Little Trains

Old Railway Bridge

2011-08-01T20:00:00.008+01:00

On holiday last year we walked down part of an old railway line and I took a photo of a bridge. The brickwork seems in very good condition considering it's 40 years since the line closed, but I expect it has had some maintenance to keep the bridge safe for walkers. Looking at this bridge I can't help imagining the wooden railings being removed and a small narrow gauge steam train running across it. Walking down the line I realised that all the trees must have grown since the line was closed, probably most of them in the first few years. It's interesting to see how quickly nature recolonises.

Linkdump Summer 2011

2011-07-27T20:30:00.001+01:00

This was in my draft and still had the title "Linkdump Autumn 2010". It's better on the web where I can find it more easily so I've added a couple more recent links and updated the title.

Modified C-Rail Tanktainers

How to build a hipped roof

Narrow gauge airbraked wagons, built by Julien Webb from 3mm scale kits

Lineside Industries (via Si from ngrm-online)

Modern 1:76 Scale Colour Light Signals

Plants and flowers by Will Vale on RMWeb

Ouse Viaduct/Balcombe/Lewes project an ambitious project to build a P4 recreation of the Ouse Valley Viaduct, Balcombe station, and Lewes Station using a Fremo style modular approach. They are going to build some generic scenery sections to link the main boards together. Their first baseboard is built and they've laid out the viaduct, and are making good progress.

The Elly James & Keith Light Railway - I've always admired James' modelling and his garden railway looks great fun.

Devil's Dyke Railway - I've still not got round to watching this video of an old railway line that I've walked more than once. I remember there being a good apple tree next to the track bed.

Hayling Seaside Railway

2011-07-22T20:00:00.000+01:00

I've been rather busy recently and haven't done much modelling, but I am still here and I've not forgotten about the blog.

At the end of last summer we went to Hayling Seaside Railway for one of their steam weekends. Emmet was the visiting locomotive. It's just over a mile long according to Wikipedia and the scenery isn't that varied, but I've always had a soft spot for railways on beaches. We started out from Eastoke Corner and took the train to the main station at Beachlands. When we arrived at Beachlands it was starting to rain but as part of the station is under cover we got out and watched Emmet being prepared for the return run. By the time Emmet was running round the train the rain had got fairly heavy so I took a couple of quick photos and got back in the dry. The rain had stopped by the time we got back to Eastoke,so we had a play on the adiZone outdoor gym went for a short walk before heading home.

The station and sheds would scale at around 100x30cm in 009, so a micro layout could be built without any compression. Google maps shows the size of the station and this photo shows compact shed area. It would be good to include a representation of the line across the beach, but to keep space down this could be kept quite narrow. If the fiddleyard exit was to be hidden then the scene would have to be modified, a building could be used, or the amusement park could be moved to the hide the exit. The other option would be a cassette fiddleyard in plain view. beach. Operation would be fairly limited, as the line can only have two trains running at a time - either two passenger trains, or a passenger train and a demonstration freight train, but modellers license could be used to make operation slightly more interesting.

More photos on Flickr

Bure Valley Railway

2010-11-15T20:00:00.002Z

This summer we visited the Bure Valley Railway, a 15" gauge miniature railway, built on trackbed of the old standard gauge branch line from Wroxham to Aylsham. After told my two year old daughter we were going on a steam train, she announced that she they were noisy and she didn't like going in the dark. We eventually realised that she must be remembering a visit to Moors Valley the previous summer, where she was upset by other children screaming as the train went through a tunnel. Fortunately she thought the tunnel was brilliant this time and we all had an enjoyable ride. The scenery isn't spectacular, and the intermediate stops are halts rather than stations, and it's a short walk at the Wroxham end of the line to the river. There is a path running most of the length of the line, and some connecting footpaths so it would have been possible to walk some of the return journey and have additional photo opportunities, however the weather was looking ominous and the children were a bit tired, so we got the train back.

Of course Colin Lea has visited it (I'm beginning to think he's visited every narrow gauge line in the country) and gave it 65% on his marking system.

Here's a couple more photos, there's plenty more in my Bure Valley Railway Set on Flickr.

Links:
Bure Valley Railway
Bure Valley Railway Set on Flickr

ExpoNG 2010

2010-11-12T17:50:00.002Z

ExpoNG is one of bigger specialist narrow gauge shows. I've never been as it's just under 2 hours drive away and I only passed my test this summer. This year there were a few layouts I really wanted to see I decided to brave the M25 to get there.

ExpoNG was the first exhibition of Colin Lea's Rhyd Ddu, and was one of the reasons I made the trip. It didn't disappoint, and Colin looked delighted to be there despite a few minor issues which you can read about on his blog.

Koonunga Junction is an Australian On30 layout, built in France which made great use of sound. As well as the trains there were plenty of atmospheric sounds and bird songs including the distinctive laughter of the Kookaburra.

Punta Marina by Henk Wust was a worthy winner of the Reinier Hendriksen trophy. Henk was very friendly and delighted in telling visitors about his layout.

Gweek North Quay was the winner of the David Lloyd Trophy. I particularly liked the village end of the layout with the terraced cottages on the slope up from the harbour and the railway disappearing between the buildings in a totally believable way.

There are plenty more ExpoNG photos and reports from Michael Campbell, Simon Cox, Tom Dauben, Steve Fulljames, and Chris Ford.

The Lymington Branch

2010-10-05T22:31:00.000+01:00

22nd May 2010 was the last day of operation for slam door EMUs operated on the Lymington Branch. The two 3CIGs, 1497 (Freshwater) and 1498 (Farringford) have now been replaced by a 158 and Desiro. We went down the weekend before for our last chance to ride on these trains. 1497 Freshwater in Blue/Grey was operating the line that day. We caught the train down to Lymington Pier, and got off to take some photos and look around. There isn't much at Lymington Peir, so we caught the next train back to Lymington Town, then walked down to the quayside to have our lunch. As we were finishing lunch we fishing boat came in and started unloading its catch of cuttlefish. After a stop at the playground we headed back to the station when I took a few more photos and then headed home. On the way back I took a few photos at Brokenhurst, including a couple of the unusual swing bridge which would have originally been for parcel trolleys, and has been kept to provide disabled access.

009 Modules

2010-09-27T07:27:00.001+01:00

I've been sketching out some ideas for modules for an 009 modular system which is under development. All 3 modules could represent parts of my fictional modern Welsh narrow gauge network, but hopefully wouldn't look too specific to that region.

1. Is based on this bit of the WLLR. After drawing it I realised it might be better if the river didn't go over the ends of the modules as that would be hard to make look good, so I would change that if I built it.

2. Is based on the Aberglaslyn tunnels, with the line running between two tunnels. I'm assuming modules with backscenes that wrap around the module ends for this one, but it could have a short tunnel in the middle there weren't backscenes between modules.

3. A junction station which could be used either as a straight module, a corner module or as a junction module. There is double track leaving on the left end, but the rear track wouldn't continue if the next module didn't have double track. The platforms would be low (WHR style) and the road would be on a retaining wall behind the station. There might be houses in the top left, or I might make it two boards with the left hand board being narrower that the right. It's very loosely based on the idea that the Llanberis Lake Railway have extended to Caernarfon.

Oh, and if you're wondering what the beer is, it's Wells Bombardier.

A rainy Sunday afternoon

2010-08-27T20:00:00.000+01:00

It was raining on Sunday afternoon, and rather than go swimming in a river with friends, I spent a while working on the pizza layout. My two year old was fascinated and sat watching me, asking questions, and telling me what she thought I should add next. Her ideas were surprisingly similar to some of my plans. I spent a while cutting the polystyrene to get the shape of the cutting right. It obviously made a difference as my wife looked at it and observed that "it looks like a landscape now". Since last time I blogged about the pizza I've also added some card edging and started painting the bridge. I think I've got the effect of mortar which has gone black with age, but I need dry brush the bricks, and possibly add some newer mortar. Looking at some pictures of bridges shows that the bricks end up a variety of colours, browns, greens, dark greys and off white all featuring as well as some newer bricks which are still brick colour. I was going to add a photo, but I've not managed to take one this week. Hopefully I'll spend some more time building stuff next week and I'll post some pictures then.

