luke the train spotter

A bit more progress today mocking up some of the buildings with a couple cereal boxes and masking tape. These are a bit crude but you get the idea. I would say that this 3D mock up stage is probably one of the most important stages of construction, to see if the scenic side of things will work. I thin on a whole I'm happy with it, the left hand side of the layout could do with a bit of work to avoid large gaps in the scenery to the backscene so some super low relief trees might need to be made for that. The goods shed on the right will be based off drawings of that of Blacksboat which has been preserved as a listed building. These drawings are available from the GNSRA which I keep recommending to everyone. The station building will be based off the one at Carron which is still standing though not in the best condition. This will probably be modelled in half relief so that it doesn't take up too much of the width of the platform. The signal box will be the Peco Highland box kit. This may be slightly out of region for this layout but I think it captures a huge amount of Scottish branch line character and saves a half relief platform mounted signal box scratch build that would be required otherwise. Anyways, rule 1 prevails. Hopefully with this combination of buildings I will be able to recreate an essence of the Great North of Scotland Railway in a slowly dying BR guise.

So in true layout planning style I've decided to rejig the layout. It felt a misjustice to model Cromdale without including the actual station so that project has been shelved for now with the full intention of revisiting it when I have more space to do it justice. So what's the plan? I've managed to free an additional 15cm up for the baseboard length which breaks the layout out of its Really Useful Box shell which creates a couple of problems. Now the layout needs to be extra robust so when I built the baseboard I used 8mm ply, extra bracing, plenty of screws and copious amounts of expanding Gorilla Glue which is pretty serious stuff! Hopefully this will do the job but means that technically this new baseboard has the same footprint as the external dimensions of the Really Useful Box. So what will I do with my very exciting additional 15cm? Well with the power of an additional point in the fiddle yard I should be able to fit in a run around loop and couple of sidings to serve a small Speyside terminus station/goods yard. So technically the Speyside line didn't really have proper terminus stations, but junctions at either end so my layout will be an imaginary spur off the line with a small distillery to justify construction, though this will be off scene. The track plan is very reminiscent of Port Pennan (Railway Modeller June 2010) which is a similar concept of a micro space terminus. I plan to add an additional siding for a coal wagon or two and to mix operations up a bit. The run around head shunt is large enough for a class 26 whilst the actual loop should be able to comfortably take a 2 coach train. This will require a slight shunting maneuver to get it fully into the platform but that's a compromise that has to be made given the space available. In practice I've started mocking up the location of points and stock with what I had lying about. I know that this may not be the most prototypical layout but I couldn't resist a project where my railbus could run for much longer!

Hopefully I'll be able to recreate the little piles of ash with some fine bbq ash mixed in with the ballast. A quick update on the layout, track has arrived and hopefully I'll get some free time to build the baseboard over Christmas.

I don't plan on any intense operating sessions but shuffling a few wagons around, maybe mocking up a delivery of grains, empty casks and coal for the distillery. Then the distillery shunter taking these wagons off stage. In real life these sidings would only be used twice a week so the prototype wasn't really that intense in operation. I think I'm more of a builder than an operator but certainly like the idea of using the layout as a good opportunity for photos of locos/stock.

