Cheapside Yard - RIP (Ripped into pieces!)

[BG John]

I seem to be starting a new layout that wasn't part of my plan to achieve my lifelong ambitions. And it's all the fault of some bloke on the internet I've never met! But there are some very practical and logical reasons for doing it.

 

 

My practical and logical reasons:

1) I want somewhere to run my Dapol Terrier when it eventually arrives, without having to rush the layout it's destined for

2) I want somewhere to run any locos and rolling stock I quickly knock up while waiting for the Terrier to arrive, as they are likely to be out of place on the Terrier's layout

3) I want to get proficient at making stuff with my new Silhouette cutter, and starting off making things where detail and accuracy aren't too important, before moving on to models where they are, seems a good plan

4) It's an opportunity to make my first 7mm layout something small and quick to get used to the scale

5) It achieves my lifelong ambition to build a narrow gauge layout, that wasn't included in my big plan

6) I'm curious to see how little money it's possible to spend on 7mm modelling

Well that lot convinces me, even if it doesn't convince you .

 

And the bloke on the internet? I couldn't decide whether to do this, and he was advertising some damaged Peco points on eBay for £6 on a BIN or make an offer. So I decided that if he accepted my offer of £4.50 I'd build it. And he did!

 

So Cheapskate Cheapside Yard is what I've come up with, a mixture of O-MF and O-16.5 in 4ft x 1ft plus fiddle yard, so it's a genuine micro layout. Don't worry, the photo above isn't the finished article, just a mock-up to convince myself that it will work.

Edited October 10, 2017 by BG John

[Mikkel]

Hi John, this look like a very nice project. I increasingly like this kind of "understated" layout. I can see where you're coming from with the Terrier too, it's such a tempting loco that it's easily worth a layout of its own. Thanks for giving the rest of us a chance to live out out Terrier desires through your layout... (see, you'll have to finish it now!). 

[BG John]

I've been thinking of building a quick O gauge loco using a OO gauge RTR chassis with extended axles, as a cheap way to get a working loco. It seemed logical to make this a tram engine, as I could hide the wheels behind a skirt, so the original idea for this layout was some sort of tramway. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to have a street scene where standard and narrow gauge tramways meet, so I could have a quick dabble in O-16.5 too. Somehow this evolved into an industrial setting, but with much of the track buried in a cobbled yard. This evolution took place while I was drawing up a number of plans in SCARM, and I eventually settled on one that seemed to work. So I built the baseboard, and started laying it out full size. But it wouldn't fit!

 

Having realised how difficult it would be to fit what I wanted into the space I'd given myself, I continued by developing a full size plan, using track templates and bits of track I'd acquired. I was also concerned about whether it would look right, as I was trying to cram in quite a lot, so I started on mock-ups of the buildings. As this process went on, it turned into a mock-up of the entire layout. This was a really useful opportunity to learn to use Inkscape and GIMP, that I'll be using a lot with my Silhouette cutter, so I put a fair bit of effort into it. The end result has convinced me that it will work, and the plan is to use what I've created as the starting point, and gradually replace parts of it with the final versions. The buildings may be in use for some time, so it was worth putting the effort into them, and I have artwork that can be developed into cutting files when I'm ready.

 

The location is a corner of quite a big industrial site that has fairly extensive sidings, and its own shunting locos. As well as a mainline connection, a narrow gauge railway runs nearby, and has been extended into the factory to transport workers and some local goods. Local people are also able to use the passenger facilities.

 

The standard gauge is a 3-2-2 Inglenook Shunting Puzzle, that just needs one loco and five wagons to operate. The narrow gauge is a terminus/fiddle yard arrangement, where proper trains will run in and out.

 

[BG John]

As the only track plan is a collection of printouts taped together on the baseboard, here are aerial photos of it.

 

Looking towards the fiddle yard, that will be a one track traverser for the standard gauge, and a cassette for the narrow gauge.

In the background are the two wagons sidings of the 3-2-2 Inglenook, and the mixed gauge "main line". The standard gauge goes straight on, while the narrow gauge turnout leads to the passenger platform.

In the foreground is one of the narrow gauge sidings, the passenger platform, and where the narrow gauge run-round loop diverges from the standard gauge.

 

Looking the opposite way.

The standard gauge three wagon siding (except that it turns out it will take four wagons!), and the whole of the narrow gauge station, with the second siding, and sector plate at the far end of the loop.