Isle of Wight Railways

2010-07-26T20:00:00.001+01:00

Last summer we spent a week on the Isle of Wight and visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. We got a day rover which also allowed us to take a trip on the Island Line too. This was well worth doing as travelling on an old tube train through sunny green countryside was a memorable experience. We caught the Island Line from Smallbrook Junction to Brading, then back to Ryde Pier Head. After having a snack and watching the hovercraft coming in from Portsmouth we headed back to Smallbrook Junction for what was suppose to be a 10 minute wait for the steam train. Unfortunately the locomotive had problems and we had a 45 minute wait. This gave me the opportunity to take some more photos of the Island Line trains, and to chat to one of the volunteers who told us that they would like to extend the line to Ryde St John's Road by running over the Island Line's tracks. Apparently South West Trains are sympathetic to this plan as it would simplify their timetables by eliminating the need to stop at Smallbrook Junction, but I don't think there are any official plans in place yet. Once we were back at Havenstreet we had our lunch and looked round the station and museum, and workshops where there was a carriage being painted and a stripped down O2 class. I liked this retro-style poster for the L&B railway.

Here's a couple more photos, the rest are on Flickr in sets for the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and the Island Line.

OO Module Mockup

2010-05-12T22:24:00.001+01:00

A common suggestion when planning a layout is to build a small scale model as an aid to visualising what the completed model is going to look like. Since I wanted to be able to visualise how a much space my theoretical continuous run set up would take in the lounge I decided that some full size module templates would be needed. If I just wanted to see how much space they would take up I could have cut templates of of paper, but I wanted to see how sturdy a lightweight baseboard was likely to be, and see where it could be stored. A few hours over a couple of afternoons with a knife, some corrugated cardboard and a glue gun gave me this.

It's stronger than I thought it would be, and the real thing would have more bracing, so I don't think strength will be an issue. Modules of this size would also be fairly light if made out of foamcore, and if they were made so that they could be stacked then it would be fairly easy to store a few on top of a wardrobe.

Of course if I want a continuous run then I'll need some curved modules too, so I got out the lining paper and made a couple of templates. A length of Flexitrack and an intermodal twin set proved that the curves will be tighter than I'd like, but I don't think they'll be so tight that I can't live with them.

So in theory I think it could work. However I have a couple of reservations, the first is that I've only got a couple of scenic ideas for the curved modules, and I can't work out how I'd match these ideas up with the ideas I have for the straight modules. The second is the number of modules I'd need for a continuous run. If I make each curved module 60°, then that's 6 modules just to make a circle. If I add in two 3' long straight modules, I'll just have a big train set, with no sidings, so I think I need two 3' modules on each side of the oval. This puts me up to 10 modules, and I think the set-up and take down time, problems with board joins, and amount of room the set-up would take would mean I'd not play trains very often.

I've not got a great deal of modelling time at the moment, so I've a while to mull the options over. One option would be to build a single straight module to get my hand in, and then it could either be used as a photo diorama or be connected to some future project.

Narrow Gauge South 2010

2010-05-11T22:54:00.000+01:00

It's now just over a month since Narrow Gauge South, and I've finally got round to uploading the photos I took to Flickr! We had a good day out, and had our first picnic of the year. I didn't take many photos, since I spent most of the day carrying my 2 year old daughter around so that she could see the layouts. Her favourite was Torreton (pictured above), and she spent a few minutes looking in the mine excitedly waiting for the train to pop out. She had definite ideas about which layouts she wanted to see, and on one occasion pointed out a layout that I'd missed!

Particular highlights for me were the Clydach Valley Railway, an impressive fictional preserved railway which managed to pull of the 009 cliché of having stock from well known Welsh lines; Khan, an 009 portrayal of German military railways in Namibia, and finally seeing Dunbracken. I also bought a couple of things, but more about that later.

Links:
Mick Thornton
Michael Campbell: Blog Post, Pictures.
Fairlight Works: Blog Part 1, Blog Part 2, Pictures
Jamie Warne

Sleeper stacks at Eastleigh

2010-05-04T21:45:00.029+01:00

I took this photo last summer at Eastleigh Station. I'd seen these piles of sleepers as I passed through the station and noticed that they were high enough that the trains on the tracks behind them were completely hidden. I though it could be a good scene to recreate on a model railway so the next time I changed trains at Eastleigh I took some photos with my cameraphone. It could be used as a different way to disguise an exit to a fiddleyard, or the area behind the sleepers could be used as on-scene staging, i.e. an area that is partly hidden, where wagons can be replaced. Most of the sleepers have now been cleared away, but there are still a few, along with some piles of old ballast and plenty of Buddleja.

So am I going to build this scene? Well I'm not planning on designing a layout around it, but if I find myself building a layout where it would fit in then I might, though building the sleeper piles would take a lot of time and patience.

Linkdump: Spring 2010

2010-04-28T20:00:00.002+01:00

I currently have just under 40 draft posts. Part of the reason for this is that I kept dumping links of things I find interesting or useful into draft posts. To tidy things up a bit I've decided to collect all the things I've found recently in one post, with short comments.

Dales Peak: Going, going, gone! - A neat stacking module designs (and some destruction).
Micro 009 layout plans by Ian Holmes, one of which is now under construction.
Cool chipped paint via @Scalescenes - using salt, hairspray and paint.
Phil's Workbench: Tea leaves as ballast - I think this would also work as leaf litter in the larger scales.
Strange Worlds: Flickr Stream and article via Model Railroaders Anonymous - realistic dioramas made out of unconventional materials.
Traeth Mawr Railway: Assembling the backboard - Huw's Ffestiniog inspired layout begins to take shape.
Mick's Projects: Dartmoor Farm - a farm building built from card & and manilla envelope.

Intermodal wagons

2010-04-26T20:00:00.014+01:00

For my own reference I've been compiling a list of intermodal wagons which are used by Freightliner and EWS/DBS on their intermodal services. The wagon codes link to galleries of that wagon on UK Rolling Stock . I've not included wagons that are use only on specific services, or those not yet in revenue service. For details of these see the list of all the intermodal wagon galleries.

EWS/DB Schenker
FIA/IFA 'multifret' - Bachmann make an FIA Intermodal twin set in EWS and Railfrieght distribution liveries.
FAA are the most distinctive wagons used by EWS as they are single wagons with a low central deck. A kit for the FAA is produced by Genesis Kits.
FCA - twin wagons which look similar to the FEAs
FKA low-deck twin wagons used by EWS. Similar to the IKA 'Megafrets' used by Freighliner. A kit is produced by Genesis Kits

Freightliner
FEA-B (Spine Wagons) twin sets which are operated by Freightliner, GBRf, and Fastline. A model is produced by Dapol.
FEA-E (Spine Wagons) a single wagon version. It might be possible to build one from a Dapol FEA-B set.
IKA "Megafret" - A model is produced by Dapol in OO and N.
KTA/KQA pocket wagons are used by Freightliner, and most Freightliner Intermodal trains in the Southampton area some of these wagons. Dapol producing a model in OO and N. There is also a KTA/KQA kit.
FFA/FGA - used by Freightliner - There is an old Hornby based on this wagon or a stunning looking kit by Colin Craig
FLA Lowliners - a model is by Real Track Models (a collaboration between C-Rail and DC Kits)
KFA - Hornby produce this single wagon complete with containers.
FSA & FTA - Nick Gurney has constructed these for his Holland Park by butchering Bachmann 'multifrets', though this requires one twin set to produce a single wagon. A picture of completed wagon can be seen here

Freightliner on their Wagon Fleet

GBRf
KKA - Single wagons which can be used to carry trailers as well as containers. A kit is produced by Genesis Kits
FEA-B (Spine Wagons) - model produced by Dapol

Drewrybashing

2010-04-22T20:00:00.000+01:00

Last night made a card footplate to go around the Life Like GP38 chassis that I'm planning on using for my Drewrybash diesel. I'm was concerned that my design was going to be too long for the chassis, as it is around 13cm long, the chassis is just under 10cm to the end of the bogies, or about 12cm to the ends of the rapido couplers (which I don't plan on using). Building the footplate confirmed that is was too long, so I've now got to decide how to make the loco shorter. I posted this on my workbench thread on ngrm-online and the consensus seems to be that I need to remove one body panel. Other ways of saving length would be changing to a single bonnet design, reducing the length of the footplate at the ends of the loco, however both of these would make it look more like the loco the kit is supposed to build. I'll have to re-read the advice I received on how the mechanics of this loco would affect the bonnet designs, and then do a bit of experimentation to see if I can come up with something I'm happy with.

