jimsmodeltrains

It runs pretty well. Considering. It is quite old now, maybe as much as 10 years. Because my layouts of the last 10 years or so have had a lot of shunting / switching, this little loco has had a lot of use! Probably as much as twice or three times as much as my road switchers. At one stage it developed binding cogs in one truck. I can't remember what caused that, only that it started happening. As a result of those binding cogs I made the axles in that truck free-wheeling. That truck still has electrical pickup, just no power transmitted from the motor to those axles. This limits it's pulling capacity somewhat, but it still works well, and it's lower pulling power is rarely a problem on my micro layouts. With half of it's axles free-wheeling it can still haul about 4 cars on level track.

It’s been a while since the last blog post for my Pier 39 layout, but that does not mean there have been no layout improvements. After spending quite a bit of time on improvements to my various other micro layouts over the previous year, I thought it was time to improve the look of the Pier 39 layout. The Pier 39 layout has been operational for a few years now, but little had been done to improve how it looked apart from the fairly basic primary scenery elements like ballasting, transhipment ‘concrete’ areas, and some clutter such as crates, pallets, and the like. A recent (Dec 2021) photo of the Pier 39 layout before the recent improvements. Over the last few months I have been busy making improvements to the Pier 39 layout. One thing that became apparent during my concentrating on the Pier 39 layout’s scenery is the course-ness of the area between the various tracks. This would cause a potential hazard to the 1:87 denizens who have to walk in the areas between the tracks or alongside some cars to do what train crews do. So I added some fine sand between the various tracks, with the odd weed poking through the sand for added scenic interest. I feel this change alone made a huge difference to the scenery. Finer gravel between the tracks for better train crew safety. Another thing I wanted to do was improve the background. As much as a light sky blue is pleasant enough to look at, it lacked a certain look of completeness and visual interest. I added a small low relief industrial office / workshop type building that I had stored away (which I think was on my previous Blue Island module), half hidden by the long fuel tank along the back. Then I added some more foliage in front of the building and tank to complete the scene. Small low relief industrial office / workshop building After that I also added some flat containers to the backscene behind the COFC / TOFC / bulk goods tranship area. The flat containers are container printouts printed on laser photo paper then glued to some stiff cardboard and then glued to the backscene. I tried to layer these printouts so that it looks like the scene is deeper than it actually is. Containers added to the backscene behind the COFC / TOFC / bulk goods tranship area. One of the sections of the layout that has caused me some angst is the 2 track traverser – it looked too much like a plain 2 track traverser! So I decided to give it the scenery treatment to try and disguise the fact that it was a traverser, or at least make it look more like an actual prototype traverser. To do this I added a raised concrete platform area between the 2 tracks, and then added trimmed coffee stirrers between the rails of the 2 tracks and on the front of the traverser. It looks a lot more like it ‘belongs’ in the scene now. Trying to disguise the traverser. In the area where the traverser is, I was dissatisfied with the backscene there. So I added a raised area behind the traverser, added some Superquick stone paper so that it looked like a stone wall, including some arches at the bottom that are partially hidden by the traverser. I had to be careful how I made this background scene, as if I didn’t do it properly the traverser would not have lined up properly for some track positions. I painted the top of the raised area to represent concrete. Then I pondered what to add on top of it. I was thinking I would add some more flat containers to this raised area, but in the end I felt that would mean too many containers and not enough scenic variety. After a fair amount of pondering, and testing buildings I had in storage to see what might enhance the scene, I decided I would butcher a Lima freight house I had in storage to make it a low relief building. This Lima building was utilised as a yard office on my Dolton Industry Park module which was dismantled a number of years ago. Now it has a new home, in a minimised format as a low relief building. Backscene enhancements behind the traverser. Pier 39’s GE44 on the traverser. The layout after the above mentioned changes were completed. There is still some work to do on the layout, but what has been done recently is a good start towards making it much more visually interesting. (From https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2022/02/16/pier-39-scenery-enhancements/ )

