TechnicArrow

A good reproduction of something I'd not come across before! I think all it needs is roofs over the cars, and more people - it feels very sparse with nobody, not even staff, on the platform. Would you also be able to share a few photos of the mechanical bits? I'm just about to start rebuilding the mechanism on my funicular railway (post coming soon!), so I'm interested to see what you've used for the pulleys.

Looks like a simple but realistic and pleasing concept, and a nice project to get on with. I'm looking forward to watching it develop.

What with my normal weekend activities cancelled left right and center, I've been getting the paints out. No more bright shiny orange brickwork here! Again using Revell Aquacolour, the first coat was of Reddish Brown. I then watered down some Africa Brown and added a touch of black, and washed it over an area before wiping it off the surface with kitchen paper. Sometimes I was too soon and the paint came out of the joints as well; sometimes too late, and it stuck to the face. The warehouse fits into the latter category, resulting in a slight greeny colour - not what I set out for, but it still looks pretty decent to me! The bridge and culvert came out a little cleaner. The Africa Brown wash was was also used on any stone lintels or capping, and the left-over paint used to give the ground cover a better base layer. Finally, I used some undiluted Africa Brown on the bolster wagon, followed by brushing on some half-dried black paint with a stiff brush. I reckon it's come out pretty well. Overall, I love working with these paints. Being water-based, they're very easy to mix, dilute, and wash off brushes, and they dry very quickly - by the time I'd done the reddish brown coat over the warehouse, it was dry enough to start the mortar washed immediately. My only concern is that all the brickwork still looks very samey - I don't think the bridge and warehouse should be exactly the same colour. Still, it's a good start, and allows me to get on with the final major step - ground cover!

An interesting concept, with a good change in levels from front to back to frame the scene nicely. What are you planning on using for the fiddle yards? You'll certainly need something off the right hand side, otherwise that front siding is barely usable.

The Dapol kit-bash body then! I don't know if you saw the posts about its construction (they're further back in this thread), but it was a very fun project and ended up looking decent; certainly using a kit to start with helps, I could never get that level of detail from scratch. As for the chassis, in the first picture on this page it was sat on a demotored 0-4-0 chassis, with a few other bits cut off. Probably over Easter I'm going to have a bash at 'taming' the newly-bought Hornby 0-4-0 with some extra gears since it actually looks quite smart, but being able to movie at a crawl is crucial on Arrow Paints! When planning the model I was looking at Budget Model Railways for a while; they offer a few 3D-printed kits that fit the 0-4-0 chassis, so if you've got some lying around then why not have a go!

Cheers! I'm not really sure which engine you're referring too; I don't have an 0-4-0 green anything! The current loco roster is as follows: > Bachmann 0-6-0 Class 04, in BR green with wasp stripes > Hornby 0-4-0 Industrial steam shunter in BR lined black > Kit-bashed Dapol Industrial diesel shunter in black with wasp stripes. Fits on either the chassis of either loco mentioned above. And I've slightly surprised myself, by getting the bridge finished in a day. Plastic brick sheeting of unknown manufacture, bought from a loose bin at the model shop, was clad over most surfaces. Corrugated card was used to build up the thickness for the parapet walls, and various other bits of card were cut and glued to make the capping, lintels and add relief to the front girder. She now looks like this: The join in the brickwork is where the deck and parapets can be lifted off as below, leaving the girders behind. The shot below also shows that lintels have since been added to hide that join! I noticed when it was complete I'd forgotten to have the girders actually sitting on anything; they must be somewhat unprototypically buried into the end pillars, as otherwise they're floating! The deck also only ended up being wide enough for one carriageway + pavement, but it still looks tidy. Finally, the whole layout - all 60cm (2ft) of it! With a smooth, slow loco and good track (I've sorted out the major issues, although there's still a few spots that need polishing) it's a joy to play with operate . Will be even better when I get a proper sector plate/traverser fiddle yard sorted out, I've been putting it off for no good reason. Next up it's probably time to get the paints out on all this brickwork.

