TechnicArrow

Looks like it could be a good layout, and interesting if you can get the shed-dropping mechanism. Maybe a working crane would make the wagon-loading siding a little more dynamic; or at the very least pre-formed loads you can drop into the wagons, so they can be brought in empty and taken out full. And I'm sure you're aware of it, but one of the most detailed scrapyard layouts I've seen around is Ruston's one, and there's 21 pages of it here on RMweb for inspiration: I'm interested to see where you'll take this!

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoy it too. When I was young I always thought more than just the trains on model railways should work; I'm now getting the hang of creating what I would have enjoyed to play with then, and it's still great fun!

Thanks for your kind words! I've been doing a little more playing operating of the crane. Until it stopped working, and I opened it up to find this mess... I'm not sure how clear it is in the photo, but to the left of the spindle protruding from the base is a twisted mass of thread... at some point the boom cable, which is supposed to spool around the black tube, must have slipped off - and got thoroughly twisted around the main winch cable, which emerges from the middle of the tube. I tried untangling it, but in the end it was easier to cut off and replace the boom cable. I also took the opportunity to properly anchor it to the outside of the tube, since it would slip occasionally before. With the crane suitably fixed and with a slightly increased loading capacity, I decided to attempt lifting the largest item of freight on the layout - a BR container. The old crane couldn't do that! The container is the standard Bachmann one that came with the Conflat. I drilled a tiny hole through each of the shackles moulded on top, passed a couple of threads through (each one joining diagonally opposite holes), and tied them to a paperclip inside the container. Pretty simple yet effective, and the weight of the paperclip pulls the threads flat against the roof of the container when it's not being lifted. Of course, what the photos hide is how much is swings and spins when it's being moved... but I'm happy that this crane has enough reach, stability and strength to move it. The layout's getting plenty of use by the way - it makes for an excellent relaxing break between exams and revision!

A fantastic and truly micro layout! I think it just needs a figure or two, or maybe some wildlife to give it a little more 'life'.

Thank you all for the reactions. And hey, I actually managed to do what I said I would on time for once! This short video ended up focused more on the shunting than the crane, since although the crane is very fun to operate there's a lot of fiddling back and forth which doesn't look good on video - this short shot took about 10 takes to get right! Still, I'm reasonably happy with it, so I hope you enjoy. Maybe I'll do another more focused video in the future, but don't hold your breath because (online) exam season is upon us again so I'll be pretty busy for the next 3 weeks.

That crane I bodged over in the Green Lane Wharf topic has finally found it's proper place on Arrow Paints... It seems to fill the space much better than the Fuchs did, probably because it's actually OO scale not HO. It also looks more appropriate being a UK protoype, and feels more capable when handling some of the larger freight items on the layout... The higher mounted job makes it a lot easier to lift tall items in and out of open wagons, but does have slightly less horizontal range meaning the wagons need to be shunted a little more to reach both ends. And the crane is far too clean - it needs to have a light weathering at some point. But if I find the time amongst my revision this weekend, I should be able to present a video of it in action soon!

Very ingenious track layout, and one with plenty of operating potential - I used a similar one for Arrow Paints, and regularly enjoy running it. I do especially like the use of the point crossing, although I can't help wondering if you'd have more capacity if you simply ran both tracks to the sector plate separately.

It's always the little details that bring a layout to life - quite literally in this case, given people and trees are alive! It does look like an excellent scene, and I'm glad you enjoy operating it - that's what matters most.

And 'tis done! Of course, it looks much the same as it did before - but that's the point... It was a fairly simple process, involving replacing the concentric tubes from the mechanism to the superstructure and threading a few strings. Unfortunately the model does have a slight lean towards the cab; I need to put some more weight in the rear, and should probably re-seat it on it's bearing. But the important thing is that it works; I'm going back to Uni on Thursday, so I'll be able to reinstall it on Arrow Paints and should be able to make a short video.

Thanks @Kevin Johnson, I agree it's a nice model. Which is why I took it to the garage and set about it with Dad's tools this morning! First up, let's see what we're working with. There are two halves to the die-cast chassis which easily separate after a screw is undone, and that lets you access another screw to remove the superstructure. Most of the superstructure is also diecast, but hollow and with a black plastic insert that forms the bottom. The superstructure has a column at it's centre which protrudes through the hole in the chassis to accept the screw. Unfortunately, by definition that 'column' is exactly where I want to put the concentric-tube mechanism that will operate the boom - so it had to go. The easiest way to access it was to drill out the two rivet/pin fixings that hold the boom mounting bracket to the rest of the diecast superstructure, resulting in two components like so: Before I looked at the column I wanted to remove the boom, in order to turn the friction fit that allows the boom to be posed into a loose fit so it can be raised and lowered by string. This simply needed the pin to be hammered out from the brackets; the plastic boom could then be filed a little to loosen the joint. Then the column was hacksawed off the boom mount, and whilst the boom was still off a pair of holes was drilled - one in line with the back of the boom, and one under the hinge point. The boom was then returned to the bracket and the pin hammered back in. Finally the bracket was pushed back onto what remains of the drilled-out rivets, which still have just enough material to hold the thing in place. Barely any difference, other than the boom is floppy and the superstructure is only sitting loosely on the chassis. The next job is to install the crane onto it's mechanism, as well as putting some more bits inside it.

