Julian

Sorry folks, just got back into RM Web after a bit of a hiatus (=house move now to Axminster area). Am I correct that the next annual SWAG bash will definitely be at Staplegrove village hall, Taunton, on Sunday 29 April? If so, I'll be there. Thanks muchly to all.

Really like this, Jerry - well done indeed! Very, very inspirational to those of us who love micros - thank you. I'd scoped out something similar in a box-file, as an Inglenook 3-2-2. Do hope you have a nice break away and are on the mend, health-wise For d&h, 'twas me who built the 2-in-1 layout featured in RM many years ago: a mini-modern era warehouse scene one one end (using a Lima 08 and a couple of lwb vans) and a light railway branch terminus on the other end (Dapol Terrier and a Ratio 4-wheeler coach). I think the whole thing was about a metre long with a scenic divide in the centre. The concept was not original - I nicked it off Dave Carson from an article he had in Scale Model Trains in the 1980s, I think. Very limited in operation though! All the best guys . Julian (Andrews)

Hi Luke. Yes, I operated MicrO exactly as you have suggested. I used S&W couplings because I already had them and I knew they worked well if set up correctly. Good luck with this project - I'm sure it will be fun. I think one of my biggest gripes (self-induced) was that the black mdf frame I put around the front of MicrO and the high backscene/end boards rendered it hard to see what I was doing when it came to lining up the traverser and spotting the wagons - the whole visual element of the layout seemed a bit claustrophobic, if you see what I mean. Had it been more "open", it would have been more successful I reckon. Whatever loco you use to shunt the layout, it needs to be a good slow runner, that's a given. Best of luck!

I'm the bloke who built "MicrO", which was in that issue of RM. It was exhibited just the once, at the RM Web show near Taunton. The traverser held a loco and one wagon. Each of the 3 tracks on the scenic section held two wagons. I put a black-painted mdf frame around the front of the layout to give the appearance of looking into a TV set or a fish tank; not one of my better ideas, in hindsight! I used Spratt and Winkle auto-couplings and they worked a treat. Good luck with this project, Luke. I'm afraid I became a bit bored with the limitations of shunting this wee layout quite quickly and it was soon sold on to someone who wanted it as an O gauge test track.

Lovely loco, very tempting..... but I actually want a Caley "Standard Goods" 294 class for my Killin-inspired layout. I have piccies of 57246 and 57324 working the branch in the late 1950s. How much of a compromise is a BR-era renumbered version of this "Rails"/Bachmann 812 going to be then, folks? Essential (= obvious) differences? Apologies for my ignorance - no offence intended to any rivett-counters reading this. And yes, I know I could probably justify one under Rule 1! Thanks muchly.

Many thanks for helpful replies. Yes, I've done some testing ad my Bachman Pannier does not stall on the dead frogs but you're quite right, the points do need to be absolutely flat to the board, with no hint of "bowing". Thanks again.

Thanks folks. Yes, I normaily use Code 75 with live frog points but just happen to have a few set-track ones and they seem to save the odd inch of two, which I wanted for this wee micro. Having done some tests, my Bachmann Pannier seems to cope with the dead frogs but maybe that's more luck than anything else!

Has anyone had any experience of running a Hornby Sentinel on Peco's Set-track turnouts and crossing - both dead frog? With that short a wheelbase, I wonder if it will stall on the frogs?

I'm planing a new (very) micro layout, based on Jack Trollope's "Jaxcilli Industries", as per one of the late Carl Arendt plan books. To save space, I'm thinking of using a new Hornby Sentinel diesel shunter and Peco's Set-Track points and diamond crossing, both "dead frog". Has anyone had experience of using this loco on dead-frog turnouts/crossings as the short wheelbase of the loco leads me to think it may stall on them. Thanks for any advice offered.

I'm planing a new micro layout. To save space, I'm thinking of using a Hornby Sentinel diesel shunter and Peco's Set-TRack points and diamond crossing, both "dead frog". Has anyone had experience of using this loco on dead-frog turnouts/crossings as the short wheelbase of the loco leads me to think it may stall on them. Thanks for any advice offered.

