“FLIGHTS OF WHIMSY”

[cp409067]

3 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

.....

 

I really like railcars myself - no running around required and they are invariably characterful!

 

Best Wishes

 

Simon

 

*

Simon

 

Agreed as to being characterful.

 

However, if run as a single unit and (as most were) single ended, there is the problem of turning railcars in the situation of a terminal station that so many of us model.

 

 

CP

[Northroader]

Thing is, I’ve limited myself to what I can do on a 4’ x2’ baseboard, and I fancied an oval run. There’s some great creations you can find on RMweb in 16mm scale (1/19), but you’re really best aiming at a small terminus with a short run offstage in that scale and that space, and there would be excellent potential for this. The gauge for 16mm NG is normally 32mm, and whilst I’ve done a test layout in 0 scale on a 3’ square baseboard in the past, using 13” radius, I don’t feel it would work well for the parameters I’ve given.

Then you need to turn a railcar, as Christopher says:

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

If a portable turnplate is too much hard work, you can always have a go-both-ways one like this, where the driver sits in the middle.

 

 

[Northroader]

There’s some nice scenic potential there, too.

https://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/bordnamóna/interesting/

[Nearholmer]

I guess it depends a bit on what you count as scenery, but there are some attractively situated routes away from the bogs themselves, especially where the Blackwater network winds around the stone ridge that was the route of the pilgrim path to Clonmacnoise.

[Northroader]

Well, here’s a proud driver having a look round his new loco, taking shape out of nickel silver sheet.

[Donw]

Lovely job Bob

 

Don

[Northroader]

Well, a year has gone by since that picture, and I was thinking with the anniversary coming up, I’d best finish the loco off and do a post. Then in mid March I needed major surgery, which stopped modelling for the time, and the loco stayed just the same.

For now it’s packed away, together with my modelling gear, ready for a move to a smaller house. Funnily enough I was getting a small layout ready before my illness, which I can do bits on, so I should be up and running fairly quickly, and I think the style of modelling outlined on this thread, in fits and starts, should be well suited to the circumstances.

I crave your indulgence for just a bit longer, this thread has turned out to be very messy, and the great picture crash didn’t help.
 

[Northroader]

 

Just looking round, and with an eye for the future, I thought I could draw some inspiration from Japanese schoolgirls. (No sniggering at the back of the class) It seems they’ve introduced  a whole style known as “Kawaii”, which roughly translates as “cuteness”, and this be extended across a whole spectrum of activities, including model railways.

It’s well known that living space in Japan is at a premium, and it would seem there’s a whole design school coming out with “cute” railways, tiny circles in N scale, which can be placed on a shelf in the  corner of a small flat. Here is an example of this from a top practitioner:

It’s small and simple, and you just watch the motion of the train, no “operation” as such, but the meticulous treatment of the scenery makes it a really lovely model. The “plastic” look of the train isn’t so good, admittedly, but the slow movement is a plus.
Now, if the track goes from N to 00, and the size of the baseboard upped a bit, I’ve got my own nearly finished “cute” loco in 1:32 scale ready. There’s also a frame in 2”x1” deal with a foam board top, cork sheet track underlay, and a circuit of 16.5mm gauge track wired up and glued down waiting for my arrival (the only bit of modelling I’ve been able to manage recently) I really need to work hard at the scenery! Roll on the move!

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Northroader

[Northroader]

Well, I’ve just been reunited with all my modelling junk, so here’s a couple of pictures of my adaptation of the Japanese “Kawaii” model railways, to take a slightly larger scale:

 

There’s an 18” /455mm square outer frame, made out of around inch and a half by three quarters wood (roughly 38 x 20mm), with a corner diagonal brace to keep it square, and a support across the middle. It’s a sort of composite construction, not having a piece of ply I used a piece of 5mm foamboard for a top, glued down to the frame with pva adhesive. I wanted a “water feature” so there’s a square of 2mm ply let into one corner, and the edge of the foamboard is chamfered into it.

I then made a circle of track, which is around 14.5” /370mm diameter, using some ancient TT rail about code 80, and soldering this down to some 6mm copper clad sleeper strip from Marcways. The sleeper length is about 33mm, and I used a couple of brass 16.5mm gauge blocks I’d made. The track was used to mark out a track bed on some sticky back cork tiles, which were laid and a shoulder on each side trimmed off. The track was then laid on the bed with impact adhesive. Nice and simple wiring, and a successful test run. This makes the foundation for a lot of scenic work, trying to keep up with the Japanese examples.

