Replacement Windows The layout is now in its final stages of construction. For the past two years it has endured cardboard mock-ups for the windows which seperate each of the scenes. Now that the scenery is all but complete, I've finally been able to determine the exact size required for the windows and replace them. Here is an overall view of the layout without its windows, now moved to a corner of the spare bedroom....
...and here it is with the new windows in place, and lighting on...
I wasn't so happy with how the industrial scene was coming together. It just wasn't as blatantly industrial as I wanted. So I've added an extra elevated track through the middle of the scene - the Slaghill Avoiding Line. Why anyone would want to avoid Slaghill I can't imagine, but it does at least have the effect of enclosing things a bit more.
This is just a dummy track, and is there purely for looks, though I suppose it could be used to store or display spare rolling stock.
T
Development of the industrial scene has continued during the past month. The chemical works at Slaghill is now complete, and a start has been made on the lower level Grimley area. The staple diet of Tweedalers is pie and peas, and the demand is met in part by Grossman's of Grimley, whose abattoir, tannery, glue and pie factory is a major industry in the town. It has been allocated 2 siding spots out of the 6 available at Grimley, and has its own loading/unloading platform. Inward traffic compris
Slaghill is dominated by steel and chemical industries, which provide plenty of varied traffic for the Tweedale Railway. However it became apparent early on that there wouldn't be enough room on the layout for loading and unloading facilities for them. So it was decided to make them into 'phantom industries', situated just off the layout and supposedly fed from extensions of the two sidings. In reality the sidings just fizzle out behind buildings. Wagons for the steel works are left in the stati
Until now wagons for the facing sidings at Dale End have been rope-shunted at Slaghill, to get the engine at the correct end of the train. However the imminent scenic development of Slaghill threatens to surround the railway with tall industrial structures, making rope-shunting impractical. The simplest solution seemed to be to provide the railway with a second loco.
Luckily in the spares box I had a Tenshodo SPUD (24.5mm wheelbase), which could be used as the basis for a small industrial cr
Dale End Diary
26 October. Yes, the Dale End scene is now declared to be finally complete. No more fiddling. Three months fussing over one square foot of scenery is quite long enough I reckon.
Here's an overall view of the scene.
Beneath the covered area at the right a chute dispenses sawdust into an open wagon, to be transported to the chemical works at Slaghill for processing into ethanol. I can't say I've ever actually heard of sawdust being transported by rail before, at leas
September turned out to be a busy month, so I didn't get as much done to the layout as I was hoping. Still, every little helps, so here are a few more progress shots from the Dale End sawmill scene...
Dale End Diary
12 September. Nearly half way through the month and about all I have to show for it is a pile of pitprops. It contains about 100 poles, cut from bamboo skewers, and was as tedious to construct as it looks. In the prototype reference photos I'd found, the stacks were about
This month's blog looks at progress on the Dale End sawmill scene, a method for creating low relief conifers, and the latest update from The Pits.
Dale End Diary
Dale End is the upper terminus of the line, situated at the edge of the extensive Tweedale Forest. The main industry is a sawmill, supplying pit props, sawn timber, and wood waste to other industries down the line. This month a start was made on the scenery for this section of the layout. Here are some in-progress shots...
9
Here is the July progress report for Tweedale, which includes a method for creating dense woodland from corrugated cardboard shapes.
Firstly, the Poshington-Upon-Twee scene is now declared to be finished. The station has acquired a canopy (as befits a town of such importance), plus a coal yard, some fencing and other details. Nothing special about construction, the canopy is from card and balsa, and the coal heap from a piece of 'oasis' flower-arranging foam shaped with sandpaper.
The
This 3rd blog installment describes how the Tweedale layout is currently operated.
Some people relax with crosswords or sodukos, I like to solve shunting puzzles. I endeavour to fit in at least one 20-30 minute running session each day where possible. I find the regular operating sessions help to maintain my interest. Tweedale was designed to work for its living and has been operated ever since the track was laid and wired, but that's not to say it's run in a prototypical manner. I treat the
This 2nd blog installment describes the Tweedale layout in a bit more detail, with a tour of each station in turn.
As might be guessed from the name, the railway supposedly serves an area known as Tweedale, but apart from that it has no particular history or geographical location, it just is. My interest is in shunting puzzles and the layout was designed with that in mind. A number of industrial supply chains have been set up as a foundation for the layout operation, best explained in a tour
Welcome to the Tweedale Layout Blog.
Good Intentions
Tweedale has been under construction for just over a year now, but work on it has been slowing down noticeably of late. When I set out I was hoping to get the whole thing finished in a year - hopelessly optimistic in hindsight, but I suppose a useful measure of my 'production rate' for planning future projects. What was needed, I figured, was a boost in motivation. So I've created this blog, with the pressure of a regular monthly progress
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
The standard tension lock couplings in use on Tweedale have been an ongoing source of irritation. They work reliably enough, but they are just so darned ugly. The original plan was to replace them with Alex Jacksons, but that has now changed and I've decided to stick with tension locks but make my own from from thin wire. They seem a bit less fiddly to set up than the AJs and the tolerances are more forgiving. I'm very pleased with the results, so I thought I'd share the details below on how the
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