 

The big problem I had with planning this was to get narrow gauge sidings that would hold more than one or two wagons. Everything is such a tight fit that it took a long time to get an arrangement that worked, let alone one I was happy with. I just needed a few more inches in length, but then it wouldn't qualify as a micro (and I'd already built the baseboard).

 

The great thing about building this 3D plan is that I could visualise how it would look right the way through the design process. As a micro layout, compromises have to be made, but the end result has to look convincing, and I spent a lot of time shifting things around by even a few millimetres to get the best compromises I could. There is no way I could have planned it adequately any other way.

 

You may have guessed from the point templates, but the layout will be built entirely using Peco OO gauge track. The pointwork is all small radius. Three were bought for £4.50 including postage on eBay, and have some damage, while the fourth was unused in its box, but secondhand. All the plain track came off a layout and was bought on eBay. Almost all the track will be buried in cobbles or ballasted over the sleepers, although in a few places I may replace the Peco sleepers for a very short length and make them visible. My next job is to make sure my plan for adapting the track actually works!

 

Pretty much everything is secondhand from eBay, or stuff I had lying around. The O gauge wagons were ready built at around half the price of the kit, and the OO wagons I bought for their underframes were pretty cheap too. I've also bought a Hornby Smokey Joe, that has a cardboard cab dropped over the original at the moment, but the parts to convert it will probably be the first job for my Silhouette cutter. I also got an unused Hornby pannier chassis for £10 that I need to build a body for. What I don't have at the moment is a standard gauge loco, but another eBay purchase that's in the post may help solve that problem!

[BG John]

Here are a few more photos. I've used Scalescenes kits, brick paper and windows for the most of the buildings, that are produced in a mixture of Inkscape and GIMP. The ground surfaces etc. are images I found online. The plain track was drawn on the images in Inkscape, and everything was gradually build up in sections and taped together. Now I just need to turn it into a working layout!

 

 

 

 

 

[BG John]

Hi John, this look like a very nice project. I increasingly like this kind of "understated" layout. I can see where you're coming from with the Terrier too, it's such a tempting loco that it's easily worth a layout of its own. Thanks for giving the rest of us a chance to live out out Terrier desires through your layout... (see, you'll have to finish it now!). 

The Terrier will be getting its own layout. It's planned, and I have the track and much of the material for the baseboard! It will be rather out of place on this one, as I doubt if Colonel Stephens could have spared it to shunt in a factory yard!

[Dava]

Terriers certainly shunted Hodson's Mill siding on the KESR. Possibly a subject for my own model someday. I have a blue Terrier 'Bodiam' on order and also have a P class which the mill owner bought to bring trains in & out after closure by BR.

 

Dava

[BG John]

This is the inspiration for the fiddle yard end, but on a rather different scale. It's a rather large factory to exist anywhere that the Colonel's locos might have been seen! I'm thinking of having a siding going off to something like Hodson's mill from the station on my K&ESR layout though.

[ffayolle]

Nice project!!!

[decauville1126]

A standard gauge prototype that can be used to completely turn locos if they then come back past:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/111868775@N07/shares/1r748G
 

 
Not my pic - hastily shot from a book: "Les Chemins De Fer Industriels"

Edited July 16, 2015 by decauville1126

[BG John]

As the intention is to bury all the track in cobblestones or ballast, I've bought secondhand Peco OO track on eBay. I was going to lay the narrow gauge with the track as it came, and cover the sleepers in ash ballast so they would be hidden, but thought I'd experiment. So I removed the rail from one of the messiest lengths and cleaned it with a fibreglass brush. Then I cut off pairs of sleepers, cleaned up one side with sandpaper, held them together with clothes pegs, and added a couple of drops of superglue. Then I threaded them onto the rails. The result isn't exactly realistic 7mm narrow gauge sleepers, but it means that I can get some unevenness in the ballasting, with dips between the sleepers. They do look a little like metal sleepers though, with four bolts on each rail.

 

I'm not sure what I'll do with the points where they'll be ballasted yet, but one does need some repair, and they were so cheap I'm not bothered about trashing them!

 

 

 

 

 

The next experiment will be to prove if my idea for the 31.5mm gauge track, including mixed gauge, will work!

