TechnicArrow

It's looking excellent already! Although arduous, ballasting and ground cover really helps a layout-under-construction look much more complete than it is, as your forecourt already shows. The staircase idea sounds good if you can pull it off; alternatively, you could model it in disrepair, construction or renovation, so most of the treads are missing or stacked up somewhere nearby. I'm enjoying watching this scene develop, and look forward to seeing what random "waste" you can incorporate next!

Now THAT'S recycling! I love modelling without spending anything, and that's an excellent re-use idea. This should be a good layout.

Looks like a good re-start! How about adding some 3D-relief to the building, perhaps by cutting out the windows and doors and setting them back a bit form the wall? Windowsills, drainpipes and signage also go a long way in a small scene like this, and lining up the track with the end door rather than a bufferstop would help make the railway look as if it "goes somewhere", even if it doesn't! Anyway, I think I'm going to enjoy watching you develop this little scene, it's got plenty of opportunities!

Welp, I've been working on my placement year for a month already! Only 11 more to go... It's been far too hot to be outside today, so I played with my trains instead. I've (finally!) shot and edited a video, with both shunting and the crane in action. It's a bit rougher than my previous videos, and I'm not sure what my phone's autofocus was playing at, but it gets the idea across. The layout is lit with my fluorescent-tube desk lamp, which is just the right size for this single-shoebox layout. The fiddle-stick also seems to be holding up well, although I'm pondering how to make a sturdier and quicker system than relying on plugging fishplates. Last weekend I went hunting for a local model shop, and came back with some Ratio Coal Sacks and a Parkside 21 Twin Bolster/Plate wagon kit. Having never tried wagon-kit-building before this was going to be interesting, especially given the limited tools I have available here; hence why I chose a fairly simple flat wagon, one which doesn't look too bad without painting. It didn't come out to badly; it looks good and rolls well, so something must be right. At present I haven't added the bolsters, as it's a general PWay use flat wagon. When I was building it I noticed as soon as I fixed the sides on that the floor wasn't flat, so there's a slight rock sometimes. And the wheels can drop out easily if the wagon is lifted or to much pressure put on it, but other than that it seems sturdy enough. The lack of couplings means I can't actually shunt it around the yard just yet, but it has reminded me I was going to experiment with 3-links. And finally, I still need to buy and fit a backscene. I'm not quite sure I've found what I need yet; I'm looking for something roughly representative of a late-50s industrial city, not necessarily photo-realistic, but that will look good next to the main factory and folded forwards 90 degrees for each side as well. Any ideas anyone?

Excellent weed and weathering work there! Instead of buffers on the front (or rear) siding, you could place a sleeper or two, chained or tied to the rails. Perhaps even a stack of sleepers and rail where the siding carried on, but has been truncated and lifted. Cheaper than buying a proper bufferstop too, both in the model world and the real one!

I've included a pipe gantry on a shoebox layout, and I'm pleased with the texture and detail it adds to the edge of the scene. I think it will be even better if it looks like it "goes somewhere", e.g. a water tank, a building etc, rather than just into the ground or on pillars on both sides. Whatever you choose, I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with your small space.

And, nearly a week later, it's (almost) complete! Two major things happened this week: the first is the completion of the ground cover. For ballast, I used what I had most of - dry sand, from Swansea beach! It looks surprisingly good to me. The concrete hard standing was also painted, and scored in a grid pattern that completely disguises the separate crane unit. The other addition is the end warehouse (finally!). I used a modified front wall of the free Scalescenes warehouse - shortened in both height and length, and with one door blocked off. The remaining sliding door actually slides - it's suspended from behind on a tab which slides outside the box, and card "rails" above and below the door keep it flat against the wall. I also took the opportunity to design and print various signs, which have been added around the scene. Finally, a small crossing was added as a continuation of the hard standing to provide access to the factory's lower door. And now, the nearly-finished layout, complete with incredibly simple fiddle stick - two sections of Hornby track PVAd to some double-layered corrugated card, with the power supply from the controller soldered on. Another short length is added to act as the inside of the warehouse. Why "nearly-finished"? Well, I still intend to add a backscene to bring the end walls to the same height as the back, and I want to experiment with lighting as well. And besides, when is a model railway ever truly finished... For now, everything you see (except the contoller itself) is packed away within the box, ready to go south with me for the next year. Thanks everybody for your comments and advice!

