Daddy & Charlie build a railway!

[dseagull]

1 - Setting The Scene

 

Now that I've been married for a few months, and that we have child #2 on the way (ETA April), I've been able to reawaken my modelling mojo and with it, plan another project.

 

Given that a new small human is on the agenda, however, I had two (and a bit) self-imposed conditions. The first (and a bit) is that the project would be small and to fill a specific space - namely, the alcove above my computer desk in our lounge (the photo montage of the late, lamented

will be relocated alongside my other Albion stuff in the hall, and the shelf & contents have another corner which needs filling already earmarked).

 

 

The second (and more recent development) is that it would be something for me and Charlie (5) to do together - he has a decent amount of Thomas 'Trackmaster' stuff and has always shown an interest when I've been pottering in the shed and I also think that, as something that 'we do together' it may help ward off any potential jealousy when the baby arrives.

 

Ever since my cautious probing a while ago resulted in the go ahead from 'er indoors to use this space I'd been throwing a few trackplans around in my head for ages, but without success - what I needed, was a spark to start. I got two - firstly, the aformentioned good news of the baby, and secondly, Dave777's incredibly inspiring £100 project . Now, I'm not limiting myself to a set budget - although for obvious reasons this will be completed both on the cheap and, where possible, utilising stuff I already have which is currently either underused or not used at all.

 

So what of the plan? - well, most people planning a layout to be built with help from and enjoyed by a 5 year old wouldn't be building one six foot off the floor in an alcove, and if they did, they probably wouldn't be building an end to end plank that can't really be operated without fiddle yards. The first of these 'buts' is an unfortunate fact of life - we haven't got the space for anything bigger, and the second isn't really a problem when you consider that I intend to have the layout sitting on the shelf, rather than built onto it - so it will be demountable for both building and playing. One of the wife's conditions of allowing this in the lounge is that it would be 'pretty' - so no dark satanic mills here, more bucolic countryside - so when not in use it will sit there, with a few bits of stock, looking pretty!

 

So; The Plan

 

 

Firstly, you need to look at this with some imagination. The coffee mug/candle/wood contraption is intended to represent that most typical of fiddle yard exits, a road overbridge. Nearest the camera is the headshunt for the 'goods yard' The platform is borrowed from the shed, but will probably stay inside - my 'backstory' for the layout is that it will represent a wayside station on a standard gauge light railway originally built in the Victorian era between Hailsham and Wartling (serving mainly agricultural hamlets and predictably running out of money before it reached Bexhill as it's promoters had originally intended), now part of the Col. Stephens empire. The yard will mostly see a motley mix of vans for fruit & vegetables and coal for the village, whilst the pair of Ratio 4-Wheel coaches in drab olive livery originally built for the shed layout (see below) will serve for the few passengers. In the interests of keeping it cheap, track will be whatever I can find unused in the shed - I've managed to rustle up a couple of Peco Code 75 points and some SMP & Peco plain track, which was a pleasant suprise and means that this part of the layout was paid for long ago. Point control will be manual - possibly wire in tube, assuming I can work out how to do that!

 

Motive power? - Nothing in mind at the moment, although my Sentinel (see below as well!) will do for starters until I can pick up a cheap Terrier to better suit the 'between the wars' era. Electrics will be kept as simple as two feeds to track and a cheap trainset controller - no space for anything other than 'one engine in steam' here!

 

 

A further note on stock - as can be seen above, I went the 'whole hog' with these and put three link couplings on. I don't expect the boy to master these, so to avoid frustrations there will probably be 'daddy trains' and 'Charlie trains' - keeping an eye out for Bachmann starter locos and wagons which he will recognise the brands of like these on eBay

 

So, tonight I have bought and cut to size a piece of MDF for the baseboard, and also cut 4 battens to sit underneath it. Now just need to work out how best to put a shelf in the alcove for it all to sit on, and the fun can really begin!

[KevinWalsh]

Stu,

 

Rather than a shelf, why not fit a couple of battens to the side walls for the layout to rest on when it's up there and when it's down for use the empty shelf won't loof odd, especially if you paint the battens to match the wall colour.

 

Kev

[fender]

great idea, and nice story behind it. I love 'playing trains' with my kids on my layout.

[dseagull]

Stu,

 

Rather than a shelf, why not fit a couple of battens to the side walls for the layout to rest on when it's up there and when it's down for use the empty shelf won't loof odd, especially if you paint the battens to match the wall colour.

