n gauge Steelworks Exchange Sidings - First Baseboard Built

[MarshLane]

I have been umming and arrrghing over what do for a model railway for far too long.  Work and family life gets in the way, and I always want to do something bigger than I have the space for.  I’ve tried 2mm, 4mm and 7mm in the past, I am looking to build an S Scale small colliery layout, given that I’ve got several S Scale wagons, but that is a longer-term project, as is my 2mm North American layout, which has stalled pending the garage being reroofed and secured.  But wanted something small, but interesting that could come together reasonably quickly and allow me to play trains!

 

So I’ve made a decision - oh dear I hear people cry! I’ve set myself a two-week layout challenge!  In essence I have a couple of weeks off work coming up, and should have been away on holiday for a good part of that. However, some family issues have arisen which mean I need to be on hand at some point most days, so I am staying at home.  This presents a good opportunity to actually do some modelling, rather than just think or talking about it.

 

I had considered a small 2mm or 4mm layout, based around a 1980s BR diesel depot.  I remember the late 1980s well, having been born in 1978, and there was a wide variety of locomotives and liveries about and depots still existed in their traditional form.  However, on further consideration is made sense to make use of the large amount of N gauge freight stock I have - admittedly few locos at the moment!  So a small shunting theme became the focus - something along the lines of a steelworks exchange sidings, which will give me an opportunity to use my N Gauge Society Hunslet shunters that have not yet been out of their boxes! Era will initially be late 1980s/early 1990s, but there is the potential in the future of an ‘add-on’ to expand the shunting aspect, but that would likely backdate the layout to the 1950s/1960s.  I am trying to be careful with the choice of buildings so that there is nothing too modern, for this reason.

 

While it will not be anywhere near complete in two weeks, my aim is to progress as far as possible, creating the baseboards, hand-build the track work, wire it up and maybe start on the scenic side.  My idea is that giving myself a deadline, should mean it progresses.  I am a ‘follower’ of the infamous @Andrew P on here, who has a remarkable ability to output two or three layouts in the time it takes me to make a decision about a point!  But having learnt from Andy’s comments over the past few years, I intend to work the same way.  Conclude each day with a plan for what your going to do the next day and do not be over-ambitious.  Achieving everything you plan to do in a day and finishing early, is a better incentive than plodding through and loosing your ‘mojo’ because you haven’t achieved what you set out to do.

 

Space at home is an issue, it cannot stay out all the time.  So therefore it needs storing.  I love the Farthing Layouts that can be seen within this parish on the blog system, courtesy of @Mikkel, who has built some wonderful little layouts.  So the size of each baseboard will be geared around it in a stackable storage boxes, of which I have found some that are not too expensive, but are solid and will be able to be reused in the future should I dispose of, or sell this layout at sometime. The use of the boxes rather than a wooden rack or the like, will also help in keeping dust off the layout.  My thought its that it will probably need four boxes. Each has a maximum internal dimension of 770mm x 570mm x 305mm - or roughly 30 inches x 22.5 inches x 12 inches in old money. I am therefore looking at the baseboards being 29 inches x 21.5 inches in size, with the back scene boards being detachable and having a height of 18 inches, for storage in another box.

 

Proposed track plan over four separate boards

 

 

I am a member of the 2mm Association would have dearly loved to have built this in 2mm finescale, but after a lot of deliberation, I really dont see how I can split up the Hunslet shunters to change or modify the wheel sets, and nobody else appears to have achieved this yet either. So I’m going with standard N gauge, but with hand-built track work with no Peco track or point work allowed. Having hand built points, the look of the Peco track work just really doesn’t work for me these days - very much personal preference I acknowledge - but for me I want it get it looking as close to realism as possible.  I did look at the FinetraX options, but decreed hand-building was the way I wanted to go. There's only about 10 points in total, two of which are three-ways so its not too bad.