Since I built the HO scale Box Street micro industrial switching layout, I have had a number of structures at the front of the layout, between the track and the front edge of the layout. When I placed them there, I felt it was a good way to add a scenic break, allowing the trains to partially disappear while moving around the layout. The structures performed that function well. But one thing I didn’t count on was the potential for damage to the structures I placed at the front of the layout. The Hot Mix Asphalt Plant structures in the front of the layout, shown at the bottom of the photo above, have been knocked loose, bumped, and generally damaged, a number of times since their placement there. Partly this was because they were high compared with the fascia, and they were directly in front of some of the turnouts. So each time I needed to change the position of turnout blades, there was potential for the structures getting knocked and damaged. I thought it was time I did something about that. The first thing I needed to do was figure out what to put in that space, if anything, once those structures were removed. I could have just removed the structures and had a nice stone covered area, but that seemed a little too plain. I wanted something of visual interest there. I also wanted the hot mix asphalt plant to be at least hinted at, as it is a source of traffic for the train crews. The photo above shows the empty space after the Hot Mix Asphalt Plant structures were removed. In the past I have made a number of low-relief or background buildings for use on various layouts, using the Evan Designs “Model Builder” software. I found this to work very well in the past so I decided to try building a small shed for the empty space. I created a building using the available textures in the Model Builder software, and built it using card as the walls, and coffee stirrers and matchsticks to add some extra internal strength. I also felt that the asphalt storage tank in a position right near the edge of the layout would be suggestive of the Hot Mix Asphalt Plant and so decided to include that in the empty area. Once I had added the completed shed and the asphalt storage tank to the scene I scattered a light coloured sand (from a nearby river bank) around the objects and fixed it using the usual diluted PVA glue mix. Then I filled in any left over areas on the edge of the scene using a mixture of sand, small bushes, static grass and real dirt. I purchased a 1:87 scale backhoe to suggest the need for aggregate for the industry – previously the need for aggregate was suggested by a stone container above a mixing conveyor belt. Delivery of the backhoe would take a while, it being ordered close to Christmas. After some further mulling over the new scenery arrangement I felt that a pile of broken up asphalt suitable for recycling awaiting pick up could be added, so I added that to the area near the asphalt storage tank. I feel the end result looks ok and it still suggests the need for the same commodities to be delivered or picked up from that part of the layout so has not negatively impacted on traffic requirements on the layout. But wait that’s not all… While I was waiting for the backhoe to arrive, I decided to make some further scenery changes to the layout. The area I felt needed changing was around the freight platform and silos at the back of the layout, as shown below before the changes. The platform was just a little too short to have the doors of a 40 foot boxcar nicely aligned to it, and so I decided I would change things there around a bit to be able to add a bit of extra length into the platform. This meant I had to either remove or change the position of the silos. This would give me an opportunity to enhance the scenery in that part of the layout a bit too. I decided to keep the silos, but re-align it as the silos are a nice feature to have at the back of the layout. So I re-aligned it so it isn’t on an angle, added an extra section to the freight platform, and sceniced around the platform and silos. There is still a little more to do, but apart from adding some grass between the silos and the brick wall at the back of the layout, and maybe some future 1:87 inhabitants, the changes are now complete. Eventually the backhoe arrived, and as it was quite expensive I’m not going to glue it down to the layout. This means I can place it wherever it looks like it’s needed. Here it is waiting patiently for a gondolla load of stone for the now mostly off-scene Hot Mix Asphalt plant. (This post derived from: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/12/23/minimising-structure-damage/ )

