Apocrypha, USA

[SonOfMike]

It was my birthday last week, and I decided to finally pull the trigger on another impulse purchase that I have been mithering over for several years; a Rivarossi Heisler. I love geared steam locos me, and I already had a Shay... 2 down now and 2 to go (I'm considering a Dunkirk as different from a Climax because a) it is, and b) the ideal number of locos to own is always at least n + 1).

 

It needs a touch of weathering etc. and I will fit the supplied Oil Bunker conversion when I get round to it but It's a beautiful model and I'm very pleased with it. It runs superbly and will happily trundle along at a barely perceptible crawl. I'm having a rather nice time playing with it today. Happy Johnny 🙂

 

 

[SonOfMike]

[pH]

36 minutes ago, SonOfMike said:

It was my birthday last week, and I decided to finally pull the trigger on another impulse purchase that I have been mithering over for several years; a Rivarossi Heisler. I love geared steam locos me, and I already had a Shay... 2 down now and 2 to go (I'm considering a Dunkirk as different from a Climax because a) it is, and b) the ideal number of locos to own is always at least n + 1).

If you consider a Willamette sufficiently different from a Shay, you can add another to your list:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_locomotive

 

[SonOfMike]

4 minutes ago, pH said:

If you consider a Willamette sufficiently different from a Shay, you can add another to your list

Ooooh, yes!

[pH]

As they say in the infomercials “But wait, there’s more!”:
 

http://www.gearedsteam.com/

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, pH said:

As they say in the infomercials “But wait, there’s more!”:
 

http://www.gearedsteam.com/

🤣🤣 Warning!! Rabbit hole Alert!!! 😁😁

[CameronL]

I've just had a read through this thread and definitely think it deserves  a gold Blue Peter Award. I'm always amazed at how ordinary household objects can be re-used to produce modelling of such beauty. Find your mention here. PS - that little 0-4-0 with all the overhang really needs putting in the Pugbashes thread.

[Ben B]

On 09/02/2022 at 16:59, SonOfMike said:

Le Vieux Bancal

 

Fiction (I know it’s all true because I made it up myself):

Lamy Lumber #12, often referred to as “le vieux bancal” (loosely translated as “The old wonky / wobbly / rickety One”) was commonly seen switching the spurs in and around Turpentine. Originally built sometime in the early 1900s by an unknown maker, by the 1950s this small locomotive had been patched up and rebuilt so many times that nobody was even certain how much of the original engine was left. Nevertheless, she just kept going and continued to haul cars as far as Apocrypha.

 

Fact:

One drawback of building a USA-themed micro layout is the length of locomotives and rolling stock compared to their British counterparts. I therefore wanted to build something that was more along the lines of a sort of American version of a Peckett and would take up less space on the layout’s spurs. I also wanted to build, rather than buy, because I am a cheapskate and I always prefer to have something I made myself, no matter how rough and ready, than something I have bought.

 

My problem, however, is that I am incapable of cutting in a straight line or gluing two items together perpendicular to each other. My usual M.O. is something like:

“Measure three times, realise each measurement is different, oh well.. best out of five then, that’ll do, cut once, cut again, buggrit!, why is there blood?, apply glue, realise small part is stuck to my finger, try again, realise there are bits of my finger stuck to the small part, that now looks vertical, glue dries and everything is now wonky, never mind it will do for me.”

 

This means that I am happy producing models of gravity defying rustic shacks but tend to steer clear of locomotives and stock. Nevertheless, this time I decided to have a go. I wanted to create a kind of caricature of a logging locomotive – something with the charm of a narrow gauge loco but in standard gauge, so that’s what I tried to achieve.