Maps - old and new

2009-12-15T22:55:00.001Z

I've come across a few good map websites in the last couple of weeks - some were posted in a thread on RMweb and I found a couple more too. Old OS Maps has maps from the 1940s with a google map overlay and links to other interesting map sites. New Popular Edition Maps has OS maps from the 1940s and is adding postcode data to them.

Web services company Fonant have produced this cool Full window map browser which demonstrates what can be dome with the OS OpenSpace API. Another website that uses this API is Where is the path? - which supports split screen mapping with OS maps (Current, 1930s and 1940s), Google Maps, Google Earth, OSM, OSM Cycle. It doesn't support every possible combination but it does quite a lot. In single map mode it has handy arrows that point to magnetic north and true north and the google maps screens support Wikipedia and Panaramio layers. There are more OS OpenSpace projects in their gallery.

The lounge

2009-12-15T22:52:00.001Z

The lounge is fairly large and has the advantage of being a reasonable temperature, having power and light already. I had been thinking of building a modular 009 layout which I could set up on the table, but I've been wondering if I could build a semi-modular or sectional 00 layout instead. I've always thought layouts should be at table height or slightly higher, and don't think I like the idea of building folding legs so hadn't really considered the lounge 00 layout larger than the table. However my Father-in-law's N gauge layout uses stacking plastic stools as for support. They're cheap, strong, don't take us much space and I expect a couple of us will be sitting on them for Christmas dinner. The lower hight of the layout means that it's easier for children to see, and I can still get near eye level if I sit on the floor.

So how would this theoretical 00 layout work? I'd need to make most of the baseboards fairly narrow to keep down the total baseboard area like on Richard Lake's Rothervale, to keep the storage space required as low as possible. I'll have to experiment a bit more but I think I could keep most of the straight boards down to 9-12" wide and fit in a double track main line and still have a bit of scenery. Since that's only 54-72 scale feet, and the Railway Technical Web Pages say that a modern 2 track alignment is around 50ft (15m) wide I'd better explain how I might make that work. I don't plan to have the track running in the centre of the boards most of the time, in fact some of the time the track may be very near one edge. I've checked the width of some railway lines around Southampton using Google Maps, and 2 track lines seem to be about 30ft wide. Since the British loading gauge is relatively small and these lines aren't modern builds it's no surprise the alignment is narrower. Within 30ft of the edge of the alignment there is scrub, grass, small trees, fences, and in a couple of places the edge of a river so I could probably imply that there is something more interesting just off the edge of the board. The occasional bridge over or under the railway will add interest too.

I did a bit of playing with some flexi-track and an intermodal twin set an to find out what radius curve they looked reasonable on - I can't remember the exact numbers but I do know that it would fit between the fire-guard and the sofa, and wasn't far off the 800mm radius that number6 is using as his minimum radius for Southerham. To fit a continuous run in and not have to step over or duck under my minimum radius will have to be less than this - but it'll still be big enough that RTR stock shouldn't have an problems. Number6 has also started work on some baseboards that look fairly similar to the design I have in my head. They look good and he says they are fairly strong. I think I'll probably make the boards for the curves slightly wider since I intend for at least one of my curves to be scenic, and I want to be able to add enough scenery so they don't look too much like a large train set.

I don't want to be over ambitious so I'm thinking that I'll build a module that's has a small yard and a mainline, some curved boards to make an oval, and a straight board to finish the oval. If I'm feeling really ambitious I might build a fiddle-yard too. I think I have enough enthusiasm to get something built, I just need to find some time and that's likely to be difficult over the next few months.

The shed?

2009-12-08T20:00:00.009Z

We have two sheds in the garden. A shed would probably need less work to make it suitable for a layout and has the advantage that I can go to the shed without fear of waking sleeping children. The larger shed is 8ft square, but that one is at the bottom of the garden and doesn't have electricity. I've contemplated setting up a solar power system to charge 12v batteries, but that would be a serious undertaking and I'd need heating in winter, so that's unlikely to happen. I'm not sure how much it'd cost to run mains to it but I think it will be needed for storage so it's probably not an option.

The smaller shed is 6x8th and does have electricity, but also has the freezer as there's no space for it in the kitchen. It is possible to fit a surprising amount of model railway in an 8x6 shed, but I'd need to remove everything else, and work round the freezer, and probably board up the window. I'd be limited to fairly short trains which in some ways is an advantage since they cost less to buy, but I suspect I'd be limited to 2 intermodal twin sets, and I'd like a slightly longer train than that. A narrow gauge layout in shed is still a possibility if I don't build an 00 one there.

A Loft Layout?

2009-12-06T19:10:00.008Z

Cropped from this photo by Jon Bryant / CC BY-SA 2.0

My dream layout is a large tail chaser where a train can run for a reasonable length of time before it gets back to where it started. I think this quote sums up what I want far better than anything I could write:

...my real hankering is for a big layout. Not just long sweeping curves and sidings you can lose a few wagons in but a recreation of the linear space the real railway has. I like the approach to a town and the junctions, sidings and yards you pass as the train slows for the stop.

- number6 of RMWeb, describing his plan for Southerham.

The only place I have room for something like that is the loft. I think it would be 00 rather than 009 and based in the South East - probably the South Western Main Line or one of the connecting lines. I'd build a double track loop round the edge of the loft with a 3rd rail, with some of the track being partly hidden (not so much 3rd rail fitting needed). There will also be some double or single track lines which leave the main line and crosses the main line at least once, perhaps including a junction loosely on Worting Junction. A small yard, and perhaps a couple of sidings elsewhere would certainly be part of the plan and I'd like to include a station, though I probably won't run many passenger trains - the station may be based on Eastleigh, but probably with smaller platforms and buildings - maybe looking more like Shawford. In my ideal world I'd also include a representation of a depot - perhaps based on the Northam Desiro MPD - however in my current house I doubt I have the space. Anyway, this is a dream and since the loft needs quite a lot of work to make it suitable for a railway it will probably stay a dream for a few more years.

Tail chasing

2009-12-06T18:56:00.000Z

I mentioned a while ago that I've been considering building a mini OO layout to give me somewhere to run my SG stock until I can build something bigger. However I'm not sure if that is what I really want so I was pondering if I should build something else. Either something slightly bigger - to give longer sidings and allow the trains a bit more of a run, or build a micro shunting layout, maybe something like an English version of this French micro, or a layout in a box file or two. However I'm not sure how much I'd operate a small shunting layout, and it's not exactly suitable for running intermodal twin sets on. So I don't think don't think I'm going to build any of those options. What I really want is a tail chaser. But I don't have much space so where can I build it? Well I have 3 ideas - first up the loft...

Proof!

2009-11-28T20:00:00.001Z

A couple of weeks ago I found a couple of videos on YouTube showing what looks like standard (if a little short) intermodal containers being hauled on wagons on the South African 2ft gauge lines. I've lost the link to the first video I found but here's the second one. I'm guessing that the containers are 10ft long ISO containers, it's difficult to tell exactly what they are from the video but I'd be surprised if they were much smaller. The wagons they are loaded onto don't appear to be specially designed for carrying them as the containers look slightly wider than the wagons but it shows that transporting ISO containers is possible on 2' gauge.

A1 Models 009 Diesels

2009-11-25T20:00:00.001Z

A while ago whilst browsing Mick Thornton's pictures of Sussex Downs Group Open Day I spotted this picture of a body kit for the Bachmann Plymouth. The kit is only £6.95 and it's available from MG Sharp and Parkside Dundas. it looks like it should be a good introduction to soldered kit construction, and saves me from scratch building something on my Plymouth chassis. Martin of the Mog Trains Blog has been building one too.

A1 Models now make a second version of the diesel, and a boxcab loco for the Kato tram chassis, both of which are £7.95. Over on ngrm-online "Snowdon Ranger" has detailed how he has built all three kits in his workbench thread. He's also build the test etch for their next release - a centre cab diesel which was inspired by his conversion two of their original kits which recently featured in the 009 News.

At Warley I bought the second version of the Bachmann Plymouth conversion kit and some brass rod and tube to make an exhaust for it. It'll be the first brass kit I've built and I'll let you know how I get on.

