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A multi-micro system in OO

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Tweedale - Double Deck

As mentioned in an earlier blog, the intention for this incarnation of Tweedale was to make it a double deck system, by stacking modules on top of others like bricks. Some progress has now been made in that direction.  The Castleport and Docks Branch modules were built before the double deck idea came along, and for best viewing they needed to be at a particular height. That meant everything else had to be fitted around them. As I wanted to operate both decks from a seated position, the

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Tweedale - Been There Done That

As I continue to wallow about in Tweedale's little backwater of dubious freelancedom and outdated technology, I keep getting these feelings of deja vu. It started with the reappearance of Castleport. Now Tweemoor Yard has also made a comeback. If I'd known I would be going around in circles like this I would have hung on to the original versions! Although the new scene is not an exact copy of the original Tweemoor, there is a rather creepy family resemblance.   I had a couple o

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Tweedale - Cul De Sac

Last year's slow listless progress on the layout was a sure indicator that all was not well. I finally came to the conclusion that I was being over ambitious in trying to build a room sized layout. Well I'm no stranger to giving up projects part way through, and the decision has now been made to abandon the large layout and go for something more manageable.  The old benchwork has already been dismantled and the timber reused to just build a straight shelf along one  wall rather than spre

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Tweedale - Coal Wharf

Although I was hoping to get the Docks Branch module finished before my usual winter break from modelling, it was not to be, and I've only recently got around to completing it. Or at least as completed as its likely to get.   The image above shows an overall view. Although the original intention was to have several different rail-served industries along this branch, the coal wharf seems to have hogged the scene and pushed out the other potential customers. The main feat

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Tweedale - New Castleport

I was rather late getting back into the swing of modelling this year. The trouble was indecision over how to proceed, which brought everything to a grinding halt early on. While I was happy with the track design and operation of the layout, the overall appearance was a disappointment. The minimal scenery idea with which I was trying to speed up construction, by ignoring anything outside the boundary fence, hadn't really come up to expectations. I still liked the idea in principle, but I don't th

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Tweedale - The Ebb and Flow of Coal

I'm not one for doing much modelling in the cold dark days of winter, and progress on the layout is only just starting to resume after fizzling out way back in the autumn. However the trains have been running regularly during the interval, and over the past few months the layout has become a testbed for trying out a new operating scheme, which has seen the line running as a single-commodity railway for the transport of coal. I'll start by saying that it is far from being a wholly realistic simul

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Tweedale - Slaghill Low

In the past few months since the last update, the main progress on the layout has been the addition of scenery in the Slaghill area. The photo below shows the shuttle railbus for Poshington waiting at the new Slaghill station...     Those of you who remember the old layout may have noticed that while the original Slaghill station was perched on a viaduct this new one is at ground level. To get around the discrepency I'm reasoning that there were two stations in Slaghill, buil

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Tweedale - Shunting Lab

One layout scheme that has nagged me over the years has been that of a table-top modular system. That is, small scenic boards with simple track arrangements that can be plugged together in any configuration on a table top. I suppose it's just the next level up from set-track really. I've mentioned it before in an earlier post, but it didn't get much further at the time. However the idea has never completely gone away and the system of self-contained track modules that I'm currently using for Twe

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Son of Tweedale

As this is the first blog post dealing with the new Tweedale layout, I'll start with some background.   The space available for the new layout is a spare room which had long been earmarked for the proper serious layout that never materialised, and has meanwhile been used as a storeroom/workshop/shed. The size of the room is 11x11 feet, though the planned layout only takes up about 8x6 feet. Well I'm not a greedy boy. Actually it had more to do with leaving access to other fixtures in t

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Tweedale - The Story So Far

It's been awhile since I last posted here, but now that the days are getting lighter (and I can see what I'm doing), the modelling juices are beginning to flow again. It's time to stir out of my winter lethargy and get back to the next phase in Tweedale's evolution. First though I thought that a recap and update might be useful for putting everything into context.   Tweedale was started in 2014, as a temporary, freelance, low tech bit of fun, with an estimated lifetime of about 2 years

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Tweedale Lite III

Tweedale Lite's exhibition outing has now been and gone. There was a pleasant friendly atmosphere at the show and a good selection of layouts. Tweedale seemed to go down well and received some nice comments. The layout ran all day without any major problems, so I was very pleased with it. Exhibiting is not really my thing, but just as a one-off, I have to admit it did make for a novel and enjoyable day out.   Here is a photo showing the layout set up at the show. The church venue was r

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Tweedale Lite II

The layout extension (aka Tweedale Lite) is now nearing completion for it's exhibition outing later this month. The photo below shows it set up on a table at home.     There will be curtains around the base but they have been left off here so that you can see the leg assemblies. These were kit-bashed from what was described as a mini-greenhouse at the cheap and tacky discount store from which it was obtained. For transport, the tubes can just be unplugged from the plastic fittin

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Tweedale - Frog Fen Lane

My old copy of Tweedale Byways (1908 edition) includes a sketch of Frog Fen Lane, which I've reproduced below...      It looks a pleasant enough spot. I imagine the artist sitting happily beside the dusty road on a lovely sunny day, the only sounds being the gentle tinkling of sheep bells and the chuckling of contented chickens, with maybe the odd skylark thrown in for good measure. If you were to have wandered along and informed him that the area was to be designated as a 'g