Merry Christmas! This isn't news related to this layout exactly, but I decided to post in this topic since I'm using the layout as a backdrop. I gave myself a little gift this Christmas - a Corgi Coles mobile crane. I bought it earlier this month, since it's been discontinued for a while and can be difficult to find. The intention is, of course, to bodge it onto the crane mechanism, in place of the HO scale German Fuchs crane that's been there for the past year and a half. The thing is the Coles's superstructure is hollow and supported from inside by a column from the pivot to the top, rather than built up from a plate at the bottom - so this could be tricky. Watch this space!

This is a fantastic micro layout; the Ruston looks right at home shunting the vans around, and the level of detailing is excellent throughout. Well done, and Merry Christmas!

He said, over two weeks ago... What can I say, we got to the end of November and suddenly Uni wanted everything done at once. Honestly, that term went much quicker than I thought it would depsite nearly everything being online. Anyway, the canal has not yet had a success. The first attempt (as seen above) made a right mess - PVA seeped through everywhere and the base completely warped, although the result wasn't *terrible*; it's just a bit messy at the edges, and only half of it was really flat and smooth. I decided to try again with a significantly thinner layer of PVA, but even that caused the top card layer to warp and de-laminate, and it ended up pretty cloudy too. More experimentation is required, most likely after Christmas now. But in the meantime - some rare Welsh winter sunshine streaming through my bay window, combined with inspiration from @Karl's excellent photos, led me to try some of my own sunlit shots. Here you can see the bit of the canal that sort-of worked. Not much else has really changed, other than the mooring bollards are fixed down now. A shot under the bridge. I'm not sure what it is about inset track that I enjoy so much, but I really like this scene. I'm particularly proud of this photo, because it's got real sky in the background! This will probably be all on this layout, and Arrow Paints, for a bit - I'm going home for Christmas at some point this week, for who knows how long. But there are other layouts at home, and some of them might even get topics posted about them finally...

Some incredibly atmospheric and well-detailed photos - I'm sure my models would never look this good in photos taken so close-up! Good work so far, I'm looking forwards to your developments.

This thread is rammed full of beautiful photos - both the night-time scenes and these sunlit ones. Fantastic work!

Thanks @Keith Addenbrooke, @john new, @ls91 & @Karl - very useful ideas, that have led to a little experimentation today... I already had the bit of card cut to shape, so I layered it up a few times, with a cereal box card shiny-side-up as the top. I painted that a vaguely suitable brownish colour - basically what I mixed up in a few minutes, I didn't try to match it to any real colours. I then created a sort of mold - a long piece of card with a layer of sellotape to keep it vaguely waterproof and less sticky. Finally, this mold was filled with a very generous layer of PVA - slightly watered down with the mucky water I used to clean the paintbrush from the earlier painting. I have no idea if this 'tinting' will help or hinder the final thing, but I went with the idea that this is all an experiment so we'll see what happens. It turns out that what happened is my mold leaks! I don't think it was quite sat level, either. I have now returned the escaped PVA to the mold and levelled it up a bit - and it hasn't started leaking again yet, so I think we're good this time. Because there's quite a lot of glue I don't expect it to set particularly soon, but I'll keep you updated.

I'm glad you agree! I prefer to think of it the other way around - my breakfast generates free modelling material for me! A quick update for this evening - I've built the canal wall, with the usual layer of card covered by brick paper. It was topped off with a strip of capping, which also helps to cover the poor join! Finally four bollards were added along the top, built as on Green Lane Wharf using card hole-punchings and sprue offcuts. It does make the front of the layout look much smarter. I will eventually put some facing on the rest of the exposed card that forms the base of the layout, but I've got to figure out how I want to make the canal work first. Any ideas?

Thank you both! The weathering I've added is nothing more than some very, very watery black/brownish paint, applied with a small brush to areas that look like they might get damp or sooty. It's not a lot, but enough to break up the evenness of the brick paper. As a little thought experiment, I ran through what this layout has cost me so far. Turns out it's abut £13 - the magazine the scalescenes kit came in, the lengths of track and the brick paper. Of course, I already had things like rolling stock, vehicles and figures - not to mention the large collection of cardboard from various parcels and cereal boxes! I don't envisage needing to spend any more money, unless I want to experiment with water for the canal.

