Bucket of Steam

If you've seen the Right Track 19 Layout planning and design DVD they show an example with 2mm buildings on a 4mm scale layout to provide perspective. A key trick they use is to put a row of trees ( seafoam ) in front of the 2mm buildings to diffuse the view slightly which helps to disguise the change of scale.

Note that the worm gear supplier has updated their listing, and the worms now have a 2mm diameter hole which won't fit on the motor shaft.

David, Funny enough the file transfer was done with each computer sending files to what appeared to it, to be a printer, and reading from what it thought was a card reader. The computers were about 150 miles apart , and connected by a slooooow telephone modem.

Wow, this is a complicated as trying to do file transfers between an IBM mini computer and an ICL C03 system ( before TCP/IP ruled the world.)

David, I know nothing about French railways { but I found the Burt Lancaster film 'The Train' fascinating ). I'm sure i'll be running more trains than would be typical for my little branch line, but there again my little 4mm figures have nothing else to do to occupy their time hahah

David, Please feel free as far as I'm concerned it's all on topic and very interesting stuff.

Mike, Thanks for your reply. Wow I'm going to have to write all this stuff down, it's invaluable! As someone with no experience of working on the real thing, without guidance I'm liable to make mistakes. No lives are at stake on my model if I get things wrong, but I would much rather get them right, and importantly, know why they are right. Things like signal provision are far easier to ask some questions and get professional advice, as you have given, rather than get it wrong and have people point out the error after everything is firmly glued down. Cheers Ian

Chris, Thanks for your reply. So based on what you wrote it's best if I leave enough room between the home signal and the pointwork, to enable run round without passing the home signal. ( I must admit I was thinking about starter signals when I wrote 'home', but you have covered that too, so thanks for that. I'm distracted by needing to cut some thin strips of plywood, I'm hoping to finish baseboard building with all my peripherals still attached...) Ian

Mike, For the shunt outside the home signal, presumably the home signal would have to be cleared to allow the engine to pass it . I know you covered the ground signals at the goods yard end, but would there be any ground signals at the signal box end ( apologies if you mentioned this before ). I think if the home signal has the be cleared for this movement, then the token machine would need to unlock the levers, so maybe a token would be would be taken out while shunting takes place??

Thanks Mike, I'll consider what you have written. I don't particularly want to add signals that are not really needed, ( because the more there are, the greater the risk of damaging one when track cleaning etc.) but I understand what you wrote, that there is an opportunity for one with the slotted catch point. Regarding shunting:- Thanks, that's very useful information which I will be sure to file away for operating the layout in due course.

Thanks Mike, I don't think we discussed an advanced starter. Would that be visible on the model? ( it's about five feet on the layout between the approximate starter location and where the bridge hides the exit from the visible part of the layout ( so about 125 yards assuming no compression ). This is further than I would expect any any shunting movement would go toward the bridge, especially since I don't want shunting moves going under the bridge. So I would expect station limits would end about where the bridge is. i would probably site the advanced starter a short distance before the bridge, so that it doesn't cast a shadow on the 'sky'.

Thanks Nick, That's an interesting idea. It leads me on to considering the dummy point rodding which i would like to include on the layout, so I will need to arrange point rodding for either a trap, or to lock one end of the double slip. i suspect there might also be point rodding running down the slope, and away under the bridge for a trap at the bottom of the hill ( which will be imaginary unless I win the lottery and buy the house next door).

Thanks Nick. I appreciate it's similar to what you were suggesting, and I'm happy that you guys have saved me from going too far down the wrong track, as it were. I wasn't able to make it fit with standard turnouts, and hadn't considered using a double slip. The space that the double slip saves is just enough to get things to fit. I'm thinking there will be a gate between the two slips, and probably a trap there as well since, if the double slip is not interlocked, there needs to be a safety measure to prevent accidental moves endangering trains in the station.

Okay I might be able to bring the platform forward enough to run a colliery headshunt behind it, with a double slip handling the exchange sidings and link to the single slip as per David's suggestion. It would be tight though with not much scenery between the colliery headshunt and the backscene. Would a double slip be likely for a colliery line? ( I was expecting they would use the simplest possible track components. ) David I'm not sure what the purpose of the short loop you have created? Is this to get rid of the single slip? I think the single slip fits in well so I'd like to keep it ( plus it was quite expensive ). Basically I'm suggesting as per photo above, but with the platform and headshunt about four or five inches to the left. So David's suggestion but retaining the single slip. I still think the arrangement without the colliery headshunt 'flows' better though.....

David, I don't have a Peco singe or double slip, so I have used a diamond crossing which hopefully is a similar size. There is a gap between the single slip and the diamond ( double slip proxy ) as I don't have many short lengths of track. Again you can see how the stream and baseboard join restrict where pointwork can go also, significantly, the colliery headshunt ends up about an inch from the back of the layout. Whichever plan is used, the colliery loco will always at the 'station' end of its train. There will be no run round on the colliery line and the miners will need to walk from the station to the colliery. It's not a long walk as the colliery will be over that empty section of baseboard at the top left. I think running a miners train up that short distance would be pushing credibility too far. I might run miners trains, but they will be bringing in miners from the next station or two down the line.