 

 

There will be a normal-style control panel, with the points controlled by servos, although I have yet to decide whether to go for Megapoints boards to control them, or MERG CBUS boards.  The latter are appealing in having perhaps more expandability in the future, but the former are ready-built and quicker to install!  More decisions to be made there.  Control however will be DCC, with my existing Digitrax system, hopefully with the ability to swap sections to pure DC as well.

 

In the current climate, funds for this are not ample, and initially will go on baseboards, a small number of track work items that I am short off and scenics, but hopefully a suitable loco or two will be acquired. Like a lot of modellers, I want to get the scenic aspects right, so that there are plenty of photographic opportunities. Longer-term (ie outside the two-weeks!) I am looking at doing general detailing on locos, as well as weathering and maybe some repaints (something i’ve not tackled before) and no doubt a significant challenge in N gauge!

 

Needless to say, I will not spend all day, every day, during my two weeks off on this, but hopefully there will be an update every couple of days at least.  I'll try not to make future updates too wordy!

 

Please do follow along if it has any interest for you, but if not … wish me luck!

 

Rich

 

Edited July 2, 2022 by MarshLane
Added image

[Erichill16]

Interesting subject, something I'm considering in 00. At the moment I'm sat at Fox Valley Shopping centre overlooking the exchange siding for Stocksbridge steel works. They’ve had an “incident”, an EWS 4 wheel wagon has crashed through some buffer stops and now has a buckled under frame and is missing a set of wheels!

 

[MarshLane]

Hi Eric,

Sounds an interesting mix-up with the wagon!  Me thinks the scrap man and cutters torch beckons!  Good luck with your project too.

 

Things have moved on a little bit with my layout today - I have been working on part of it since Tuesday last week during the evenings, so the cutting files for the first of the four baseboards has gone off for laser cutting.  I'll do a post this evening and talk a bit more about baseboards and the initial design.

 

Rich

[Andrew P]

Hi Rich, I like your thinking, I wanted to do similar with Budoc Bridge Sidings, (The initial Budoc Bridge Branch)  but in OO I just didn't have the room, so this to me looks like a good plan. 

Plan, 

Do,

Admire,

Plan,

Do,

Admire,

Plan,  you get the picture👍

 

[MarshLane]

Having decided to do this self-imposed ‘little challenge’ in my final week at work before leave, I spent some time each evening putting the track plan together.  The aim was something small, simple, interesting and with plenty of opportunity to potter about.  

 

The original plan was for the layout to cover three boards, but the length of seven BDA wagons and a loco in N gauge comes out to be around three foot (or 920 mm in new money). I felt this was a suitable maximum train length for a small layout, so the exchange sidings themselves got split across the three boards, with the approach being a board in its own right. Using the less is more theory, I actually think this has worked out well and will give the opportunity to expand the scene without the layout looking cramped.

 

The general track plan for phase one is as seen below:

 

Two fiddle ‘sticks’ (see below) will be located at the left hand side, with trains coming down the BR branch at the front of the layout (previously double track, now singled), over a level crossing and into the exchange sidings.  Industrial workings from the steelworks will appear on the rear of the two lines, which is hidden from the former by a cutting and that makes its presence known as it approaches the exchange yard.  This idea comes from a real life former steelworks railway. The small headshunt to the left of the main sidings will be a small stabling road for BR locomotives.

 

Baseboards
So having got the track plan, I decided to approach the baseboards from a different direction.  I’ve built boards in the past and they have worked well but been very heavy.  I do suffer with an occasional bad back, so lightweight was the key, and being N gauge there is no significant weight on the boards.  Hence, I powered up the Fusion360 CAD software and set about designing some lightweight, open-plan baseboards.  In the Narrow Gauge & Industrial Review magazine last year, I set out some thoughts for a different approach to baseboards and connectivity.  I wanted a quick and easy set up with no bolts, front clips were out because I may wish to extend the scenic aspects and add additional boards to the front or back in the future. I also wanted the electrical connections to be quick and, if possible, with no scrabbling around under the layout trying to plug things in.

