SeanNeedham

After a suggestion by bcnPete the other day, I nearly did go down the easitrac route, but... At the moment, I'm just going to use up the 80 that I've knocking around, and get my skills back up to snuff before I dive in to anything else. I'm hoping that the other half doesn't realise that this one that's on the workbench at the moment is not the last one to be built. So much the temptation, I've already been lurking around in the 2mm Finescale and wondering "what if?" Another thing that didn't help adding to the 2mm temptation was the Bachman/Farish Class 04 what I took a few shots of the other day, and with the shots up and done, it looked a lot better than what I thought it did (and I wouldn't consider myself having particularly bad eyesight). Also, another temptation crossed my path yesterday, as I was out on the usual 'shoot and scoot' newspaper type stuff in the next village, and as I was on my rounds, I popped in to the bar that used to serve the railway station back before they pulled the railways out of here in the late 70's. And as an old bar that used to serve a railway station, it had all the obligatory photos on the wall. One of them showed what looked to be a close relation of the Class 20 drawing a mixed passenger/freight up the main street, and after a quick pace up and down the pavement between the road junctions in the photo, I think I could easily fit both running lines in to a 5' x 1.5' space with the shops behind... But that's on the 'list' of go back and have a look another day. And it's also a bigger excuse for me to go to the FGC railway museum in Martorell with the Nikon and the tape measure, and see what the locos were, and what linage they have. So all the temptation has been left for another day (apart from the aforementioned 04, which I acquired even though I don't have any idea what to do with it), and I'm going for what I planned the other night. Most of the buildings I am looking at doing, are going to have to be scratch built, and I'm looking at them, and the bridge that is going to be on the right hand side of the scenic and wondering the best way about this. At the moment, I'm swayed about using a couple of the packages I use for the day to day, and building the plans in Adobe Illustrator as scalable graphics, then 'skinning' the layers up in Photoshop, then printing off on to some good quality matte paper, backing to card and building as if they were a normal card kit. The buildings, I'm thinking of building as their own scenic diorama, on their own board (I've stacks of photo mount card lying around), and I'm experimenting with a power feed system so the buildings can take light straight off a common rail, and can also be swapped out for different regional/time period buildings without having to mess around by unscrewing power clips, and fastening the power clips to the building again. As for scenics, the general plan is to use cardboard (which is bountiful, living about 100 yards from the local recycling point), built up with papier-mache, and skinned with the stuff that we used when we replaced the ceilings. It's true about Spanish builders, in the apartment, they put in 100m2 of plasterboard type ceiling, and they 'forgot' to put in any supports, and just glued it to the walls. Replacing the ceilings in a year old build was something that made my blood boil, and we've still got the replacement of the floors to do, as they laid tiles on what I reckon was Chobam proving ground, and it's all crazy paving now. And the tiles were an end of line run, as the tile manufacturer was trying to shift them on the cheap, and recently they went to the dogs, so getting a new batch done isn't going to happen anytime soon. Rant about the Spanish construction industry over, this plaster mix stuff seems fairly flexible and is very light, and I think it would make an ideal grounding for the scenics. Also, as it's white, colouring it at use time I think would be quite easy, by just using the solid poster paint and grinding that off with an old file in to the plaster powder and then mixing it up until the right colour is made, then apply as normal plaster mix. I've made a start with the track laying, so in due course, photos should arrive...

