“BEYOND DOVER”

[Andy Hayter]

Regarding the fourgon, I note in the corner of the picture that there is catenary and I wonder whether the birdcage look out would need to be removed for safety reasons.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Andy Hayter

[Northroader]

PORTUGUESE STEAM RAILCAR.
 

just poking about, and if you’re feeling adventurous with your scratchbuilding, here’s a pair of 1906 steam rail cars for the SSE:

https://guardafreio.blogspot.com/2015/12/serie-bcdymf-1001-e-1002-da-cp.html

 

INDEX - pages 31-40:

page 31:  Portuguese steam railcar.                                     page 32: Azulejos por São Lucas.

                 News from São Lucas.                                                             In France, stop for lunch.

                 Fairbairn 2-2-2T.                                                                       Pantiles.

                 Foamboard baseboard construction.                                   Swedish railway setting.

                 Towards an Austrian setting. (+“Third Man”).                      Swedish Beyer Peacocks.

                                                                                                                      Red/ Green, colour blindness.

page 33:  Remember the OUEST.

                  European goods wagons colours 1896.

 

Edited April 19 by Northroader

[Northroader]

Well, regular visitors to this thread will have noticed that I have been kicking the can down the road since March. We’ve visited interesting places, and set up links to useful websites, but there hasn’t been much actual modelling output carried out. The good news is I’ve now moved to a smaller house, and am setting up a bit of a workbench and a shelf for a layout. Hopefully I can continue touring the Continent, and do a bit more modelling as well.

 

[Northroader]

NEWS FROM SÃO LUCAS.

Bom dia, meus amigos. Hoje é a festa de São Judas Tadeu.

 

 

 

Regulars on this thread will know that there’s a sub-plot running with a 5’6” gauge line struggling to emerge, not at all successfully. Well, now I’ve settled in and looked round, I’ve identified  a space for a small layout, and kill two birds with one stone, which isn’t really something you’re supposed to do these days. I also have a partiality to Irish lines, which are 5’3” gauge. So far I’ve modelled them as standard gauge, but in following some nice layouts over on the IRM web using the correct gauge, I’d like to try something wider as well.

Consider, 4’8.5”, 5’3”, 5’6” ——- 32mm, 36.75mm*, 38.5mm.

(* I’m afraid I’m not that keen on working out a gauge on a calculator, then using it with the implication that you’re modelling to a hundredth of a millimetre tolerance, which isn’t something I’m remotely capable of. Round up to 37mm, I would say.)

Anyway, I feel the two non standard, wider gauges could be merged to one in a model layout,  with not that much of a difference between them, but which is quite distinctive to standard gauge, and as Slaters do Irish gauge driving axles, I could use these rather than the arrangement with brass tubes I’ve described some time ago on here. A small lightweight board is being made, and then I’ll look at slightly slimming down the Estado Fairbairn frames that have appeared on here. If you go ‘Beyond Dover’, you’d need to go clockwise in a very large circle before you reach the Western Fringes of Europe, but see how we get on with that, as well as the standard gauge goings on.

 

Acenda uma velo so padroiero das causas perdidas, e rogue a Nossa Senhora do Paraíso, que interceda por nos pecadores.

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

May your sins of intention be forgiven but for your penance, model the Portuguese stuff at 6.5625 mm/ft without rounding.

[Mikkel]

So an Irish/Portugese medley of sorts? And will the revised frames still feature the delightful loco below? If Atlantis had a railway, this surely would be its style.

 

On 12/09/2023 at 10:53, Northroader said:

 

 

 

 

[Northroader]

FAIRBAIRN 2-2-2T.
 

Well, the intention is to have “Irish days” and “Portuguese days”, swapping buildings, scenic, and trains. The Fairbairn 2-2-2T is a must, no home should be without one, in my opinion. I did build one, which I’ve given away before the move, so doing a replacement is fun. The last one was done from a side-on photograph, but you can download a diagram, from another preserved one. Brush up your Portuguese, here’s another rabbit hole to fall down:

 

http://vfco.brazilia.jor.br/locomotivas/vapor-EFCB-Estrada-de-Ferro-Central-do-Brasil/pagina-01-locomotiva-Fairbairn-Sons-2-2-2-Baronesa-01-Maua.shtml

another microlayout?
 

