7mm minimum space layout

[Metro457]

First post for over a year so I am bit rusty re active railway modelling so I don't know if this topic should go in the micro layout or 7mm section.

 

Briefly about 12 months ago I dismantled and partially rebuilt my 10 year old O Gauge layout in preparation for a move which didn't materialise (has that happened to anyone else?).

 

In its place in the loft I built or perhaps more accurately threw together a OO Gauge layout based on the BR North Eastern region which hasn't really worked as I intended.

 

Last year I went to the annual Solihull Model Railway Group exhibition chiefly to buy some 2nd hand rolling stock for the OO Gauge layout. Whilst there I saw a very small O Gauge layout based I think on a steelworks or factory siding using just one point and a traverser or sector plate. I think this actual layout has appeared somewhere on the forum in the past and is one of a series of layouts by the same builder made to roughly to the same dimensions.

 

I can't find the actual topic or name of the builder so in advance I will say thank you for the idea.

 

Basically my attempt is a GWR good yard built on a 3' x 18" piece of plywood. There are 4 lines one of which behind the retaining wall making the layout self contained. The others serve the goods shed and a loading dock as well a general use siding. The layout has been built using parts left over from my main layout's rebuild except for the Good shed which itself is made up of leftovers from other projects and consequently doesn't look very Great Western. The traverser also comes from the main layout but only needs one line to be in use at any time whereas with use with the main layout it needs all 3.

 

This effort has taken about 4 weeks to build from start to finish and if nothing else has given me a quick route back into O Gauge and somewhere to rum some of my GWR tank engines in next to no space.

 

Once again thanks to the exhibitor at Solihull MRG who gave me the idea.

 

Kevin     

[SonOfMike]

38 minutes ago, Metro457 said:

I can't find the actual topic or name of the builder

Here you go - 

 

[F-UnitMad]

2 minutes ago, SonOfMike said:

Here you go - 

 

It had to be especially in Solihull.

 

Is there a "we are not worthy" smiley??

[MarcD]

I'm in the process of building a micro layout in o gauge. It's 6ft by 18 inches including the fiddle yard. All the track is peco set track. All buildings are made from kits as is all the stock.

If GuildEx20 (Telford) at the end of August there is a micro layout competition I think that thre are about 7 layouts. My Layout is WC Boggs. My top tip for micro layouts is go industrial and go old as the size of stock is smaller.

 

Marc

[brossard]

I'd like to build a factory layout at some point.  I'm embroiled in my main layout right now.  I was inspired by Scalescenes recent kit:

 

https://scalescenes.com/product/ly01-industrial-boxfile-layout/

 

I have built a number of Scalescenes kits in 7mm.

 

John

[MarcD]

Try this thread

 

Marc 

[Calidore]

Looks like a great little scene, Kevin -- great to prove just how small you can go and still build something useable. 7mm sure is tempting.

 

Adam

[Dava]

I'm no longer tempted by 7mm scale, I gave in a long time ago. 'Less is more'. 

 

Before the lockdown I acquried some offcuts from B&Q's charity skip, including a 44x8 inch length of 18mm MDF, quite heavy. It now has my 21mm gauge [021] test track on it. There's always something you can do.

 

 

Dava

 

[Jerry1975]

Very nice little O gauge layout you have,  I have been tempted by the O gauge sentinel by Dapol, any chance of any more photos of the layout please?

 

Jerry. 

[Metro457]

Thanks for the comments.

 

It is amazing whatever the question or query someone on the Forum will know the answer.

 

Slightly off my own topic I did build the scalescenes box file layout last year,  but when completed the North Eastern Region layout sort of grew around it! 

 

I have 2 more photos of the layout both showing my trusty old CCW pannier 2789 - 1 looking towards the goods shed and 1 looking under he bridge/scenic break from the traverser. As the traverser was built for my main layout, the tracks do not line up but as only one is used it is not an operational problem but it is starting to look odd to my eye.  

[Jerry1975]

Thanks for posting the photos,  it looks great.

 

Jerry. 

[Ray H]

Looking good.

 

What is the origin for the goods shed please?

[Metro457]

22 hours ago, Ray H said:

Looking good.

 

What is the origin for the goods shed please?

The Goods Shed was supposed to be based on a typical standard GWR design i.e Tetbury. However going through my GWR books including the OPC Great Western Architecture failed to unearth any actual example. In any case a 7mm Goods Shed built to scale would cover the entire board.

 

Also I wanted a loading platform/end loading dock as part of the scene but there was not enough space to keep it separate from the Goods Shed building.

 

The building itself is scratch built with a card shell, downloaded Scalescenes  cobblestones, brickwork and tiles  together with any bits I could use from my 7mm and 4mm scrap boxes. For example the glazing bars on the roof are from a Dapol platform canopy kit.

 

Actually it is only 2/3 of a Goods Shed as to give the impression of depth the building ends at the canopy, the rest of the building being assumed to be to the left,

 

So to summarise it is scratch built from whatever I could find and not really despite my original intentions, based on a GWR building, although liberal use of Precision Paints GWR light and dark stone does make it look the part.

 

Kevin 

[Ray H]

Kevin

 

Many thanks for that. My reasonably small shunting layout needs a single storey low relief building in front of the sector plate and that building of yours looked about the right height - the layout has a height limitation when stored so I'm trying to make most things no higher than that so that I don't have to remember to remove too much before the layout has to be/is taken down.

 

[MarcD]

I thought I should have included some shots of WC Boggs. It's not finished yet but I'm pretty please with the progress so far. It's basically an inglenook with a kick back siding. It's built into Grainge and holder base boards total length is 1800mm by 445mm. As I said all the track work is peco. And all the buildings are built from kits. The only true bits of scratch building ar the wooden fence at the end and the coal bins. Total bill old cost without stock is about £800 and that does include the tressels I use for legs.

Marc