Excellent work! Using older kits adds a good variety, and the whole scene is compact yet perfectly believable; it has a peaceful, open air feel, helped by your choice of figures. I look forward to seeing some rolling stock on this layout!

Who'd miss an opportunity like that! It's clearly the perfect starting point for your kit-bashing; that goods shed looks excellent. I think with that steep roof though it would benefit from some gutters and downpipes, otherwise the rain will drip straight onto the platform! I find the sprues left over from plastic kits can often be used here, once cleaned up a bit. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll do next. And I hope we can all share some of your luck!

2 weeks later, and I've got some progress to show! So much has happened to this small space. 1. The buildings were fixed in place 2. The track was PVAed down - the second-hand section I purchased was just the right length, the only left-over rail is on the conflat!3. A hole was cut out to install the crane "module"; it's not glued in place, to make repairs and the module's use on future layouts easy. 4. I decided to inset a portion of the front siding, from the right-hand end to the crane - it allows the space the Bedford truck is parked on to be accessed, and I really enjoy looking across inset track. So far only the front apron is fixed down, a further sandwich of layers of card. This means there are now 4 layers of card, of varying thicknesses and strengths, in some areas! 5. Work on the pipe bridge has started; I dug around my collection of empty sprues to make some pipes of suitable length, and also found the lattice boom of a broken-down Dapol dock crane in the bits box, which I trimmed to length and added to conceal the fiddle yard exit. If you ignore the yellow box, which should be plain card when I get around to building a fiddle stick, it should be quite effective. I have yet to give much thought to the right-hand wall, but it's almost certainly going to be a warehouse or continuation of the factory at this point. I even like looking into the layout with the front wall "closed"; completely the opposite of the original plan, where both front and end were wide open! Coming up: this week I need to get the ground cover finished and a fiddle-stick sorted out, before I move back to Uni (well, a year-long work placement between my 2nd and 3rd years) next weekend. Once I've settled in there, additions planned include an industrial backscene to match the height of the main factory, a string of battery-powered Christmas lights to provide night illumination, and replacing the tension-locks with 3-links, for hands-on shunting; all ideas to get more involved with this tiny layout!

Thank you! For motive power, the crane sets the period to circa 1960, an era only two locos in my collection fit: an ex-GWR Collet Goods 0-6-0 tender engine, and a BR class 04 diesel shunter. Given the size of the layout, guess which one will get run! I have however been using that 04 for the past year on Green Lane Wagon Works, and shunting with it on it's own for another year will likely get dull. I'm investigating updating an ancient Hornby 0-4-0 chassis I have; either with the same "pug" body repainted, or the freelance diesel shunter from Budget Model Railways. Over the past week, very little has happened with this layout. I have however PVA'ed the ground layer onto a lattice of supports, and left it under weight to dry. With holes cut around the box, the scene is looking similar but a little more permanent; here are a few hasty phone photos. I'm away again for the next 6 days; when I get back, I'll be fixing down the buildings, then the track, and finally installing the crane module. After that it's just general scenic treatment. I'll only have two weeks at that point, so here's hoping it gets done!

Excellent job - I like how you've made good use of the workmen's poses in this scene. I think the bufferstop should be somewhat more overgrown and there might be a few oily puddles, especially around the barrels - other than that, it's fantastic what you've achieved in this minuscule area.

This does look like it's going to be another interesting diorama from you. Is the station going to have stairs from the road overbridge (assuming that's what the scenic break is), or implied from elsewhere?

