Wantish - Wantage in a Parallel Universe!

[BG John]

Having failed to get started on a bigger narrow gauge layout, I've starting on a quickie micro layout. Don't hold your breath though, as my interpretation of quick would be well understood by a shell carrying mollusc, as many of you have probably noticed .

 

Wantish is Wantage in a parallel universe, with track that's half the gauge, the big loco shed in a different place, a different style of architecture, and a rather eccentric local population. Apart from that though.......!

 

I started by planning it in SCARM, building a full size mock up, and confirming that it's practical to bend Peco points. I've reused the baseboard from my O/O-16.5 starter layout "Cheapside Yard", that never got finished, but served it's purpose, as I'm now starting on proper layouts in both gauges. It's what I regard as a "genuine" micro layout, with a scenic area 4ft x 1ft, plus a 2ft fiddle yard.

 

This was the mock up:

[BG John]

The main baseboard is finest quality MFI style bedroom furniture chipboard, found in my current house when I moved in. It's nice and solid, and not too heavy as it's quite small. To give me a little bit more space, I'm thinking of cutting the backscene down to the roof profile of the low-relief buildings along the back, so I get an extra half inch of roof. Then I'll add thinner and lighter material behind it. My pile of free materials is rapidly diminishing, so I don't know what I'll use yet. I managed to lift the old track with almost no damage to the cork underlay. It just needed a good sanding to get the old PVA off. As you must all know by now, I'm a cheapskate! I just needed to fill in a few bits where the wire in tube point operation bits were.

 

 

The fiddle yard board is made from some chipboard kitchen cupboard doors, again found when I moved in. It has a two track traverser, sliding on drawer runners from Station Road Baseboards. The O gauge part of the old layout was an inglenook shunting puzzle, with no points, so the traverser was built to get a lot of use, hence the big handle. I lifted the O gauge track, and later laid a 16.5mm gauge track in its place. I may add another bit of board to take a third track. There's no room for Wantage gas works, so wagons for it will be shunted through the small loco shed, as per the prototype, and into the fiddle yard. I may put a short track on the handle for this.

 

[BG John]

Here's the track plan, drawn in SCARM. The only difference to the prototype plan is that there isn't room to get the loco shed and workshop between the platform road and the rear siding. I've moved it to the other end of the layout, opposite the small loco shed, helping to block the view into the fiddle yard. So the two buildings at the left end are loco sheds. The front one has a track continuing out of the back into the fiddle yard, which is where the gas works is. Who needs to invent whimsy and eccentricity when the real thing had an arrangement like that! At the right hand end is the platform and train shed, with a low relief goods shed at the back. I'm intending to put low-relief buildings all along the back. I think they will be mainly the backs of buildings facing a street running parallel to the station, but some may have access to the yard.

 

 

Track is Peco OO code 100, mostly secondhand. The only exception to this is the diamond crossing, that's Peco code 75. Peco don't do an Electrofrog code 100 small diamond, and I bought it for one of my previous plans when I was going to apply electricity to the rails. This is something I have no intention of doing on this layout. The only electrickery will be for point servos and lighting. Assuming I get my DIY radio control system working! I was going to remove alternate sleepers to give a narrow gauge effect, but most of it will be buried anyway, so I haven't bothered. You may notice that the point at the end of the platform has been made up from plain track. I'll explain that later.

 

[BG John]

Some photos of the mock up. The main buildings are a bit chunkier than the final versions should be. The low-relief buildings at the back are ones I made for an earlier plan, and I didn't see any point in cutting down the depth to fit. I think it all gives a fairly good idea of how it should look. It's a very small layout, but it seems to fit together quite nicely to me.

 

 

 

 

[BG John]

This is why the previous photos were in black and white! It's a bit yellow at the moment . I've recently bought a load of fake Lego on eBay, for making quick mock ups, and other useful things. It's much faster than making card mock ups, but a bit more in yer face!

 

 

[BG John]

Here's a bit of practical work that I needed to do before being certain of starting on the layout. A plain turnout doesn't work at the end of the platform, and Y points curve too much. I needed to curve the platform away from the front of the baseboard a bit. I'd read about bending Peco points, but never tried it, so thought I should have a go.

 

This is a Streamline Electrofrog Small Radius Left. It's a fairly old version, being 1999, and there have been various changes to the design over the years, so other versions may need slightly different treatment. I cut away the webbing from the frog to the start of the sleepers close to the tiebar, on all the rails except the curved one. Then started carefully curving it. It worked, but I found the tiebar was getting stiff, so I cut the webbing under all rails either side of it, and that seemed to help. As you can see, it turned into a nice gentle Y. I actually went a bit far, and after taking the photos I straightened it a bit. The SCARM plan has approx 76" radius on the "straight" track, and 41" on the curved one, and I got a good match for it. It's easy to adjust when track laying if necessary.

