railroadbill Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 (edited) Having got a cake box for the first round and then only planning and getting bits together, thought I should really have a go this time. Probably won't finish on time, so this is going to be a work in progress really, but this will later form part of a small narrow gauge layout - and will push me into working on that! Firstly, we need a cakebox. Here are some members of the Ferndean rambling and climbing club. They have come all the way from Ferndean, a station on the Lofton division of BR (that's Bill's railways). :-) They have discovered and climbed a cakebox, taking possession of it so that it can be used to house this little project, Starting All Over Again. Edited June 23, 2019 by railroadbill 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 (edited) My original idea was "The Perfect Table Railway". Here's the table for it, but that didn't really work out as will be explained so a new direction has been taken. Edited June 23, 2019 by railroadbill 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 This started off as components for a workshop and engine shed for a small narrow gauge railway. The cakebox is big enough to contain the workshop part, so this is going to be a diorama inside a building. When I get on with the narrow gauge layout (I've built the base board) I can use what I've done here in the cakebox to go inside the shed which will be in the middle of the board. I'll have to arrange it so that the interior can be seen from outside, but that's a later matter. Meanwhile, on with the cakebox.... The layout will be 1:35th scale on 00 track. Very simple track plan. Because this is a popular scale for military etc modelling, there is a lot of accessories, scenic bits, figures etc. out there. I've seen several layouts at exhibitions over the years in this scale which looked good. [Trouble was I then got some 009 stuff to add to my main 00 layout so got diverted...] :-) So my cakebox challenge is using parts from a developing n.g. layout to use for a diorama with a story. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 First thoughts: "The perfect table railway" In the early to mid 1950s, Private Roper 56429 and Corporal Benson 68392 are serving out their time with the USAF on an airbase in the east of England. Some of their colleagues are maintaining the shiny toys of the cold war on the main part of the base in well lit and modern hangers using up to the minute equipment. That will give them the experience after the military for well paid jobs in the coming age of jet airliners, so they are happy with their lot. Not so Roper and Benson. They are stuck in a drafty, dirty old workshop tucked away in a corner of the base. Their task is to maintain any old trucks, jeeps and minor equipment that are considered too old and insignificant to be maintained by the main motor pools. One day, bored senseless, they get rare passes off base. They wander into a toy-shop in the quite little nearby town. There on a shelf is a boxed Hornby Dublo 3 rail train set! Yes, it's the classic Flying Scotsman set! Roper and Benson are at the bottom of the USAF pay scales but this still makes them very wealthy compared to anyone outside the US military living in the UK at the time so the set is soon theirs. Back in the workshop, a workbench is quickly cleared and the model railway set up. Their melancholy is soon dispersed by this shiny new equipment. Somehow, this represents a new start for them, a new hobby to take back to their families in the States. They can look ahead to a new beginning. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 (edited) Selection of oil drums, buckets, compressor, hoist etc. to see how this could be arranged. Mainly Tamiya parts. Some of the jerry cans were passed on to me some years ago by an old friend, since passed on, who used them on a large coarse scale O gauge layout. I've then painted them. His point was that a lot of 1:35th scenic parts were ok for 1:43rd because they weren't that much bigger and stuff like oil drums, sand bags etc looked ok. [The BSA B20 is also Tamiya, nice little kit]. Edited June 24, 2019 by railroadbill 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 Table with real wood finish. Pic just to give an idea of the size. Mock up of Hornby Dublo Mallard and 2 coaches in 1:35th scale. I wasn't too sure I could produce a convincing model train in this size, and also it wasn't going to stand out enough in the diorama. Regretfully, it needed a bigger centre piece. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 1:35th model of a 1:76th scale model. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 And so... a few days later.... Cake Box challenge Part 2 part deux.... Starting All Over Again Similar scenario to last time but now the workshop is near the end of a narrow gauge railway once used on the airfield during WW2 but long abandoned. Our 2 likely lads have discovered a long forgotten loco and haul it into their workshop to try and get it going again. Think it will all fit in ok. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 Loco is a K's TVR 0-4-0 saddle tank. About the same size as a quarry Hunslet or similar in this scale. If I find the chassis it can sit on that otherwise it'll have to rest on baulks of timber for now. Arbitrary figure for trial purposes. Different arrangement. The track looks ok when 1/3rd the way across the floor (classic photographic thirds composition). 