Finally, the water tower - the second of the two main buildings in the scene - is complete. I though I'd share some pictures of it's very simple construction. As a reminder, the plan here is to use the tank section of the standard Hornby building, with a scratchbuilt base. I tried to find a real building to base it off as you should never build a model of a model; I drew inspiration from Alcester and Stratford's towers (http://warwickshirerailways.com/index.htm), but this model is going to be pretty freelance. I started by making this card sub-structure, with dimensions based on the tank, other water towers I have, and the bits of Wills brick sheet I have. I only gave it three walls, as the fourth is going to be up against the backscene and I'm lazy economic with materials. This shell was then clad with the Wills brick sheet. At this point I experimented with a lintel between the components as well. Next up we have the lintel glued to the base of the tank, and the brickwork has been painted - a mixture of PVA and black poster paint, brushed on and wiped off the surface of the bricks leaving the paint in the grooves and a slight dulling of the surface. The ladder is only balanced there temporarily, that'll wait until the building is planted before I fix it. The tank can also be easily lifted off, crucial for this box layout. The two extra card strips under the tank's lintel fit perfectly between the base walls to hold it in place. Next up it's windows - once again, sharpie-on-clear film. I had remembered just before I painted the brickwork to add some thin strips of brick to the sides of the window openings. I'm also experimenting here with placing a level indicator, stolen from an incomplete ratio kit in my bits box. I tried all sorts of things for corner capping, but settled with Metcalfe ridge tiling! I have plenty left over from various kits, including one sheet of slightly weathered "tiles" on thicker card. I ran the sharpie along the white edges and I think it looks pretty neat. Finally it's positioned on the temporary diorama, compete with window ledges and lintels (thin strips of Metcalfe self-adhesive platform edging) and a door. Here's one view I'm hoping to incorporate, with the meccanno structure in the background representing the pipe bridge across the fiddle-stick exit. And finally for a topic with "shoebox" in it's title, how did it take this long for one to appear? With ground level set at the correct height for the crane, both buildings can split at the same level as the top edge of the box. The right-hand wall is the one I'm wondering whether or not to cut off. I'm also devising a working order for how to build up a solid, glue-proof base layer. Anyway, I'm off camping this weekend - in Glasgow, where it's raining. Oh well, see you all on Tuesday!

That's already my plan for the left-hand end of the layout, between the factory and water tower (which is nearly complete by the way) to disguise the fiddle stick exit. I'm thinking about the right-hand end, which originally I was going to leave completely open and has nowhere for such a feature to run to. I hadn't considered a mirror. I've used one to good effect on my main layout to disguise how incredibly narrow a platform is, but I'm not sure one would work here - the factory would look odd when mirrored, and the front track running at an angle and finishing with a bufferstop wouldn't make sense either. However, the wall idea has grown on me. I think a section of wall with a working (of course!) gate, and the option to replace it with a warehouse or remove it completely, will work best. This allows the rear siding to continue into another fiddle stick or layout extension if I wish. The slight issue is it makes the triangle of land between the sidings difficult to access, but it was going to be left empty anyway. Thank you both for the input!

Thank you all for the lovely words. It took longer than I expected (as does everything), but here's the promised video of the mechanical crane. (It only took an hour to upload; it must be the wifi here, uploading was much quicker at Uni!) Both scenes the crane is set in were temporary. The first scene was created a while ago using the Metcalfe Brewery kit I stole off the main layout, and the second is identical to the one at the beginning of this topic. Both are built from various bits of card sitting on top of boxes, to bring "ground level" to the same height as the crane's mechanism. As for the new layout; a range of shoe-boxes have been dug out of the garage, so now I need to pick one, and start putting things in it! I want to model the water tower's base with an open door and an interior. Does anyone know where I can find a picture of what's inside one, if anything? Might the space have been used for a workshop, or left completely unused? I'm also wondering what to do with the right-hand end of the layout. My original plan was to keep it as an open face, to imply the yard continues and not restrict viewing angles too much. However, now everything's in 3D, it's apparent that viewing from that end will invariably mean looking through the gaping "fiddle stick" hole. I'm considering building an end warehouse or retaining wall, with a closed door/gate across the rear track. This would make it near impossible to look through the hole, but also might create a claustrophobic feel, something I'm trying to avoid. Of course, I could just open up the box anyway, and create a removable end building if I feel the need. What are your thoughts?

