Big jim’s Garage conversion and layout thread

[saxokid]

New layout room looks good Jim...

 

 

cheers neil..

[big jim]

7 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

 

Signing off with a kiss......something you need to tell us ?

 

 

I think I did a Donald trump and nodded off as I was typing and pushed post

 

covfefe

[big jim]

Had a play about with one of the corners of the layout, this is going to be the town side, nothing is secured down, the boards are just what I have laying about 

 

I’ve got to make sure the corners of the layout don’t impede on the projector screen, the rear wall will have open scenery below the bottom of the screen with as little as possible above the screen line 

 

The station could be in a cutting

 

BUT I’m struggling with the drop from the board with the white polystyrene block on to the bottom board, it’s a long way down, the other way I was thinking of was to drop the road down from the town level and have a station building where the white block is and put the platforms either side of the tracks instead of an island platform 

 

 

[big jim]

Had a play about with the buildings earlier, I really want to avoid the ‘buildings behind a retaining wall’ look as that’s what the last layout had but on the same hand I couldn’t see a way of doing it.

 

 I have being trying to take inspiration from the amazing ‘worlds end’ layout with its cliff face to viaduct set up but was struggling with how to possibly achieve it without countless retaining walls between levels, having studied pictures of the layout I decided to start the town buildings at track level rather than above it and have them rise quite sharply to a high point on the back wall, bear in mind I’ve just stuck any old building on the piece of wood so it’s no where near building wise how it will look but I think it looks quite good starting from ground level 

 

There is a mill on the lowest level that the viaduct will go in front of, i also have a low relief mill that I was hoping to put on the same level so the viaduct passed between them but I don’t have the space unfortunately  

 

In front of the low relief buildings will be a road up, the station being in a cutting 

 

Again, no representation of the final set up but the bit above the tunnel mouth/cutting can have a town square as such, I may well split it again into 3 smaller risers with a church on the highest plateau 

 

A side view of the plan which I think could translate into proper boards quite easily 

 

the bit I was struggling with was having trouble with was the transition between the town and what will be countryside, however with the town being so high up in this set up I may mean that it will be on a ‘mound’ with a pretty much sheer rock face down to the countryside, that got me thinking again as to whether that is likely then suddenly a couple of towns sprang to mind that are like that, Bridgnorth and locally to me Market Drayton

 

Drayton in particular coming in from hinstock direction on the main road involves a 90 degree bend from river level to climb into the town which is situated higher up on a hill with a rock face and retaining wall arrangement, I could model it by making the road disappear to the rear of the layout behind the mound to enter the town off scene to the left and to the right the road can run in front of the station, there could be the option of a level crossing at the end of the platform too 

 

the board with the station building on can be made wider so an access road can come from the town square, the only loss I will have is the heritage line will have to run out of sight under the town before coming out of a tunnel into the countryside

 

many opinions and observations would be appreciated 

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by big jim

[Nearholmer]

Firstly, can I say that I've greatly enjoyed following your man cave creation saga. 

 

Second, I think that the gradient up from track level to town has a lot of potential, although building all the little steps for the buildings to stand on will be a bit of a labour.

 

One observation about towns on top of rocky lumps is that the buildings on top tend to be old, often going back to when the lump was a defended mound with a castle on top of it (Bridgnorth being a good example), usually built there in an easily defended spot to oversee a stretch of river.

 

Although the sheer rock face is perfectly prototypical, it will take a bit of care to prevent it looking entirely contrived on a layout, but worth the effort, I think.

 

Kevin

[big jim]

That’s why I was thinking of a church high up as that’s what market Drayton is like, very prominent as you drive into town, however I’m now thinking the edge of some castle ruins thanks to your suggestion! 

[freebs]

Go for castle ruins !

 

I've been away for a while and came into this wondering how your shed was going, but find you've expanded! I absolutely loved reading about your garage conversion - it looks superb.
 

[1722]

Driving through Market Drayton from Newport on my way to work each day I approach it via the very scene you set out. A higgledy-piggledy assortment of buildings with a church looming from within would work very well, I agree.

 

Can only echo the thoughts above, it's been a joy to watch this thread.

[big jim]

Had a think about the way forward again, I’m going to ditch the hidden sidings idea as it will be hard to gain access to them incase of a derailment etc and the entrance would look odd!

 

im going to keep complete trains in trays in the cupboards below the layout and locos in display cabinets on the wall 

 

back to the town area, again only using scraps of wood, if I shorten the high level board the sides can come down to rail level at the end of the platform 

 

the wood across the bottom could be the board edge, a level crossing can go across at that point (again on the platform end) and stay on the level running along the roackface before turning out of town, another road rises up past the station building 

 

The retaining walls would be where the rockface would be on both the outer edge and platform side 

 

As the platform doesn’t have to be massively wide the rockface/wall can come forward giving the street a wider roadway 

 

Wider platform on the other side to accommodate the station building 

 

 

over all view, I may well put the retaining walls along the front of the high level bit (below where the bridge will start) to make a quay side (and also somewhere for the heritage line to run behind hidden away) and of course the town will still rise up on a couple more levels, quite taken by the scalescenes castle/folly as a centrepiece 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by big jim

[big jim]

Cut the board for the station and town to sit on and roughly placed the boards down with buildings atop, again no particular order

 

A road can run round the front of the buildings and off scene, the mill will be where the castle/folly will sit with a small park as an entrance with steps up

 

The station can have steps down rather than a roadway (as represented by the pencil)

 

The blue line represents the roadway and similarly the tunnel entrance, I may try and do something with the right hand side to avoid the “Hornby tunnel” look, disguise the entrance behind a building or something 