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 (edited) Or maybe this as a start. I got one of these Hornby CR 0-4-0 tanks intending to convert it to "narrow gauge" appearance. But it runs surprisingly well on the main layout so I've kept it as it is in case the grandchildren take an interest sometime. But it does fit in a cake box... Edited June 24, 2019 by railroadbill 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 (edited) Base cut into 3 pieces to allow the track to be set into the floor. It's some thick polystyrene sheet that used to be display boards and had felt glued to it. Taking that off left a rough surface that is useful to represent concrete. The top part sits on an 8" square of expanded polystyrene. Now painted a concrete colour (thanks to Halfords grey primer) with a matt black aerosol paint misted over it from several feet up. In the garden on a sunny day. [I did have to remove some grey and black grass from the lawn afterwards]. Edited June 24, 2019 by railroadbill 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 Will be interesting to see how your cakebox progresses, you have some good items to produce a descent little layout. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 Thanks for the encouraging comments, MrDuck, much appreciated. I'm going to get the layout board out to see how the 8" by 8" segment will (eventually) fit. Have to be Wednesday now. Also paint and glue drying on a couple of other things... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium southern42 Posted June 26, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 26, 2019 Great stuff. I do like the story telling bit which gives it so much more life. The deadline itself is a challenge: it just goes to show how much thought and work can go into creating an 8'x8" diorama but also that meeting it is not at the expense of doing a good job. ____________ Polly 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 30, 2019 Author Share Posted June 30, 2019 Right. No-where near finished an entire diorama in a cake box, only done the workshop floor, never mind the walls, but I'll post where I've got to so far. Looking across the workshop. Lots of clutter. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 30, 2019 Author Share Posted June 30, 2019 The small tank engine is now in primer. Details subject to rearrangement but the mechanics just can't bring themselves to get rid of the oil drums, who knows when they or their contents could come in useful? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 30, 2019 Author Share Posted June 30, 2019 Most of this project has involved weathering old oil drums. :-) As an aside, here's a BSA B20, the classic WW2 motor cycle, just the thing to be dumped in the back of the shed. Perhaps one of the mechanics uses it or is doing it up. Tamiya kit, loads of detail. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 30, 2019 Author Share Posted June 30, 2019 (edited) The lads have been painting one of the cab side sheets. Apple green, there's a good colour. The loco is a mock up using a Ks TVR tank from long long ago. Somewhere there's the chassis but until that's found the loco will have to rest on baulks of timber. I measured the chimney height on a picture of a Bachmann quarry Hunslet and also on a picture of Wren, one of the works shunters at Horwich that's now in the NRM. I used the ratio between chimney height and tank length on those to cut and fit a stovepipe chimney to the model. The paint pot was lent to me by my grand daughter. Thanks! It comes from one of her play sets, think it was either Sylvanian families shop (they are rabbits) , or Lego Disney princess palace. Frankly, the components on these toys are very well engineered, look realistic and fit together perfectly. Lots of stuff that can be repurposed for model railways! Edited June 30, 2019 by railroadbill 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 30, 2019 Author Share Posted June 30, 2019 (edited) Where this is going. It's a 31.5" by 15" baseboard which i made for a narrow gauge layout. the idea is that there will be a loop of 00 gauge track, with a point and a siding going into a shed inside the loop. The cake box is roughly where the shed building will be. A back scene to run along roughly in front of the back joint between the cork tiles. The engine shed partly fits into that. perhaps there is a storage siding behind the back scene. This is 1:35th scale, an experiment because I wanted to try very small locos like say a Lister Auto Truck, which would give a little more room to motorise than 1:43rd scale on 00 track. So far I've made the baseboard, and thanks to the cake box challenge I have the interior of the shed. It's possible I might have to cut down the size of the building when I've decided what it should look like. Front 2/3rd or so of board to be scenic. Edited June 30, 2019 by railroadbill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted June 30, 2019 Author Share Posted June 30, 2019 So there we are. Will Private Roper and Corporal Benson manage to get the loco running again? Will there be a track for it, or indeed any other NG locos, to run on? Will any walls for the workshop ever appear? Tune in same train time, same train channel! Time to go home. Roper and Benson are saying goodbye, goodbye. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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