pirouets

To Warley or not to Warley, that is the question.

Well, it all depends on whether one can get ones lazy backside out of bed for the drive at 7:30. Having flicked through the layout list and images it looks appealing but I am out all day Sunday as well with my other addiction (Golf)

I know, its a tough life.

Nothing major over the last few weeks other than finding out the new fiddle yard space works better than expected. Up to I have realised I don't really need to worry about electrical isolation as I don't have a loco to go with each freight or passenger train. Instead I can simply juggle loco's around which works just as well, most of the time through the fiddle yard rather than by hand, but occasionally it will be pick up and move.

In the mean time I have started on the ground surface outside the factory. I debated between concrete and cobble and settled on the latter. I need to take care curring in around the track and will need to touch up the odd area of ballast to get a good seamless join. Only question is how far down the sidings will I cobble.

So the redesign of the fiddle yard is down and seems to have come together quire nicely. I did change the lower fiddle yard and did not have a ladder of points in the middle to enable me to move trains between sidings. Instead I went for section breaks so I can still juggle trains around off the layout but gained more space. It will hold 6 trains, but ideally 5 at any time thus always having 1 space available for juggling.

I've created a temporary board for the switches for now (which means it will be there in a year probably)

What this also means is I will have to go back to thinking about the timetable as no longer using cassettes in the fiddle yard means I cannot just pick a train up and store it on the shelf, so move in and out of the station will need to be more carefully planned.

Managed to get the board changes done for the fiddle yard today. The upper level was simple as just needed board dropping in to the slot the cassettes went in.

For the lower level I simply screwed/glued on 44mm blocks of wood and then cut new tops so I now have 8ft by 6in to work with.

Finally I also added the base ground cover round the rest of the track round from where the lower level line arrives though I need to have a good think about ground cover for the area's where trains park up in the sidings for loading and unloading to the factory now.

Hopefully I will be able to order some of the points needed this week and get the upper level sorted but I need to sketch out some other options for the lower level as I think a double slip will give a better way of navigating between fiddle yard tracks.

Cracked on with a couple of jobs today, the first of which is to finally finish the roof for the warehouse/factory building. I think that took longer than getting the walls and windows all sorted but I think its come together OK so far. I need to look for some down pipes now which would sit at the join between shallow and steep roof slopes.

I've also been filling in some of the space around the ballast and came up with the simple solution of using dirt from the garden to get a suitable brown tone along with a fine enough granularity. I do find I have to grind the dirt in a bowl to ensure there are no lumps in it and hopefully next week I can fill round a couple of other spaces.

Going back to my last post I am having a slight rethink as it may be possible to get the 4 roads for the upper track in the existing space. There is fair gap between the 2 tracks in place at the moment and using a couple of spare points I mocked up the 2 new tracks and it does seem to fit the existing space, so I will order a couple of short peco points in and try it out next weekend hopefully.

Still not sure how that will affect the lower fiddle yard but may be I can just screw on a piece of 44mm wood to which will gain most of the space needed rather than rip everything out. It would also help re-align the join between the 2 boards at the back which has gone out of alignment slightly. In truth I think some more thought and planning is needed for this before I rush in to anything.

So I have been mulling over the fiddle yard as I am finding cassette trays a pain to handle and am wondering whether to have a bit of a rebuild to the plan below

There are 2 levels with the continuous run at the higher level. My thinking is it would be able to hold 6 trains in total with only the outer most track being direction specific, but I would envisage being able to hold 2 5 coach trains, 2 similar length freight and then 2 shorter trains such as DMU or shorter freight. It would mean the odd bit of man handling if i decided I wanted more, or I put a single 3ft cassette in to the inner most siding to allow stock to be added/removed

The lower level then would have 2 4ft sidings , 3 3ft and a 2ft (DMU) which corresponds to the trays I have built along with a couple of loco roads at one end to which will help maximise space for stock.

To do this however it will mean a total rebuild of the boards to widen by 3 inches to ensure enough space plus buying the points, whilst the track can be recovered from some of the cassettes that will no longer be needed.

I was mulling over how much longer the layout would last as there are a couple of other flaws that annoy me, but for now I think this is the best idea as it simplifies operations and probably builds a set of boards for the fiddle yard that would last beyond this layout.

The joke of this is I am back to work on Monday having just had 3 very enjoyable months off and only now do I come up with this. Oh well, at least I have a plan for the winter.

Not sure whether 1 persons habits since switching from N to OO reflect the challenge but flicking through this thread it does strike me that Hornby might not be covering all the key things then need to. In switching to OO I am playing around with that nice blue era. I'll ignore what I have spent on track as its not relevant but in stock terms I have bought 1 thing new that is Hornby (Ex LMS brake van) along with a class 31 off ebay. Everything else is Bachman along with a rake of Dapol concrete wagon.

