SNCF stephen Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 I have hinted at the idea of creating a test track to run in my rolling stock in my blog topic. I had not seen the 2010 thread until a few days ago. Since my layout would be within the size limits I thought I would give it a go and it might inspire me to work a little quicker. The idea behind this layout is that on one side it is a tram layout and the other a section of track to run modern era British trains on with the section not being show acting as the fiddle yard in the running sessions. I have purchased a 4 foot by 2 foot piece of MDF to get started and tomorrow I am going to purchase the track. THe plan will be very simple. Two loops with the heavy rail side having a siding on the inner loop for added interest. The points will be operated by hand. I am not sure whether to have a crossover between the two loops or whether I should keep them separate from each other. The crossover may add some extra interest when running the trams... I am also thinking that an extra siding on the tram side could provide storage if a service was being turned around as well as providing a useful fiddle yard storage. I think I may need to put some more thought into the exact layout of the track. Any input would be welcome. The layout will be set in an urban area, I have a rough idea of where I would like to put various buildings, but until I have constructed them I wont be certain. One thing that I have been keen to try is to have a layout set in the snow. I will probably get into the middle of summer and think that this is a bad idea but still I think it will make this layout a little more interesting and certainly help me try something new. I hope to have the track down tomorrow (assuming I actually decide what I want to do...) and then I shall post some pictures. Happy New Year! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted January 1, 2010 Author Share Posted January 1, 2010 I am not so good at describing things so here are the basic track plan ideas made with just track plonked onto the wood (I had to use third radious curves as a subsititute for the first radious curves :s ). The first shows the basic idea with the two loops (note the left hand side of the blue line is the tram layout and the right hand side is the heavy rail layout). The second shows the potential additions to the layout. The first being the crossover track in the yellow circle which I quite like but I am not sure about the positioning of it. The second (not being shown in the pictures) would be a siding for the storage of small multiple units when being operated as a fiddle yard or for trams when on the operational side. I am not too sure about the storage siding as there really isn't a great deal of room and it would not be the greatest addition to the fiddle yard that I could possible have. More to come! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted January 2, 2010 Author Share Posted January 2, 2010 Last night I soldered the power wires to the track and painted the board black. This morning I purchased some track, came home, cut it to size, then tacked it down with pins and after doing that I drilled two holes for the power lines. Now I have two loops with power and I am finally getting around to running in a few of the loco's on my n gauge fleet. Here are some pictures (sorry they are blurry, I only noticed when they were on my computer): I still need to lay the industrial sidings, but since I have not decided exactly what is going there then I am not sure. I have a Vollmer Container Crane kit that could fit quite nicely! Then I need to put down the roads and since I have a rough idea of what will go where this could be possible sooner rather than later. I would like a few shops including a large department store. I also need some sort of factory to help divide the two scenes. Once the road is down and painted and there has been some progress on sourcing the buildings I will start adding the snow. I will try and produce a track plan in the next few days as it might help me to gauge what is needed where and also for you all to see what I have in stall for this at the end. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 I have made some progress since the last post but not as much as I would have liked. I was hoping to have finished the tram track section of the line but a migrane this afternoon knocked me for six and I had to halt work. Still I have made some progress and I thought I may as well show off my fleet of 2 Modemo Trams. I have constructed the track by glueing a balsa wood strip beneath some Metcalf Models Cobbles. I chose cobbles because it was easy to obtain and I want to be able to run PCC streetcars on the layout and have it look fairly realistic. So far I am a little over half way through the process of constructing the track. I have weathered it slightly in places with smudged black paint. I intent to cover this with PVA glue so that it is shiney and then to complete it I shall recolour some of the snow scatter to make it look like slush. This weather we are having is quite good for getting protoctypical snow right! After the main road is completed I am going to construct the other roads on the layout as well as the tram stop and a viaduct (that will act as one of the scenic breaks). I am hoping to scratchbuild it all but I will be using simpler methods than I am eploying on my French Layout because of the timeframe it will be needed by. I am intending to purchase the town buildings from Faller and other european manufacturers because I have not seen shops that are big enough for what is needed produced by British manufacturers (except the Kestral large shop of which I may purchase a few). I am also hoping to have a street market along one street which will probably come from a Faller kit. Time permitting I will install building lights (using the Hornby system as it looks relatively straight forward) and I may even install 2 signals on the heavy rail side too if I have time. I will keep you all updated as to the progress made but until then enjoy these pictures. Here the blue Modemo Tram is waiting at the approximate location of the tram stop. A picture of the track. I did have some more pictures but with the forum not working so well I shall leave them for another time. Plus you will get the general idea of it. Let me know what you think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ste234 Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Looks like a nice start mate, are you going to be using OLE on the tram parts? Keep it up, Ste Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 Hi Ste234, Yes I am planning to use OLE on the layout. I couldn't upload the picture earlier. I purchased them off ebay a while ago and they are made out of white metal, they are the kind that have a central mast with two support arms going over 1 track from each side. They look quite nice and when I will install them nearer the end of the project so that I don't damage them. I am thinking that the corporate livery of the tram company will be a deep blue colour and I will paint the main part of the pylons accordingly. Here they are: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudley Dodger Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Oh, very nice. Lovely models. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 I am afraid I am going to have to withdraw my entry from the competition this year. My health looks as though it will not be too great in the coming months and I have already lost over 1 month on this project (and not to mention the numerous other projects I have on the go) so I have relucatnantly decided to bow out of the competition. I still plan to complete the layout, however it will now be a tram only based layout which will make it much simpler. Once I am back onto developing the layout I will post something in the Tramway modelling section of the site. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 I am afraid I am going to have to withdraw my entry from the competition this year. My health looks as though it will not be too great in the coming months and I have already lost over 1 month on this project (and not to mention the numerous other projects I have on the go) so I have relucatnantly decided to bow out of the competition. I still plan to complete the layout, however it will now be a tram only based layout which will make it much simpler. Once I am back onto developing the layout I will post something in the Tramway modelling section of the site. Sorry to hear about the health problem - hope it improves rapidly, and you will be back to normal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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