Eastnate Dairy - OO gauge in an ice-cream tub

[TechnicArrow]

Yes I know I haven't finished Alexandra Wharf V2 yet, but this was simply too good an opportunity to miss...

 

Thanks to a housemate working at a shop in a local park, for the past few months we've been munching our way through a shop-sized tub of ice-cream (it only just fitted in our freezer!). But as soon as it was finished, I saw the empty box and knew I had to put a railway in it - and what better subject for a railway-in-an-icecream-box than a dairy...

 

 

But first I needed to make the box into a usable baseboard. I decided the box should remain a key display feature, rather than simply building a layout that could lift out. Therefore the box has been turned onto it's side, and I started building a baseboard inside it:

 

It's a very unusual shape to have to fill with all of the curves! Furthermore, since the box has a thick lip around the outside, when it's on it's side the "bottom" slopes backwards. The resulting baseboard, made of my now-traditional cardboard sandwiches, is sufficiently rigid and sits tidily and comfortably inside.

 

 

Next it was onto the railway itself. It should just about be possible to fit a standard 335mm length of track inside so my mind got to work. I was initially hoping to create a fully self-contained scene, but putting a scenic break in the middle wouldn't leave enough space for a loco & wagon to be completely on or completely off the scene. Instead it will act as either a static diorama, or with an add-on headshunt to one side can be operated by an automatic shuttle unit.

With the general idea defined, it was time to compose the dairy scene itself. A few mock-ups later, and we have this:

 

A fairly simple overall plan: a brick northlight building with loading platform and canopy forms the bulk of the model, with a girder bridge scenic break to one end. I've placed an additional dummy siding in front of the operational track to act as a "soft" scenic break, and hint at more of a yard off-scene - a trick borrowed from one of my first layouts, Green Lane Wagon Works. To break the parallel-baseboard effect both tracks are slightly angled forwards from the entrance on the right. Finally, the lighting is supplied by one of the Ikea "Ledberg" strips I used on Arrow Paints. They're robust and exactly the right size for this layout; it's suspended from the top of the box by some card braces, which the upper fascia also attaches to.

 

That's all for now, but not bad for a day's work. I'm not sure how fast progress will be on this; I do feel somewhat guilty about switching away from Alexandra Wharf V2 so quickly, and I'll need to buy the few sections of track before I can progress much further. But the idea is well and truly planted now!

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by TechnicArrow
Pictures Restored

[The Bandit]

Radical - I like it!

[Guest]

Innovative use of the box and it will be just right for the Express Dairy Ruston 48. Look forward to seeing more.

 

John

[ianb3174]

Nice. Reminds me of a family friend 40 years ago who owned a small icecream factory in a similar yard, but no railway

[Sweet pea]

TechnicArrow just sheer brilliance. I like you try to make a layout of diorama as small as possible.

[TechnicArrow]

Well I wasn't going to do any more on this diorama for a while, but with such a rapturous response to the first post I can hardly leave it can I!

 

@ianb3174 - interesting! I considered doing an ice-cream factory, but since I'm not sure if any rail-served examples existed I decided to play it safe and depict a generic dairy instead.

@Warwick Sidings Thanks you. I came across the 48DS livery as I was doing some research yesterday. Unfortunately I don't think I can justify spending money on a brand new loco just for this tiny layout, which is a shame because it would be absolutely perfect!

Also thanks to @The Bandit and @Wrenn for your comments; and to all 22 of you who reacted to the first post!

 

So what did I manage to get up to this evening? I decided the best place to start work would be the main dairy building.

 

I replaced the mock-up with a sturdier card shell; up to 3 layers thick in some places, which also helps to give the window and door openings some depth. The building and platform were then clad in brick paper, with concrete windowsills added using spares printed for the Alexandra Wharf V2 grain silo. I've left the northlight sections unclad for now since I'm considering presenting them as corrugated iron rather than brick.

Side-note: it's interesting how when the surrounding room is darker, the layout's lighting looks cooler in photos than when taken in a sunlit room! In real life it's closer to the warm colour.

 

At the left-hand end I've brought in an old section of wall from the spares box, as an experiment. Clearly the current door isn't large enough for a wagon to theoretically pass through, but it makes things look a little more complete.

 

 

I'm not sure the canopy is my finest work; clearly it needs painting and decorating, as does the sides of the northlight section of the wall, but evidently I wasn't thinking when I measured up for it since it sits behind and level with the train roofs rather than above and overhanging them. Maybe I'll change it, maybe I won't.

 

So in summary, decent progress but half of what you see above could still change! Nevertheless I'm very much encouraged by the fact that just about everyone who's seen it, both in pictures and in real life, seems to enjoy it - so I'll definitely be working on it more this week. Thanks for reading!

Edited May 22, 2022 by TechnicArrow
Pictures Restored

[Calidore]

This in ingenious, @TechnicArrow. Really inventive and the scene somehow still looks well-proportioned. Great stuff!

