Walking on Glass

[Dunalastair]

Still continuing with my 'diorama a day' (when will they run out?) it is time for probably the strangest of my microlayouts. In the honourable tradition of layouts based on fictional railways, this 6.5mm gauge model was inspired by the late great Iain Banks' second novel, 'Walking on Glass'. The model has small radius Rokuhan 180 degree curves linking the tunnel portals, with a traverser at one end to swap trains. Rolling stock was based on economical Rokuhan 'shorty' mechs and chassis. The layout got to this stage and I was fettling the drawer runner traverser when disaster struck - a heavy bird box fell from a high shelf and smashed the 'glass' floor (actually plastic). Not a good day, and it took me a while to appreciate the resonance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features included from the novel included :

 

 

 

The dual identify Castle Doors / Castle Bequest

Narrow gauge steam trains carrying tureens of food from the kitchens

The underground 'number cruncher' hall

The 'glass' floor lit from below by luminous fish

The columns holding up the roof

A machine to grind up ('crunch') the numbers

Vats to remix the debris

Moulds and a moulding machine to make new numbers, completing the pointless circular process

Honey cars (loos on wheels)

 

The model also included the front wall and the 'DP' swinging doors through which the principal characters entered

 

 

 

[Dunalastair]

So here is the final version before the disaster, featuring the luminous fish (LED) underfloor lighting. Note this time the 'minion' characters doing the work, 3D printed like almost everything else. The hooded figure represents the Seneschal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All good fun, but perhaps appropriate that it ended as it did. I'm not sure that I would ever have got that 6.5mm gauge traverser working reliably.

[Dunalastair]

For the record, the novel Walking on Glass featured the narrow gauge railway at least three times. It is first encountered in the kitchens in the fantasy thread, where one of the kitchen minions meets a dreadful fate (Banks never pulled his punches). Quiss is later shown the Number Cruncher, which is the subject of my model, with the railway providing the materials handling for the pointless 'DP' process. Finally, the railway is shown to extend well beyond the castle (possibly over a whole planet surface) and the purpose of the food and excrement trains is revealed. It is a disturbing read, and a worthy addition to the collection of books featuring fictional narrow gauge railways.

 

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