Warley

2009-11-23T22:40:00.003Z

Emsland-veenbaan by Spijkspoor

I had an enjoyable day out with my father in law at the Warley Show on Saturday. There were a lot of very nice layouts and we didn't have long enough to look at any of them. We missed quite a lot too (including Dinas, Briding Noora, Fisherton Sarum, Willesden Junction and the T guage layout) since we wanted to be back in the South at a reasonable time. I can see why they offer two day tickets! If we go again then I intend to get advance tickets and the show guide in advance so I can work out what I want to see and get into the show and start looking at layouts as soon as we turn up.

Whilst I'm not usually that interested in European trains my favourite layout was Emsland-veenbaan (listed as Emsland-Moortrack in the program), the detail and presentation was stunning. It was a fairly large layout (9x5 meters), but by no means the largest at the show. The presentation was unique - it was a larger oval with a high backscene and completely hidden fiddle yard in the middle. The fiddleyard was accessed by a door at one end of the oval. It combined a double track H0 mainline, a lower level line to some docks, an H0e line and an H0f Peat line. Starting at the access door and going clockwise, once side of the oval was coastal with the H0e line running past a lighthouse, over a bridge and past fishing harbour. The H0 mainline and dock line then appeared and ran past/through the docks. At the other end of the oval the lines ran through a small town and the dock line disappeared. The main line then ran on an embankment behind a line of trees (something I have been thinking about including in a model) and then an H0f (6.5mm gauge) track appeared from under the main line. This ran to a scene where traction engines were cutting peat.

I took a few photos which I've uploaded to Flickr. Some still need some editing.

For pictures of some of the layouts I didn't photograph see Colin Lea's post, Phil Parker's Photo set, this photo set, or this gallery

Flickr Galleries and The Avontuur Railway

2009-11-12T21:54:00.003Z

Recently Flickr introduced galleries which they describe as "a way to curate up to 18 public photos or videos of your fellow members into one place". There is a limit of 18 photos, and you can't include any of your own photos, but they allow you to write a reason why you chose each photo and an overall description. Flickr has some good photos for modelling inspiration and I think galleries could be a good tool for collecting them for projects. I've also recently be looking at pictures of the South African narrow gauge lines so I decided to put some rather nice photos of the Avontuur Railway into a gallery. The Avontuur Railway was 177 miles long and ran from Port Elizabeth to Avontuur. The tourist Apple Express runs from Port Elizabeth but many of the stations, including the terminus at Avontuur are now closed. To see what Avontuur looks like now take a look at these recent photos posted on RMWeb.

I've also been watching more YouTube videos recently. Here are two that I found and watched with my daughter tonight.

A Class 91 crosses Van Staden's Bridge:

An NG15 leaving Port Elizabeth:

A different perspective

2009-10-14T22:11:00.000+01:00

John Thorne's Purbeck - picture by fairlightworks

What does this photo have in common with the photo in my last blog post, other than the fact that they're both model railway, neither were taken by me, and both use a Creative Commons License?

If you've not spotted it yet it's that both use the same Walthers "Glacier Gravel Company" kit. It's odd that I've seen Purbeck at every exhibition I've been to since I got back into model railways and have looked at photos of it fairly recently, but it was only today that I realised that the building on it would work with a standard gauge layout. When I wondered what kit it was I realised where I'd seen it before.

Since posting this will mean that there's no longer a post showing any modelling I've done on the front page my next post had better be about something I've done!

Dales Peak

2009-10-03T22:56:00.001+01:00

Photo by Ian Robins. CC-NC licensed

Ian Robins' Dales Peak is a loft layout which is under construction. It is set in the Peak District and inspired by Tunstead Quarry. It's a two-level affair with multiple loops round the loft which always scores points with me. It also has a few locations so there will be a point to the train movements. There will be a couple of stations, a cement works, a quarry and a stone wharf. See Ian's trackplan for how it will all fit together. More pictures of this layout can be found on Flickr, the layout also has a blog and a website

Looking through the blog has given me another option for a building for my OO module. The kit in the photo above is Walthers "Glacier Gravel Company", the loading hoppers and building building behind are very close to what I had in mind, so I might be able to bash something suitable out of this kit.

Buildings for OO layout

2009-09-23T11:12:00.004+01:00

I spotted the Knightwing Mine Top Buildings whilst browsing their website the other day, and started thinking about buildings for the small OO layout I was planning. I'm not sure the Knightwing buildings (which were originally produced by Heljan as "Tucson Silver Mine" are quite what I want, they feel a bit too old (and American) for my purposes. I'll keep a look out for other kits but I might just scratch build something, maybe a bit like this sand loader or this silica sand loader, thought neither is quite like what I'm after.

Riverside

2009-09-10T19:32:00.003+01:00

Riverside by Fairlight Works, CC

Yesterday I spotted this photo which Steve Fulljames took at the Welshpool & Llanfair Gala. It stuck me that it'd make a good section on a shelf layout. The front edge of the baseboard could be cut to match the curve of the river with a few feet of the river modelled. The trees would disguise the fact that the layout was narrow. The trees in the middle distance provide a good exit point form the scene. Since I don't know what is behind the camera I can assume that the something similar happens there and make the module a couple of feet long in 009. Ian Holmes reminded me of this photo today when I read his post about a mystery baseboard which would be ideal for a scene like this. I also found Neil Rushby's other blog today and I've been reading some of his ideas about presentation which are similar to the ideas I'd had about this mini layout.

Of course it has the disadvantage that it'd be operationally rather dull, but it would work as somewhere to photograph stock, or part of a larger layout. I probably won't build it of course, but if I blog about it then it'll be here if I want to come back to it later.

Motivation

2009-08-06T18:00:00.003+01:00

Recently it seems that every time I some free time to do some modelling there has always been something that I'd rather do, like going for a walk or going to the pub. If I had a rainy Sunday afternoon I'd probably spend it modelling, but if the sun is shining it seems a waste not to be outside enjoying it. I suppose that doesn't matter but it can lead to me getting a bit disheartened by the lack of progress on anything on my to-do list. However I just need to remember that it doesn't matter if I make slower progress than almost everyone whose blog I read, and that there's more to life than model railways. Recently I've enjoyed reading about other modellers doing things like installing church PA systems, building radio control ducks, gardening and finding wildlife in their garden. I wont bore you with any posts about filing and sorting out the house, but I do have some non-model railway projects planned that some of you may be interested in which I might post about.

To do list

2009-07-25T17:44:00.003+01:00

Stephen over at Fairlight Works posted a to-do list for his newly acquired O16.5 layout Cranbrook Town. I've decided to post one too so I can keep track of what I'm doing and hopefully get some of it done.

Narrow Gauge

Removeable roof by Fairlight Works, CC

Finish building drewery bash diesel
~~Fix roof onto coach using the method show on the right.~~
Scratchbuild some small bogie coaches
Buy paint and paint coaches
Build slate wagons
Build open wagon
Improve open coach (and possibly re-paint)
~~Buy and~~ build A1 models diesel

Pizza Layout
Edging
Build a cottage
Scenery
Make a base, so that it can be rotated.

Standard Gauge
Weather wagons
Detail class 73
Get some wood and build a baseboard for the small layout I was planning.
Decide on a what stock I want to run
Order a KQA pocket wagon?
Buy and build a C-Rail tanktainer (or possibly more than one) (Parkside sell them)

The Riber Valley Light Railway

2009-05-16T22:25:00.001+01:00

A new few new NG blogs have appeared recently. One that has caught my eye is The Riber Valley Light Railway by Simon K. Simon is modelling fictional railway serving a colliery in the North Derbyshire Coalfield in the '50s. He has a senario, a track plan and has completed some coal hoppers and his first loco, a Dapol Railbus bash on a Piko chassis. He's also growing some trees, which is something I'd intended to do this year too. I'm not sure if it's too late to plant some this year but I've ordered some Teloxys aristata and I'll give it a go anyway. Whilst searching for seeds I found a Teloxys Aristata blog which has weekly updates growing these plants.