[Michael Hodgson]

Is it DCC ?

[Jerry1975]

Absolutely brilliant,  I love it. 

 

Jerry. 

[marc smith]

This is looking really.... tasty  In fact, it's really Jubbly  Flakin' hell  

Oh dear, please accept my apologies - my attempts at ice-cream related puns must stop there! 
Excellent progress good sir. I like this - it's something quite different.
Can't wait to see it finished - now, is that an Ice cream van around the Cornetto..... argh - I said I'd stop lol  

[Sweet pea]

14 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Is it DCC ?

What double Cornish cream 

[Jerry1975]

Good job it's not a magnum layout  ( old Graham farish layout ). 

 

Jerry. 

[TechnicArrow]

Cheers all, I'm loving the scoop of ice-cream puns - keep them cone-ing, because mine are getting flakey! Maybe we can get to 99 - then again, we might feel a bit sor-bet by then...

 

23 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Is it DCC ?

 

Currently, it's wireless  (and even trackless!) It will be DC, but on an automatic shuttle - whether that's a proprietary unit, an Arduino Micro and H-bridge, or some other fancy electronics courtesy of my dad, is yet to be seen.

 

Tonight's progress was all digital, so nothing really to serve up. But I now have an A4 page choc-chip-full of things to print for this layout, so I should be able to start whipping up a few more things soon!

 

I would say I'm sorry for the puns, but I don't think I am. Blame @marc smith, he started it...

[marc smith]

9 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

Cheers all, I'm loving the scoop of ice-cream puns - keep them cone-ing, because mine are getting flakey! Maybe we can get to 99 - then again, we might feel a bit sor-bet by then.......

 

Tonight's progress was all digital, so nothing really to serve up. But I now have an A4 page choc-chip-full of things to print for this layout, so I should be able to start whipping up a few more things soon!

 

I would say I'm sorry for the puns, but I don't think I am. Blame @marc smith, he started it...

 

So @TechnicArrow - you are blaming me for this thread taking a Twister direction. Well, I'd point out that it's up to you to Mr. Whippy it in to shape.
.....And up to me to apologise for my puns not improving, of course  

Back on topic (not wanting to side-step onto chocolate bar puns!) I did wonder whether you might automate the running. I'm looking forward to seeing how that works.

[Andrew D]

What a FAB idea! And not costing too much lolly either. 

[eastworld]

This is cool. I'm sure it'll get a ripple of applause. It's the wafer things to go. But let's not milk it too much.

Stu

[TechnicArrow]

On 24/06/2021 at 13:59, eastworld said:

This is cool. I'm sure it'll get a ripple of applause. It's the wafer things to go. But let's not milk it too much.

 

Thanks! I agree we ought to cool off some of the puns, but a sprinkling here and there can't go amiss..

 

Anyway - yesterday I received a package containing, amongst other things, a couple of lengths of track. I wasted no time in cutting a few cm off the end of one double-straight so it fitted within the box. For the dummy siding I realised I could just but up my collection of offcuts, mainly from Alexandra Wharf V2 - no fishplates required even, since it's never going to be a running track. So I line deveything up, PVA'ed it all, and left it under some books to set - and when I came back, I found everything nicely stuck to the board, but not necessarily where I'd left it...

 

Oops! I was intending to go for a slightly run-down look on the dummy siding, but I think this was a bit too much! Luckily the glue was just wet enough to allow me to rotate it back to where it was meant to be.

 

Other developments include the addition of brick paper to the upper section of the dairy building walls, and a concertina-style door added to each opening. The canopy has also been slightly raised by changing from a sloped top to a flat one, and had a roofing texture added. Elsewhere I have started work on the overbridge by building the main girder from print-covered card; finally, the yard area now sports a concrete hard-standing.

Almost to prove what can be done, nearly everything mentioned above features kit-bashed components from the Scalescenes Free Low-Relief Factory - the canopy roof and the concrete hardstanding are simply used as intended, and the doors are the metal sliding ones but folded up a few times. The trickier one is the bridge girder - I found a suitable dark metallic texture within the kit, printed it, and used it to clad some card strips before gluing them to a larger flat piece to form the girder.

 

Finally, the other item in yesterday's parcel was a pack of Peco milk churns - essential really, for this layout. There's plenty of them too - this is only half of them on the platform so far!

 

Really showing off the bridge girder in these two photos. Currently it's just blue-tacked to the front of the mock-up, but it gives an idea of what's to come. At least I remembered to extend it beyond the bridge opening this time, so it actually sits on the abutments rather than floating!

 

 

As usual, that's all for now, but there's plenty more to cone - sorry, come... will we ever learn?

Edited May 22, 2022 by TechnicArrow
Pictures Restored

[Sweet pea]

Looks brilliant TechnicArrow. You as always have produced some excellent modelling

[The Bandit]

The whole concept is lovely - well done.