So I know there are many people who model other era's who say there are things missing, but does anyone else recognise this as a seeming complete gap? I'm not saying I spend enough to save Hornby or anything daft like that but I can't be the only one in this position or is this just another view of Hornby's lack of a product roadmap that has been covered in depth prior to this?

Slow progress lately but have been working on the roof for the main warehouse and created the base layer along with the roof windows. This means the next job is the fun of creating the roof layer which will be from scalescenes tiles so an evening of cutting out strips and pasting them on one at a time awaits. I also need to have a think about how to put in the gutter that will be formed at the join of the roof pieces.

I'll also take a picture of how I am creating the dirt layer alongside the yard which for which I have used dirt fromn the garden as its the right colour and texture.

Not a huge amount of progress as lost a week and a bit to a bout of vertigo of all things. Simply sitting at the PC and the world started spinning and did not stop for a while. Thankfully seems to be over and I have managed to use a knife in the shed and all fingers still where they should be. Got cracking with a few jobs in the last couple of days.

Firstly the buffers are all peco ones but they are now primed and one of them nearly has its main dark coat finished. Does improve the look no end but I need some red paint for the effect of the light on the buffer.

I've also started looking at a new control panel as I changed the design of the layout and never fixed this, along with the fact I could do with improving the standard of the wiring every where. Not had any faults but I do snag the odd wire getting tools out. The picture was done in powerpoint and I need to create a template for the right hand side where the controller will go.

Finally starting to think about the roof's for the 2 buildings I have started on so been cutting out the card that will fit flush to strengthen the roof and building, but need to find a thin card that can take the scalescenes tile strips and then sit on this.

The other problem I have found is the upper track on the inner curve at the station end does have a de-railment problem for the MK2 coaches. It seems to be the transition track between code 75 & 100 so I am debating whether the lay the upper track with code 100. This would mean I could run my old Wrenn castle along with a couple of my Dads older loco's that I now have. Not going to rush in to this as I may find a set of Mk1 coaches runs better as the length of the coach is shorter and hoping to get that set in September.

Thanks for the info about how you cut out the buildings. I may have a crack at this myself as its not some deep rooted black art but just an extension of what I already cut out in 2mm card.

Been a while since I posted on this thread but its coming on great and a quick question - When creating a shell from 4mm ply, what do you use to cut out the shape, windows and doors?

Tried them for the 1st time this week and order placed on Sunday night and arrived on Tuesday - great service and will be using again.

I was tempted to post I had placed an order on Sunday night and the clock is ticking but thought that would be a bit cheeky. May be next time.

A bit more building work on a store for the sidings area and how I think it will sit alongside the other building which will now be the 2nd of the 2 pottery buildings. Lots more to do on them but I think I have the layout I want and now need to think about how the outside of the yard area will look.

I've also created trhe surface for the yard area from the station. I needed so plaster in the house as for some reason we lost the mains to the ovens which was under the floor and the new route is chanalled in a couple of walls and needed a smothing layer. So the remains of this have simply gone on the board as it was a mess having ripped up a platform I decided I did not want. I will need to touch up the ballast to join in it neatly. I'll probably make a sample off the layout to try out paint surface colours.

In the mean time I need to start on the buffers which all need priming and painting up.

So a bit more work on the warehouses today. Had to duck in and out of the shed as by the early evening it had climbed to a balmy 36C in there.

The low relief is coming on and I have added window sills, brickwork above the window and the basic roofing is on now but needs the roof joins covering. I also need to have a think about rain pipes to catch the water from each of the V joints in the roof so will have a look round the web to see what is available.

The main warehouse now has the inner lining added so if someone looks in they won't see white card and I am debating what to put inside the warehouse itself. Hopefully I will get the front side complete tomorrow.

Couple of years you said in an earlier post and a few post later you show this. Out of interest how long have you already been working on the actual building of the layout rather than the planning.

Looking at the scene in the bottom left picture a question springs to mind. When you fit the windows do you have anything behind them or will people see the inside of the building and you will add fixtures and fittings? I ask as I am putting together a warehouse and realised the glazing means I can see straight through so what do I do with the space in the building. I'm going to use the technique you have for bracing as well as I was wondering about that but you can hide it away at the edges.

Going back to the plan and looking at the fiddle yard I reckon you have space to fit a proper ale pump so you could serve people as by the time they have worked they way round the 5 sides they will be thirsty. It would make the layout pay for itself at exhibitions :-)

I finished running through the operating plan today and realised i did not think about how many 3ft cassettes i would need to hold the stock.

Along with this i need a better way to be able to swap locos as its not simple when they are in the cassette wuth the rest of the train. So i am thinking that having 2 or 3 1ft loco lift cassettes would be useful and as i have enough 4ft pieces of mdf to make 2 of each initially.