 

So having finished work on Friday lunchtime, and having got the CAD work started the previous evening, I spent most of the weekend relaxing and completing the design work on the baseboards. To anyone who isn’t into CAD, this may seem a complex way of working, but Ive found it interesting, challenging at times, and will hopefully lead to far better woodwork than I would have otherwise had!

 

By the close of play last night, Sunday, I had reached this stage with the design:

 

 

This shows the first three out of four open plan baseboards, with the track base running across the middle of the boards.

 

 

This close-up shows how the first board will be set out, with the BR line appearing across the front of the scene, with the roadway crossing at an angle, while in the background will be the industrial line in a cutting.  The road way will climb up to the height of the tab on the far left, but for ease I haven’t modelled this, as it served little purpose.

 

 

This top down view, shows how the track work (from the Templot exported DXF file) will sit on the layout, but also shows how the boards are arranged to give a slight curve to the overall scene, and try and remove part of, what a friend of mine calls DS&B (dead straight and boring!) situation.

 

 

By Monday morning I had progressed the design on and got the fourth and final board designed.  This will include a small canal scene. Firstly, because I like canal boats, but secondly to provide a third level of interest and to add to the ‘railway in a landscape’ view, rather than a landscape around a railway.  Hopefully, once the layout is built, I will have achieved this.

Now how it works, whether it is successful or not, remains to be scene but the general idea is that pattern makers brass dowels in the end of each board retain the alignment, chocolate blocks with interlocking pins provide the electrical connectivity when the boards are pushed together, and powerful small 25mmx10mm magnets (that are a lot stronger than you may think!) will hold the boards together.

 

I know people will have pros and cons for all this, but lets see what happens. Its a learning curve, but I am trying to make life easy for me.  The easier the layout goes together, the quicker it is up and running and consequently the more it will get used.  I have no ambition of taking this out to exhibitions at all, but if anyone ever thought it was worthy enough, the setup would allow it.  The one aspect I have not yet sorted out is lighting, but I have an idea as they say.

 

 

This view shows the full track plan for the layout, but I am working on only the first board at present, to check that all goes together ok. Once that has been built, then the laser cutter chaps will be given the OK to cut the remaining three. I did consider curving the sidings a little too, but as the aim is to move to DG delayed action couplings, I did not want to increase the risk of vehicles not coupling.  It has however worked quite well, I think, as this view allows the railway to move towards to the front of the layout, while the surrounds increase and decrease in the back and foreground respectively.

 

I have thought about this style of baseboard and construction approach before, but haven’t actually used it, so it is a first, and something of a learning curve.  I openly acknowledge it isn’t the cheapest, but the trade off should be in accuracy, lack of cutting, ease of construction and, hopefully, a lightweight end product.

 

 

I have also taken the opportunity to create some locomotive and rolling stock ‘fiddle sticks’ for transferring trains on and off the layout, rather than having a sector plate or traverser.  This was just easier and will make putting trains on the layout far quicker too.  This is a loco stick - around 140mm long.  The track and sides will actually be formed of L shape aluminium angle set at the correct spacing, with electric being transferred to it using crocodile clips, or bulldog clips between ‘sticks’.  A second version has also been created that is 700mm long, for holding the trains themselves

 

 

All will employ this little stop, which is to be 3D printed, and have a small piece of foam on the inner end to prevent damage to any locos or wagons that may run into it.  The high side pieces at the front and back form handles to allow them to be lifted on and off the layout, but also allow them to be stacked in a storage box when the layout is not in use, hopefully preventing any damage to the holders or the stock.

