4ft x 6ft 00 Designs

[Nearholmer]

The Wikipedia biog misses out completely that he edited the first model railway magazine, and designed much of BL’s output, including all of the “scale” early 0, and that he pretty much invented 00.

[KingEdwardII]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

One of my station names came from Agatha Christie.

Along with a suitable dead body?!? 

[KingEdwardII]

22 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

Along with a suitable dead body?!?

Thinking about that a bit more, if you were modelling the 1950s, you could have a dead body scene on your station with Poirot or Miss Marple in attendance, with various police and other bystanders. Gives an opportunity for a wider variety of vehicles in the station approach other than the all-too-typical bus!! Black maria, ambulance, black police cars, etc.

 

For my preservation-era layout, I could imagine having a film-set arrangement with a crew filming such a dead body scene, since preserved lines have a profitable sideline in this business!

 

Yours,  Mike.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

11 hours ago, Harlequin said:

I think Derngate and Neston Green sound good and hit both the WJBL and FH reference points. (Right?)

 

Can't immediately think of a way to shoehorn a CJF reference in as well - that's probably asking too much.

 

Has a nice ring to it - I think it evokes the right kind of atmosphere: if you started with that name, then showed us the layout plan I think it would seem right.  As for a CJF reference - I think @Harlequin‘s layout design does that anyway: compact continuous run with terminus tracks but no fiddle yard.  Would get my vote.

[Harlequin]

What about names that are right on the nose, to make it really clear what the layout is all about:

 

Lowke Central and Hornby Green

 

?

[F-UnitMad]

13 hours ago, KingEdwardII said:

Thinking about that a bit more, if you were modelling the 1950s, you could have a dead body scene on your station with Poirot or Miss Marple in attendance,

1950s? Do you mean 1930s? I used to like watching the Poirot TV series with David Suchet - not for the actor, who made his character walk like he had a raw onion up his bum*, but for the way they really captured the 1930s Art Deco scene.

 

*no, I don't know what it feels like, but I reckon if you did have a raw onion up there, that's how you'd walk!!

[Nearholmer]

I always think that TV adaptations of much of Agatha Christie's work are set neither in the 1930s, nor the 1950s, but in the 1940s, as they might have been if the the war hadn't happened, just as they are set in some mysterious middle-English county (Missmarpleshire) as it might have been if geography hadn't happened.

 

Anyway, I've been surfing the Railway Modeller archive, and come across a brilliant article by CJF about the elastic relationship between scale and railway modelling in the January 1975 edition, wherein he talks about how he enjoyed what were then considered 'scale' layouts in the 1930s. Which all seems very relevant here.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Nearholmer

[RJS1977]

Agatha Christie wrote all her stories (apart from one she wrote set in ancient Egypt) set at the time she wrote them. So the Poirot stories covered a period of around 50 years, from shortly after WW2 to the mid-70s. This caused some issues with the stories as a whole, as Poirot was a retired police officer (i.e. in his 50s) when we first meet him in 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' and would have been over 100 in the 1970s! Additionally, Agatha Christie wrote 'Curtain' (the one where Poirot dies) in the 1940s, but didn't release it until she was almost on her deathbed. Consequently this book is out of period if read last.

 

ITV chose to re-set all the Poirot stories in the 1920s-1940s to get around these issues.

 

However the very first Poirot film ("The Alphabet Murders", starring Tony Randall as Poirot) was set in the 1960s (i.e. when it was filmed) and featured a cameo by Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple.

Edited November 8, 2021 by RJS1977

[KingEdwardII]

33 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

1950s? Do you mean 1930s?

No, I really meant the 1950s. The majority of the Miss Marple books were written after the second world war; the last novel was published in 1976. The stories are not all set in the past and the later ones do make reference to things like the war itself and other more contemporary events.

 

I agree that the majority of the Poirot stories (and certainly all the best ones) are set in the 20s and 30s - although again, there are stories written after WWII which do inhabit the era in which they were written.

 

But if you prefer your murder scene in the trappings of the grouping era - help yourself. 

 

Agatha Christie seems to be a fan of the GWR - with her house a stone's throw from the line to Kingswear in Devon, it's not surprising. The novel "4.50 from Paddington" is clearly very explicit in its WR setting, but modelling a murder actually on a train sounds like a tough ask!

[Flying Pig]

15 hours ago, KingEdwardII said:

The novel "4.50 from Paddington" is clearly very explicit in its WR setting, but modelling a murder actually on a train sounds like a tough ask!

 

I think it could be done within the paradigm of coarse scale 0 by quite simple mechanisms, using the motion of the carriage to animate the figures.  Whether it would considered quite the thing is another matter.

[KingEdwardII]

1 hour ago, Flying Pig said:

using the motion of the carriage to animate the figures

Can we have some real blood too?? 

 

I see some men in white coats coming my way and they don't look like scientists...

[Nearholmer]

We could ask the producers of Duck End Films to make a gory murder mystery, but it wouldn’t really fit their genre.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flying Pig]

1 minute ago, KingEdwardII said:

Can we have some real blood too??

