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
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
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
Tweedale has acquired a temporary appendage. Ultimately it will form part of a small tabletop modular system seperate from the Tweedale theme, but for now it provides a run round loop for the layout, which allows operation with just one loco rather than the usual two. The plan below shows how it fits in with the rest of Tweedale...
I've tried to keep the length of the run round loop as short as possible. With a capacity of 2 short-wheelbase wagons, a small turntable at one end and a wh
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
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
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
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...
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...
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
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
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