[Nathaniel]

this is very lovely - well done I really enjoy it.

[TechnicArrow]

Cheers @Wrenn, @The Bandit and @Nathaniel, as well as everyone else who "reacts" to my posts - I'm glad you enjoy watching my little side-project develop as much as I'm enjoying building it!

 

Over the past two days a fair few advancements have been made. The first was the addition of windows to the dairy building. Given the success of the Alexandra Wharf grain silo, I've stuck to my method of cutting window apertures from a piece paper, adding thin strips for the glazing bars and finally covering with clear plastic:

 

These were then fitted to the building. Two of them had extractor-fan grilles added to them; I then carried on adding detail to the platform, as usual raiding my box of scrap kit sprues for suitable pipes. Then it was time to get the paints out; whilst I was painting the pipework I used various shades and strengths of grey to transform the bare card faces to a slightly more concrete-y look. Since It's never really been shown on it's own before, here's a vanity shot of the more-or-less completed building:

 

I'm pretty damn happy with this one - given it's not based on any real-life structure, I'm really pleased with the proportions. Here it is again, with a little more life added to the scene:

 

What's that in the background, you (probably don't) ask? Well, the bridge has finally graduated from mock-up to scenic structure.

 

No stand-alone shot of this one I'm afraid; one, it's pretty integral to the scene now, and two - if I did you'd realise just how wonky it really is! Seriously, viewed face-on there's not a square angle on the thing, which can probably be attributed to the baseboard. Ah well, you never *can* see it face-on when it's in the box, so no matter; if we pull back out to take in the whole scene, most of the discrepancies fade away. The only thing is I've just spotted the parapet wall should be on top of the girder, not behind it - shouldn't be too tricky to fix though. Overall it's looking pretty tidy!

 

The to-do list is getting steadily shorter - it's now just rusting the rails, adding ground cover, and finding something to fill the left-hand wall. Oh, and someday I'm going to have to make this run...

Edited May 22, 2022 by TechnicArrow
Pictures Restored

[Jerry1975]

Really nice,  very clever idea, I like it a lot.

 

Jerry. 

[6990WitherslackHall]

Another cracking layout you've whipped up. What's your next plan? 

[TechnicArrow]

On 03/07/2021 at 18:08, 6990WitherslackHall said:

Another cracking layout you've whipped up. What's your next plan? 

 

Thank you! I'm glad you asked, you reminded me I haven't posted in a little while...

 

At some point earlier this week, I finally got around to the ground cover. I started by painting the (visible) sides of the rails and the bufferstop a browny-rust colour, and then added liberal mounts of dilute PVA and grey ash around the sleepers. The hardstanding is still the scalescenes printed surface texture, on a few layers of card to build up the thickness a little.

Whilst I was at the layout I also modified the bridge slightly; I moved the brick parapet forward of the girder rather than behind it, and sloped the front face back a little so the lid can still fit on the tub properly.

Finally, a few photos - this time with the trusty 04, which I don't think has made an appearance yet. I think one of the reasons I really enjoy this loco is the splash of green, yellow and red it brings to an otherwise very brown/grey scene; although this particular layout isn't too bad with the prominent blue doors and signage.

 

 

 

I really enjoy this view across both tracks, although it's only possible when there isn't a van there. I might build a half-a-wagon, to provide the soft view-block under the bridge but also retain some open track.

 

 

 

That's all for now. There's not much left to do really; I need to add a left-hand building of some sort, and a roof to the dairy which will be incredibly complex to fit with the curve of the tub. And then at some point I've got to add a fiddle-stick and auto-run system, but I expect that'll be a project Dad can help with when I'm at home over summer.

Edited May 22, 2022 by TechnicArrow
Pictures Restored

[TechnicArrow]

Has anything been happening with this layout over the past 3 weeks? No, not really!

A week ago when I arrived home, I decided I would "finish" this layout so I could display it upstairs, out of the way. And then nothing happened, until today that is:

 

This morning I finally added a simple left-hand building using some brick paper and a spare scalescenes door. I also added a few pieces of card to represent some inset track within the mysterious end building; mainly to hide the gap under the door that was neccessary to clear the rails!

 

I then added a final card fascia layer to the whole scene, to eliminate the gaps between the layout and the tub walls. Finally I brought the tub upstairs, where it now sits on my bookshelf.

 

 

Yes I know that's an oil tanker not a milk tanker - the filler cap is so tall it doesn't even fit under the bridge! But it's all I've got for now, so it'll have to do until I get around to buying some proper tankers.

 

My intention is that this is a conclusion "for now"; the layout is more or less scenically complete, so I can divert my attention to other projects. But at some point this summer I still want to add a fiddle stick and automatic shuttle unit, so all is not over yet!

Edited May 22, 2022 by TechnicArrow
Pictures Restored