[BG John]

The first length of standard gauge track seems adequate. Not my most elegant creation, but once stuck down and covered in cobblestones it should serve its purpose. I did a bit of experimenting, so this isn't quite the order I actually did it in, but how I will do the next one if I don't try something different:

 

Remove one rail from two lengths of track, then cut away the webbing from the side without rail. I cut off some of the chairs, but it isn't necessary:

 

Interlace the sleepers to make sure they are spaced correctly. Stick one bit to a piece of paper with double sided tape, using a ruler against the outside of the rail to keep it straight. Then press down on the other bit, using roller gauges to set the gauge. Check and double check that it's all straight and to gauge, and that all the sleepers are flat. Then apply a drop of superglue to each point where the sleepers touch:

 

Leave overnight to be extra sure, then peel back the tape and hope it doesn't fall apart. It didn't!

 

Check the gauge, and that its flat, then run the first train (well first wagon, which is half the train length it will take!):

 

The joints aren't strong, and I'm sure I could break it apart easily, but with so many weak joints it holds, and should be fine when stuck down to cork with PVA. I didn't sand the edges of the sleepers as I did with the narrow gauge, so most don't make good contact, but it would have taken quite a time to do. One end will be on the baseboard join, so I'll solder the rails to copper clad sleepers, and I may put one at the other end. It would be easier to scrap the plastic sleepers and solder the lot to widely spaced copper clad sleepers, but the objective is to minimise the materials I buy and the waste I create. It uses a fair amount of superglue, but it's the 12 tiny tubes for a pound supermarket stuff, so not expensive.

 

I've set the gauge to 32mm, rather than 31.5, as I don't have any O-MF gauges yet. I've got two 32mm ones for code 124 rail, and made sure I stuck down the track so the gauges were forcing it apart, and it worked. On the mixed gauge pointwork, I'll probably set it to 31.5mm, as the O gauge wheels need to run through the OO gauge flangeways on the Peco points, but there will be a bit of trial and error with that.

[ColinK]

Interesting layout and full of good ideas. I have plenty of 0-16.5 stock and am currently building a 0 gauge shunter, so thanks for the idea of a dual gauge layout.

[BG John]

Interesting layout and full of good ideas. I have plenty of 0-16.5 stock and am currently building a 0 gauge shunter, so thanks for the idea of a dual gauge layout.

I've found it difficult to fit it into such a small space, so the O-16.5 stock will be built to fit the layout, rather than the layout being built to fit the stock. The O gauge has some compromises too, but it's far too small to run anything bigger than small locos and short wheelbase wagons, and all the track will be dead straight, so the fact that I've reduced track spacings won't matter. A passenger train would totally overwhelm the layout, even if it fitted in the planned fiddle yard!

 

Edited July 17, 2015 by BG John

[BG John]

I must learn not to superglue the paper to my office desk when assembling the track

[BG John]

Eight of the ten or so inches of mixed gauge plain track. This is made the same way as previously, but with both rails left in one piece, and the chairs cut off the other, and I cut all the webbing off to see if I could make stronger joints:

 

Next bit is the turnout, and whatever where the gauges diverge is called.

 

 

 

While I was at it, I set one of the sidings to 28.08mm to see how it would work for 4mm broad gauge. It should be fine for hidden track, but will need a bit of testing if I do it for real, to make sure P4 flanges and less weight isn't a problem:

[hartleymartin]

You can try what I used to do when I was modelling O-16.5. I used regular Code 100 OO gauge track where the sleepers would be buried in the ballast, and in a few places I had exposed sleepers, I used sleepers pulled off Peco's O-16.5 track. I also spaced the sleepers a little wider which gave me a few extras to thread onto other code 100 rail. With some visible narrow gauge sleepers, it tricks the mind into assuming that all the rest would be the same.

[BG John]

 

I haven't got any O-16.5 track, but am doing this, as I posted earlier, which I hope helps give the right impression:

 

 

 

Only one turnout will be in the part that isn't cobbled, and I'm thinking of replacing the Peco sleepers with copper clad 7mm standard gauge sleepers cut short under the moving parts, as the ballast can't be over the sleepers there.

Edited July 19, 2015 by BG John

[BG John]

The first turnout has been cobbled together. This is the one where the narrow gauge platform road leaves the mixed gauge. It's an unused in original box secondhand Peco short radius, bought on eBay (where almost the entire layout has come from!).

