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A kind of Miller's dale in N gauge


Reinder
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Hello

 

Some may know as the guy from Alloa in N gauge. First let me say i am not a native English guy so forgive my grammar if it's wrong. 

 

A few months ago we had a bit of bad luck with the roof of our house. This was to do with the big snow storm here. So we opted to move and it was decided that Alloa station would cease to exist. But after watching a few other houses we luckily decided to stay in our current house. So i had a layout in the attic that was already being stripped down at several points and my partner felt bad for me. So i opted fot the garage for my layout so it would be much easier for me to build and maintain it without banging my head all the time against the roof. 

 

This idea was accepted and immediately started ordering building materials for the grand project. The neighbor looked a bit scared when the big lorry pulled up in front of our house. With 2 pallets of building materials we started working on the garage. 

 

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Within a few day we installed the new walls, added isolation and we flattened the floor for a new floor. 

 

After the flooring we added wallpaper and a laminate floor so it would become a fully functional room in engineering livery. I didn't plan it to become like this livery, i just liked to colours but it looks good. 

 

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So what to do with my newly acquired man-cave. Build a bar or a railway off course, many sleepless night of ideas for my modest traim room. 4.60m by 2.60m was a good space for several ideas, but not for alloa wich would look to compressed in the space. So we tried different Scottish stations, even some GWR ones.  But eventually i got pulled into Miller's dale, the 2 iconic bridges would become the centerpiece of station.

 

First i had a concept of having the 2 bridges in a curve in the corner of the layout but after a day or 2 i started hearing voices. Is that really a good idea?, will it look alright?, did I lock my car? 

 

So another sleepless night but the next morning after some coffee i started seeing things clear. This lead to a morning of planning in anyrails to reach my current stage of idea. 

 

A slightly different Miller's dale. 

There are 2 fictional town near Miller's dale that where popular with day people from the big city's. With the rise of tourism it was decided a railway was needed to fulfill the higher demand of transport in the region. There were several options but it was decided the lines would start at Miller's dale because the express trains already stopped there. With the reconstruction of the station in 1905 the 2 branch lines where added into the infrastructure. 

 

Adding 2 junctions, 

1. Miller's dale north junction pointing towards Buxton 

2. Millers dale South junction pointing towards London. 

 

With the expansion of the station a depot was needed to provide engines for the branchlines. Sending engines fron Buxton would be to costly and interfere to much on the busy line. So a small depot is being planned for refueling and small repairs.

 

With the growth of the Railways, so did Miller's dale. A hotel was build for the weary traveler and several extra houses for the man of the iron road. But the place remanded small compared to the railway station. 

 

With the beeching axe the people fear for their station but the tourists and the station quarry with its new upgraded factory kept the Railways save for now. 

 

This is the layout in it's current stage of development, still need to add the depot to the right point that's sticking out of the mainline. I am considering to make the single branchline in front of the station entering a tunnel a bit sooner so i can build a village above it. 

 

The second picture is the hidden track with the 2 helixes and fiddle yards, yes the helix will work fine. The have being tested allot on my old layout. 

 

Some facts of my layout. 

1.DCC with digikeijs dr5000 for now

2. N gauge 

3. Automatic control with Itrain 5

4. Manual possible with touchscreen monitor 

5. Era 6, but maby even bit of 7.

6. 458cm by 263cm big 

 

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If everything is going according to plan, we will start construction of the table next week. 

 

I still got to do allot of research of what kind of rolling stock and engine i can use. I don't want a exact replica but it is nice to drive correctly formed trains 

 

 

Until next update 

 

Edited by Reinder
Picture in the wrong place
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This sounds like a great concept and I really like how you have thought through the back story to the layout.

 

What makes Millers Dale such a great subject to model is all the scenery, I really hope you manage to capture the feel of it.

 

Will be following with interest.

 

Al.

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Thank you Alister_g

 

I do really like scenery, trees and little rivers. That makes the location a great spot for me. There is plent5of room to make it a lush and green world with trains fitted in the landscape. 

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So Thursday was the great day, after a cup of coffee we embarked on a new journey. 

 

After a good day's work my brother and i produced the first part of the table. Today we will add more details for the tracks and make a start on the table tops that will b3 at 3 different heights. So lots to do, but there is a good start. Now i really wanna lay down some tracks this week. 