Nice one, Dave! Saw a pic of it in the Scottish Exhibition guide this year, although I didn't get up there this year, sadly. Keep micro-ing, mate! Looks good and a really nice concept. you need a 73 on it, I reckon - single newspaper van trains to the south coast resorts? Didn't Weymouth get a service like this in the 1980s? Will get in touch with you shortly, now we've moved house. All the best, as ever. Jules

No damage at all. BTW, the layout may not appear in RM until the Spring of 2016, I'm told, and it is has been sold, prior to a house move!

Yes it is, mounted very crudely on a block of wood, with just the extended throw passing through the backscene. How basic is that?!

Hi Dave. No haven't seen that one - will look though!

The layout measures 4 feet long, 11 inches at the widest end (left) and 7 inches at the narrow end (right). Feel free to copy the trackplan if you like!

No hinges or fussy board joins: "Portwey" is all on one 49" board, fiddle yard included! I can't do board joins that well...

The backscene is not done with any clever digital photo images, believe me! It's just plain 'ole ancient Brian Sherrif printed backscenes (from the ever excellent Freestone Model Accessories), carefully cut out and overlapped, with the gaps covered up with the Townscene "Farthingwood" trees, again with as much cut out from the printed sky on the pare as I can, to make them a bit "feathery". 'Wish I could do better but, hey ho, this was supposed to be a quick layout project. Which it really wasn't, in the end. I think I lost the will to live after making up and painting that Ratio signal, which I detailed with a few bits of wire, some Dart Castings ground discs and some LSWR finial castings...and never believe anyone who says that those Airfix/Dapol plafom canopies "go together in minutes". They don't. They really don't. Lots of bad language involved there....

Too kind, too kind, Martyn! At least it worked pretty much as-intended at the SAWG "do". Which said, my attempts at using an M7 and an Ivatt 2-6-2 to shunt some wagons fitted with Spratt and Winkles proved that such locos have just tooooo much overhang for Peco's small radius turnouts. Result - de railed wagons. I'll stick with the Pannier, I think.. it's safer that way!

Could this have "Shell Island revisited " stamped on it somewhere (discretely of course...)? More, more, more please, Neil - it's lovely.

Many thanks for all your kind comments, folks, including those from my esteemed fellow micro layout builder, Mr Tailby. Really gratifying to know the layout may have inspired a few of you to have a go. Yes, it did the Nailsea show last weekend and it's booked for two more shows this year: Dave and Marcus' Exmoor Coast Railway Modellers show at Minehead on August 2 and another one in the west country not so long after Easter - more details on RM web soon, once it's all finalised. Thanks again and kind regards to all RM Web'ers who may read this.

Pics showing typical stock used on the layout. The Spratt and Winkle couplings are evident in some shots, I suspect. I don't fit every wagon with them - if I want to run a rake of, say, 2 or 3 vans, I'll just fit the "outer" two wagons and use the Bachmann tension locks on the rest. Similarly, I use a "converter wagon" with a S&W on one end and a tension-lock on the other from time to time, if I need to keep a tension lock on one end of a loco, for example. I haven't found an easy way of using Spratt and Winkles on bogie stock (coaches etc) and so envisage retaining tension locks on those.