 

Moving further round I can see the higher track opening out into the countryside and over a bridge, the heritage line can exit a tunnel on the bottom level and cross below the mainline, the 2 tracks at the front could be the heritage depot/carriage siding/museum etc 

 

It can then run into a short cutting at the back before curving 90 degree out of sight back to the front edge of the layout along the side wall, (I’ll probably ditch the link between the mainline and heritage line that i planned for that side), the main line will then run through the centre of a small up and down yard (think bescot)

 

 the opposite corner to the town I’m planning on having a representation of a bit of a quarry with a conveyor running to a loading siding within the yard 

 

the bit I’ve not even looked at yet will have a couple of sidings off the yard to an oil terminal as I have the Hornby unloading gantry and a couple of oil tanks in stock 

 

overall view of what I’ve placed down so far

[LongRail]

Jim the 4th picture highlights the issue with the sloping area the buildings need to be vertical not sure you will be able to modify the buildings with such a steep gradient. May be better to have building level with a road down at one end

[big jim]

I’ve actually got a few smaller width Bachmann low relief terrace shop front buildings to go up the hill which should require smaller steps and less building up than the long ones I’ve put down to try out 

 

it will still be quite a step but if I can pull it off it should look ok 

 

 

[LongRail]

Smaller buildings will make it easier. If you can lower the ply and use polystyrene or something similar on top it will make it easier to set the buildings on a level footing

[Anthony566]

Excellent conversion of the space Jim. ..

 

As for the slope buildings section does it really need to be sloped ??

Edited June 15, 2019 by Anthony566

[steve45]

28 minutes ago, Anthony566 said:

Excellent conversion of the space Jim. ..

 

As for the slope section does it really need to be sloped ??

Does it need to be there?

[big jim]

I like a challenge! 

[ess1uk]

Looking good so far.

 

[big jim]

Good thing is everything is loose so I could potentially just bin the whole idea and start again!

 

First up the ramp, using smaller buildings the steps up and not as bad

 

got a prebuilt Metcalfe church off eBay last week which I think will look good on the mound at the back of the town, again just placed roughly the gate will Ben higher up the mound when I build it with a war memorial at street level, the buildings I’ve placed don’t look too bad to be honest! 

 

as for the castle idea, that can go the other side of the ‘river’ on the small corner board, even thought of having it like Conwy and have the tracks going through the walls!

 

im going to swap the narrow ‘bridge’ plank for a full width board (under the bingo etc) finishing about 2-3 inches back from the edge of the lower board  all round so the town had a longer/wider footprint and the bridge is shorter 

 

Back wall again, the right hand board will Be ever so slightly lower than the left so when the track comes over the bridge there will be a slight embankment before it drops to baseboard level where there will be points to cross into a couple of goods loops on either side of the main lines 

 

Oil terminal in the corner where I was going to put a quarry 

 

Metal sleepers represent the mainline and wooden sleepers are goods loops, the board nearest the camera will be narrowed to allow the low level ‘heritage line’ to run in front, possibly with a passing loop so I can only really get a couple of sidings in on that side should I decide to 

 

My only concern now is lack of operational interest, admittedly I’m just happy watching trains go round and round with minimum of fuss but I’m thinking I need some sort of mainline stabling point/depot/fuel point somewhere on the layout too but on the same hand I don’t want to overpower the layout with tracks everywhere as there are quite a lot on the long non window side already 

 

[lmsforever]

This will be an interesting build to follow  the stepped shops etc are okay as is the church the mill looked out of place you are lucky to have a good selection of buildings to work with.

[GWRPhil]

Nice progress on the new layout. I like the idea for creating something along the lines at conwy. With regards to additional interest given the amount of network stock and colas locos you have maybe something like a version of Coleham Depot. Sort of loco/plpr small service depot next to main line. 

[big jim]

Never thought of a depot like coleham, I can visualise a perfect place for it to go as well 

[GWRPhil]

Any updates to the new layout recently?

[big jim]

Been very busy in work so not had a chance to do anything in the garage

 

I’ve got some display cases to put up on the walls and a few more buildings to plant but other than that nothing has happened for a while 

[big jim]

Not much progress with the layout but I sent the afternoon putting up some display cabinets for my locos

 

Ran a batten across the rear wall and screwed that into the wooden battens in the wall then fitted the cabinets to that as the mounting brackets on the cases are fixed on them, put 3 across the back wall so far, each one wide enough for 3 locos, have a number more to put along the side wall yet but haven’t decided what size to go for yet

 

 

I bought a bulk load of display cabinets of various sizes so have a good 15 or so left to choose from, (the unused ones will be sold on) the type I have put up all have hinged fronts so when I want to swap locos it’s a simple case of picking a loco and opening the cabinet up to swap, however the 3 longest ones I’ve bought which have room for a 4 coach train have clip on fronts which will be a pain to have to remove to get to the trains, annoyingly they are “picture pride” cases and they aren’t cheap

 

The smaller cabinets will hold 2 locos side by side and I can get 5 of those along the side wall

 

Class 66s in the centre cabinet 

 

been nice to see my loco collection finally out on display, it’s been boxed up for a good 10 years, only getting out what I’ve been able to use on layouts half dozen locos at a time

 

 I’ve almost filled the 3 big cabinets, still a few more locos to go and more cases need putting up for units such as my 101, 150, thumper etc

 

 

 

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I've been watching your various options for the corner of your layout.........here's anther option, island station, with two single bore tunnels. This pic is for Highgate station on the old 'Northern Heights' GN Kings Cross suburban services, plenty more pics on the 'Disused Railway' site.

 

manna