A 'Quickie' out of doors - now Palin's Yard

[81A Oldoak]

The End of the Beginning.

 

Time for a review.

 

At this point I have a working 8’ 0” x 2’ 3” layout, (actually I’ve been lying it’s 2.40m x 2’3” – I left it slightly short to allow both halves to be placed into an 8 foot gap before pushing the dowels together).

 

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It has no scenic work, but it’s functioning, albeit with a degree of temporary wiring. This was the point I had intended taking the thread to in the first quick hit.

 

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The layout has taken around six weeks in real time to construct, although almost two weeks have been lost due to being dragged into building works at son-in-law’s studio, a few days digging out and re-laying a new lawn, and all the usual day-to day stuff that gets in the way of railways.

 

It has actually cost me around £100.00, albeit with a lot of kit out of the loft and the cupboards.

 

It does, however, prove that there is a real possibility of making a working layout for anything between £200.00 and £400.00, with a budget build feasible for around £100.00, depending on how lucky you are.

 

With a small shunting loco being something that can be bought for under £50.00 and a few Skytrex or Lima wagons you can be in business relatively cheaply, certainly at a rate that’s comparable to 00. Buildings can be downloaded and printed and improvements to standards can gradually upgrade the scenics, buildings, and rolling stock as budgets allow.

 

During the build I have been keeping an eye on e-bay to see what’s available, there have been 3 Lima diesel shunters, and a Pola 0-4-0 shunter which each sold for less than £50.00.      

 

On the track front a very nice three way turnout went for less than £50.00, a copper-clad curved turnout for £10.51, and two bundles of Peco track, each of which was more than enough for the layout, for £35.00 and £50.00. All indicating that it’s out there if you look around.

 

I hope then that I have proved that O gauge is possible in a small space, it can be cheap, and it doesn’t need huge skill levels. What’s more it can be fun.

 

Things are likely to slow down a bit from here on in, with works carried out as and when I can fit them in. After a period of testing/play, to test couplings, servo’s etc. I shall be getting it closer to finished, while hopefully getting back onto Bournville with renewed vigour.

 

But with me you never know……………………………………………………………

 

 

 

A moment of doubt.

 

Having surprised myself with a layout that seemed to work without too much fettling of the track, I cleared the decks and had a look at the layout. - Let's be honest it looks nothing like Gordon Gravetts’ vision, and I wasn’t sure it ever would.

 

To me it just looked like a couple of cut down doors with some random track fixed to it,  then I realized that without any structures to mask the turntable and fiddle yard, and a mess of differing track and underlay, it was never going to. There was a real possibility in my mind that it wasn’t going to work, not technically, but as a layout rather than a test plank.

 

Added to this dilemma was the need to get the servo controller and mimic panel located before I could properly wire and intensively test the track. I had not envisaged getting involved with buildings at this stage, but felt that it was crucial to further development to see what the layout could look like and where to put stuff.

 

Once again the mean streak kicked in, rather than spend a lot of money on buildings, only to find it wasn’t looking right, or working practically, I decided to mock up the buildings in ‘greyboard’, a coarse cardboard purchased from art shops and the like. At around £2.15 a sheet it is a cost effective way of planning structures.

 

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By chance I was tidying up at the Club when I found a set of Townscape back scene sheets in one of the cupboards, very nice watercolour backscenes from Freestone Model Accessories,  that we have been using on one of the layouts, I felt that some sort of representation of the buildings might help my doubts about the layout.

 

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Four sheets of greyboard were purchased from Hobbycraft and a start was made on the Main Office and buildings masking the turntable. The building sides and roofs were marked out, cut out with a sharp craft knife, and glued together. Once dry, strips of double sided tape were applied to the walls at top, bottom, middle and ends and the covering tape was removed

 

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Suitable sheets were selected from the back scenes, the relevant parts were then cut out and applied to the buildings, giving a pretty good representation of the finished building. This proves also that a budget build layout could, using commercially available downloaded factory buildings, could be put together for very little cost. A building to the rear of the turntable exit was made next and covered in a similar manner, along with the narrower building to hide the front of the exit.

 

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The loading bay was constructed next, set at a suitable height relative to the bottom of the wagon and van doors, and allowing servos and control gear to be located underneath. A canopy was next constructed of card and timber and the deck was trimmed to length.

 

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A works chimney was constructed next to fit by the turntable, followed by the large loading bay building which covers the fiddle yard.

 

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For the moment a small bridge of corrugated iron has been introduced to hide the fiddle yard entrance, further pipe work and stuff will be introduced into the finished article. This building involved scanning a small section of the printed bridge detail and photo-shopping it into a longer structure, then printing.