A recent video I made of an operating session on the layout. Regards, James

Anyone who has explored the late Carl Arendt’s micro layouts themed website will probably have happened upon a page or small layout scrapbook featuring layouts in boxes of various sizes, as small as a pencil case box. Model railways in small boxes, around shoe box in size, are quite common in the model railway micro layout community. So I thought it was about time I tried a micro layout in a small box. The boxfile I purchased for the layout was 380mm x 264mm x 80mm (1’3″ x 10.5″ x 3.25″) in size, with a total footprint of 1.1 square feet. The boxfile was the only actual expense for the layout, everything else used to make the layout I already had on hand before I purchased the boxfile. I purchased the boxfile a number of months before I actually started building the layout, and the empty boxfile sat forlornly in the corner along with some other boxes approximately the same size (can you guess what they might be used for?) In October 2021 I started building the layout, most of the initial construction happened within a few days, and was done while I sat on the couch watching TV with my wife. I would do a bit of construction, wait for that to dry or set, then do a bit more. The first thing I had to do was cut an opening in one end, then paint the inside of the boxfile. I chose a light brown color for that. I decided the track plan would consist of a ‘main line’, and two spurs, one spur going into a low relief building. It didn’t take long to lay the track and add the wiring. The wiring for the layout is more complex than might be employed for a simple continuous loop of the much larger area as each track had to be wired. The wiring is done in such a way as to allow the turnout to set which track has power and which doesn’t – this probably won’t be needed but it’s always handy to have the ability for a DC powered layout. I build some landscape forms out of low density polystyrene, which had been used as packing for something or other and I had stored away for the purpose of using it on a layout “in the future”, and a stone wall made from paper and cardboard. I painted the polystyrene land forms the same light brown as the interior of the box, gluing them down inside the box and gluing the wall to the vertical edge of one of them. The next step was to add the low relief building. It is a simple single door building constructed of a piece of foam core, with a printed building interior added where the doorway is located, and the rest of the building covered with greyish / silver corrugated card. With the track, building and landforms in place, it was time to ballast. This didn’t take long to do, but it took a long time for the watered down PVA mixture used to fix the ballast to dry so the layout was placed in an out of the way place waiting for the glue to set. Then the fine weather of Spring arrived, and I was out riding my bike a lot more and the boxfile layout was once again somewhat forlorn in a corner of the train room which also doubles as an office (or is it an office that doubles as a train room). A few weeks later, I spied the half finished boxfile layout in the train room (let’s call the office that) and thought “I must complete that”. A few days later I started construction of it again. By this time, it was mostly ground cover, foliage and detailing that I needed to do. To finish it off, I painted the inside of the lid a light sky blue color. I planned to add a building photo to that but then decided not to. Within a few days the layout in a boxfile itself was completed. The only thing left to build was a ‘fiddle stick / yard’, which I hadn’t decide how to implement. As a way of enhancing operations on my Ruston Light Railway layout, I purchased a second Ruston & Hornsby 48DS rail tractor. This model will also be right at home on a small boxfile layout, so will probably do ‘double-duty’ as motive power on the Ruston layout and this yet to be named box file layout. From https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/11/13/layout-in-a-boxfile/ .

If there is, I've broken that law before! On multiple occasions. It's your layout, if you want to have a low / half relief building at the front, just do it. The way you've done it looks good. Regards, James

Shortening some longer covered hoppers to enhance operation HO scale Box Street micro layout. After my recent successful shortening of a bay window caboose (see post on my Tropical Pizza / Bamboo Island layout on 1st September 2021), I was pondering some 56 scale feet covered hoppers that I purchased some years ago but couldn’t really use on Box Street or my other micro layouts due to their length. I have 5 of them, and wondered whether I could shorten them like I did the caboose. Each of the covered hoppers looked like this, but with different color schemes representing different railroads. The first thing I had to do was figure out how to dismantle the cars. As all the cars are the same, except for color scheme, I could dismantle one car and that would allow me to see how best to shorten all of them. After a while I was able to dismantle one, and upon investigation realised shortening them would be relatively easy. Because each car had 3 ‘panels’ on the side, I could remove the middle panel then glue the two ends together, then do something similar with the chassis, then cut the roof and walk way on the top to fit the shortened car. I decided to try shortening the car I had dismantled to see how it went, then if it went successfully I would shorten the other ones. On a Saturday night, I did the dismantled car and was rather pleased with the end result. On this first car, I made a mistake with the chassis which resulted in there being a gap between the two sections, but as it would not usually be seen and the chassis wasn’t where the car got most of it’s rigidity / strength from I figured it was not too big a problem. I thought I could shorten the chassis on the other subsequent cars a different way so that there was no gap. The next day, I shortened 3 of the others, but left one of them 56 scale feet long as the couplings on that car required attention. The end result was that I now have an extra 4 covered hoppers that are about 39 scale feet in length that I can use on the Box Street micro layout, but also on my other layouts where necessary. The joins can be seen on the sides of each model, but they’re not overly obvious, and can probably be disguised with some graffiti or other painting. Over all, I’m quite pleased with the result. (From https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/10/17/covered-hoppers-for-box-street/ )

