Smidgen - OO - 17cm radius - 81x40 cm

[Little Jeeem]

What better to do with a spare 81x40cm sheet of 9mm ply than build a little tail-chaser?

 

Not quite sure yet how this is going to turn-out, maybe fully scenic, half scenic with a fiddle yard or two separate scenes divided diagonally.

 

Obviously rather limited operationally, and so far I've only had an old Hornby 0-4-0 trundle around with a 4wheel coach and one wagon. Had to remove one coupling hook from each to avoid jumping the rails on the 17cm diameter curves, but (somewhat surprisingly!) everything runs quite smoothly. 

 

 

Edit: I thought I'd uploaded a video, seems I haven't and I don't think I can.

Edited November 7, 2023 by Little Jeeem
video error

[bazzer42]

Thought these curves were tight but luxury at 64 cm wide and 99 deep.  Built for my dad's Hornby caledonian set.  Damage due to grandsons and hot wheels cars!

[JimRead]

Hello LJ and Bazzer,

 

Thought I was being a bit daring with 22cm radius lol

 

Cheers both - Jim

 

I'll follow this with interest LJ

[Little Jeeem]

Thanks for the interest and reactions.

 

That's HUGE @bazzer42 😆

 

I like to live dangerously @JimRead 😬

 

I've decided to split the board on the diagonal, a station scene on one side, industrial on the other.

[Little Jeeem]

For anyone wondering, the curves were laid with aid of a 16cm radius semi-circular cardboard template, to which the outside edge of the inner rail was pressed. With the width of the rail itself, that gave the (pretty exact) 17cm radius at the track centreline. I'd already soldered both rails of one end of the Streamline SL100 to the adjoining section of track. An extra pair of hands would have been handy, but with a few contortions the other end was eventually cut and soldered in place. A twist drill was used on several sleepers and into the baseboard before small nails were driven into place to secure everything. 

 

I had thought that I'd have to cut the webbing from between the sleepers to get such a tight curve, but tried first without doing so and they're all still fully intact. I had also read somewhere the suggestion that the rails should be removed from the sleepers so that they could be partially pre-curved, then threaded back onto the sleepers. I think that's based on the idea that without  it, the stresses introduced could force the rails out of the sleeper chairs. That all seemed a bit of a faff to me, so I'll likely just have to wait and see, but the track has been down for several days now and all seems quite OK so far.

 

[Little Jeeem]

In a sudden rush of enthusiasm late yesterday, I painted the rails.

 

Humbrol 113 enamel (Matt Rust) applied maybe rather too liberally and left to dry overnight. Being such a small layout, it wouldn't be that much effort to then clean it off of the rail tops. Well, that was my thinking, but having just spent quite some time and effort with a track rubber and vacuum, I now realise that wasn't such a smart way of working. I've still to paint the points, so will take a rather more cautious approach with those now.

 

Hoping to also get the ballast down today and then, depending on the vagaries of Royal Mail, have a first go at weathering/dirtying it with eyeshadow. 

[Little Jeeem]

Not being a fan of ballasting, I instead decided to build the platform for the passenger side of the layout.

 

1mm card top and sides, supported on 17mm blocks of balsa, all UHU'd firmly together. Painted with black emulsion and Humbrol grey acrylic, the sides are covered in Superquick paper which needs a bit of dulling down. The clearances, especially on the curve, are slightly over generous. That's down to a cunning combination of design and carelessness 🙄

 

I have a very old, but unopened, Superquick Station Building No2 which I'm thinking to butcher quite severely to make a small building that can sit on an overbridge with a stairway down to the platform. If that doesn't work out, then I'll have a go at making something from scratch.

 

But first, I suppose I really should get the ballast down.

  

[ColinK]

I usually do the ballasting last, easier to blend i to the scenery and allows you to make track adjustments until the ballast finally goes down.

 

To help with laying curves, someone makes a set of clamps to hold the radius as the track is being laid.  I have some somewhere, I think they came from Germany.

[Little Jeeem]

Oh yes @ColinK, now you mention them, I recall having seen those clamps. I'm sure they'd be very useful, especially for very tight radii.

 

That's interesting about leaving the ballasting till last, I can see how it might make blending-in easier. I'm going to take the plunge today though, as otherwise I'll likely be forever putting it off till tomorrow. 

[Little Jeeem]

It's a good job this is such a tiny layout, anything larger and I'd probably still be ballasting come the new year. Just one little bit around the tie-bar of one of the points, then it's all done. The two different ballasts should help the 'two layouts in one' I hope to end-up with. No matter how many times I do it, I'm always both relieved and surprised when everything dries-out from the absolute drenching of pva/water/detergent.

 

Also made a start on butchering the Superquick kit, the pieces of which will eventually come together to form a tiny, if somewhat unlikely-looking, station building. 

 

 

[friscopete]

This is my experimental ,mental being the word , roundy .it takes  little 0-4-0's like Pecketts ,B4's and Bavarian DVI.most short rolling stock  and couplings ,i slightltly modified a Hornby SECR  four wheele and its fine too .Radius is about 6 1/2 of our finest kings inches.its all ballasted and correct now .

Edited November 22, 2023 by friscopete

[JimRead]

Hello LJ and hello Bazzer and hello Pete,

 

I keep coming back here and thinking about this oval type layout and the idea of the really tight curves and the idea of splitting the board into two scenes.