 

No, that would be thoroughly out of place. 

 

3 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

I see some men in white coats coming my way and they don't look like scientists...

 

You're thinking of the "Attendants with patient in straightjacket" set - a must for every asylum railway.  Order now from Sweeney and Todd, EC4.

[KingEdwardII]

9 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Duck End Films

I just love the way that the train smoke comes from just about everywhere except the funnel of the loco...

[RJS1977]

18 hours ago, KingEdwardII said:

 

Agatha Christie seems to be a fan of the GWR - with her house a stone's throw from the line to Kingswear in Devon, it's not surprising. The novel "4.50 from Paddington" is clearly very explicit in its WR setting, but modelling a murder actually on a train sounds like a tough ask!

 

Her Devon house always gets the attention, but she also lived in Wallingford, which was served by the GWR and is buried at St Mary's Cholsey, within view of both the GWR main line and the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway.

[Nearholmer]

OK, leaving AC to quietly slumber in a country churchyard, here is yet another iteration, an ‘outside’ version using the long lead to the terminus that Phil reminded me of.

 

Ive sketched it quickly, and there is definitely scope to squeeze inches out in useful ways.

 

 

The ‘other side’ is still no more than a first stab - I will optimise that as a build it.

[Harlequin]

Here's the final version of my essay:

 

I changed my dimensions to Imperial (it seemed only right!), lengthened the country goods siding, shuffled things a bit so that points avoid baseboard joints and track crosses them more squarely.

 

I decided to just use the names of the O gauge pioneers as labels for the stations rather than the whole plan and, satisfyingly, Freezer's name finds an appropriate use...

 

Thanks for the challenge, Kevin. Very enjoyable!

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Harlequin

[Nearholmer]

This will require me to do that thing that Japanese martial arts experts do, tying a bandana around my head, planting my feet firmly on the floor, and engaging full mental focus and determination, while triumphing over self-doubt? 

 

Why?

 

All those angled crossings of baseboard joints. it is anything but simple to get those workably correct!

[KingEdwardII]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

All those angled crossings of baseboard joints

Yes, I agree - Phil's layout is ingeneous and interesting but I think it really qualifies as a static home layout. Trying to build it as a portable layout looks very tough to me.  Even as designed above, the lifting flap violates one of my principles - no lifting flap joints on curves. Perhaps Settrack might make those easier, but I would need some convincing.

 

Yours, Mike.

[Nearholmer]

18 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

lifting flap joints on curves.

 

Been there, done that, ripped it all out, and built a bigger flap to get the crossings at ninety degrees.

 

Before I commit even to the "outside" design, I will spend some time trying to develop a really rock-solid, and buildable, "track over baseboard joint" solution, because even "solder to the heads of brass screws, then saw through" doesn't really pass the test in this format.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Harlequin]

I tried to make the track joints as "square" as possible by making some of the baseboards have angled ends. More difficult to build but a good carpenter shouldn't have a problem and there's always the CAD/Laser-cut-ply kit solution.

 

Even so, the track doesn't always cross baseboard joints exactly perpendicularly or on a straight and I was hoping that the greater tolerances of the "coarse" track would cope with that.

 

Another idea I had though, was to "loose lay" track modules across the joints - provide some pegs in the boards that locate the joint-crossing pieces accurately and if they are metal pegs, provide power as well.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Harlequin

[Nearholmer]

If you can secure the rails firmly, and get the cut accurate, all is fine, but I’ve found both of those to be far more difficult in this format than in 00/H0/009/H0e. I used to go across board joints with code 40 rail in H0e with no trouble, but that rail is so tiny that you only have to kiss it with the finest slitting-disc to cut it, whereas this code 200 stuff needs a fair bit of force by hand, and I can’t get square cuts on it with a disc.

 

The plug-in loose section might actually be simpler to implement - its made me wonder about using those little threaded inserts that  can be fitted into pre-drilled holes in timber as sockets. set-up and break-down time, and leaving vital bits at home are issues too, of course.

[Nearholmer]

Version No. …… er, I’ve lost count!

 

Continuing the search for options that minimise awkward crossings of baseboard joints.
 

By taking a risk at the RH end, I can possibly get this one down to two angles crossings, and it looks about right for operational purposes too ……. Just enough to keep me and three or four tank engines entertained.

 

 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Version No. …… er, I’ve lost count!

 

Continuing the search for options that minimise awkward crossings of baseboard joints.
 

By taking a risk at the RH end, I can possibly get this one down to two angles crossings, and it looks about right for operational purposes too ……. Just enough to keep me and three or four tank engines entertained.

 

 

For the two "starred" joints, you could try a zig-zag in the baseboard tops. It would probably be small enough not to have to worry about the frames underneath.

[Nearholmer]

Yes, that would be the way to go if I was building them myself, but, for the first time in my life I’ve ordered r-t-r boards.

 

But, you’ve made me think …..  maybe their laser could be asked nicely to cut zigs and zags. Phone call in the morning!

 

Thank you.