 

Finally the infill buildings hiding the fiddle yard access track were put together and all buildings had either papers or paint applied to get an indication of what the finished article might look like.

 

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At this point my faith in the scheme was restored, I can relate to it as a layout and see the concept will work.

 

This building work, though taking up a further two weeks, (18 hours of modeling time), has proved invaluable in showing what the final layout would look like, as well as indicating where all the control systems would fit. The mock up’s have also had several ‘re-cut and carves’ which would have taken much longer on the finished building, so as a fitting exercise it has also proved useful. Again I shall adopt the same principles for the Bournville buildings, a few hours spent on mock-up’s are time well spent.

 

I think it may be possible to get somewhere near Gordon Gravetts' vision given time and a lot more work on buildings and scenery.

 

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So we have now caught up with ‘real time’ – the layout has taken a bit longer than expected, but not too bad considering the other things going on and two weeks spent on adding buildings. The diary shows that the first day spent on the baseboards was 16^th June, so it has taken 8 weeks to get to this point, a working layout ready to play with at home, it will take a lot longer to get it tested, finally wired, and scenic’ed, but in that 8 weeks I have also done a lot of other stuff, total build time to date stands at 99 hours.

 

I shan’t bother with costs and time from here on in, as it really depends on what you want, for a home layout there needn’t be anything more than a bit of ash ballast track filling, and flock, to make it a working layout.

 

So no more talk about haven’t got room, money or time, it’s not that difficult, get building.

Excellent. Comparing your mock-ups with Gordon Gravett's sketches is a great idea. I'm afraid my Cwm Bach branch is progressing at about the same pace as the Rhone Glacier.

[peter220950]

But Chris, you're doing it properly, as a finished layout to enjoy, I am only building the prequel to something which will maybe one day look half as good as yours!.

[puddlejumper]

Has to be said I am really enjoying following this thread, truly inspirational stuff and on a shoestring too. Leaves me sorely tempted but with two other projects on the go and two completed layouts shed/loft/garage space is at a bit of a premium, of course the house next door is empty.........mmmmm, I wonder.......

[peter220950]

The build has slowed down, as I predicted, this week has been spent down in Weston Super Mare with a stripper, pretty hot and steamy it was too, that woodchip wallpaper is a bu**er to remove. - Sorry what did you think I meant????

 

However back at home for a few days I spent the afternoon planning out the final positioning of the ESU servo controllers and switch unit, using the mocked up buildings to finalise the layout.  It also enabled the tidying up of the rat's nest that was the wiring.

 

Whilst not finally fixed it's certainly a lot more logical.The servo's are now all connected, using cheap extension leads to get the correct lengths between them and the ESU unit. A set of fly leads, using ribbon cable, will allow the mimic panel to be constructed and which will be sited on the back slope of the large building covering the fiddle yard.

 

 

Control panel next which will allow the whole thing to function and get final testing underway.

[2ManySpams]

Woodchip - you have my deepest sympathies. It's a sod to remove, particularly on ceilings.

[peter220950]

The woodchip wasn't too bad, it was the 4 layers of Vinyl silk on top that was the problem. - then the discovery that the walls beneath were not plaster but chipboard!

 

It covers a mutitude of sins, but now I've got to go back and sort it all out.

[2ManySpams]

The woodchip wasn't too bad, it was the 4 layers of Vinyl silk on top that was the problem. - then the discovery that the walls beneath were not plaster but chipboard!

 

It covers a mutitude of sins, but now I've got to go back and sort it all out.

Yes, got that T-shirt!

[peter220950]

A Mimic Panel

 

One of the main problems with the spaghetti wiring was the difficulty in sorting out point control. Although I am a great supporter of DCC I find the methods of point control through the handsets to be poor. I have connected my controller to a laptop with JMRI and it’s proving great for providing additional throttles, but I haven’t yet got into mimic panels so it’s to be traditional for now.

 

So as with everything else the first port of call was the spares box, which yielded some push button switches, so it was out with the clear acrylic sheet and a piece of scrap paper.

 

 

Firstly a rough drawing of the layout was sketched out to give a schematic, now with hindsight I should have checked this more thoroughly as it contains one track too much, but more of this later.

 

 

A piece of acrylic was cut to a size which would fit onto the rear of the roof covering the fiddle yard, and holes were drilled to locate the point switches.

 

 

The lines of the track were then laid out on the reverse side of the panel using 6mm masking tape.

 

 

And the face side was completely covered with masking tape.

 

 

Followed by a spray with grey primer

 

 

And removal of the 6mm masking tape

 

 

Followed by a spray with white primer

 

 

Once dry the front masking tape was removed, giving a first attempt.

 

 

Into which the switches were fitted and wired.

