Avonwick South Devon in 2mm (Kris' Blog)

Hi Kris,

 

This is looking very good! It looks like it's designed to be transportable to exhibitions?

Good progress Kris - am a little concerned at the lack of cross bracing to the legs...I assume it won't all domino if a cat jumps on it etc

 

Just remind me, is the idea to exhibit it as a roundy roundy or is that just for stay-at-home purposes? The reason I ask, is that the original Avonwick scenic board is strongly orientated to be viewed from one side and I just wondered whether you will keep it as that or remove the ends and lower the backscene to help integrate it into the whole layout - worth making a little scale mock up as a tester?

Afternoon Captain. Yep it's transportable and all fits in the car. If you would like it at Taunton at Easter it would be possible.

 

Pete - The lack of bracing on the legs is not an issue once the whole unit is constructed. What has surprised me is that it appears to be significantly more stable in this configuration than the original.

 

The original Avonwick will still be configured as was. The ends are structural to the layout and can't be removed. This posses a problem. The new boards are intended to allow for easier use but rather than just having plain boards that take up space, I felt that adding some scenery would be a real bonus and would add to the layout. The scenery on the new boards will be an missmash of different locations on the branch line so would not directly link up with Avonwick. To disguise this fact I shall be placing a couple of info boards on the join between the old and the new. There will also be a representation of Sorley tunnel in this area to help the disguise. (hopefully this will be long enough that you will not be able to see the train on the 2 different sections.)

Kris - thanks to expand - I just ask the question as to whether the layout will have a designated front and back as perhaps people might be inclined to gather more in front of the 'proscenium arch' framed view rather than the 'open' scenic areas...especially as this has the integrated lighting/backscene - just an observation, not meant to be a critiscism - feel free to ignore.

That's fine Pete. Avonwick was and will still be the focal point of the layout. I just felt that if i was to have built the new section as a non scenic fiddle section I would have ended up with 25% of the layout being the "visual part" so I felt it was far better look at making the other sections scenic (with the exception of the fiddle yard).

Agreed Kris - A lot of potential 'frontage' space at exhibitions is taken up by non scenic portions of layouts so seeing a single track meander through some scenics will be a nice balance to Avonwick station - look forward to seeing your progress.

Wow- That went together fast! Looks great. How about some collaboration on fencing. I have a pillar drill and a vertical drill stand that might speed up the process. We could do all the ones for both our layouts in a single (Tedious!) day.

Fencing collaboration sounds like a good idea. I don't know how soon I will be ready to do this though and I need to get hold of some more drill bits first though I think that I have broken all of my 0.3 0.35 and 0.4mm drill bit that I tend to use for this.