BG John Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 Having thought about it for some time, I can't come up with a fiddle yard I'm happy with. Everything I've thought of is too complicated for what's supposed to be a quick build, and I don't think would be satisfactory to operate. So I've almost definitely decided to give up on this layout. Instead, I've been redesigning what I was planning to follow it with to fit in a smaller space, and at the moment the plan is to start on this soon. It's designed to fit on an old door 6' 6" x 2' 6", with either one or two external fiddle yards. The original plan was on two doors including the fiddle yard, but would have been a bigger project. I've got all the track for it, and the door is cluttering up my workshop, so I may start on it when my current project is out of the workshop. I won't be rushing it though, as I'll concentrate on my other layouts for a while. I'll just do a bit when I feel like spending a bit of time on woodworking. The track was given to me, and needs some work, so I'll do bits to that when I get the urge to do some soldering. Just to whet your appetite, here's the current plan. But it could change before I start it! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted March 19, 2016 Share Posted March 19, 2016 It's a bit hard to see clearly from that drawing: is half of the runaround look formed by the FY? If not, the loop is going to be Wantage Town short, isn't it? Getting FYs right is quite tricky isn't it? I'm still not totally settled on what I'm going to build, although ideas are coalescing. K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 This is the track plan. The two points at the right hand end are only half on the baseboard, and the original idea was to make them half a point, and have a traverser that lines up with four tracks. Depending on space, I might have the second half on the fiddle yard board, so I only have two tracks lining up with the traverser. It's designed to take a 4ft long train. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 This is the big layout on two doors, so about 13' x 2'6". The big building on the right is based on Hodson's Mill at Salehurst, which was the only private siding on the K&ESR. They were coal merchants as well as millers, and generated a lot of traffic. The fiddle yard is hidden behind the mill sidings, but in my current railway room the layout would be accessible from both sides, so I could walk round the end to get to it. It's a lot more work though, and I don't know how much space I may have available in the fairly near future. It might be a lot more, or a lot less. The mill building is very big (I've got drawings from a planning application that's online), so I'd only model a very small part of it to avoid overpowering the rural nature of the layout. On the smaller plan, I've put the mill on the backscene at the left hand end. I could add a very short fiddle yard at this end to shunt a couple of wagons to off scene sidings, or a full length one for trains. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted March 19, 2016 Share Posted March 19, 2016 Both are good-looking ideas. I like the Rolvenden-esque shed on the smaller one, and the mill on the bigger one. Doors make good, quick baseboards, and I even sawed one in half lengthways, to build a long, thin 009 layout, when I was at a very broke stage, but they can be very cumbersome if you need to move them about. A very near equivalent to a flush door, and cheap, are Ikea table-tops, which are better because they come in various sizes and colours - I'm using two 4ft x2ft grey ones for the FY on my main layout. I look forward to seeing this little bit of Kent/Sussex come into being. Kevin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Funny you should mention sawn lengthways doors. Here's one I did recently: 12" wide for my OO layout: and the other 18" for my EM one: I just filled in the cut side with strips of wood, and screwed on the backscenes. Neither of these layouts have topics on here yet, but the OO one was designed with the help of RMweb members. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Anyway, back to Holman's End, and I think it may be on again, although rather bigger and less pointless. I like the designs in the recent posts, but they're both big projects, and I've got a lot on at the moment. Getting too big defeats the object of trying to achieve all my longstanding ambitions on a modest scale, but the original plan for Holman's End wouldn't have produced something satisfactory to operate. While browsing recent posts on RMweb this morning, I spotted a layout where the fiddle yard was also the run round loop for the station, and my warped mind suddenly came up with a new plan. What if I had a fiddle yard that is a traverser with another loco length traverser at each end. I could then run round trains in the fiddle yard without handling the loco. Then if trains ran through the loco traverser at the scenic end, I could have a visible point in the platform, so a train in the station reverses part way into the fiddle yard, and the loco runs round using the point in the station and the traverser at the far end of the fiddle yard. This is a quick track plan, with the green boxes showing the position of the two loco traversers. It's a four track traverser, and the two short tracks at the front are just there to show how far forward it needs to travel. The main traverser would run on sliding drawer runners, and the one at the end would be on smaller runners on top of the sliding deck. The one at the scenic end would be be attached directly to the baseboard. It appears to be a bit complicated, but I don't think it would be difficult to build. The fiddle yard would be on a separate baseboard, set lower than the scenic board to take the height of the traverser. The two doors I've got both have windows in the top, and if I cut them down to below the window, each would be 4ft 6in long. Just right for this plan, which is 9ft long. Here's a rough 3D view. For some reason, SCARM hasn't rendered it as well as usual, but it doesn't matter as I'll have to do the final planning full size on the baseboard, as the layout is so small: Trying to avoid an overbridge to hide the exit, I've put a cottage at the front of the layout, and a water tank at the end of the platform. I've reversed the layout from the previous version, as I have a right hand curved point to use in the goods yard. All the tracks coming off the traverser will have to be parallel, so this will help to give a bit more of an impression that the sidings come off a point on the main line. I've got all the track to do this, as I have enough for the bigger plans. Unfortunately, that means I'll have some left over, leading me into temptation to find a use for it! It does mean that when I have the time to build a bigger layout, I can build authentic K&ESR track for it. