Harlequin

Actually, 0.75m is easily reachable, isn't it. I don't know what I was thinking! D'Oh!

The depth of the baseboards, at 0.75m, might be difficult to reach across for modelling and train rescue - if the back of the layout is fixed to the wall. And of course Pythagoras says that to reach into the back corner is even further - just over a metre.

There are lots of options. Here are a few more thoughts: If the unit is made of 80mm deep bracing with 75mm wide fittings it will probably be quite heavy! So it might be difficult to manoeuvre into place and it will need stronger (and longer) fixings. I was thinking of a much thinner construction: 12mm ply at the most and 15-22mm thick timbers. Using LED tape + driver means you're just buying the components you need, to get exactly the brightness you need without modifying or throwing away parts of a manufactured fitting. The Rolls-Royce option: If you went for RGB+W tape with a remote control you could get exactly the light colour/quality you wanted - and even vary it for different purposes. I don't mean colour-cycling through gaudy primary colours - RGB+W lets you subtly adjust the colour balance of basically white light.

This is a bit late, sorry, but the mind works in mysterious ways and I've only just had a lightbulb moment (haha ) You could make a new light fitting for the ceiling, connected to the existing rose like this: Cut a square or rectangular sheet of ply to say 1.2 by 1.6 metres. Fit battens to the top face, inset from the edges of the ply. Paint the outside edges of the battens, and the top face of the board outside them, white. Stick LED tape around the outside of the battens and mount the driver inside the battens. Paint the underside of the board white, or maybe an interesting contrasting colour or if it's birch ply varnish it. Wire the driver to the ceiling rose and screw the whole assembly to the ceiling, over the rose. Thus the traditional ceiling rose and pendant is converted into a sleek contemporary source of concealed energy efficient lighting - and the unit can be demounted in the future leaving the original rose and just four screw holes to be filled.

Here's another design I did recently in this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/110147-kings-tawton/ KingsTawton8.pdf

Thanks Rich, Glad you like it! The river bridge baseboard could be thinner but you'd probably have to have a little fillet between that board and the top board to carry the line and a bit of scenery. (Out of interest, why does that section need to be removable?) I didn't know about the desk and so I drew the fiddle yard using points so that construction would be quick and easy, there would be less manual fiddling and so there's a fixed loop for continuous running. I'm sure it can be rejigged as you describe. I hope you and your family get loads of enjoyment from building and running your layout!

Thanks, It came together nicely and the simple station layout is just right for modern image. If it were steam era there would be a lot more clutter around! I find drawing layout plans a very satisfying pastime. So, yes, in principle I'm up for drawing plans for people so long as it doesn't get too burdensome.

Hi Rich, Here's where I've got to. It balances practical modelling issues against prototypical features. [Click to enlarge] There are a few niggles and I've left out a lot of little details like machinery and piles of materials in the good yard. And I just realised I haven't shown a shelter on the south platform. I'm using Xara Designer Pro but Xara "Photo and Graphic Designer" or Illustrator or Affinity Designer would also do the job. (Although Affinity doesn't have a feature to scale measurements yet AFAIK.) You can see the details better and hide layers in this PDF: KingsTawton8.pdf (I'm not sure why the PDF is so big. I will try to fix it later.) Edit: You can download the "Technical" font from here: https://fonts2u.com/technical.font (It's owned by Corel and they don't allow it to be embedded in PDFs...)

Be careful when buying LED tapes - you definitely get what you pay for! Some tapes have widely spaced LEDs that give low brightness. These can be disappointingly dim and each light source can be seen if the tape is close to a wall or ceiling. Tapes with bigger LEDs packed closer together give a better result and a good metric for comparing tapes is the "Lumens per metre" they output. You can calculate the total number of lumens and compare to your current light fitting. I found this site to be quite informative and I bought some tape and a driver from them for my living room: https://www.instyleled.co.uk/white-led-tape/ I worked out the total number of lumens I needed to replace a couple of 3ft flourescent tubes, bought appropriately (the 20W tape) and the results are very good - about the same brightness and a good warm, even light.

Thanks Rich, OK, I'll try to make the goods sidings longer by reducing outer platform length a bit. The outer platform line is a compound curve going from about 1700mm (~5.5ft) radius to 915mm (3ft) radius - very generous! BTW: There are currently only 5 points in the scenic area. Two are already large radius (purple) and the medium (brown) can probably be made large, so it's close to allowing the use of bullhead track and points - if it weren't for the pesky curved points, which are crucial in making the design work.

