The Blue Circle layout.

[naturol]

Having a B&Q trade card is great.

Bought an 8'x4' 18mm sheet of MDF earlier, a bag of kitchen worktop bolts and a 4'x2' 2" sheet of celotex, all for £25.00

So I whipped out the router and cut the boards myself today,

( Wattsy is busy in work and struggled to get time to machine the boards up.)

I routed four semi circles from the MDF sheet adding a strip of wood to the edges to allow me to fix my home made tramel, at the edge with a screw at the centre of the circle.

 

Two of these boards were then reduced down further by removing the centre section of the semi circle to create a frame.

 

These were then screwed and glued to the full boards.

[naturol]

The track has been sourced from L & B. As to is the 3% woodland scenic incline, will conduct a few trials to see what will go up it befor I but either another 3% or 4% set for the remainder of the incline.

Walthers kits have arrived also, so more progress tomorow once glue has cured.

[naturol]

These are off to brian Tucker ( care of the parish. See abercynon .) for a spot of weathering,nand hopefully distressing with a warm soldering iron. Great bargains off Ebay.

[NHY 581]

All looks very good, Paul. Plenty of scope for weathering fun.

 

Rob.

[naturol]

All looks very good, Paul. Plenty of scope for weathering fun.

Rob.

With the off cuts of MDF I've made a frame, got any Jenny Agutter images going spare?

[NHY 581]

With the off cuts of MDF I've made a frame, got any Jenny Agutter images going spare?

Edited March 29, 2016 by nhy581

[br2975]

Bro, Gunsmoke............. check your PM's

.

[naturol]

Oh my goodness, what a distraction.

Finished off the base board joinery (butchery) using biscuits as the alignment set up and worktop bolts as the fixing system, routed into the baseboard edge using a butt and scribe jig.

 

Next up was to scribe the arcs of the two circles ready for the scenecraft inclines.

 

I use a lot of superglue, and tried it on a sample and low and behold it fixes polystyrene to MDF a also.

 

Affix track with an additional straight section to complete the loop, and add power.

Tried to upload the video but it's a tad too big.

Suffice to say the Hornby 08 pulls 10 Dapol 12 toners with ease up the 3% incline.

[naturol]

as I'm quite secretive about what I do in my spare time, I'm quite used to smuggling the odd package in through the back door.

And keeping £80.00 of walthers kits hush hush and straight into the loft, saw manoeuvring not seen since we took the settee out of my nieces first floor window.

[Dannyboy2891]

 

ISTR there was a really good china clay layout based on the folded 8 configuration doing the exhibition circuit around 20 years ago. All at eye level and only about 6ft in diameter.

Hi

I think that china clay layout was modelled by Iain Rice.. a fantastic layout.

 

Regards

Dan

[Dannyboy2891]

Hi Naturol,

 

what a fantastic idea and a full 360 degrees layout to show off the fruits of your hard work, just brilliant.

Cant go wrong with Walthers kits top quality and worth every penny.

 

I very much look forward to following your progression with this fab layout. Hope you don't mind me asking, but had you thought of exhibiting the layout? .. not many circular layouts out on exhibition circuit these days, so think this layout would be just the ticket (pardon the pun) and inspire other modellers too.

 

Kind regards

Dan

[naturol]

Hope you don't mind me asking, but had you thought of exhibiting the layout? ..

Kind regards

Dan

Thanks Dan.

It's being built with exhibiting in mind, so it fits on my old trestles, shares the same blue curtain beneath, fits in and out the loft easily, fits in my own van. So if it's what managers maybe seeking I will be happy to take it,

Only the front 2/3 will be visible not the cross over. The front is where the two lines pass each other at roughly the same level,

The rear will be where the cross over is, but hidden beneath the asphalt plant.

 

I'm hoping this will be more reliable than my previous 8 layout which suffered a troublesome X diamond crossing and was level.

But it was very well received around cardiff at the 4 shows it went to around 5 years ago.

[Dannyboy2891]

Hi

 

I am very sure whichever exhibition you attend .. your layout will be popular and you will receive many kind comments. A great idea, fab concept and very much look forward to seeing your progress.

As for the tricky little crossover, if you don't mind my saying ..

lay the track without pinning it down and test,test and more test running to make sure its working at its best.. but still test the life out of it after pinning it down.. may I also ask is it a live frog crossover and are you thinking of Dcc operation?.  

 

Regards

Dan

[Satan's Goldfish]

If all of your previous work is anything to go by then this will be quite special, really good concept.

 

looking at your previous folded 8 layout above and the one you are currently building reminds me of many years ago i saw an 009 circular layout at a show, slightly different in that it was split into 3 seasons, but it was built on a slowly rotating frame to show off the whole layout. Ever considered making one of your circles rotate to show off all the complex buildings properly?