 

No need for the traverser plus a loco release which I used to make, the loco runaround is the oval itself and its all on one board. What could be better!

 

I'm off to do a drawing thanks all.

 

Cheers - Jim

[Little Jeeem]

I think 6.5inches makes it slightly tighter than mine @friscopete, and I thought I was pushing it!

 

Welcome to the club @JimRead. That'll be quite a departure from your other layouts (which I much admire, btw). Will you stick to O Gauge?

 

I've been playing around with various ways to divide the layout and how I'll scenic each half, but haven't settled on anything exact yet. I do quite often struggle to transpose the mental vision into something solid, especially to a standard that I'm content with.

[JimRead]

Hello LJ,

 

Thanks for the invite to the club nice of you

.

My oval will have 165 (to the outer track) radius curves. It will be 00 and using a Nellie, which I had to make sure would run as well as 0 gauge before I started a layout.

 

There's a section of a video here if you'd like to have a look, just shows the chassis test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8nXqA1HrM&t=11m7s

 

Cheers - Jim

[Little Jeeem]

While I can't claim to understand most of what you've done to your Nellie @JimRead, the results are certainly VERY impressive!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how your delve into 00 develops, no doubt yet another little masterpiece is in the offing 😊

[Little Jeeem]

I'd like to report that progress on Smidgen is slow, but steady. That's what I'd like to report, but currently, slow is beating steady on a ratio of about 10 to 1.

 

Still, I do now have a station building which, as with most of my modelling, just grew as it went along. 99% butchered Superquick with just a few extras such as a tiled floor (pic grabbed from an online tile retailer, reduced in size and printed), and something that's supposed to resemble a gutter and downpipe (cocktail stick and wire). The coping atop the end extension is just plain 1mm card and the chimney an offcut of plastic sprue. It's not quite as rough as the pics might suggest, but also not quite the refined masterpiece I had in my minds eye.

 

 

[harris0169]

The building looks great.  Very cleverly done in my opinion.

 

Andy

[sleepyrider]

Really enjoying this and looking forward to seeing the scenery develop. There's something about small continuous layouts I really like - maybe memories of childhood trainsets. I'm putting together a Christmas display on a 60cm by 50cm offcut of ply. The curves are around 19cm radius over track centres. It's designed for a Bachmann On30 tram, but I had to find out what else would run besides the obvious 0-4-0 s.

Amazingly, provided there's only one coupling hook, preferably on the inside of the bend, the old Hornby Terriers (ex Dapol) are fine. Even more so, the Hornby 0-6-0 s with the semi flangeless centre wheels seem to work, though I suspect they're right on the limit.  Apologies for Thomas, its the only example we have!

[Little Jeeem]

That's very nice @sleepyrider and so seasonal 👍

 

I've assumed that I'll be limited to 0-4-0's here but have often fancied a terrier, but as you say it seems to be on the limit at 19cm radius, that may have to remain a pipe-dream.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head there re childhood memories, as it's a niggling desire to recapture those innocent times that provides most of my drive, slow as it is. Much as I admire the many high-fidelity, prototypical layouts here and at shows, I prefer (at the risk of raising a few hackles 🤔) those that create more of a cosy-rosy version of the world, where imagination plays more of a role as it did back in my train-set days.

 

There's a picture on my wall which reminds me a little of the illustrations in Ladybird books, it probably sums-up my approach better than my words. 

EDIT: I've removed the image in case of copyright issues. I've since learnt it was in an Enid Blyton book. A Google search for "william fyffe the railway station enid blyton" will bring it up. 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Little Jeeem
removed pic

[Little Jeeem]

A little more progress today with sides and the centre backscene fitted. Not quite as grey as they appear, there's a hint of blue there too.

 

The station side of the layout will have, I think, a retaining wall running the entire length, with a small high street type scene, mostly low relief. 

 

The industrial side will probably be a hashed Metcalfe factory, I quite fancy making it a busy, crowded, grimy scene, so a scrapyard too maybe.

[sleepyrider]

Curves as sharp as this are largely uncharted territory, it comes down to experimentation. Which could of course be a bit expensive if it didnt work.

With a layout as small as that though you could take it to a shop that did secondhand stuff for a 'try before you buy' session! 

[JimRead]

50 minutes ago, sleepyrider said:

Curves as sharp as this are largely uncharted territory, it comes down to experimentation.  

Hello Jim,

It does work 

From the start https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm4kWaUDWCE

Just the 6.5" rad curve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm4kWaUDWCE&t=4m47s

Cheers - Jim

 

 

[Little Jeeem]

Gosh, you've certainly packed a lot into Mr Dingleberry's Tatbank Sidings @JimRead, I shall be following with great interest. Thank you for the kind mention also on YT 👍

[sleepyrider]

Sorry JimRead, I meant uncharted territory with respect to 0-6-0s! I'm enjoying following progress, and indeed your previous O gauge layouts.

[Little Jeeem]

Yet to be fixed in place, but the retaining walls are coming along. Not sure if the design would prove able to retain anything much in the real world, but I'm pretty pleased with the look. I use the word "design" very loosely, as other than a vague idea of what I wanted, there wasn't one.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Little Jeeem
adjusted pics