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CaptainBiggles

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  1. CaptainBiggles
    A short post this time...
     
    With regards to some comments to part 1 of this post, here attached is the plan I've been working to / off. Sort of. Obviously I've added the bridge at the left hand end to mask the exit to the fiddle yard, but other than that it's pretty much the same.
     
    Well, to my eye it is, feel free to differ in opinion! I will, as ever, give all comments and feedback due consideration.
     
    The map & my plan then: (note one is upside down relative to the other!)
     

    Picture courtesy of RMWebber Piskey (I think) who runs this excellent website: http://www.northcornwallrailway.co.uk/
     

     
    Thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming!
     
    Chuffs away!
     
    Cap'n Biggles
  2. CaptainBiggles

    The Plan...

    By CaptainBiggles,

    Since my last post I've mainly been doing more dreaming, and despite the inconvenience of an interruption due to my first wedding anniversary, I have managed to come up with this:
     

     
    AnyTrack is the easiest bit of software I've used for ages, but I suspect you all knew that already. Anyway, I've drawn up my version of Padstow, (just as I had it on the wall paper lining paper in my previous post) and apart from moving the signal box and finishing the Fish Shed sidings in line with the platform (in reality they disappear a long, long way off to the right in a sweeping curve) the plan is pretty much prototypical. I can't vouch for the distances, but the platform will accommodate a 5-coach train which I believe is about as long as the ACE got by the time it reached Padstow. In any case, the boards are already 9' long, which seems awfully long for N, so I'm not going to make them even longer. The width is 2'6" and the fiddle yard will run at the back of the board, however I can fit it in once the scenic break / cliffs are in place.
     
    One thing I mentioned in my previous post is that to my 00-trained eye, I'm wondering if there is too much space & not enough going on. I know what Missy meant when she said about putting too much in, but I'm conscious that what the plan really is is a series of 7 long sidings and a turntable. Short of shoving wagons up and down them, with the occasional ACE coming in, loco running round and then off again, is there enough (particularly on the right hand side of the turntable) to attract the eye? I'll be putting a couple of fishing boats in the harbour, and maybe a crane or two. But the rest of the space will be piles of nets, lobster pots...
     
    To the extreme left is my cunning plan to disguise the exit of the mainline to the fiddle yard, by using the clutter of a girder bridge hard up against a back scene to cover the track disappearing off through. The bridge will continue to be double-track, even after the disappearance of the track proper, so it looks as though the line just continues off the left, even if nothing ever runs on it. I hope it's a bit clearer now than my last explanation now anyway.
     
    Well, I'd love to know what you all make of it, thanks for all the encouragement so far! I suspect my next post will be on the subject of baseboards, but until then...
     
    Chuff’s away!
     
    Cap’n Biggles
    April 2013
  3. CaptainBiggles

    Starting out

    By CaptainBiggles,

    Allow me to introduce myself, as this will be the first in what I hope will be a series of posts as I learn from you all and experience the trials and tribulations of building my first layout.
     
    I’m Captain Biggles, I’m 32, and I’m considering building the first layout of my adult life. I’m an engineer by day but by night and occasionally at the w/e I’m a closet geek, as my wife calls me. I last started a layout aged 14 (that never got finished as I discovered first women, then beer, then beer & women. And a bit of sport. Anyway…
     
    That’s me, sort of, but what else do you need to know? Some facts:
    What? I’m going to model Padstow station, that’s a given. In the latter years of its life, say 1950-65. I’d like it to be close to prototypical, but I also recognise that we model, not miniaturise, so I’m prepared for some artistic licence to be used. This is a skill I’m going to need your help to learn anyway.
    Experience? I’m effectively starting from scratch. I have no stock, no boards, no track, nothing but a tool box & a head full of dreams. Over the past few years I’ve built an 0 gauge G6 in brass and some wagons, that go around the tree at Christmas, but that’s about it.
    Gauge? 00 would be my gauge of choice. But space may dictate otherwise (more on this later).
    Space? I have a space down one side of the garage that is maybe 10’ x 3’ MAX. Ideally it’d be smaller, and I’d like to perhaps take the layout to a few local shows if it’s any good, so I’d like it to be portable too. Maybe breaking down into 2 sections, 5’ x 3’ max, which should just about fit in the back of my car (Audi Q5).?
    Timescale? I have another life. I have a house that needs doing up and although there are no Jr Ensign Biggleses yet, I’m sure kids will come along in the not-too-distant future. Mrs Captain Biggles is tolerant, but not encouraging, of my subversive activities, and all other demands on my time come first. I don’t expect to finish anything off rapidly then, but I’m looking forward to learning and playing along the way. It’s a hobby, and I treat it as such.

    So, where am I at with this “project” then?
     
    I have found a couple of plans of Padstow, and this particularly useful website here: http://www.northcornwallrailway.co.uk/route.html (which I think is the work of RMwebber Piskey). I’ve got as far as laying out Peco templates on wallpaper lining paper and I started in 00, but without foreshortening the platform length significantly (I think it should accommodate 5 coaches min, from what I have read) and having no room for a fiddle-yard it was never going to fit in the space available. I did consider using a spiral to have a fiddle-yard above or below the layout, but this would add to the width too. So I’m leaning towards N, as the attached photos show. It is currently 9’ x 2’6”, with a fiddle-yard behind the cliffs I’ll use at the back of the station, connected by an off-scene 180deg bend.
     




     
    Please do let me know your thoughts, and at this stage, I have two questions / concerns:
     
    Firstly, never having modelled in N, is is the space going to look too sparse in this scale? It’s a large area, and will obviously include docks and boats and fish sheds and so on, but will I be able to make an aesthetically pleasing model and add enough “clutter” to give the eye something to look at. I notice that most people’s N-gauge termini tend to be 1-1’6” and this is much wider. Am I right to have this concern?
     
    Secondly, how do I hide the 180deg bend at one end? Padstow is famous for the iron girder bridge over Little Petherick Creek, and I’m wondering if I can use this to my advantage. I’ve sketched it up (close-up photo below) so that both tracks enter the right-hand section, but the rear line then curves off-scene, with a dummy bit of track appearing to carry on over the other two sections of the bridge along with the headshunt. I’m considering using 3 bridge girder-assemblies per section of the bridge, with the middle of the right-hand section being blanked off so the train disappears from view. The middle and left-hand sections of the bridge are fully see-through, and have a backscene behind. Confused? Yes, so am I.
     

     
    I’m looking forward to this project, and who knows what’ll happen. But I do know from having been a closet forum-lurker for some time that there’ll be no end of help available on these pages. I hope that in time, people will find my ramblings and failings of interest to themselves too.
     
    Chuff’s away!
     
    Cap’n Biggles
    April 2013
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