[naturol]

If all of your previous work is anything to go by then this will be quite special, really good concept.

 

looking at your previous folded 8 layout above and the one you are currently building reminds me of many years ago i saw an 009 circular layout at a show, slightly different in that it was split into 3 seasons, but it was built on a slowly rotating frame to show off the whole layout. Ever considered making one of your circles rotate to show off all the complex buildings properly?

I put a second round sheet of ply under castle works ( steelworks)

And fitted a lazy Suzanne cake stand bearing on it. This allowed the whole layout to rotate. But by hand.

As this layout will have a front and back it won't rotate but will be visible for the full 360 deg.

 

Thanks for the kind comments. I am Following progress of your Base boards. Still struggling to fathom how you get to justify all that layout to, someone who must be a very tolerant partner.

Paul. Ps updated on my smart phone so may be lots of typing errors but I don't have my glasses....

[Satan's Goldfish]

that's not a bad plan on making it turn. From what i can remember the 009 layout spun on a 1/4inch audio jack connector in the centre (carried track power) and the outer parts of the circle were supported on wheels, one of which was driven by a motor to make it turn. Where is your steel works circle now?

 

There's been little to no progress on my boards for a good month now due to weather and more important family matters to deal with. Hopefully i'll be able to crack on again soon, looking forward to the first full set up of it. Mrs SG is very patient and understanding..... kinda....

 

 

 

Edit: what was troublesome about the diamond?

Edited March 30, 2016 by Satan's Goldfish

[naturol]

 

Edit: what was troublesome about the diamond?

I used an insulfrog short diamond, and the layout was DCC, the only locos that ran over it were Bachmann and Hornby 08s none had stay alive chips. But we're sound fitted.

 

The idea to use the insulfrog was to keep wiring simple as I only had two wires feeding the layout through the centre point,

The problem came from the wheels of the shunters arcing across the track elements of the diamond.

 

It was annoying as when the loco crossed the diamond it shorted and the sound was re booted, it could be overcome with speed, but it looked a tad daft with the 08s throttling around at far to an excessive speed.

It was cured by painting nail varnish gloss enamel over the offending bits of the diamond to extend the insulation from the wheels.

This worked, but at each exhibition when the track was cleaned, the diamond needed to be re-insulated with the nail varnish.

 

The layout was sold on to a modeller who frequented the local model shop, but to my knowledge it hasn't been exhibited since.

The size was the problem for storage, it sat on a single board 1200mm dia. Which could be stood on its side and the plant building lifted straight off to allow cleaning,

In a nut shell, Liz said NO. When I moved in with her, the train set wasn't.

 

Is the tolerance Mrs SG uses available over the counter?

[naturol]

Found this little number as well, can't wait to start the structure.

(Need to build the footprint flat area for the plant first.)

[br2975]

^{Junior, if you haven't already thought of it..................... if you are putting the Walthers buildings/structures inside the quarry, in the bowl so to speak. Make the rear (hidden) parts of the Walthers kits using blank styrene sheet - sort of low relief, then use the kit parts left over to increas the visible frontage.}

Edited March 30, 2016 by br2975

[Satan's Goldfish]

She makes up for it with partylite candles. Who knew a holder for a little piece of wax could cost so much?!

[naturol]

Started to assemble the various kits and rough out in polystyrene and polyurethane insulation the general landscape.

I have decided to make the inner diorama area on two levels, around 16' difference in scale height.

This will hopefully add further to the undulating theme for the layout set in a quarry.

 

As I've been building the kits, ( which have concrete cast basements and steel cladding above.) ive thought more on the lines of pre cast concrete tunnel portals with gabion cages as the retaining walls either side of the tracks. These will be built from sugar cubes, sprayed with varnish to seal them, then sprayed a stone colour, then clad in a thin silver net as the cage. They scale at just over 1m cubes so not that bad.

 

Also decided to add a backscene, from flexi MDF. ( with a cut out to access the lower track beneath the works should I suffer a derailment.) With a landscape photo of the inside of a quarry.

I will take this at wenvoe when next there.

 

The backscene will enclose the front also with my usual letter box style viewing into the scene.

 

Also now thinking of adding a point on the upper section to feed a stabling siding or small workshop come shed.

[NHY 581]

Blimey! That was quick. Looking good there me old fig roll.

 

 

Rob

[sdw7300]

Great progress. Those kits are really distinctive.

 

Looking forward to watching this build.

[br2975]

Coming along, coming along - we can exchange further ideas between drinks in Laugharne.

[naturol]

Fantarta to one and all.

Problems arise.

As I put the roads on,it has become apparent I can't get the buildings on the layout in a believable way.

So I can't replicate the wenvoe plant as I had wanted, so hello compromise.

Progress to date.