 

 

It was at this stage that I discovered two problems, firstly the previously mentioned schoolboy error of not checking the schematic first, and producing a panel which was incorrect! However it didn’t really matter as I also discovered a major problem which I hadn’t considered. The ESU Servo controller is unable to switch two servo’s at once, and while this wouldn’t be a problem using DCC, as a series of actions can be staggered, it’s no use when you use one switch to power two points at once. Once again the use of a 'test' layout is proving invaluable in saving mistakes on Bournville.

 

So for two reasons it was back to the drawing board, to produce a correct track plan, and put two switches into the schematic for each point. I also decided that instead of applying the white primer to indicate the tracks I would label them by printing the descriptions onto white card and placing it behind the clear Perspex. One day later I now have a revised board ready to wire, and which will fit into the rear of the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

[peter220950]

The rest of the week has been spent testing and fettling the track by running different loco’s through all of the track, in every direction, using a variety of rolling stock. 

 

Several areas of tight check rail and catching point blades have been sorted, as well as some tight radius on the three way point which was eased to allow six coupled locos to run through.

 

A couple of poorly soldered joints solved a persistent voltage drop I had been experiencing, a dodgy mimic panel switch was replaced, and some re-levelling at turntable and board joints have been carried out.

 

One area of fundamental design has also been altered, yet again proving the worth of a test bed layout. The feed to the ESU servo control was fed through the turntable booster supply, but every time the booster changes polarity the servo’s act as if the power has been switched off and on and randomly move and chatter. First attempt at correcting this was to change the supply to the normal track feed, but this still gave problems, so I have used an old 12v DC computer power transformer to drive the Servo’s and the problem is sorted.

 

The variety of loco’s used to test was somewhat bizarre, but gave plenty of opportunity to find areas that needed sorting. It now seems to have settled down and a start has been made on polishing up the rail heads to remove all the scratches and pits, prior to airbrushing the whole track with ‘track grime’. It may seem a little bizarre to polish the track prior to painting it but the theory is that the paint will stick less well! It will then need a good clean again, and a re-test, prior to ballasting and track infills.

 

 

 

 

 

Today was spent working on the turntable, learning how to take video, and uploading to You Tube. I have temporarily sorted the electrical continuity issue on the turntable by using a piece of silver foil in the joint, (thanks to RMWeb advice yet again). An indicator lamp has also been fitted permanently to prove track power on the table.

 

 

I have uploaded video elsewhere on the Forums, but repeat it here, it shows the turntable working with sound loco’s while maintaining sound, as I had wanted, though my dexterity has to be called into question with the bouncing class 20!

 

[Osgood]

Woodchip - you have my deepest sympathies. It's a sod to remove, particularly on ceilings.

 

 

…….

 

It covers a mutitude of sins, but now I've got to go back and sort it all out.

 

How about covering the newly-stripped walls with some woodchip paper?  I read somewhere it is quite good at covering a multitude of sins.

 

What?

[peter220950]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[peter220950]

Nothing much been happening on the layout for a week or two, as usual I have been distracted by other shiny things, but having bought some track paint at the weekend I have just given the tracks a quick blow over so I can get on with ballasting and track infills in vehicle trafficked areas.

 

[peter220950]

Well there's not a lot to report in the last month, what with a holiday, Telford, and Ricoh, but there has been a bit of thinking done with regards to packing the boards together for storage and transport. I have settled on a total depth for the two boards of 200mm, which gives a clearance between the boards of 100mm, which is sufficient for the loading deck, buffers etc. Buildings etc will have to be added separately, it's a bit of a compromise I know but storage room for the layout is the biggest problem at the moment.

 

A pair of buffer stops have been constructed and once the board storage bits are finished, to protect the layout, I will start to add some surface detail to the boards.

 

However the main reason for the post is to add a couple of videos of the latest addition to the stable, to be used on the layout once re-painted and weathered. So with many thanks to Chris Klein, Ixion, Zimo and last but by no means least Paul Chetter, here is the little beauty, firstly running over about 8" of masking tape,

 

 

then pulling far more than it should ever have to.

 

 

 

I can't wait to get it onto the layout, sadly my controller is in use on the Club layout, following the demise of our ZTC unit, so I won't get a chance to play any more for a couple of weeks.

[81A Oldoak]

Well there's not a lot to report in the last month, what with a holiday, Telford, and Ricoh, but there has been a bit of thinking done with regards to packing the boards together for storage and transport. I have settled on a total depth for the two boards of 200mm, which gives a clearance between the boards of 100mm, which is sufficient for the loading deck, buffers etc. Buildings etc will have to be added separately, it's a bit of a compromise I know but storage room for the layout is the biggest problem at the moment.

 

A pair of buffer stops have been constructed and once the board storage bits are finished, to protect the layout, I will start to add some surface detail to the boards.

