shandy Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 I've been lurking on the site for a while reading all the interesting threads and taking inspiration from the great layouts that feature on here. Today, I just received my package (large) of components to construct a set of baseboards for my first venture into 7mm modelling. All my previous railway modelling has been n-gauge, I've a dedicated room in the house with a working, almost scenically complete (presentable) permanent n-gauge layout, it's taken about 3 years to build it. Over the last 2 years or so I've started dabbling with O gauge models, I suppose the thing that started it was an Ixion Hudswell Clarke - no idea why but I had to have one, I bought it installed DCC sound - and running it on a rolling road - it made me smile - a lot - it still does! At the York show 2014 I bought one of Jim's loco kits, an LNER J79 which shamefully sat on the shelf until September last year, when I decided I'd have a crack at building it - short story is I really enjoyed learning the techniques involved in building brass kits and got a mountain of pleasure from building that loco, built it in about 3 weeks, 38 hours to build, plus about 6 hours to paint and weather. I've built a couple of wagons and a brake van since then, there's just something so satisfying about building those kits, plus the substantial nature of the finished models, there's a presence about them that I like. Problem is though - nothing to run them on so.... I've got a greenfield 3m x 0.6m scenic area to play with and a 900 mm traverser stuck on the end of it, my current thoughts are some sort of rural branch terminus trying to capture some of the atmosphere of the lines that ran up the Wear and Tees Valleys in the North East of England during the 1920's - early 1930's. I have pledged that I will finish the basic scenic work on the n-gauge layout before getting totally immersed in this new venture. Steve H Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter220950 Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 Welcome Steve, Good to have another 7mm convert in the fold, look forward to seeing some photo's and layout ideas in the future, Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
81A Oldoak Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Welcome the great world of O. It's nice to have played a part in your conversion. Regards, Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Branch line terminus is a popular subject. Another great idea is the light railway in the style of Colonel Stephens which basically gives you license to run almost anything together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Interest turns to addiction. You buy your first fix and then you are hooked. Welcome to the world of 7mm. There are lots of addicts on here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Steve, welcome! In the space you have, a BLT might work, or a dockside, or an industrial site, or as Martin suggested, a Col Stevens-ish light railway. Your traverser will be fine for short goods trains, but you might struggle with a loco and a pair of 57' coaches. An autotrain or some old 4w stock would work though. I'm assuming you're in the steam era. There are a couple of "0 gauge in small spaces" books that might be worth acquiring before cutting and gluing anything. If you are not a member of the Gauge 0 Guild, you might consider it - the magazine is interesting, and the bring and buy / members' sales / E&T are pretty much exclusively 7mm stuff, which may aid progress with a little less pain in the wallet. Do bounce your ideas off the multitude on here - I have found the advice and comment to be hugely useful and informative. I'm sure you will be glad you moved up to 0 gauge! best Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcD Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Welcome to O Gauge, We have a small layout thread "Scratchy Bottom" which is 14ft by 18inch. Track work is a peco RH point and a double slip. Very simple but fun to operate and it has the advantage that if I want to run LSWR, NER, S&DJR or Col. Stephens etc. just by swapping the stock. Word of warning small NER tanks can become very addictive. I started with a K/Y8 class, then a H2/J79, then a H/Y7 then it got complicated as I produced a kit for a H1/J78 crane tank and I have had to produce another kit for the rebuilt H2/J79 (407). I had to have the full set. I have now started on NER passenger tanks. Also there are lots of O gauge shows around the country to get inspiration. GOG Bristol Jan 31st ALSRM Manchester feb 14th GOG Kettering 5th march GOG South Wales 16th April North West O gauge 23rd April ALSRM Reading 4th May GOG Doncaster 4th June GuildEx Telford 3/4th Sept Marc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alant Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Welcome to 0 gauge. I am sure you will enjoy things. Will look forward to your progress. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted January 15, 2016 Author Share Posted January 15, 2016 Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, appreciate your comments and advice. First step for me is actually constructing the baseboards, ordered to fit some space negotiated with my good lady. I think the traverser will accommodate a tank loco and two passenger carriages, my very generous other half bought me a pair of Jim's 6-wheel coaches and a J71 as my xmas gift and it looks as if they'll fit the traverser OK. Once I make a start I'll update here and post some pics, I have a tentative track plan in mind but I'll know more about it's feasibility once the boards are built. The tentative plan bears some similarity to simond's Great Windowledge Railway. Just off to get some more work on the n-gauge layout done - "I promise I will not start any more projects until the current one is done". Cheers all Steve H Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted January 15, 2016 Author Share Posted January 15, 2016 Just thought I'd try and upload an image. My J79 on the rolling road, running in, needs the final touch ups on the coupling rods/chassis after running in is completed. Cheers Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastdax Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Hi Steve and welcome to O Gauge. I'm also taking my first steps into 7mm modelling, with a small layout about the same size as yours. My first 7mm brass loco was from Jim McGeown - a Jinty in my case, although it's still in shiny brass and needs the painting and weathering treatment like yours. Take a look at my layout thread (see my signature below) and I look forwards to following your progress. Duncan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 I have completed the build of my baseboards, I acquired these in January from Grainge & Hodder but I pledged to get the last project in n-gauge to a presentable and working standard before becoming embroiled in my O-gauge journey. Anyway, the boards went together very nicely - making use of the favourable weather on Sunday to perform the assembly outside, the finished scenic area is 3m long by 0.6m wide, one end will have a traverser/turntable arrangement, just need some pattern makers dowels to finish the alignment then the track planning can begin in earnest! As an aside I have in my custody a Connoisseur LNER G5 - which was acquired by my friend second-hand at the York Show at Easter, this G5 is a very lovely thing indeed and I am in the process of DCC'ing it, the loco will be fitted with a Zimo 645R sound chip from Digitrains. The loco looks a bit clean at present so it's going to be given a very light weathering, a looked after but working loco is the intention. - so many things to do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 I've finally got round to lining up and joining the baseboards, put some track work on there to get a feel for the size I've got to play with. I'm aiming to create a light railway terminus with a bit of industrial activity, the track work as it's tentatively placed doesn't look right to me, might have to ditch he double slip. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcD Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 I See you have been shopping at the Grainge and Hodder baseboard shop. I did the same. In fact I'm just about to order 2 more myself, you can't go wrong with them in MHO. I wouldn't ditch the slip. my layout only has a slip and a point, the rest is plain track and the running lenght is 14ft with 4ft of traverser each end. Have you got any of the Iain Rice books on layouts? The first layout in his "urban layouts" book there is a layout that has a slip and a 3 waypoint as the only pointwork. it is drawn out as 8ft long on OO/EM/P4 including fiddle yard which works out a 14ft total length in 7mm. I have to take some stock photos on the layout this afternoon for the website so I will take some wide shots to give you a feel of what the slip looks like by the time its down and hidden in the landscape. Marc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 I See you have been shopping at the Grainge and Hodder baseboard shop. I did the same. In fact I'm just about to order 2 more myself, you can't go wrong with them in MHO. I wouldn't ditch the slip. my layout only has a slip and a point, the rest is plain track and the running lenght is 14ft with 4ft of traverser each end. Have you got any of the Iain Rice books on layouts? The first layout in his "urban layouts" book there is a layout that has a slip and a 3 waypoint as the only pointwork. it is drawn out as 8ft long on OO/EM/P4 including fiddle yard which works out a 14ft total length in 7mm. I have to take some stock photos on the layout this afternoon for the website so I will take some wide shots to give you a feel of what the slip looks like by the time its down and hidden in the landscape. Marc Hi Marc, thanks for the reply, I don't have that book you mention so I'd be really interested in the layout you mention, I like my three-way point so would be nice to incorporate that with the slip. The baseboards are really good quality and value, don't think I could have done anything near as good a job myself, long term might do same as you suggest and add another couple of boards. Looking forward to the pics Cheers Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Just a thought - you might want to arrange the roads onto (what appears to be) the fidde-yard-turntable so they are as near symmetric as possible - they look to be offset towards the left at the moment. hth Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Young Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Hi Steve, Welcome to the wonderful world of O gauge! Your J79 looks the business and don't think you can go wrong with the G&H baseboards. With your NE locos and the Hudswell, independent railways such as the North Sunderland, Easingwold and the Derwent Valley Light are all similar to the stock you will have. Some research on those lines, there are good books on all of them, could go a long way to inspire you and confirm how you want your railway to look. Cheers, Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
