Northroader

Looks like you’ve found your hobby right in front of you?

Looks like Nine Rams to me.

He doesn’t watch it, he’s on it.

I live a very sheltered life.

Don’t think a pyramid will go in a Reliant?

Hope you had an enjoyable journey going back, Don. I’m afraid I’ve chopped and changed quite a lot since I started the thread with a brand new line in Jan 2016. By September of that year, page 5, it was clear that an upsize was needed, and a new baseboard 60” x 16” appeared on page 7 in October, and this is the main board Ive stuck with. A rebuild progressed over the winter 2016 -17, and I gave a track plan of the new arrangement on page 16, in April 2017. This was a very natty idea, but operating this gave problems, mainly the inaccessibility of part of the fiddle yard, so I rebuilt the fiddle yard end and simplified the whole layout, with a track plan page 21, Feb 2018. We’re now June 2018, page 28, and I have to confess that whilst I’ve been doing my Picasso act, the track gang have sneaked in and changed the layout again. “Please explain” you say. It’s involved, as I’ve had another layout shaping in parallel with this one, with the idea of running my Continental stuff on that. It’s shorter, and without a loco release, so you either shuffle wagons, or need two locos on the go to work it. I juiced it up earlier this year, and after a few moves I decided it wasn’t for me. You’d think I have it all worked out before I started cutting wood, but occasionally I have to get to running trains before it hits me. This led to a general appraisal, an old friend used to say “what bin we here for?” Really I want to see small trains coming and going in a pleasant setting, with not much shunting, even if operationally it may seem rather dull. Looking at the Washbourne line, it was more aesthetics, I was doing a multitrack entrance and a single entrance would look better, and while I was at it, moving the station to the front would mask the traverser. I’m fully sold on the traverser as a means of engine release, but the sideways movement does look a bit phoney. I happened to have a second Peco point left over from an old job, and I was able to fit this in, which was useful, as I’ve found six wheelers and medium radius points go together. If you assume a passenger train is at the platform ready to go, you can have a goods train entering, and the traverser allows the two trains to stand side by side. Change the points, and the passenger leaves. The goods can then set back, cut off the brakevan, and swap a wagon on the warehouse siding. The length of the points only allow for a single wagon on this siding I’m afraid, but there’s a lot more of the shunting happening in view on the board. The engine can then run round on the traverser, and sort out the brakevan, after which it’s ready to go, but can wait for a passenger train or the horsebox special to arrive. Not totally riveting, but it will do for me, we’re flying the banners of “Less is more!” and “Keep it simple, stupid!” Here’s a couple of shots of where I am now, doing the platform, station building, and over-bridge, then there’s a small dock needed at the back of the traverser, and fill in the “foreground” of the backscene. As my Brighton line trains are small tankies and four wheel coaches, there’s a visiting train to show the capacity. Two six wheelers and a small 0-6-0 tender, which is the biggest loco the traverser will take, always assuming there’s some overhang left between the traverser and the buffer stops. I think the whole set up looks quite comfortable on a five foot board, not cramped. If you went for a multitrack entry with the warehouse siding facing the other way, just like the lines we’ve been examining in recent posts, you could knock something like a foot and a half off, otherwise keep the same length, and have trains like a 4-4-0 with two bogies. P.S. will I change it again? I hope not, you could say this is set in stone, as I’ve ballasted it, and then used diluted pva glue, so the whole lot is like a rock, any changes will involve a hammer and chisel!

And a very dinky lowside wagon belonging to the firm has appeared more recently. Sooner or later, I must do an 0 version.

Bl**dy pixies on the line again, I suppose.

Looks great. Have I missed the bit where you explain why it’s right hand running?

Dons link to Terry Kemptons line “Halstead” reminds me he did another just slightly larger called “Luxted”, which is also worth a visit. http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=9636&forum_id=21&highlight=luxted

You got a bus pass, aincher? Great news, ducky, the gospel is finally getting through. Good luck with whatever it it you got.

Two other angles on this are that short radius points and six wheel coaches don’t mix, and it’s nice to have just a bit of a gap between the fiddle yard and where the train stops, so that you can get a three quarters view of the train, for yourself or for photos.

Yes, agreed, for compactness it takes a lot of beating, and it does have an attractive look to it. Problem to me is running around the coach or wagons, youre in and out all the time, and then there’s how do you treat the overbridge with the tracks dividing front and rear and make it look credible. Have a traverser and careful treatment of the bridge arrangement and you’ll have cracked it, second edit, although another look and I realise there’s nowhere for a traverser_ stupid boy!

I gather one of the Danish kings was a total train nut, like all of us, and he had the idea of doing the national colours in a band round the chimney. Woe betide any driver who didn’t at least keep that clean. There’s a load of private lines in Denmark as well, and they copied the idea, but with their own colours, rather like shipping lines.

Agreed, the return cranks for the expansion link are different.

While you were over there, did you pull any birds?

Sir Eustace, I would be totally overcome with remorse and grief if I put you off modelling in 0. Looking at the line today and measuring up, I reckon you could run much the same job on a main board of 40” and a 36” fiddle yard. To do this just ditch the points, two parallel lines, plus a short siding for the warehouse approached off the fiddle yard through a multitrack overbridge, like the plan I did last February (I have to admit the layout has been changed again since then for various reasons.) I am firmly attached to the idea of an engine release using a traverser, it’s space saving, easy to work, inobtrusive, and allows using the full length of both roads. There were some good examples of how to treat the country end in layouts I liked back in post 180, page 8. It is a good time for 0 guagers, I think, as there are some good small RTR locos coming on the market at reasonable prices. (Tip: if you get to a large scale show where Dapol have a stand, there’s sometimes a chance at getting one with a bit off) Minerva strarted the ball rolling with three industrial locos, and Dapol brought out excellent Terriers, Jinties, 08 diesel, and a big Pannier. I do hope they’re successful commercially. Looking over the fence at 00, the same trend for small locos seems very popular there, but that’s 00, piff paff.

Yes, those stick on rivets look really good, don’t they?

But..but.. Linny, you’re living in Edinburgh, and you don’t know about the Cowlairs Incline down into Queen Street???

Now we know he’s called a rememberancer, what are the bits he’s holding in his hand? and if he’s a special civil servant chosen by the Lords anointed, why doesn’t he look more assured, rather than as if he knows he looks like a total pillock?Then there’s those black and white chequers, what’s that about? Kevin’s story is far more convincing...

More like “Red Derby Compound I “?

Anyway, we ought to put that sort of thing behind us, so instead, could I offer my cakebox liking, one, I’m an Emmet nutcase, two, it ran all the through a show, and not many can claim that. He’s also doing another job which is quite also groundbreaking. I thought about a cakebox, but decided it was another distraction and easily distracted enough already. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130417-madeira-meadows/page-2&do=findComment&comment=3143758

You’d have the middle name Derby, I would think?

You don’t want a B4, then?

Of course, Mikkel, there’s some nice cupolas on your stable block, another item to give interest to a building. By the way, how did/ does your house move go? I haven’t spotted anything in your posts about it, and I jut wondered how things are. Then folks may notice I had to call in the services of Mr. O’Doolite to finish it off. Over a pint in the “Pantiles Inn” afterwards, he told me he was really glad I’d gone to him, rather than Hammersmith Cones, particularly as he felt he had the edge on them! Boum! Boum!