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New O scale member saying hello


Longers

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Hi everyone :)

 

After finding this website and spending most of my time in this forum I thought it about time I signed up and said hello, especially as I'm in the final stages of preparation before I start building my new US O Scale layout.

 

I thought it might be best to start with a bit of background on how I came to end up in what is a relatively unusual prototype & scale combo in the UK.....

 

Way back in the late 1970's a couple of my dad's friends built one of the first US O Scale layouts over here, called the Wyandotte Transfer. It was approx 20ft long in a freelanced industrial setting with a backdrop of low relief factory units giving enough scope to keep 2 operators happily switching cars for hours on end. It eventually changed hands to another of our friends. I was lucky enough to help operate it at exhibitions, but because I was only a child at the time I needed to stand on a stool so I could see over the factories! The layout was eventually sold to someone else. When the layout changed hands my dad, who was into British O Scale purchased a couple of bits of freight stock and the brass Reading 0-6-0 Camelback for me. These formed the basis of my first layout on my bedroom floor using the original Atlas/Roco track work!!

 

This progressed to a set of boards around my bedroom walls and stayed there for many years as my collection of first generation Atlas freight cars grew, supplemented by some kits, as pocket money and Xmas/birthday pressies allowed. But then I started work, moved away from my parents, had girlfriends, spent money on sports cars, etc etc and modelling got a bit forgotten in some dusty boxes....

 

Wind forwatd "xx" years (!!) and I now have an opportunity to start again. In the intervening years of getting married and having a child (no more girlfriends but still spending money on sportcars!!) I have gradually improved my collection of stock - the Camelback had a much needed pro paint job / overhaul and it was joined by a couple more brass items including my all time favourite loco, the Shay. Sadly my father died several years ago by which time we had built an LGB line in his shed and he had acquired more British O Scale. Rather than keep all of it and it never get used I slowly sold most of it. Shortly afterwards I went to Colorado on holiday and headed to Caboose Hobbies in Denver with 1 item on my shopping list and there it was, my Shay! There was just enough change for a pro paint job to bring it "down to" the grimy run down standards I like!

 

More recent purchases have seen the freight stock upgraded to the latest Atlas offerings and my cupboard has slowly filled with an NCE DCC system, various structure kits (DPM, Downtown Deco, etc), trackwork, tortoise point motors, baseboards, etc.

 

So, what am I going to build? The WT theme is being retained and another section of the line is being modelled. I want to include a variety of industries so I can run different freight stock and there will be an interchange and team track so I can also run cars that do not fit a specific industry. I did have a last minute thought of using an Inglenook design such as Palmetto from these pages or http://oscalewcor.bl...GRESS%20UPDATES but ultimately this http://www.bobsgarde...com/Patch2.html proved to be the sort of thing I want to create. Here's the plan...

 

plan april 11.doc

 

image0003a.jpg

 

I'm starting with just the 3 scenic boards, the fiddle yard will be added later. For the timebeing I'll be happy picking a couple of cars from the interchange and switching them. I don't actually need to run a train to a hidden siding when it's just me at home ;)

 

Each board is 4ft long which means I can spot 4 x 40ft cars at the warehouse, 2 in the scrap yard, 2 on the interchange (without the fiddle yard board), 2 in the tank/chemical terminal and up to 4 on the team track, although that will partially block the tank/chemical spur. There is room for 3 cars in the runaround loop. If (well, when!) I decide to add some of the more modern longer cars and locos I will add another board to extend the runaround loop and the team track and warehouse spurs.

 

The boards are only 17 inches deep so that 1. I can easily put them up/take them down on my own, and 2. fit them into the spare fitted wardrobe I've got use of. This still leaves me room for the spurs and low relief factory units I want. The latter will be up to 4 stories / 18 inches tall to try and capture the scale of their prototypes - I want to avoid having a small warehouse that looks too big for a loaded box car!