I'm published! A few weeks ago, I read a post on here about a new Model Railway magazine / ezine called “The Micro Model Railway Dispatch“. Unlike most model railroad magazines / ezines, this new publication is dedicated to micro model railways, which are model railroad layouts that are 4 square feet or less in size as defined by the late Carl Arendt. I read that if anyone had a micro layout that they would like to see published in the magazine / ezine to send the editor an email. Over the course of a week or so I indicated to the editor that I would be willing to submit an article for the magazine, received a reply and wrote an article which was published not long after in the 2nd issue. I used to be the editor for a regional model railway club many years ago, and wrote an article for the NMRA Australia magazine some years ago, but this is the first time I have been published in a magazine / ezine for the general model railway community. The model railroad layout of mine that was featured was my HO scale switchback Brazilian Micro layout, but reading about every layout in the magazine was interesting and thought provoking as micro model railroad layouts often are. The excuse “I don’t have room for a model railway layout” doesn’t stand up against the plethora of micro model railway layouts in magazines / ezines like The Micro Model Railway Dispatch and Carl Arendt’s website and others with like-minded content. If you are interested in micro model railway layouts, regardless of scale, it’s worth having a look at The Micro Model Railway Dispatch.

Passenger depot improvements for the HO scale Petra Pizza micro layout. Since I built the Petra Pizza layout, the Petra Depot area was a fairly basic ground level gravel area with a shed. In the last few weeks I had a growing desire to do something to improve the scene. And in the last few days that desire translated into action. The first thing I had to do was remove the existing depot scene down to the baseboard including removing most of the ballast along the outside edge of the track. I decided that I would raise the platform using some foam core. This meant I had to cut a piece of form core to fit into the corner where the old depot area was – not an easy task as the area had unusually tight radius track that isn’t a constant radius. I cut a triangle section of foam core, and then slowly trim off the foam core near where it would be next to the curve until I had the right shape. Eventually I completed this so the platform was the required shape. I then added a platform facing / retaining wall made of coffee stirrers and matchsticks along the edge near the track. Next I covered the new foam core platform with PVA wood glue, and sprinkled a local sand mixture on it. I then placed the shed, a fuel tank, some foliage on it. At this point in the project, with the glue still wet it looked like this. The last thing to do was to add some extra scenic detail to blend the new depot into the surrounding area including two stetson wearing locals, and ballast the track that had been un-ballasted for the first step in the improvement. There is still a little more to do though. I want to add some decorative fencing on the platform area like what is often seen on passenger stations / depots to make it look a bit more pleasant to the eyes. But as it is now, it is ready to receive trains of 1:87 scale railfans and mountain dwellers. While I was doing this redevelopment, I realised I could also improve some other parts of the Petra Pizza layout to include a freight platform and / or bulk transload area which will make operation a bit more interesting, but that’s a post for another day. Regards, James (From: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/09/22/better-depot-for-petra/ ).

Hi Chops. Carl Arendt was the guru of micro and small layouts until his death a few years ago. His website, which is now maintained by people who want to see his work continue after his death, is usually located at: https://www.carendt.com/ , although when I checked it at time of posting this it was not working properly and redirecting to somewhere else (somewhat suspiciously I might add), so might not be good idea to try that URL just yet. There is an archive of his website at: https://archive.carendt.com/ which appears to be website up until the time of his death. Hope you find this helpful. Regards, James

Hi Chops. The track plan is somewhat similar to this plan: From https://www.carendt.com/wp-content/uploads/sfer.gif . The basic elements are the same: 3 spurs and a sector plate. Except that my layout is 4 square feet instead of 1 square foot, and in HO scale instead of G scale. A lot of the layouts I've built in the last few years have been inspired by Carl Arendt's books. Regards, James

Shortening of the caboose used for passenger trains on the Tropical Pizza HO scale micro layout makes car movements easier. In the previous post I described a 22 scale feet flat car that I converted from a 22 foot ore hopper that suffered a mishap. I also mentioned that I had an ex-Southern Pacific caboose on the layout that could also be shorted. After some brooding over how best to approach the task of shortening that caboose, I finally settled on a plan of attack, and commenced to shorten it. It started off looking like this. I cut at one end of the bay window and close to the end of the caboose, discarding the section between, and then glued the two body parts together. I also had to shorten the weight attached to the floor, then shorten the chassis. By the end of the conversion, with some weathering and painting to enhance how it looked, it looked like this. To change the chassis to the same length as the shortened caboose body I had to cut the floor in a similar fashion to how I cut the body, then cut the chassis so that where it would join would be offset compared to where the floor was cut so that there was not a weak point with the floor and chassis needing joining in the same place. After all the sections were shortened, the weight was screwed onto the floor, then the chassis glued under the floor, and the end result is a fairly strong and very short (approximately 22 scale feet) caboose / passenger car for the Bamboo Island railways passenger trains between Harbour and Plantation. Short train of NSWGR X200 class rail tractor, short flat car and short caboose leaving the Harbour Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and after operating it for the first time I was impressed with how the shortened caboose enhanced operations. Regards, James (From: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/09/01/hello-shorty/ ).

