Robatron86

The track arrived today, so this evening it was laid, wired up and mechanical switch control is in place. Nothing fancy, just some pine dowel and 0.5mm brass rod. And it all works! I have a few ideas in mind that I want to try out on this one. And I'm leaning towards Atlanta as a location. Watch this space...

Good news! The track for the layout is on its way and should be with me tomorrow, then I can start the usual dilemma of point motors or mechanical point switching. We shall see, although I suspect the latter as it is cheaper and less complicated. I was going to mark out building placements and the like while waiting for the track, but the other two micro layouts have been occupying my time.

Yes it will be.

Well, she's arrived.

Potentially. I was thinking about maybe a length of track from left to right in front of the lead track, and placing a few cars on that.

The track plan has been printed off and attached to the board. 50 ft boxcar for scale. My SW9 should arrive by the end of the week. I shall be using my time before being able to get the track to mock up some buildings in card and have a play around.

Thank you for the kind words Wendell. I'm glad the Tilley Yard South was such an inspiration to you. So board complete, cork laid. Now, I don't usually use cork, but the company I work for was throwing a load out and it would have been rude not to take it home. My single piece of US code 83 I have left, a #4 wye. This will be incorporated into the plan.

That is spooky Mal, we appear to be progressing at the same speed. I'm only really looking at a simple 3-2-2 Inglenook design. Nothing special at all, but it works, and I can use all the surrounding area for structures and details. I'm not 100% committed to this plan yet.

I spent yesterday building the baseboard, usual construction method of MDF on a pine frame, although I was completely wrong on the thickness of the MDF, it wasn't 6mm, or 8mm, it was 18mm! I did a lift test after I put it together and the weight isn't excessive, so not a major issue. More Anyrail playing tonight to finalise the plan.

No, still no water...

Well Tilley Yard South was 5'2", so I know that it's a good size, the board is an inch wider than the last one. I'm leaning towards another inglenook.

Thanks for the encouragement gents, I'm really enthusiastic about it. I also suspect that a lot of the new micro/small layouts that will appear, will have at least one nod to Jack on it somewhere.

You never stay away long do you? You always come back to the dark side... For the last week, I have had an urge to return to NA railroads. The narrow gauge adventure I have been on has been fun, a learning experience, and a chance to actually build things. But my heart yearns for spurs, not sidings, for switchers, not shunters. Anyway, the real kick up the a**e to get on with it is the sudden loss of Jack. A man who inspired so many, and built more small and micro American layouts than I ever will. It made me think "Life is short, so do what makes you happy before you lose the chance". So this evening, I fired up the laptop, got Anyrail on the go, jumped onto eBay and bought a beautiful Proto 2000 SW9 in Southern livery, and let the designing and testing get underway. Let's see where this goes! I have the wood I need in the shed. Size? 5"2 by 13 inches. Nice slab of 6mm (or maybe 8mm?) mdf calling out to be used. I'm still moving track around in Anyrail at the moment, so no plan yet, but it will be here soon enough. It's good to be back.

I only met Jack once, but he was a true gent and font of knowledge. I did speak to him frequently online and it was always a pleasure. Rest in peace Shortliner.

I thoroughly recommend this show. A great place to see layouts outside of the norm.

What era are you planning to model? What sort of industries? This really help at the planning stage, as the industries dictate the car lengths, and the spur lengths. Personally, I would lose the kick back.

I'm very much looking forward to this. I haven’t exhibited since November 2017 and I have missed it.

My trees arrived. And some more detailing has been happening. My new Parkside Dundas Brake van.

Looks to be a good show. Good luck, I wish I could be with you this year. I had such a good time last year.

It was good to see this again on Saturday. Good to hear that you has a good show.

Feel free to talk about cars, I love old cars. So a progress update. I installed a fence and painted it. It will be weathered in due course. I put hardstanding inside the barn, completed most of the ground cover in that area, and started to add little details here and there. Still waiting on some trees to arrive to hide the other side of the oval.

This is how it looks now. I wanted to put a special vehicle on my layout, a vehicle that means a lot to me personally. The first car I drove after passing my test was a 1979 Morris Marina 1.3 Saloon in metallic Denim Blue with a black vinyl roof. Oxford diecast offer a Mk3 Marina in OO, so I had to buy it. Unfortunately, it was only available as a Heathrow Fire Service car. After a repaint, and a bit of modification, here it is.  And the original.

Good evening good people, So after bowing out of modelling for a little while, I have returned to it once again. I had started a Gn15 layout, but this has since been abandoned due to the simple fact that a scale tree in Gn15 works out at 4ft tall! I wanted several on the layout and this seemed difficult to achieve realistically. I have moved to 009 instead. Here a few shots of where I am at. The baseboard is 52.5cm by 30.5cm. These dimensions have been chosen due to a challenge by a work colleague. These are the dimensions of one of the cardboard boxes we use at work. I'm not actually building it inside the box, the baseboard is a conventionally built wooden job, but sticking to these dimensions. These are 3D printed kits I found on eBay. The loco is running on the Kato 13 chassis. I have a second van to build. While on holiday in Florida, I found some good bargains on N gauge locomotives. I will be using the chassis from these. This is the N gauge diesel now, using an A1 models brass kit. The actual layout track plan. I ran out of 009 track and butchered some N gauge set track to finish it off. I actually laid the track on the board first, then cut the size, and built a proper frame for it. I know, all the wrong way round.

So nearly a year on and it had progressed no further! It has sat on my shelf gathering dust. I have missed the deadline for the competition so I'll probably not be finishing this as I still have other priorities.

Me and my two boys had a wonderful couple of hours at the show on Saturday, and the quiz was a great idea.