TechnicArrow

Well there's a surprise! I never thought my freelance model would be that similar to something that actually ran on British metals. Thank you!

Plenty of things have been happening with this little layout, both these past evenings and over the Christmas Holidays. Let's take a tour. 1. Freight - A purchase of some Modelscene Parcels finally instigated a tidy-up of my freight collection - everything is now on a pallet, and most pallets have a string to allow the crane to move them. Not all pallets are modelled as full; one has just a few Ratio coal sacks on it, whilst the remaining sacks have been glued discreetly to pieces of paper, allowing the "loose stacks" to be moved as one block and posed against a wall or truck. Much easier than fiddling around with loose bags! That said, two are still loose in case I want to pose one somewhere. Also featured are the stacks of presumably paving slabs that came with the truck, and various other loose goods collected mainly from Modelscene and Ratio. 2. Couplings - I've pinched a couple of tension-locks from a Hornby 4-wheel coach and bunged 'em under the Parkside Vanwide with the mounting blocks provided. I considered doing the same with the 21T Bolster, but they stuck out like a sore thumb and the thing is too long to be used when shunting anyway. This isn't the best photo of the en-couplinged van, but it does illustrate the stacks o' sacks mentioned above, and also just about visible is a Peco bicycle leaning against the office wall. 3. Loco D23 - Has had the wasp stripes repainted, and now it looks fantastic. I tried adding some "machine oil" to the plastic chassis to get it to roll under less pressure. For some unknown reason, said oil neatly dispersed itself to cover the entire chassis, making it all somewhat shiny whilst not really altering the rolling resistance at all! The loco still needs glazing, but otherwise is pretty complete. 4. Loco 13601 - A new one for the layout, it's a slightly wobbly old Hornby 0-4-0 Caledonian pug. I think everyone must have one of these kicking around somewhere! I've taken an unusual decision to solder a pair of ~30cm wires directly to the motor, with a Hornby track connector at the other end. This (should) solve any running issues by taking dirty track and pickups straight out of the equation! This bizarre method will only work on this layout, where the loco is rarely fully on-scene when shunting. I'm also playing with the idea of making the surprisingly accurate, yet somewhat ubiquitous Caledonian Pug body look more like a GWR 1361 class. It's clearly not, especially since it's an axle short for a start, but I hope to at least make the cab a more pleasing shape than the Hornby model. One problem is I would want to repaint the model black once the extra bits are finalised, but looking online the livery of this body seems less common - I'm thinking of looking for a cheap, widely available body that I don't mind knocking about a bit. However it's all pretty pointless now, since the "will only work on this layout" clause mentioned above makes the entire premise obsolete... 5. Layout Expansion - wait, what? When I first started, I never planned to make this more than a 1-box layout, and as such the front siding is not positioned to line up with anything in particular. However, it is at precisely 11.25 degrees to the rear one, meaning if I replace some of the track with a Y-point... It clearly needs a lot of modification to (what will from now on be referred to as) Phase 1 - the front siding and hard standing will have to be completely ripped up and relayed to accommodate the Y-point, whilst still fitting around the crane module. I'm not sure the water tower has a place in the new layout either, which would be a shame; but it's physically in the way of the new track, and I'd rather not have such a bulky view block if the layout's doubling in scenic area. The Plan: 1. Modify Phase 1 with y-point on front siding 2. Prepare Phase 2 box (already sourced, identical to Phase 1 box for tidyness!) for track - build up base, cut ends, match to Phase 1 3. Lay track 4. Arrange Phase 2 buildings around the track; likely blue brick & girder overbridge, a low-relief 2-storey northlight-type factory, and a drainage ditch or culvert under the track front-right (left of current water tower location) to give some height variance and different viewing angles, taking advantage of the 3.5cm depth below the track. Also possibly replace the water tower with a small site office/shed or other small building. 5. Apply ground cover This is going to be different to previous builds I've shared here since I'll be building this in my free evenings and weekends whilst at Uni, rather than in a few weeks over a summer holiday. As I'm not at home I also don't have access to dad's collection of "serious" tools (hacksaw, drill, soldering iron etc), making step 3 the most challenging despite being only two words. Overall there's plenty to be doing, so I should better get started!