Bon Dia Pete!<div><br></div><div>"The Ex-pat Model Railway Club?" Hehehe.... (sorry, just had too much caffeine in the bar this lunch!)<div><br></div></div><div>I've been thinking this a bit more, and at the moment, I'm just planning on using the bits and pieces up that I had in the Motive Power Depot (the box that was shipped from England with the locos in it), and for the time being I think I'm just going to stick with the code 80 that I'd got left from the last project in the UK, as after 15 years of not building a layout properly, I'm probably going to make a hash of something and end up scrapping the whole lot and starting again! It'd also help keep the construction price down, so if I do make a complete and utter of it, I'm not really wasting anything. In turn, I've eliminated that top set of points, so there is only one point on the scenic which I've got to route in, and it also means I don't have to make some form of 'pedestrian' access for that bay across the line or up the cutting; with the 'parking' being somewhere to the left in what is going to be the fiddle yard at the moment.</div><div><br></div><div>After all, if I can get this one looking reasonably good, then it would be easier justifying to the other half about putting myself a bigger layout down where I can go and do the 2mm finescale (which I would like to do), and also beef up the collection of stock a lot more.</div><div><br></div><div>Last time I was in town, I ended up in said model shops off of Catalunya, and the thing that really bit me about it was the 'import tax' they seem to drop on the price of anything English outline with all the stuff being twice the price of in the UK (and most of it seems to be shop added, for holding a special line of stock anyway). At the end of the week, or the beginning of next, I've got to go to Abrera on a job (as if you're heading towards Lleida from BCN on the AP2, just before you hit the junction to head over to Montserrat, or R5 off Espanya), and the actual importer of UK outline is only a ten minute cable car hop from there, so I'm thinking about popping in to see if they sell direct to public and how much it would cost over actually shopping in the UK and paying postage to here.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for the comments, and I'll keep that all in mind for the next build!</div>

After much umming and ahing about track plans, and location, I've finally come up with something... Which wasn't easy given the space I'd got and what my motive power pool currently is (mainly NSE branded diesels and a couple of multiple units). The idea is a bit real world, but a lot of artistic license involved, and whilst the plan below had plenty of settrack pieces, most of the straights are going to be put together using lengths of flexi-track. After thinking through where would be an ideal area to operate, I came across the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, and started thinking 'Thomas Hardy'... (Possibly Casterbridge South, but I'm not decided yet). As I'm planning this to be in some form of cutting, from the right hand side, I'm planning on using an over-bridge as a scenic break, with a station building on the over-bridge, serving an island platform, then dropping down to single track, passing behind a signal box and disappearing in to a cutting to exit stage left. The pointwork top centre has been put in to hold a 'ready' locomotive (33/73 sized), to take TCs, on from here through the single track when there's a diversion in play, whilst not blocking the through line for freight workings. On the right hand side, I've planned it with enough scenic to hold a two car multiple unit underneath, and rolling that in to the platform to simulate a terminating service, the left hand side is going to be just wide enough to accommodate a 90 curve in the back scene in case I ever decide to extend further up the office wall with it. Currently, all the marshalling of stock is planned to use cassettes; and if the extension goes ahead, that would continue on a single track with a halt for possible MU workings, with a fiddle yard behind, and the right hand side is also planned to be extendible as well, but still cassette served for the short term. The main 'background' so to speak of this station, is that it is based on an approximation of the aforementioned Southampton and Dorchester railway, primarily served by local services from Reading via Salisbury, Portsmouth via Southampton, etc, worked by mainly multiple units, with the occasional through passenger continuing down the single track towards Weymouth and Poole (either Multiple Unit as before or a TC drag/push by 33/73 stock). Also, with having the through line to Weymouth/Poole, having the possibility of operating through freight, parcels, etc, without having to go through the Southampton Central tunnel bottleneck and also potential diversions in place from engineering in the New Forest area so bringing the Poole originating sleeper service through. Well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it! Actually, the layout was planned around something a bit different than an operational prototype; more to have an open space that I could take pictures of stock on more than anything. With my day job of photography and design, every so often, I get a box full of stock from the local model shop to photograph for their website, and up to now, this has all been done on a light table, and it looked a bit too clinical. Whilst they'd got a HO gauge layout, they hadn't got an N-gague, so I saw an opportunity to get back to what I used to enjoy doing, and also the other half's arguments would be mooted because I am primarily writing this off as a work asset, even though I'm paying for it out my 'pocket money' so to speak. I could have run the baseboard bigger, to give it more scenic or to give myself more wiggle room with bits and pieces, but taking in to account that I want this to fit in to the back seat of the car, and also have enough room to work around it with lighting and a camera, I kept it at this to start with. At present, I'm thinking of wiring it for DCC control, but keeping it as DC for the time being, as I've not really seen or looked at enough DCC to be comfortable with hacking old Farish locos to bits to add in decoders. So, now I'm going to leave the plan overnight, to stay in the head whilst I sleep on it and if I still like the idea or the excuse for operations in the morning, it's out with the double sided tape to hold the track in place with. Any suggestions, hints or comments greatly received.

