Mill Curve

[47137]

Mill Curve is another example of the frequently-modelled but rarely-seen feature of a 180 degree curve in open countryside. It is an oval of track, much in the vein of Steve's Roundy Test Track and it is intended to provide a place to test engines and watch the trains go by.

 

The layout started as an oval of Kato Unitrack which I bought to make somewhere to try a couple of new N gauge mechanisms. A member of the local model railway club gave me two sheets of 5mm foam board and so it has become the beginnings of a layout. The idea is to make something suitable to run any 9 mm gauge locomotive, be it N gauge, HOe or Sn2, at least in privacy of my own home

 

The centre piece will be the Bachmann watermill, this is nominally 00 but it will look ok with HO stock and it is still visually just about tolerable with Sn2. The loading gauge for the layout will be big enough for 0n9. It is my first attempt at a square model and my first layout with a foam board baseboard.

 

 

The baseboard is from two A1 size sheets of foam board. Metric sheet sizes have the proportions of 1:√2 so the full length of one sheet makes a diagonal to brace a square cut to the width of the other sheet. Bet that's jogged your memory of school maths! The baseboard has eight parts: a surface, four edge pieces, two diagonal braces and a backscene. Each edge piece is made from two strips of foam board glued one on top of the other.

 

I started by cutting the baseboard surface, this needed one cut across the width of the first sheet of foam board. Then I cut four edge pieces across the width of the offcut of same sheet, and reduced their lengths by 5mm each. This 5 mm reduction corresponded to the thickness of the material. These pieces would sit below the four edges of the baseboard surface. I cut four more side pieces from the length of the second sheet. These pieces are all 10 mm longer and 10 mm deeper than the first set. The edge pieces are glued together as pairs to make a 10 mm deep rebate at the top and a 10 mm rebate at one end. The rebate at the top holds the baseboard surface, the rebate at the ends adds some strength to the corner joints.

 

Assembly used some pins and three adhesives. The pairs of edge pieces are laminated together with a spirit-based contact adhesive to help avoid any warping when the glue set. This seems to have worked. The other joints are made with PVA glue, reinforced with hot glue. The hot glue sets in a few seconds and holds the joints together while the PVA sets.

 

This sort of structure needs a diagonal to prevent twisting. Returning to the second sheet of foam board I cut a diagonal from the full length of the sheet, minus a few millimetres, and then sprung it into a curving position. This diagonal would still twist under torsional forces on the side members, so I put in a second diagonal opposite the first one and braced the two diagonals together with off-cuts of foam board.

 

The pair of braced diagonals has made a very rigid baseboard, but with ideas for a future scenic treatment I added a backscene as another structural member. This goes through some slots in the baseboard surface. I've also introduced a minor gradient for visual interest.

 

I am now motorising the water mill.

 

- Richard.

 

 

Edited to try to add clarity!

[Steve Purves]

Nice work... I must have a play with foamcore.

[47137]

There are at least two grades of foam core board. You can buy the lighter one in Hobbycraft. The heavier one has a much more dense core - I don't know where to buy it but it is used for advertising and promotional materials. As per the Bloomberg Lounge.

 

- Richard.

[Steam_Julie]

It's more than 180 degree?

 

Julie

[47137]

It's more than 180 degree?

 

Julie

 

Well ... if a model of a station contains more than just the station, my model of a curve contains more than just the curve!

 

There are two short straights at the ends of the curve (and separating it from a second, admittedly geometrically identical, curve) so I feel like digging my heels in here. I remember working with a rather pedantic lady programmer and my co-director suggested pedants might be a bit like the poles of a magnet, put two the same together and they sort of repel each other 

 

- Richard.

[Saddletank]

With the judicious application of scenery you might be able to reduce the appearance of a sharp curve anyway. I reckon putting a decent 1/4 of the track out front in a cutting leading to a tunnel / overbridge would reduce the track that's visible from any one viewpoint, negating the impact of having a curve which is actually tighter than 180. Depends what you had in mind though. A watermill set against a steep hill into which the track cuts might work visually.