 

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IMG_20210507_155559.jpg.846877435932a77b9c74013452050019.jpg

 

I also got my self some trackbed from dcc concepts. I need to figure put how to place it correctly. Normally i use cork but this is way more beautiful in the end 

 

IMG_20210507_180551.jpg.1e1f5a3641be3f3e0abf0ed372660bad.jpg

 

Edited by Reinder
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So today another update on the layout. We have being working hard on the frame again. As photo's show more than a thousand words... 

 

IMG_20210509_133528.jpg.d240c978e837a344ad8daa2ad82ecce7.jpgIMG_20210509_175330.jpg.5f01ee1010bfee28412c2ae04c5970c5.jpgIMG_20210509_195931.jpg.be3e157c9252e35e42c8f896dc19a181.jpgIMG_20210509_175714.jpg.7663d44022e56231d7a9af2f17f8aebc.jpgIMG_20210509_175720.jpg.b2a5353a324d0f980f09836e0730bb8f.jpg

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If have already cut out the timber to form the bridges at Miller's Dale. A third bridge has being added for the branchline. If everything is going to plan. I can start laying track this week for the hidden parts of the layout so i can place the table top for Miller's dale

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  • 5 weeks later...

Let me just wipe of the dust of my topic

 

It's being awhile but i have being busy laying down tracks. All hidden tracks on the mainline have being layed down. 90% of the branchline is finished. Still need to work out the branchline station but that's secondary to getting a train running on the mainline. 

 

Today has all being about wiring the layout. Connecting all the tracks towards the occupation decoder. Not sure how you call it in the UK. But its needed for automatic control of the the layout. Already more than 200m of wires has being soldered on the tracks. 

 

But let's go back a bit before the wiring and let me show you how i progressed the last weeks. 

 

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So here is most of the wood work done. Pretty happy with that because carpeting is bot really my thing. 

 

So after the woodwork it was time for more interesting projects... 

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Here we have the helixen in position. 1 is now fully operational and tested. The small one is still being build atm. Something of a budget is slowing progress on that. 

 

After helixen were finished sort of i layed all the tracks on the lower hidden section. 

 

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And we end this update with a teaser for next time.. 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Yes i am still alive. 

 

Finally a update on my layout. I had a bit of doubt of my current house so construction was stopped for some time. After finding out that house prices in the low lands of Holland are freaking crazy at the moment. I decided to discard the expensive idea of moving and instead invest in my current home this coming months. 

 

So after that time consuming adventure it was time to get into the layout again. That also took some time to see the light again but the train is rolling again. All mainline tracks have being layed and wired up to the occupancy decoders for automatic control if wanted.

 

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Here will be the 2 bridges of Millers Dale and a fictional Bridge for the branchline. The idea is to have 2 waterfalls behind each other under the bridges. The small piece of wood to the left will be the moterway and will have some buildings in the future. 

 

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The branchline is slowly growing but still needs work. A small terminus station is being prepared in the mind. Probably 1 platform and some fishing stuff for my fishwagons. But i need tracks for that first. And with a small budget at the moment that is not going to happen really soon. 

 

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The small terminus will be here, next to the branchline. Still need to make the boards for it but it will follow the curves of the layout with at the end a lighthouse. 

 

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The mine at Miller's dale is also finished. It will need allot of weathering but it already a nice building. Tracks has also being layed down this week. Still need to do the wiring below the baseboards. But we got plenty of time for that. 

 

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Next project will be to design a modest depot that can handle a steamer and diesel. Probably want a 2 track engine shed, i already have the inspection pits for it. But thinking out a track plan is Giving me a headache already. It all have to fit after this point, but if someone has a idea i am open to it. Its the right hand point facing down towards the wire striper 

 

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  • 2 months later...

This is looking like a really fascinating project, especially with the automatic control using iTrain (something I do myself extensively). Love that flowing pointwork in the station area, very beautifully laid.

 

Are there any recent updates on the layout?  Do you have trains running?  Would love to see some photos (or even video!).

 

Ben

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On 01/12/2021 at 20:24, benjy14 said:

This is looking like a really fascinating project, especially with the automatic control using iTrain (something I do myself extensively). Love that flowing pointwork in the station area, very beautifully laid.

 

Are there any recent updates on the layout?  Do you have trains running?  Would love to see some photos (or even video!).

