N / OO9 Two scales one gauge

Nicely done, Rick. Did you have any trouble speed matching?

peterm said

Nicely done, Rick. Did you have any trouble speed matching?

From “Post #290,460”, 22nd August 2024, 12:55 am

None at all.  Which ever loco led / trailed and whether running forwards or backwards they matched speed really well top-and-tailing the train.  As I mentioned when placed alone at opposite sides of the test track with no trailing load the diesel slowly - over around ten laps of a ten-metre circuit - caught up with the steam loco.  

I have yet to test either the Hunslet or the diesel against the Baldwin locos which will also appear on the OO9 version of the layout.  Diesel and Baldwin have both run on the OO9 circuit of Porthgarrow but not together.  My impression is that the diesel is again slightly faster than steam.  

Those little Baguley-Drewry diesels are also extraordinarily powerful for their diminutive size.  I had wondered, when I first purchased them, whether they would cope with a full trains and offer smooth running through point frogs.  They are great.  They don't even bay an eyelid running across an insulfrog point which is better than many much larger OO locos can manage.  And they cheerfully lift and haul 20 V-skips (of which half are loaded with ballast) plus all the passenger coaches and goods wagons I have which is another 20 assorted items some of them bogie stock.  

£ for £ they are not cheap but I can't make anything that good in that size for that money and I am very pleased with them.  

Good to hear, and that bottom line really is the bottom line here.

Weathering of the stock progresses steadily.  The bogie vans are already factory-weathered but I don't want the pair looking identical.  I also wanted to remove the running numbers which are the same.  My usual method of using a cotton-wool bud dipped in rubbing alcohol didn't remove the number as it would a tampo-oprinted nameplate; it started to take the livery with it too.  But no matter as I want these looking well-used.

I added powders and over-sprayed with hair-spray to fix them.  With that still tacky for a few seconds I then lightly brushed on more powder at one end.  This stuck to the hair-spray droplets but brushed off anywhere else and gave me a "spattered" appearance which I like.  I have done this before but not on anything this small.

The usual rusty grime has been added to bogies and a mix of soot black, dark rust and mid-brown to the sides.  The roof is mostly soot black with some dark rust brushed in.

The tape is included for scale.

I really cannot get the image uploader to work as it should.  Images just go randomly into the post and despite using the editor I cannot move them.  They simply delete themselves.  I find this very frustrating.  The post above is my fourth attempt and has taken over a half-hour to get things that far.  

It seems to be a quirk of the site. I can't get photo's to stay in the order that I load them. Maybe someone knows something that we don't and will pass it on.

The first cork underlay is down.  The two tracks are placed not pinned but are in more or less the positions where they will fixed.  There will be two lifted track-beds in front of the nearest "remaining" track with a disused platform between them.  And probably a derelict wagon or two when I am running the N-gauge theme.

Two scales side by side again.

Weathering of the four "bug-box" coaches has been completed.  These have been rubbed over with IPA to take down the green to a worn appearance, some of the livery has been randomly removed exposing brown bodywork beneath and some of the printed details have been removed.

The track is laid out ready for cutting and pinning.  The backscenes have arrived ready for pasting to the card (which I have yet to obtain) and which will have to be carefully done to ensure they are reversible or - at least - easily swapped out.  I would like them to be reversible but the curves in some areas will make that tricky so two sets of scenery may well be the answer.  

More OO-9 buildings have arrived as these are more easily dealt with using resin than downloads for my purposes.  The N-gauge scenes are already on file as Scalescenes downloads so await printing, mounting, cutting and assembly.  

I plan to be a bit crafty with the canal scene.  The original Boghouses had a canal with lock and narrowboat.  All of them Scalescenes items.  In order to replicate that in the dual-scale environment I can build one canal but two narrowboats.  Canals are typically either 7-feet or 14-feet wide so the single-width canal will be a 7-foot wide one in OO-9 and a 14-foot one on N with different boats to suit.  As I cannot build a dual-scale lock that will have to be dispensed with.  Other items such as the bridge over the canal can be swap-out items.  The same footprint can be used for an N-gauge road bridge and a OO-9 footpath bridge.  Using correct scale bricks / stonework for each of course.  

The plan is also for the resin OO-9 structures to occupy the same footprint as will be used for N-gauge buildings with the latter representing structures twice the size.  

I have a controller in the loft which can be used for this layout.  What I don't have is overhead lighting so that will be another cost as things move along.  

A cunning plan? :-)

peterm said

A cunning plan? :-)

From “Post #290,498”, 9th September 2024, 1:04 am

I still have hair.  Therefore I am not a Bald Rick  


But the plan is cunning, yes.