Ah, one of @Pikey's amazing RC models! I've been following his thread in the Radio Control section (linked below) for some time, the things he gets up to is quite impressive and has inspired some of my own more mechanical efforts. I can't wait to see the van in action around your layouts, I always find it interesting to see something other than the trains that moves.

I'd say that any fine material will work well, but preferably something finer than the normal ballast. I can recommend garden soil, if you sieve it carefully once it's dried. As for drying materials, leaving them spread thinly on a tray on a windowsill or radiator will probably be sufficient - you're only going to soak it again when you glue it down!

Definitely parallel. However, and I know it's there to hide the scenic break, the central pillar just looks wrong - it should either have corner pillars and two short deck spans either side, or just not be there with one longer span. As for the pillars looking too beefy - I think they're fine for an occupational crossing (foot/animal traffic with the occasional tractor) myself, but if you're concerned then perhaps using a light-and-narrow footbridge-type deck would work, implying the abutments once carried something more substantial but has been damaged. Letting my brain get away from me, perhaps that central pillar has been damaged, so a temporary, lighter, single-span bridge has been placed across the abutments during repair works...

Fair enough! The 4-board plan does look excellent, and the 3-way point certainly helps to open up the options. I'm interested to watch this layout coming together!

Fair enough! The 4-board plan does look excellent, and the 3-way point certainly helps to open up the options. I'm interested to watch this layout coming together!

Looks good! It's probably too late now you've built that fantastic bridge, but if you're able to extend the span a bit then one trick for a viewblock is to skew it "backwards" (road deck wider at the front than the back) - that makes it impossible to see under, and in this case would also help to obscure the sector plate and abrupt track ends from view. A number of pipes crossing the lines would also break up the vertical wall, and add to the overal industrial feel. I've always enjoyed industrial, "hemmed-in" micro-layouts, so I'm interested to see where yours goes! (P.S. Woot, 100 posts!)

How many times have those words been heard in this forum? I think an office or weighbridge hut would work well in the scene, if you can work out where to place one. About that loco shed; putting on my civil-engineering-student hardhat, could a low retaining wall (say, half the height of the shed) topped off by a 1:1 bank fit in the space? Even if it doesn't allow the shed to go in, it would still allow more space for whatever loco servicing facilities you choose instead. This trackplan and overall scene is one I've been thinking about trying for a while, so I'm interested to see what you make of it.

Wasps! Or wasp stripes, at least. I took the opportunity of a brief visit home last weekend to get some yellow on the noses; surprisingly, it went on fine straight over the black. I then added the black stripes over the top; on the radiator-grille end I was aided by the diagonal lines moulded into the part for exactly this purpose, but the rear end had to be a little free-form. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped, hence why it's carefully not shown in my photos! Rather than painting the handrails, I realised could just sand off the black paint to reveal the grey plastic underneath. It's subtle, but it helps to bring them out. Finally, I had my first attempt at using waterslide transfers. Since this loco is rather freelance, I decided not to apply the BR logo and "D2277" or "D2300" numbers supplied with the Dapol kit; instead, I cut off the last two zeros, and now the little industrial loco is identified as D23. Whilst I was playing with waterslide transfers I decided to finally finish the Parkside ex-LNER 21T bolster wagon that's been kicking around for months. It's gained the bolsters and chains, a load of wooden planks (coffee stirrers, of course), and had the end panels painted and the numbers added. I think the pair look just right trundling about the yard; it's funny how things look better when they're actually finished! Which reminds me, I should really get a proper backscene...

