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Dipping my toes in


bigdaveadams1

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Hello all,

 

I've got ideas of building an O gauge branch line terminus along the same theme as Ian Futers' Ashleigh layout. He built it in a week, I'm looking to have it built by February 2018!

 

I've got 10ft in length, 2ft or max 3ft width for scenic and whatever is needed for a fiddle yard. It'll be based around the steam diesel transition era.

 

So I'm wondering if any one has any ideas of layouts or plans that would suit my space. I'm not thinking of anything too cluttered and really like the Ashleigh plan, maybe with the addition of a goods shed?

 

Cheers for any ideas!

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That's spooky. :O   After 30+ years of 4mm modelling, I too have decided to have a flutter with 0 gauge.  It was Dapols' 08 shunter that set me off - that and turning 60.  I'm waiting impatiently for the loco but I've been gradually putting stuff together and getting to know what's what.  I have joined the Gauge 0 Guild (just got my welcome pack today).  I haven't a ton of room - maybe 16ft total.  Anyway, I'll be watching you as you document your layout build.

 

John

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Hi Dave,

Welcome to O Gauge :) There's plenty of inspiration on rmWeb and some very kind people with words of advice, suggestions and a fair bit of sarcasm as well :) Its a great place to be!

 

What era/area are you thinking of modelling ... are you joining us with a BR blue diesels aim, a steam plan or a 1960s crossover period?  Plenty of options depending on what your looking for, for example, sheds or yards, or small stations?

 

At least we've converted another to the dark side as Jinty put it :)  :locomotive:

 

Rich

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That's spooky. :O   After 30+ years of 4mm modelling, I too have decided to have a flutter with 0 gauge.  It was Dapols' 08 shunter that set me off - that and turning 60.  I'm waiting impatiently for the loco but I've been gradually putting stuff together and getting to know what's what.  I have joined the Gauge 0 Guild (just got my welcome pack today).  I haven't a ton of room - maybe 16ft total.  Anyway, I'll be watching you as you document your layout build.

 

John

It was Dapol's previous loco that got me into it, but I haven't started the serious layout yet, although it's planned. I started with a simple micro layout, just to dip my toe in the water. Well two toes actually, as I'm dabbling in O-16.5 as well, and I've squeezed both into a scenic area of 4ft x 2ft. It might be a useful place to start, as you just need one loco and a few wagons, rather than how ever many you need for the main layout. It can be done on the cheap too, with some old OO track, if you can stand to read the horrific things I've done on Cheapside Yard!

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Best of luck in you new venture fairly certain you will enjoy it and it's a good time to start  in 0 gauge with plenty of new stock coming in ready to run form and reasonable prices. With regard to your choice of layout would agree with Simon's advice about making a model of a model you will not be happy and more than likely start again after going so far.

 

You will find that in 0 gauge one can get more into the prototype operation side of things like working the signals alongside point work etc and on a small shunting layout don't be afraid to add ground signasl and trap points etc. 

 

Best of luck and you will find plenty of encouragement for RM members that's for sure 

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It was Dapol's previous loco that got me into it, but I haven't started the serious layout yet, although it's planned. I started with a simple micro layout, just to dip my toe in the water. Well two toes actually, as I'm dabbling in O-16.5 as well, and I've squeezed both into a scenic area of 4ft x 2ft. It might be a useful place to start, as you just need one loco and a few wagons, rather than how ever many you need for the main layout. It can be done on the cheap too, with some old OO track, if you can stand to read the horrific things I've done on Cheapside Yard!

 

Thanks John, not sure about one loco though - perhaps two - I've got my eye on DJMs austerity tank.  I've made some buildings based on Scalescenes kits - these look quite attractive to my eye even if they're not up to the standards of some I've seen.

 

Exciting times to be getting into 0 I think.

 

John

 

 

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Algebraically, (and please forgive that my iPad doesn't seem to do subscripts), NRL = NL + 1

 

Where NRL is the required number of locomotives

And NL is the number of locomotives possessed.

 

Cyclists tell me that the same is true for bicycles, but locomotives (at least in the modelling scales) are much easier to store.

 

Best

Simon

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Thanks John, not sure about one loco though - perhaps two - I've got my eye on DJMs austerity tank. I've made some buildings based on Scalescenes kits - these look quite attractive to my eye even if they're not up to the standards of some I've seen.

 

Exciting times to be getting into 0 I think.

 

John

 

 

 

Don't forget the Ixion Hudswell Clarke and Minerva Peckett - both fantastic models if you want to go down the light railway and/or industrial route! Also offer the advantage I being small prototypes which would be very useful for small layout being proposed here

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Welcome to 7mm good luck with the planning stage it's always the hard part making up your mind what? Where? When?

 

We started with a small exchange sidings and a halt at 8ft plus 3ft either end traversers that's now 14ft with 4ft each end traversers and next year I will probably add another 6 or 8ft. I might have an entire branch line with a small halt in the centre

 

The only other words of warning I can give you are small tanks are very addictive!

 

Marc

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Thanks John, not sure about one loco though - perhaps two - I've got my eye on DJMs austerity tank.  I've made some buildings based on Scalescenes kits - these look quite attractive to my eye even if they're not up to the standards of some I've seen.

 

Exciting times to be getting into 0 I think.

 

John

Who said I only had one loco? The Kent & East Sussex Railway had two Terriers, and I've got both of them, although they are both still "Bodiam" at the moment! Then there's the Ixion Hudswell Clarke I bought because I was fed up with waiting for the Terriers to arrive!

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Dave,

 

Good to see another 0 gauge layout developing.

