kes

I have now started thinking about the "other end" of the layout, and have cut out the base layers of a small warehouse from the inevitable cereal box, and placed it on the layout to gauge the size. This has to be removable as it covers the hinge pillar on the rear of the layout. The front hinge pillar is covered by a brick pillar supporting either a round or a rectangular water tank - I have not decided which yet. The cereal box will be covered in brick embossed plasticard. The large opening is going to have wooden door behind it, so the block will not be seen.

Derek - it is nice to see you get some running in after all the hard work. Kevin.

I have now finished the Cereal packet slabs on the platform, painted the canopy and added the rest of the brick paper to the walls at this end of the layout. It is beginning to come together, but will look much better once it has had a bucket load of dirt blown over it all. The slabs had a thin wash of light brown brushed over them, and the platform side walls a thin white mix brushed on so it ran along the mortar courses. The masking tape between the tracks is holding down the permanant magnets whilst I try different positions for uncoupling. The hinge blocks half way along the layout are going to have removable brick covers, which are going to support some storage tanks, possibly for acetic acid, as this may become a pickle factory! So I could have tank wagons coming in containing acetic acid vans with bottles and crates, molasses wagons etc - the mind boggles. I must also thank my wife for suggesting I bring the layout in from the garage and put it up in the kitchen - thank you Maggie.

Today I started cutting up cereal packets into 3' x 2' oblongs, actually 21mm x 14mm to use as slabs on the platform surface. These are glued down, each row offset by half a slab. the edging is made from a 5mm slice of these slabs. Doing it in small stages so you do not go too mad.

I have now started cutting and assembling the old Airfix canopy kits to give me the three bays for my loading area. I basically cut and moved the beams about until it would match the curve of the platform edge. In one of the pictures you can see the assembly balanced on an old chimney and two tins of paint! This shows what it will look like once painted and stuck in position.The canopies will be glazed with thin plastic, with dividing bars cut from thin strips of self adhesive labels, and then heavily weathered with thinned browns and greys. Remember that just because something is marketed as a product in one scale, it does not mean you cannot use it in another. Just measure it and work out its scale size and where you can put it. Also remember that objects in the distance are smaller due to perspective.

Both the 2F and the point look excellent. Kevin.

The bridge piers have now been painted engineering brick blue/grey and then when dry, washed over with a very thin cream paint mix to highlight the mortar coarses. Work on the left hand goods reception area has now commenced. The loading bay platform is made of 2mm mount board. The building walls are covered in brick paper printed from the computer. The gantry is made from plastic sections and will have a block and tackle hung from it in due coarse.I am thinking that where the right angle corner in the backscene will come, next to the bridge, I may include a circular steel chimney on the corner to hide the angle. This backscene will only be fixed in place for exhibition use to hide the fiddle yard. The area of the sliding entrance to the works will have a canopy constructed out of sections of the old Airfix OO station canopy. This is still available from Dapol. I have confirmed how far out this can come from the back wall without striking the "other end" of the layout when folded in half.

Thanks for the advice, I am now sealing all the card/ply as I go along. I am now working out which low relief buildings I can fit along the back without it appearing too cluttered.

I had made a 4" high wall along the back out of mounting board, in order to glue some embossed plasticard on. Good job I did not get that far as ONE night in the garage, now the weather has turned colder, and it is warped like a snake. I will be removing this and replacing it with some 1/4" ply.

Sorry about the lack of progress recently, I had to get the bare bones of a portable O gauge layout completed and out of the garage before it gets too damp. We need a warm dry patch then I can paint the base coats of black on the body.

Hi I am going to investigate putting the Dingham auto couplers on a bogie wagon, mounting them on extensions from the bogie so they pivot with it. Could be interesting!.

I have now completed cladding the bridge piers in embossed brick plasticard, and added the support lintels for the girders from 2mm card. The second small bridge has been made to represent a structure bolted together from 2 cast iron panels. This also consists of 2mm card laminated together. The larger bridge girder represents a welded/rivetted structure, There are plastistrut "H" sections glued underneath to represent the stiffening members. I have also been experimenting with the location of the Permanant Magnets for the uncoupling. I think I have an acceptable compromise between uncoupling moments. Next to build the loading bays ensuring they do not foul the bridge when it is folded up.