With Tyneside Steel rehomed and its old shelf clear there is an exciting opportunity for a new project. I'm hoping to return to the region and themes I came across when building Distillery Yard, my favourite layout that I've built yet. However, for this layout to be a feasible project for me it must fit a couple different design briefs: 1. It must be Scottish, preferably based in the Speyside region and set in the early 60s to suit my current stock. 2. It must be robust and travel well - we are planning a pretty moderate relocation in the summer which means that this layout must survive the journey and be able to be stored easily. 3. It must not be large than 2ft by 1ft so that it fits into the same footprint as Tyneside Steel. Perks of living in a tiny flat. To resolve requirements 2 and 3 I have invested in a 64L 'Really Useful Box' which is living up to its brand name as its very robust and the perfect size for a small micro, fiddle yard, lighting rig and electrical bits. I know the SMS baseboards that fit into a wrapping paper box are very popular but I don't have the luxury of that much length and I'd like to have a self contained proscenium arch style lighting rig which may be a bit too tight with the SMS design. The interior dimensions for the box are 60.5x37x28 (cm) so ample room for a layout. I have faith that this box could survive a poorly packed removal van ride down the length of the country so that's a big box ticked. Thinking about what I could fit into this sort of space I kept finding inspiration on the Speyside Line. There is a decent amount of books about this region and the Great North of Scotland Railway Association (GNSRA) has a fantastic range of publications and an online photo gallery (however I won't be sharing any of these photos as they aren't in the public domain). There are also some fantastic photos on Flickr taken by John Boyes in the 1960s of branchlines and a couple distilleries (Dailuaine and Balmenach) that are worth a look. After a fair bit of research I found that Cromdale Station with its small goods yard and exchange sidings for Balmenach Distillery (worked by its own andrew barclay 0-4-0) had pretty good micro layout potential so I came up with this plan. A brief history of Cromdale Station can be found here: https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/C/Cromdale/ The idea would be a compressed area of the red box where mainline locos (20/24/26s and J36/Caley 812/D40) would drop wagons off which would then be collected by the distillery shunter. I have squished the 2 points into one crossover which does alter operations but then I'm not planning on modelling Cromdale sleeper for sleeper. The track I plan on using is plain old code 75 wooden sleeper with electrfrog points - at least with a layout this size I won't need to buy much! This is on a 55cm x 30cm foamboard baseboard mock up. the Lower track enters the fiddle yard where the arrow is which would be the distillery branch in reality. The upper track would go back onto the branchline, but in my case the same fiddle yard as the distillery branch. Scenically the are has a lot of potential. A backscene of the rolling hills of the Cairngorms with a foreground of long grass and shrubbery with a sleeper built fence cutting off the yard. There is also an opportunity to feature the station/goods shed/stationmaster's house as low relief buildings but there isn't enough room to represent them at true 1/76 scale. A few pictures of the goods yard to get an idea of what I'd like to create. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions very welcome, this project is still very early days so plenty of time for things to change.

Tyneside Steel has now gone to it's new owner after it ran pretty well all weekend. The cheap phospher bronze paper thin pick ups on the sentinel packed in by Sunday afternoon so the peckett had to come out as the reserve shunter. Sorting new pickups out will be added to the job list. Here's a couple final pictures of the layout though! We'll have to see what comes next now there is space for a new layout once again....

Just a heads up that I'll be taking Tyneside Steel to Workington Exhibition aka Solrail this weekend. Looking like it will be a great show! https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/event/y2023/25920-SolrailLtd_Exhibition

Beautifully modelled! The layout has so much flow to it. How are you controlling your double slip out of interest?

Looks absolutey fantastic mate. Love the palette of colours going on there.

Just a quick update today showing that the fascia has been painted up. I opted for a 'mineral stone' coloured furniture paint from Wilkos since all my other layouts have had black fascias and sometimes there is too much contrast.

James Hilton's book is definitely a great tool for designing micro layouts! I think he's currently writing a follow up too which I imagine a lot of people will be interested in. Liking the change of layout composition a lot!

Looks excellent, I really like the wooden slats on Tindale.

Not much progress to share unfortunately, its coming down to dissertation crunch time so modeling is taking a bit of a backseat but I've got a couple of small projects on the go to keep me sane. First up is a small diecast lorry that I'm converting to carry a small loco like the ruston or maybe just a few wheels. I'm not sure how exactly prototypical it is but I quite like the look of it. So far its had the London Transport brandings removed with T cut and a short length of weathered bullhead track super glued down. The second project is slowly starting to think about the necessary wagon loads for the layout. I've found a lot of pictures of bolster wagons carrying long lengths of piping like this scene at Stewarts & Lloyds in 1967 which is a scene I'd quite like to draw inspiration from. So far all I've done is bought some tubing and stacked it on the wagon but given that they were probably just loose loaded for low speed shunting like this for internal workings I don't think I'll chain them down. This will allow me to have a number of removable wagon loads to add variety to the fleet without needing to buy boxes of wagons. Plenty more to do but nice to have a couple small projects ticking over in the background.

