faded_Glory

Today the trackwork has arrived, so I did a quick test to see if the engine wil run over the short radius Peco Insulfrog without stalling: I'm glad to say that there is no problem at all Here is a quick video to show that. This shows the background, made from a piece of harboard and some blue paint: I have reversed it now so that the paint won't get damaged during the build. I'm now waiting for the cork for the trackbed, once that has arrived I can start laying the track

Thanks Jeff, I will give that a try. I still have a large pot of beige latex wall paint that I have used to undercoat the bare baseboard of my fixed layout, I think this may work well for the desert soil.

Some more progress today. I had a think about the trackwork and decided I don't want to use the Jouef track that came with the train. It doesn't look quite right and I have some doubts about the quality, so I will go for Peco 009 track instead - I just hope I can persuade it to bend into a 6" curve! This also opens the possibility of adding a point to the layout, like this: Seeing how smooth this little loco is I am willing to give the short Setrack insulfrog point a try. I will test it first though to make there is no stalling. If there is, the point may go, or I could look into adding pickups to the tender. I have also glued a 3 mm cork sheet to the baseboard. This may not be strictly necessary but I it feels odd to work straight on the wood. It does reduce the headroom a bit further but what is 3 mm between friends? I then made a backscene board from some hardboard and given it a coat of blue paint - still drying. It won't really be visible when the layout is under the desk but it feels safer to have a barrier at the back. Finally I did a quick test for painting and ballasting the track. I glued a short piece of leftover Peco 009 on a block of wood and splashed some cheap brown acrylic paint all over it. I then dry brushed the sleepers with some light grey and added a mixture of fine buff and brown ballast. I think it looks ok like this. I plan to make a low track bed from 2 mm cork. For the surrounding soil I will try to use buff tile grout, actually to be put on before the track and ballast. Never done that before so we will see what it is like.

Brilliant! Or, if it all fails, the Control, Alt & Delete Railroad.

Not New York, but I will see if I can fit a mesa with a native Indian on the lookout!

With my Paris 1889 layout finished, it is time for the next adventure! Sitting at my computer desk one evening I noticed, almost for the first time, that it comes with a retractable keyboard shelf that I don't use... This has a respectable size of 58x40 cm (23x16"), surely big enough for a model railway layout! It is so big that I'm not even sure it still qualifies for this subforum! The main limitation is going to be the headroom: to be retractable I can't have anything on there higher than about 8 cm (3 1/4"). Surely no problem! Once again narrow gauge comes to the rescue. This time my thoughts have wandered into something completely different: We have here a mint, never-before-opened Jouef/Egger Bahn Western Trainset (aka as the 'Winnetou Express') dating from the mid/late 1960's (EDIT: further research indicates that this particular set is a re-issue from around 1990). I think the time has finally come to take it out and put it to some good use! This little train is quite a ridiculous attempt at cashing in on some 'Cowboy-and-Indian' craze back in those days (think Clint Eastwood, and Spaghetti Westerns). The 'Union Pacific' loco is based on a a tarted up Krauss tank engine prototype that was already in the catalogue. It is now fitted with a huge brass cow catcher, a brass stack, a searchlight and a tender with some plastic logs! It tows three tiny 'Western Union' coaches on single axis bogies to get round the rather incredible 6" radius curves that come with the set. A drop of oil and 12V DC, and presto, it goes round. Actually it runs a lot smoother than the Jouef Decauville from Paris! Youtube clip Clearly none of this is remotely prototypical, so once again I will aim for effect instead of realism. The rail oval from the set fits perfectly on the shelf... ... and underneath the desk top. So, we're good to go! For this one I will have to try some modelling techniques I haven't used before, like desert scenery and some cliffs and hills (modest ones!!). I also hope to scratch build one or two small buildings. For the rest we'll see and play it by ear.

That is looking really nice, and very neat! Looking forward to seeing how you develop this further.

Yes I agree they are a bit small, but then, the trees only have to survive for a few months until the end of the exposition!

The Chinese palm trees arrived today. Out of the bag they are very shiny and plasticky, but nothing that can't be helped with a bit of paint. Planted in some pots I foud in my spares box they don't look too bad on the layout, I think.

