Feeling a little narrow minded - IKEA crate micro layout

[luke the train spotter]

So as some of you may know I have quite a fast layout building pace and often build a layout every couple of months. The completion of distillery yard and the near completion of Marmalade Wharf has lead me to look for a new project and I thought I'd continue with my exploration of narrow gauge this time with a little of a twist and more of a focus on aesthetics. In IKEA yesterday I picked up one of these crate kits. Not bad for £9 and is pretty robust and sturdy. The plan is to make it so the layout can sit inside the crate for storage then sit on the up turned crate for display. The baseboard is a spare IKEA shelf in the shed which I've cut down so it measures 27.5cm by 37.5cm The plan is for there to be a simple loop of track. I can't decide whether I want it to be a small light railway so I can have mixed traffic or maybe a small quarry. 

[Jerry1975]

This looks a crate idea, looking forward to seeing more.

 

Jerry.

[1722]

Not sure I want to follow this Luke, narrow gauge appeals to me!

[Sweet pea]

Luke a great looking crate, look forward to you build.

[luke the train spotter]

It's been a little while since I've done anything on the layout but I've been really focused on the planning of it. I wanted to get the right balance of rural scenery to industrial scenery but I think I've come up with a good compromise. I also found it very difficult to come up with a good track plan. A loop would be too tight for most of my stock with the nem couplings so that was ruled out. I really wanted to have it all scenic and no sector plates/traversers but due to the really small amount of space I have to play around with I've decided to use a sector plate. So far all the track is laid but I still need to wire it all up and test it. I plan to use the wire in tube method of point control which I've used on most of my other micro layouts. 

[1722]

Why not go for a scenic sector plate? That's what they are planning at the Corris Railway. 

 

https://www.corris.co.uk/the-future/corris-station/

[Sweet pea]

Luke this is looking good, I look forward to seeing your build progress.

[luke the train spotter]

1 hour ago, 1722 said:

Why not go for a scenic sector plate? That's what they are planning at the Corris Railway. 

 

https://www.corris.co.uk/the-future/corris-station/

I could do but I think an industrial building would act as a nice scenic break as well which would be helpful in such a small amount of space. If I was modeling a light railway or something with a passenger service I probably would use a scenic traverser..

[Andrew Cockburn]

What a novel idea! And I too have a built a few small, micro-shunting layouts in fairly quick succession, one of these was entitled "Short Street Sidings", which you may/may not have seen on another RM forum. This particular layout follows a similar theme to your current project, ie in that it has it's own means of storage, only in this case (quite literally) a flight case, purchased from Maplins (now of course defunct) a while back. Anyway, this looks like an interesting project of yours, and I look forward to seeing it develop further .....

[luke the train spotter]

Now that the track is down and I have a clear idea of what I want to create I can begin the electrical side of the layout. First of all I use wire in tube point control to control the single point from the fiddle yard section of the layout. The method unused can be seen in my YouTube video below. 

 

The wiring has also been done. Since I use dcc all the rails are wired to be live. Lots of wires for such a small layout!

[Sweet pea]

Luke I like the wire in a tube method very much, I have seen it done many times but have never tried it myself. My hat goes off to you Luke knowing how to wire up tracks. That look like spaghetti junction of wires. 

 

[Jeff P]

Those crates are addictive...I went in for one then the wheels started turning and I walked away with 3...

[Andrew Cockburn]

The wiring in the above pic looks slightly complex, but I'm sure it will function OK, while of course having it colour-coded always helps. And I too have employed the wire-in-tube method for point control, rather useful, particularly on small layouts such as my own, ie it tends to save a few bob on point motors, and also of course means a bit less wiring under the layout ....

[luke the train spotter]

3 hours ago, Andrew Cockburn said:

The wiring in the above pic looks slightly complex, but I'm sure it will function OK, while of course having it colour-coded always helps. And I too have employed the wire-in-tube method for point control, rather useful, particularly on small layouts such as my own, ie it tends to save a few bob on point motors, and also of course means a bit less wiring under the layout ....

Well thankfully there are no frog wires to worry about! Not using a point motor is even more important for this layout because there is no room for under baseboard wiring/point motor wiring so everything electrical has to he surface mounted.