green with steep - pretend it's rocky ground embankment.

I don't recall giving my measurements, but I worked on a 250 mm wide base, 100 mm wide embankment top, resting on 50 mm side supports. To try (and it worked) to prevent the 6 mm MDF warping the box section had 9 mm sq beading stuck along all the inside joints. I look forward to your variation on the theme, it should look very good with the increased detail available on '0' models.

I again can't recall if I said that the embankment sides are from styrene ceiling tiles. I can still get these locally for just under a fiver for a pack of 20 and find them an ideal if messy base onto which I lay the final ground mix of 50% sawdust (I can get free) and 50% finishing plaster. The mess being the static charged cut off scraps that seem to get everywhere.

The cattle creep/culvert was one 'In my stock' from the Wills range, I'd purchased that for another job, but it was too small, here, although I'd not even intended using it when the MDF was cut it worked out to be the perfect size.

If you think I can be of any more help just ask, I've always thought that stimulating another modeller to have a crack at something is one of the highest accolades anyone can have. That inspiration can come from very humble models with each build improving on the originals - hence some of the super detail stuff we aspire to, but know I'll never match !!

Geoff T

Once my Tesco home delivery arrives this evening and I have eaten, I plan to start work on building the baseboards I require for something similar to your idea - although hoping to add in a small station on the left hand side. It may take a while though.

Am hoping to be able to put a gentle curve into the track so it doesn't look too straight and obvious.

My plan is that this will be "layout 1" which I can then build another layout to "bolt on" to the front of it, which will be the freight facility leading off from the headshunt that truncates mid-layout.

However, I do need to finish the wagon as well so I've at least got something to check clearance, and really need to get on with finishing the shunter kit (I notice you found my thread on that) so I've got something to move it as well so I can check the electrics as I go along!