East Mumbleton. A 4 lane ECML Racetrack around the walls.

[Captain_Mumbles]

Gday All. I want to share my Journey that is East Mumbleton.

It is a 4 lane steam era ECML DCC racetrack around the walls. It was designed so I can chill in the evenings with a beverage or two and wind down after hard days of work, yet still have some operations when I feel like pushing wagons around. It is my 2nd layout the first one had to be destroyed before it was finished when I relocated and it didnt fit the new space.

I started this a while back when I closed in the loft in my new house and procrastinated over a track plan and many late nights on Templot over the course of a few months. Until somehow Our Phil (Harlequin) agreed to rescue me from insanity. The plan is over on his track plans part of this site, normally found on the front page. I threw him a few curve balls with the need for a bridge or viaduct, a station with an overall roof, and a 2-4 track main, and on top of that, an oddly shaped room. The best way I can describe what think is happening here is: Phil designs a Freezer inspired layout for a loft using some modern methods and then it gets tweaked a little bit again because I have to make the points by hand.

Things are a little slow due to some work commitments but it should gain some momentum soon. Please see the pics of some progress and some rolling stock for East Mumbleton.

I am still a little trigger happy on the solder. By the time I get to the 28th point I should have the hang of it...

 

Thanks to Phil once again for so kindly providing the kick start this needed.

Also Martin Wynne who somehow ALWAYS answers the calls for help no matter how dumb a question it feels like or how many times something may have been asked.

Cheers,

Ben

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Captain_Mumbles

[Captain_Mumbles]

Templot in progress.

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Captain_Mumbles
Added phils picture of the track plan for reference.

[Captain_Mumbles]

The 4th home built turnout getting just a little bit tidier each time, and after much procrastination the beginning of the embankment that becomes the viaduct and one of the centerpieces of the train set.

the viaduct will not be this long of course. It is built like this to keep some kind of standard and also allow it to fall where it needs to as the scenery materializes. This way, I can put it where it looks best. I judged the length of the arches somewhere between what looked good with the height, and after studying thousands of photos, something about the length of a pacific steam locomotive. There are quite a few where I found the length of an A4 was just about the length of an arch on some viaducts which also helped my inspiration. The spacing also allowed me to keep it quite level, and sturdy with my limited wood working skills. Keeping it level by the laser. The viaducts were foam on my last layout. Even though I was very happy with how that turned out, I like the idea of pretty much being able to stand on this one.

PS: even though my life's work is measuring and making things work in real life from drawings I have managed to produce a Viaduct that is consistently 2mm too low across its full length. At least it is consistent!! Considering this a gift, I will make up that extra height with some cork of the appropriate thickness.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Captain_Mumbles
PS

[Captain_Mumbles]

Things happening pretty slowly at East Mumbleton at the moment.

 

[PaulRhB]

Nice plan and the coaches are very effective too 

[Benjamin Brady]

Good Morning, 

I have just come across this layout and I'll be looking forward to following your progress. The coaches look excellent you have done a really good job. 

 

 

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

On 07/11/2021 at 14:20, PaulRhB said:

Nice plan and the coaches are very effective too 

 

On 07/11/2021 at 20:05, Benjamin Brady said:

Good Morning, 

I have just come across this layout and I'll be looking forward to following your progress. The coaches look excellent you have done a really good job. 

 

 

 

Thanks!!! I have covered these coaches in the modified RTR section, but here is just some better pics of what I am doing with them. They are mainly just the trainset coaches modified or just painted for effect. Cant wait to see em going around the room.

[Captain_Mumbles]

These are small practice samples of track to help me establish the colours and techniques for the track work. The camera and the light dont show it but there are a few different colours here to help me chose how to paint it all. Of course, the colours will also vary around the different sections of the layout. The ballasting will also change, especially around the engine shed. what I have done here is simply drop sand through my fingers on top of wood glue. Vacuum/displace the excess once dry. I can never get the ballast hopper tool, spray alcohol water dropper with soapy watery wood glue to work. No matter what I do, the ballast never sits right for me. So I like how this has turned out. I also like the idea of painting the ballast, this means I dont rely on any pre mixes and ect. It might also be just me, but even off the shelf fine ballast looks way too coarse for steam era, and fine sand is getting close enough to the right kind of look. It is also very robust. i can really push the paint brush into it and it doesnt break bits of ballast off...

Rattle can undercoat, and just browns and greys with a dark wash. More layers of dark wash on the track and chairs help complete the effect of shadow and rust/brake dust ect. A light dry brush to make the detail pop.

I also have started gluing my turnouts to some cork. I hope this will help me glue the last bits of timber while also gluing on some chairs in a way that do not interfere with the switch blades. You could imagine these chairs, cut in half and glued on would not really work without the cork holding the timbers in place. These will be more superficial and not really structural. This will also allow me to carefully sand the underside of the cork in case I get height issues between the different track work. I took delivery of some track and brass chairs from DCC concepts and I can see that I might run into an issue between track height. It is only about 5-10 thou, but I think the cork, sanded as appropriate, will help me get away with it. I should be able to cut out the appropriate shape in the cork on the layout and drop this in once the holes are drilled for the point actuation and the dropper wires. Home made and bespoke settrack maybe??

 

Id also like to thank @Martin Wynne yet again for putting up with me/us. I just dont know how he does it.

What drove me absolutely bonkers was the Big Grizly P2 pony truck just going over the switch blades like they werent there. The problem ended up being that I had used the check rail guide also as my guide for setting the switch blade position on the Tie bar/spreader bar and this looked really good, but it was not enough gap. This caused the wheel flange on the pony truck to follow on the wrong side of the switch blades as these were too close together. With that solved, more turnouts in production!

