RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted April 23, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 23, 2020 (edited) I've taken the first steps into building an 'O' gauge layout in my garden shed. It was going to be just a simple test track to run my locos until I built a garden railway, but it has gradually evolved into a small terminal station layout and the track plan is not too different from my first 'OO' gauge layout called 'Rederring', so with a little play on words I've called it 'Knott Rederring'. It is just under 20' long and 19" deep at the station end going down to 12" in the middle. It sits about 2' above my 'OO' gauge layout and I plan to have it going all the way round the shed when I can get some more wood, I had to use whatever scraps I had around to build it so far. It will be fully DCC with sound. The layout plan will be something like this, but it will no doubt evolve as I build it:- It doesn't represent anywhere but it will be a kind of preserved railway so I can run anything I like without having any hangups! I've made a start on the track and hope to have it all laid by weekend if not or should that be Knott before! The baseboard:- The leg sitting on the 'OO' layout is actual on the fiddle yard so it will not spoil the view on the scenic part of the 'OO' layout. I suppose if could be disguised as a big mill chimney or phone mast. A 'N' gauge Gaugemaster scenic background just to add some colour. More to follow. Edited July 18, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold jcarta Posted April 23, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 23, 2020 Peter This looks impressive.... That N gauge scenery board really looks goods and not out of place with the O gauge track. Jim 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted April 23, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 23, 2020 (edited) Thanks Jim, I am enjoying getting my modelling mojo back and also trying something different and little easier to see! As I had restricted space the 'N' gauge scenery was the only option and I was surprised how effective it looks, I think the following photos show that. First point laid and wired up. I am using Smail (decoder fitted Tortoise) point motors, and they are excellent. Second line laid. I am impressed how effective the 'N' gauge scenery looks in this shot, it gives a real perspective of distance in the background. I've pasted the scenic sections on to foam board so they will be easy to move if necessary. Preparation of the next section with the next straight laid. I've positioned the point but I will do the wiring tomorrow. I use the white foam board to make sure the track is as straight as possible. I am using Smails, DCC fitted Tortoise, point motors, they work like a dream. I've done a slight mode to the Smails and added a PCB board connector, I've done it with all my Tortoise motors in the past. It means I can easily unplug a point motor should it go faulty. Here are a couple of pics of the mod, the sockets are soldered to the Smail and the pins line up perfectly with the holes on the Smail. Edited July 18, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 6 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Good to see this. It looks great and suitably long. Thank goodness there's an LMS loco on the layout. Mine's 21' long and is a branchline terminus. My turnouts are mostly hand built using mainly Peco templates. I'm just putting down the last pieces of track. See the link below for details. John 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted April 24, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 24, 2020 Hi John, Just had a quick look and will have a good read later once I've finished my permanent way work. Great looking baseboards and track, I look forward to reading more later. Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 19 hours ago, jcarta said: This looks impressive... And so does the shed!!! A point of order, though :- 17 hours ago, Peter Crichton (Savoyard) said: As I had restricted space.... For many of us twenty feet is far from "restricted space" - even in O Scale!!! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted April 26, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 (edited) A long and busy day but I've completed laying the track on the scenic part of the layout, along with all the Smails wired up and running OK. I been doing test runs with a Dapol Jinty and it all runs quite nicely. Here are some pics of the work so far. Tomorrow I will start work on the fiddle yard section. Edited July 18, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwr Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Very jealous of your shed! Paul R 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railwayrod Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Hello Peter. It is always nice to see a new layout taking shape. What you have done in such a short space of time is truly remarkable. The N scenic background lends an air of distance to the scene which I like. Many years ago I built a G scale layout in a caravan and used one of Fallers HO background scenes and it worked well. Your pictures take me back to the start of my O gauge layout Ramchester (see RMweb - The Chronicles of Ramchester) which is now just short of 10 years ago. Keep up the good work and keep the photos coming please. Rod Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted April 28, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 28, 2020 Rod thanks for your post and I think I have got my modelling mojo back! I will certainly look at your thread on The Chronicles of