Looks like a good start. Over the past year I've found having a shunting layout at Uni is certainly very therapeutic, even more so if there is very little setting up involved to be able to run trains. As for this scene, I recommend you reinforce the base by sandwiching another layer of card or two - either the stuff you find as the back of paper pads, or a few layers of cereal box card, to allow the base to take glue and paint comfortably. I look forward to seeing what you can achieve!

After I built a reasonably successful layout in two three shoeboxes, I want to build another small layout. I've been switching between 3 or 4 different (purely theoretical) designs for several months, but now I've fixed on one and I'm somewhere I can start to show things. The plan is for an extremely simple, 2-siding industrial yard. The fiddle yard will depend on the type of box I use; if the lid hinges end-on or is removable I can build a sector plate, otherwise a simple track-on-a-plank approach will be used. Operational interest will be derived from a simple 4-wagon shunting puzzle, as well as a fully-functional mechanical crane in the foreground - a modified Kibri "Fuchs 301 excavator" kit, and the need for a scene it's deep mechanism can be built into in is the entire reason I'm building this layout. The scene is set as "somewhere in Birmingham". Time-wise I wanted a stricter period than my previous layouts, and preferably as early as possible in order to run steam; research indicates that the Fuchs 301 crane wasn't produced until 1958 (40 years before I was born!), so that's when we are. It was also only produced in Germany, but I will refer you to my modeller's licence! Perhaps the paint factory, "Arrow paints" (subject to change should I find a better name) brought one over as an experiment. Anyway, this era fits well with my current rolling stock and other road vehicles. I'll also incorporate a gate and wall in this corner, as I've always enjoyed the view of looking "into" a model over a gate. The backdrop building is the Scalescenes free-with-Hornby-Magazine "creamery" kit, which I've re-purposed and branded as a paint factory. It went together very well if a little hap-hazardly on my part, and I included a few modifications; the windows were drawn onto transparent film with a sharpie rather than printed, and the entire building was sliced lengthways before adding the canopy, such that it can be dismantled to fit in the box whilst hiding the joint. The voids left between layers provide an excellent place to add some tabs, which slot the whole building together. The scenic break in the foreground will be provided by a water tower, with pipes running over the tracks to the factory. I bought a second-hand Hornby model in order to use the tank portion, which features details that can't be produced easily in card. I've turned said tank upside down to give an open top, and intend to scratchbuild a new base with Will's embossed brick sheet and add some components from a Ratio GWR Water Tower kit I have in the bits box. Again, the tank needs to be removable to allow the box to close. The working crane was built over Easter, with the challenge of getting 3 functions to work remotely: rotation, boom, and winch. The base is a mechanism built using meccano parts, and the crane's chassis is sat on top. The superstructure is fixed to a tube of tightly-rolled paper which passes through the chassis to a pinion gear in the mechanism below, driven by a worm gear on the input shaft. Within the paper tube is an empty ink tube from a biro pen; this is connected to a larger gear down below, and is used to spool the boom cable inside the superstructure. Within this tube is the winch cable itself, simply passing from a handle shaft below all the way to the tip of the boom. I'm still undecided on whether to use the cab extension section; it allows the theoretical operator a much better view into wagons and gives the HO model more presence, but it also looks a bit ungainly. I still need to source an HO operator figure! That's where everything stands so far. I should be able to shoot a video of the crane soon, and after that I need to build the water tower base, and find a box to put this all in!

