SonOfMike

Thanks folks! I make models for my own amusement but if others appreciate them then I'm really flattered. What started as a small inglenook has now grown to be the world's largest micro layout and takes up an entire side of a domestic garage. There is still room for further expansion though...

I'm thinking I need some HO Scale racoons and / or rats to add to this rather unpleasant overflowing dumpster (an upside-down Lego brick)

Wonders will never cease! At the weekend I actually managed to get into the garage and play trains for a bit. In order to substantiate this claim I took a few snaps whilst doing so. The quality isn't great; I'm no photographer and I'm terrible at multitasking, but here they are anyway...

Here's one I made earlier: part Airfix Pug kit, part Aifix half-track kit, the inside of a small gloss roller and bits from my scrap box.

Love it 😀

Not these days Keith. Now that I have moved house, the bottles have a cupboard to live in and the layout lives in the garage. I have to admit that I am generally pants at taking photos; not just in terms of technique, but also in terms of remembering to take them. It's always an afterthought rather than anything else. Today is a case in point. I went into the garage to have a quick play and it was only when I was packing stock up that I remembered to take some pictures. Scenery is still underway in Tucsupes. The basics are all there but I still have lots to do in terms of details and I have another structure to build still. I have had a go at making some trees that may pass* as Bald Cypresses, complete with Spanish moss. They don't seem to have appeared much in the pictures I took today so I will try and take some next time. * In the dark, wearing sunglasses, with your eyes all squinty / shut and presuming you have never seen a Bald Cypress. Or Spanish moss. Or even better, a tree. Peering from within the trees, Shay #12 can be glimpsed pulling a train of flatcars up outside Victoria Wood ready to pick up some planed lumber. Then there are a few other snaps taken around the vicinity.

Ballasting and the application of basic ground cover are now underway. TOP TIP: When shaking finely sifted earth and other scatter materials onto the layout, make sure your cup of coffee is placed well away from the baseboard. Ask me how I know.

Good point, and one that I have been considering. I have indeed used the front and back side by side. The section with the single large door had the "mounting points" for the canopy moulded on it which is why the canopy is there. I put the loading bay on the other side as it had 2 doors and I thought it looked better, but as you say, keeping the platform dry & sheltered would make more sense. I think the easiest thing to do would be to extend the platform under the canopy - I'll have a fettle.

Long time no update - I must put that right. A new module is now under construction. This one sits between Apocrypha and Turpentine and now officially makes this the world's largest micro-layout, as the three modules plus staging area now occupy almost an entire wall of my garage. The new scene is based around the Victoria Wood Inc. complex near the town of Tucsupes (think of how Tucson is pronounced). It's early days yet; the track has been laid and painted, the backscene is more or less in place and work is underway on some structures. I was low on materials, especially door and window castings and I decided to purchase and kitbash a Walthers' Sunrise Feed Mill Kit into three separate buildings. I haven't used kits before but buying it cost considerably less than buying the materials I would have needed to scratch build. Trying to make plastic look like weathered painted wood was harder than I thought - the end result is acceptable (to me) but I think I might be able to do better next time having found out through experience what works and what doesn't. Anyway, here are some photos to bring the thread up to date. Ballasting will be the next big job, along with me maybe attempting to make some trees that pass as bald cypresses, complete (I hope) with Spanish moss.

Turpentine, LA. Late '60s.

Indeed it is. Apocrypha is an inglenook but I included an "exit" at both ends from day one, and the intention was always to have staging at the right-hand as a minimum. My thinking was that I didn't like the idea of trains always having to enter from the left propelling / pushing stock towards the inglenook spurs. It just felt more aesthetically pleasing to me to have a train enter from the right pulling cars behind it onto the "headshunt" by the depot and then reverse to switch the spurs. Now trains can enter from either direction and I'm starting to plan the new modules. I will keep the concept the same as Apocrypha and Turpentine - each one a self-contained micro layout / diorama which links to the others to allow trains to run between them. This way I can imagine that each scene is miles from the next whilst actually only being separated by a hole in the backscene.

And there's more..

I have also been able to have a play with a new toy - a diseasel that my Dad bought for me just before I moved (he said he just saw it and thought I'd like it. I really do have the bestest Dad). There now follows some gratuitous photos of said gift switching the layout - enjoy.* *May noy actually be enjoyable.

House purchase and moving in complete! After a couple of weeks of unpacking and settling in etc. I have been able to get in the garage and play trains. The garage itself needs a lot of work doing to it to make it a suitable home for a layout - floor sealing, walls insulating and so on but for now, using an old pasting table and a workmate as "legs" and some temporary lashed-up LED lighting, at least I can get it set up. When not in use the stock is all put away and the layout covered with dust sheets. Those of a sensitive disposition look away now...

Q: When is an update not an update? A: When it's like this one and I am updating you to tell you there is nothing to update you on. However, in some ways "no news is good news". The reason I haven't done much on the layout recently is because I have been busy buying a house - WITH A GARAGE!!! I will be moving to the new property in a few weeks' time and once I'm settled in I will be able to have the layout set up at least semi-permanently, if not permanently. I have plans for two more additional scenic modules; one to add a bit of countryside between Apocrypha and Turpentine and maybe another to represent part of the city of Matraque Bleue, complete with a smidgeon of street-running. Watch this space.....