 

However the main reason for the post is to add a couple of videos of the latest addition to the stable, to be used on the layout once re-painted and weathered. So with many thanks to Chris Klein, Ixion, Zimo and last but by no means least Paul Chetter, here is the little beauty, firstly running over about 8" of masking tape,

 

 

then pulling far more than it should ever have to.

 

 

 

I can't wait to get it onto the layout, sadly my controller is in use on the Club layout, following the demise of our ZTC unit, so I won't get a chance to play any more for a couple of weeks.

Excellent. What are the CV speed speed settings on your Fowler?

[peter220950]

Chris,

 

thanks again for an excellent product, I've no idea on the CV's at present as it was taken from Gaydon to our clubroom at lunchtime, given a run to check it was o.k. then brought home. It won't be run again until I get my controller back, good job I'm away most of the week.

 

It's just as set up by Paul Chetter at the moment, as soon as I can get it running on the layout I will let you know, but it does run very slowly when required, It was running flat out on the video to get it round the corners 14 wagons up!

[81A Oldoak]

Chris,

 

thanks again for an excellent product, I've no idea on the CV's at present as it was taken from Gaydon to our clubroom at lunchtime, given a run to check it was o.k. then brought home. It won't be run again until I get my controller back, good job I'm away most of the week.

 

It's just as set up by Paul Chetter at the moment, as soon as I can get it running on the layout I will let you know, but it does run very slowly when required, It was running flat out on the video to get it round the corners 14 wagons up!

Thanks. My personal Fowler is fitted with the EDM/Chetter DCC sound unit and the top speed is very slow at about a scale 12mph.

 

The two Pauls have done a first class job with the sound module. I love the way in which the little starting motor splutters and nearly fails before finally firing up the main engine.

 

Regads,

 

Chris

[peter220950]

Quick update, two or three weeks on from my last post, I have been doing quite a lot of other stuff, what with being away from from home for a week and building a new home for our resident hedgehog Horace in time for the winter.

 

 

The Fowler still hasn’t had a chance to run on the layout, as I’m still without a controller at home, however it did get up to running across 3 full lengths of A4 on the Club layout last week, so I will definitely need to drop the CV for the time it runs without power.

 

The first thing I needed to do was to package the boards for storage and transport. Brass sleeves were made for the end joint where the studs pass through the timber end rail, to prevent wear from the bolt threads, these were pushed in and fixed with Cyno glue.

 

 

Sides and ends were cut to 200mm wide from 6mm ply, and holes were drilled to take 8mm bolts.

 

 

On the front and rear of the layout holes were drilled in the edges and threaded inserts were hammered in.

 

 

The whole thing now bolts into a box for travelling, which both protects from damage and keeps dust out.

 

 

A good find was a new sort of Pick and Mix at Wilkinsons, £1.99 a bag (I think), for as many nuts, bolts and washers as you can fit in a bag.

 

 

The next item to fix was the support for the layout when in the workroom. I have to date relied upon boxes on the bed to support the middle of the layout, but this is far from ideal.

 

A piece of aluminium channel has had the end shaped to fit over the timber rail at the rear of the bed,

 

 

this is then connected to a section of aluminium display stand rail as a support to the front, The weight of the layout seems to be sufficient to self-support, though I might make use of one of the threaded inserts in the layout to bolt through to the support if it gives any problems.

 

 

A good half an hour was wasted trying to level things using one of my magnetic levels,

 

 

until I discovered the washer stuck to the bottom magnetic strip.

 

 

Having built a protected environment for the scenery, and a support system, it was time to start moving on from the cardboard mock-ups. The starting point was to build up a set of buffer stops for the loading bay. These were built up on a separate piece of plywood and were painted with a coat of track paint.

 

 

 

The door surface was roughed up to provide a key, and the buffers were glued down. A similar set was attached to the end of the siding in front of the turntable.

 

 

 

Next on the agenda was to build up the levels where the roadway crosses the yard from the entrance road to the loading deck. Rather than have 7 or 8mm of filler, sitting on foam underlay, I have glued sections of 5mm foamboard between sleepers to build up the layers closer to rail level.

 

 

A decision on actual finish for the yard has yet to be taken, logic says it should be concrete, which would be relatively easy to produce, but my heart says either cobbles or tarmac with cobbles showing through in areas. I shall pick up some DAS in the next couple of days and have a bit of an experiment.

 

The design was for a road to the end of the layout, in front of the factory offices, along with a footpath. On measuring up it quickly became apparent that there wasn’t enough room for a full road width, as the siding furthest away from the loading deck needed to maintain a 600mm length, which put the end almost on the road.

 

 

A short fabricated buffer stop will need to be made for this siding, but there will still only be room for a footpath and half the road, which has given me an idea for the end detailing, watch this space.