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Tweedale Lite

One problem with having an exhibition organizer among your circle of friends seems to be that you are constantly subjected to thinly veiled hints and an underlying pressure to provide something for a show. I used to exhibit some 20 years ago, but in the end I found that the stress involved outweighed the enjoyment, so gave it up. I have no great urge to get drawn back into all that again. So far I've managed to fend off enticements to show Tweedale, by pointing out that it was designed very much

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Tweedale - Industrial Inspiration

One of the better things on the Internet, I reckon, is Google Maps Street View. I'm a great fan. While there are those who like to walk off their Sunday lunch with a nice stroll along the prom or through the park, you're more likely to find me sneaking around some of the world's more seedy neighbourhoods in the company of Google's little yellow fellow. It was on one such trip, to Ostrava in the industrial heart of Czechia, that I came across the inspiration for Tweedale's new industrial scene...

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Tweedale - Castleport

Yes, the port scene has a name. There's a castle at the top of the hill, and a port at the bottom - hence Castleport. How dull, I hear you say, and you may well be right. If Google is to be believed, no other town in the whole of the English speaking world has deemed the name worthy of use, even though there are plenty that would qualify. Where the name does crop up it tends to be associated with mundane things like retail outlets and shopping malls.     The town itself, clim

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Tweedale - Florence Flour Mill

As mentioned in the previous blog, I wanted to include a couple of modeled mills in the port scene. The Royal Oil Mill was dealt with then. The other, Florence Flour Mill, has now been added to the right hand side of the scene. It was originally intended to be a tribute to Clarence Mill in Hull, an impressive landmark structure beside the river until reduced to a heap of rubble about three years ago.     Much time was then spent pondering on how the heck I was going to squeez

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Tweedale - To The Docks

With the Tweemoor Yard scenery all but finished, I was ready to move on to second of the three scenes on this layout extension board. I decided to tackle the (as yet unnamed) port next. This was the starting point...     The area is 17 inches wide by 13 inches deep. The trackwork consists of a simple fork, and not a very satisfactory one at that. I had originally installed a handmade point to a smaller radius than the Peco one in order to squeeze in a capacity of 3 wagons for

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Tweedale - A Day Trip To The Woods

Since the last blog the Tweemoor Yard scene has lost its post-apocalyptic nuclear winter look. Grass has sprouted from the wasteland, trees have burst forth, and buildings have popped up like mushrooms, including Mr Yardley's long awaited yard office.     As can be seen the forestry department have been busy. It was a long and tedious job that can be summed up in two words - never again. On the plus side, the newly planted ancient woodland has now become something of a local

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Tweedale - A Cambered Road

Continuing with the Tweemoor Yard scene, one of the things indicated in the grand plan (shown a couple of blogs back) was a road winding in from the front and over a railway bridge at the back. Unfortunately the yard has spread out more than originally intended, so the road has had to be squeezed in rather tightly at the front. Its more of an N gauge road really, one of those narrow lanes where you wouldn't want to meet a tractor coming the other way.   Previous road surfaces on the layout co

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Tweedale - Ballasting Tweemoor Yard

Tweemoor Yard is Tweedale's rather pathetic answer to Whitemoor. When it comes to keeping up with the Joneses, the Tweedalers have a lot to learn. Small though the yard is, it nevertheless forms the hub of the new extended system, where wagons are blocked together for shunting trips out to other parts. Here's a simplified operating schematic showing how the yard relates to the rest of the system...     There are three sidings if you include the line that continues through to the port. I thi

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Tweedale - Sector Plates and Turntable

Good progress has been made on the new extension in the past month. I've been making an effort to get a lot of the drudge work done while the first rush of enthusiasm lasts. The flourescent lighting has been added, the track has been laid and everything is now wired and working. The weight of the unit has risen to 8lb.     This seems like a good opportunity to describe the construction and operation of the gadgetry, before it all gets buried beneath scenery.   Secto

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Tweedale - A New Extension Beckons

Tweedale was declared 'finished' over a year ago, and indeed nothing of great significance has been done to it since. It still gets operated fairly regularly though, and for a small self-contained system I've been very happy with it on the whole. However there are a couple of things I thought would enhance the operation. One is a basic sorting yard, from which trips could work out to other parts of the system. The other is a sea port, allowing the Tweedalers to join the global economy and dabble

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Tweedale 17 - A Short Railbus

For some time now the denizens of Tweedale have been clamouring for better passenger train accomodation, having become dissatisfied with the old brake van that has been used hitherto. Personally I can't think of a nicer way of travelling along lazy bylines, but there is no accounting for taste, and the Tweedalers disagree. So the railway company has finally given way and obtained a Park Royal railbus. Sadly this was found to be too long for the line's sharp curves and short platforms (both pract

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Tweedale 16 - A Novel Turntable Mechanism

I don't know if its the same with you folk, but I do get a bit of a kick out of finding a use for something for which it was never designed or intended. So when it came to needing a turntable for the new Tweedale appendage mentioned in the previous blog, the first thing to do was look through drawers and cupboards for 'something rotatable' that could be adapted. That something turned out to be a hand drill...     It had been bought some time ago from one of those bargain discount stores, bu

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