[Nearholmer]

I’d missed the Japanese reference.

 

I’m a huge fan of Japanese small layout design, which I’m convinced gets ideas from things like Bonsai, formal garden arrangement, the sort of contemplation of the minimal etc that are parts of their culture, as well as from cuteness and anthropomorphism.

 

I subscribed to the US magazine Nartow Gauge and Shortlines Gazette for a long time, and that used to carry a fair bit of Japanese material, one I recall was a tiny tramway serving a selection of minute shrines, very clever indeed. One or two US modellers took up the baton. Brilliant work!

 

I’ll see if I can find pics of my own effort in that direction in 0n14, and I very much look forward to seeing where yours goes.

 

 

[Northroader]

I’ve now got the loco together to work on the layout, such as it is. There’s just some brass rod of the right size needed to finish it off. The premise was “what would the Highland Railway look like if it was narrow gauge?”, or, “what would have happened if Rowland Emett had been in charge of Lochgorm Works?”

 

Here it is on my “Kawaii” layout, just a load more scenery to finish. Its the smallest of my layouts, but I’m afraid it seems to get pushed to the back in the priority list.

A Very Happy Christmas and a Good New Year to Everyone!

 

[Nearholmer]

Brilliant!

 

as soon as I looked at I saw “Emmett” and “Lochgorm”, so you’ve certainly met your own design brief.

 

Have a good Christmas, Kevin

[ian]

Absolutely. That just looks so right.

 

Give yourself a virtual pat on the back.

[F-UnitMad]

9 hours ago, Northroader said:

 

That reminds me; I need to get a piece of plywood 2ft square.... 🤔😉😁

[Northroader]

You can get away with 10mm foamboard, although I’ve found this time of year PVA glue doesn’t like cold weather. Roll on the spring…

[Northroader]

No more progress to report, but just thought I’d show how I got to the design of that loco. Going back over seventy years ago, I got on my bike one day and went out past Pontesbury in Shropshire, to where the Snailbeach District Railway was still functioning. By then it was just taking crushed road stone from a quarry down to where road lorries could be loaded, using gravity working for hopper wagons, and hauling them back up with an ordinary Fordson tractor. Very enjoyable outing, and I progressed beyond the quarry, on to the abandoned stretch past the Snailbeach lead mine, where the quartz tips gave a “mountains of the moon” effect, up to the terminus at Crowsnest, where there was nothing much at all. Not long after the quarry laid an access road for lorries, and the line was abandoned. Anyway, the Crowsnest end became a peg for a talented modeller, Roy Link, to hang his idea of a small mineral line on. He tried various layouts in various developments and scales, all made in fabulous detail, detailed in his book “Crowsnest Chronicles”.

In this book there was a drawing of a small narrow gauge Bagnall 0-4-0, which I’ve pinched and adapted.

 

 

it gave me a good idea of the general assembly, and then it just got an overlay for a Hornby 00 chassis, and a person to the right scale. Doing an Emett adaptation, the length gets foreshortened, and the height, particularly boiler mountings, gets increased, although in doing this, you still need to keep the cab big enough to take a person, which will change the proportions a bit. Then the details get done to try and look more like a prototype you want. I’ve made the superstructure soldered up from nickel silver sheet, but plastikard would do just as well.

Edited February 26 by Northroader

[Northroader]

Some time back, I put in a link to a Gn15 Emett line “Tippy Ashwood”. Just been watching his latest video, showing ideas and gear for battery operated loco. High tech for me, but it’s worth a look for keeping up to date with what’s around, and I note the Hornby 0-4-0 chassis can benefit with slower speed running, something well worth considering:

 

 

 

Edited March 17 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

I would never have believed that was a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis! 

 

This hobby will never run out of fun.

[Northroader]

 

There’s a little bit stirring on the scenic side of things, as I’ve been chopping up layers of 10mm foamboard to form a support for the ground shell. They’ve gone down rather like contours on a map, and it has been useful to show me what sort of shape and height the “hills” can be, without overly dramatic gradients. Rather less than I envisaged, of course, but I can still gain a bit more  contrasting height with some trees and foliage.