Things do happen on this layout, they just don't get posted about a lot... The day after my last post (3 weeks ago now!), the culvert got fixed down and papier-mache'd around. Then I added some brickwork to the front and wing wall, and some concrete/stone capping. The right-hand wall is built up to 'support' the yard area in the original box, and a strip of capping was added where the retaining wall would end and the parapet begin. A post-and-wire fence of matchsticks and sewing thread was added along the top, defining the railway boundary yet keeping the view across the pointwork open. Next up is painting the brickwork, and adding ground cover; both will likely happen when all the structures are in place. Speaking of which, work on the main scenic break overbridge has started. Overall, I'm aiming for a structure much like the one this article talks about replacing https://www.ice.org.uk/knowledge-and-resources/case-studies/replacing-a-railway-overbridge, with steel girders below the deck and brick parapets the entire length. To keep the box sturdy, I never completely detached the front when I cut it out; this meant I could fold it around on itself to form the front pillar. The off-cut was used to create a similar one against the back corner. Strips of card were then placed longitudinally into slots cut in each pillar, which represent the girders that will strengthen the deck both in real life and in this model, as well as tieing the pillars together. The deck will support brick parapets along its length, and will have to be removable so the box lid can still be shut. The girders therefore play a vital role in forming the actual structure, and look the part as well. I should probably put some brick arches in between them, not that they're viewed from such a low angle that often. Finally, locos. I did indeed buy a Hornby 0-4-0; I looked for a new one, as the post-2010 issues can run slightly better at lower speeds. I found a nearly-new-in-box one for £16ish, and bought it... before realising it was from 2001. But it runs reasonably well and the livery looks pretty smart! It's a project in it's own right, I plan to detail it up and throw an extra pair of gears between the motor and axle to slow it down a bit. But the better news is that the 04 runs again - a chance spot of Peco 'electro' lubricant in my local model shop meant the split-chassis loco is now clean, conductive and well-oiled. All in all, a much smoother runner. Other minor achievements include the fitting of narrow tension-lock couplings to the kit-built wagons finally, and the purchase of some paint and grass flock. I think I've got everything I need, I just need to get on with it all!

For what it's made from, that bridge looks superb! I think it would perhaps benefit from another lintel just above the openings, but now you've done the smoke-weathering it looks pretty realistic. Overall I'm enjoying watching the layout take shape.

I'd say you've hit it spot on, although I wasn't alive at the time so I'm hardly an expert. The ground cover and small detritus certainly make it feel worn down, although I'm not sure how that skip got there; I don't think you'd be able to drive the truck over all that pointwork! The track plan seems to make it more open, despite the space, and as always the night lighting adds another dimension. Overall, some fantastic work.

With all the houses in place I think it will look fine - to me it nicely sets the scene as midsummer, which you could emphasize that with dry brown grass, plants in flower, windows open etc. And I look forward to seeing what you can get up to with that track plan.

All looks good to me! I wonder about adding a few loose bricks or capping stones on the wall, if a wagon went just a little too far once... As for the hut, it looks like an excellent place for all manner of stuff to congregate around. All in all, I think you're achieving a good atmosphere on this little layout. Keep it up!

That track-level view from the fiddle yard looks perfect! Everything is nicely enclosed from that angle, and it really shows off the loading platfrom which isn't immediately obvious in photos from the front of the layout. Are you planning to add any figures to the scene, or leave it relatively 'quiet'?

Mucking around with the loco a bit, I realised that the bufferbeaam-to-bufferbeam length and the wheelbase of D24 is precisely the same as a bog-standard Hornby 0-4-0 chassis. Hence, after an evening of cutting bits off here and there from both loco body and the dead chassis shown earlier, I'm left with this... (I tried to make that into a fancy GIF which switched between the original chassis and the 'new' one, but RMWeb doesn't seem to like it) So still not a working loco yet, but closer! As well as trimming a few bits it's also necessary to rotate the motor 90 degrees along it's shaft to get it to fit within the bonnet (hence why it's not on board in the photo above), but the gears still seems to mesh as long as I can fix it down securely. My new plan is to find a cheap yet new-as-possible 0-4-0 model, steal and modify it's chassis, and we should be good to shunt again! Also just about visible in that photo is my current revision of the culvert & headwall. After spending the past two days producing drawings of the dang things for work (as a placement-year student civil engineer), I realised that a much lower headwall with a sloped bank leading up to the track level is more realistic; a lower wall would be cheaper, given the era it should be a brickwork arch not a concrete pipe, and the sloping bank can have a simple post-and-wire fence at the top to keep the view across the trackwork more open. Much better!

