Pizza CAD - Cardboard Aided Design

With the basic woodwork completed on my O9 pizza project I have started to think about how the scenic treatment might work. I have therefore worked through a series of cereal packet cardboard mock-ups to explore a few ideas. Luckily I had a few bits retained from previous exercises to help with this.

The first has a distinct theme, backstory and to a degree, a sprinkling of whimsey, something it inherits from my other pizza 'Christmas Tree Halt'. When I built my O9 Railcar a year or so ago, I had visions of it running on a layout depicting some sort of tramway leading to a small hotel or resort. To the rear of the scene is a small station at the non-business end of the line, this would have a slightly rustic look, think Groudle Glen or Eaton Hall. Next to this is the ominpresent Port Wynnstay hut and behind both trees on the left give way to more non-descript shrubbery that extends behind the station building.

Around the other side of the trees the land rises, there is a tunnel but this may be a miniature railway folly built for effect rather than burrowing fully under higher ground. More bushes hide a bit of a perspective trick, the hotel/resort represented in the background at a smaller scale.

Next I mocked-up something based on the original sketch I made that started this project, a simple scheme featuring a garage-style building and large tree, adding in some additional trees to the back right corner for balance. The Motor Rail looks quite at home, borrowing the railcar's luggage trailer for this posed shot. It ought to be possible for it to have a couple of suitable 8-seater passenger carriages to haul in this scenario...

An observer commented that this was like a mini 'Bellfield Hall' (a pioneering circular O9 estate railway layout). That led me to develop a third mock-up, based on a plan I published here on the blog back in 2021 (Pizza Ponderings - Fresh Toppings) which is even closer to the estate theme. The main deviation from the original is to mirror-image the plan it to better suit the baseboard. 

The high baseboard edge at the back-right corner would have to be lowered to accommodate the road but this does seem to fit. The original concept was to fit a road vehicle in parked against the wall, I subsequently tried this and there was room to spare. Nothing would be able to get past, but I suspect this is not a frequently used roadway.

The area of ground that was cut away inside the circle would be lost to the platform but there is still scope to drop the scenery on the outside a little below the board surface. The plan had another hut/shed behind the Port Wynnstay office (but no big tree) and there should still be space for something here and a good pile of junk. 

Plenty of food for thought...

Colin

Pizza Ponderings - A Freshly Rolled Base

It started with a sketch... a very small sketch in fact, literally doodled the size of a postage stamp on a scrap of paper. In fact I'm amazed it has scanned and cleaned up so well! It was initially drawn for a circular base but then squared off into an Octagon when I realised the cake board I had to hand was a little warped. It doesn't represent anything in particular, just some narrow gauge track, a building that may have a disconnected track emerging from it, and a tree.

Having procrastinated for a couple of weeks, it was soon getting towards the Easter Weekend. With family visits pushed back into the week after the bank holidays, and various other factors taken into account, I realised I had a window of opportunity to do something practical. 

What follows may be seen by many as over-engineering for a simple pizza, but I wanted to build something robust and without any tendency to warp, and to use materials to hand wherever possible. Construction largely follows the method used for my 009 layout 'The Old Quarry Line', with a 5mm ply base, 13" square as the starting point. 2.5" triangles were cut from each corner to avoid hard corners and bracing is in the form of some timber from stock, about 1" x 0.75", the sort of thing that some appliances come packed with.

Having glued and clamped the basic frame together I added an edging strip all the way around. On the two sides where there isn't a continuous strip across the board underneath this is part of the basic load-bearing structure. I had cut more 5mm ply for this job but this was not satisfactory, so in the end had an  Saturday afternoon dash to Wickes to buy 4 x 36mm pine strip to avoid grinding to a halt on Easter Sunday! 

The pine strip is used on three long and two short sides, the other sides are some 3mm ply that I had to hand, profiled to allow a raise in the scenery.

A layer of 5mm foam core board topped the ply, with cut-outs to allow scenery to dip below the trackbed level, and a layer of cork tile over that to add more depth and provide a good surface for pinning and adjustment whilst laying the track. Both layers were glued down with PVA and weighted whilst drying.

Regular readers may recall that several Easter weekends ago, in the isolated days of 2020, I laid out what was going to be my next O9 project, a now stalled and lifted interpretation of the Julian Andrews/Howard Martin 'Avalon Brickworks' plan. Two thirds of the trackwork laid on this pizza is recovered from the curves on that project, with rail sides cleaned up and broken sleepers removed. It was laid with my home-made 5" radius curve and lightly pinned into place.