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 View blocks for scenes on "middle of nowhere" railways are tricky. It might be worth thinking about a whopping great oak tree, rather than a cottage, then If you curved the back-scene, rather than had a corner in it, the tree might act as an "eye stop". Maybe you could use one of those spindly metal wind-pumps to frame the view at the left-hand side. City-scenes are a lot easier. K 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 I was wondering about curving the backscene into the fiddle yard at the back, if that makes sense! I think I'll have to do it by trial and error like I'm doing with Small, Broad and Totally Pointless. Not sure about a wind pump. I don't think they were there in 1905. I've got a good selection of real oak trees to copy, but I'm not sure that they're the same in wet and windswept Wales! It would be nice to include an oast house, which would help set the location. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 The Rolvenden style layout gives a good opportunity to pose locomotives. I'm glad it's not just me that has a head full of layouts 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 The Rolvenden style layout gives a good opportunity to pose locomotives. I'm glad it's not just me that has a head full of layouts Posing locos does suggest I need to build or buy more though! I've actually got enough locos for now, so the extra ones I want can wait, so maybe the shed is best left for now. It was good to do those plans, as I can see what's possible in a not very big space for O gauge. Compared to the rest of my modelling history, I'm making amazing progress at the moment. It may seem weird that I'm building several layouts at once, when a lot of people would tell me I should get one finished before I start the next, but that didn't work in the past, and this new approach does seem to be working. But I need to keep the layouts small and simple, as one of the objectives is to build enough locos and stock to run on them, which is something I've never achieved before. The original Holman's End was taking small and simple too far though, and the other designs are too big to take on at the moment. I think the new plan gets the balance about right. I may have to make big changes in my life soon, and don't know how much space I'll have available for layouts. What I'm building now will fit in a fairly small room, so it makes sense to keep everything as small as possible, so I don't have to scrap any of them. The new plan, at 9ft, should fit in most rooms. It's possible I may have a lot more space, so achieving all my ambitions on a modest scale brings forward the time I might be able to start on something big! My head is full of layouts, and I've wasted too much time not building them! The narrow gauge one is still only in my head! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 I thought I should make a last post to officially say that Holman's End is dead. Long live Holman's End. I've started building a mock up of the successful version* of Holman's End, and will start a new topic on it. * I hope . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Good Luck, I've been there, and done that many times. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 I think I was trying to be too clever in a space that was far too small! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Yes, my ratios go something like: - pipe-dreamed layouts 1000 - seriously planned layouts 100 - layouts that got as far as baseboards and track 15 - layouts that might be called complete 6 or 7 (of which two were tiny) A couple of the ‘woodwork and track’ ones had really quite fancy boards, but one turned out stupidly cumbersome, and the other (EM gauge model of The Dyke) just didn’t hold my interest. Experience is what you get when you’re trying to get something else! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 - layouts that might be called complete 6 or 7 (of which two were tiny) Please explain "complete". It's not in my dictionary. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isambarduk Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 Please explain "complete". It's not in my dictionary. Well, think of it this way: a layout may be complete but it's never finished. Does that help explain the concept? David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 Yes, I was careful not to say 'finished', because even the tiny ones could have benefitted from another rusty bucket, another clump of fireweed etc etc. But I know what you mean BGJ: there are times when even 'fairly complete' seems like a distant dream. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 Yes, I was careful not to say 'finished', because even the tiny ones could have benefitted from another rusty bucket, another clump of fireweed etc etc. But I know what you mean BGJ: there are times when even 'fairly complete' seems like a distant dream. I could have added a level crossing to it, but as you never responded to my PM about Mr Walkley's fine example . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 Oh, crikey! Very sorry. Will get on the case. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 Oh, crikey! Very sorry. Will get on the case. Public humiliation obviously works. I must try it more often . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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