Painting flint and other progress

2009-03-21T19:33:00.001Z

Last time I blogged about the pizza I was trying to work out the best way to make it rotate and was ready to try painting the flint wall. I've not thought any more about rotating and I've been putting off the painting. A few weeks ago I had a go at painting and wasn't at all happy with the results. After a third attempt I'm still not happy but since the wall is going to have plants growing up it I may leave it. I've also put some more polystyrene in between the card framework. The theory is that they'll be something under shell of the landscape which should make planting trees easier. I've covered the who lot is masking tape and also slapped some dirty black paint over the track. The bridge now has some retaining walls on the inside of the curve. I'll add some wooden planks to hold up the steeper bits of embankment either side. I've also put the first layer of glue on the pond - but I touched it before it was dry and there is a finger print. I'll know for the next layer.

Narrow Gauge Intermodal wagons

2009-03-11T22:03:00.000Z

Andy in Germany has built a 1:55 40' container and is planning on building a narrow gauge intermodal wagon for it to run on. A comment from TomC suggests using this RhB wagon as a basis for a model. Andy is planning on making a wagon with a 40' deck with the bogies under the deck to keep the length down. Whilst I think that a narrow gauge version of the FLA Lowliners would be ideal that is not something I am going to attempt in OO9. My has been to a wagon with similar dimensions to the RhB wagons but similar styling to the EWS FAA so I'm pleased to see that something like this does exist.

The only trouble I have is trying to find time to design and build an intermodal wagon when I'm struggling to find time to finish the pizza or anything on my workbench!

Eastleigh Lakeside Railway

2009-03-04T22:52:00.004Z

We went to Eastleigh Lakeside Country Park on Saturday and took a trip on the train to celebrate my daughter's first birthday. Here she is pointing at a fine little Garratt. The railway runs from one side of the park to the other and has a return loop at both ends. This picture was taken at Monks Brook Halt (though you can't get to the brook from here). There is a small playground here and we also walked round one of the lakes. The round trip is about a mile long - we took the return trip on behind a Royal Scot which they seemed to be having some problems with. In fact they replaced it with a diesel for the last train of the day when we got back to the main station. It was an enjoyable afternoon out on the railway and it was good to have an excuse to ride on it.

KQA 'Pocket' wagon and 40ft 'High Cube' containers

2009-02-20T18:20:00.001Z

Dapol have announced KQA 'Pocket' wagon in OO and N and 40ft 'High Cube' containers to match in both scales. This will make it possible to model trains like the one pictured without building kits. If you can't wait for the Dapol model or enjoy building kits then then KQA kits are available from ATM in 2mm scale and Genesis Kits in 4mm scale. I'll be waiting for the Dapol model though.

Narrow gauge diesel progress

2009-02-02T22:26:00.003Z

I've made some progress with the Drewry bash diesel. I took the kit, chassis, some plasticard and some tools away with me at Christmas. However I forgot to take pack the glue so nothing got stuck together. I spent some time cutting and filing off moulded handrails and other details that I didn't want. I also had a bit more of a think about how the cab is going to look. My plan is to build a locomotive with two bonnets, as this will make the locomotive roughly the right length for the Bo-Bo chassis. The Drewry has only one bonnet and has larger windows at the back of the cab so I couldn't fit a second bonnet and keep use all parts of the cab. I considered cutting down the second bonnet so that it was lower than the windows, which would give the driver better visibility, however this wasn't the look I wanted and I couldn't see how I could do this with the Drewery bonnet sides. The only thing for it was to clone the cab front in plasicard. I started work but still haven't finished the windows yet. When I got back I glued the larger bonnet together and used some milliput on mounting hole for the horn and a couple of places where there are dents in the moulding. Next task is to finish the cab and then work out how to make the second bonnet end.

Mike Hamer's B&M Railroad

2009-01-21T20:00:00.002Z

You may have noticed a new link has appeared in the standard gauge links section. I thought I'd write a short blog entry about it - I may go back and blog about some of my other links in future. I found the B&M Railroad from a post on RMweb in the excellent Southerham thread by number6. Like him I'm a fan of American layout designs and would like to incorporate some aspects into my loft layout. The plan of the B&M is superb and gives an amazing sense of space in a 11'x13' room (which is tiny by the standards of American layouts). Now how can I include similar ideas and a double track main line? Well I've got plenty of time to think about it and already have a few ideas. Number6 has given me a few more things to think about with his plan.

Astolat (Guildford) Exhibition

2009-01-19T21:21:00.001Z

We took a trip to the Astolat model railway circle's annual exhibition on Saturday. The main attraction for me was Cement Quay but I was pleased to discover that there were quite a few narrow gauge layouts there too. I took photos most of the the narrow gauge layouts but I missed out Hayesden. Fortunately there are already some good pictures of that layout on Flickr. Two standard gauge layouts that stood out were Westcliff and Bulverhythe Sussex.

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More planning

2009-01-14T20:00:00.004Z

I've had a second go at planning the layout, this time I made some point templates by drawing round my two Peco points and cutting them out. I wanted to see if using Peco asymmetric 3-Way points would improve the plan so I made an estimated template by overlapping two templates. I was considering using two 3-ways, one by the fiddle yard exit and on above where the class 09 is. However after playing about a bit I decided that I'd be better off without the one by the fiddle yard exit and I'm not sure that the other one would add enough to the plan to make it worth including. The advantage of avoiding the 3 way points is that I can use code 100 track which is what I already have. I did consider using Peco code 75 points and SMP bullhead flexi-track but my aim is to get something built quickly so I'll probably stick to what I've got for this project.

The orange juice, shoe box, Boggle, Fluxx, and Swiss vegetable bouillon are there to give an idea of what it might look like with buildings there - you'll have to use you're imagination! The Jenga pieces and takeaway menu over the fiddle yard entrance represent some sort of loader (possibly stone). I also plan to put some kind of pipe bridge or footbridge over the middle of the layout to add interest. The siding with the two badly weathered tankers will have a second loading/unloading point - possibly for fuel. The tankers themselves will be sprayed with grey primer and have some subtler weathering applied! I also need to work out a way of hiding the fact that the siding with the class 57 in will run right into the corner of the layout, I think some small trees could come in useful here.

I'm off to see Cement Quay in Guilford on Saturday. It'll be good to see it operating and I might have the chance to get some bits for my layout too. John Thorne's Purbeck will be there too which I'm looking forward to seeing again. Anything else will be a surprise as there's not a layout listing on the web.

Planning a small standard gauge layout

2009-01-10T19:06:00.001Z

As I mentioned in my last post I'm planning a small standard gauge layout. I'm going to try to keep it fairly simple so that I can get it built fairly quickly. The layout will be based around the trackplan from Chris Nevard's Cement Quay. I'll be reducing the size of the scenic area 5'6"x2' to 4'x18" by taking out the narrow gauge and using small radius points.

I laid out the trackplan on the table - though I don't have enough points. The paper and boxes along the left are where the back sceene will be. The track along the left is there because I was considering having a through track where I could take photos of passenger trains of intermodal trains - however I think that would make the layout too cramped so it won't be making the final plan. The track middle track at the bottom of the picture will be the fiddle yard exit - the siding that the tanks are on will also run into the fiddle yard to allow a longer train to be backed into this siding.

I've done a second draft of the plan in mirror image and moved the points around to adjust the siding lengths - I considered using 3 way points to get longer sidings - either the symetrical type (which I don't really like the look of) or the asymetric ones - but I think I will be able to avoid using these.

Standard gauge plans

2009-01-06T10:53:00.005Z

I've been quietly planning a standard gauge layout for a while now but I've not blogged about it, mainly because I was still trying to decide whether my scale strategy involved standard gauge. I decided a few months ago it did and ordered a couple of Bachmann diesels and intermodal wagons. I got a few more wagons for Christmas and I've also got some old OO stock from the last model railway I built in my teens. One of the advantages of OO is that I can build a layout without any kit or scratch building if I chose to - which is a big plus when I'm struggling to find time for model making. My long term plan is to build a continuous run layout in the loft, set in the Southern Region post-privatisation with mostly freight traffic but the option of running DMUs (or even EMUs if any suitable stock becomes available). However the loft needs boarding and insulation adding beneath the rafters and I need to research how to do this properly so that nothing falls down. I still have plenty of other DIY jobs to do around the house so I doubt I'll start work on the loft before the Autumn. Not having anything to run my new toys on for at least a year is no fun so I decided to build a small OO layout. I'm going to make it 4' by 18" so that I can get it into the loft. It will have a cassette fiddle yard which will probably be another 2'6". I spent an evening drawing out track plans for small layouts that I like and seeing if I could fit them into that space. I've decided on a track plan and just need to finalise the siding lengths and decide what freight facilities the layout will have.