A recent mishap on my Petra Pizza layout presented an opportunity to replace a longer flat car with a much shorter customised one a similar length to the 4 wheel open gondollas on the Tropical Pizza (also known as Bamboo Island) layout. I was walking past my Petra Pizza layout some time ago, and I happened to knock the baseboard, and one of the 22 foot open mineral hoppers fell off the layout, and smashed to the floor. The carriage was somewhat broken with the chassis and hopper section separated and bits and pieces strewn all over the floor. Originally the carriage looked like this one: As you can imagine I was annoyed at the carnage and I wondered whether I should try and fix it or scrap it or something else. I had been wanting a shorter flat car for a while for my Tropical Pizza layout, and as I surveyed the damage to the hopper that little light bulb above the head went on, and I realised I could convert it to a flat car. So after some further thinking and experimenting, I came up with this: Basically, it is the chassis of the 22 foot mineral hopper, with a 20 foot container glued to it. I think it’s come up ok. So now I have a short flat car in keeping with the other short rollingstock on the Tropical Pizza layout. After some looking closely at the ex-Southern Pacific caboose which is used for the passenger train on the layout, I am thinking that I could shorten it too by removing the platform and steps at one end and cutting either side of the side bay to make it a lot shorter – not quite as short as the flat car above, but still a lot shorter than it currently is. These changes are quite in keeping with a cash-challenged railway separated from other railways by ocean, and the need for the railway to make do with what is available in the form of quirky and unusual custom rollingstock. (From https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/08/11/tropical-pizza-flat-car/ )

I feel your pain! The other day I had to give a just-cleaned-and-lubricated loco I was 'resurrecting' for use on one of my switching layouts a good run-in, and I had to let it run on my 'Pizza' layout for about 20 minutes before trying it on my Box Street layout. Luckily, it could handle the 11 inch curves on that micro or I would have been reduced to running it back and forth on the longest switching layout I have (a bit over 4 feet) and having to keep nudging it when it stalled on points until it started running ok - that would have got pretty old pretty quick! Regards, James

Thats sliding door is a cool idea! I've has numerous modular layouts, but only ever had a piece of ply screwed into the frame under the tunnel to stop trains exiting the last module. A sliding door such as yours is much easier to use!

Hi all. It's been a while since I posted something on this forum, so thought I would add a post about intricacies of operations on the Box Street layout. I've been having regular operating session on my various micro layouts for a while now, and am getting used to the somewhat quirky nature of switching the Box Street layout, and having to think a few moves ahead when operating it. Mostly this is necessary because of the smallness of the layout, and my need to move as many of 6 or so virtually interchanged cars on some operating sessions. With 6 or more cars the layout it can be somewhat short of space for moving cars around. The cars at the start of the session I had today are shown in the photo below. There were 3 cars in the 'yard' (foreground right side of photo) which had insulated packaging materials for Midwest Foods which is in the tall building on the back left hand side of the layout. There were 2 reefers in the Team Track in the middle of the layout (1 of them being a 50 foot car) which had been unloaded and were ready to moved to Riverdale. There was also an empty box car to be moved to Riverdale and a covered hopper to be returned empty to Colorado at left hand side of the layout. To complete all the movements required for the operating session it took about an hour to complete. Part of the reason it took that long was the 3 cars for Midwest Foods could not all be moved there to be unloaded as the spur is only long enough for 2 40 foot cars, so I had to push 2 cars into that spur for unloading them shuffle one of those cars out to move the last of the 3 in to be unloaded after I had made other car movements. Because of the lack of available space to store cars I also made my fair share of switching mistakes (or are they switching experiments) which meant a bit more time to complete the session. Here is a screenshot the switchlist of the cars that had to be moved, from the web-based Model Railroad Interchange Car Forwarding application. Regards, James