 

 

There are a number of laser cutters around, and have used York Modelmaking in the past (although the lead times are not conducive to a short-notice project like this one) and have used Phil at Intentio a few times, who I do recommend.  However, for this project I’ve tried a ‘reasonably’ local laser cutter in Horncastle, called Wolds Workshop.  I haven’t used these chaps before, but a conversation with a chap there called Harry, about thickness of wood, turnaround times etc, and he was really helpful.  He quoted the price, which wasn’t too bad given the cost of wood these days, and offered to have it available to collect within a couple of days or posted out by courier.  With a courier charge of £12 and a petrol cost of around £25 given the present price of fuel, the former option was taken, so I am now awaiting the arrival of a box full of wooden parts, hopefully on Thursday!

 

In the meantime, I sent the Templot track plan to my local print shop to be printed off on A3 sheets.  @MartinWynne (of Templot fame) suggested getting them to do it as a continuous roll, but for various reasons that wasn’t an option (but thanks for the idea Martin!).  They very kindly chopped them all to size using their guillotine as well, so they just need sticking together.  The plan is to roughly cut out the track plan on each board and stick it to the base.  A second copy was acquired which will be cut down into the individual points and crossovers, these will then be stuck to a glass board.  This evenings task will be to start constructing the pointwork, ready to drop onto the baseboard once its arrived and been glued together!

 

Rich

Edited June 28, 2022 by MarshLane
Spelling!

[Mikkel]

Hi Rich, sorry to hear about the cancelled holiday but what an interesting project.

 

The open top baseboard design looks good, something I've been wanting to try out too so will be interested to hear about your experiences. I agree about the magnets, if you get the right ones they should be more than powerful enough. My challenge has been to find ones that were just right, not too weak and not too difficult to pry/pull apart.

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Mikkel

[Stuart A]

Those "fiddle sticks" look really good.

If you fancy going into business and selling them I'd be interested!

[MarshLane]

3 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Hi Rich, sorry to hear about the cancelled holiday but what an interesting project.

 

The open top baseboard design looks good, something I've been wanting to try out too so will be interested to hear about your experiences. I agree about the magnets, if you get the right ones they should be more than powerful enough. My challenge has been to find ones that were just right, not too weak and not too difficult to pry/pull apart.

 

Thanks Mikkle. Ive got some 25mmx10mm ones here that are very strong. Attract each other from about an inch away, and individually are difficult to split. But I think once part of the boards they should split ok - he says hopefully! as you say, it’s a balancing trial and error act.
 

1 hour ago, Stuart A said:

Those "fiddle sticks" look really good.

If you fancy going into business and selling them I'd be interested!

Thanks Stuart. I am going to have one of each produced to start with. If they work ok, I’ll do another few. So if all works fine and you want some, flag it up to me and I’ll happily add them for you. These are obviously to N scale (2mm Finescale to be precise, even tho the layout is standard N gauge) but no reason why they couldn’t be adjusted for HO or OO, depending on your scale.

 

Rich

[MarshLane]

Just a quick update this evening, things are moving forward. I have done a little bit of work on the first of the trio of points, but forgot to take any images!  So I'll deal with that tomorrow.  

 

Courtesy of a slight c*ck-up by the wonderful ParcelForce the first baseboard is now due to arrive tomorrow - Harry at the laser cutters tells me it looked quite good and the tab and slot design appeared to have worked well.  That I will be pleased about if it does, as it is the first time I have designed baseboards (or anything come to that) this way with a tab and slot.

 

In other news, I have added a second BR locomotive to the loco fleet, joining the Dapol Class 56 (Railfreight Coal) livery that I had previously.  A Farish 'large logo blue'-liveried Class 47 has been acquired from @Derails Models, at a very attractive price.  In reality the price was the same as everyone else paid, but thanks to combining a couple of now redundant pre-order deposits, I have only had to pay a little amount to obtain it!  That should arrive tomorrow too - getting a bit like Christmas!  At some point, the locos will be weathered and some detailing work done, as well as changing couplings, but that will be someway down the track (excuse the pun!) and beyond the two-week challenge part of this layout!

 

The plain track for the 1st board, which uses plastic sleeper bases, has now been threaded and is ready to be laid, so hopefully from tomorrow, the posts will have more photos and get more interesting!