 

I've already got the pointwork and track from I need from Old Pullman (code 125). The more I look at it the hand laid pointwork looks so so so much better than their flextrack so I'm going to attempt a small section of handbuilt track to see how it turns out. If it goes horribly wrong I'll go back to plan A - use the flex track and bury it in loads of dirt, muck and undergrowth!!

 

Thanks for reading the above, I'm sure future posts will be more brief with photo updates of track being laid, etc, in the next couple of weeks and months. In the meantime here are some quick shots of some of my stock...

 

dsc000601.jpg

 

dsc001901.jpg

 

 

dsc002101.jpg

 

 

dsc002501u.jpg

 

dsc002701p.jpg

 

Cheers,

Longers (aka Ian Longden)

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Welcome aboard Ian,

 

You'll find everyone friendly and helpful here in 'OM'. I like the look of your track plan, my kind of layout.

 

The weathering looks great espcially that 44 Tonner. Look forward to seeing your progress.:rolleyes:

 

 

regards,

 

Mal

 

 

 

 

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Welcome aboard, Sir; At least now there's TWO of us here doing "what is a relatively unusual prototype & scale combo in the UK...." :blink: :rolleyes: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Was "Wyandotte" the one with awful pun names for the Industries?? - "Avanarth Kuppa" I seem to recall was one... <_< :angry: ;)

If so then I saw it myself years ago (also as a youngster! ;) ).

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Guest jonte

Hi 'Longers' and welcome.

 

As a fellow 'Patch' modeller it'll be interesting to watch how this develops.

 

You've made an excellent start and would appear to be well ahead of me already! Still, I'm just learning so could take some time before I get anywhere near to a finished layout.

 

I concur with Mal; this is a friendly site with a wealth of modelling talent only too willing to help out, so don't be afraid to ask.

 

Best of luck and I look forward to seeing photos of further developments soon.

 

Jonte :)

 

PS..........love the weathered box car.

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Hi Ian,

Thanks for sharing your story with us, a very interesting one too. Great pictures of some very interesting looking models.

I'm pleased to see someone who's so into US outline standard gauge, it's very tempting I must admit!

We don't bite on here and always happy to help, so a hearty welcome aboard to you!

Cheers,

John E.

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Guest dilbert

Welcome on board Longers.

 

'Wyandotte Transfer' rings a bell and I had never seen this. Thumbing thru various books, I eventually found a reference to 'WT' in 'The Encyclopedia of Model Railways' (ISBN 0-600-55361-2) where this layout was featured alongside such illustrious layouts as 'The Buckingham Branch' and 'Heckmondwike'. Fruity stuff ...dilbert

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Thanks for the very warm welcome gents :)

 

I cannot take any credit for the weathering on the above - being valuable brass I didn't trust myself to do a decent enough job so saved hard and paid for them to be done properly!

 

And yes, Wyandotte was in the book and had the pun names for industries. The one I remember is the Miracle Chair Co..."If it's a good chair it's a Miracle" was the slogan I think :blink:

 

Jonte, I recall reading somewhere else that you were interested in The Patch. Because of my limited space I will not be sticking to it closely but it's certainly an atmosphere/area I want to try and capture. And by keeping it freelanced I can run my Shay; I don't think a shay would ever have been seen in that part of LA! My location will be a bit further north and east where, to me anyway, things seem more grimy than dusty. Perhaps one day I'll use some Brooklyn influence by including an extension on the left for a car float or alternatively a curve to a fiddle yard, as seen in The Patch (I've also saved an image somewhere, from NY I think, where the street trackage curves under the corner of a building but I cannot find it at the moment :angry: ).....

 

45175146523255371491133.jpg

 

13a1.jpg

 

These are some other images I've found on the net that have inspired me. My intention is to try and incorporate the flavour of some of these into my layout...