 

Kev

 

Good idea. Original reason for using a shelf is that we have one that has been sitting unused behind the sofa when we moved in. Maybe a batten on the wall though with another joined to it to form an L Shape to give it a bit more support? - Would probably need one on the back wall too, to avoid it sagging.

[dseagull]

Progress has been slightly stunted so far due to sickness in the Seagull household - me and the wife have both been struggling with a heavy cold and Charlie has had a tummy bug.

 

I have though managed to get the battens built - two L shaped battens using some 2x1 I had in the shed are now waiting for the first day of my holiday (Wednesday) to go on the wall. We are also, courtesty of the parents, off to the Bluebell on Thursday.

 

Genuinely pleased and suprised with all the attention this is recieving though, thanks all - hope I can keep the interest levels up!

[witherbrow]

ah so this is what you've been doing

 

good to see your still modelling although now i have an itch to do something - uh-oh

[KevinWalsh]

Hi Stu,

 

Any progress on this little project? Or are you tied up with the shed layout and the "Stringers" home games?

 

Kev

[dseagull]

Funnily enough Kev I've just come looking for this. The shed hasn't been touched since the weather turned bad (so about October...!)

 

Football continues to take up time - however I've been re-reading Dave777's thread, and still plan to do something with this. We are off again this afternoon due to shipping filling the channels rather than wonderfully flighted passes from full back (aka, it's waterlogged, again   ). 

 

I've got the shelf for the alcove (A move is, whilst not imminent, likely before too long and it will be easier to fill the holes from a bracket rather than battens) - so if I could acquire some thick cardboard, things could get going quite quickly. 

[shortliner]

If you are looking at a Col Stevens light railway type operation with small locos/tram engines/4 wheel coaches/etc

 I offer http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page59a/index.html 3rd one down also on page 81 and a Youtube video 

 which are probably perfect prototypes - and Charlie could run Tobt/clarabel/Thomas type trains in "Charlie" mode

[dseagull]

Cheers Jack. Bit 'busy' for what I'm aiming for, but it's an idea - I can't really get the 'train in landscape' look in the very little space available, but I'd to go as much that way as I can.

[dseagull]

Genuine progress today. The shelf has, after much swearing and need to fill some holes in the wall (oops...!) been installed in the alcove. Currently sitting on it is a spirit level, so proud am I of getting it level

 

A shopping trip to Asda also brought a massive and unexpected bonus - wandering around trying to avoid the temptation of cakes, things encased in pastry and biscuits (I'm on Slimfast!), I saw a cage containing cardboard. Right at the top was a big dump bin - which at one point held a huge amount of packets of '15 Smart Price Eggs'. The cardboard is, as you could imagine, strong and of decent quality, and there is enough of it that I could probably build about 6 layouts this size!

 

Next will be playing around with pieces of track to see what plan I can come up with. 

[dseagull]

The problem with using the shelf is the width - there isn't a lot of it. I could fit something like 'Western Road' ( 8th one down - just above the 'What's in a Name' section)  - but the brackets required for a shelf a foot wide would be rather unsightly half way up the wall of the lounge!

 

What it comes down to is I can have either a yard (well, visible siding...) or a run-round loop. On that basis, there's one of each currently being considered...

 

(Apologies for poor quality snapshots!)

 

Plan 1

 

 

This is the more simple of the two - a platform road which heads off stage beyond a goods lockup, with a single siding at the front for general freight. The other siding would be gated, and lead off to a factory or somesuch, whilst the branch continues off in front of it (The gated siding was a bit of an afterthought, and having looked at it on screen, it would probably look better without it...)

 

The gated siding idea, however, did lead me on to...

 

Plan 2

 

 

half of the runaround loop hidden by a road overbridge (farm track), that gated siding, and a loop to enable running around (albeit partially offstage). Again, the branch comes from 'back to front', winding a merry way across the diagonal of the board.

 

Not overly convinced by either at present, if I'm honest....

 

 

 

 

 

[nev777]

A 3 way point would give you a lot more options, and allow you to have a loop and a siding?

[dseagull]

A 3 way point would give you a lot more options, and allow you to have a loop and a siding?

 

It would - however the idea is to spend as little as possible, and at a rough Ebay cost of £30 for a three way point, it's not something that I want to do. I will have another play around later, but am considering ways of getting a wider board on the same brackets at the moment to squeeze a bit more space. 