daifly Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Just a thought - you might want to arrange the roads onto (what appears to be) the fidde-yard-turntable so they are as near symmetric as possible - they look to be offset towards the left at the moment. hth Simon Or centralise the fiddle yard board on the trackwork. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcD Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 As promisted a few photos of stage one of Scratchy Bottom. Marc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
south_tyne Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 With your NE locos and the Hudswell, independent railways such as the North Sunderland, Easingwold and the Derwent Valley Light are all similar to the stock you will have. Some research on those lines, there are good books on all of them, could go a long way to inspire you and confirm how you want your railway to look. Cheers, Andrew I would second that! Three excellent suggestions for prototype inspiration that would suit your stock down to the ground. I'm a fan of all three but particularly Easingwold (and of course you already have the loco!) By the way, the Ixion HC is wonderful isn't it! I was also interested to see the Grainge and Hodder baseboards, they look excellent value for money and of a great quality. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcD Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 As promised I have scanned the relivent page for iain's book hope I have not breached copyright or anything. I was talking to a french customer at Telford on sunday and he is building a shunting layout that will fit on a piece of A2 paper+ fiddle yard for a compertition he was going to use capstans and wagon turntables to squish things in. Marc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 As promised I have scanned the relivent page for iain's book hope I have not breached copyright or anything. I was talking to a french customer at Telford on sunday and he is building a shunting layout that will fit on a piece of A2 paper+ fiddle yard for a compertition he was going to use capstans and wagon turntables to squish things in. Marc Thanks Marc Very nice, I can see that working very nicely in the space I've got, might invest in a copy of the book too. I'll have a play at the end of the week and post some pics. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 OK, I was never going to wait a couple of days to try out a different configuration after Marc's post.... first image is the rejigged plan - the three-way point is the end of the branch line the right hand lines serving a small platform - release for the loco at the far end of the layout on the longer board, I could probably shift the point further to the rear to lengthen the platforms - just need to leave enough to release a large tank loco or maybe a small 0-6-0 tender loco. The other two lines are for undecided industry/goods - the line that goes back to the turntable (off-scene obviously) is to a quarry/foundry/works - I'm thinking something along the lines of Middleton in Teesdale which had a quarry and stone crusher etc off a private siding that connected to the branch. The turntable fiddle yard ... roads 1&4 serve the industrial line and roads 2&3 serve the branch. second image is the same as first but with different lighting - terrible location as I couldn't be bothered to bring the boards out of the storage room(N-gauge railway room) to get better pics. The third image is the same idea as before but with the lines swapped to the other side of the baseboard so the station is at the lefthand side of the picture with the good/industry on the right. Last two images just with some stock on to try and get a bit of scale. Thanks for the inspiration chaps, comments and critique most welcome. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Just a thought, the layout in the book appears to be intended to be used for exhibitions - you view it from the front, but operate from the rear, the sector plate side - and most home layouts are intended to be viewed and operated from the front, as the back is usually hard into a corner. HTH Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandy Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 Just a thought, the layout in the book appears to be intended to be used for exhibitions - you view it from the front, but operate from the rear, the sector plate side - and most home layouts are intended to be viewed and operated from the front, as the back is usually hard into a corner. HTH Simon Hi Simon, My thoughts are that the layout will be a portable thing but almost exclusively for home use - I might even admit to it being a glorified test track if I'm honest.The most likely location for it in our property indicates it would be operated from the right hand side of the pictures. I took the suggested the track plan from Marc as inspiration for the configuration of the track, my initial attempts just didn't look right and I hadn't figured out how best to use the double slip. I'm sure it'll all morph again over the next few days - it's all a bit experimental at the moment - I hadn't given much consideration to where I'd operate it from - I'll go DCC with hand held controllers and the points will probably be controlled using DCC Concepts point levers - so it's a good call that I need to consider this aspect too - seems obvious now... Q1. Where will I sit/stand while playing with my trains operating my layout? Q2. Where will I site the jack plugs, and point levers for my "ground frame"? Q3. How can I wire up the turntable without ending up with the cables knotted around the thing? Will sleep on it and ponder tomorrow :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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