a4mallard Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 I am attaching some photos of my layout. Go easy on me. 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PjKing1 Posted October 12, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2016 Wow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete4690 Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Wow!! Looks awesome mate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan product fan Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 wow great running space mate . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Digital Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 What a cracking layout. John. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium rab Posted October 12, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 12, 2016 Ditto WOW! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Go easy on you? I won't. In fact I absolutely refuse to. Jealous is what I am. JEALOUS! Nice work btw! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 That's a big fiddle yard for a branch line terminus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4mallard Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 One Bloo*y GREAT BIG almighty WOWSER from me as well. WONDERFUL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianusa Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Sorry to dump on your parade, but while its an incredible piece of work, as a layout it lacks a bit - the ability to see more trains! A lot of time they are buried beneath multiple levels of track and while it is nice to see them briefly steaming through a station or between tunnels, they are lost for quite a bit. Obviously the owner must be proud of his handiwork and the effort expended, and no doubt about it, it is monumental so deserves a lot of credit for having been so designed. I couldn't have done it! Brian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Outstanding use of the space available - perhaps you could give us a bit more info on how you went about making this? I notice you have limited headroom but can only deduce that is because of the multi-layered nature of the layout. But are there other reasons? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Alister_G Posted October 12, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2016 Sorry to dump on your parade, but while its an incredible piece of work, as a layout it lacks a bit - the ability to see more trains! A lot of time they are buried beneath multiple levels of track and while it is nice to see them briefly steaming through a station or between tunnels, they are lost for quite a bit. Obviously the owner must be proud of his handiwork and the effort expended, and no doubt about it, it is monumental so deserves a lot of credit for having been so designed. I couldn't have done it! Brian. I'm afraid I would have to respectfully disagree with you Brian, I think that one of the disadvantages of most home built layouts is that you have a loop of track, half of which is scenic, and the other half fiddle yard, so you get to see the trains run through the scenic section, but then - unless you want them to immediately reappear doing the same thing - you have to drive them into the fiddle yard and then send another one out, which probably involves hand-of-god shunting. By the looks of this layout, you will see a train in the scenic area, and half an hour later it might come back round back again, or maybe end up coming the other way. Meanwhile, you could set up a number of other trains to follow. Far more interesting, in my view. Oh, and a4Mallard, socks-blown-off sir, what a superb layout you have. Al. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4mallard Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 Thank you all for your comments, I live in Ireland and planning permission laws are a nightmare but you can build a certain size without planning, so for me it resulted in a shed 25 feet long by 10 feet wide and to add to that I couldn't afford to build any bigger. I've been collecting OO model trains for over 30 years, this is about my 10th layout. The idea behind this layout is to run trains. There is 2500ft of track over 5 levels and the layout is basically a dog bone shape and a helix but the helix is spread over the full layout and not one corner as they take up too much space, so the gradient is not as severe. A Bachmann 9F can pull a sixty wagon train with no problem, some of the newer diesels will pull over 100 wagons. I can run up to 8 scale length trains on each track but it gets a bit noisy because there's no underlay, so there is always a train in the scenery section and a little anticipation of the next one, the whole idea is not to see them all of the time but I only have to look down and I have a view of the levels. At a scale speed it takes about 25 mins for a train to come back to the start. I know it's not to everybody's taste but I was trying to get everything out of boxes they been hidden away for years. The layout is fully D.C.C. Lenz controlled and wiring is kept as simple as possible, all track joints are soldered and I've had not problems with buckling so far. The layout is far from been finished it needs a lot of detailing. Once again thanks for all your comments. Regards Bren 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairburn Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Mods, please move this to the Boxfile layout section!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4mallard Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 (edited) Edited October 12, 2016 by a4mallard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4mallard Posted October 13, 2016 Author Share Posted October 13, 2016 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted October 13, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 13, 2016 DSC00099.jpgDSC00708.jpgDSC00719.jpgDSC01013.jpgDSC03644.jpgDSC01077.JPGDSC01269.JPG I like photo 708. It reminds me of my old office at Holbeck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
67A Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Hi Bren, Its seemingly true then - we modellers are a pretty mad bunch! I thought my fiddle yard was a complicated affair until seeing yours. I chose to locate my fiddle yard below the layout as shown. There is a pretty plain (by your standards) spiral at each end. These then run up (and down) to the scenic section. I think your solution is fabulous but I doubt I would even see the scenic section at that height let alone work on it, only last night I had to change a tie-bar on a point in the fiddle yard and squeezing into that gap is not an easy task especially with a hot soldering iron. Full marks for effort. Seeing your post mentioning Holbeck, would you be the official who chucked me out on several occasions in the late 60's when an uncle would take me in his truck and come back after he had loaded/unloaded then again in the early 70's when I worked for BR at St Rollox works, then Derby Loco works followed by Toton TMD as a fitter, if so I can hold a grudge for a long time but you're quite safe I don't have a passport! Keep up the good work! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewC Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Looks great. I've got similar space but with only a fraction of that amount of layout in it. Any chance of posting the full track plan? I'd love to see how you have shoe horned that into 250 ft2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4mallard Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 Hi thanks for the comments, I've had no problems yet with track, touch wood. I've one main yard and four other sets of sidings, the sidings are extremely long and depending on the length of trains you normally get five to six trains on each siding. I set the first train off and leave a two min gap between each train, let them do a complete circuit and bring them back into the siding. If you do that with four siding holding up to six trains on each you get to see 24 different trains. As for a track plan it's very hard to draw a track plan for 5 or 6 levels, It's basically a double track main line. As for the height of it you get a chance to see all the detail on modern model wagons instead of an aerial view, It's particularly nice to see the light coming through the spoked wheels. On a finishing note my old layout had no fiddle yards and the only points used were for cosmetic purposes and the point blades were locked in place, the whole layout was scenery and ran over 4 levels. I'll look for a few pics and will post them. mike61680 beautiful work on the layout regards Bren 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4mallard Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 old layout 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sp1 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Could you please change the thread title? - this is a far too 'splendiferous' layout to be called 'my layout' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 5BarVT Posted October 14, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 14, 2016 would you be the official who chucked me out on several occasions Area Engineer is far too high up to chuck people off a depot. You employ others to do that for you! Paul. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgman Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) old layoutI seem to remember enjoying this on YouTube a few years ago and found it very inspiring. I appreciate it may be an old posting but well worth others looking in my opinion found under a4mallard channel https://youtu.be/NwhVexnxoRg & https://youtu.be/E6ctDlgwOzk ( 2nd one gives a great view of the whole layout )I also became one of your YT subscribers because of this, fascinating watch and excellent modelling. Edited October 14, 2016 by bgman 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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