Once Upon A Time In A Computer Desk

[faded_Glory]

With my Paris 1889 layout finished, it is time for the next adventure!

 

Sitting at my computer desk one evening I noticed, almost for the first time, that it comes with a retractable keyboard shelf that I don't use...

 

 

 

This has a respectable size of 58x40 cm (23x16"), surely big enough for a model railway layout!  It is so big that I'm not even sure it still qualifies for this subforum!

 

The main limitation is going to be the headroom: to be retractable I can't have anything on there higher than about 8 cm (3 1/4").

 

 

Surely no problem!

 

Once again narrow gauge comes to the rescue. This time my thoughts have wandered into something completely different:

 

 

We have here a mint, never-before-opened Jouef/Egger Bahn Western Trainset (aka as the 'Winnetou Express') dating from the mid/late 1960's (EDIT: further research indicates that this particular set is a re-issue from around 1990). I think the time has finally come to take it out and put it to some good use!

 

This little train is quite a ridiculous attempt at cashing in on some 'Cowboy-and-Indian' craze back in those days (think Clint Eastwood, and Spaghetti Westerns). The 'Union Pacific' loco is based on a a tarted up Krauss tank engine prototype that was already in the catalogue. It is now fitted with a huge brass cow catcher, a brass stack, a searchlight and a tender with some plastic logs! It tows three tiny 'Western Union' coaches on single axis bogies to get round the rather incredible 6" radius curves that come with the set. 

 

 

 

A drop of oil and 12V DC, and presto, it goes round. Actually it runs a lot smoother than the Jouef Decauville from Paris!

 

Youtube clip

 

Clearly none of this is remotely prototypical, so once again I will aim for effect instead of realism.

 

The rail oval from the set fits perfectly on the shelf...

 

 

... and underneath the desk top.

 

 

So, we're good to go!

 

For this one I will have to try some modelling techniques I haven't used before, like desert scenery and some cliffs and hills (modest ones!!). I also hope to scratch build one or two small buildings. For the rest we'll see and play it by ear.

Edited September 16, 2019 by faded_Glory

[Imustbemadatmyage]

No room for a New York skyline this time?

[eastwestdivide]

Tumbleweed essential.

[Kevin Johnson]

Your track layout fits nicely on the shelf, I will look forward to seeing your adventure into 009 gauge railway modelling.

[faded_Glory]

2 hours ago, Imustbemadatmyage said:

No room for a New York skyline this time?

Not New York, but I will see if I can fit a mesa with a native Indian on the lookout!

[APOLLO]

The Backspace Delete & Escape Railroad !!

 

Brit15

[faded_Glory]

16 hours ago, APOLLO said:

The Backspace Delete & Escape Railroad !!

 

Brit15

Brilliant! Or, if it all fails, the Control, Alt & Delete Railroad.

[faded_Glory]

Some more progress today. I had a think about the trackwork and decided I don't want to use the Jouef track that came with the train. It doesn't look quite right and I have some doubts about the quality, so I will go for Peco 009 track instead - I just hope I can persuade it to bend into a 6" curve! This also opens the possibility of adding a point to the layout, like this:

 

 

Seeing how smooth this little loco is I am willing to give the short Setrack insulfrog point a try. I will test it first though to make there is no stalling. If there is, the point may go, or I could look into adding pickups to the tender.

 

I have also glued a 3 mm cork sheet to the baseboard. This may not be strictly necessary but I it feels odd to work straight on the wood. It does reduce the headroom a bit further but what is 3 mm between friends?

 

 

 

I then made a backscene board from some hardboard and given it a coat of blue paint - still drying. It won't really be visible when the layout is under the desk but it feels safer to have a barrier at the back.

 

Finally I did a quick test for painting and ballasting the track. I glued a short piece of leftover Peco 009 on a block of wood and splashed some cheap brown acrylic paint all over it. I then dry brushed the sleepers with some light grey and added a mixture of fine buff and brown ballast. I think it looks ok like this.

 

 

 

 

I plan to make a low track bed from 2 mm cork. For the surrounding soil I will try to use buff tile grout, actually to be put on before the track and ballast. Never done that before so we will see what it is like.

 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by faded_Glory

[Jeff P]

To get that gritty western ground cover look, I've started with a light coat of earth tone acrylic paint (they sell small bottles for around a dollar here in the US - latex will work fine as well), let that dry then take your grout, mix it in with more paint to texture it and apply. 

[faded_Glory]

Thanks Jeff, I will give that a try. I still have a large pot of beige latex wall paint that I have used to undercoat the bare baseboard of my fixed layout, I think this may work well for the desert soil.

[Jeff P]

12 hours ago, faded_Glory said:

Thanks Jeff, I will give that a try. I still have a large pot of beige latex wall paint that I have used to undercoat the bare baseboard of my fixed layout, I think this may work well for the desert soil.

That should work out just fine. 

[faded_Glory]

Today the trackwork has arrived, so I did a quick test to see if the engine wil run over the short radius Peco Insulfrog without stalling:

 

 

I'm glad to say that there is no problem at all

 

Here is a quick video to show that.

 

This shows the background, made from a piece of harboard and some blue paint:

 

 

I have reversed it now so that the paint won't get damaged during the build.

 

 

I'm now waiting for the cork for the trackbed, once that has arrived I can start laying the track

 

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by faded_Glory

[Kevin Johnson]

Coming along nicely, no problems at all going over the points. Look forward to seeing more.

[faded_Glory]

A bit more progress today. First I cut the trackbed from 2 mm cork and glued it to the baseboard, followed by a coat of light brown wall paint.