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

Maravilhoso!

 

 

 

 

[Northroader]

FOAMBOARD BASEBOARD CONSTRUCTION.
 

Well, I need a baseboard for this hypothetical layout, and opted to try out foamboard for a change. Previously I’ve used some 5mm  thick for the shell of a station building, and also for the base of a tiny layout, and quite taken with how you can use it, so rather than go out to the big orange shed and get some 2”x1” and chipboard, I sent off for a pack of 10mm thick foamboard. It came in A1 paper size, 33.1” x 23.4”, or 840mm x 594mm, and as I used just two sheets for this job, it comes in quite competitively with using timber, although the timber option would be more durable.

---

I cut a strip off lengthwise 12” wide, which formed the top of the main baseboard, and this left enough to make six 48mm strips, which I stuck together in pairs to form the reinforcing subframe, using PVA Bond for the adhesive. The fiddleyard top was 9” wide and the same length, which should give me three roads, quite ambitious for a simple little line. Here’s a picture of the underside construction, and the two parts together.

 

There’s a small station building and a standard gauge 0-6-0T in 7mm scale to give clue of how it fits together. Obviously it won’t take screws, nails, or track pins, everything has to be glued down. There’s a 5mm thick sheet at the back to support a backscene, and this is bolted on, but where the bolt goes through there’s 2mm ply pads glued on.

 

The two boards are resting on a smooth “tabletop” support (an old foamcore door) and my intention is to have the tracks from the main board and the fiddle engaging with each other for trains passing over, but leave the two boards lying loosely on the support. Whatever next?

Edited November 5, 2023 by Northroader

[burgundy]

A thin ply facing can be glued onto the sides, which will make it less prone to damage. This would also be sufficient for a simple latch to hold the two boards together. 

Best wishes 

Eric 

[Northroader]

Thing Is, I need to move the boards relative to each other to do shunting, the fiddle yard will be treated as a large cassette. There won’t be any points.

(help! how do you get rid of that damned “page” command?)

Edited November 4, 2023 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

Simple, light, quick. The ply plads are a good idea.

 

Eric's tip reminds me I've got some very thin ply in the attic, intended for just that purpose.

 

What's this "Next page" feature now...

[Northroader]

Sorry, Mikkel, I was going along the top bar, and wondering “what’s this do?”, and now… I recall you did a foamboard construction sometime back for a cameo layout, which worked out well?

[Mikkel]

 

18 hours ago, Northroader said:

I recall you did a foamboard construction sometime back for a cameo layout, which worked out well?

 

Yes I've got three of them, so far no major damage or issues - despite me carrying them regularly up and down a narrow flight of stairs. But some thin ply would look good and add a bit of extra protection.

 

18 hours ago, Northroader said:

I was going along the top bar, and wondering “what’s this do?”, and now

 

Interesting feature, though I'm not sure what for. Maybe to avoid very long posts - or to add gratuitous content...

 

---

 

Caption: Staff of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway demonstrating hand signals. Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted.

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Mikkel

[burgundy]

The basis for Vintners' Yard was a 4' x 2' foam insulation batt. The images in the thread were lost in the great photo meltdown a few years ago, so I attach a couple that will give the general idea. 

The "box" measures 4' x 18" wide x 20" deep, so that although it is light, it is quite unwieldy to manoeuvre. With two sets of folding trestles, it is also a very snug fit in a Seat Ibiza. For both reasons, the plywood outside edges have been important for protecting against the odd bump.  I can see that handing an A1 size baseboard will be much easier.

Vintners' Yard used casettes on outrigger boards at either end to provide the fiddle yards  and I shall be interested to see how you implement the idea of a complete sliding baseboard as the fiddle yard!