Narrow gauge fans - don't worry I've not abandoned the delights of 2' gauge and I've even done a bit of OO9 modelling over Christmas. I'll post again soon with some pictures!

Welcome...

2008-11-11T23:18:00.004Z

Welcome to my new blogspot address. I'll be tagging all the narrow gauge stuff I post with NG and all the standard gauge stuff with SG. Anything that isn't gauge specific will be tagged with both so that it will show up in both the SG Feed and the NG feed.

I've been fairly busy at work recently so I've not had much time for modelling. However I have run my new standard gauge locomotives (a Freighliner 57 and Mainline 09) on the dining room table on some set-track and was fairly impressed. On Sunday night I connected up 4 lengths of flexitrack and ran the class 57 up and down it and was very impressed. Even with slightly dirty track and my old Lima controller it ran very nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing what it does with my new gaugemaster controller and some nice clean track!

I'm not going to abandon the narrow gauge either - when I get back from a week away with work I intend to get some more done on my pizza.

Flickr Groups

2008-10-30T19:00:00.004Z

As a follow up to my recent post here's some more Flickr goodness. Here's some more inspirational Flickr pools but this time there are no pictures of trains. Plenty of pictures to inspire sceneary and weathering though.

Picture by just.Luc licensed under CC by-nc-sa 2.0

The groups:

Tracks Without Trains
Weathered Wood
Any Derelict Building
Rural Decay
Urban and Rural Decay UK
Urban Decay
Walls only Walls!

The Welsh Highland Railway on Flickr

2008-10-29T20:00:00.004Z

I was browsing the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways photo pool on Flickr and found some great photos taken by Flickr user mattbuck4950. They are all licensed under Attribution-Share Alike Attribution-Share Alike which means I can reproduce them here. Here are some of my favorites of Castell Caernarfon at Caernarfon station. I particularly like the angles these photos were taken from. The first few are taken at the sort of elevation which model railways are often viewed from and the final picture higlights the bulk of the Funkey against the wall.

The last photo has got me imagining an O14 micro shelf layout, not much more than a senic display stand, with a model of Castell Caernarfon or one of the Garratts sitting on it. I can only dream of being able to afford a O14 Garratt or having the skill, time and patience to scratch build an O14 Funkey that I would be happy with! I'll keep focused on 4mm scale for now.

Heresy!

2008-10-27T21:16:00.000Z

A week or so ago ago finally got round to spending some Christmas and birthday money and bought some standard gauge locomotives, wagons and track. At some point I'll build a standard gauge layout in the loft.

However this isn't entirly unrelated to my narrow gauge modelling as I also bought a gaugemaster controller, which I'll use for both narrow gauge and standard gauge, and a couple of intermodal containers. In theory I know how big the containers would be but having a couple of 20' containers to play with will make it much easier to visulaise what an 2' gauge intermodal train might look like. I think intermodal wagons which could hold a 30' (avaliable from C-Rail) or a 20' container could work but one that could hold two 20' containers would be longer than the the 13m WHR(C) coaches which are 160mm long in OO9.

The question that thinking about a standard gauge layout raises (other than - I don't do much modlling as it is, is starting in another gauge really a good idea) is should I blog about it? If so should it be here or on another blog? I had been thinking of blogging somewhere else, in fact I already have another blog with draft posts containing some of my research. However as this post shows there is often overlap between standard gauge an narrow gauge, particularly if I end up doing a Chris Nevard and having a narrow gauge line sneaking into my standard gauge layout. A standard gauge to narrow gauge intermodal terminal is also a tempting prospect though I would have to find a way to keep it small. I think that I'll merge my draft blog and this one to create one blog with all my model making, and I'm cyber-squating a blogspot domain for that purpose. Blogger has tag based RSS feeds so any of you only interested in narrow gauge can get only the narrow gauge posts in your feed readers.

Clay and Jalapeños

2008-10-26T22:01:00.002Z

It's been far too long since I last blogged about doing any modelling so I've decided that I'd better post something. The pizza layout has been left on top of an old chest of draws in our spare room for a while. I dug it out the other day and found something that I'd forgotten that I'd done. I had been thinking about making a base which the layout would site on which would allow it to be rotated. I decided to use a stereo and jack in the centre of the layout to supply power and act as the axis of rotation. I used the lid from a jar of jalapeños to attach the plug to. The layout does rotate but it's rather wobbly as I expected. I'll build a base with some runners about two thirds of the way out to take most of the layouts weight. I've not worked out exactly how that will work yet bu I have an idea after reading Nigel Burkin's article on building a fiddle yard. He made the sector plate part of the yard slide on plasicard - the same thing would probably work for rotating the pizza.

I also made some progress with the scenery over the weekend. A trip to Hobby Craft to get picture frames also allowed me to get some Das modelling clay. I tried out building a wall and some steps and then decided to do the level crossing and the area around the pond too. We'll have to see if I can paint the wall to look like flint and building the cottage will be more of a challenge! I've taken a couple of photos but my camera doesn't want to talk to my computer tonight so I'll try again tomorrow.

Rheilffordd Talyllyn

2008-09-08T22:48:00.007+01:00

It's about time I posted some photos of the Talyllyn Railway. It scored 71% on Colin Lea's heritage railway scoring system. We travelled on the scenic Cambrian Coast line from Pwllheli to Twywn which was a bargain at £6. Travelling there by train also meant that we got a 20% discount on the Talyllyn!

The Talyllyn railway seemed familiar despite having never been there before. This was partly due the the Talyllyn being a popular prototype to model (for example Quarry Sidings and Rheilffordd Cilcewydd on NGRM Online) and partly due to reading Rev. W. Awdry's books, in particular The Little Old Engine which has an illustration of Dolgoch Viaduct which stuck in my head.

For more information on the Talyllyn take a look at their website or it's article on Wikipedia which is a featured article.

Here's the thumbnails of my photos:

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Challenge

2008-08-28T18:32:00.002+01:00

Here's a quick challenge. What is the building and what is it's connection with narrow gauge railways?

No prizes for the first correct guess I'm afraid!

WHR (Porthmadog)

2008-08-18T22:38:00.005+01:00

On our recent holiday in North Wales we visited the WHR(P) which scored 52% on Colin Lea's heritage railway scoring system. The leaflet had said that it would be a diesel operated day but we were pleasantly surprised to discover Gelert in steam. We had a nice (if a little short) ride up to Pen-y-Mount and back, stopping of at Gelert's Farm to explore the sheds and ride on the miniature railway and spot a family of swans. I'd have liked to have seen on of the massive Lyd2 diesels in action or see Russell but he is being restored for 2009 so I expect that this visit wont be my last. There's some more of my photos on flickr.

Pen-y-Mount station got me thinking that it would make a good basis for a model to show off a collection of WHR(P) and WHR(C) stock. I doubt I'll build a model of it as I have too many other ideas and I'm unlikely to have the time to build an accurate model of anywhere so far from home. However it did make me realise something that a lot of the layouts I consider building have in common - junctions.

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World Wide Web

2008-08-11T18:30:00.002+01:00

I've had a post in my drafts for quite a while about some things I've found on the internet and some new things which have recently been created. First something fun: a photo of what the WHR might have looked like in the late 70s form the Fictitious Liveries site. Hopefully they will do some more narrow gauge locos.

Tom Dauben has started a new blog for his next project which is called Port na Cailliche. It's going to be set in Scotland on the coast of the West Highlands and should be excellent judging from Dunbracken which is his current layout.

Frank Neubaur's 0 Gauge Homepage which has some excellent Garratts.

I've also been playing about with some google and yahoo web tools. I've created a google custom search which searches shops which searches manufactures and shops which sell narrow gauge models. Hopefully it should appear below, if not here's a link.

I use google reader to keep up to date (ish) with the narrow gauge blogosphere but blogger doesn't put comments in the rss feeds (Wordpress does though). I started playing with yahoo pipes in an attempt to get an aggregated rss feed of the comments on multiple blogs (in an attempt to get something like the Facebook News Feed). It does work but it's not that fast and I've only tried it with 3 blogs so far. I've just subscribing to the rss feed in Google reader and it seems to be working and the speed doesn't seem to be an issue.

I've also signed up to the Narrow Gauge Modelling Online forum which was set up in April. If you've not checked it out yet then take a look. There's some great modelling.