Hi Ron, I think I have fallen in to the hole of the Almost Non-existant railway scene over here (would help if there were actual railways round my part to acclimatise the younger generation, but as the Spanish/Catalan seem to live for their cars, the local lines were pulled in the 60/70's!) Trying to work something through that has operational interest in a 4 x 1.5', is not the easiest thing, as I've found that with N, the layouts need to be a bit bigger than what you would have with OO/HO, to make something more 'interesting' and 'realistic' in terms of use; what with trying to put in a shunting yard, then comes the uncoupling problem (though I did have a bit of an engineering moment with a ciggy pack last night), also the timeline of what I'm working on dictated by the stock I've already got from before leaves a headache as there wasn't really any short trip freight, small private yards, etc. Looks like it's time to go back to the drawing board, and decide whether to change the time period, do a 'what if' scenario, or contemplate things that I don't really want to!

Since life hasn't been stable for me over the last ten years or more with university and work, there hasn't really been a way to put down a permanent layout, what with moving from one end of the UK to the other, and then finally to Spain. But now things have settled down, and I've enough room in my office for a small layout. I could have gone bigger, but as I've been away from modelling for so long, and also having trouble finding things (more on that later), a 4 x 1.5' plan was devised just to keep me focused and get the skills back together. However, being an ex-pat armed with a box full of UK N-gauge diesel (and electro-diesel) locomotives and multiple units hasn't made it as easy as I remember. For one, in Spain, railway modelling seems to be a very, very niche category, and the local model shop (I say local, as it's a two and a half hour round trip) seems to stock a handful of bits that are not really worth calling a 'model railway' section. The nearest place that does do anything that could be remotely similar to what we see in the UK as a 'proper' rail-modelling shop is nearly a five hour round trip to either central Barcelona or Lleida. With this, the layout that I had planned was on computer, using parts that I knew I could get in town quite easily, but when it came to the rub, the track plan didn't feel 'right' when it was down on the board, ready to start being placed properly; and the last thing I want to do is to build up some form of locomotive maintenance depot, I want my motive power to do things other than trundle from fuelling point to wash point and then away somewhere... In the turn of scrapping the idea, it means the ideas for scenics, and for focal points has gone straight out the window, and here I am now scratching my head to what to do. It also gave me a chance to reduce the amount of points in the layout, as the other thing I'd found was the price of point motors here is astronomical, and adding in the two out and backs for them as they are special order to the shop which is slightly cheaper than delivery, a new loco could be added to the pool for the price of two of them. The thing that has caught my eye, though, is radio control stuff is very, very cheap, and I'm wondering whether it is possible to use the servos from radio controlled aircraft to throw points and move signals. If not, it's going to be the plain old tube in wire until I can get my head (or bank balance) around some point switching equipment. So, all in all, what with the unwanted assistance from the father-in-law, who thinks I should put in a massive tail-chasing layout with trains that 'he used to see' in his village, I'm back to square one with the plans, the ideas and a deadline to keep with this... When swmbo said that I was building a model railway to someone she knew, it got booked for the local craft showcase at the village festival in November.

Just been listening to the Sparkle and Fade album by Everclear... Reminded me of a lot of things, like when I had hair... Cool, I'll have to get on to iTunes then and check that out!

I can't wait to see it, Ron! I was over in Manchester two weeks back, and dragged my long suffering girlfriend over to Castlefields just to go stand outside the old Hacienda and take a look round Deansgate and Central! And I was so busy gawping at the structure, I forgot to take some pictures of the area... Only a photographer would do that, eh? This is one of them projects I'm keeping my eye on with interest, as even though I'd love to do something 'large' like this, I just wouldn't have the space for it, sadly...

I've been reading through this thread the last couple of days, and all I can say is... I've a bruised chin from every time the jaw has gaped open and smacked the desk! That is some impressive bit of modelling, and I can't wait to see what this will look like when it's finished as I can't remember what Central and Castlefields looked like before it changed.