I have found that some DCC locos are more sensitive to dirt on the tracks or track geometry that has sections where there is no electric pickup (eg, frogs on slips and turnouts). Some of my US outline Bachmann DCC onboard can be a somewhat tempremental on those pieces of track even though they are all wheel pickup. By contrast my DC only Hornby 48DS (without the extra wagon for better electrical pickup) will go through most points without a problem inspite of it's being extremely short. I think part of the problem might be the loss of DCC signal that is caused by the temporary drop in voltage that causes the loco to stop. Regards, James

Today I uploaded my first video of the Box Street layout to YouTube, featuring an operating session with an Also S2 and 4 cars. The operating session featured in the video was done yesterday. Regards, James

Here is a video I made of trains running on the layout.

Scaling back the track arrangement on my 4×1 feet HO scale Box Street micro switching layout to be more similar to the track plan that inspired it and re-arrangement of industries. A few days ago, I was contemplating my Box Street micro layout, and thinking about how I can improve it. I was initially thinking about a totally new track arrangement based on a Peco 3 way turnout, but when I saw how much they cost I decided against that idea. I looked through the Carl Arendt authored books I have for small and micro layouts, and I happened upon the Boxer Shortline plan on which my Box Street layout is based. After a bit of thinking, I decided I would change the track arrangement on the Box Street layout to be more like the Boxer Shortline plan. Here are the reason why I decided to do that: No extra cost to buy more track. Simplifies the track arrangement. De-clutters the layout. The proposed track arrangement would be almost identical to the Boxer Shortline plan, except for one extra spur in the ‘ interchange yard’ area. Revised track plan Two of the spurs would be removed, and replaced with scenery, and the location of industries changed to suit the new track arrangement. Here is what it looked like before the changes were made. Industries: Left: multi-industry building & Jaxxs Snaxxs; Centre: South Chicago Flour & Grains; Right team tracks. The Hot Mix Asphalt plant at the centre front of the layout can also receive cars, but they either foul the double slip or use the Jaxxs Snaxxs spur. After the industries in the back centre and back right of the layout and un-needed trackage was removed, and the existing track re-aligned and a turnout installed to replace the single slip, it looked quite bare. But it wasn’t long before the changes were complete, thanks to a Monday afternoon that I could dedicate to making the required changes. Industries: Left: multi-industry building & Jaxxs Snaxxs; Centre: team track; Right: South Chicago Flour & Grains. In the process of making the changes, the abandoned building that was next to the team tracks was removed, and some grassed areas were added where spurs and buildings were previously. Operationally, it will be a little different to how it was before. The capacity of the spurs has been lowered by 3 cars. But there is still room for about 6 cars in the various industry spurs, and 4 in the interchange yard. Although now the runaround track is also the track that serves the team track so that will make the layout more of a switching puzzle than it was before. This post derived from my blog at: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/01/19/less-is-more/

Tropical palm and fern trees and some people add more life to a verdant tropical island HO scale micro layout. Since the last blog post about my Tropical Pizza layout, I have received and added tropical trees to the layout. I also found some HO size people to add to the layout, adding some much need human population to the layout. As a point of reference, here is the layout scenery before the trees and people were added. Harbour view Storage track Plantation Plantation passenger ‘station’ And here are the same views after the trees were added. Harbour view Storage track Plantation Plantation passenger ‘station’ The addition of the trees has made a marked difference in the over all effect. I guess that’s what happens when around 20 trees are added to such a small layout. But adding people has also added interest to the layout, providing glimpses of life on the island. from the old lady waiting for the next passenger train, to a cleaner trying in vain to keep the harbour area clean, to the man trying to convince of the size of the fish that ‘got away’. To finish off this post, here are some photos of the island’s palm and fern trees and other features. The $18 spent on the trees in the above photos was money well spent! A few of the left over palm trees were also used on my Brazilian HO scale micro switchback layout as well. In the time since the trees were added, I have also worked out a train sheet, with a few freight trains and some passenger trains depending on the day of the week being operated. Operating the layout is quite complicated, as siding space is limited and freight cars all have to be loaded or unloaded at the harbour, which means a lot of shunting is involved. I am quite happy with this little layout. It has been a joy to build, and it is fun to operate.

