O gauge adventure.

[L&Y]

Can't believe It was back in May I wrote that. Now after finishing the back yard. New wall built & rendered Shed is now insulated & has a home made work bench. Still a weeks holiday due so was reasonably optimistic to be able to make a start. That was until the lead valley behind the chimney in the photo above decided to give up the ghost. The chimney breast is now saturated & am hoping a roofer will appear on Monday. Afraid It may be time for a total re-roof. This is not good for the railway. Still no point starting it in a damp room. It may have to morph into something 16mm narrow gauge layout to keep costs down.  Still hope to start experimenting with buildings once the shed is fit. Only good news is the roof isn't massive as it's a tall thin terrace. Mother in law inbound so getting the shed snug is a must! Angle poise lamp & convector heater on the shopping list. Good impetus for some modelling at last.....

[Hesperus]

Don't give up hope,  woodwork and trackbuilding is fairly cheap and with a small layout you can get away with a cheap (Lima?) loco and a few (Skytrex?) wagons to get you going until the money reappears for nice things.

 

I'm currently midway through some fairly extensive work on my own house and it's nice to have something to work on where there are no nags from the better half about finishing it on time.

[switcher 1]

 

 

It may have to morph into something 16mm narrow gauge layout to keep costs down.

Nothing wrong in that idea.

 

As has been said, it doesn't have to cost a fortune or take a lifetime of kit building to get going.

Once you have some track, a loco, & 5 trucks you can have some shunting fun.

(3-2-2 sidings, with or without points, just use a sector plate.)

[L&Y]

Still on the back burner this one. But my old childhood Meccano set turned up unexpectedly during relatives house move. I thought it had been stolen years ago. But was just mislaid. Some of the parts are a bit the worse for wear but they clean up pretty well on a wire wheel.  So I'm now trying to work out a method to repaint the parts that need it so it can be pressed into service. To be realistic I need to wait a year or two if the model is to survive more than a few weeks. Small boys seem to need to test the strength of everything. Usually to destruction. Meccano is a lot more robust. Why does yellow run more than any other colour??? Roof is patched for now &  90% better... Will get there in the end.

[L&Y]

Just collected a stack of plywood from my local wood yard. So something is likely to happen though at a glacial pace. Hope to start board building over Christmas at some point. Though the plan has changed into something industrial as I invested in a Peckett E and want something to run it on. It will be smaller and simpler than the original scheme. I also purchased some O-ml roller gauges from Deb's and want to build my own track. Next job it to pop to M&S and see if they have any of that wrapping paper left marked in squares for full scale planning. And give the shed a tidy so I can get to the workbench! It's not a model railway but a family arts and crafts project. Well thats my story. Pop back in a year there maybe a photograph of a bit of wood with a nail in it..... 

[L&Y]

Not easy finding time to do much at the moment but I have now got a full size plan on the back of a roll of M&S Christmas paper! About  a third smaller than the original. 10' 6" X 2' 4" ish. May compress it a bit more yet. But as it stands the Victory tank will fit on the head shunt with one wagon.... Though the Hudswell clarke would be more apt. After a visit to Thwaite mill I just fancy having a go at a fictional whiting & putty factory. That is sufficiently busy to warrant it's own railway system. Due to the range if goods in and finished goods out. And the ability to study the industrial process in some detail as it's all still in existence.  The plan is based on Ian Rices Buttley mill. Not much more than a loop with a couple of sidings coming off it. The layout has to satisfy me and also be usable for the kids so compromise is the name of the game. But hopefully if I start now it will be getting somewhere near by the time hes old enough to operate it. Next job is to get the baseboards out of the way. Hope to get a start over the Christmas break. Some really amazing industrial layouts on here have inspired me to make a start. Don't expect it will be up to the standard of many of you but if it is fun for me to mess around with and gets the kids into modelling it will have served a purpose. The boards will be pretty heavy duty as depending on the outcome they may well be reused for a second attempt if the first isn't all it might be! It is several years since my last model and that was in N gauge. 

[L&Y]

Just got three trestles. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lumberjack-MFW150-150kg-Multifunction-Workstand-Trestle-Tressle-/361579465288?hash=item542fd0ca48:g:IRMAAOSwQupXWtTm They make up into pretty sturdy layout supports that have the major advantage that they are adjustable in height from 2'6" ish up to 4'. So they are good for working on the layout and can be lifted up to eye level when your just playing trains. Don't think I could have made anything any cheaper given the price of wood these days.No conection other than a happy customer.  Have also started putting the baseboards together having chopped a load of blocks to use as spacers for the beams. It's great having a shed to escape to where I can just drop everything and go back to it when I have a few  minutes. 