 

In answer to your original post there are a couple of Guild publications relating to small space layouts, but it looks to me as if you have an idea of what you want, in which case I would go with it.

 

Not sure about your time scale, I'm retired with more spare time than many, and coming up to 2 years for a 'quick' build of 8ft! (still not finished). Let's hope your a bit more focussed than I.

 

Keep us up to date with progress, looking forward to the build.

 

Peter

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Dave,

 

Good to see another 0 gauge layout developing.

 

In answer to your original post there are a couple of Guild publications relating to small space layouts, but it looks to me as if you have an idea of what you want, in which case I would go with it.

 

Not sure about your time scale, I'm retired with more spare time than many, and coming up to 2 years for a 'quick' build of 8ft! (still not finished). Let's hope your a bit more focussed than I.

 

Keep us up to date with progress, looking forward to the build.

 

Peter

Cheers Peter, I've been set a target of having it ready for the club show in February 2018 so hopefully I'll get some help from some of the club members as it'll a useful addition to the layouts at the club!

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Who said I only had one loco? The Kent & East Sussex Railway had two Terriers, and I've got both of them, although they are both still "Bodiam" at the moment! Then there's the Ixion Hudswell Clarke I bought because I was fed up with waiting for the Terriers to arrive!

I have a desire to build a little layout where I could display all of the stock owned by my ficticious light railway. So one engine, a couple of four wheel carriages, a brake van and a dozen or so wagons. Seems an ideal scenario for O gauge and it is the rule I'm trying to stick to following my change of scale!

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Re a trackplan, bear in mind "Less is More", especially in O scale, where a plan that might look too simple/boring in N or OO, will have an altogether different 'feel' about it in O, as stock is that much bigger, & 3-link couplings slow down operations, so even simple moves seem much more like standing next to a real railway. ;)

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Hello Dave, Welcome to 0 gauge which is the scale for the serious and not so serious modeller. I know now that you will not regret the move upwards from the tiny world of 4mm to the "real" world of 0. 

 

I started in 0 about six years ago and Ramchester is getting to the stage where it is nearly complete thanks to my friend Howard who has been a great help to me. I agree with Simon's words about modelling a model but I am sure you will be aware of this pitfall. Do be a bit wary of having a baseboard which is wide. Remember that you have to lean across it to work at the back unless it is situated such that you can access it from both sides. On Ramchester one point is about 4 feet from the front of the baseboard to the rear and this is rather difficult to carry out work on the rear especially as my layout is a permanent fixture.

 

Start small and work up is my advice build a few kits, get a bit of track down and you are away.

 

Wishing you every success.

 

Rod

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Dave,

The scenic area of my Cwm Bach layout is 10' x 2' with another 5' x 2' for the staging area. It is a South Wales Valleys theme and includes a colliery branch with industrial locomotives. Movements are  made at a leisurely pace.  Peak time activity comprises an industrial tank bringing a train of full mineral wagons into the exchange siding behind the station. A BR loco then brings in a train of empties up the "main" line  into the platform road. The BR train engine uncouples and runs round the empties to pick up the brake van and place it on the loop line. The BR engine then crosses the mainline to enter the NCB exchange siding, pick up the full minerals and place them on the loop with the brake van. Thr BR engine then returns to the platform road, picks up the empties and shunts them onto the NCB engine in the exchange siding. The BR engine returns to the loop to couple up to the train of empties. Meanwhile, an Up passenger train arrives at the station and shortly thereafter the train of full minerals starts down the valley. On the colliery line, the industrial tank propels its train up the steeply graded branch. Finally, the passenger train returns down valley. The whole sequence takes about 20 minutes, or longer if I am using a B Set that requires running round rather than an auto-train for the passenger service.

 

Here are a few photos. The buildings are all scratchbuilt.  The full story starts here on the RMWeb: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80426-cwm-bach-a-south-wales-branch-line/

 

 

Have fun

Regards,

 

Chris

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That's spooky. :O   After 30+ years of 4mm modelling, I too have decided to have a flutter with 0 gauge.  It was Dapols' 08 shunter that set me off - that and turning 60.  I'm waiting impatiently for the loco but I've been gradually putting stuff together and getting to know what's what.  I have joined the Gauge 0 Guild (just got my welcome pack today).  I haven't a ton of room - maybe 16ft total.  Anyway, I'll be watching you as you document your layout build.

 

John

 

Your waiting impatiently for the Dapol 08?!? Join the rest of us. For some clue as to how limited 16 feet by 2 feet is for O gauge have a peep at my Dock Green topic - follow the link below.

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As all the others have said: welcome to O gauge, it's a great place to be and a 'broad church'. I'm sure you'll find lots of helpful folk here to encourage you along. David

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Your waiting impatiently for the Dapol 08?!? Join the rest of us. For some clue as to how limited 16 feet by 2 feet is for O gauge have a peep at my Dock Green topic - follow the link below.

Mines on pre-order so I'm in the queue. Thanks for the link to your layout, this stuff blows my mind.

 

John

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The second Cwm Bach photo looks as if it has a bit of this in it Chris!

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Edited to insert .jpg instead of .pdf

 

 

Well spotted. The cafe and barber shop were modelled in 4mm scale for my erstwhile Abersoch layout. An article about its construction including the photo (with John Wiltshire's permission) appeared in the June 2004 edition of the Railway Modeller. The photo shows it in position on Abersoch with Glendower House next door. The garage was based on a prototype in Welshpool and featured on Boduan Junction and was the subject of my first article to be published in a railway magazine  in the November 1992 edition of the Railway Modeller. 

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