009 Modules

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.

OO Module Mockup

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.

The lounge

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?

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?

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

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...

Buildings for OO layout

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

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.

Mike Hamer's B&M Railroad

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.

More planning

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.

Heresy!

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.

The Plan

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?

1. ^ ^{a b} WHR(P): Forerunners to WHR
2. ^ Wikipedia: North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways

Pizza Progress

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?

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

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.