 

Ben

 

Hello Ben

 

Updates have being a bit slow. We had the house renovated so i was busy organizing that. Secondly i had a bit of doubt of going on with the project because of several problems on the layout. 

 

But... 

 

Today i said to myself lets try it one more time. And after like 2 hours i fixed the problem with my return loop. Fixed several bad points in the track work and now i am enjoying it again. 

 

So you can expect a update soon again. Got to work on the branchline and fix maby 1 bad railjoiner because my steamengine sometimes popped out of the track. But is send it back to rails of sheffield and they supplied a new one. Still got to plig the decoder in it again. 

 

Thanks again for your kind words. It makes me wanna push on tomorrow and don't do stupid stuff like putting the new lights on the ceiling and other boring stuff haha. 

 

Maby i will upload a vid on YouTube so i can share it here

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 04/12/2021 at 22:22, benjy14 said:

Glad you've managed to find your modelling mojo and look forward to your update :) 

 

Yeah same here.

 

It took some time but i finally started to enjoy it again. 

 

On 05/12/2021 at 10:31, RobinofLoxley said:

I am amazed how much construction you have managed to do in such a short space of time Reinder. Do you ever go out, do some shopping, go to a restaurant? :P

 

I sometimes work like 6 or 7 hours on the layout. So i can make some great progress. But it's also getting into the flow and then you can really make progress. 

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And yes a sunday update 

 

I finally finished the tracks near my fabric. So another thing is finished. Moving me closer to start on the scenery part. 

 

IMG_20211219_164803.jpg.237934128ef1538bfbbf06d0bb652cc4.jpg

 

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I also moved in with the electronic part of this section of the layout. Not as perfectly as i imagined in my head but still it works and looks OK 

 

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I have also started on making some preparations for the roads on the layout. Not sure if i want to build moving cars but its something that keeps me busy. The roads will be on the white pieces of multiplexIMG_20211027_151357.jpg.fed8311563a0a1756f044759c54c6bbb.jpg

 

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I also worked on several bad sections of track making everything run much smoother. 

 

Next job wil be to install my megapoint stuff for the first 12 points so i can start working on scenery on above my first fiddle yard. Something i am looking forward to!

 

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I almost forgot but i have also started on putting the layout into the Itrain 5 software. So that the computer can run the layout if i just wanna watch trains pass by will enjoying some fine wine. 

 

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Edited by Reinder
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  • 2 weeks later...

Another day, another update. 

 

Yesterday i started working on the points in the big fiddleyard. Connecting all the servos to the megapoint controller. What a good system. Easy to install without having to read the manual twenty times before i somehow understand it. 

 

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Even installing a servo under the board was not a big deal after all. So il be buying some more servo controllers so i can install more servos under the board. 

 

Today i started working on my platforms. Its still in early stages but its something i guess. I used foamboard to make a shape of the platform and surroundings. After that i will put plaster on top to give it a smooth finish but also to make it look lik tarmac. 

 

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Not all the white foamboard on the right will be platform but also parking space for trucks to unload on the tracks on the right. This will make the ground almost at the same level as the tracks. Making it look like tarmac or concrete is touching the tracks. 

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Mmmmm Megapoints. I’ve a bag of stuff I bought several years ago for a new layout I’d just started building. Really must get my ariarse into gear and do something with it all. Electronics are not my superpower. 

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4 minutes ago, Dragonboy said:

Mmmmm Megapoints. I’ve a bag of stuff I bought several years ago for a new layout I’d just started building. Really must get my ariarse into gear and do something with it all. Electronics are not my superpower. 

 

Same here, but its pretty straight forward. Especially with the many videos the make on YouTube 

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New years day, new progress 

 

Well some progress haha 

 

Started working on the branchline after putting put every time. After some thinking i decided to put in a small station rather than a single line. 

 

The village will be fictional but bit inspired on Rannoch. The idea is to place the station building a bit higher than the platform. I do wanna make the station and the hill it will be build on removable so i can acces the fiddleyard bellow it

 

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Another day, another update 

 

I finished the branchline station today. 

 

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All tracks are ready to be wired up to the occupation boards. Note to myself, remove train before building on your layout. 

 

So after that i turn my attention towards the third fiddleyard. Not sure if you would call 2 tracks a fiddleyard but we like to dream big 

 

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All the trackbed is in place so i can start laying down the tracks. I do hope to start running tests within 2 days. 

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