 

Thanks for looking!

Ben

Edited November 9, 2021 by Captain_Mumbles
typos

[Captain_Mumbles]

The turnouts get more reliable each time. I am starting to cut out the foot print area and set them in. After drilling some holes for the turn out mechanism and for the frog dropper wire.

They fit pretty good so I am wondering if I should just drill a hole and stick one track nail in there instead of glue so that removal could be carried out easier if it ever needed to be...

I also trialed giving them a ballast of sand before placing them in as I think it might be easier to do that off the layout where it is intricate where possible.

 

Cheers!

Ben

[Dr.Glum]

I will enjoy watching this layout grow. Your philosophy matches mine; let's watch the big trains go by! Unlike me you're icing your cake with scenics, but once I'd settled for using my conservatory the concept had to be four tracks all the way round. Keep up the good work.

[Captain_Mumbles]

21 hours ago, Dr.Glum said:

I will enjoy watching this layout grow. Your philosophy matches mine; let's watch the big trains go by! Unlike me you're icing your cake with scenics, but once I'd settled for using my conservatory the concept had to be four tracks all the way round. Keep up the good work.

It is just a bit daunting at the moment but I am still enjoying it so far.

[Captain_Mumbles]

Gday all.

Gluing down some flex track. Its great that if cut carefully, the templot templates also make really good templates for the flex track. Weirdly, after placing the track in the slot you have just made, you can push the flex track up against the paper and it mostly straightens it out for you and gets it pretty close to the shape needed. I think starting to glue down some track lets me test future turnouts when they are made as it slowly grows along. It is also a morale booster having some rolling stock parked on it.

 

Cheers!!

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

Back on the Mumbleton after a break due to a combination of work and an urge getting my toy aeroplanes flying again.

I'm more creative in winter as well.

 

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

Two more points nearly done. Made from the templot track plan.

They have the gentlest of curves and that is surprisingly hard to do. I chased one of them for hours but got there in the end.

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

Progress has been slow but I am now inspired to get something running so we're back at it. The structure is inspired by Arthington Viaduct but obviously not prototypical as it is 4 track and I have never found such a structure. At the very least it will be a work of art once it is done.

 

Cheers!

Ben

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Captain_Mumbles

[Captain_Mumbles]

Work continues on the Mumbleton Viaduct. We are adding some foam board walls and some power through them and into the base boards.

[Captain_Mumbles]

Currently rebuilding some of the point work. I was using timber strips used in architectural modelling and before I knew it the strips were getting wider out of the spec as I went through them and I ended up with more timber than space. I have rebuilt it with evergreen strip and re used the chairs. It was easier to work with so it was a quick rebuild.

No risk of the timber warping after ballasting too, I suppose.

It is mounted to a thinner piece of cork than the rest of the layout with a sheet of thin styrene glued to it for so the timber will interact better with the surface as I am securing them with the Tamiya thin cement.

 

Thanks for looking.

Ben

[Captain_Mumbles]

I have finished laminating the skeleton of the Viaduct with the foam board and currently collecting pieces of Noch 3d brick sheet.

It will be interesting to see how that goes.

 

Thanks for looking!

Ben

[Captain_Mumbles]

I now have one complete loop all the way around the room. I cannot do more than that yet at this stage. As the 3 lines inboard of that need to be on an inner base board and this put one of the corners just out of comfortable reach. So the next task is some wiring up of the main and wiring up the points I have made. So still a lot of work to do before something can run on it.

I am also about to take on the joins at the lift out access panel. I plan to solder the track to some PCB at the join to make the tracks rigid. It doesnt help that all the tracks here are super elevated so it will be a matter of spacing and gluing down the PCB ties appropriately.

Also, a shed load of Nock 3d brick paper has arrived for the viaduct and platform brick work.

 

Cheers all!

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

The PCB sleepers for the access hatch secured. Track soldered and cut whilst also managing to keep the super elevation.

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

The first points are now nailed in permanently.

The curved point in the non scenic area was a little challenging due to the super elevation of the curves. The out side edge was spaced up in the same method as the rest of the track and it worked. I am unsure if that is prototypical but it worked well.

 

Thanks for looking!

Ben

[Captain_Mumbles]

The first train to run around Mumbleton completely is A4 Gadwall with some almost complete parcel vans behind it. It was a relief that when the power went on it ran so smoothly. This is a morale booster! The tranquil clanky clank is a good environment for working.

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

Gday All!

I had some time to have a few beverages and watch some trains run by on the nice and gentle curves.

 

 

[Captain_Mumbles]

Enough playing and more working.

Time to do some more stone work. Some of the stonework is done in 2mm balsa. I couldn't get foam sheet or foam board to cut reliably at the small size.

I noticed that viaducts always seem to have a turret at the ends so some were added.

I have made the wall quite low at the risk of being a little too un-prototypical. But, the mechanic in me needs to admire the motion as it rolls past me.

Working on the far side of the viaduct required a mirror.

Thanks for looking.

Edited December 28, 2022 by Captain_Mumbles
more detail

[Captain_Mumbles]

Gday All and Happy new year!

Today started with working out the stonework at the viaduct arches. I had a few different brick texture cards to chose from, but none of them worked out so now I am drawing stones on thick textured paper and cutting them out to curve them into the aches. I tried large rectangles, and large squares but went with the squares.

 

 

After I had glued some on Id noticed it didnt look like what I was after. It had a european look to it and so I ended up drawing small rectangular bricks in situ and this harmonized the arch work into the rest of it.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited January 1, 2023 by Captain_Mumbles
Picture and caption order