[dseagull]

Or there's this, my favourite so far.

 

No prizes for guessing which brilliant layout of recent years was the inspiration for the trackplan, but there's not a lot you can do with a board this size and a couple of pairs of points...! (that's my excuse anyway)

 

 

In true 'that'll do as a placeholder' fashion, a receipt (for a baby bouncer!) serves as a road/level crossing in this picture. The yard would be served by a track off this, with a store/lockup at the end. The current one has been borrowed from the shed (as has the platform), and neither are by any means certain the ones to be used. The blank area to the left of the road (receipt!) would be a fenced-off yard with a low relief building on a 'wing' (adding strength to the board). I quite like the idea of the road into the yard gradually rising from ground level, up to the shed (with another wing and a bank of trees serving as the scenic break just beyond this). 

 

This would need two feeds to track (not a problem) - and the points are Electrofrog (so will need insulating fishplates between the points I think?) - definitely fits the brief though, and it won't be as good as Chris', so I don't feel too guilty about half-inching his plan

 

Next up will be either; building the substructure from cardboard properly - or replacing it completely with some MDF which I have sitting behind the kitchen table awaiting a suitable use.

[dseagull]

2 - Baseboard

 

So last night I was pondering how to make the layout wider, without requiring bigger brackets. The thought hit me earlier - why not curve the frontage.

 

So I did.

 

By about 8pm this evening, I had the below;

 

 

This is simply a piece of cardboard with curved frontage, and piles (3 on each) of squares of cardboard glued on.

 

An hour and a half later, I had this;

 

 

Another piece of cardboard, same dimensions and almost the same curved frontage (wasn't the easiest thing to get absolutley matching on a table slightly too small!), sitting on top of it.

 

The whole thing is very light, but very sturdy, and held together with PVA glue and Duck Tape. Not how they tell you to do it in the books, but it works well enough! - the reason for the second layer was to add strength, as well as providing a space for the wiring, You might notice in the 'track' picture the 'top layer' appears to be a bit off level, especially in the far corner - that's simply because I need to put in the feeds to track and it hasn't been stuck down yet.

 

 

 

[dseagull]

Tonight's little job was wiring. Photos to come tomorrow, when I've done it properly!

 

However, after missing out (due to forgetting to bid!) on a Hornby controller, with transformer and three power clips (it went for £7.50, less than I was willing to go to as well....) - running out of milk provided the perfect opportunity to nip over to the parents on the way to Tesco for a rummage in the loft. I found a very old controller from one of my first train sets - one of the old 'three speed forward, three reverse' ones (so not ideal and not likely to be used once I've sourced something better. 

 

I was quite surprised that it actually worked, having sat in a box since the late 80's, but it certainly did, and I've had the Sentinel running up and down for a while this evening! 

[mjcampbell]

I wouldn't recommend one of the current Hornby train-set controllers, very flimsy and given the whiff of a short (e.g. derailment) they cut out for 5 minutes. It frustrates my Son no end. They don't control very well either! The old one you have is probably better, although I hear the Bachmann train-set controller is quite good, as is the older Hornby type (black box with a red knob offset to one side).

[dseagull]

Thanks for that - I've mostly been looking at the older ones (so if anyone's got one going cheap, or a Bachmann one for that matter, let me know please ).

[dseagull]

Tonight has mostly been about ironing out a few gremlins - I couldn't work out why I had a stall when passing over one of the points, until very close examination revealed that one of the rails wasn't quite connecting properly. A sharp tap on my much-abused desk come workbench later, and it now works perfectly. I was planning to have the main connection to the controller coming out of the front of the board, but in order to this I need something for the bus wire to sit in, to allow the controller (when purchased) to be removable. 

 

Current favourite for this job is a 'choc block' - unless anyone can think of a better idea? (that can be mounted safely in cardboard!)

 

Once this has been done, I'll be able to glue the 'top' onto the supports, and then we can really get cracking!

[jon_1066]

What about using banana plugs like you use on speakers?  The female end could be glued into the card or left loose.

[dseagull]

I had thought about something like that Jon, but it would be a case of sourcing them easily - and I picked up a pack of 6 strips on the way home from work tonight! - My brother is an electrician, and needs some for a job tomorrow anyway, so it's another 'no cost' item.

[dseagull]

3 - Essentials and a Glimpse of the future...

