Pontwelly - 009 micro in a Kallax bookcase

[Dragonfly]

Evening all,

 

I've still not finished my other 009 layout yet. A house move got in the way. But while I'm sorting out my storage unit to allow progress to resume on that, I had another idea, as dangerous as they can be...

 

I make a lot of use of Ikea's Kallax brand of bookcases. Quite handy and versatile. And if you leave out a divider, and make a double-width space, there's a good space for a little layout.

 

But can it be a roundy-roundy? These units are only 39cm deep...

Thankfully Tomix do N gauge track, similar to Kato Unitrack, with 4.5 inch radius curves. Had to buy it from Japan, but having it shipped across was relatively cheap and painless.

 

So a plan was drawn up (to be elaborated on in a future post), wood bought and cut, and today I set about assembling it...

 

As you see it, it's kept within a 2x1 unit which will be used for outings, but at home it will be kept in a tall 2x4 unit.

[Irish Padre]

What a brilliant concept! Shaping up

well.

[Dragonfly]

Thanks very much!

 

The plan is relatively straight-forward really. A loop, with three fiddle yard loops at the back.

 

Eventually intending it to be automated through use of an Arduino and some MERG kits, but I'm a few steps away from that just yet!

 

Here's the track plan, with and without the upper level scenery. The buildings are placeholders for now, and the street scene arrangement is very fluid right now. There'll be a few shops and a pub, will see what else there is space for.

[Dragonfly]

Nothing done over Christmas, spending the time with my family. But this afternoon got around to spending an afternoon at the club room, making a little bit of progress.

 

There should, and would, have been more progress, but it was quite hard going due to B&Q's particularly bendy nails. That and a bit of extra fettling to get it to fit into the bookcase frame.

 

In this update, the side backscene boards and lighting/nameboard pelmet have been added.

[JimRead]

Hello DF,

 

It never ceases to amaze me how much can be squeezed into a very small  space. I do like your track plan and the ideas for the scenery, especially as it hides the fiddle yard. I've only just come to roundy layouts after years of the up and down variety. 

 

They are remarkably versatile even though they look simple.

This'll be a perfect Micro very well done indeed.

 

Cheers - J

[Dragonfly]

21 hours ago, JimRead said:

Hello DF,

 

It never ceases to amaze me how much can be squeezed into a very small  space. I do like your track plan and the ideas for the scenery, especially as it hides the fiddle yard. I've only just come to roundy layouts after years of the up and down variety. 

 

They are remarkably versatile even though they look simple.

This'll be a perfect Micro very well done indeed.

 

Cheers - J

 

Thanks very much. Absolutely. For me it's part of the challenge, trying to find the balance as to how much you can fit in, and still make it look "reasonably" realistic. Compromises have to be made, of course, but it can work out well. :-)

[Dragonfly]

And now for something completely different.

 

Part of the plan for this was also to see what clever things I can do with the electronics. To that end, I've dug out one of my Arduino units, and some addressible RGB LED strips.

 

One of these strips will form the lighting strip behind the pelmet, extending down the sides somewhat too. Another will be cut into individual (but wired together) pieces, to go in each of the houses. Some upstairs, some downstairs, some in shops, some in the factory, the pub, etc.

 

So a couple of days' work has resulted in this. Still early stages yet. The colours are very preliminary, and the timing has been sped up, and there needs to be more randomness. But have a look:

 

 

AS you may notice, there's a bit of a day/night cycle going on.

 

The top row, with the yellow-orange lights, is the building interior lights. There are about five shades of yellow/amber that it chooses from, and they come on/off around set times, with differing time schedules for houses, shops, and the pub, with a bit of a random variance to when they switch on/off (not enough variance yet, though).

 

The lower row, is the sky. In this video it starts just before sunrise. Then you see dawn, and during the day the sun (not yellow enough right now) gradually moves across the sky, before setting in a beautiful orange glow, then as it goes dark, the moon appears and goes across the sky too (i'm tempted to move it in the opposite direction just to annoy people).

 

Next step is mostly tweaks, though I'm implementing weather as well, so some sunny days, some overcast days, and even...

 

 

Lightning. Doesn't show up too brightly on the video, but in person one of the three LEDs (to be put in different locations in the pelmet, so it isn't just in one direction) makes a decent flash. So on a stormy day, every 5-15 seconds, there's a flash of lightning. Eventually to be accompanied with sound...

 

So, enough for now, back to programming.

[LBSC123]

Looks interesting, would be interested to hear what the largest loco you could get round those curves was!

[Dragonfly]

On 04/01/2024 at 08:25, LBSC123 said:

Looks interesting, would be interested to hear what the largest loco you could get round those curves was!

 

A sensible person would have done some testing of this before embarking on a project like this. Maybe in the bit of time after I'd got just a basic oval of the tight curves, but before I ordered anything else...

 

So far, I know that Quarry Hunslets with slate wagons is great. I assume that Bug Boxes will be OK. GVT coaches and Quarryman coaches... maybe? I've got some testing to do, methinks!

 

But sufficient to say that there'll be no L&B stock, Bowsiders, or fast running on here!

Edited January 5 by Dragonfly

[Fair Oak Junction]

Just now, Dragonfly said:

 

A sensible person would have done some testing of this before embarking on a project like this. Maybe in the bit of time after I'd got an oval of the tight curves off eBay, but before I ordered anything else...

 

So far, I know that Quarry Hunslets with slate wagons is great. I assume that Bug Boxes will be OK. GVT coaches and Quarryman coaches... maybe? I've got some testing to do, methinks!

 

But sufficient to say that there'll be no L&B stock, Bowsiders, or fast running on here!

 

Doing the sensible thing is sometimes overrated. Sometimes it's nice to just let go, dive in head first, and see what happens 👌

[Dragonfly]

Not made masses of progress on the layout itself in the last couple of weeks; it's all been spent developing the lighting setup on the Arduino. More on that soon.

 

But tonight I pinned the track down, stuck a couple of wires in, and had a play to see what did/didn't work.

 

First, a couple of photos of a typical train in the station area. It just about fits...

 

 

 

And yes, thanks to the tiny central couplings and short wheelbases, this runs around the layout like a dream.

 

 

The Baldwin 10-12-D... not so much. Didn't expect it would, but still.

 

 

Now, I already know that the Quarry Hunslets work lovely, as do their slate wagons. But what about the Mainline Hunslet? Yes...

 

 

...but its coaches didn't fare so well. The cab overhangs too far.

 

 

On to the 3D prints. I haven't fitted these with 009 couplings yet, so can't really test well. But anything on an 11-105 bogie chassis should be fine, due to the tiny bogies.

 

 

But the 11-109... looks a bit tight to me. Too much overhang.

 

 

Thankfully, most of the few diesels I have on Kato chassis are on the 11-105s.

 

But that's enough to know I can run a little bit of variety, though I knew a lot of things would be ruled out.

 

Now, back to making some progress...

Edited January 24 by Dragonfly
because it's fun