End of the line shunting layout

[Pagual]

Greetings Everyone!

 

I am Pablo, originally from Spain but living in Sydney for a while. I have been lurking for about a week, admiring your magnificent work. I have some half serious experience in Japanese N gauge. I finished one modular section of a layout and a traverser. All that is needed to finish the project is to decorate the second section. Alas, I lost motivation. The project became too ambitious and the whole thing would only fit in my Ikea dining table if I extended it, which is a pain and not welcome by the family. Also, my N project started as an end of the line shunting project with a occasional EMU coming in, but shunting is not easy with this Japanese rolling stock so I changed the plans. The first three pictures before show the results of my efforts.

 

So, the new project is in OO. I have a Peckett B2 to do the job, and 8 colourful 4-wheel wagons. I have replaced the tension couplers with Kadees. Everything is working quite well so far. The new layout will be on just one 27x110 baseboard so it can fit a cabinet. There will be a main fiddle yard (the head shunt) and another leaving diagonally to the north into a factory. The factory will also have a visible loading dock. Other than the branch going into the factory the track plan is basically an Inglenook variation with a run around track and a little engine house. 

 

I want to keep things simple so I will be using Peco sectional track. I printed a 1:1 track plan so I can see how things work on the table top. 

 

The layout height is constrained by 18cm. Do you think this is enough to have a nice looking back scene with structures attached to it? I will have to kitbash or scratchbuild the factory. I hope I have enough height.

 

PecoInglenook.pdf

Edited August 16, 2020 by Pagual

[Pagual]

I run an Inglenook test today. Everything worked well. I am impressed with Kadee coupling and uncoupling.

[Pagual]

Today I built a mock up of the engine house. I think the gate (and the whole building) would look better if it is 1cm shorter. I am looking at options for the baseboard, which will be 105cm x 27cm. One possibility is a piece of 18mm marine grade plywood sitting on six short leg coasters. Another is a frame supporting a thin sheet of plywood. The second alternative looks like more work, but I can use the same plywood to built the background. Piccies below.

 

 

[Pagual]

I think I am getting somewhere with the track plan. First of all, the baseboard is reduced now to 27x101. The engine house is on a spur to the left and will cover the entrance. A short passenger platform will be located just between the entrance and the fracture siding to the north. The top parallel track serves a loading dock with room for three wagons, the middle is the run around and the lower will work for storage of loads.

 

 

[Pagual]

I made a baseboard and I am very proud of myself.

[LLT]

Nice start. I'll follow with interest.

[AlexClass4F]

And i follow too !!

[Pagual]

I'll give a bit of background and design philosophy to the layout. Most important are the constraints I face. I want to run the layout on the dining table, which is 158cm long and about 1m wide. Additionally, I managed to wrestle a cupboard from the missus for storage. That limits the size of the baseboard to 27x101. The height of the background won't be higher than 19-20cm from the baseboard.

 

I am using Peco set track. It looks quite nice and so far works far better than some dodgy Atlas track I had. The set track points are the shortest in the Peco range, which allows turning around a 6 wagon long train. The Peckett B2 performs reasonable well over the frogs. I can even get through a crawling speed if the turnout is perfectly flat and I say a pray to St Anthony. 

 

The layout will be fed via two connections, one next to the west entrance and another to the southmost track to feed the toe of the turnout giving access to the engine house. By the way, the engine house will hide the west entrance. The north exit goes into a factory of sorts. The factory, with this entrance plus a loading dock in the northmost track will be a major feature of the layout. I think I am going for a crowded industrial look, perhaps with a little passenger next to the east entrance. The corners of the background will then be covered by buildings rather than curved. I am thinking of a George Stubbs/Wallace & Gromit as inspirations. Back to the wiring, I would like to keep it simple and have a simple one out of the layout. Initially, the layout will be DC. Because there will be only one or two locomotives in it at any time, it will be easy enough to convert to DCC in the future keeping the insulfrog turnouts. Those will be manually operated, in any case. Otherwise, coupling will be Kadee automatic (which I think it is a lot of fun). The only reason for DCC is sound. That will be challenging to install in the Peckett. I am looking to the Hornby 08 with TTS.

[Pagual]

That's nice. What is the size of your board? Did you secure it with screws or only with glue?

[Flying Fox 34F]

On 30/08/2020 at 10:15, JimRead said:

Hello,

 

May I ask you to put that board on the floor preferably on a carpet if you can twist it more than a few millimetres it will warp.  The answer is to use some diagonals;

 

The first one I made like this in 1982 is still in use now, I met the guy I gave it to at a show in 2016 and asked him if it had warped, it hadn't. 

 

As a reminder where do we see diagonals, all over railway systems, worldwide :-)

 

Cheers - Jim

Jim,

 

What is the size of the baseboard and the Ply thickness in your image?  Does it weigh much?

 

Paul

[Flying Fox 34F]

Jim,

 

Thanks for the information. It’s pretty impressive that the whole layout weighs 6kg. I think I’ll start sketching some idea’s.

Apologies to Pagual for hijacking the thread

 

Paul

[Pagual]

Finally I had some time to take a couple of pictures. I have laid down most of the track some time ago. I am also showing the engine house mockup which will hide the entrance from the main fiddle yard. I am now working on the background boards and experimenting with neodymium magnets for uncoupling.

 

 

[Pagual]

I have been painting the sides of the rails. I found the process a pain in N scale, but worthwhile. It has been a breeze with the Woodland Scenics pen.