I just had an idea: 2018 Little Muddle Calendar

I love the photo with the Austin 7 (right?) parked in the yard - and the leaky gutter! My Dad's first car was an Austin 7 and he used to talk fondly about it all his life. I've got some photos of it somewhere.

Hi Rich, Are you OK with me carrying on with my drawing and posting updates here? I think the design naturally just "works" (unlike many other designs that are unhappy and compromised) and so I'd like to tidy things up and fill in the details. If so, and if you want to steer me and maybe correct things that I've got wrong, please let me know what you think should be changed. Feel free to scrawl red pixels on the bitmap above and re-post or PM me. Thanks,

Hi Rich, My drawing is 8ft 6 by 7ft 6. So, since I got the width right and I matched both width and height with your drawing, something doesn't add up...! However, it should be possible to shrink the design by a foot vertically without any drastic losses. Flat boards are for wusses! But really, it should be possible to use flat boards for all the trackwork except, conveniently, the removable section on the west. The river scene south of the station could be a separate dropped section - not true baseboard. Edit: You could build a simple level removable section first, to get the basic layout up and running as Jaggzuk suggested, and later replace it with a dropped scenic version with the Taw running under the railway.

Hi again, Sorry, I couldn't help it - I was thinking about your design and I had an idea that I had to draw to see if it would work... The idea is to keep the inside of the loop clear so that you can see trains running on plain track through countryside and so that the station platforms are close to the river, like Eggesford. Then put some goods sidings further along the line on the outside to make better use of one of the corners. The three goods sidings are mainly parallel to the main loop to keep things realistically "linear" and the outer platform line can be used as a headshunt. So traffic can run on the main inner loop while shunting carries on in the goods yard. (Good for two operators.) Edit: The three sidings would allow the "Inglenook shunting puzzle" to be played. I've also shown an enlarged fiddle yard with another passing loop and thee storage sidings. The passing loop and one of the sidings are both long enough to hold 4 coaches + loco. Min radius in the scenic section: 915mm (apart from curved points). Min radius in the fiddle yard: 610mm on the main loop and less in the inner sidings (but that could be eased if you didn't mind losing some siding length). I guesstimated the room size. [Click to enlarge]

Maybe there's a crafty way to disguise the motor lump: Perhaps a cheeky passenger has been to town and bought some new carpets. A promise of a pint to the guard and he's been allowed to lay them across the seats to get them home. And of course the windows would naturally get a bit grimy...

You're still about 30% out. 5280 feet equates to 21.12 metres in 4mm OO scale. Remember OO scale is 4mm (model) to the foot (real world) and HO is 3.5mm (model) to the foot (real world) - so you can't use an HO scale converter to get accurate distances for a OO scale model. (Have you measured the space for your layout yet?)

Hi, I like the idea of a fictionalised part of the "Tarka line" and the curvy rural simplicity of your design. Your fiddle yard looks a bit odd - neither of the sidings is long enough to hold a loco plus 3 or 4 coaches. So it would be difficult to put a train together while another is running or store the 4 coach train while something else is running. I notice you suggested a traverser or cassettes for the fiddle yard earlier so maybe your last drawing just shows an indication of where the fiddle yard will be? Have you got accurate measurements for the room?

It looks right at home! (This forum needs a "jealous" button.)

I've updated the Peco geometry resources at the top of this thread to include part numbers for the new Code75 bullhead large radius points. (Version 9.)

I just worked out (for obvious reasons) that my fat little cat is 67ft 6in tall at the shoulders in 4mm scale. That's roughly 20.5 metres - slightly taller than the Angel of the North. I dread to think what her tonnage would be... ;-)

I'm sure they are excellent books. Part 1 is readily available but Part 2 (the one I'm more interested in) is out of print and I can't find a copy anywhere on the web. (And I'm a bit concerned about the potential cost of the book, when only some of the info would be useful to me.) The great western archive website has a pretty good image of Diagram A 26 but not the ones I'm looking for (27, 28, 30). I wonder why more of the raw info, which must be out of copyright by now, is not on the web somewhere for everyone to use for free??? I have one more good lead to follow up, though...