Edit. They do come in kit form and take about 20m to put together with a couple of adjustable spanners and a screwdriver. 

[L&Y]

First beam complete. This may take some time. 

 

Using the Barry Norman system. It works like a cantilever bridge. One piece of ply in compression the other in tension. So once built it wont move again. The last layout I built used the same method and I think it helped it sell when the time came. It makes strong and stable boards that can be built up and stripped down indefinitely. And doesn't' take a lot of skill to build. Just a set square and tenon saw, Drill and either nails and a clamp or in my case screws and PVA glue. Took me under an hour to produce the first beam and I will probably get faster as I go on. 

[Tove]

Nice to see you making some headway with this now.

 

I have to admit that i quite liked the plan you came up with in post`s #20,and looked at, err..borrowing it for a 1980`s shunting layout.

 

Keep it coming.

 

Cheer`s,

 

Brian.

[L&Y]

Tove you are welcome to the plan. I have had to change things as the chimney breast is often wet. The flashing is dead and I see little point in pulling half the roof off to redo it with out actually re-roofing at the same time. It's actually dryer in winter as the fire seems to keep the damp at bay, Also this is my sons bedroom and he may object to it being taken over completely! The new plan is a good bit smaller and it won't be up all the time. Starting from scratch as I am there is little point in a large complex system when It will be years before I have the stock for it. The layout now goes along the back wall and avoids the damp area altogether. The boards are going to be strong but rather heavy. I went for builders structural ply as it's half the price of the good stuff. It's also twice the weight!  But the boards and trestles come in under £200 complete. I know there are laser cut kits out there but wanted to avoid a flat top baseboard. I also got a sheet of 4mm ply in that for most of the buildings. (An 8X4 sheet costs about the same as a 4X2 one at my local diy store).And also a sheet of reasonable ply for the track bed. 

I'm like a kid with a new toy. My wife absolutely doesn't understand this. Fortunately she hasn't found the receipt from the wood yard yet...... Nothing to do with me 

[Tove]

'Tove you are welcome to the plan'.

 

That`s very kind of you,but at the moment my layout is in the process of being built,but may be at a later date?.

 

Unless your going to move your layout around,then personally i see no point in spending lot`s of money on light weight baseboards for a permanent layout.

I tend to use 25mm x 45mm timber topped with 1/4 inch MDF, it too is heavy like yours,but i know that i can sit on it without it falling apart!.

 

Brian.

[L&Y]

A little progress. After the mother of all colds and associated asthma there has been a break in production. Finished the first board off this afternoon. 

Detail of corner. 

They are pretty heavy though not ridiculously. The advantage is they wont sway about if knocked. Especially on steel trestles. At least it is square and warp proof. Before I can make the next one I must finalize the track plan so the joints are in the right place. I had  a simple plan for plain track work. But when not well enough to work on the boards I had a play with Templot and have come up with two more versions of the same that are arguably more flowing. I also want to restrict the length to 11' so that it can be assembled in the shed if necessary. So it's back to Templot now. 

[L&Y]

 

Just adding the track plan. It's not yet perfect but probably good enough to work from. The tandem is just two points on top of each other and that will do as a template. If I get the chance. Say I'm sick for a week I will attempt to do it properly. But in the time it takes to work it out I could probably have made the thing! There is plenty of timber shoving and some check rails that need lengthening. But honestly I actually want to get on and build the thing. Templot is a great program and It's well worth investing some time in getting into it. I can now finish the boards. The sector plate is top left. Hidden by the mill or factory. A large warehouse and loading bay off the siding straight off it. Then the space in the middle front will be at a lower level.  Buildings. Arches or something! I haven't worked out how to do shape files yet in Templot. Life is short. West Riding in feel. Probably around 1930 ish. 

But disaster. The kitchen floor has started to break up so I have to break off fun stuff for awhile and do loads of work on a new kitchen as the whole floor must come up. And that means ripping out the kitchen. Old gas pipes to replace. You name it. The joys of an old house. So this is still a slow burner. But in amongst It will continue to make slow progress. Next two more boards to make and a banner plan to print so I know what I'm doing.