As a 3rd year student, I've been thinking about how to build something like this that suits my needs for ages, and I might have to copy this! I've only started *building* models whilst at uni this year, and I'm currently storing things in my top drawer - convenient, since the layout sits on top of said chest of drawers, but it's easy for things to get buried and certainly not as easily portable as yours! And I've no idea how it's all going to get home again, I'm pretty sure the amount of railway stuff I have here has doubled... Something else to consider is where to store your raw materials; I've dedicated the bottom drawer to house my cardboard collection, but it depends what you think you'll be using and how much you want to keep in stock at any one time. Finally, I wish you good luck in getting to the university of your choice; I somehow managed it despite not achieving any of my predicted A-level results, so I'm sure you'll be fine!

Had to jynx it, didn't I? Anyway, here we are 3 weeks later. To be honest, progress on the boxes has been pretty slow, until an empty weekend gave me time to get everything sorted and tidied. First, a mock-up of the culvert has been added; the front cut down, some trusty cereal box card cut and folded, and a glue stick to represent the pipe. I'm now thinking this is a bit oversized and could potentially fit a pedestrian underpass or a normal bridge over a stream, but it wouldn't make much sense with the factory behind. Now, that factory. I started by working out the rough dimensions of the Skytrex 2-storey northlight factory, and built off that. I decided to build in a similar style to the Scalescenes dairy; layers of card, with slots that can be left open to allow the building to be separated so the box lid can close. In a moment of questionable decisions I chose to put the windows on top of the 3-layer card sandwich (plain back, 4 "buttresses", front sheet with window openings), so they are just behind the brick. I drew the windowframes on with a sharpie to match the dairy, then cut and fixed the brickwork to the front. And then I stopped taking photos! The buttresses were added over the card between the main wall panels, with an extra layer of card behind them to make them stand a little more proud than just the thickness of the brick sheet. A footing was added along the base of the wall at the same thickness as the buttresses, and window sills and arches were cut out of more cereal box card to hide the questionable brickwork. Then the entire thing was repeated for the upper section, but this time with the the window frames drawn on after I'd fixed the brick facade. A thin band of brickwork was added to hide most of the joint between the 2 parts, vents were added to the apex of each roof, and a capping strip was fixed along the top. My plan is to buy some brick coloured and stoney-mortary-woody coloured paints, to cover the entire facade and disguise some of the exposed card edges. The other major structure is the pipe bridge. This has been built out of Paststruct lengths. I started with the top and bottom "panels", one of which has an extra pair of struts beneath it to locate over the lattice pillar. These two panels were then joined using further struts: Then diagonals were slowly added, to create a truss. As a civil engineering student I recognise the lack of diagonals in the top and bottom panels means it is technically a mechanism and wouldn't survive any wind loading whatsoever, but I ran out of material and it looks fine as it is! All it needs are some pipes and a lick of paint. Finally, if you look carefully you can see D23 has got her windows at last. Such a small addition has made a surprising difference to the overall appearance of the loco, in person at least. So it's a shame that the chassis it sits on has died! I've discovered it's completely dry inside; but being a Bachmann split-chassis Mazzak block monstrosity from 2003ish it's difficult to keep oiled, since the chassis is both the bearing the electrical path. And besides, the axles are all split, it produces a burning smell when given a good run, and it can't run with the jackshafts on because they're not on an axle and lock up the coupling rods. In short, I need to find a new 03/04 chassis (or a new loco!), which is a shame because for all it's faults it usually achieves some excellent slow speeds. Ah well. Next up should be the overbridge, followed by the office and culvert area.

Looks good - can't go wrong with an inglenook layout and Metcalfe buildings! My only concern is you might find the headshunt is a bit short when you're operating the puzzle, but that can add to the challenge. I'm interested to see what you'll do with the rest of the scenics on this model.

What a lot of talk for such a little layout! Don't worry, it was an interesting read, and I look forward to seeing what you achieve in this space.

Looks perfect! I'd just position the platform at least a wagons-length away from the bufferstop, which should enhance the open feel. A crude ramp (or just a couple of planks) might help with loading too. Otherwise, your layout is certainly capturing that look to my eyes.