 

A pair of point operating levers have also been built which will sit in the yard area.

 

 

The last couple of days has been spent on the loading deck, which fits all around the point controls. 28 x 4mm timber was cut to length and fitted around the wiring and ESU units.

 

 

 

These walls will then be covered with brick textured Plastikard. A section of timber was then attached to provide a base for the corbel course which supports the top deck surface.

 

 

Finally 2mm Plastikard has been cut to size for the deck.

 

 

There is an issue with the point operating servos, as they are taller than the loading deck,

 

 

Though this will be disguised with clutter on the loading deck when completed.

 

 

The section of deck which goes inside the front office area, and the steps will be worked on next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CME and Bottlewasher]

No, behave yourselves, this is a quick O Gauge layout made using internal doors as the baseboards, if you were expecting something else you’re in the wrong place.

 

If you’ve seen my other thread on the Cadbury rail system in Bournville you will know that one of my many failings is lack of focus, - so now I’m starting something else to take ages to finish, (to add to Bournville, the military train, the PPM, the rake of coal wagons, the rake of Mk 1’s the storage boxes, the Class 59, the A3, the Class 20, the Duchess……. etc. etc etc………….) - however in my defence, there are several good reasons for this layout, which has been festering in my mind for several years.

 

• There are a number of things which I am using which I could do with testing out in a working layout before spending a lot of time and effort on what might be a wrong avenue. As examples automatic couplings, servo point motors, and foam board for buildings are all items which I’m not yet fully convinced by, having had some mixed results.

 

• I miss exhibiting; as a result there have been a couple of occasions recently when I have had to take some of the Bournville layout apart because I’m rushing things. Worse still is the risk I might commit to a finishing date in order to get it on the circuit and have to compromise. A car friendly ‘quick’ layout would enable me to get back out again and take pressure off the main layout.

 

• The club I’m in has a nice exhibition stand with an 8 foot gap designed to take a small layout, at present the N gauge boys are having it all their own way, it would be nice to have something to slip into the gap for a change. – Not sure who the dodgy looking geezer hanging around the stand is though!

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• As I don’t have a home layout either in or out doors it will also be nice to have something more to play with than an 8’ 0” length of shelf with a length of track on, particularly to test loco’s and stock.

• Finally I would like to help dispel several myths about O gauge, - that it’s expensive, that it needs huge amounts of room, and that everything has to be scratch-built. I will try to provide as many alternatives to what I do, as a means of showing the different ways in which O gauge can adapt to whatever budget you may have, and also demonstrate how a bit of lateral thinking and planning can solve what may be perceived as problems.

So here’s the deal, I’m going to build a quick and easy layout, using mainly what’s lying around the house, and I will cost it in various ways. What it’s cost me, what it would cost if I had to buy everything, and what it would cost using proprietary track. Some people have an aversion to building their own track, or think they lack the skill, though I would always advocate having a go. During the build I shall keep an eye on e-bay to see what comes up that would help with a budget build, and will post examples to prove my case. If I can at lease shame one modeler into actually starting a layout instead of explaining why they can’t I shall be happy.

 

I am fortunate in two respects, after 43 years of the 9 till 5 grind, (well 6.15 to 7.30 for much of it), I finished working two years ago, though until September next year I have no income, then I start to pick up pensions, so costs do have to be kept in mind as a consideration. On the other hand I do have more time than many, also being an inveterate hoarder I have most of the items required for the layout already to hand, although I will cost everything used as far as I can, to keep the costing sensible and honest for anyone contemplating a build from scratch..

 

I’m not going to cost tools or materials like, fixings, or glue, but it will be interesting to see what the results are, and a guide for anyone intending to follow suit. I shall also attempt to put together a realistic minimum budget build cost.

 

There was a fascinating thread on RMWeb, that I came across recently, on an 00 layout build for £100.00, which I found very interesting, though for this money there was also a loco and some stock included. At the other end of the scale I note Phil Parkers’ 00 beer festival diorama in a recent BRM that totted up to over £130.00 for something on around 1 square foot of scenery! I would hope I can put the cost of a small O gauge layout into perspective.

 

I have no fixed idea on budget, but am not looking to spend anything I don’t have to, and I’m hoping to demonstrate that O gauge needn’t be expensive. I will keep a spreadsheet updated with alternative costs for each major stage, and I think some will be surprised at how little a working layout can cost.

 

 

The trackplan.

 

For me the bible in O gauge modeling is Gordon Gravetts’ pair of 7mm Modelling books (Wild Swan Publishing), in the second testament, ‘Building a Layout’, is an industrial layout that I have been eyeing up for over 7 years, he intended it as a Brewery, but I shall make it nondescript and thus changeable by altering the stock, accessories and signage.