I love the idea, and can't wait to see how it turns out. Using multiple Scalescenes buildings will give a nice homogeneity to the layout. I think the Scalescenes Free-with-Hornby-Magazine Dairy Kit is a wonderful kit (see "Arrow Paints" my signature) that I haven't seen anyone else use yet, so I look forward to seeing what you make of it. I also love that trackplan. However, I have serious concern as to whether you will get in everything you've asked for - track, especially points, are often larger and more restrictive than you think. I had a quick go at creating your layout in AnyRail, and came up with the following. As you can see, it leaves very little room for buildings, but I suspect it can be jigged around a little. Actually, if you don't mind a little point-buchery, you can do the following: And I'm sure it can be refined further. I would recommend downloading and playing with AnyRail https://www.anyrail.com/en (it's free for <50 track pieces, excellent for us micro-layout builders planners ); or, for a more physical approach, print out some track templates or find some spare track and have a play on your boards, with your buildings and stock. Don't forget to leave enough plain track that the rolling stock has space to breathe, as even wagons take up more space than you think - and bear in mind that British OO stock may be larger than American HO stock, if that's what you're used to. Having said all of that, it is a very interesting trackplan, and definitely one that I'll be spending the rest of the evening refining to my tastes!

I'm already looking forward to seeing it complete with tree, it's such a perfect winter scene. So perfect that the train seems very plain and under-detailed in comparison to your work; I wonder what it would look like with a more "realistic" one, still christmas-decorated of course!

Ah, that's better! Before painting, I'd rounded off the edges of the rear nose, to match the front. I notably haven't done the wasp stripes as I said I would; A. I cleverly didn't buy any yellow paint last weekend, and B. it was just easier to coat the whole thing in black! The Revell Aqua Color is very pleasant to use, dries quick enough I can hold the model a few minutes after application without covering my fingers in paint, and washes clean out of my brushes under the tap. Through ponderings over a BR class 07 at my local heritage line, I've learnt that whilst the long front bonnet houses the engine, the smaller rear bonnet contains either a diesel or hydraulic transmission, unlike the mechanical gearbox of the 03s and 04s. Therefore, perhaps this loco was an early experiment of adding a hydraulic transmission to a spare 04, before the 07 was developed... This weekend I also took the opportunity to rebuild the first wagon kit I built, an LMS plate/bolster wagon that I don't think has appeared on these pages yet. The floor (around which the whole model is constructed) was warped, resulting in a severe rock as it only 3 wheels touched the track! The solution was to submerge the floor in a mug of hot water for 15 minutes to soften it up, before promptly twisting it back to shape before it cooled again. I then reassembled the wagon, again paying close attention to getting the frames and wheels square. The wheels still have a tendency to fall out if the wagon is picked up and waved around, but it's otherwise pretty sturdy. Whilst I had the paints out I did the bufferbeams of both kit built wagons, and lightly brushed some black around the metal parts of the van to highlight the detail. Sone barrels also got a coat of red. The simply-painted loco looks right at home shuffling around the small industrial yard, and I'm not even finished with it yet. It certainly needs windows and couplings, and hopefully proper handrails too. I'm fully converted to kits now; they are cheaper, entertaining to huld and so much more satisfying to run than ready-to-run models, whilst offering similar levels of details and the option of customising things. Perfect!

The prospect of an otherwise empty, wet weekend, and reading talk of Parkside van wagon kits in @luke the train spotter's thread, joined forces and sent me into town to see what the local model shop had to offer. The answer was a "vanwide" kit. Some history, taken from the instruction sheet: "This was the last design of the traditional British goods van. It had extra wide doors to cope with loads on pallets. Almost 2,000 were built in the early 1960's. By the 1970's a lot of merchandise traffic was being carried in air braked trains. To cater for this 550 of the original vanwides were rebuilt with air brakes, roller bearing axle boxes and an improved suspension as well as the smart Railfreight livery. The vanwides [now VEAs] were very useful in locations with tight curves such as docks and Government ammunition depots." Since this kit represents one of the modified vehicles, it's about 10 years too late for my 60's-era layout; but the only real changes were beneath the floor, so I don't really mind even though the kit does faithfully reproduce all of those additional details. Onto the build. As usual, the kit is a joy to build, although I found reaming out the sockets for the bearings helped them press in tidily. I even managed to keep the frames vertical unlike last time I built a wagon kit. Important, as otherwise the wheels fall out! Due to the distribution of parts on sprues there's quite a few brake components left over afterwards, possibly spares in case you lose some! Excellent to add to the yard clutter though. Whilst in town I also picked up some more Ratio pallets, sacks & barrels to add to the scene, because you can never have enough. It looks like someone's found a new place to read their newspaper. I wonder if they ever actually do any work... ... Probably not. It's dark now, and he's still at it! Overall, it runs quite nicely, and looks excellent in photos - and it's not even painted yet! The plastic brown colour isn't quite right, but it's close enough that it will do until I can find some BR Bauxite paint. The headstock and door runners do need painting black though, which I'll do at the same time as the new loco body. And that could happen this week now, I stumbled accross some Revell "Aqua Color" that should wash off my brushes with water, so we'll see how that looks soon!