The one in the picture is one from ikea, I wasn't necessarily meaning this light in particular but more the style. https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/naevlinge-led-clamp-spotlight-white-10449891/

First time as an exhibitor is always very exciting! A couple words of advice would be to make sure thoroughly clean the track/wheels/pickups for the most reliable running prior to the show. It may also be useful to take a couple larger wheel base locos just in case the shorter ones start playing up. I'd say even if you're not sure about lighting it is still something to look into, poorly lit layouts are a big pet peeve of mine because you can never see the detail that went into the models. You don't necessarily have to build a massive lighting rig but a couple LED reading lights clipped onto the backscene are pretty affordable and very quick to set up and adjust. Regarding operation could you setup the layout to work in a shunting puzzle configuration? I find that actually operating the layout goes by pretty quickly especially when people want to chat about different aspects of the layout.

Someone asked me the same question on the micro nook thread on page 2 if that would be a useful reference. Using the rail to transfer the power is a viable option but it's reliability will decrease over time as the track naturally just gets dirtier. I guess the most important 'mod' to be aware of is to make sure you use insulating fish plates on the frog.

Finally got round to sorting out a YouTube video. It's a sort of mix between a layout update and a running session but I hope its an enjoyable watch.

As long as you're happy quickly popping wagons on and off the track by hand this solution works perfectly well. I will put down some pieces of thin foam (chopped up super cheap yoga mat) onto the plywood which just lets the wheels sit on something softer rather than having the flanges on a hard surface. Its the same foam that I use to line my stock boxes with so one yoga mat goes a pretty long way.

I think it might help with the robustness of the layout. Incidentally a friend of mine is doing exactly that and documenting the build on YouTube which may be of interest.

The fiddle yard is currently in a fairly primitive state. There is a small plywood toped baton frame that has been screwed and glued onto the original baseboard which supports the other side of the point that I added. Bolted onto that is a removable section which is very simple. Currently the trackwork is just a straight piece of spare flexi track taped on which I hope to replace with a longer piece and make it so the track comes apart when the fiddle yard extension board does. A 30cm ruler for scale. Woodwork is definitely not my strong point but it works so I'm happy. With the fiddle yard and extension board the whole layout comes to about 3 1/2 ft long.

Plan looks great! I'd also agree that a runaround loop is a good feature to have. I regretted not initially putting one in on Distillery Yard and it was a pain to retrofit. Would it be feasible to have 2 modules of 2 boxfiles permanently connected rather than 4 individual ones? Would eliminate a lot of wear and tear on the boxfile track joints. That would also solve your worries about having all 2 lane boxfile joints.

It is indeed a right hand and 2 Y points. Here's a picture though it's difficult to get a top down angle without the lighting blocking some of it out. There is a 30cm ruler for scale.

Base layer of grass down and fence weathered. A shot of the layout, all 2ft of it.

Been working a bit more on the layout this evening. My focus has been the other back corner of the layout with the rough hill shape created out of foamboard and plaster cloth. On top of that is a texture paste made up of paint, plaster and a dash of water. Then I started on the fence that runs against the backscene. This is just coffee stirrers glued and taped together from the rear but is removable for now so I can paint / weather it. The billboard is tactically angled to hide the corner in the backscene and I think it suits the space.

So for the points I wire the blades and frog separately. The frog is wired to a simple SDPT switch which are widely available and very cheap. I think I purchased a bag of 200 for about £3 a couple years ago on eBay so that's plenty of layouts! I use switches like this one below. The switch has 3 contacts, the middle is wired to the frog and the 2 outer contacts are wired to the positive and negative rail. The contacts need to be the right way round for the frog to change to the right polarity if you're connecting these to the wire to pull the point blades across. In terms of modifying the point blade you might want to refer to the quick diagram I made below. Essentially you want to remove the presoldered wire between the point blades and frogs, I normally lever these off with a screwdriver. I then solder a thin piece of wire between the exposed point blade contact and the outside rail so the point blades are now always live and are not electrically connected to the frog. At this point I wire up the frog to the switch. Note that it is very important you use insulating fish plates on the outside of the frog otherwise you may get short circuits else where. I hope this is of use. I find that this is the most robust way of wiring electrofrog points together and I've never had any failures. I do refer to this method in my YouTube video on wire in tube point control which you may find useful.