Ramchester. Paul we moved two years ago in March and one thing I wanted was space for a decent sized shed, which I am glad to say I got. It is amazing the prices of sheds, I was quoted in excess of £8000 for a 18' x 10' shed, I ended up paying less than £1900 for a 20' x 12'. So it certainly pays to shop around. Progress over the last couple of days has been a little slower than I had planned but all the track is now laid and running nicely, the Dapol Jinty is a greart test loco. I used my NCE Power Cab to test and program each section as it progressed but tonight I changed to the ESU ECoS so that I can use TouchCab. I have twelve Cobalt S levers which will do nicely for this layout, so I've ordered the Cobalt Mimic panel kit from Coastal DCC, for which I thank Kevin for his guidance on what I needed. In preparation I've made a mimic diagram of the layout using the template provided by DCC Concepts. I've made some adjustments to their symbols, but it was a great starting point, thanks DCC Concepts. Here are a couple of pictures of the completed trackwork. The station end. The fiddle yard. The track nearest the edge has been wired to be a programming track. This arrived today after a mad moment on Ebay. The lining is very wonky to say the least but I will be redoing that as I've ordered the appropriate transfers from Fox Transfers. It will be renumbered 42292 as I've got a photograph of that loco running on the line that is now the edge of the back of my shed. I will fit a sound chip tomorrow and give it a test run, perhaps even a video. Tomorrow I am planning on tidying up the temporary foam board station platforms until I get ones from Ten Commandments. I have also found a reasonably cheap way to store my 'O' gauge stock which I will post about later. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 3, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) Activity has been a little slower over the last couple of days as I have been preparing the Fairburn Tank Engine for a partial repaint and resulted in a sorting out of my airbrushes and all the paints. Yesterday I tidied up the temporary platforms and the back scenes, they are a bit of mismatch but I will look at ways to hide the joins. I've also added two Dapol O gauge LMS signals. probably not prototypical but there for some play value Last year I bought a used 3 car Derby Lightweight DMU and today I started to convert it to DCC with sound. I completed one power car and will finish off the other tomorrow, I am also considering adding lights. Here is the converted power car with the centre trailer. The V had been over painted with a yellow panel, which I removed using the sand blasting airbrush. The white domes need repainting and I am considering a complete repaint as the shade of green is different from that of the Bachmann Lightweight being lighter, also to lining is more yellow than cream. Edited July 18, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold jcarta Posted May 3, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 3, 2020 7 hours ago, Peter Crichton (Savoyard) said: Activity has been a little slower over the last couple of days Blimey..... If this is what you call slow...... I would hate to think what you could achieve if you put your mind to it Looking good Jim 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 3, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 3, 2020 48 minutes ago, jcarta said: Blimey..... If this is what you call slow...... I would hate to think what you could achieve if you put your mind to it Looking good Jim HS2 possibly! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railwayrod Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Hi Peter. Nice to see how much you have done in such a short space of time. The 2-6-4t loco looks a useful purchase and will fit in with your theme very well. Look forward to seeing it repainted in due course. Rod 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 3, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) Thanks Rod, it's been great fun the only worrying thing now is B&Q and Wickes are open so I could get some more wood for going round the shed! The primer I ordered on Amazon arrives tomorrow so all being well I will be finishing off the 2-6-4t. A couple of years ago a friend bought me some wine and it arrived in a very strong wooden box which I decided to keep as it must have a use at some point, then a couple of weeks ago when I was sorting out my O Gauge locos and wanted a better way of storing them so they would be easy to get out and run. So a couple of weeks ago I made the prototype. So I sourced some used wine boxes on Ebay and ordered some, sadly these didn't come with wine. So today I have been making up some stock boxes. They can hold four locos or Mk 1 size coaches, there are slightly different lengths but the minimum will hold Mk 1 coaches. So here are a couple of pictures of the production versions. I have used pieces of felt to protect the models but they also double up as a way of lifting the loco out of the box. With four locos in a box, it is very heavy and so wouldn't be an ideal way of carrying locos around to exhibitions etc.. but would be OK for the coaches and wagons. What they do is provide a very easy and safer way of storing rolling stock at home, avoiding having to use those boxes which are harder to get in than Fort Knox! Below is a wagon stock box with the dividers at going horizontally. I have decided against this as it is restrictive on mixing wagons they may be slightly larger. I have used foamboard to separate the wagons. Edited July 18, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold