Shelf Island (intertwined micros)

[47137]

That's looking really good, Richard. Well done!

 

Just a little advice: try out painting the cobbles on a scrap piece BEFORE you start on the layout.

For, it's not easy to get a satisfactory result ( ask how I know… ).

I am very pleased with it - I could try hand-scribed cobbles but I wanted something more regular and the Busch sheets are ideal. I have half the sheet left over to practice on!

 

I surfaced the slipway with a sheet of cobblestones by Redutex - extremely expensive but exactly right for the model and seems very tough as well - it will probably outlast the printed walls of the quayside. What I want to do next is to add some "grout" to the paving slabs nearby, and then colour the stone sets to tone with the paving slabs and the Redutex cobbles. Does anyone know of a grout or filler which will work with Metcalfe paving slabs? Ideally a pale creamish colour.

 

- Richard.

 

[47137]

I am now the proud owner of a Roco 0-6-0 diesel shunter, an English Electric class 11 in Dutch guise. My first presentable British HO model. If I can create or butcher four or five wagons and get some kind of railcar to run a passenger service I shall be a very happy railway modeller, with a modest HO layout to display for exhibitions and a passable 00 set up for home use too.

 

In fact, with just a few items of HO rolling stock the two hidden tracks under the processing plant will be enough to be the fiddle yard for an exhibition. The external fiddle yard is only likely to be needed if I want to run my 00 stock instead, because there is more of it.

The Roco shunter has been a bit of a game changer. I didn't know this model existed before I saw it (at the Great Electric Train Show), and it makes a passable British H0 layout a real possibility. I have probably rather fallen on my feet too by having a quayside on the layout, because the theme allows some H0 scale ferry vans which happen to have run in the UK.

 

In its 00 form, the layout can look like this - this needs DCC (which I haven't started yet bar the wiring under the layout) but some false perspective is possible:

 

In its H0 form, and after a bit of shopping in the last few weeks, the layout looks like this:

 

The base of the workshop is fixed, but it really would be best to make an H0 scale building to fit onto this. I don't like the 00 one (in the first photo), it's from a kit and I don't like its mix of architectural elements. The Lima wagons in the centre here have Intermountain 10.5 mm wheels and Kadee couplers. The Lima tanker is a future project to make a TTA, and the small shunter is a Matchbox bodyshell (one pound on eBay!!) resting on a chassis from the Underground Ernie inpsection vehicle. The shunter conversion inspired by a model by David Alexander of the British H0 society.

 

And yes, Underground Ernie runs on 00-SF on problems.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

The layout was planned for two-wagon trains and so in 00 scale the run-round loop at the quayside and the headshunts were sized for these.

 

I have discovered, the run-round loop will hold three short-wheelbase H0 scale British wagons, or a full-length H0 Roco ferry van. And, the headshunt at Creg will take a loco and either of these trains. The layout would need a 3-inch extension of the headshunt on the main line to let these trains get to the fiddle yard and the branch to Cab ry Cheilley, but the future development of the layout looks more decided: a British H0 layout with civil engineering features sized to run 00 trains.

 

I like the idea of a relatively scale-free layout able to look passable with 00 and H0 trains (tho' not at the same time, at least at exhibition!), but this one has more operating potential for H0. The quantity of RTR British H0 models available is obviously very limited, but there is actually enough out there to model three distinct periods, or even four if I add steam traction. I want to keep scenic detail as uncommitted as I can, but I can feel more confident in setting up handrails and fences to 1:87 height.

 

- Richard.

 

Edited as marked up.

[47137]

One of the nice things about British HO is the low cost of the stock. I picked up five Lima wagons and a coach for £15 at the weekend. The cost trebles when you add in modern wheels and some Kadee couplers, but then you realise there is nothing new left to buy so you just have to make what you want! This approach should dramatically reduce my quantity of retail purchases and also guide the railway towards getting the trains it actually needs.

 

The photo shows the H0 scale stock I have got set up to run on the railway at the moment. I envisage the ferry vans for traffic and the old-fashioned wagons for railway departmental and civil engineering uses. The railway needs a tank wagon for fuel deliveries and one or two larger open wagons for the mined ore movements. I can run 00 versions of these as a stop-gap.

 

The Mk1 brake 2nd is a temporary solution, some kind of railcar would be better one day. The ex-Matchbox shunter is needing buffer beams and couplers but seems to perform dramatically well on its Underground Ernie chassis.

 

- Richard.

 

 

(Looking at the photo, the Peco turntable looks a bit big with H0 scale stock, but it does work. The depth of the turntable well scales for 1/64 scale)

[47137]

I have been reorganising the blog, and this has included moving some of my posts from here to the blog. Thank you to the people who gave me "likes" here, I'm not trying to score hits, rather simply get organised!

 

I have had the layout upside down to wire up an isolating section - this is a one-off section but it will let me have a second loco on the layout and keep my DC controller for a bit longer. Somehow I'm still not "ready" for DCC, tho' this is my second layout wired for the technology.

 

I am still very pleased with the baseboard. It is the most rigid baseboard I have ever made (almost all of the bracing is at different angles), it looks complicated but it was straightforward to build - lay down the two L girders and then add sections on top. Here are a couple of photos from yesterday.

 

- Richard.