 

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His version is very clever in that it folds to form its own storage box, using low spaces on one half to make room for high buildings in the other.

 

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Because of space restrictions I don’t think I shall be utilizing this system to hinge and fold the layout, I need the two boards to be as thin as possible, with demountable buildings.

 

Part of the appeal of this layout are the superb illustrations, which evoke an atmosphere that I can only strive to achieve, it’s a simple layout, with only 4 turnouts and a turntable, with a restriction of small loco’s and train lengths of 3 vans, but it suits me as a shunting layout. I shall try to maintain a 3’ 0” radius on any curves to allow the use of Industrial 0-6-0’s.

 

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With many thanks to both Gordon Gravett, and Wild Swan Publishing for permission to reproduce drawings, I include the original track plan, and inspirational drawings which are in the book, sketched superbly by Gordon. I can only hope to achieve a poor copy of his vision for the layout, but who better to strive to emulate?

 

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Gordon not only readily gave his consent to using the illustrations but obtained permission from Wild Swan as well, he further sent electronic copies of the originals within a couple of days of my initial request for permission to copy them from the book. I shall have to go and visit him at Telford to thank him personally for his kindness.

 

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I’m not sure if the original intention was to hide the fiddle yard fully or not but I think I shall open it up for the public to see through the windows and doors at the rear of the loading deck, as if there’s a loading area within the building, as shown in the attached photo of Cadbury’s. This way while stuff is moving around the fiddle yard it keeps interest alive from the front of the layout.

 

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Stock

 

I already have several suitable loco’s, with more in build, and the wagon requirements are not massive, half a dozen vans, a coal wagon or two, maybe a tanker, some open wagons, and that should do. - I shall also investigate the various budget alternatives.

 

Couplings

 

Part of the reason for the layout is to again try Sprat and Winkle couplings, I have had etches in the past, but never really got to use them in anger, I have also fitted Kaydees to some wagons, so I will hopefully get a resolution to the automatic coupling requirement for Bournville.

 

Control

 

Will again be DCC, with sound. Turnouts will be servo controlled, though anyone on a budget could just as easily use cheap DC 0-4-0’s and hand controlled turnouts. Again I don’t want to invest a couple of hundred pounds on equipment for Bournville only to discover it’s not suitable, or I don’t like it.

 

Transport

 

The aim is to get the whole layout, support, lighting and stock, in a family car, with room for a second operator.

 

Compromise

 

Partly because it was what I had, and partly so it would fit into the space available, I have reduced the width of the layout by 3” to 2’ 3”. I have a bookcase over the bed in the work room which allows a further 8” to be added to the available length but it won’t take a 2’ 6” board.

 

DSCF1660.JPG

 

This shouldn’t create too much of a problem, the biggest obstacle being the turntable, which has to be 24” diameter to hold a loco and 3 vans, I shall be offsetting the turntable and cutting its sides down to allow for transport.

 

For anyone with real difficulties of storage I still think it might even be possible to compress the length to fit on a single 6’ 6” door at a pinch, then it would slide under a bed, but that’s a step too far for me.

 

 

Timescale

 

As the title infers I don’t want to hang about with this one, otherwise Bournville will suffer undue delay, the aim is to make something workable quickly that will test out various things and allow me to have a play whenever boredom with threading chairs onto rail sets in.

 

In fact the layout itself is already started and track laying has commenced as I write this, I shall detail progress at approximately twice the speed it was actually constructed to catch up on the layout, up to the point that it’s a working entity, omitting the days when I was doing other stuff, and then bring it up to date as and when buildings and scenery are constructed in real time. Having said that, sorting and re-sizing the photo’s could see it stretch out a bit, (I’m guessing around a fortnight). You might spot the odd continuity error as I have tried to keep the work sections in the order the work to date was done, but there have been a couple of bits done out of sequence.

 

I shall have removable buildings both to make the boards easier to store, and to allow upgrades in quality as time permits, or even a complete change to the layout (add scenic canal basin on the front and change buildings to wharfside structures etc.). In addition to budget I shall record the time taken to get to the various stages, to give some indication of the hours required to undertake such a venture.

 

So that’s it for the first post, I shall start with the baseboards shortly to get things rolling, if anyone wants to chip in please feel free, just don’t expect me to take a lot of notice of suggestions for improvement/change, it’s not that I'm ignoring you, it’s that it’s probably already been built…………………………………….

Hi,

 

I shall follow with interest too - a friend offered me similar doors, but I was worried about longevity and their ability to cope with weight of mainline diesel locos in 7mm, so I went for ply instead, but that can warp too so....

 

I am sure my worries were unjustified though (about the light weight doors) as I now have a light-weight layout from foam and they never seem to warp!

