A small portable N-gauge project in the near-present era

  ftom your signature ….."Too many trains?  How many tea-pots do you have dear?" :pathead


When do we visit you in hospital Rick  quest: 

Hopefully not for a very long time Sol as the two of us have a very good understanding of each other's chosen hobbies and collectibilia.  And a healthy sense of mild disrespect as well

Boghouses has barely been unpacked back in Australia but has another invitation to be shown in public.

More details after I receive a final confirmation but this will be in the Melbourne area later this year and means the layout will achieve the extremely rare honour of being operated on both sides of the world.

As I don't intend that it should fly again I can place its two cork baseboards onto a single panel of MDF and transport it by car.  That means I only have to re-join the rails (a real pain of a job at Taunton) once more and the track can be tested to ensure it has not distorted in transit.

Well done Rick :thumbs

Maybe the first of many.


Ed

I have become aware that an O-gauge layout, "Arakoola", based in New South Wales, is being shipped over for exhibition at Telford later this year.  It's an amazing layout and a herculean (and costly) task to do such a thing.  I wish them well in their endeavours.

They have also filed for a world record for farthest-travelled model railway.

In view of the fact that Boghouses has travelled farther by at least 1500 miles I have today formally lodged a counter-claim to this record with Guinness World Records and await the outcome.

… and why not!


cheers
Marty

Good luck with that Rick.:thumbs

Where would Marty's Carn Brae diorama feature in distance Rick ?  I suppose a lot depends on which route one takes ………….:roll:

I remember having similar "distance" problems when trying to calculate the mileages involved with Matilda and Winston Wagon. ;-)

It does depend upon how one calculates distance Peter.

But however one does that Marty lives in Western Australia which is something like four - five hours flying time less to the UK than for me.  

I have already satisfied myself that the Arakoola people in, we think, Sydney and who are more like 90 minutes closer may have been out-distanced though I never set out to compete.  

This was drawn to my attention by a member on RMweb who kindly suggested the record might be mine and I have chosen to follow that up.

As Rick says, I'm much closer to the UK than he is and my module doesn't really qualify as a layout I would imagine… only part of.


For those that are interested it looked like this….





and travelled as part of my luggage allowance from Perth, Western Australia to Cairn Brae in Cornwall in it's own bespoke travel box…





Where it was joined up with about a dozen other modules to make an ever changing scene with fiddleyards at each end.








lots of fun… especially for Dave and Phill who spent the weekend "shooting" trains at each other from opposing fiddleyards…


cheers


Marty

That was a long way to come and 'play trains' Marty


Ed

Rick made the trip too, we met up on the down sleeper from Paddington!
Well worth the effort, it was a great show.
Marty

Now that is dedication, well done both :thumbs

I know Rick didn't have any trouble getting Boghouses over here, but I just wonder how far you would get with a big metal box marked 'Fragile' nowadays :hmm


Different world.


Ed

Travel dictionary ….
Fragile: to be thrown, stomped, dropped and inverted "with care".
Andrew

That show and get together was one of the best things i have ever done .  Unforgettable experience.

[user=31]sparky[/user] wrote:

That show and get together was one of the best things i have ever done .  Unforgettable experience.

Likewise.

It's been some time since I did anything to Boghouses.  Since returning from the UK the layout has remained in the workroom in its two pieces with the carry-case frame stored away in case of future need.  They will not be used again for this layout however.

Today I purchased a piece of 6mm marine ply which will become a single-piece sub-baseboard and enable the two sections to be permanently fixed together creating a single small layout on one easily-transported board.  Easily transported by car, that is, and not by air in future!!!

Once the two pieces are suitably mounted I can then attend to the minor repairs necessary arising from 25000 miles of travel and the layout can resume operating and be available for show if requested.

Almost eight years later …..

Boghouses never did recover from that final trip.  Upon review it was so badly distorted and the lightweight construction and paper / thin card scenery sufficiently damaged that it was broken up.  Or more accurately it had broken itself up.  However …..

BOGHOUSES IS SET TO RETURN!  

Now living in a typically small Cornish cottage we had agreed between us that there is no room for any form of layout at home.  There are rooms plenty big enough but their function is not to house my hobby.  I cannot have trains running around the living room as an example for all sorts of logistical reasons and because the Planning Authorities have refused consent.  After a year during which I have travelled 40 miles most weeks to the nearest MRC clubrooms (the premises of Hayle Railway Modellers but it's not very close to Hayle and for me is much farther to drive) it has been mutually agreed that I may have a small layout in the equally small room I use as an office.  

This has to be very small because the only space available is along the wall above the desk and measures 226cms by 26cms.  That is just enough for a re-worked Boghouses in N-gauge using the same stock and very similar scenes as before.  Most items were built from Scalescenes downloads which I still have on file.  The backscene was hand-painted and can be repeated near enough.  

But that's not all.  As this is being created using N-gauge track I can also be a bit clever.  I can get two layouts for the price of one by building it with a reversible back scene, carefully arranged scenics and movable structures such as bridges and buildings.  This will allow me to also build a OO9 layout meaning I can run either one scale or the other on the same track with a quick swap-out of a few scale-critical items.  The OO9 theme is not yet chosen but is likely to feature the same locos and rolling stock as appear on Porthgarrow.  So mainly industrial but with the addition of a wider variety of freight wagons and perhaps some "bug-box" coaches for passengers. Given the selection of RtR OO9 rolling stock the area represented may well resemble North Wales.  

The boards arrived today.  9mm MDF braced with 1x1 pine will give a light-enough but firm structure and allow a span across the desk to maintain the uninterrupted workspace below.  I am no stranger to spanning workbenches as those who remember Penhayle Bay might recall.  That required slotted steel to support a lengthy single-span run above the workbench which was around ten feet long.  This layout will not need such extravagant structural work!  

I intend that Boghouses shall gain a passenger station at one end as this has to be a short end-to-end "plank".  The other end will feature a short run-off rather than a full fiddle yard and just long enough to hold a DMU or other short train.  Or a loco with nine or ten quarry skips as used on Porthgarrow.  

 

Glad to hear you have a limited solution to your hobby in the house. Travelling to a MRC is great, but it's not the same. I have to say I am intrigued by the idea of switching out scenics to have two layouts in one. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Hi Rick,

I was a bit confused, then a read an email about a new comment on 'Boghouses'. I had never read that thread before. Now I have with great interest. I am sure your new version will be interesting, too.