jcarta Posted May 4, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2020 Now that's a good idea but I just hope that wine case for the loco's has been suitably strengthen in all area's as that must be at least 16 kilo's in weight Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 4, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2020 (edited) 51 minutes ago, jcarta said: Now that's a good idea but I just hope that wine case for the loco's has been suitably strengthen in all area's as that must be at least 16 kilo's in weight Jim Hi Jim, They are strong enough for general use around the shed but as I mentioned earlier I wouldn't use them for general carrying around, it's not so much the strength of the case more the combined weight, but perfect for goods wagons and coaches for taking to exhibitions. I am thinking of adapting some to be stock boxes with lids for general transporting and I suppose there would be no problem having one loco mixed with lighter rolling stock. They would have had to carry some weight with six bottles of wine in each so they have been made to a good strength with good strong wood, but I a few extra nails here and there would do no harm. The majority are about 50 cm long with some going up to 53 cm, so long enough for a Deltic or Class 40. Some of the boxes are only 9 cm high internally so I've increased the height by using either 1x1 cm or .6 x .6 cm pine strip and avoiding any damage to roof detailing. Some of the boxes are nearer 10 cm high so no problem. Overall I have reduced my storage in the shed to about 30% of what it was in the boxes. Edited May 4, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold jcarta Posted May 4, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2020 Peter I do like the idea and it has got me thinking that I could do with something similar as all my stock is upstairs so when I want to run the trains outside I currently have to bring them down stairs one by one by handling them which would be prone to bits breaking off especially Heljan's ...... so I am on the lookout for wine boxes, strengthen of course.... Jim 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 4, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2020 (edited) Jim, For me it will make using the layout more enjoyable than those boxes, knowing I can easily get to any of my stock without any hassle. I am thinking of a small mobile trolley/table which I could use to move a box around and eventually into the garden! I did a recalculation on the 6 bay 90 degree version for goods wagons and for the smaller Dapol wagons I've been able to get 7 bays, it's a snug fit with the felt but is OK, I could probably have got away with an extra 1 mm per bay but perhaps the next one. Here is a pic of the modified wagon box. Edited May 4, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 4, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2020 Jim, I forgot to mention I got mine from this seller on Ebay, as I got quite a few he did them for £11 each. He delivered them personally a week last Saturday as he was in the area but he did give me his website address which I will find somewhere in the shed as it may be cheaper buying direct rather than Ebay, 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railwayrod Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 You certainly do not hang about do you. Boxes arrive last week and here they are modified and full of lovely stock. Looking forward to seeing the tank soon - maybe tomorrow? lol! Rod Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 4, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2020 (edited) After tidying up after making the stock boxes I had a look at the Ten Commandments girder bridge and buffer stops that arrived today (Monday), for which I thank Dave for his speedy service. I wanted something realistic as a scenic break and this bridge is excellent for the job. I intended only to look at how it all fits together but I couldn't resist and built the bases. The top bit has only been placed into position as I will be experimenting with the width of the bridge and then how wide to make the actual girder section, but I couldn't resist a trial with a coach. Edited May 4, 2020 by Peter Crichton (Savoyard) 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Savoyard Posted May 5, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 5, 2020 17 hours ago, jcarta said: Peter I do like the idea and it has got me thinking that I could do with something similar as all my stock is upstairs so when I want to run the trains outside I currently have to bring them down stairs one by one by handling them which would be prone to bits breaking off especially Heljan's ...... so I am on the lookout for wine boxes, strengthen of course.... Jim Jim, I've found the website and the boxes are only £10 each direct. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted May 5, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 5, 2020 17 hours ago, Peter Crichton (Savoyard) said: Overall I have reduced my storage in the shed to about 30% of what it was in the boxes. Presumably you will be selling the empty boxes on eBay?!! If you don't get rid of the boxes, then, on a technicality, you have increased your storage by 30%! Mike. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggies1961 Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Hi Peter, Looking great and coming along apace, Are your wall sections scratch built? Wish I had known about the Ten Commandments bridge. Cheers Julian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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