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/92282-draycott-camp-halt-sidings-7mm-finescale/&do=findComment&comment=1652279

 

 

Bad news Chris,

 

I took the Octavia up to book an MOT yesterday, and to get an opinion on the ominous knocking, which I thought was a clutch release bearing, looks like its a new dual mass flywheel, and clutch, which together with air-con pump-up, overdue service, brake pads, reversing sensor repairs, looks like 1k+, the damn thing's only 7 years old. (Still it has done 180k!) so it's bye bye Fowler.........ta -ta Hudswell Clarke.

 

 

 

 

 

Good news Chris,

 

When I got home from leaving my garage mans' pension plan behind for repairs, I met with my own pensions man, to see if I had to do anything in the tax year before my 'official' retirement date.

 

One of the pensions, a final salary scheme, which was assumed to get me 6k a year, turns out to have had some sort of index linking from when I left in 2001, so it's now 8k+, added to which I can take it early for a loss of 4% per annum.

As I'm not going to pay any tax on it this year or next, I am picking up on that option, so I shall start to get some income again in October, a year early. - Hello Fowler..........Hi Hudswell Clarke, what's a nice pair of loco's like you doing without an owner at Christmas time!

DMFs are notoriously problematic - sorry to hear of your problems - there are kits to convert some vehicles back to a standard FW, maybe worth a look?

 

In great haste (hope to read more of the Thread later),

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

Edited November 6, 2014 by CME and Bottlewasher

[peter220950]

 

DMFs are notoriously problematic - sorry to hear of your problems - there are kits to convert some vehicles back to a standard FW, maybe worth a look?

 

In great haste (hope to read more of the Thread later),

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

 

The flywheel was replaced at what was probably more cost than the car was worth, but it's now back to it's old ways, running like a sewing machine. The old girl has done 180k but I still think it's worth having a car that has a known history rather than selling it for scrap and buying something similar that might have the same problem lurking. I am still happy to get in and drive it anywhere without any great concerns over reliability, and mileages have now dropped from 30 or 40k a year to about 5k.

 

Now one of my pensions has kicked in, and I can get my grubby mitts on some of my other fund next April, (thanks Chancellor!) I shall be looking to replace with something new or delivery mileage next spring, if I can bear to part with the old one. (I still pine for my old Omega Estate that reached 200k)

 

With regards to doors taking 7mm locos, I don't see evidence of any movement, and have even stood on them at various times. The core supports are a honeycomb of about 40mm spacing, so it's quite a rigid structure. The biggest issue is the difficulty in concealing wiring and items like point motors and the difficulties in joining. - Otherwise it seems to have been a quite interesting experiment, not something I would use again, but a very cost effective solution if on a budget.

 

I too prefer foam, and have made use of Styrofoam on the Cadbury layout for a lot of the track bed to reduce weight.

[CME and Bottlewasher]

 

DMFs are notoriously problematic - sorry to hear of your problems - there are kits to convert some vehicles back to a standard FW, maybe worth a look?

 

In great haste (hope to read more of the Thread later),

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

 

The flywheel was replaced at what was probably more cost than the car was worth, but it's now back to it's old ways, running like a sewing machine. The old girl has done 180k but I still think it's worth having a car that has a known history rather than selling it for scrap and buying something similar that might have the same problem lurking. I am still happy to get in and drive it anywhere without any great concerns over reliability, and mileages have now dropped from 30 or 40k a year to about 5k.

 

Now one of my pensions has kicked in, and I can get my grubby mitts on some of my other fund next April, (thanks Chancellor!) I shall be looking to replace with something new or delivery mileage next spring, if I can bear to part with the old one. (I still pine for my old Omega Estate that reached 200k)

 

With regards to doors taking 7mm locos, I don't see evidence of any movement, and have even stood on them at various times. The core supports are a honeycomb of about 40mm spacing, so it's quite a rigid structure. The biggest issue is the difficulty in concealing wiring and items like point motors and the difficulties in joining. - Otherwise it seems to have been a quite interesting experiment, not something I would use again, but a very cost effective solution if on a budget.

 

I too prefer foam, and have made use of Styrofoam on the Cadbury layout for a lot of the track bed to reduce weight.

 

Hi Peter,

 

Glad to hear it, my motor is 11 years old now and still okay, one or two little issues that may need attending to next Spring - yet it's like a comfy pair of old shoes!

 

With the doors for baseboards thing, it was pure psychology on my part, as I didnt want to add track and scenery (and any associated moisture too) only to find it all went 'Pete Tong', yet in my 'logical' head I knew that it wouldnt (probably). I have had ply warp on boards, so it just goes to show.