 

The loco features:

•  A saddle tank from a Dapol pug kit with handrails and knobs made from guitar string
•  A smokebox made from some sort of wall-fixing, a bit cut from a Calpol syringe and a pug buffer
•  Brass dome, smokestack and headlight castings from the spares box
• Air tanks made from old fuses and tape
• A bell made from sprue and a staple
• A generator made from a cable tidy and some wire, on a bracket made from the seat from an Airfix half-track kit
• An air tank made from bits of rawlplug and some sprue (purposely oversize to add to the charm, honest gov)
• A cab from an old Mantua loco
• A bunker made from the end of a hopper from a cheap battery powered trainset
• A rear headlamp made from a coupling from above hopper
• A chassis that my Dad gave me
• Various bits of scrap plasticard and other tat

And the saddle is filled to the brim with Liquid Gravity. The numbers were cut from the decals supplied with the pug kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is wonderful! I found this via the Blue Peter/modelling ingenuity thread. I really like this loco, and the backstory (but then I have a thing for these 'small' American tank locomotives).

 

Yours really has the character of an ancient machine, nursed and kept going by generation after generation of crew, you can imagine it ending up plinthed there decades after the railway closed.

 

Btw love the half-track saddletank too- the sort of mad thing you'd think had been made up by a Steampunk enthusiast... except they existed in reality; I was taken aback seeing pictures of the real things, in a secondhand book years ago ('Yankees Under Steam').

[SonOfMike]

Q: When is an update not an update?

 

A: When it's like this one and I am updating you to tell you there is nothing to update you on.

 

However, in some ways "no news is good news". The reason I haven't done much on the layout recently is because I have been busy buying a house - WITH A GARAGE!!! I will be moving to the new property in a few weeks' time and once I'm settled in I will be able to have the layout set up at least semi-permanently, if not permanently. I have plans for two more additional scenic modules; one to add a bit of countryside between Apocrypha and Turpentine and maybe another to represent part of the city of Matraque Bleue, complete with a smidgeon of street-running.

 

Watch this space.....

[SonOfMike]

House purchase and moving in complete! 

 

After a couple of weeks of unpacking and settling in etc. I have been able to get in the garage and play trains. The garage itself needs a lot of work doing to it to make it a suitable home for a layout - floor sealing, walls insulating and so on but for now, using an old pasting table and a workmate as "legs" and some temporary lashed-up LED lighting, at least I can get it set up. When not in use the stock is all put away and the layout covered with dust sheets. 

 

Those of a sensitive disposition look away now...

 

 

[SonOfMike]

I have also been able to have a play with a new toy - a diseasel that my Dad bought for me just before I moved (he said he just saw it and thought I'd like it. I really do have the bestest Dad). There now follows some gratuitous photos of said gift switching the layout - enjoy.*

 

*May noy actually be enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

[SonOfMike]

And there's more..

[SonOfMike]

[F-UnitMad]

I like the overall view of the layout, as a reminder for those of us with short memories that Apocrypha is a through-layout with staging at the right-hand end, a detail I for one had forgotten!!

Your Dad bought a diesel..??!! 😱😂 too much medication, or gin & tonic? 🍸

It looks the part, though. 👍

[SonOfMike]

On 08/07/2023 at 17:13, F-UnitMad said:

Apocrypha is a through-layout with staging at the right-hand end

Indeed it is. Apocrypha is an inglenook but I included an "exit" at both ends from day one, and the intention was always to have staging at the right-hand as a minimum. My thinking was that I didn't like the idea of trains always having to enter from the left propelling / pushing stock towards the inglenook spurs. It just felt more aesthetically pleasing to me to have a train enter from the right pulling cars behind it onto the "headshunt" by the depot and then reverse to switch the spurs.

 

Now trains can enter from either direction and I'm starting to plan the new modules. I will keep the concept the same as Apocrypha and Turpentine - each one a self-contained micro layout / diorama which links to the others to allow trains to run between them. This way I can imagine that each scene is miles from the next whilst actually only being separated by a hole in the backscene.

[SonOfMike]

Long time no update - I must put that right. A new module is now under construction. This one sits between Apocrypha and Turpentine and now officially makes this the world's largest micro-layout, as the three modules plus staging area now occupy almost an entire wall of my garage.