 

 

 

[Charlie586]

Looks good. I'm planning on doing the 'other end' to my layout eventually (be about 10 years at current rate) so will follow with interest. 

 

Have you thought of adding a third rail and making it mixed gauge (narrow and broad?) 

[BG John]

Looks good. I'm planning on doing the 'other end' to my layout eventually (be about 10 years at current rate) so will follow with interest. 

 

Have you thought of adding a third rail and making it mixed gauge (narrow and broad?) 

I think of many things. If you have the key to immortality, and would like to share it, I may well have a go. Have you seen how long it is since I started my broad gauge layout?

[BG John]

The first point laid. I've got a useful collection of hammers for weighting track down while the PVA dries. I needed to get this one down first to line it up with the traverser.

 

 

As I'm using a code 75 crossing with otherwise code 100 track, I've soldered this lot together. Here it's all cut and stuck down with double sided tape ready to solder. The crossing is packed with 1mm card. Once this was ready, I could work out the exact length of the loop, to get the usable length to match the length of the track in the platform.

 

[BG John]

The two turnouts and crossing stuck down, held in place in my usual manner while the PVA dried:

 

Here it is once dried. I'd pushed the loco and Bachmann coaches over it, and it worked nicely, so mixing Code 100 and Code 75 track is no problem:

 

Next, I stuck down the turnout for the other end of the loop, and the platform track. The turnout is the one I bent (deliberately!) that I showed earlier:

 

It's a bit slow laying the track this way, as I have to wait for a section to dry before doing the next bit, but there's no rush. I cut the second track for the fiddle yard while I was waiting, so I could stick it down when I was ready.

 

Progress was also slow because I was drilling 10mm holes under the point tiebars for the servos. A quick job if your drill batteries are healthy, but mine wouldn't hold their charge for very long. I'd drill a couple of holes one day, and the next time I wanted to use it the battery was flat again! I had to be organised enough to put a battery on charge a few hours before I needed it. The problem was solved just after the last hole was drilled, when my new drill arrived!

 

[BG John]

All the track is now laid. I've still got to solder the code 100 rails on the two back sidings to the code 75 crossover, and add some copperclad sleepers to the baseboard joint. I've put the mockup buildings back, until I can get onto building the proper ones. I want to add a third track to the fiddle yard sometime, but there's no rush, as I haven't got enough stock to fill the existing two yet! I may add a separate short track for the gas works, using part of the big handle, but the siding through the loco shed lines up with the main tracks, so there's no rush.

 

Operation at the moment is using a very basic digital system, but as I'm a bit old for push along trains, I'll get the radio control working soon, hopefully!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BG John]

And a reminder of why the preceding photos were in black & white!!

 

[BG John]

That's where I've got to so far. I hope all the posts haven't been too disjointed. I was posting live on Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling Online, and have copied and edited the posts from there.

 

One of the reasons for starting this layout, is to have somewhere to test and run locos and rolling stock as I build them, while I'm working on my Cameo Competition entry. My aim with that is to build most of the components before I make the baseboard, so if life gets in the way (which it may well do), or it's obvious I won't get it finished by the deadline, I won't be stuck with yet another part built layout. I'll just have a pile of locos, rolling stock, bits of track, buildings etc. to find other uses for!

[Bill_J]

Hi John

 

I like this. The eye level view from the fiddle yard is very atmospheric, even before added scenery. Loads of photographic potential.

 

How's the radio control aspect coming along?

 

Regards, Bill

[BG John]

Hi John

 

I like this. The eye level view from the fiddle yard is very atmospheric, even before added scenery. Loads of photographic potential.

 

How's the radio control aspect coming along?

 

Regards, Bill

Thanks Bill. The fake Lego was a good buy, as I can make up, and adapt, mock up buildings very quickly. Yellow might be a bit in yer face in colour photos, and real life, but it comes out well in black & white. It's easy to put scenes together to photograph, so I can test views from different angles before I put the time and effort into building things for real. An idea is forming in my weird and perverse mind, about installing video cameras in positions that wouldn't normally be accessible, and having a screen to show a variety of different live views. This needs to be thought about when planning the layout though, to make sure the view actually works.

 

I haven't made any progress on the radio control for a while. Life, and buying and building a mini CNC milling machine and 3D printer, is causing some temporary distractions. Everything I'm doing that involves electronics is Arduino based, so it's all adding to my knowledge, and will hopefully produce better end results.

[Edwardian]

Excellent project.  One to look forward to.