Northroader

And outside the Gare d’Austerlitz….

THOUGHTS ON PLANNING A LAYOUT. Last September I turned up at my bungalow lugging an old baseboard, sole survivor of a wholesale clearout of the loft in the old place. The intention was that it would form the kernel of my new lines, mainly centred on the British element, but shared with the continental side of things. The main parameter for the layouts I have is that they are around microlayout size, with a terminal fed from a fiddle yard. Stuff happened, as it always does, the width was wrong, the length was wrong, and it was superseded by a new board fashioned from 10mm foamboard, which I’ve quite taken to as a means of construction. In the fullness of time I’ve gone off the idea of sharing British and continental on a single board, as having two interchangeable platforms of different heights didn’t turn out well, besides the look of bullhead track for everything. (Although some European administrations were using it still around 1900) The old baseboard then came in for use as a home for my American bits, with the top cut back and the under frame projecting out to support the fiddle yard. The American trains are all shorter than they should be, but I’m very happy with how this is shaping. All very well, but no home for my continental trains anywhere, and I’m weighing things up for what to do here. The thought came to me to share the American line, as this has low platforms. The only snag really is the track, as there are far more sleepers per unit length than an old European line would have. For now I’m just using as a basis of how it could be. First off there’s two pictures of the line when empty. One thing I’m pleased with, and which has attracted favourable comment, is laying the main running line on a continuous curve, using a 6’ radius trammel, rather than having it straight, and parallel with the front edge of the baseboard. You’ll see a short rear siding, and a front siding marked in on the right, waiting for more copper clad sleepers. Lengths are in the proportion of three units on the main line, two units on the front siding, and one on the back siding. Trains are three units from the fiddle yard cassette. Arriving trains come, pause, back out to “run round” in the fiddle yard, reverse in, and then passenger trains can depart, and goods can shunt wagons round before departure. You’ll also see a grid marked off in inch squares, demonstrating there’s room for a small station building for the passengers, with a footprint of 10” x 4”. The board size is 30” long, and 13” wide. What to do now? A duplicate board with more suitable track seems to be a good option, if it can be developed without the missus saying I’m trying to do too much. (She would probably be right, bless her, but where’s the fun in that?) I’ve taken a few pictures with continental items scattered round, while I plan where to go.

I was watching him in action, and there’s just a little hand held black box with a bit of a screen. I was expecting….

It’s the style of panelling, think GNR or NBR. The lower half panels are flush with upper half mouldings, then the lower half mouldings are raised strips on top of the panels. The kit is done so that you only have a two thickness etch for both halves, if it was a complete body side it would need a three thickness etch, which don’t happen. If you carry the upper half down to the bottom, a lot more material is needed, and the etch would be larger (and dearer) (now where did I nick that photo from?)

Nice work all through, even the derailment looks just so. (Happy days) I’m glad the feed mill fits in so well.

That was mainly because if you shut them down, you could never be sure of having enough poke in the battery to restart them. On the depot, every stabling point had chargers, and you put them on as soon as they were parked.

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/mouse/

Here’s one GNoS coach on the stocks, body in plastic sheet rather than the geewhizz 3D printing that Woko excels in. Doing a colour match, the lake looks like it’s same as the West Coast lines, I used Caledonian purple from Phoenix. It looks very dark in my railway room, I took it out into full sunlight. I have to say it’s a lovely rich colour to put on.

GNoS.

Permit me to tell you, Senòr Kjartan, Don Jose Manuel Gomez es un hombre muy perspicaz. In his lista de blogs he has a link to Farthing.

Not as quick as I would like, Don, there’s the usual stuff anyone sharing a home does, and it’s always nice to spend time on the Web. The layouts these days are all very basic jobs, plain track, no points, terminus to fiddle yard configuration, all route setting is by moving cassettes across, and a lot of construction is foamboard cut by Stanley knife and glued. Building a garden layout sounds like hard work, but best wishes for making progress You've missed out the broad gauge continental, where not much has happened for a while, I must get more bits before Slaters put their prices up in August. The standard gauge continental I do hope will resurface, to a Cunning Plan. It’s making it invisible to the boss that’s the problem.

I’ve never finished a layout, it sort of changes, and sometimes gets recycled. When I moved a lot went in the bin, and the bit that came with me has since been junked. But then there’s official layouts, for my wife’s tour of inspection, and….. (“you can’t start anymore, until you’ve finished that…”)

It’s the way I go on, Don, two steps forward, and ,er… two steps back. Is it really three? ;-)

MODELLER OF SPANISH SCENES. This sort of thing? (He sounds as if he might be Spanish, and there’s a lista des blogs you might pick up on) http://trainscape.blogspot.com

Now, if you’re running shortys, you really ought to have shorty depot for them. This lot is 54”, 1370mm, long overall, and 13”, 330mm, wide. When I can lay my hands on more sleeper strip, I’ll finish off the tracklaying, there’s a siding to go in front, two cars long. Depot to do, scenery (upstate New York) to paint, etc.