Looking good! It's nice to see this old kit getting a run out again. It's nicely framed by the box, and there's plenty of space for non-railway things in the scene too. RE ballast: as always, first find some photos of what you're trying to model. I'd say an industrial yard would usually have pretty poor, dirty, fine ballast - ash, grit, compacted soil etc. In model terms, as I'm a cheapskate student, I've used both garden soil and beach sand with success, depending on the shade you want. Soil needs to be carefully dried and sieved, to remove any over-scale lumps; not too carefully though, small irregularities look right at home in this kind of scene.

I really like this track plan having designed (but not built!) several layouts to it myself, and look forward to seeing how you develop it. Have you considered allowing the shed spur to pass through the backscene as well? It would allow locos to enter and exit the shed properly, and since you mention removable buildings, it could be replaced by an industrial building or goods shed. Or even if a building was left completely off, using a fiddle stick as a traverser would allow you to run round a few wagons as well - bring in a short rake, run round, shunt them with wagons already in the sidings, form a new train, leave, & repeat.

@DMU Thanks! The Christmas lights idea isn't just mine; they're a fantastically cheap and simple source of light for micro layouts, and can really help to boost the atmosphere. @Russ (mines a pint) Thank you! I wouldn't call the water tower a transformation, since I only bought it to use the tank section with a scratchbuilt building. And I've finally glued that pesky brake pipe in again, so hopefully it will stay put! Now, here's a joke for you all: What do you get if you cross a BR 04 with an 07? Something like this... It clearly still needs painting, and I'll explain how I built it in a minute. But first... why? I've been planning a new loco for a while, originally to make use of a spare Hornby 0-4-0 chassis. My options for bodywork were buy an R-T-R body from somewhere, buy a kit, or scratchbuild. R-T-R bodies aren't common and I can't produce details such as grilles and rivets with my preferred modelling medium of cardboard, so it has to be a kit. The three I considered were the Knightwing freelance shunter, the Budget Model Railways freelance shunter, and the Dapol Drewry Shunter. The knightwing kit needs a motor bogie, the spare Hornby 0-4-0 chassis I'd use for the BMR kit didn't run as well as I hoped, and I didn't really fancy another 04 look-a-like. However, after taking a few carefully-angled photos, and mucking around a bit in Microsoft Paint, I came up with this beast... The idea became to buy and bash around the kit to resemble the above, whilst able to sit on the Bachmann chassis in the same way as the original body does. The kit's static chassis could then be built up to the same shape, so both bodies fit on both chassis and I effectively have two locos for the price of one. Out of the bag, the kit looks very well designed, and should go together neatly. I have no idea if it does though, because I completely ignored the instructions! In fact, the first thing to do was cut an enormous hole in the loco's baseplate, in order to fit over the ridiculous 15-year-old Bachmann motor block. I also knocked up a second cab end using the one in the kit as a template; the windows on the original rear end aren't in helpful places, so it was left unused. The four walls and the roof were then glued together, and dry tested over the motor block and baseplate, with the bonnet nose balanced on the rear to flesh it out a bit. The original 04 body is sitting on the static chassis from this kit. It's been assembled without any glue but is already stiff, and the jackshaft rods and pins are too wide to fit under the steps! I'll have to look into what I can do with that later. Next up, the kit's bonnet sides and roof were carefully cut in two, in line with one of the side hatches. The rear bonnet needed a nose; I didn't mind this being "blank" (as per the 07), so it was cut from another piece of card. Both bonnets and were assembled, and dry tested with the once again over the motor block. She's looking good! If over-exposed. That's the trouble with light grey plastic and poor lighting. Anyway, all 4 components were carefully glued together (but not to the chassis!), before adding the plethora of small details from the original kit - buffers, brake hoses, steps, the lot. The final model produced from this kit is noticeably different, yet not too far, from the one the designers envisaged. She's unique, cheap, much better than anything I could scratchbuild, and ready-to-run thanks to the Bachmann chassis. Perfect! Still on the to-do list: > Filling and filing, especially around the rear nose to get a more rounded, smooth finish similar to the front. > Couplings. Unfortunately I needed to cut the enormous slot out of the buffer beams to allow the model to drop onto the chassis, so I could just bung the tension-locks back in. I still really want to try 3-links though, once I've found somewhere to buy 8 pairs of them from cheaply. > Handrails. The moulded plastic tabs are undoubtedly the stumbling point of this kit, and I'll probably replace them with stiff wire at some point. > More steps. How are the crew going to get into that cab at the moment? > Painting. This will have to wait until I go home for Christmas. I'm currently thinking smart all-over black, with red buffer beams and wasp-stripe noses. That's all for now, I'd better get back to lurking under my rock!

