Boxfilebox

[edp2]

Hi

I've been lurking a long time until I had something to show, This is my boxfilebox



I took two boxfiles and butt jointed them together on the lock edges using glue and clamps. At each side of thess two files, I placed another boxfile with it's lock edge up against the hinged edge of the earlier boxfile. So I now had four boxfiles side by side. The lids of the outer two boxfiles were opened outwards out of the way. The lids of the inner two boxfiles were folded outwards over the outer two boxfiles and glued over the open boxes.

The lids of the two outer boxfiles were fixed in a vertical position with a piece of foamboard glued and taped to the top of the rear of the box to form the backscene for that box.

The centre boxes had a piece of hardboard glued to the outside of the rear of the boxes to make the backscene. When the outer boxes are folded in, their backscenes fold inside the central boxes.

The two inner boxes were covered with heavy duty cardboard with some foamboard supports underneath. A further layer of cardboard formed the final baseboard surface. None of these pieces were glued until the track was laid and wired-up.

Time for another picture. Here it is unfolded and hopefully making some sense of the previous gobbledygook.




These were my initial plans for the background using cg textures images and photos of Liverpool warehouses:



Inglenook track added. From left to right, there's a mirror on the side, a Heljan building and the Scalescenes warehouse viewed from the rear. At the back I've cut some of the Metcalfe brewery buildings in half to give a half-relief effect in front of the back scene.



Better view of the mirror end



Here's what it looks like now with a few things moved about







Here's the mirror end which came out better than I hoped for. Ugly gap on right top due to slightly warped hardboard but will be corrected with a clip or similar







Not sure this end works as well



View through factory door



That Railway Modeller signal box came in very useful







A view of one of the hinges. The board on the outer box juts over the hinge slightly and folds down into the inner box. The slack in the boxfile hinges is enough to allow the outer boxes to be pulled slightly outwards before folding up



The two short sidings are very short but by using 9 foot wagons and reducing the length of the couplings I can get three wagons on the short sidings.

The boxfiles and foamboard were being thrown out by one of the departments at work and I had a small piece of hardboard. The track and Heljan building is from my childrens train set that I tried to get them interested in but am now enjoying myself. So it cost nothing to make.

I'm afraid it's not a layout for the rivet counters, I just like making and playing with it. I need to save up for some more wagons and details.

There's nothing new in inglenooks or box files or folding layouts but I don't remember seeing one put together quite this way. Go on prove me wrong!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Ed

[Tel2010]

Hi Ed

Great use of space and a clever idea with the box files,does it manage to fold without removing any buildings ?

Very atmospheric ,nice modeling

 

Tel

[Hippo]

Very nice

 

Owen

[edp2]

Hi Tel and Owen

 

Thanks for the comments.

 

It does fold up without removing any buildings. Just one small piece of fence needs removing and I forgot last time and broke it!

 

The broken piece of fence has been removed and I've lifted the sides up a little.

 

 

At the bottom of the next picture you can see the two outer back scenes sliding between the inner back scene and the half-relief buildings. Also a spare pair of feet.

 

 

Fully folded

 

 

Should have included thes pictures earlier. Hope this makes it clearer.

 

Ed

[Hippo]

Very clever design.

What sort of stock do you normally run on it ?

 

Owen

[edp2]

Hi Tony

 

As I mentioned earlier, I was using my kids train set so I had a GWR pannier and Smokey Joe. The pannier is quite large and Smokey Joe is a speed freak. I was thinking of buying a class 03 diesel whan I saw a review of the Model Rail Sentinel and bought that instead.

 

The shortest wagons with the train set are on 9 foot wheelbases with a chassis length of 16 feet. Three of these on my short sidings were too long. So, after spending a suspiciously-looking long time staring at wagons in Hattons display cabinets, I bought two Dapol tar wagons and two Hornby open wagons. They are on 9 foot wheelbases but the chassis length is 15 feet. Over three wagons a saving of 12mm.

 

I've also managed to reduce the coupling length on the Dapol wagons and replace the full width Hornby couplings with shortened narrow couplings. The saving in a length of three trucks can be seen below.

 

 

I thought Conflat wagons might be short but, when peering at them in the cabinet, they seemed longer than the wagons I bought.

It would be a great help if anyone knows of any different short wagons (chassis length 60mm or less) so that I can add something other than tar wagons and open wagons to the stock.

 

The setting I'm going to try to create is that of a disused urban site that's just received some Lottery/EEC funding, with the warehouses to be converted to alternative use and the railway to be run by a local preservation society. Sometimes transitional sites are more interesting than the abandoned or renewd site.

 

Hope that makes sense.

 

Ed

[edp2]

Hello again

 

Well the developers have moved in and the water tower now has scaffolding around it. As before it's a cg-textures photo. At first I thought of using the photo as a backscene but thought it might look better around a building.

 

 

 

 

 

Some hoardings have gone up at the back of the loading bay to seperate the building site from the railway.

 

 

 

I found an image of a skip on the internet and resized it to make a couple of skips.

 

An empty one

 

 

and a full one

 

Next job is to make the front left building on the layout look like a pub.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Ed

[shortliner]

That is VERY well done - Great lateral thinking in how to get the scenes to fold into each other

[Guest Jim Read]

This is superb very well done indeed! It reminds me of Scotland Street and has the same air of neglect about it, something that's very difficult to achieve.

 

Jim

[37114]

The Scaffolding looks very effective, nicely done.

[CourthsVeil]

I can only agree. Very clever ideas, very well executed. It all conveys a distinctive feeling - near perfect!