 

Atmosphere

144z.jpg

 

And some more atmosphere!

nyc9649bjpg4855312.jpg

 

Something like this will hopefully form the right hand backdrop to the interchange track with the bridge being the scenic divide for the fiddle yard

crundenmartin25.jpg

 

This could form the basis for my large warehouse on the left end

12b1.jpg

 

And something like this will be the end of the line on the left - to start with anyway!!

bo26yardentrance23cf3bf.jpg

 

 

Cheers,

Longers

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That's the one Jack, thanks for reminding me where it was!

 

Incidentally I nearly used your Pine Ridge 2 plan as a basis for my layout before realising I could actually have 12ft of visible trackage and not need to bother with a fiddle yard, traverser, etc straightaway.

 

Here's some more on the location of that last pic - the B&O West 26th Street Yard http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/bo26.html Now that's what I call an inglenook (ok, with a small run round loop in it aswell)...!!

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I can spend HOURS going through the entries on that site - their yard would make one hell of a model!

I agree, that if you CAN have a trackplan that can be operated in a completely self-contained fashion, it is always best - I simply don't have the room! Although my currently abuilding 4' one can be used on its own

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Guest jonte

Hi again, Ian.

 

My word, you've certainly done your homework!

 

Love the black and white yard 'photies'; I agree with Michael: there's most definitely an air of Liverpool's Dock Road about it.

 

Great ideas too.

 

I will DEFINITELY be watching this with interest.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte :D

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As Liverpool and Brooklyn were once closely linked by Merchant Shipping, I'm not surprised there's a sense of similarity about them... ;)

Gloucester Docks also had a "curved tracks between buildings" location - in fact the buildings are still there, sans tracks of course, but it was double track and so not quite as dramatic as that famous US one...

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Hi again, Ian.

 

My word, you've certainly done your homework!

 

Love the black and white yard 'photies'; I agree with Michael: there's most definitely an air of Liverpool's Dock Road about it.

 

Great ideas too.

 

I will DEFINITELY be watching this with interest.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte :D

 

Jonte, I've spent a long, long, l o n g time doing my "homework" by looking at a huge array of websites and have enough ideas to keep me going for ages. Looking at pictures and having ideas is easy, the tricky bit is going to be getting it to look how I want it to in 1/48th scale!! Time will tell if I suceed ;)

 

Cheers,

Longers

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Guest jonte

Jonte, I've spent a long, long, l o n g time doing my "homework" by looking at a huge array of websites and have enough ideas to keep me going for ages. Looking at pictures and having ideas is easy, the tricky bit is going to be getting it to look how I want it to in 1/48th scale!! Time will tell if I suceed ;)

 

Cheers,

Longers

Indeed.

 

The quandary for me is what to leave out!! :D

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

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Guest jonte

As Liverpool and Brooklyn were once closely linked by Merchant Shipping, I'm not surprised there's a sense of similarity about them... ;)

 

And I believe New Yorkers were so impressed by the Liverpool Overhead Railway that they just had to have one themselves :D

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

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Michael - I guess this almost qualifies for "Early Risers" or ("Late to Bedders")- but you were warned about losing yourself in that site....;..!

:lol:

Anyway - at the risk of dropping you into another virtual "timewarp" - if you like the "circular" layout, take a look at http://www.bronx-terminal.com/?p=5 or type <Tim Warris Bronx Terminal> (without the brackets) into google and chase the links. Be warned - this becomes addictive! You may find youself sucked into the Dark Side, despite your best intentions!

:(

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Hats of to Tim Warris for attempting that trackwork. I suppose it helps he is a pro!

 

A fabulous / inspirational prototype and model though. A real highlight for me is the loco shed built over the water because there wasn't enough room for it on dry land!

 

The thing I love about these sort of yards is they're self contained and can be operated intensively without looking wrong, but even a tight circle like the Bronx Terminal would take up too much room in O scale which is why one day, given some more space, I'd love to build something based on the B&O West 26th Street Yard mentioned above ;)

 

Cheers,

Longers

 

 

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