Thank you @Karl and @SteamingWales! I agree the scalescenes stuff is excellent - I've steadily learnt the common techniques, and used them to create the two scratchbuilds either side of the grain silo. They're always a little better with some subtle weathering too, something I'm only just learning making up as I go along. One final update for this weekend - the surfacing is done! Two more layers of corrugated card and a final surface of cereal box card (that's a total of 5 layers now, for anyone keeping score) have brought the ground level up to the tops of the rails, and I think it look gorgeous. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something incredibly pleasing to me about looking at these long, parallel rails set deep in their "concrete" surface. As such I don't really have an overall photo to show you; I got too carried away with the camera angles Of course, the camera always shows up the little inconsistencies, such as that miss-cut on the front line there. What it doesn't show is how I've shaped the ground to fit around the buildings, so they sit "in" the ground, rather than "on" it. This means the inevitable little gaps that occur when buildings aren't fixed down are vertical not horizontal, and thus don't let light through. They can also be hidden by, say, a ladder lying along the base of the wall... The portions of concrete between the rails are also a little narrower than they could be, but that's in order to allow some fairly coarse-wheeled Hornby locos to visit. But for now, it's the lightly-weathered Bachmann stock, and I've had a play with some black-and-white photos to leave you with...

An excellent variety of little details, that manage to make the layout look so much bigger than it really is. The 0-4-0 looks right at home on the layout too. Just needs a few carefully-placed figures to bring it to life!

Coming on nicely! I love the very-low-relief terraced houses, and your work on all of the brick structures is very neat and brings a nice level of homegenity to the scene. The ground cover looks good too, and it all looks very good as a background to your loco photographs.

Three updates in three days, is this Christmas? No, not yet, I'm just procrastinating... This morning's supermarket trip included a detour to my local now-reopened model shop, to collect the missing length of track. It was promptly glued to the base along with it's partner. Whilst the track was left under weights, I finally decided to get my laptop and my housemate's printer to co-operate, eventually resulting in a sheet of variously-sized windows and a handful of signs. It turns out you're absolutely spot on here, Kevin - the windows have made a massive difference to the scene... The scene is suddenly properly closed in, and a little more detailed to boot. It all feels so much more complete now.Of course, I had a bit of a play with the camera, and finally worked out a good low angle I can use... Of course, I had a bit of a play with the camera, and finally worked out a good low angle I can use... ...as well as the shot under the footbridge again. I'm not sure that "Limited Clearance" sign on the right-hand side is really necessary, it's fairly obvious it's an incredibly tight fit! Next up is the task of building up layers of card to rail height, to create the inset track. At least it's all straight parallel rails here, no curves or point blades to worry about!

This evening's little projects: refurbishing the lattice pipe bridge into an industrial footbridge, and dirtying up the tower building. The bridge was fairly simple - I broke away the top layer of horizontal rungs, and laid a card deck along the base. The latticework walls were lined with the net that supermarkets tend to sell cloves of garlic in - it's a bit stretchy and fiddly to work with, but it looks the part here. A couple of the broken rungs were used to form crude overhead lighting supports, then the whole thing got a fresh coat of black paint (that mesh is really fiddly to brush, I can still see some white bits!), with a brownish colour for the deck. A simple rectangular brick pillar was built to support the bridge as it leaves the front of the scene. Et voila, one rarely-used pipe bridge converted to a functional (if a little narrow) industrial footbridge! Hmm. A slightly cruel close-up here, I'm sure the edges don't look that messy in real life! Not a bad view from underneath, though. The tower building had it's sills and lintels added, before the 'concrete' and brickwork was blended a bit with some thin, watery brownish-black paint. The weathering helps to disguise some of the seams in the brick paper, and gets rid of the white edges. I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this weathering business, the overall scene has the right blend of variety and uniform-ness to me. It's still the case that none of the buildings are fixed down, and I don't think it ever will be - it makes the scene a bit more pack-able. That said, the three main buildings are held together from behind with paperclips, to keep them rigid and tight. Finally, I've been doing a little research into the prototype of the Scalescenes grain silo, the one that stood at Water Eaton. It seems the brick 'elevator tower' of the original was much larger, and housed the grain driers as well as the elevator augers. There were also many more grain bins than the 4 (or 8, if you assume them to be 2 deep) represented here. But then it occurred to me that perhaps this scene is part of a brewery or cereal factory, with it's own small granary for initial processing and storage. I have no idea if this is realistic, but it doesn't seem implausible to me. It also makes sense with the forklift transferring sacks from the van, although I should probably find a more suitable road vehicle than the "Marshalls Paving" truck!

Thank you! Instead of putting the windows in, I've made another building with gaping holes... After a little experimenting with mock-ups, I decided to fill the remaining space with a half-relief tower building, with similar proportions to the elevator of the grain silo. This has new building has two doors at ground level, and one at second-floor level onto the pipe bridge - which will be refurbished as a footbridge. The building is absolutely standard construction - cereal box card and brick paper. It still needs window and door sills, and of course the windows and doors themselves! Now I know how many windows I need, I will make some "grimy" ones and print them - saves looking for transparent plastic, and none of the buildings are really deep enough to have detailed interiors anyway. It feels a lot more complete now the entire length of the scene has something on it. This diorama is also a good place to use the open-doored van, posed with a forklift and lorry parked across the tracks. Hopefully I can find another piece of track this weekend, and then I can get on with laying the surfacing!

That's a fine little model, isn't it! It should look excellent on this layout, especially when surrounded by weeds and yard clutter.