Basingstoke Canal Railway

2008-06-02T20:00:00.003+01:00

Links:
The Basingstoke Canal Railway: Modern use of the Narrow Gauge by Nick Lewis

The Basingstoke Canal: The Basingstoke Canal Railway

Flickr: Tags: Basingstoke Canal

Dr Neil Clifton (CC-SA) from geograph

During the restoration on Basingstoke Canal a narrow gauge railway was used between 1975 and 1982. The railway was employed as road access to the canal was poor. It used small industrial locomotives and tippers and was initially used to remove silt. As the restoration of the canal progressed the track was lifted and moved and used for transporting bricks, sand and other building materials for renovation of locks. It was then moved again and used for transporting clay to re-puddle the water channel. At one point the railway ran along side the main line from London to Southampton.

A canal railway would make an interesting prototype for a model using Nigel Lawton skips and locomotives in OO9 or kbscale kits in O16.5 or O14. As far as I know none of the Basingstoke locomotives are available in either scale so an accurate model would require scratch building. However I'd be more inclined to use it as inspiration for a freelance canal railway with kit built locomotives. Another option would be to include an OO9 canal railway on a standard gauge layout as there are many places where main line railways lines run past canals.

Narrow Gauge Intermodal Operations

2008-05-26T15:56:00.001+01:00

If narrow gauge lines in the UK had survived as freight carriers it seems likely that they would have either adopted intermodal operations or made wider use of piggybacking standard gauge wagons. Intermodal operations are going to be easier to model so I've been thinking about what advantages they have over piggy backing. One advantage (which will also be an advantage in model form) is that require a smaller loading gauge. I would expect them to be cheaper too as piggybacking wagons would be more complex than intermodal wagons.

The earliest use intermodal on narrow gauge which I've found is on the White Pass & Yukon. In 1955 they started using 8'x8'x7' containers and modified narrow gauge flat cars to carry them (3 per car). They switched to 25' containers in 1965.

Modern Intermodal containers are 8' wide x 8' 6" high and come in various lengths. In the UK 20', 40' and 45' are used. A 20' container in 4mm scale that is 80mm x 32mm x 34mm. The Lyd2 approximately 29mm wide and 43mm high in 4mm scale so I reckon intermodal operations with 20' containers should fit into a loading gauge similar to the modern WHR.

A number of modern narrow gauge railways do use intermodal containers. All these lines have two things in common. Firstly they are the standard gauge for the area they serve and secondly they are all medium gauge railways such as 3' or metre gauge lines. I've not found a single 2' gauge line which handles intermodal traffic. The question is whether this is because carrying intermodal containers becomes impractical at that gauge or whether it is because there are no 2' gauge lines where was a demand.

After doing a bit of my own research I realised that looking at Andy's intermodal category which was partly responsible for me thinking about morden narrow gauge in the first place. His postings confirmed my thoughts on the advantages of intermodal over piggybacking. They also provided a good video of piggybacking in operation on a Polish NG railway.

A mock up

2008-05-21T22:06:00.003+01:00

On the pizza layout I've added some more bits of cardboard to for the base of the hill and built a mock up of the cottage. It's not got a roof but it gives a better idea of what the finished layout will look like and has helped me think about how the cottage should look. I'm still thinking about how to model flint. I don't think the Wills cobblestone walling sheet it going to work after comparing the size and density of the pattern to some real flint walls.

Wills sheets:

A flint wall:

So I need a new plan. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Belfield Hall Estate Railway

2008-04-29T22:35:00.005+01:00

I've just read a post on Fairlight Works about Belfield Hall Estate Railway. I also remember Belfield Hall appearing in Railway Modeller and drawing plans based it, though I'd not remembered how young I was at the time. The two track plans which appeared in the Railway Modeller article also appeared in a recent small layout scrapbook. When I started getting back into model railways the first track plans I drew were based on the BHER too. Maybe one day I'll build a minimum gauge line too.

Bridge

2008-04-27T21:56:00.004+01:00

I've been making a bridge out of Wills plastic sheet. I read John de Frayssinet's article on building the East Lyn Viaduct for tips on how to use Wills sheet as I've never used it before. The trouble is I keep realising I don't know enough about how bridges are constructed and having to check things which has slowed me down. I've got one entrance finished an the other is nearly done. The only thing I've not decided is what to do about the tops of the walls; thought I've had a look at some bridges near where I work and have some ideas.

Vans and Coaches

2008-04-16T21:57:00.000+01:00

I've a couple of old Egger-Bahn vans with the bogies missing. The goods van (left) also has a corner of the roof missing. I'm planning to switch the roofs and remove the balcony from the luggage van. I'll extend the chassis slightly and add a scratch built open section. It will then be glazed, painted and used as part of an engineering train.

I'm also building a Parkside Dundas Glyn Valley Tramway style 4 wheel coach (DM28). I got halfway through and realised that if I wasn't the interior painted I'd need to buy some paint. The plan is to scratch build a couple of coaches to make up a short passenger train that I can run round the pizza and on any future layouts.

Narrow Gauge South

2008-04-05T18:37:00.003+01:00

On Saturday we went to Narrow Gauge South at Sparsholt College near Winchester. It was at least ten years since I last went to a model railway exhibition and it was a great day out. It was good to met some of the guys from rmweb including Steve of Fairlight Works and Dave of KBscale. Here are the better photos:	Links Michael Campbel's blog & photos Steve Fulljames' posts 1, 2 & photos

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Cypriot Railways

2008-03-20T22:11:00.007Z

Links:
Wikipedia: Cyprus Government Railway
The Cyprus Government Railway
Pictures from narrow gauge heaven
Don’t Miss The Fine Pink Steam Engine…
Narrow Gauge Wiki

Books:

The Story of the Cyprus Government Railway - Lt. Col. B.S. Turner (1979)
Cyprus Narrow Gauge - Hugh Ballantyne (2007)

After finding a Cyprus Government Railway Troodos 2-6-0 body kit on the Locomotives International Online Shop I decided to do some research into this railway. The kit was made by Roxey who also make two other CGR locos. The CGR was a 76 mile 2'6" gauge railway network which operated from 1905 to 1951. Like many ambitious narrow gauge railways it was never a financial success. Extending the network was recommended to increase revenue but didn't help and cutbacks started in 1931. Most of the locomotives were scrapped though No 1 is on a plinth outside the site of Famagusta Station. Evrykhou station is being restored and will house a Cyprus Government Railway museum.

On New Railway Modellers "Curious Orange" is building a GCR 2-6-0 for his Moel Eilio layout. It is first mentioned here. I'd quite like a large tender locomotive to pull steam tourist trains in my modern narrow gauge scheme, however after seeing how large these locos look are compared with 2" gauge stock I think I'll probably go for something with a smaller loading gauge. I also like the CGR Wickham railbus so maybe I'll say that in my alternative reality the Snowdonian narrow gauge lines had something similar which got preserved.

Originally uploaded by pat & nige

Cyprus Mines Corporation also operated 2'6" gauge railways in Cyprus. These railways have lain abandoned since the CMC pulled out of Cyprus after the Turkish invasion of 1974. Many of the locomotives and wagons are still where they were left when the railway closed. The pink steam locomotive (right) at Guzelyurt is the CMC number 3.

There was also a narrow gauge line which ran from a mine at Kalavasos to a harbour four miles away at Zygi on the south coast. It ran diesels and closed in 1976.

The Plan

2008-01-19T22:54:00.001Z

I was inspired by the fictional history which John de Frayssinet created for County Gate and his railcar experiment to come up with a plan based on an alternative history. Though I'm thinking of Snowdonia rather than Austria, the Johannesdorf Tirolerbahnen, which featured in the November Continental Modeller, has something of the feel of what I'd like to achieve.

Pannned Lines

The North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways obtained an Act of Parliament 1872 to build lines running from Portmadoc to Bettws-y-Coed via Beddgelert and Capel Curig^[1]. They were also considering building lines from Bettws-y-Coed to Corwen and Penmachno and from Portmadoc to Porthdynlleyn via Pwllheli alongside the Cambrian Coast line^[1]. They did build a line from Dinas to Rhyd-Ddu and a branch to Bryngwyn^[2] (later to become part of the WHR).