I did manage to stick to my plan! Over Easter I built a meccano gearbox to control the crane, and fitted it out. The HO model still feels a tad too small, but it works beautifully; far more interesting to operate than the yard crane, as the movable boom allows for a grater range. I'll upload a video next week, hopefully. Since then, my time has been full of revision, exams, and placement job interviews. Now that the exams are over and the placement is secured, the typical Welsh weather has returned of course. Still, it means I'm allowing myself to play trains again. I finally got around to making an incredibly simple, easy and yet important modification I should have made ages ago: I cut a hole in the end of Box 3, folded it down, and pushed the length of track from the original "fiddle lid" onto it. It doubles the inglenook's headshunt capacity from a restrictive 2 wagons (+loco) to an ample 4, very useful when operating the longer lowmac or parcels van. The front siding and skewed overbridge still make viewing the "hole in the world" virtually impossible. And of course, I couldn't post here without adding some more pictures! The new hole allows for a good view down the entire layout. And there's plenty of activity in the yard today, it seems. This is possibly my favourite photo of the layout. I'm not sure why, but everything just works for me. That said, I've just notice the 04's vacuum pipe is a bit off... dang it! Finally, I decided to include an overall view of the layout sat on my desk. Being buried under a model railway is a nice change from stacks of structural mechanics notes and papers. I'm leaving Uni over the weekend, and back home to my modelling tools for 6 weeks. I've drawn up the (very simple) plans for the next layout already, so keep an eye out.

Already a perfect atmosphere, Luke! From low angles the warehouse and backscene look excellent. The wooden-inset track is a neat idea I might have to steal at some point, but it looks as if it's above rail height and fouling the van's coupling in the last photo. What are you planning on using the very front-left corner for? I can't think of anything useful that would fill that awkward space. So far though, it's a very good overall scene that I'm enjoying looking at, so you're doing something right!

By focusing on such a small area, you've already achieved a fantastic level of detail, and it's not even ballasted yet. Very impressive, I hope you complete this one!

Whilst I'm no expert: There is usually very little flow on canals, although locks will drain water downhill and a system of reservoirs and overflows maintain a consistent water level and slight movement. Flow is certainly heavily dictated by the particular canal you're on; those which share much of their course with natural rivers will have more than completely isolated stretches. Not that this has everything to do with surface ripples; they are created by wind. If the canal basin is large and open there'll be some, but if it's narrow and sheltered as nearly all urban canals are, they're pretty smooth. I think what you've already got is perfect, but a few small ripples would add further visual interest and suggest a more open river or basin than a canal. Just go with what feels right for you!

That scene looks fantastic already! The canal gives the railway just enough height, and the stonework is excellent.

Thanks all for the responses. @hayfield - Options I hadn't considered, and if the running gear was the only issue then I'd certainly try it. The bogie issues push me away from that though. @34theletterbetweenB&D - I'm relying on my memory of motor the last time I tried to run it, as I don't have a controller with me - I left it at Uni, 150 miles away! @The Johnster - Very useful, thanks. I was coming to the conclusion it will have to be a display model, but finding a Hornby (or any other) chassis might work too. I'll look into this one further. Plenty of ideas though. Either way the project has now been pushed to the summer holidays, rather than cramming it in over my remaining two weeks of Easter. Thanks again!

Insert usual disclaimer about is this the right place to post, feel free to move topic, etc. I recently remembered I have an old, partially-completed whitemetal kit of a GWR "Grange" class 4-6-0. I inherited it from my grandfather; I would now like to restore it in memory of him, even though we never met. My initial plan was to restore it to full working condition. Given the poor condition of the motor, I've brought down my ambition to a working but static model. I have since discovered that it probably won't run around the trainset-origin curves on my layout, the front pony truck fouls the cylinders, and the whitemetal pistons and con rods look daunting. Therefore an entirely static model is now the likely outcome, but being able to shunt it around (or add a tender drive later) would be nice. However, as I'm more comfortable with cardboard and plastic, I've only attempted one whitemetal kit in the past. That one model is still incomplete - and it's only a simple signal box interior. What advice can the internet provide for a novice whitemetal builder? A good place to start being what adhesive should I use? (Some of the parts in the photos below might not belong to this kit, as the box was used to store miscellaneous loco running gear for a while)