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

[peter220950]

A bit of further progress this week, firstly a bit of faffing around with bits on the boards that needed finishing off.

 

The pockets for the bolts at the board joint had been left a bit raw, so I have cut some pieces of 28mm timber to line the holes, and glued them in.

 

 

Then a keeper socket was screwed to the turntable board to stop the fly-lead to connect to the adjacent board rattling about and damaging  finishes in transit.

 

The wiring around the turntable has been tidied up with some cable clips.

 

And finally a piece of balsa has trimmed up some of the messy woodwork.

 

 

I have purchased some DAS clay to experiment with the cobbled/tarmac area which crosses the tracks, but at present I am awaiting magnets to set into the track to test out positions prior to laying the clay.

 

Having done a bit of housekeeping attention turned to the loading deck, where brick plastikard was glued to the front facing walls and corbel courses under the deck. The 2mm plastic deck was located in the correct place, and pieces of surplus were used to ensure it locate in the correct position, and the walls were coated with a spray of red primer.

 

 

 

 

 

Next the steps were made up from 5mm foam board. Covered in plastikard for the brick sides and slab steps, and were also given a base coat of paint.

 

 

 

Having brought the loading deck up to a position where it can be finish painted attention is now turning to the loading area walls to the rear of the canopy.

 

One of the things I wanted to experiment with was using the fiddle yard as part of the layout, the intention of the original design appears to be using the loading deck to hide the fiddle yard, I felt that by leaving openings in the loading deck walls any wagons and vans entering the fiddle yard would appear to be inside the building, a situation that I have seen in photo’s of Cadbury’s.

 

 

Seeing this spurred me on to further experimentation, to make the concealed loading deck/fiddle yard appear far larger. A couple of sheets of mirror finish acrylic have been purchased and early experiments are promising. By making the front and back walls in mirror acrylic, with openings cut out an windows and doorways, and with a dummy rear wall and loading deck, the reflections bounce back and forth, giving the appearance of a massive room, full of loading decks and wagons.

 

 

 

 

 

Time will tell if this is a worthwhile undertaking, but it shouldn’t involve a lot more work than the originally planned construction. – Further tricks with mirrors are under consideration for the layout.

 

The kit of panels that I salvaged from a building, purchased for a tenner, has been deconstructed and a mould made for each of the component pieces.

 

 

RTV was poured into the mould box and after 24 hours the resulting mould was ready for mass-production.

 

 

In the meantime several days have been spent just studying the length of the deck, the size of the front office building, and the various heights of sections of the buildings, in order to see how many of each panel I need. A lot of cutting and splicing has resulted in a scheme I am happy with for theses buildings. Windows and doors will be drawn up and dispatched for etching in brass once I have sorted numbers. The remaining buildings will be sorted before the final window order is placed.

 

Today has been spent casting, cutting and fitting to produce the ground floor sections of wall to the deck, and the return to the gable end of the offices.

 

 

 

 

 

Having pushed the office block back as far from the end of the layout as I could, I hit a problem with the length of the siding furthest away from the deck, as noted before this can’t be any shorter if I want to maintain my loco + 3 wagons length, so I have to step out the boundary wall of the factory. I decided this might be nice if it had curved walls so I set about building some curved sections. Suitable lengths of Basswood were cut and my sleeper box was raided. Sleepers were glued to one section of basswood at 10mm intervals,

 

 

 

and when dry the other side of the sleepers was glued and the whole section attached to another piece of Basswood wrapped around a spray-can.The whole thing was held together with duct-tape until dry.

 

 

Once dry the wall sections were trimmed to a 90 degree profile, ready for attaching to straight wall sections.

 

 

 

 

Brick Plastikard will be bent to shape and glued to the whole wall, I was going to bend the Plastikard with a heat gun, having had little success with boiling water, but decided that using a heat-gun on plastic attached to a spray can was probably a bad idea, I shall have to keep my eyes open for a day or two to find a suitable alternative mould former.

[L&Y]

You made such a cracking job of the baseboards I think I may give doors a try myself. Hadn't considered that they could be trimmed to size & joined so easily. Guess I just wasn't brave enough to take a saw to one!  Great work. 

[puddlejumper]

There's some really well thought out modelling going on here, and cheap too (relatively speaking). Thanks for the update I will follow with interest

[CourthsVeil]

…

Brick Plastikard will be bent to shape and glued to the whole wall, I was going to bend the Plastikard with a heat gun, having had little success with boiling water, but decided that using a heat-gun on plastic attached to a spray can was probably a bad idea, I shall have to keep my eyes open for a day or two to find a suitable alternative mould former.

 

What about an emptied rattle can ? Really truly empty…

  Armin

[switcher 1]

Empty beer can would probably work, (can't check, I don't drink).