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Hazzard Works - a Knagglig layout


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Hi all, this is my new micro. I wanted to build a home for my private owner and pre-grouping wagons. As they aren’t my main area of interest, I thought I’d go for a simple tuning fork. Initially this was going to be built on a shelf. However, having seen some of the results people have achieved with IKEA’s Knagglig crate, I thought I’d give that a go.

 

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2 hours ago, Bo-Bo said:

A nice start HonestTom! I must buy one of those crates.

 

They're great, even though I'm not generally a fan of IKEA. Easy to assemble and easy to remove planks from. I actually bought one for a different micro, which is making pretty minimal progress at the moment. The other big advantage is that they're stackable, which is great if you're like me and have more micro-layout ideas than is sensible.

 

Of course, this could also be said of a boxfile, but for this one I really wanted to get some height. I love old industrial buildings and I wanted to capture that feel of a factory complex that looms over the trains and boxes them in. I don't know exactly what they make at Hazzard Works, but they evidently make a lot of it.

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A couple of early shots of the buildings. As you can see, I went for Metcalfe kits. I do find these a bit of a cliché, but this was intended to be a low-budget quick project, and these kits offer lots of bashing potential. In the second photo, I've touched the edges in with burnt sienna watercolour paint and added a bit of weathering with my old favourite, black eyeshadow.

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This was when the layout was going to be on a shelf, and the basic plan was that I'd have a crowded factory setting at one end to hide the fiddle yard  and low-relief warehouses at the other. However, now I'm having a separate fiddlestick and the boiler house is at the other end of the layout, which both balances things out and helps in terms of operation for reasons I'll explain in a bit.

Edited by HonestTom
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A really good start. It has a feel of SDJR7F88's Compton Quay about it with the track plan and the buildings used. With the limited space available, I'd be tempted to go 'pointless' and just use two straight tracks to maximise shunting potential and running room. Search for Simplicity Sidings on the web and you'll see what I mean.

 

However, as I said earlier, a really super start. Looking forward to seeing more.

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On ‎28‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 11:50, 1722 said:

A really good start. It has a feel of SDJR7F88's Compton Quay about it with the track plan and the buildings used. With the limited space available, I'd be tempted to go 'pointless' and just use two straight tracks to maximise shunting potential and running room. Search for Simplicity Sidings on the web and you'll see what I mean.

 

However, as I said earlier, a really super start. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Ah, I hadn't seen Compton Quay, but yeah, I do see the similarity. I'm considering a pointless mode of operation for my other Knagglig layout, which is intended to represent a fictional corner of the PLA railways.

 

The basic operational concept for this is a shunting puzzle disguised as a "proper" layout, using dice to randomly select wagons. Basically each wagon is allocated a particular destination - coal wagons have to go to the boiler house, empty wagons to the warehouse and full wagons to the unloading dock. There's a spare space for a fourth wagon.

 

Each wagon is assigned a number and the locomotive brings it to its destination. If there's a wagon in the way, it must be shunted to somewhere else, then returned to its place. If there is already a wagon at the allocated destination, that wagon must be moved. If the wagon selected is already on the layout, it must be removed. If there's no space on the layout, then the wagon in the spare space must be removed.

 

There are two ways of operating - with one dice, you have six possible wagons. With two dice, nine wagons are in play and there are two additional moves - "swap locomotives" (self-explanatory) and "passenger train" (the way to the unloading platform must be cleared). I've had ideas for additional rules, but they'd take a lot of space to explain and probably wouldn't be very interesting to read.

 

I'm not sure where exactly it's supposed to be set. Wagons can show up from the H&BR, Midland, GWR, Highland, NBR, L&Y, SECR, LNWR or any number of private owner firms, and there's one from the TVR in the works. Fortunately, the Metcalfe buildings are sufficiently generic that they can pass for various parts of the country. And of course, wagons really got around, so there's more flexibility.

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The starting point for my upcoming Taff Vale van. The old Triang van bears a striking similarity - here, I’ve started cutting the roof detail off.

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The dark grey livery was applied by the previous owner, although I understand the TVR actually did apply dark grey to their wagons for a time, so I may just touch this one up before applying markings.

Edited by HonestTom
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The Taff Vale van is complete. Here it is in cruel closeup. The chassis is a Dapol wooden framed one. Oddly enough, the older version of the Triang van has a representation of a wooden-framed chassis and a plain roof, but it also has the steamroller wheels. If I can figure out how to swap those out, it might be a good basis for future conversions.

 

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I like the concept of shunting capstans for some reason, so I thought I’d include some derelict examples. These are the work in progress, made using the push part of some push pins.


The in-universe explanation is that Hazzard Mills used to be a much smaller enterprise, and horses and capstans were sufficient. But as the factory and its railway expanded, locomotives became more favoured, and the capstans were abandoned.

 

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Progress has been made!

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I decided to go with a stormy sky backscene. Generally I'm quite pleased with the way the warehouses have come out - I wanted the scene to look crowded, overshadowing the trains.

 

These six wagons represent what I need for a one-dice game - two empties for the warehouse, two vans for the unloading platform, two coal/coke wagons for the boiler house.

Edited by HonestTom
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