65243 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...Well, it's been a long time anyway. Real life, serious illness, and a subsequent modelling funk mean that I've done very little model making of any kind for a couple of years. However, recently my modelling mojo made a reappearance. Rather than take on anything too ambitious, I've decided to build a layout that will fit the criteria for the Carl Arendt Challenge. Like many others, I gained a huge amount of inspiration from browsing Carl's site - and still do on occasion. Another source of inspriation has been Jim Read's Moxley Heath and Moxley Bull Lane layouts, together with Mike Bragg's Reely Grate Manufacturing Company and the developing Primrose Hill. However, all of these layouts were built/are being built in O scale and all my UK outline stock is 4mm scale. A change of scale is not really on the cards, so I've decided to unashamedly rip-off re-interpret Jim and Mike's layouts in the smaller scale. First move was to search the house for suitable materials for a baseboard. What I found were 2 boxes of A1 foamcore board, 5mm thickness, so that settled the maximum length of the layout; A1 giving me a 33" length to work with. Given that Moxley Heath is only 4'7" long in O scale, this should be enough. Next step was to fire up Templot and see just how much/little can be fitted into a length of 33" in P4. The answer turns out to be enough for my purposes.... I've put the track at a slight angle to the baseboard edges to get away from the 'everything in parallel lines' look. I've also settled on a baseboard width of 15"; more than is absolutely necessary. Amongst other things, this should leave enough room for a tea/coffee/beer shelf behind the layout, should it i) ever be finished and ii) ever be invited to an exhibition. Given my track record for completing layouts - I've yet to finish one - it seems unlikely that ether of these eventualities will occur, but it's better to plan ahead, or so people tell me. On the plan the four parallel tracks mark the possible positions of the three tracks on the traverser. Minimum radius is a touch under 36" tight for P4 I know, but then I'm not going to be trying to run a 9F, a WD Austerity 2-10-0 or the like on here, so it shouldn't be a problem. Small shunting locos and short wheelbase wagons will be the order of the day. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
65243 Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 As mentioned in the first post, the baseboard for this micro has been constructed from 5mm foamcore board. I used the Barry Norman beam girders approach; two full length pieces of foamcore board - in this case 33" long and 4" deep are glued together with a number of spacers to make a beam that is strong, light and twist-free. This was repeated for the other long edge, then a number of crossbeams of similar construction were used to provide a frame for the baseboard surface. The traverser bed was constructed similarly using 2" deep beams. Another pair of full-height supporting beams was constructed, each with a piece of 10.5mm square pine fixed at the same height relative to the baseboard surface to act as runners for the traverser. these beams were laid at a slight angle to the baseboard edge, parallel to one another and either side of a cutaway in the long rear girderwhere the traverser is located. More of this square pine was fixed to the sidebeams of the traverser, ensuring that the surface of the traverser and the main baseboard ended up flat and level. It'd be much clearer in pictures, but the light is fading now, so those will have to wait until the morning. Surprisingly - not least to me - it all works! I have a strong, light, level board with a built-in traverser made almost entirely from foamcore board. The trackwork has been handmade using code 75 flat-bottom rail on copperclad sleepers - nothing adventurous or innovative there - then laid onto a layer of cork. The point is operated by a DPDT switch via 'wire in tube' using a piece of 2mm square timber hidden under black paper as a tie bar. So far, so good ... now on to the wiring up. And yes, there will be pictures, when I get round to taking them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cklammer Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Hi, Nice concept for the layout and good explanation about the base board construction - Thank you. I will follow with interest. Could you by any chance show some pictures of your finished base board, please? That would certainly be helpful (for me at least ) ... Thank you, Christian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
65243 Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Hi, Nice concept for the layout and good explanation about the base board construction - Thank you. I will follow with interest. Could you by any chance show some pictures of your finished base board, please? That would certainly be helpful (for me at least ) ... Thank you, Christian Thanks Christian. I'm happy to oblige with pictures of the completed board. First, a view of the underneath, showing the sandwich construction of the foamcore girders: (Please excuse the visible clutter; the traverser goes in that space) Then a view showing the runners for the traverser: and a couple of shots of the traverser itself: Like I said in my last post, the trackwork is handmade from code 75 flat-bottom rail on copperclad (pcb) sleepers. I finished that yesterday - inlcuding gapping the copperclad to isolate the rails from each other. Here are some views of that: Next on the agenda is to wire it all up and make sure it works as anticipated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Very neat job of the traverser construction - that really needs to be made a "sticky" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 "Bostin" as they say. Excellent start looking forward to the next phase. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cklammer Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Spot on. Thank You for the pics, Christian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
65243 Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 Progress at last - it's wired and it works. Now I need to wax the runners for the traverser to smooth its action, then I can get on with the scenics ... First thing will be to put in cosmetic sleepers between the PCB ones, then ballasting etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maunsel Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 ........ Now I need to wax the runners for the traverser to smooth its action,............ May I suggest good old honest household/bath soap. Cheap & cheerful! Eric Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
65243 Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 Not dead, but resting! Seriously, where does the time go? Anyway, this one's not been abandoned completely; in fact, there has been progress today. I have started chopping up a Kibri factory kit to provide a background building. Pictures to follow when there's something worth seeing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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