This way i can then keep the 4ft cassettes i have for use on mainline stock as they are not easy to turn around when being used to feed the lower level.

Pete - Is that last picture how a new operator will be initiated?

I see what you mean about shunting and yet it does not look a crowded scene. Is there any kind of timeline your working to in your head or will it be ready when its ready?

Just raided the Sound Machine in Reading and listening to James Taylor greatest hits at the moment. Love that shop as the gave me a fiver of what my little pile of records should have cost.

How about a set of exchange sidings alongside the mainline as modelled on black country blues or an n gauge layout that i think was called ketton cement.

So as I said before, been thinking about operating the layout and so far have built around 50 moves for the lower station and sidings area which I think is about right as I got through around 30 moves earlier on trying it out. The only change I am thinking of is having a couple of local trains that are engine & coaches rather than DMU, 1 of which is in the time table so far.

I used XL to do the table as I could add some simple formulas which are not shown to check the balance of inbound/outbound movements along with the column that shows which loco's are in use. Quite how I use this in the shed I am yet to work out whether I just have the sheet or convert to cards, but I might add all the point and switch settings as when playing earlier there were a few times I either had a point wrong or left a section powered after parking a train.

Still to be figured out is adding the upper line runnings which I am thinking of around 30, which would mean 80 movements for the whole process. I also need to think about better organisation of the stock shelves as I move cassettes around

So at the moment the table is

I've also made up the 4 sides for the warehouse unit and this time managed to paper the right sides and the picture below shows it blue tacked together as part of working out the width I wanted. Plan is to line the inside as well once the windows are made as I have realised with the size of the building its easy to see in. I may even go as far as to make so contents for the warehouse.

Been thinking about how to operate this layout at the moment and have started outlining a plan in XL. Rather than think of times specifically at the moment I am working on movements in, around and out of the lower area. I have around 40 at the moment but the key question I have for myself is what would make roughly a day. I need to get Peter Denny's Buckingham book and to have look at the timetabling in it

In other news it turns out that my RMweb signature is right on the money. I started on building a warehouse to fit the empty space near the pointwork. But being a total wombat, when I linked the 3 pieces of card together, I did so meaning I could not put brick paper on the mirror image sides which given I went for a northlight roof style is a problem. However after having a think in the shed it hit me that perhaps they will make good very low profile buildings behind the upper level track.

So carried on and if I add about 1cm of card to give it a bit of depth I think its OK. So instead of the original plan for 1 building I will work on these over the coming days.

And when I say next few days, it will be that as I am just starting what I will call a little career break having left work on Friday and plans for what ever is next is looking at Mid Sept to go back. Question is just how much will I get done? There is a list of things to do on the house, plus I will be off for the school holidays so get to spend that with the kids, plus golf does seem to be coming back on the agenda having played for the 1st time in 14 months (I had a tantrum like a 3yr old in April last year and stormed off the course and out of the club)

Good to see you back and love the image of the 2 points side by side - does show just how different ready made point work can be and compressed and often you don;t realise when looking at a layout.

Hope the weather holds then this week if your planning on chasing down golf balls - Not done that for sometime myself now having left Castle Royle but I may do towards the end of June as having an extended break from work :-)

So it turns out that if you don't pay attention and cross 2 wires over in the loom, that would explain why I could not run a train from where I put a cassette in the fiddle yard round to the outer line. This has been bugging me for a while and so having figured it out tonigh I would now like to say - on this day 29th April, 2017 I AM ABSOLUTLY THE DUMBEST SCHMUCK ON RMWEB :-)

How the heck did I not figure that out for so long!!!!!!!

As a result all is calm in the man cave now and I can start trying to plan better how to operate the layout.

Andy, I remember you showing that picture a couple of years back when you organised the trip to Pendon and if my memory is correct, you had another of a robin sitting on top of a spade.

Its a crap picture but this corner of Loftus Road was pretty impressive. I wish I also had the trackside view of this.

Hmm, another 3 months gone by - am I getting old as seems like only last week I was posting madly across RMweb whilst having a week off. One key thing I have achived is to pick up a Class 31 which just about complete's the core loco's I want for the layout, so in futuer most of my focus for stock is about a couple of coach sets and freight. Anyway simple progress to show for now.

1st of all a bit of ballasting down now in the station area though I do seem to have broken one of the insulating sections doing this which I will need to fix

At the other end of the layout I have been working on the warehouse that will fill in across the angled backscene and so far so go I think.

And finally some new cassettes for the fiddle yard - these are 600mm units and designed to take short freight and 2 car DMUs.

The other thing that has happened is my kids have both decided they want a layout so the 1st of 2 small boards has been built and the n gauge track and stock I have resurrected. My eldest wants to put a post up about that in the near future.