Another quart in a pint pot!

Can it really be nine years ago that I anounced to the world that I was going to build a 'layout' on a piece of mdf measuring four feet by five and a half inches?

The finished item represented a UK roadside tramway and along the way picked up the name 'Poppy Lane'.  It subsequently appeared in the October 2017 Railway Modeller.  The combined length of the three pages in which it appeared almost totalled the actual length of the model itself!  The layout can be found here:


A 'watching the trains go by' plank. - Members Personal Layouts. - Model Railway Layouts. - Your Model Railway Club


So, what has all this got to do with the current thread?  After it's fifteen minutes of fame Poppy lane has been sat on a shelf in my railway shed gathering dust.  Last week I decided that it was time to dismantle it.  The track and scenic items were retrieved for future use and I was intending to separate the baseboard top from the frame and re-use the timber.  However, a chance remark by my wife about using the intact baseboard for another project made me think again. Can I build another micro-layout on the recycled baseboard?


This is my starting point (once again)…

Go on Terry, you know you want to  .  .  .  .  we certainly do!

Bon courage mon ami.

I have a hankering to run one or two of my small diesel collection so my thoughts turned to the possibility of modelling a small diesel refuelling point.  Obviously the narrowness of the baseboard will preclude a large installation but I should be able to fit in a couple of fuel tanks.  I fired up my trusty Trax design program and played around until I came up with this plan:

Thanks Bill.  We're up and running!

Terry

Quick update.  The building mentioned previously has been completed…

Tight and tidy shed Terry.
I do like the flexibility of scalescenes.

Thanks Marty.

Another of the buildings was finished this afternoon. This is the building on the far right of the plan above. The basis of this building is Scalescenes' Coal Office/Weighbridge which has been extended lengthways by using parts from two kits.  I would usually consider replacing the gutters and downpipes with plastic alternatives, but as speed is of the essence* I decided to use the Scalescenes originals.
 
* Possible inclusion of the micro-layout in a forthcoming exhibition.
 
Here's the result…

Having seen some photos on Google of fuelling points with small flat-topped pump houses, I decided to have a go at making one.  Once again I used Scalescenes' coal office/weighbridge as the starting point. I simply cut off the gable roof parts before construction and replaced the roof with a rectangle of card, coverered with Scalescenes'concrete sheet.   I didn't include the interior walls and the rear is not detailed as it won't be seen.  A Peco track pin provides the door knob.

Quick and simple it may be, but you have captured well the look of a basic and utilitarian structure.  :thumbs

Thank you Jeff.

Terry

After some consideration, I came to the conclusion that the model would look better if the whole four feet of baseboard was given over to the scenic section. The 'off-stage' part will consist of a fiddle-stick to the left of the scenic section. This is currently under construction utilising the deck of one of the fiddle sticks previously used on Poppy Lane, with plywood sides glued thereon.  

Over the last couple of weeks attention has been given to how the layout will be supported.  I have made two small support frames on which each end of the layout sits.  Two cross-braces keep them upright.  In turn, these frames will stand on a typical village hall type six-foot table bringing the baseboard top up to a comfortable adult viewing height.


A lighting pelmet has been fashioned using part of that which was attached to Poppy Lane. It stands proud of the front of the baseboard but I think that it needs to extend further from the front of the layout in order to throw light on the front edge.  I will give this attention shortly.  The original Poppy Lane backscene board has been re-used and is awaiting a coat of sky coloured paint.  All woodwork will be given a coat of slate grey emulsion when completed.


The original track plan was giving me some concern in that all structures were placed against the backscene.  I felt that more interest would be created if some structures were at the front of the baseboard.  Accordingly, I have re-worked the track plan to give three sidings instead of the original two.  This will allow the fuel tanks, pump house and bothy to be situated at the front, with trains passing behind.  I haven't drawn another track plan but the following photos should give an idea of the new plan.