[47137]

Yes. I have a plan for the whole of the baseboard. Looking at the backscene there will be a tunnel with a cliff face and a waterfall and a pool on the right, and a cottage and a level crossing and some trees on the left. The base of the cottage will be an inch or so above the baseboard. A passenger halt on the middle left, a foot crossing and a car park middle right and the mill in the middle. Possibly the back of some modern industrial units along the right hand edge to firmly put the scene into the present day. This would be an extension of the backscene. I need to draw this onto the board with a felt pen and then post it here, perhaps this weekend. The idea is to swap the cars in the car park to set the scale of the layout from 1:87 to 1:64.

 

Edit: I don't have a clue how to do the waterfall beyond vague notions of Woodland Scenics products, one reason for dressing it up.

 

- Richard.

[paul-dereham]

There are at least two grades of foam core board. You can buy the lighter one in Hobbycraft. The heavier one has a much more dense core - I don't know where to buy it but it is used for advertising and promotional materials. As per the Bloomberg Lounge.

 

- Richard.

 

I've used the Hobbycraft board on a small test oval in N and a diorama in 00. I've suffered some warping on the diorama but I suspect I didn't brace it as well as the N gauge oval. You need to paint both sides if you're painting any area as if you only paint one it WILL warp.

[47137]

I've used the Hobbycraft board on a small test oval in N and a diorama in 00. I've suffered some warping on the diorama but I suspect I didn't brace it as well as the N gauge oval. You need to paint both sides if you're painting any area as if you only paint one it WILL warp.

The board I have is printed on one side with marketing information ... I wonder if this counts as one side painted, or as a primer? I won't be painting much of the baseboard surface but this is a very timely warning. I was hoping the board would be more stable than plywood.

 

I sprayed the back of the backscene (the printed side) with grey and black car paints (acrylic) a month or so ago and they are still flat. The big test may come if I glue a sheet of sky paper onto the front of the backscene. Perhaps I should be priming the board with dilute pva before I do this, or carry the sky paper over the the top edge? The bottom of the backscene is braced, but the top edge is not, at least yet. I made a shelf to go above the fiddle yard, this shelf would brace the backscene but I've left it off because I think it will get in the way.

 

- Richard.

[noctilux2]

If you have a look at "Kidmore Magna" on the website www.kidmorengauge.weebly.com, you will find a fair example of a minimum roundy roundy, with a curved station, road bridge, tunnel, river & odd straight bit to boot all in a footprint of 30" x 24"! Not on foamboard though.

 

PS: as seen in Railway Modeller.

[47137]

I could steal the culvert from Kidmore Magna instead of my waterfall. Here is my mock up of Mill Curve as I intended when I set the location of the mill and cut the watercourses. I still need some inspiration for the bottom left corner, tho' I might settle for a controller. I want to have a solution in my mind before I start gluing things down.

 

- Richard.

 

[leadie69]

I like the arrangement of your mock up - A nice amount of interest and variety without being too busy.

I think I'd put a really well detailed tree in the front left corner to serve as a view block and help make you look into the layout.

Oh, and if you can find a pleasing way to do it, keep the waterfall as it will be a great background to the mill.

[47137]

I like the arrangement of your mock up - A nice amount of interest and variety without being too busy.

I think I'd put a really well detailed tree in the front left corner to serve as a view block and help make you look into the layout.

Oh, and if you can find a pleasing way to do it, keep the waterfall as it will be a great background to the mill.

Thanks for this. I have tried to put every feature at a dfferent angle to every other, I think this will help to make the layout more engaging to look at. Yes a tree front left. It could be unplugged for transport and if so it could be allowed to hang over the edges of the baseboard.

 

The cliffs and waterfall some need experimentation. I am thinking of the waterfall beside the smaller road around Vyrnwy where the water drops quite a few feet and then channels under the road (this one). Unfortunately while I remember it well enough, the Google Streetview camera captured only each side of it! Perhaps a big dollop of plasticine to make the cliffs, and then try to copy it by carving a piece of polystyrene.

 

- Richard.

 

[leadie69]

If you want some waterfall inspiration and good front on pics, do a 'goggle images' search for "valley of the waters" and "blue mountains waterfalls".  I've been to a lot of these falls and they are absolutely spectacular.

[Steam_Julie]

One of the reasons I don't like small circles of track on rectangular baseboards, is the orphans!

 

Julie

[47137]

One of the reasons I don't like small circles of track on rectangular baseboards, is the orphans!

 

Julie

One solution would be to chop it off and put a curving fascia to match the track.

 

- Richard,