Nigel - thanks for the praise. Glad you like it. The layout was only finished on Jan 11 this year, a day before its first exhibition outing. Yes, I tried to draw up a timetable at one stage but there's the inevitable problem of the fidle yard operation, to make up a train. At shows, as I operate on my own, I think the real operational use of the layout is to keep something running for the paying public as much as possible. To that end, I use a Lima ex-GWR railcar or a 14XX/autocoach shuttling between the fiddle yard siding and Platform 1, nearest the back of the layout. On Platform 2 road and the goods bay siding I simply shunt a few wagons back and forth. This can then turn into a full-scale "Inglenook Sidings" game if you then use Platform 1 road when the passenger shuttle is safely out of the way, back in the FY. So the public sees a bit of goods wagon shunting using (mostly!) hands-off, Spratt and Winkle couplers, interspersed with a passenger train in and out from time to time. Were I able to call on the services of a second operator, I might try a limitied timetable: typically, this would see around 7 or 8 return trains a day going between "Portwey" and the major town station (suppose "Portwey" links with Weymouth mostly); 3 return cross country services a day to/from, say, Yeovil, via Dorchester; a very short morning parcels/mail/newspapers train from Weymouth, bringing with it a station pilot loco for the day. This would return late afternoon to Weymouth. Next, a morning and an afternon goods to/from Weymouth (the goods yard access is assumed to be where the FY is now, off-scene). For variety, I'd run maybe an engineers/PW train once a day, with a couple of ballast wagons and brake van. To continue with your questions - no run round meens you only run push/pull or single-car diesel units on passenger OR ...you use a station pilot to couple onto the back of the passenger/goods stock and so "release" the train engine at the buffer stops. For that reason, I put isolated dead-end (switchable) sections at the end of Platform 1 and 2 roads, against the buffers, long enough to isolate a 2-6-2 tank or smaller. However, it'd look a bit much to do such a manoeuvre on a one-coach passenger train on "Portwey", I feel. Why no sector plate or traverser? Because I wanted to build something quickly (joke..ask my wife about my interpretaion of "a quick layout") and I wanted the Peco panel for the turnout/section switches to be mounted rigidly on the board, with all wiring, CDU, connectors etc neatly contained below the framing. And I'm not that good at making moving FY boards in terms of getting the level of the tracks to tie-up, in the vertical plane, from bitter experience. Is the FY a limitiation, as-built? Yes, I suppose so but NOT if you stick to my concept of operation, as described above. The FY is 18 inches long so will hold a railcar/14XX & autocoach or a 2-6-2T and 3 wagons, when shunting, which is what the "Ingelnook" shunting model requires, in the headshunt. I added a Peco set-track (self isolating, dead frog) point to the headshunt in the FY so I can vary the type of locos used to shunt the goods stock without having to use the "scale hand" to crane-shunt one of them off the layout. In this case, it's one of two Panniers, an M7 or an Ivatt 2-6-2T. That way, the public gets to see another loco in use without any delay in rerailing it in the FY. One of the advantages of this track plan and urban layout design is that it lends itself to all manner of UK prototypes: think "Midland/LMS", with a 3F Jinty, a new L&Y 2-4-2, a Pug, a 3F or 4F 0-6-0 goods loco and a push-pull train (maybe with a bit of licence if you want a suitable coach and loco unless you can kit-build). Think "Eastern/LNER" with a J72, J83, J39, N2, Heljan railbus, Drewry 04. Think "Western/GWR" with the stock I'm using and a Prairie, a 22XX, Dean Goods etc. Think "Southern Electrics" with any of the current 2-car EMUs available and some 3rd rail, albeit the layout may need to be extened a bit to 5 feet or so in length. Think "modern image" (sorry if that term offends... I've read the letters page in the latest '"Modeller too!), and use any of the suitable DMUs available, with an 08 on parcels/newspapers/pw vehicles to be shunted about. And the list goes on IF, and I stress the word "IF", you are happy to build a layout which others may deem "operationally constipated" (ie lacking in size, scope, variety and long-term satisfaction). I can live with that as I get bored quickly with my layouts and so have built quite a few one-board, micro efforts over the past 25 years, almost all of which have subsequently been sold within a year of seeing completion. As for "cornering the market" in these silly little layouts (my description), well maybe - but others can- and have done so much better, I know (see under "Rushby/Shell Island" or "Rushby/Abergwynant"- are those perhaps the ultimate in awesome British micros?). Thanks though, Jack!

Thanks muchly, folks. I'll add some more photos with the stock on it over the next week or so. AndyJH - the layout description at the top of this page details the stock used. The backscene is nothing more than the very old Brian Sherrif terraced houses sheet, one of several he does and still available from Freestone Model Accessories by mail order or at the occasional exhibition. The trees are cut out from the Brian Sherrif "Farthingwood" tree sheet (careful with the spelling of that...). I reckon they're as good as I can get these days in the UK, short of the photographic backscenes from the likes of Int'l Models which seem just that bit too "real" for my liking, the detail on which can detract from the layout itself. Just my opinion. As for going 3-rail, SR electrics on a layout like this - well, a resounding "yes" to that concept! It won't happen on this layout though, I fear, for all manner of reasons. Nice thought though. Keep looking for more pics if you can be bothered.

Armin (and others): many thanks for your kind comments. I didn't use flash at all with my (very) cheap digital camerafor these photos - they were all taken indoors in natural light.

And now a couple more showing the FY, turnout/section controls and one showing the layout in its entirety. If anyone wants any more photos, I'll put some rolling stock on the layout. Feel free to comment, folks. Many thanks if you do.