I have now worked out how to automatically align the centre road of the sector plate without having to resort to sliding bolts or pins in holes. What I have done is as follows. The far left and right roads are aligned by screwed stops either side of the sector plate. The right hand stop has a pivoted square of ply attached to it. This is normally hinged up away, so the sector plate when moved lines up the the right hand track. When the sector plate is over to the left road, this square of ply can be hinged down, and is of the correct length so that when the sector plate is moved right to contact it, the centre road is aligned. I have also started on the bridge pillars. These are squares of thin ply, glued to 1/2" square rocket stick, cased in breakfast cereal/pizza box card. They will be clad in either stone or brick embossed plastikard. The bridge girders are made of 3 layers of pizza box glued together, with ribs of 2mm and 3mm slices of pizza box glued on, and a top and bottom flange of 7mm card glued on. Next I have to make the shorter girders, then I can build up the piers and add the cladding. I need to do all this so that when the layout is folded in half, I can see exactly where I CANNOT put buildings on the other board!

I have just taken delivery of some Dingham auto couplers and have been experimenting with fixed permanant magnets for uncoupling purposes. This should work on this layout, as every propelling movement of stock leads to a wagon being left in a siding. I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks Simon, I may just make a central support for it. Kevin.

I never thought of that one - an OUTSIDE fiddle yard!

This is how it fits above the cab in the motorhome.There is plenty of room for the stock boxes, controller and any other bits and pieces.

So here are a few photos of the completed track layout, and stock "placed" to show what is possible.Y7 arrives with train, Runs around, Removes Brake Van, Puts Brake in rear siding Runs forward to headshunt. Removes wagons. Tower Jinty on 40" point

Thanks for all the positive comments, my wife encourages me to build these things, as she says "she knows what I am doing and where I am". Maggie is also going to be operating my N gauge layout Mickleover at 2 exhibitions next year. I might yet persuade her to help with the buildings for the O gauge layout.

Hi Peter, I can place it folded on the cushions across the end of the motorhome, then unfold it and lift it onto the vertical side cushions. I will take a photo tomorrow. Kevin.

Hi Pete, thread started in 7mm+ modelling - "7mm in a motorhome".

I have decided that I should try to build a 7mm scale shunting layout to fit across the back of my motorhome. It needs to fold in half for storage. The available lenght across the van resting on the side window shelves is 6'6". This, conveniently is the length of a standard flush pannelled door. Having a few of these lying about, I found one which was 30" in width. This was cut in half lengthways and one of these halves was again cut lengthways. This gave me two boards 39" long, by 15" wide. The open sides of the cuts were infilled with 30mm timber, glued and pinned into place. Two supports 3" high were screwed either side of the ends, and these were joined by flap back hinges, so the whole assembly would fold up into a box 8" deep, 15" wide and 39" in length.. A trackplan was drawn up to see what I could fit in the space, and it soon became apparent that I needed turnouts with a radius of 40" in order to shunt 3 wagon trains. It was deliberately chosen so that only one wagon at a time could me moved from an incoming train and moved to the furthest sidings. A sector plate was used to provide the run round loop. which will be hidden behind a building and bridge of some sorts. These may have to be removable to allow the layout to fold. The points are going to be handmade using 6mm copper clad strip from Marcway in Sheffield, and Peco 125BH rail. The Copper clad will be spaced up to the point using my favourite material - cereal box card. The points will be operated by slide switches and wire in tube from the front edge of the boards. My plan of operation is as follows: A mainline 0-4-0T brings in two wagons and a brake van from the sector plate. The engine uncouples and moves forward into the headshunt, then runs around and removes the brake van from the rear of the wagons. It then places the brakevan in the long siding at the top, before running around again to the headshunt, then going down to the front road, along to the left and collecting ONE empty from there. It moves this to the centre road, uncouples, moves into the headshunt, back onto the incoming wagons, removes ONE from there and takes it back to the front left siding. It can then collect the empty from the middle road and place it onto the incoming road. By running around, the loco can then remove the other incoming wagon and place it on the top road out of the way, before running around and collecting an empty from the front right road, and depositing this alongside the previously moved empty. The loco can then collect the other full wagon deposited on the top road, and take it to the front right siding. After this, the engine can collect the brakevan from the top road, place it in the runaround, before backing the empties onto the brake and await departure. And any other variation depending on if you need to move other wagons out of the way, or access wagons on the top road. Should take quite a while! The track is PECO code 125BH, because I have 8 yards of it spare from my garden railway. I have found that my Jinty will go around 40" radius curves, much to my surprise! Construction is well underway as I want to get all the track down so I can take it indoors to work on over the winter. The layout sits on two folding keyboard stands. In case anyone is wondering what the distance between wagons looks like on 40" radius curves, here are two shots to show you. The three links and buffers still work, but I may go to autocouplers for this layout.Excuse the focus on this one!

Will do as soon as I can. Kev.

Sorry about the lack of progress this week, I am still thinking about the roof fan, and also getting side tracked into building a folding 6'6" x 15" industrial shunting layout!

That looks interesting, Paul