 

[Allegheny1600]

Ooh, that's interesting!

I do (strangely!) like under baseboard shots as they can reveal all sorts of secrets about the construction methods used.

May I ask, why 5 wires, apparently, for your bus(ses)?

Cheers,

John.

[47137]

Ooh, that's interesting!

I do (strangely!) like under baseboard shots as they can reveal all sorts of secrets about the construction methods used.

May I ask, why 5 wires, apparently, for your bus(ses)?

Cheers,

John.

Of course you may ask!

 

I use a split DC supply for the Tortoise motors, +12V to drive them one way and -12V to drive them the other way, and a 0V common. These supplies have three bus wires, and there are two more bus wires for the track.

 

You could argue, the +12/0/-12V hardly needs bus wires, because theses are only going to one place, but in practice one of these also runs the under-baseboard lighting strip (bit of a gimmick I know, but I had the lighting strips), and the other one provides a supply to a +5V regulator to run a relay board.

 

There are actually labelled on the baseboard but I forgive you for not spotting these (upside down in the second photo) - ®eturn, (F)eed, 0, -, +. The wires are colour coded according to function rather than circuit, and so far I haven't run out of colours.

 

I put a write-up of the wiring on the layout blog, but blog posts seem to go "stale" after a while. Whereas layout topics merely become tangled!

 

- Richard.

[47137]

There are possibilities to mix 00 and H0 models to make a forced perspective, at least for staged photography. The annoyance is some H0 models have more detail than the equivalent 00 ones :-)

 

- Richard.

 

 

Edit: the larger van here is a Jouef H0 model, but it shows the point.

[47137]

Year 1 - 2015

 

‘Shelf Island’ was supposed to be an easy one-year project, and with all of the track laid by mid-year and then with only nine square feet of scenery to do then it had a good chance of being finished by now. But I have digressed.

 

I made three important design choices during the year, after I started the layout. The most challenging decision is to present the model as three micro layouts, each with its own character. So the quayside model is to be one micro, the headshunt / passenger halt is another and the processing plant is the third. I want different styles and techniques of model making in the three areas, and I really want all of the structures made before I start painting them. This is taking some time, especially as I have developed a habit of making buildings and then starting again.

 

The second choice is the move to British H0. There is a specific downside to this scale, the difficulty of making models of British steam locomotives with splashers and outside valve gear - there isn’t enough room to fit everything in. But ‘Shelf Island’ doesn't need these locomotives. The layout will almost certainly be diesel traction throughout, though I might try third-rail electrification along the main line. The big benefits of British H0 to me are the improved spaciousness of the layout ("25% extra free"), the need to make or customise models, a scale track gauge and interoperability with 00 models. With luck I will acquire and make models which are suited to the layout, and not gather up the ones I merely want to buy. The beginning process has also been surprisingly educational for the subject of ferry vans.

 

The third decision was to try some hand-built track. Not having very much confidence in this field, I laid two-thirds of the model with Peco code 75, and then built the quayside and processing plant with hand-built points. These have worked well, and so if there is one regret it is not putting a hand-built point at the front of the layout, at the headshunt by the passenger halt. The Peco points at the back of the layout look ok - the closer timbers help a bit of forced perspective, I cannot look 'along' the layout to see the hinged blades and to be honest the small radius wye is a good design and it would be difficult to make anything better in the space available.

 

Looking ahead, the move to H0 means I can reasonably build the rail/road overbridge beyond the passenger halt to H0 scale, this bridge will be “bricked up” so there is no need to take an 00 gauge train through it. The other civil engineering structures have or will have enough space to take 00 trains when I feel like running them. In essence, the layout is moving away from being a playground for 00 gauge locomotives to become a British H0 scale model railway, with the capacity to run 00 from time to time. I shall still try to keep the quantity of scale details to a minimum - I want to try for an exercise in line and form and colour, where the layout is in the background for the trains.

 

Happy New Year when the time comes.

 

- Richard.

 

 

[Module00]

Congratulations for your fantastic layout. I like it very well. 

Nice thread, i follow it. 

[47137]

Congratulations for your fantastic layout. I like it very well. 

Nice thread, i follow it. 

Thank you for your kind comments.

 

I planned and built the layout as a freight-only line with an occasional passenger service, but since I discovered British H0 I've been concentrating on the passenger trains! To be honest, with the 1:20 gradients and 18 to 24 inch reverse curves don't think I could have made a better test track.

 

So far, I have the basis for three short passenger trains - "old time", "period" and "present day" - Rivarossi, Fleischmann and Lima:

 

All three sets can be extended to four or six coaches to run on the club layout, and for the record a Fleischmann Warship will start a six-coach rake on the 1:20 gradient and keep going.

 

The Bulleid rake is a bit of a fudge, the two BTKs should be a BTK+BCK, but I justify the two Mk2s because the Wrexham and Shropshire ran two Mk3s plus a DVT. Haulage will be a Bachmann LMS 1F masquerading as a 3F for the LMS set and Roco EE shunters with air brakes for the more recent coaches.

 

I am gathering up more Lima coaches to convert to a Mk2f TSO and DBSO. The DBSO is going to be a bit of a challenge but this was where I started (before I realised how difficult it was!) so I must have a go one day. At least old Lima body shells are cheap.