[MarshLane]

Afternoon to those watching and reading,

 

Well true to his word Harry, got the baseboards cut and (a day later than planned!) a nice chap from the courier company has just delivered a rather well packed box, that when opened provided:

 

 

So these are some the various 14 individual parts for the first board.  I decided to just have the first board cut and build it, to allow me to build any mods/tweaks/changes into Boards 2-4, which are now all fully designed, but tweaking and changing is a minor issue. Hopefully this should ensure that any errors, problems or changes can be dealt with as necessary at minimum cost.

 

I have to say I am somewhat impressed, not only with my own CAD design and skills (thanks to my mate Brian for taking the time to teach me pre-Covid!) but with the quality of the items from the laser cutters.  I would have no hesitation in recommending then (only connection is as a customer) and if you want something different or quick, do pick the phone up and speak to Harry, who was very helpful.

 

I then got out my layout construction guide ... commonly known as the iPad with the Fusion360 app on so I could navigate my way around the original drawing and make sure that each part was what I thought it was...

 

 

So after an hour with the hot glue gun poised … well ok I admit, I decided to go for something that I felt was a better and went for a crafting wood glue … but still, this is where we are with board A - the first one which is relatively simple and contains the exit from the fiddle sticks and eventually a level crossing.

 

 

Da-daaarh! The board have both been designed to be open plan, specifically to give more freedom with the scenic levels, and using my imagination, I can see the opportunities coming here.  The actual trackbases have yet to be glue into place, which will help to strengthen the entire structure.  Looking at the picture above, the top is the industrial branch, the bottom is the BR route into the exchange sidings.  The latter my look a somewhat odd shape.  This is two fold.  The curved cutouts in the middle section are where the road way over the level crossing will go, while the odd shape rectangle in the middle at the top, is is to give a base for the level crossing signal box, but also to get a 'tab' into that track base so that it is secured to the frame work.  Secondly, the piece was also provide with slots to fix it within the 2nd vertical support, as part of holding everything in place.

 

So did it work? 

Initial indications are yes, there are some learning points from this.  Most of the joins are tab and slot, like the one illustrated below, where tabs on on piece are design to slot into holes on the other.

 

I think on any purely internal cross pieces, that dont touch the external sides, I would in future go for a sliding fit, as per the join below.  This is much sturdier, stronger and gives less movement.

 

 

I do have a concern if 3.7mm Ply will provide a strong enough structure - yes it will support the scenery and trains in N gauge, but it is the durability where the concern lies.  It has defiantly improved since the full design was put together, and I think it will become stronger and more rigid once the trackbases are glued into place.  But I shall start doing the scenery on this board, before getting the remaining boards cut, and just see how things go.  I may look to go to 4.5 or 5mm, rather than 3.7mm Ply for the last three boards.  Also a note to self, need some more clamps for holding things in place while the glue is drying!

 

Overall the CAD design on this baseboard took me around eight hours - I probably spent around 30 hours over five days in total.  The actual build time, has been around two hours - most of which has been waiting for glue to dry sufficiently enough to move onto the next bit.  Taking gluing time out, the board came together in about 16 minutes!  The big positive is the weight, this is really light, easy to move about for one person, which is what I wanted.  I will get heavier with plaster and scenics on, but not significantly.  So, yes - a couple of reservations still to overcome but overall I think it has worked well.

 

Whats next?

It will now be left overnight for the glue to try and set properly. Tomorrow's task will be to fit the pattern makers dowels, the magnets and chocolate block electrical connectors.  I’ll talk more about the electrics in a later post.

 

Plain track will use the 2mm Association Easitrack system.  Yes the track gauge is 9.42mm rather than the 9mm of N gauge, but on non-pointwork sections that does not make any difference and it looks superb.  The Easitrack system is quick and simple to put together and looks great. Points are going to be PCB soldered construction in the main, talking of which this is where I got to with the first point last night

 

 

Tomorrow’s plan, after the noted items above on the baseboard, is to do a bit more work on the first points, lay the plain track on Board 1 and possibly even start some work on ballasting.

