(This is just my size)

Hi all,

As a big fan of little layouts, I could hardly refuse to enter this month's (or winter's ) challenge.

Mine will be OO, and hopefully be era independent.

What I have in mind is three boxfiles, as Alan has suggested, two for scenics and one as a fiddle yard.

I will try to add a station, goods shed, narrow gauge transfer siding and a turntable. I'll even add a wire tree or two.

I also want to make the layout (!) extendable with other boxfiles.

I'll upload a plan later.

Stu

There seems to be two identical threads on this Stu.

[user=401]pnwood[/user] wrote:

There seems to be two identical threads on this Stu.

I have deleted the other thread  

Sounds good Stu, the extending was going to be some thing that I was going to mention later, but you beat me to it :roll:

Boxfile & modular ??????

Yes, sorry about the double thread, the pc at work was having problems and I clicked the send button twice.

I've thought about extending Porth Byhan before, but the buildings didn't really suit - this one will be made more versatile.

This is the proposed plan… at the moment.

Three boxfiles have been purchased this morning from Tesco's (other supermarkets are available) and a visit to my favourite haberdashery stall later will see the purchase of the means of connecting them - magnetic handbag clasps…

[user=465]Stubby47[/user] wrote:

 magnetic handbag clasps…

hmm:hmm

Explain more, as I was going to use a strong glue and also a couple of small pieces of wood  that would also have been glued and then use some of Peters left-over screws.

[user=465]Stubby47[/user] wrote:

a visit to my favourite haberdashery stall later will see the purchase of the means of connecting them - magnetic handbag clasps…

Now how do he know about these then mutley

Phill

These are magnetic, with a center boss/ hole to accurately locate the two pieces. So not only do they hold the boxes together, they align them too.

Simples !

Photos later.

As for the haberdashery stall, take a look yourself next time you're being dragged out shopping. There are lots of modelling bits there, if you use some imagination. For example, some of the long, thin beads can be used for ridge tiles, or the many varieties of cotton is good to choose steel hawswers from.

Wot I want to know is, "What is a magnetic handbag??"    :shock:

Edit:-  Does it always point North?

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

Wot I want to know is, "What is a magnetic handbag??"    :shock:

Edit:-  Does it always point North?

A magnetic handbag is the one used by ladies when they want you to pay, as in "I can't get my purse out of my bag…"

The visit to the haberdashery stall is now complete, so I present for your enlightenment - one set of magnetic handbag clasps :

Note the two prongs at the rear of each, and the matching retainer plate.




I'll mount the thin plate with the stud on the surface of the boxside, and drill a receiving hole into which to place the magnetic bit in the side of the other boxfile side.

Hope that makes more sense now…

Hmmmm….

Well, I've had a play with some bits of track and found that what I wanted to do just isn't going to work. The FY is too small, and there is insufficient room to have any meaningful sized sidings.

So I'm going to build a wagon works, based on buildings from the Llanberis Lake Railway Welsh Slate Museum - see http://www.walesdirectory.co.uk/Walks/Llanberis_Lake_Walk.htm, picture No. 24.

I'll still use the three boxfiles (other anagrams are available !), one as a FY and two as scenic. I hope to have a couple of simple sidings, one with a working wagon turntable leading into a covered shed.

I'll be using Doug's method of flat buildings for part of the scence, plus the box lids will be made to close.

Hopefully…

and here is the very rough sketch of what the finished layout might look like…

That's rough is it :roll:

Looks impressive to me :thumbs

I managed to get some more work done on this project yesterday evening and am happy to report my experiment with the handbag clasps has been a success. :thumbs


The diameter of the magnetic half is 19mm, so I drilled two 20mm holes in the end of one box. I then marked, through said holes, the circles on the end of the next box. One keeper plate was then aligned within a circle and the tab slots marked out, then the necessary slots were drilled and cut.
I then attached the two non-magnetic halves to the end of the 2nd box, using the keeper plates on the inside.

I used some of Ian M's 3mm foam/plastic sandwich card stuff and made two larger plates to fit behind the holes in the first box, then cut the tab slots for the magnetic bits.
The two magnets are strong enough to hold the 2nd box if held vertically, so will be perfectly adequate for keeping the boxes together on a table.
The extra 1mm of hole will allow me to accurately position the boxes when I glue the larger keeper plate to the inner box end.


The two magnetic halfs with backing foam/card stuff




The two boxfile ends, the upper needing the magnetic halfs to be stuck in the holes, the lower showing the non-magnetic halfs fixed to the outside of the box.

I've now started on the buildings around the entrance to the scenic area.




The thin strip of wood at the back is to strengthen the box side, as I've cut the side section out down to the boxfile base. The track will be laid on a 1.5mm card base, supported on 1.5mm card strips, to allow a gap for point control and wiring. 

A bit further round and we can see the start of one of the warehouses.

The front, lower section will be built conventionally, whereas the upper section will use Dooofer's warehouse/backscene method. There will be three of these sections, to cover the complete back of the layout, all detatchable to allow the lids to close.

Looking really good so far Stu and giving me ideas as well:thumbs

What are you going to do with the lids. Will they be upright as a backscene in which case how will you support them?

I've been concentrating on Much Murkle as of late but must start mine soon.