A recent video I uploaded to YouTube featuring an IDR NSWGR X200 and Walthers Plymouth ML-8 rail tractors on the layout. Regards, James

A petite Plymouth for the HO scale Petra Pizza micro layout means no more large 4 axle diesels locos need to be used for motive power. For some time now I have wanted to find some motive power for the Petra Pizza micro layout that better suits the short trains sharp radius curves on it. I had been using GPs and FT-A which are somewhat over powered for the short trains, and the sharp curves caused a lot of overhang, and required a caboose between the loco and the other cars. Recently I ordered and received a Walthers Plymouth ML-8 4 wheel switcher (or is it a rail tractor?) It is not much bigger than the X200 class NSWGR rail tractor I received a week or so ago, so it could probably be classed as a rail tractor. It would haul similar tonnages as the X200. I ordered the Plymouth through eBay, and I thought that it would be DCC equipped. But alas, I mis-read the listing – it is able to be fitted with a DCC decoder, but is not DCC equipped. Not to worry. Above: ML-8 at the Petra depot. I have a number of locos that I no longer use, for various reasons. One of them is a Bachmann DCC equipped GE 70 tonner, which has a dodgy drive train which I haven’t been able to fix. So I decided to butcher that GE 70 tonner and remove the decoder and do what I did with the Tropical Pizza layout: I wired the decoder from the GE 70 tonner into the Petra Pizza layout. Above: ML-8 with 3 open hoppers loaded with stone from the Petra quarry loader This means that I can run anything on the Petra Pizza layout (that will get around the sharp curves) whether DC or DCC (any DCC equipped loco used on the layout will just it is being controlled by a DC system). Above: ML-8 with short passenger train of MOW cars. After a bit of testing, and experimenting with trains, I found that the Plymouth ML-8 will haul about 4 heavily weighted 33 foot open hoppers, or a few passenger or box cars without any problems. And it looks great on the layout going around those sharp curves!

Scenery progress on my HO scale micro tropical layout went slowly at first, but progress has sped up more recently. Since the last post about my Tropical Pizza layout, which technically is probably not really a “pizza” layout as it doesn’t have a continuous loop of track, I have been doing a lot of scenery work on it and have complete the very simple wiring. The progress had been slow for quite a while, but in the last week or so I have made a concerted effort to get as much scenery done on this layout as possible. Scenery work over the last week or so has progressed steadily, and now the scenery is very much enhanced, and can even be used for photography in most parts of the layout. I have added foliage, bushes, grass, a concrete port wall, various wooden retaining walls, larger tropical looking plants, and part of a bamboo plantation. I have also added ‘character’ items, such as some bamboo sitting on racks, cars, an abandoned and rusted ute, and general clutter. There is still some scenery work to do, and I have ordered a pack of 27 HO scale palm trees of various sizes whose delivery I eagerly await. I also ordered and received the motive power for the layout – an NSWGR (New South Wales Government Railways) X200 class 4 wheel rail tractor, by IDR Models. My wife called it “cute”! I think the purchasing of the motive power was really the motivation for getting the scenery as close to complete as possible so I can actual put the layout in situ under my Petra Pizza layout and start operating it. Here are some photos of the rail tractor and two 4 wheel open wagons, also of NSWGR origin, on the layout. I had been wondering what control system the layout will have. The rail tractor I purchased is DCC ready, but instead of adding a decoder to that locomotive I wired a decoder into the wiring under the layout and set the decoder address to 21 (the rail tractor has the number “210”, so 21 is fairly easy to remember). Instead of buying a decoder and then risk it not working on the layout for some reason, I removed the decoder from a locomotive that I never use. This layout would be strictly a single loco railway, so there is really no need to have a decoder in the loco. Having a decoder wired into the layout will mean I can control it using the same DCC system as my Box Street, Pier 39 and Petra Pizza layouts instead of having to connect a DC controller independent of the DCC system used for the other mentioned layouts. After I wired the decoder in, I did a quick test using a H&M DC controller to see if the decoder would work with DC (it did), and then I temporarily attached my DCC system to the layout and tested the layout on channel 21 (it worked too). It lives!

A YouTube video I made of a train being 'operated' on the layout this afternoon.