I haven't commented so far, but this is an excellent little build with a good theme. I had considered the use of a desk tray, but deemed the height to be too restrictive (on my desk at least, and in OO scale); you seem more determined! As for the installation issue, could you have the upper portion of the rockery removable so the tray can be inserted and then the scenery placed on top? Might be a bit tricky to hide the join, but an irregular seam could be disguised as a longitudinal crack or similar. As you say, I don't think a cutting is quite going to cut it.

A month later, and I'm back again! This time, continuing with the theme of adding functions-on-a-budget, I've added lighting. I think every model railway benefits from realistic night lighting. Since I don't have access to a soldering iron here, I went with a simple solution: a string of 15 battery-powered warm-white Christmas lights. 6 of them are poked through holes crudely cut through the low-relief factory just under the canopy, so the actual LED and the messy hole isn't visible from most viewing angles. 3 are going to be installed along the right hand side somehow, and the remaining 6 are either unused or stuffed into the base of the water tower. I should probably try to put one or two lighting the sign, or the big windows of the main factory. The battery box sits in the void space beneath the layout, roughly under the water tower. This makes them easy to turn on and off whenever I please. At some point I might change the lights. This set, being from a cheap retailer over 5 years ago, has many dodgy connections resulting in an uncontrolled dimming and flickering of the whole set. Battery power also isn't very economical long-term, so I might look for USB-powered ones instead. And one of the unused lights still has the snowflake lens on it, since I can't pull it off. Luckily, its easy to change the set of lights whenever I want to - pull the old set out of the holes, and thread a new one in! Overall, this has proved to be a quick and cheap way to add buckets of atmosphere to a tiny shoebox layout. Shame about that loose brake pipe!

Looks like an excellent little diorama so far. I think the underbridge lends itself more to crossing a road. A rutted farm track/unmade road might be best; softer than a tarmacadam road, but blending into the (very neat!) square stone abuntments more naturally than a river would. Whatever you do I would avoid a solid road, as there will already be one over the track at the right-hand end. Speaking of which; the minute I saw the station overbridge, I thought of Bidford-on-Avon on The Stratford-upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway. It had a similarly positioned two-arch bridge, with the second arch used to form the small booking office on the platform. There are some good pictures on WarwickshireRailways.com: http://warwickshirerailways.com/lms/bidforduponavon.htm It's an unusual design that I think might work well here, albeit mirrored from the original. It helps keep the rural feel of the whole layout, by leaving the majority of the platform fairly plain and open.

Still looking stunning! I'd say only two sides for the backscene, to keep the open feel and variety of viewing angles. Also I think track stopping at a blank backscene looks very odd. The layout could also do with a small amount of carefully-yet-randomly placed clutter; a handful of rotting sleepers, old rail ends lying in the 4 foot, a depleted pile of ballast, barrels and pallets...