 

Progress hasn't been as quick as I hoped, but having some time off has really pushed things on.  CAD design isn't something everyone has the knowledge to do I know, but I do feel that I have a far better baseboard out of it.

 

Rich

 

Edited July 2, 2022 by MarshLane

[MarshLane]

Well just the penultimate day of my two weeks off (where did it go?) before going back to work.  Yesterday, I got the boards and the track base all clamped up and glued, and left it overnight.  Having come to it this morning, I would suggest that 70% of any twist and movement has now gone from the boards.  The learning curve is definitely a bit more cross-bracing lengthways down the boards, which I'll bear in mind for the second board.

 

This afternoon I have got the first of the Templot prints cut down and taped into place on the boards, giving me this:

 

 

To give a bit of perspective to the size and height of the landscape, I sat a couple of locos on the appropriate lines, and the ideas that I had in my head I can now see quite clearly coming through on the boards, being able to visualise that the rear line will be in a deep cutting for 75% of this board, and that the signal box and level crossing will be in the foreground.

 

Apologies for the quick images, these were just taken with the iPhone. I'll do some proper ones with the dSLR once the track is down.  The first piece of Easitrack is gluing now on the BR line in the foreground.  Congratulations go to Ben and the N Gauge Society team that did the Hunslet shunter as the three I have are really superb.

 

Rich

 

 

 

 

[MarshLane]

 

Just a quick update on my last day of leave.  The Easitrak has gone down on the BR line, its currently underneath a whole host of soup tins, while the glue sticks!  I have run the industrial shunter up and down the length of the board, and have to say in really pleased.  I know its not an exciting picture, nor the best in the world(!), but does prove the track is going down!  Hoping I might get the electrical feeds in tonight, then something can be run properly.

 

EDIT: The industrial line has been laid this evening, and the holes potentially marked for where the electrical connections are going to go.  These will (hopefully) be copper wires dropping down below the baseboards, before being connected into relays and then into the control buses.  The board looks like a branch of a supermarket at the moment, as various Heinz soup tins are currently weighting the track down!!

 

 

Rich

Edited July 5, 2022 by MarshLane

[MarshLane]

Just a quick update chaps.  The trackwork stuck well, having left it for three days to dry and I am delighted to say most of the remaining 'kinks' in the Flexi track have come out. Those that are left (very few) actually seem to add to the realism from my point of view.

 

I have spent a few hours this afternoon putting the electrical feeds in to the two tracks.  I believe in having a back-up feed to each track piece, so as there are four track pieces, there are eight separate feeds - and two connections on each feed makes 16 in total!  I have adopted a different approach with his layout.  Historically, I have always soldered the wire feeds to the rail between sleepers, which has been somewhat visible when completed.  For this project I adopted the concept of copper droppers - by cutting off the rail chair off a sleeper, and hand drilling a small hole through the sleeper and track base, a piece of pre-tinned 1mm copper wire is then pushed through, which when soldered to the track once again resembles the rail chair from normal viewing height.  It is only close up that it becomes more visible.  The wire feeds are then soldered to the copper wire underneath the board.

 

Why?  Well two reasons, one I am hoping the stiffness of the copper wire will mean that the connections are less likely to come unsoldered from the track. Secondly, it is easier to deal with the wiring underneath, and thirdly (and finally!) it hopefully looks better once the track is ballasted.  Once again I forgot to take some photos - I'll try and do some on the proper dSLR tomorrow.  However, having successfully run a loco up and down, the connectors appear to have soldered and connected fine!  So another step forward.  Track ballasting next, then to start on some landscaping.

 

Thanks to those who are following the thread. I promise I'll try and include photos and make it more interesting asap!

 

Rich