 

The new scene is based around the Victoria Wood Inc. complex near the town of Tucsupes (think of how Tucson is pronounced). It's early days yet; the track has been laid and painted, the backscene is more or less in place and work is underway on some structures. I was low on materials, especially door and window castings and I decided to purchase and kitbash a Walthers' Sunrise Feed Mill Kit into three separate buildings. I haven't used kits before but buying it cost considerably less than buying the materials I would have needed to scratch build. Trying to make plastic look like weathered painted wood was harder than I thought - the end result is acceptable (to me) but I think I might be able to do better next time having found out through experience what works and what doesn't. 

 

Anyway, here are some photos to bring the thread up to date. Ballasting will be the next big job, along with me maybe attempting to make some trees that pass as bald cypresses, complete (I hope) with Spanish moss.

 

 

[SonOfMike]

[SonOfMike]

[SonOfMike]

[SonOfMike]

[F-UnitMad]

If I could make just one observation, to me the canopy would look better over the long loading platform? I appreciate it might be the way the kit was supplied - this is the front & back used side by side, I take it? 

But keeping the platform dry & sheltered would make more sense, if you see what I mean.

[SonOfMike]

10 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

If I could make just one observation, to me the canopy would look better over the long loading platform? I appreciate it might be the way the kit was supplied - this is the front & back used side by side, I take it? 

But keeping the platform dry & sheltered would make more sense, if you see what I mean.

 

Good point, and one that I have been considering. I have indeed used the front and back side by side. The section with the single large door had the "mounting points" for the canopy moulded on it which is why the canopy is there. I put the loading bay on the other side as it had 2 doors and I thought it looked better, but as you say, keeping the platform dry & sheltered would make more sense.

 

I think the easiest thing to do would be to extend the platform under the canopy - I'll have a fettle.

 

[SonOfMike]

Ballasting and the application of basic ground cover are now underway. TOP TIP: When shaking finely sifted earth and other scatter materials onto the layout, make sure your cup of coffee is placed well away from the baseboard. Ask me how I know.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 minute ago, SonOfMike said:

Ballasting and the application of basic ground cover are now underway. TOP TIP: When shaking finely sifted earth and other scatter materials onto the layout, make sure your cup of coffee is placed well away from the baseboard. Ask me how I know.

I believe the saying is: “I shouldn’t be surprised if fresh coffee tastes like mud - after all, it was ground only yesterday.”

 

Something I’ve noticed on a few US layouts recently (probably others over here too) is the inclusion of cup holders attached to layout fascias.  Not so much a tip for the construction phase (for the reason you give) but maybe later?
 

Do you still have your unique backscene of bottles awaiting consumption too?  Just wondered - looking forward to seeing the photos, Keith.

[SonOfMike]

On 29/09/2023 at 13:29, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Do you still have your unique backscene of bottles awaiting consumption too?  Just wondered - looking forward to seeing the photos, Keith.

Not these days Keith. Now that I have moved house, the bottles have a cupboard to live in and the layout lives in the garage. I have to admit that I am generally pants at taking photos; not just in terms of technique, but also in terms of remembering to take them. It's always an afterthought rather than anything else.  Today is a case in point. I went into the garage to have a quick play and it was only when I was packing stock up that I remembered to take some pictures.

Scenery is still underway in Tucsupes. The basics are all there but I still have lots to do in terms of details and I have another structure to build still. I have had a go at making some trees that may pass* as Bald Cypresses, complete with Spanish moss. They don't seem to have appeared much in the pictures I took today so I will try and take some next time.

 

* In the dark, wearing sunglasses, with your eyes all squinty / shut and presuming you have never seen a Bald Cypress. Or Spanish moss. Or even better, a tree.

 

Peering from within the trees, Shay #12 can be glimpsed pulling a train of flatcars up outside Victoria Wood ready to pick up some planed lumber. Then there are a few other snaps taken around the vicinity.