This is the left-hand end beyond which the fiddle-stick will be situated.  A Scalescenes' girder bridge is under construction to fit at this end.  Placing the bothy as shown will help mask the fiddle-stick and creates more interest as trains pass behind.  The right-hand point creates a short siding at the front ot the layout, which ends just before the pump house and fuel tanks.  The straight road leads to the second point and then straight on for the 'fuelling road', so locos actually stand behind the fuel tanks, which I think will create a more interesting view than the original plan.

I like the view “window” between the baseboard and lighting pelmet… sort of draws the eye in.

Thanks Marty.  The backscene is quite shallow so I decided to restrict the height of the viewing area to about five inches.  Almost like looking through someone's letter box!  That should please the peeping toms among us!    The layout will actually be slightly higher when on its legs.

Terry

I have worked out how to attach the fiddle-stick to the baseboard end so that it is self-supporting without the need for any legs.  I hasten to add that the general idea is not mine.  I believe that I might have seen something similar in a recent Railway Modeller.

The idea is to support the fiddle-stick on a strip of wood, which passes through a hole in the baseboard end.  I carefully drew the shape then drilled a number of holes, followed by cutting away material with a small saw.  Files were used to take the wood back to my previously drawn pencil lines.  The strip wood is a firm fit in the hole.

The completed baseboard and fiddle-stick have been given a coat of slate grey paint.

It's been a month since my last posting on this thread, but things have been slowly progressing.  A building facade has been constructed from Scalescenes' Gable Roof Engine Shed to fit against the backscene to the right of the low-relief building previously shown.

The whole of the baseboard surface was covered with cork floor tiles which I have had in store for some time.  I intend to include a puddle or two on the baseboard surface, and my thinking was that it would be easier to dig away at the cork rather than the plywood baseboard.  However, using the cork tiles has proved to be rather fortuitous as one of the two turnouts sits directly above the wooden support to which the fiddle-stick is attached.  Said support effectively prevents any means of operating the turnout from below the baseboard.  This was overcome by cutting a narrow channel in the cork and running the turnout operating rod along the top of the baseboard with a ninety degree bend taking the rod up through the hole in the centre of the stretcher bar.  Both turnouts will be operated from the front of the baseboard via push-pull rods, using large beads as the control knobs.


Below you can see the rod running in the cork channel as it comes away from the turnout.  It disappears through the hole and re-emerges from the baseboard front.  The rod and the hole will be buried, hiding them from view.
 

I decided to use micro-switches to change the turnout polarity.  These are very cheap and effective, the only problem being the working out as to how they are to be included in the linkage from the control knob to the turnout.  In this case it proved remarkably simple and came about by accident.  Let me explain.  It proved necessary to make the operating rod in two pieces due to the number of bends required to get if from below the baseboard to the stretcher bar.  I decided to use a terminal block to connect the two pieces of rod below the baseboard.  My intention was to mount the micro-switch in front of the terminal block, the switch being operated via an extra rod.  However, before installing the extra rod in the terminal block I noticed that the plastic covering was engaging with the operating arm of the switch and was doing the job quite effectively.  The following photos will explain.

Switch open…

All track has been laid and magnets have been buried under the track on the three sidings to aid uncoupling of the rolling stock.

Before the process of wiring takes place, I decided to add an isolation gap to each of the two longer sidings.  This is to create an isolated section on each siding so that locos can be left there whilst another loco is moving.  As already mentioned, the layout is DC operated.  I cut a gap in one rail on each siding and wires will be soldered each side of the gap and run to an on/off switch. In the past I have just left the gap and hoped that the rails didn't move and eventually touch, causing the isolated section to cease to work.  I suppose that I could use a Peco insulated fishplate but these a a bit bulky so I opted to glue a small piece of 20 thou thick styrence in the gap with superglue.

After leaving this overnight to dry, the styrene was trimmed with a scalpel and cleaned up with a swiss file.  The styrene is almost invisible and will be more so once the rail sides are painted. No chance oif the rails touching now.


Terry