The Welsh Highland Railway

The WHR originally ran from Dinas to Portmadoc. An extension to Caernarfon was planned but never built by the original company but was built by the WHR(C). There is a possibility that the WHR might get extended to Bangor at some point in the future (phase 5). In an alternative world both these extensions might have been built when the standard gauge lines over those routes closed.

The Plan

So how might these line look if they had been built? I'm thinking mostly about those parts which would be in the Snowdonia National Park. I've drawn a map rather than try further explanation. I might add further lines and stations as my ideas progress.

Passenger operations
The line now runs steam trains for the heritage railway market and diesel services for locals and tourists who just want to get from A to B. The diesel services will probably a mixture of DMU, railcar and loco hauled. There'd be lots of walkers, mountain bikers (using special bike trucks) travelling on the diesel hauled trains.

Freight
I'll assume that the government is encouraging freight off roads and onto rail in the national park and have stuff like freight to the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel. I'm also thinking about a bike hire company that hires bikes at various stations on the network and the bikes can be brought back to any station. The bikes are the re-distributed by train. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with some more reasons for freight trains too. Maybe timber?

Diesel Plan

2007-11-08T22:11:00.003Z

Here's a quick mockup of the Bo-Bo diesel Drewry kitbash that I'm planning. My version of the kit has an extra bonnet side piece in so I should be able to make this with only the parts in the kit, styrene sheet and some other bits. I want to give it Lyd2 style lights - hopefully working. One thing I've not worked out yet is how to fix it to the chassis.

Inspiration (from April)

2007-11-08T21:33:00.000Z

I started writing a post back in April about some of the layouts that had inspired me to get back into modelling and design a Gum Stump & Snowshoe based module. The post never got published but I've decided to update it slightly and post it now. I've tried to keep to the ideas I had at the time.

Whilst browsing the web I discovered the website of Brian Fayle. Underneath the Arches is one of many layouts on the site. It is 7mm scale with trains running on 16.5mm and 9mm gauge track. The layout has a road viaduct which splits breaks it up and makes it seem a lot bigger than it is. There's loads of detail and guessing what the people on the layout are up to is fun. Brian's website also has some good articles on modelling. I was particularly interested in his Directing Traffic about directing where the viewer looks.

Another modeller with a similar style to Brian is Anthony Goff. His Hilvermouth layout also has lots of scenes with interesting people. The layout is in OO9 terminus set in the 30's on the outskirts of a fictional town. He has a nice varied fleet of locomotives, some of which are based on real prototypes and some are freelance. They include a Double Fairlie and a Mallet. There's plenty going on around the railway too so in most of the pictures it's not the trains which draw the eye first.

Sometime in the spring I began reading the Fairlight Works blog. Back in April he only had one layout (Fairlight Works) but since then there have been a few side projects. He's also been scratch building a prototype PL class for Invercloy Loco Works and a Hunslet-style loco. He has a couple of large diesels in progress too: a Lxd2 kit and a drewey bash to make an Indian Railways ZDM5. The ZDM5 inspired me to think about a Bo-Bo diesel drewy bash too.

Another influence for the idea of a large diesel was my discovery of the Welsh Highland Railway. Both ends of the line have some massive narrow gauge locos - Castell Caernarfon and the Garratts at the Caernarfon end and the Lyd2s at Porthmadog. The Festiniog Railway Heritage Group Wiki is a great place to find information about both ends of the Welsh Highland Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway. It has great pictures of the lines, including photos of locomotives, wagons, coaches, engineering stock. It also has some great pictures of the WHR's number 143 SAR Class NGG16 Garratt. We visited the WHR(C) in June - we took some pictures but still haven't got the film processed.

Lastly for something standard gauge. Nigel Burkin's Platform 4a & 4b - is a superb model of part of Reading station set in the recent past. I love the Network SouthEast third rail EMUs but what caught my eye and made me want to do some modelling was the Buddleia (hopefully my 1:76 scale botany is up to scratch). I'm planning on trying to make some myself for my OO9 module. Once I get round to making it I'll let you know how I get on.

ExpoNG 2007

2007-10-31T05:35:00.000Z

I didn't go but instead spent Saturday painting the living room. However due to the wonders of modern technology I spent some time yesterday evening looking at pictures taken by people who did. Michael Campbell has written a ExpoNG 2007 blog entry and posted some photos. Stephan Fulljames has also taken some photos. He doesn't have doesn't have a blog entry about them (yet) but they are well described on flikr. Edit: Stephan posted his ExpoNG blog entry at around the same time I posted this. There are also some photos by Simon King (MTA) in this NRM thread.

There were a couple of layouts that I remember reading about years ago. Benfield Hall (which I knew was going to be there) I remember from Railway Modeller and it is part of the reason I'd been thinking about pizza layouts. There was also Eitomo which is featured in a book I own "Scenic Railway Modelling" which was a plesent suprise. Another highlight was Stephan's photos was the Nn3 layout - the detail and the way the backsceen and model blend togther is amazing.

The pizza competition will be judged by Carl Arendt - Edit - the results can be found here.

Hopefully next year I'll be blogging about being there rather than other people's photos!

Rhyd Ddu: Woodland scenics vs IKEA

2007-09-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

Colin Lea of "Rhyd Ddu" also saw the suggestion in Model Rail magazine of using 'Florera' from IKEA as ballast. He carried out an experiment 99p IKEA against £5.75 Woodland Scenics. His conclusion - Woodland Scenics is better. However I think the IKEA stuff could be useful in a yard where the ballast was going to be weathered anyway. See for yourself:

Rhyd Ddu: Woodland scenics 1 - IKEA 0 (AET)

Bo-Bo diesel

2007-09-06T04:00:00.003+01:00

With the Life Like GP38 I recently bought and some bits from an Airfix/Dapol Drewry shunter I'm planning on building an Eastern European influenced loco. I'm planning on an off centre cab design.

To make sure I have a sensible loading gauge I'm planning on using using the height and width of the Lyd2 as a guide. Working from the measurements of the Lyd2 here gives me a maximum of 28.9mm wide and 42.7mm high.

Pizza construction

2007-07-07T17:59:00.001+01:00

I've made some progress with my pizza - track is laid on foamcore and I've started building up where the road will go using card. A cottage will go where the wire is with the duck pond in the bottom right.

I'm also planning on trying to scratch build a couple of more British looking coaches to run - my current design is slightly longer than the Egger-Bahn coaches. The design might need changing to make them fit round the curves.

Pizza Progress

2007-04-29T04:00:00.000+01:00

Whilst waiting for a train I came up with a rough plan. The track will circle a cottage and a duck pond. The scenery will slope up towards the back of the pizza so that about half the circle is in a cutting. At the highest point there will be a brick bridge over the track. A road will cross the bridge, go down past the cottage and there'll be a level crossing at the front of the layout.

Over the weekend I bought a 36" length of peco track, some track pins and fishplates. I also checked out base materials in B&Q but didn't buy anything as wood only comes in massive sheets and I don't have anywhere to store the excess. When I got home I searched the garden sheds and found some chipboard that was left over from adding shelves to the wardrobe. It's the white laminated stuff so not the most obvious choice by it's not going to get used for anything else. I marked out my plan on this and borrowed a coping saw from a friend.

Pizza?

2007-04-16T18:26:00.000+01:00

Inspired by the latest scrapbook on Carl Arendt's site I'm now thinking of making a pizza layout first. It will give me a chance to practice my modelling skills and won't use any points. It will also give me a loop of track to test locomotives on and it will be easier to move (hopefully moving house soon).

Intro

2007-04-12T11:38:00.000+01:00

I'm currently thinking about building a small OO9 layout. At the start of the month I got back my most of my 009/HOe from my parents. I'm not really sure what I want at the moment. Something small that could be used as a module of a larger line in future. I might use the trakplan from Gum Stump & Snowshoe Railroad.

What I have:
Egger-Bahn 0-4-0 steam tank engine
Egger-Bahn 2 green coaches + 1 break coach.
Waggons - 1 tipper, 1 skip type thing, 1 flat waggon.
Vans - two Egger-Bahn vans - same sort of wheel base as the coaches but no wheels.
Around 10 Peco points and some short lengths of flexi track.

I've also got a summer coach and a kit for 5 slate waggons in a box at my parents somewhere.

Created a list of some things that I'd like on kaboodle. I'll need to get some more flexi track before I can build anything.