By the way, someone pointed me to a Heineken beer commercial that fits this topic to a tee. Especially the first shot right at the start! Too good not to post a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cvTPRInMuI

Oh that is really nice! Does that site contain any actual fountains? I am still musing about how to fill out the empty corners either side of the entrance to the building. There are small platforms there that cry out for a display of some sort (visible in the third picture in my post above). They are only an inch long by half an inch or so wide. One idea is to place some nice statues of Greek goddesses or other scantily clad classical ladies. I actually got something from China but their scale works out at an actual height of 5 meters, which is ridiculous. Your sculpture group looks excellent but is probably still a little bit too big to fit there. Alternatively, I thought of some potted palm trees, or small blossoming fruit trees. I have something on order from China but things take forever to arrive these days.

Your shed is looking very good!

Heya and welcome! Using flex track isn't that hard, I have never tried to get it round a curve of 230 mm. radius though! One tip for laying flex in curves is to stagger the rail joints rather than have them exactly opposite each other. This will reduce the risk of kinks. I don't use Setrack points myself, you may want to consider that they are Insulfrog and I don't know how reliable the short wheelbase 0-4-0's will run over them. You might get stalling problems.

Good work! Did you leave the rail joiners on so that you can attach this diorama to the next one?

So today is the Grand Opening to the public of the Paris World Exhibition 1889! The train is running, the balloon is floating, the people are promenading and taking in the sights and sounds of all those exciting new technologies. A good time is being had by all, including by some small non-invited guests... The balloon winch is manned: There is still a small problem with the water supply to the fountain: But the visitors are queuing up for a train ride... ...as the Station Master keeps a watchful eye (and yes, he does have one of those famous chairs!) So there it is. I'm not even sure it is worth bothering with the fountain water, in its sheltered place below the tower it isn't very obvious. There are still one or two small things I might want to add, but overall I am finished with it. Going back to the first page and the inspirational photographs from the booklet, I hope I have managed to capture some of that wonderful 19th century atmosphere on a minimum of space. Your kind comments and excellent suggestions have been a great help to me, thank you all very much for those! Of course much more could be done on a larger layout and by someone with more skills and time than I have, but I am happy with it. For now, au revoir et bonne chance! PS you can watch a short a video here:

A super idea!! Isn't it just amazing how many creative ideas people come up with for a layout no bigger than a large pizza? Unfortunately, nice as it sounds, I don't think I will go down that path. With the trainshed and a lot of the details firmly (I hope!) stuck to the baseboard it is now tricky to turn the layout upside down for construction work without crushing something. Also, as you say, it would need a hole in the table/ sideboard top to accommodate the 'rope' when it comes down. But I will certainly keep it in mind for a future Version 2, "Paris 1900"

Thank you monkeysarefun, that is really useful information!

This is true, the building was after all constructed specifically for the Fair, so it is only a few weeks old here.

Thank you Kevin for your kind comment. This thing has got more and more involved over time, I thought it would just take me a couple of weeks to finish but it has been well over a month already! I do need to wrap it up because there are other projects waiting.

Thanks, I did think of that but I'm a bit weary to rub any powders on in case the paint comes right off again - I might try this first on a piece of scrap that I can spray the same way I did with the roof.

Some more progress to report. First of all I had some success with the rear walls of the shed. I used thin Wills sheet for the wings, they can be curved enough to fit in between the uprights, and used some cardboard for the centre panel. All three panels are removable, they slide into the H posts and are held in place with little screws at the bottom edge. I then fixed up a roof from some very soft and pliable 'corrugated' plastic sheet I foud at the craft shop. It kind of fits although the curved shape of the wings causes issues and there is some deformation at the back. Fortunately this is not too obvious when viewing the layout from the front: This stuff is hard to work with, after I fitted some strips to break up the monotony it all came loose again. Using stronger glue they are now more or less forced into place. I then tried to paint it, but brushing on acrylics was a disaster, the paint didn't grab, it lifted at successive brush strokes and it all looked like a right old mess. So I wiped it all off again. The only thing I could do was spray paint it, and not having an airbrush this had to be done with a rattle can. So, I masked the entire layout with a bin bag and lots of low-tack tape: A coat of grey primer and a thin coat of silver gave acceptable results. Ideally I'd like to weather it a bit but I don't trust the paint not to come off again, so it will have to stay as it is. It is not perfect but I'll live with it. Then, the fountain. I have given up waiting for the Chinese stuff and used some other bits I got earlier instead. I think it looks ok, they aren't Greek goddesses but birds, even though not the kind of birds that the French would appreciate I may experiment with filling the basin with 'water', and perhaps simulate the water flowing over the edge of the top fountain, although I have no idea how to go about that. Stretched transparent sprue perhaps? Finally the winch. I have concluded that anything simulating a steam winch is going to be far too big for this little corner of the layout, so I found a manual winch from an old ship kit and mounted that on a base plate. Hard work for the troops but tough luck! I'm also making good progress with the painting of the figures and I hope to add them to the layout over the next few days. Already one brave soul has ventured up in the balloon, although there isn't anyone yet to winch him down again. Zut alors! A few small details left to do, but on the whole it is all coming together now! And the view from above:

It's been a while since I showed some progress on this one. The main reason is that I had real trouble sourcing suitable materials for the type of train shed that I'm after. In the end I found a Noch laser cut kit (the Orangerie) that has the right kind of panels, so it was duly procured and promptly cannibalised. Work is still in progress but this shows what I am cobbling together, basically by building up stuff bit by bit from Evergreen profiles and the Noch panels directly on the baseboard: The front walls are in place and I have started on the roof. The centre section should hopefully not be too difficult because it is basically cylindrical, with gables from leftover bits of my Kibri train shed, so something like the core of a kitchen roll could be a suitabe former. The wings though are a different matter - they pretty much curve in all directions which causes considerable head scratching. To give me some guidance I have built a framework of bulkheads and now need to consider the actual roof itself. Looking at the Galerie des Machines it would seem that some kind of corrugated material is in order: I tried bending some sheets of thicker Willss corrugated 'asbestos' to follow the central roof shape, by tying them around a metal pan and attacking them with a heat gun. I had some success, actually a bit too much success so now it is a bit warped in places and looks more like a Dali painting than examples of solid French engineering... Today I was roaming through my local craft shop and found some very thin and flexible plastic sheet material looking a bit corrugated. I will see what I can do with that - with my luck it will instantly dissolve as soon as I put some glue on it! I will also make the back walls corrugated, I got a set of Wills corrugated glazing panels that are very thin and flexible and can easily be bent to follow the shape of the baseboard. I just ran out of spray paint to give them some colour so that is momentarily on hold. I want to try and keep the central back panel removable, to allow access in case of derailment and for track cleaning. Not sure how I can do that just yet, perhaps I can put some small screws along the bottom and guide the rest of the sheet into the H post uprights. There will be a gap at the top where the curved wall meets, or rather won't meet, the straight gable - the wall has to be curved to leave enough clearance for the train - so I will need to faff some kind of filler for that. In other developments, the base of the big fountain is made, as you can see in some of the pics, and I am now waiting for some exciting further bits coming from China. Unfortunately the first time I ordered this the parcel got lost in the mail, so I had to order it again. Just hoping that it will turn out to be suitable if and when it finally arrives. If not, I do have a backup plan but that won't look quite as lavish as the original: Finally on the balloon, it has to have a winch and I found a great picture of a mobile steam balloon winch used by the French army around that time: I investigated if I could model this and actually found a suitable basis for conversion in a HAT plastic soldier set: ... but when I placed it on the layout it proved to be very big and far too dominating, so back to the drawing board with this one. All in all some progress but still lots to do, so watch this space!

I like this a lot! I just came across some lovely Nm scale tram models and was musing if I could do something with those and H0f track. Your layout gives me inspiration, I will follow it with interest!

I got the balloon from an outfit called Hurn & Hurn. They do various colours and sizes. Your printed Mallet looks great, is it designed to fit the Minitrix Mallet chassis? In view of the carriages being close to 1/76, would it be possible to offer this body at that scale too? If you look at this picture I think your cab front is correct, except that there are vertical stays at the front too, as well as at the back of the cab. It seems to me that the cab overhang might be slightly longer than on your model? There is also a box on top of the buffer beam which might come in handy to receive a fixing screw from underneath the chassis. I'm down with a bout of the flu rght now so no progress at this time. Hopefully I can pick it up again soon, there are still a number of things to be done.

Ok, it turns out that this didn't work after all. The other day I powered up the layout for a bit longer, and things started to get smelly. When I looked underneath all the little resistors had melted. Funnily enough, the lamps still glowed, some brighter than others. Clearly this setup isn't working as intended, so I have dismantled these cheapo lamps and replaced them with a set of better quality branded German ones that come with all the necessary bits and bobs ready soldered onto them, and clear instructions on how to conect them to a 12-16V AC or DC power supply. One lives and learns.