Feel free to steal whatever ideas you want from my threads, it's what they're there for! And to make sure I actually build the things... You've made a good start with the solid base here, and you should be able to get a surprising amount of detail into the space. The other important thing I'd suggest is to always try buildings out as simple mock-ups first, to make sure everything fits and looks right. And with such a small horizontal area, use as much vertical space as possible so the trains don't dominate the scene. I hope this layout goes better than the last one!

I've just had a read back through your thread. You showcase some fantastic computer work and an unusual approach to creating a model railway! My guess (as a civil engineer) is that the extra straps on the girder plate bridge provide reinforcing roughly where the girders meet the stone plinth they sit on. Using the extra parts from the kit for a water tank is a great idea, although it looks like it may be too high and possibly masked by the layout's fascia from higher viewing angles. Perhaps bringing it down a storey or two would help. The tank can also be used as an excuse to run random bits of piping around the layout, perhaps even a pipe bridge from front to back to softly break up the length of the scene. Have you got plans for the inside of the mills, at least the left-hand one which has slightly more depth? Overall, it looks excellent so far; I'm looking forward to seeing you computer aided designs become reality!

You want ideas, I've got them... what follows is the result of a student downloading AnyRail, and having lots of time (read: procrastinating) but no space or budget at that time. Maybe this thread could be used to collect other track plans for this size into one place. All of these plans are pretty track-intensive, supposedly representative of urban goods yards or similar, but they might work as more rural layouts as well. First, a fully self-contained box. Back left is a warehouse with loading platform, with canal and crane at the front of the scene. The left-hand end can be open or could be a further warehouse, perhaps with one or both of the tracks continued to hidden sidings behind doors. On the right the sector plate is concealed by a taller warehouse with wagon-turntable accessed hidden siding. Rope or chain shunting is essential to make this layout work, and makes for very "hands-on", not auto-uncoupling, operation! The second layout requires a fiddle-stick or traverser, but provides easier shunting. It's effectively an inglenook with a kickback siding, allowing an engine to haul a train in, run round, shunt, and leave again, all on stage. The canal basin was the primary function of this layout, but it could be removed and the front-left point replaced by a Y, to slew the headshunt forwards and give a more open feel. In both cases the track adjacent to the canal could be inset, but further away modelled as in poor condition with typical industrial-grade trackwork. I've also drawn out a couple of 2-box layouts. The first is an expansion on fairly common two- and three-point layouts; in fact, both boxes here would work on their own, to an extent. It features a run-round loop and multiple sidings that can be "destinations" for various wagons or industries. The fiddleyard/stick could be at either end, or both. The final plan is pretty that of one of @NHY 581's fantastic layouts, which I felt had a believable but interesting trackplan when I saw it at the Cardiff Small Show earlier this year. I can't work out exactly (or roughly) which layout it is, but I'm pretty confident it's NHY's or at least inspired-by, given it's saved to my computer as "sheep lane"! Feel free to build any of my drawings, as it doesn't look likely I'll get the chance to soon, and it'd be excellent to see them in 3D rather than flat lines!

Thank you @OhOh and @D2000! The "murky sky with silhouttes" might be perfect, and there's no harm in trying it. I'll see what I can do. I though I'd add that this evening I added on two "wing walls", ready for a backscene. Simply large pieces cut from a cereal box, they're fixed to the inside of the layout lid, so they fold flat against it and then the whole lid still folds down when the buildings are removed to pack the entire layout into one box. They also help make a "light box", and prevent stray light creating shadows on the layout. Finally, I've added a crude paper shade over the desk lamp to help soften the shadows. The layout is now presented as follows: Finally, during a quiet period, D2280 gets some TLC whilst Fred catches up on the news. This is one of the reasons I enjoy building model railways; the opportunity to craft photos like this to my liking. Whilst it's not quite what I had in mind before I built the box, it's absolutely perfect to me. All I need now is to learn how to weather the pristine rolling stock!