leadie69

That's an impressive layout and a nice little loco. I like 6 wide but 8 wide is closer to O scale and I have several friends with O scale layouts that I can run stuff on so I guess I'm trying to have the best of both worlds.

I haven't used Lego for the past 35 years or so but have recently been looking at building O scale trains using Lego - I have just designed this tramway engine with adjustable wheel positions so it can run on either Lego or O scale track (the dimensions are with a few mm's of correct O scale). This was designed and photo rendered on 'stud.io' software from Bricklink. It has enough room inside to fit a Poweredup medium motor and and battery box/bluetooth receiver. I think Lego has been seriously overlooked as available parts these days allow some quite impressive models to be built. Ian

Hi Everyone! Well it's been over 2 years since I did anything on this layout but it looks like it is all go now. When I took this down from the shelf a few weeks ago it was still just a board with 3 tracks on it but since then I have put down cobblestone hardstanding and build a canal barge and warehouse. The barge and warehouse started life as free Scalescenes OO kits from Hornby Magazine which I scanned and reduced by 50%. I will probably remake the barge at a later date as some of the card I used wasn't the correct thickness and thus it doesn't look quite right when you get up close to it. You will notice that the window on the warehouse has been boarded up as the local youths have been using it for target practice from the park across the canal. I plan to use Scalescenes for all the buildings on this layout as I have the original factory/warehouse and northlight engine shed along with the bus garage from the 100th edition of Hornby Magazine stored on the computer and ready to print. I Hope to keep things moving along now that I have re-started this layout so "watch this space" for updates. Ian

I just got home from a great day out helping with the operation of Moonan Flat. It is an enjoyable layout to operate and I can see that a OO version would be just about right for my passenger stock that currently sits in boxes only to be used on other folks layouts (Damn! That's another layout idea that will start to ferment in the back of my mind now). Full marks to Chris for designing and creating such a good layout. It was also good to catch up with Gary (Gazman) and to meet Martin (Hartleymartin). Ian

Tonight I hosted the the model railway group that SMR Chris and I belong to so I was able to run up a quick track plan of his latest layout on Anyrail. The scenic section is 2.4 x .4 metres (8 feet x 1 foot 4 inches) with a sectorplate/train turntable at the right hand end. I'm looking forward to operating this one soon.

Looks like a good start. I'm looking forward to seeing this operational.

Hi Col, I like the first one best but I wouldn't have the track parallel to the front of the board - I've always found layouts appear bigger and a bit more interesting if the track runs at slight angle as it gives more depth to the scene. I look forward to following the build. Ian

Amazing work!

Well I've just finished the last of the building mockups and I'm very happy with the composition of the scene. Time to get on with making the proper ones. I should mention too that, although the trams have poles, I plan to model the tram tracks with a centre groove to represent the plough/shoe method of electrical pickup rather than over head wires. The retaining wall will be done in scalescenes random ashlar and I'm planning to make a partially collapsed/bomb damaged building for the front right corner to hide the cassette join. Ian

Hi everyone, Thanks for the likes and comments - always makes me feel good to get that feedback. Now that the track as been tested I have been thinking more about the buildings. Today I made a quick mockup of the scalescenes factory/warehouse to see how that would work and I'm pretty pleased with it. I did a lot of editing on the computer so it is just a flat printout with buttresses made of thin card but I think it looks good enough to go ahead and make it properly. Next I think I'll do a mockup of the tram shed and bus depot. Ian

Time for another update. Today I finished all the wiring and ran a test loco - very happy but I need to make or find a better quality controller as it was a bit jerky. Also finished sides of cassette/sector plate and made top surface for tram shed and bus depot area. The slot in the top is for the lever operating the uncoupler on the rear track - I've decided to disguise it as a telegraph pole that will slide off when the box is closed. Now it's time to start on some buildings and I need to decide how much of the yard track is going to be inset with concrete/cobbles. Ian

Time for an update on the layout. I've glued the track down, done a bit on the retaining walls and started the wiring on the board that will mount on the inside of the lid. The track has been glued to the sector plate/cassette but I still need to attach the wires and extend the sides. The bits of black paint next to the tracks are where the Peco unclouplers will be fitted. The front 2 will be operated by one lever possibly disguised as a yard light and the back one will probably be made to look like a spindly tree or vine growing up the retaining wall. In the third pic you will see how I an lining up the track. Ian

Hi Everyone! I've been planning to do a boxfile layout for ages and now I'm finally ready to start. I seem to have some sort of Inglenook fetish as this will be the forth one I've built, but the first in a boxfile. The inspiration for this layout came when my partner gave me 2 n-scale trams and an n-scale bus for xmas a couple of years ago. I had collected a handful of 4 wheel wagons and 0-6-0 engines a few years previously but they had been rarely used as my main focus in n-scale was US outline. So now I had more reason to think about a UK layout and the ideas raced round my head for some time. Anyway, long story short, I finally drew up an idea on Anyrail that seemed to have everything I wanted in it, so I put together a mockup today and, as a result, I have just finished drawing the final plan shown below. The idea is to make that layout on the inside of the box lid and have a 3D ultra low relief backscene in the base of the box (the blue bit in the attached pic of the mockup). The badly drawn shapes in the bottom right corner of the mockup pic are there to represent a partial building with a window to make it easier to see that the sector plate is correctly lined up. I hope you all like the pics and I'll keep this thread updated as the build progresses. Ian

Hi Richard, Looking good so far! I've had some success making set track points function as live frog by painting the frog with silver conductive paint. Over here in Australia it is available from Jaycar Electronics so I'm sure you would be able to get it in the UK. All I do is paint the plastic frog and let some of the paint flow onto the rail. The only issue I have had with this is that everytime I clean the track with a track rubber, I need to touch up the paint and let it dry before running anything over it, but that doesn't take too long (needless to say I'm careful cleaning around the frog now). Ian

Looks great! Hope all goes well with the show!

I just stumbled upon this today and I am blown away! Absolutely spectacular! Ian