 

I soldered a copper clad sleeper across each end, then added two lengths of copper clad sleeper strip to the straight side. This was stuck together with superglue, with a piece of 5 thou Plastikard at the bottom to help strengthen it. Then the extra rail was soldered on.

 

I still need to add a check rail at the crossing, but I'll do that later, when the next section is built. I've been building the track to 32mm gauge, as I don't have any 31.5mm gauges yet, but knew I needed to use O-MF standards where check rails are needed. The Peco flangeways are just about 1.5mm, and 32mm won't run smoothly. I've run a wheel set and a complete wagon through this, and it's fine without the check rail. Laying the rail on the baulk was a pain though. I've done it in 4mm broad gauge successfully, but I've got gauges for that. Trying to get this right with just my digital calipers is less successful, and every time I tried to adjust the rail, the solder spread further along, making it harder to shift. If there's a next time, I'll have to clamp it in place first. I think it will work though, and it will all be hidden under the cobbles.

 

 

[raymw]

Hi John,

 

i like what you are doing. A bit late, i guess, but where you soldered the track to the copper clad, it would have helped if you'd cut through the copper every 5 or 6mm, perpendicular to the track, the solder wouldn't have run along the rail/copper then. For the short lengths you're dealing with, gauges could be made from offcuts of wood/ply and screws or nails, or saw cuts/filing into bits of aluminium.

[hartleymartin]

 

You may want to put a check rail for the standard gauge to stop flanges from wandering the wrong way over the V-crossing.

[Mikkel]

Fascinating to watch this develop John. I like the approach, very refreshing. I'm taking notes.

[BG John]

Hi John,

 

i like what you are doing. A bit late, i guess, but where you soldered the track to the copper clad, it would have helped if you'd cut through the copper every 5 or 6mm, perpendicular to the track, the solder wouldn't have run along the rail/copper then. For the short lengths you're dealing with, gauges could be made from offcuts of wood/ply and screws or nails, or saw cuts/filing into bits of aluminium.

This was possibly the only time in my entire life that I'll do this, and I've successfully soldered to baulks before when I've used gauges. If it hadn't been a new turnout, I'd have hacked out some plastic sleepers, and used widely spaced copper clad ones, which is what I'll be doing on the next one, as that's broken anyway. I just couldn't bring myself to vandalise the only bit of new track on the layout! I know I could have made a gauge, but for the short length I'm dealing with I couldn't be bothered, as there's only 9 inches of 31.5 mm gauge on the entire layout! I'll be buying or making O-MF gauges for the next project.

[BG John]

 

You may want to put a check rail for the standard gauge to stop flanges from wandering the wrong way over the V-crossing.

I plan to, although it works without one with the wagon and loose wheelset I've tested it with. I'll do it when the next bit is built, so I can test it at high speed!

[BG John]

Next up was where the narrow gauge diverges from the standard gauge. This is what I started with, a Peco Setrack (I think) turnout that had seen better days. The sleepers around the tiebar were loose, or had fallen off, and the blades and tiebar had to go:

 

This is how it looks now. A rather rough job, but it will all be hidden. It's a real pain not having an O-MF gauge, and I wish I'd made or bought one first, as it's been a real fiddle without it. I haven't added the new check rails yet. I'll probably wait until I lay it, as I think it will need a bit of tweaking. It shows potential for working quite well though:

 

This is the complete unit, all in one piece. I had a standard gauge wagon running through it nicely without the check rails, but narrow gauge locos and wagons were hitting the end of the rail where they diverge, so I had to mess around with it. With a bit of adjustment of the rail, and grinding it down to a point, Hornby OO locos and wagons can now be pushed through the gap, but the standard gauge needs the check rail. O gauge finescale wheels drop slightly in the gap, so I may give the flanges something to run on. They weren't dropping as much as they do through the Peco crossing though, and I've made that worse! I decided I needed to add a copper clad sleeper under the crossing check rails, and managed to make one of the check rails fall out. I stuck it back with superglue, and it's all soldered up now, but not quite as it should be. I've also got a hole in the plastic that the flange runs on, that needs filling. So it's not exactly my finest piece of work! That's why I'll probably lay it before I do any more, then mess around with it until it works adequately:

 

It was a nice idea to modify an old Peco turnout, but it might have been better to build a new one. It's an interesting exercise though, and I'm pretty sure it will be fine, but I wouldn't use it on a main line!