These updates are pretty much weekly, it seems. I wonder if that's something to do with when I have time for playing trains... Anyway, after this particular weekend, the layout looks like this: So not much different! Only, now there's track under those books. Which earlier, looked more like this: It can be seen that I've been playing around with potential structures; at the box join, the old airfix crane boom will now form a vertical support for a pipe bridge I've yet to build from plastruct, with an office/shed building at the foot. This sits against what will become a low wall, the other side of which (in the new box) will be a culvert emerging from below the track. The new box will also feature a skytrex-inspired low-relief northlight factory building, and a skewed road bridge of some form. As for the original box, it's seen the addition of a pair of hidden wires joining the two sidings, a point operating lever cobbled together from card and a paperclip, and the hard standing tidied up. The first two are incredibly sketchy; wires held to tracks with glue not solder, and a card slider barely reinforced that probably won't survive much abuse. But they work well for now, which is all they need to! The new concrete needs painting, but I'm actually quite happy with it being a different colour so I may just leave it for a while. This weeks projects include building that pipe bridge and making a start on the low relief factory and culvert. I should probably add a few more wires to the layout, too; it's possible to operate a loco on every piece of track, but only if all the points are set correctly. Nonetheless, it's already proved successful to me - I can keep the layout set up in a corner, and just pick up the controller and shunt a few wagons whenever I want to. The track plan also means that the loco moves amongst the wagons, rather than being stuck at one end always half off scene. Perfect!

Superb photos, they showcase your absolutely fantastic work. I love that last photo, especially the ground cover - the grass and the fine ground gavel in the regularly used areas look spot on, as does the varying levels of weathering on the entire model. Very well done, and I'm looking forward to seeing more!

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Your layout looks different, especially with the amount of space *not* used for track; I'm interested to see where it ends up.

Here we go, Arrow Paints Part 2. First step: remove existing front siding. This was surprisingly easy to do, as the cereal box card surface layer simply delaminated, meaning the track came up with the ballast still attached, and left a nice clean surface behind with very little extra tidying effort required. In the mean time a parcel had arrived from Hattons, containing a new Gaugemaster controller and a couple of cheap points. I deliberately left the bulky old Bachmann controller at home on the main layout over Christmas, and I already love the lightweight, hand-sized Combi. The points also seem to be in good condition, so a nice find there. Next up, after a visit to the well-known hardware store Poundland, the original front siding could be hacksawed to length, joined to the y-point and the 'concrete' inlay trimmed to avoid the point blades. Then the track was PVA'd down to the base, and left under a stack of Terry Pratchett for a while. Whilst that set, the second box (which isn't in great condition, it has to be said) was prepared; ends and front cut to match Part 1, and corrugated card (the other benefit of parcels: free cardboard) laid down. This time the supports underneath run purely front-to-back rather than zig-zaging, so I can fit stock drawers beneath the layout - might as well make use of that space, and make the whole lot a bit more transportable. Here's the layout at close of play: Whilst I enjoyed the hemmed-in feel of the original layout, I'm already loving how much space I've got to watch trains properly shunt around now. Currently, the second box is being subjected to the stack o' books whilst the various layers of card are glued up. I'm not sure how to hide the join between boxes at the front; I've left as much original wall in as possible for now, and would like to keep something there so the lids can close securely. At the same time, I don't want to block the view of the crossover, as it's literally the centrepiece of the layout now. And next up, I need to buy a LH point and a length or two more track, and work out how I'm going to wire it all up without a soldering iron.

Simple yet stunning! I would suggest adding a light outside over the doorway and steps, but that might not be easy with the LED's you've used so far. I can't wait to see it with the interiors, it should look fantastic.

I like the crane, but I'm not sure it makes sense positioned over the points - you need to park a wagon underneath to load and unload it, but that would block up the rest of the yard. If it can be positioned over the front siding it might make more sense. As for the viewblock, a grounded van sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Can't go wrong with an Inglenook! There's a good balance between track and no-track, and the canal adds a level below the track. Could you keep the skew on the canal basin running further back, to give more water and to stop it running parallel with the baseboard edge? Also, consider rounding off the corners on the canal, as (I think) they are frequently on the real thing - I can't remember seeing sharp angles in walls that often. And, for an extra challenge and feature, why not try making the crane work, or at least posable? I've tried it a couple of times, and it adds "playability" if nothing else! I'll certainly be keeping my eye on this thread, it should be a good layout.