Best wishes 

Eric 

[Northroader]

Thanks, Eric, a nice bit of urban LBSC. I did see this at a show somewhere, and enjoyed it, much later I met up with you, so belated congratulations on a well modelled layout.  The 4’ size in 00 would allow luxury ltems like points, this job of mine will be much more basic. Agreed ref the thin plywood strips facing the layout, sooner or later I must add some.

[Northroader]

TOWARDS AN AUSTRIAN SETTING.
 

Besides the “Western Fringe” layout in 37mm broad gauge and 7mm scale, with foamboard bases, the other main layout is taking shape across the room. This is intended as a one size fits all layout, done in 32mm standard gauge for 7mm scale, encompassing various other interests. Here is the roughed out main board, trying in this case to look like Old Austria. The station building is from elsewhere, and included to give a better sense of the proportions. Even keeping it simple, I’m would like a few more goods wagons and motive power, although what’s shown would give a sufficiently workable line.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

That's very attractive, a good example of how little stock you need.

 

Funny how well the Pop Up station fits in, though not intended to.

 

 

[Vecchio]

Great start Mr Northroader. Just checked - Gösser Bier started in 1860 (there was a brewery in the area for almost 1000 years, but 1860 it started on a more industrial level. Who wants to know more - have a look here). I don't know when they got a size that they needed a railway connection or even wagons with their own brand name. The writing on the wagon looks like StlB, this company started in 1890. 

 

DO I like the wagon? Of course I do. 

Do I like their beer? Well it was always a bit on the bitter side, until they established a cold filtering system. Probably the beer lost a little bit of it's Styrian charm, especially after the brewery is now part of the Heineken group... 

 

[Northroader]

“Gosser Bier” sticks in my mind from the “Third Man” (my all time favourite film), 1947 Vienna at night, somewhere beyond the bomb rubble, a freight train starts off…..

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Northroader

[Vecchio]

Now readers got a nice impression of the "Wiener Zentralfriedhof" which is the biggest cemetery in Vienna. It still looks like that and it is so big that entering by car was allowed as long as I can remember. 

[leslie10646]

Yes, Bob, the Third Man is a great favourite in our house as well - we're wearing out the DVD.

 

But being a lover of BIG steam locos, it's the Austrian 2-8-4 drawing into the Westbahnhof (?) that gets the blood coursing through my veins!

 

Your output just amazes me, congratulations on the new layouts.

 

[Northroader]

Thank you, Leslie, this sort of thing is what you’re thinking of?

 

Its a bit too big and modern for my simple tastes, and not really the sort of thing for a microlayout. I think the “Third Man” film does stick quite closely to actual locations, if you were coming to Vienna from the West in the late 1940s, it would have to be by train into Westbahnhof, using the old Kaiserin Elisabets Bahn, the KEB, which spanned West from Vienna to the German border, and became an early component of the State system, the kkStB. (Actually the Kaiserin is the person for whom the MGWR loco “Empress of Austria” was named. She was quite keen on hunting on horseback, and did several visits to Ireland, where she was a popular figure) There's a rather temporary look in the film to the glimpses of the accomodation at the station, it was hit by a stick of bombs in spring 1945, and the overall roof collapsed. It had a total rebuild in the 1950s into a modern structure.

 

 

So return to earlier times, the station was like the other Viennese termini, an imposing piece of architecture, with just an arrival platform and a departure platform inside, also a carriage siding or two. If you’ve got the length, there’s plenty to go at. (Edit: looking at the engraving again, I think the narrow platforms were also used for arrivals and departures, rather than carriage stabling)

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Northroader

[Northroader]

 

well, best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to everyone, many thanks for your interest and help during a difficult time. I’m looking forward to a new year when we can venture out again Beyond Dover….

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Northroader

[Vecchio]

Tanti auguri di Buon Natale anche a te!  

As well as Frohe Weihnachten!