 

 

Then I had fun messing about with moulds and plaster, not done that before:

 

 

Great fun! Just to see the results I placed some rocks randomly on the layout:

 

 

The overall idea is to have a little station at the front, plus one or two small houses. Behind that would be a cliff designed to hide part of the tracks at the rear left. There will be further cliffs along the back.

 

The inspiration is something like this:

 

 

Before I lay the tracks I want to complete most of the scenery. I reckon that will be quite a bit of messy fun

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by faded_Glory

[DMU]

I like the idea of using your computer desk shelf as a base for a layout. It amazes me how small a layout can actually be. 

I like your progress and will be popping in from time to time to see how this layout is developing..

[faded_Glory]

I spent a happy few hours messing about with foam and plaster casts, and the landscape is beginning to appear. The back left area is more or less what I have in mind. Everything is still loose, obviously once things have been glued down I will need to apply sculptamold and more plaster to finalise the shapes and fill all the gaps and holes. I've thrown on some tracks just for effect. The tunnel is a quick mock-up for fitting and the building is a print from the internet - what it mainly shows is that I need a new printer!

 

 

The Indians have already set up camp and some bandits have also been spotted!

 

 

 

I have never built this kind of scenery before so this is all trial end error and hoping for the best!

 

What I'm mainly impressed with is how much space I have (except vertically...)!

 

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by faded_Glory

[Ralf]

My desk has such a drawer too... Now I wonder if SWMBO would notice... 

Good luck and do keep us posted! 
Ralf

 

[faded_Glory]

Right, there has been a change in the sequencing. Brighter minds than mine might have spotted a problem with laying the track after the landscaping is complete - including a tunnel! So I now have decided to lay the track first, then do the ballasting at least in the tunnel area, and then continue with the landscaping.

 

I could have just laid a short piece of track where the tunnel goes, and that probably would have been wiser, but once those navvies get going it is hard to stop them! So I ended up laying it all. I had to totally murder the Peco track to go round a 6" curve (which actually is closer to 5 1/2"!) but eventually it went down with the help of lots of track pins. I normally never use these but I didn't have much choice here. Once the track has been ballasted with PVA I hope I can pull them out again and fill the holes.

 

 

I then built a small tunnel from some foamboard and coffee stirrers and placed it on the layout. Now I can fit the mountains around it (this is not how things are done in real life, by the way).

 

Only the next day I realised that I hadn't soldered the connection leads to the track! So much about careful planning. So I did that today. I buried the wires in the cork bed, they will be covered later. For now I have connected them to a choc block and from there to my old controller. I got hold of a small PCB mounted 12V speed and direction controller that I will fit inside a small building on the bottom right corner. This will be connected to a 9V power brick - a bit of testing showed that 9V is plenty fast for this little loco.

 

So now I could do a running test. It goes ok except just past where the curve joins the turnout, there is a bit of a wobble here. Everything goes over it ok but it looks untidy and I need to look into it. This little old lady can pull quite an impressive train though!

 

 

The obligatory video clip:

 

https://youtu.be/GC5O-4tVdIA

 

Edited September 24, 2019 by faded_Glory

[DMU]

Looks great, thanks for the video most enjoyable.

[mjcampbell]

Track looks good, but there's a slight kink visible at the toe of the point where you have seen issues. Check this is resolved satisfactorily before proceeding!

 

I've laid track down to 5.5" radius before, the tricks are:

• Remove the rails from the sleepers and pre-bend them - bending between fingers gently and slowly to approximately the radius required. Keep placing the rail on a flat surface to check you are bending in the horizontal plane only - no twist
• Slide the sleepers back on - this is fiddly but may be easier if you cut the sleepers into short sections
• Cut the webbing between sleepers under the outside rail. This allows them to fan out with the radius and remain perpendicular to the rails, rather than twisting which can look odd, resist the curvature, and cause gauge narrowing at this radius

After all that the track should be close to the desired radius. I then glue it down with PVA, holding the shape with track pins next to the rails/sleepers rather than through the sleepers. Once the glue is dry you can remove the track pins. 

 

Insulfrog points can cause issues at low speeds, I'd avoid them on a shunting layout but I don't think it will be a big issue on this fun little layout!

Edited October 4, 2019 by mjcampbell

[faded_Glory]

Just a quick update, after I glued the various rocks in place it turned out that I can't place the shelf back below the desk. To do so I have to tilt it and then the rocks in the middle part of the layout are fouling the desktop, even though their height would allow them to fit underneath once the shelf is in place. Even the little tunnel is barely low enough and I won't be able to build much landscape over it, which makes it a bit pointless.

 

So I have dismantled the rocks again, and will have a good think on how to proceed. Perhaps lower rocks and a cutting is still worth doing, although it wasn't really what I had in mind. For the time being therefore this little project is on hold.

Edited October 8, 2019 by faded_Glory

[TechnicArrow]

I haven't commented so far, but this is an excellent little build with a good theme. I had considered the use of a desk tray, but deemed the height to be too restrictive (on my desk at least, and in OO scale); you seem more determined!

As for the installation issue, could you have the upper portion of the rockery removable so the tray can be inserted and then the scenery placed on top? Might be a bit tricky to hide the join, but an irregular seam could be disguised as a longitudinal crack or similar.

As you say, I don't think a cutting is quite going to cut it. 

[faded_Glory]

That is a good thought, thanks, I will look into it. Some of the cliffs will have to be lowered a bit but that can be done. It is the bit above the tunnel that bothers me and your idea might work.

[luke the train spotter]

Another bonus of making the tunnel top removable would be for cleaning track and rescuing any derailed stock.