 

It's fair to say that some (alright, most) of my past layouts - documented here and pre-RMWeb - suffered from lack of spending time on the basics - that is getting the wiring and 'pre-scenics' right. Usually I'm in such a hurry to skip past them and onto the more, for me, interesting bits that I make fundamental errors and therefore lose interest when things never quite work properly. I was determined to avoid that this time - hence the last three days of measuring track lengths properly and testing.

 

As expected, it has been worth it - the Sentinel runs very nicely up and down the line and in and out of the yard. Something that was also started last night, and finished, two cups of coffee later, this morning was the point control. I've not gone for electric point motors on the grounds of both space and simplicity - instead, I've plumped for the Wire in Tube (or Paperclip in straw in my case!) method.

 

I didn't take any photos of the wiring and point control installing stage - but there is this, rather poor quality, shot of the back - showing both the main feed to track (which will be fixed properly to the back of the board just as soon as I've found my double-sided tape), and the point control - single strips of choc-block with the paperclip wire screwed firmly inside. Originally, both point and layout control were to come out of the front fascia, but the large paperclips which I acquired and bent weren't quite long enough in one case to reach the point - it would have also meant navigating blind through the supports underneath this 'scenic' board, so instead it was directed through the back, where scruffiness won't matter so much. 

 

 

I didn't take a photo of the track glued to the board - it looks much the same as the one from Tuesday night - but I did be sure to leave it overnight, with weights (slate placemats come in very handy - to make sure that it had set properly.

 

Earlier in the thread I mentioned the idea of the landscape rising along the front to form a dock, and below is a picture of the 'first draft' of this. 

 

 

I've simply made a ramp with yet more of the egg-box card, scoring on the underneath to slope gently down to ground level. In these pictures, it is just supported on one off-cut of card, but will be finished in much the same way that Dave777 did his platform, to add strength. From the other end, you can see it fufills two functions - firstly providing a loading dock for vans, and secondly, hiding the 'stage exit' on the right (the 'main line' track runs behind the store).

 

 

It'll be the joy of ballasting next I suspect... - certainly easier to do now than when that dock is in place properly!

[dseagull]

3a - One Step Forward....

 

And several back. Last night I set to and started ballasting. In hindsight, this proved a massive mistake - not the ballasting, but the method. Without thinking, I used the usual 'spray with water, soak with water/PVA (well, Woodland Scenics 'Scenic Cement' in my case) method. At first it seemed fine. Three hours later, when I tested the bond with a gentle prod, my finger went through the board - I had saturated the cardboard, and it had, inevitably, weakened big time. 

 

Rectifying it was impossible - so, late last night, I had a frustrating moment taking the top layer off the framework. It didn't go straight in the bin - I cut some of the drier bits off to use as extra supports. 

 

Fortunatley, earlier I had cut another piece of cardboard, to the same size, with the aim of using it on the top - this now came into play as the 'baseboard'. By just after midnight, I had the track cleaned of old ballast and the point control in place. This morning I went through the same process - fixing the track down, and ballasting - this time, with both more care and a slightly different tactic - putting both track and ballast at the same time onto a bed of PVA. This worked reasonably well, although needed a little finishing off later. I also took the opportunity to swap the point leading from the 'main' to the yard to a large radius one, which flows a little better - and also, with an eye on 'doing things properly', replaced the 'wire in fishplate' feed to track (taking advantage of the slight difference in height of Peco points and SMP Flexitrack), with properly soldered joints (which, even if it did take the best part of an hour and cause much swearing, works a lot better. Obviously)

 

By the end of this evening though, I am, in a strange way, pleased that the first board didn't go as planned - this second one has enabled me to fix a few mistakes that I made first time round, and make one or two changes (the point, placement of wiring runs and added supporting blocks) that will be of long term benefit.

 

 

[dseagull]

After an evening off to watch England Under 21's at the Amex (thoughts in football thread in Wheeltappers!) - tonight I was able to crack on with the loading dock area.

 

After installing the support struts on Sunday night, I decided to replace the 'egg box' ramp with one made from mounting board (I always seem to have some of this kicking around!);

 

 

Quite pleased with this, it cuts nicely and gives a nice, clean finish - ideal for the top coat. 

 

With tripe (16 Kids & Counting...) still on the TV (sorry Dear ), I've also started on the road;

 

 

This picture also shows the small, triangular area that may, as yet, contain a low relief building - although the 'wing' (which can just be seen in this picture) does hide the exit through the sky quite well, when viewed head on or at least not at this angle.