 

Armin

[southern42]

As I mentioned earlier, I was using my kids train set so I had a GWR pannier and Smokey Joe. The pannier is quite large and Smokey Joe is a speed freak. I was thinking of buying a class 03 diesel whan I saw a review of the Model Rail Sentinel and bought that instead.

 

 

We run a Model Rail Sentinel on Avago (4ft x 1ft shunting layout). It's that good we bought another one at Model Rail Live Barrow Hill.

 

If you are not aware of these, there are two videos featuring the Sentinel at Chris Nevard Railway TV : http://www.youtube.c...ser/nevardmedia.

 

I'll let the loco speak for itself, but I love it.

 

I think it will suit your layout, which is great by the way, a treat. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[edp2]

Thanks everybody.

 

The whole idea was driven by wanting to design a multiple box file layout that could be put up and dismantled quickly. Originally I was thinking of having several layers of flat scenes at the rear, a bit like decoupage, and when the layout folded up, these layers would interweave. Luckily my son bought me the Metcalfe kit, probably saving me going mad.

 

I've tried to force the perspective by putting the Heljan kit (probably 3.5mm scale) and the Scalescene kit (generous 4mm scale) at the front. The slightly small Metcalfe kit is at another layer. The backscene photographs are slightly smaller again.

 

I have a bottle of thinned down black paint that I use as my basic weathering agent. This ensures that everything tends to blend together. All the buildings in an area would have been subject to the same pollution.

 

The scaffolding is simple a cg-textures photo wrapped round a piece of card. It's such a good photo that I had to find a use for it.

 

There's some wonderful modelling on this site, especially by you guys, and it's very inspiring. | was happy to build the Metcalfe kit at first, then improve the corners and roofs. Now I've hidden the best looking Metcalfe building behind scaffolding because it would make the whole layout look better. I think that's called a learning curve.

 

If and when I finish this layout, I'm going to have to try my hand at some scratch-built buildings.

 

I've had a couple of plays with the Sentinel. It is superb, especially after I gave it a good run in on a circle of track. If I can get 4 more wagons for Christmas (sorry about using the c word so early), I'll be able to have a good play.

 

Ed

[Stubby47]

Only just found this thread. It's a very clever design, as said above, and some good modelling too. I especially like the ground area behind ( in front of as viewed ) the signal box. The mirror is also very effective.

 

Stu

[edp2]

Thanks Stu.

 

I've now done a little work on the pub, darkening the the concrete of the 'beer garden', making some little cardboard picnic tables and naming the pub, 'The Sentinel'. I thought it appropriate that the pub should sell Dapol Ales. Sorry about the quality of the photos. I took some earlier today and wondered what the flashing symbol in the viewfinder meant. I now know it means the memory is full. Reshot them tonight using flash. Always looks false to me, or is it more that flash photos are more honest/harsh showing up that is a model?

 

 

 

 

I think it might need a liitle bit more. Some of those signs advertising football, karaoke Sky football etc in the windows, or on signs or banners.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Ed

[glennofootscray]

Looks like a cracking pub, ideal for sampling a few pints.

 

You can drop into my local at...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennofootscray/7999441912/in/photostream

 

for a cold beer.

 

Regards Glenn

[edp2]

Thanks Glenn

 

What a great street scene you have. Very atmospheric with some nicely detailed buildings. Just crossing the street now to get that pint...

 

Regards

 

Ed

[Russ (mines a pint)]

Love this, you have achieved a remarkable 'depth of scene' in many of the later pics which you would not expect using a boxfile!

[Nickey Line]

Having found and read through I now understand your interest in my little offering! I must say you've made much quicker progress than me... I must pull my finger out.

Like the scenics!

 

Adrian W

[edp2]

Hi Russ

 

I think the use of flash althought harsh does give better depth illuminating the front and shading the rear.

 

Hi Adrian

 

No way am I quick! All these kit-buildings were built at least two years ago and have waited for me to buck up my ideas and build a layout, That scratch-built warehouse of yours is superb, especially the home-made down-spouts.

 

Some slow progress as the pub landlord desperate for business festoons his windows with special offers and attractions.

 

 

 

Hopefuly his desperate efforts will not be in vain. Builders in the warehouse development will want feeding and watering, The heritage railway crew will need to meet and chew the cud and, when the railway opens, there will be visitors, hopefully. This is the service economy in action.

 

I'm sort of working on the layout as I feel it would develop chronologically. The developers have boxed off their area, the pub landlord is touting for business, next to come are the railwaymen so, I need to move over to the left hand side of the layout and work on that

 

Yes I do live in my own little world.

 

One of these days I'll remember all the actions required to upload photographs and do this in half the time!

 

Ed

[edp2]

Right hand side of the layout, aaargh!

[Stubby47]

Love this, you have achieved a remarkable 'depth of scene' in many of the later pics which you would not expect using a boxfile!

They are deceptive little baseboards, with the right scenics and well chosen camera angles the layouts can be made to look a lot bigger than reality.

As you say, this is a great example of that.

[edp2]

Happy New year everyone.

 

I seem to be having problems posting images here though they are in my gallery, so I'll use links instead.

 

I've done a little work on that troublesome right-hand corner and ended up with this:

 

 

 

I just think it looks better than before.

 

A couple of overall images:

 

 

[

 

These are the parts other than stock that need removing before the layout can be folded:

 

 

And I now have enough stock to operate the layout as an inglenook:

 

 

 

 

Finally I've made a portakabin, in fact I made two and was going to stack them in the aforementioned right-hand corner but they were too big to be at the rear of the layout:

 

 

I think I forgot to size them

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

[Job's Modelling]

Lovely. I like the concept. Very well done.

[StuartM]

Excellent modelling, great inspiration