 

Two of the rail joiners were pre-wired and some very simple wiring under the board allowed test running on Tuesday morning, with the Motor Rail doing the honours. There is scope to remove a small part of the board on the left hand side to drop the scenery even further but that will wait for another day.  

Whether or not the original plan will be followed remains to be seen, there are a few other options in the archives: Pizza Ponderings - Fresh Toppings and I need to decide if this project is to use the 18" gauge stock currently under development or maybe provide a home for the railcar and luggage trailer.

More soon...

'Invicta' - a quick photo survey

It is always interesting when a 15" gauge locomotive emerges from a prolonged period of hibernation, and whilst not as exciting as some of the potential hidden delights that may exist, the unique Maxitrax 'Invicta' has recently arrived at the Sherwood Forest Railway for testing and a longer-term residency. She has been on display over the Easter weekend and was kindly rolled out of the shed by Bob Colley into better light for photography.

Built in the late 1980s for the original incarnation of the Markeaton Park railway in Derby, I saw her in the shed there in 1996 but for some reason did not take a photograph, despite other pictures being taken. Not long afterwards loco and two coaches moved to one of the Gullivers theme parks where it is not clear how much use was ever made of her over many years. 

Now nearing the end of a full restoration the paintwork is gleaming, so much so you can see my reflection in the shot below! 

The compact nature of the loco is ideally suited to the SFR and the existing rolling stock, suitable air braking equipment is fitted and we should see passenger use in due course when the railway opens it's extension and a two train service is run. I'm informed there have already been test runs along the new length of line out of the way of service trains.

There are still a few finishing touches to make, including cab front and rear windows and surrounds, and a cover for the air intake on the bonnet side. The cab is compact and emphasises how us modellers have issues getting driver figures to fit in O9 locomotive models, the seat is about a foot from the floor so your knees are going to be in the air, a posture rarely offered in model form...

Another important detail for modellers, the suspension and axle boxes. Just in case you are wondering, the wheelbase is 2ft and overall length just over 6ft. You would need a tiny chassis for an O9 model (it definitely won't fit a Kato 11-109!) but it would be a reasonable build on a SPUD or Underground Ernie chassis in 1/24th scale...

Many thanks to Bob and David Colley at the Sherwood Forest Railway - and a plug for the railway's new hot food selection on weekends and Nottinghamshire school holidays.

Colin

Rails on Planet Hex

Back in October I completed my Doctor Who micro-diorama on a hexagonal base measuring 7cm between each set of flat edges in order to fit within my display cabinet. A second base was cut from MDF as a "just in case" and whilst not used at the time it was actively considered for a Christmas scene and a suitable tree was even sourced. 

I had wondered for a while whether such a tiny base could accommodate any meaningful railway scene so in an odd moment or two I created almost the seasonal opposite of what was previously intended!

Construction is very similar to the methods used for the Tardis Scene the track went in first with 5mm foam core board segments either side that were carved to shape and then blended in with modelling clay. Track was weathered and ballasted, before a base surface texture mix was added followed by the same fine sand used on Shifting Sands. This was laid liberally over a layer of PVA, allowing it to overflow into the ballasted areas and then matt medium used to fix the layer for a natural look.

The base will just accommodate a small O9 loco, in this case the recently completed Motor Rail. The grasses are a mixture of Silfor tufts and Peco 10mm grasses, cut from strips as I did not have suitable tufts in stock. A little pruning with nail scissors increased the variety of lengths. All grasses were dry-brushed with a light green/grey acrylic paint which really helps take off any sheen. Finally MIG 'Beach Sand' weathering powder was used over the sand to lighten it and add variety to the colouring.

I'm really pleased with the result, there may be more scenic modelling to come soon...

Colin

 

422 Variations

Work on the 422 Modelmaking wagons continues. Having proved the concept to modify the axleboxes on the spare chassis, I have now modified both of the other chassis castings. In this view one is lined  up with a modified Peco chassis, and the sad remains of it's old body! The Peco chassis has been modified to accept the Mathieson 7mm wheelsets which required removal of all brake gear, and opening out the holes above each wheel to be fully rectangular. 

 

The modified 422 chassis has the axleboxes modified and if you look carefully in the centre of the tubes you can see the dodge I have employed to mimic the end of the axle. This uses a moulding from the Dapol railbus kit, cutting the round mouldings off the parts on the left of the sprue, reducing some in size a little to match the others. By drilling out the back of the tubes I could insert this and give the impression of an axle in the bearing.

 

Once the axleboxes were sorted out I glued the chassis to the bodies using Araldite, clamping where necessary to bring everything together with minimal gaps. I then opted to add some extra details in further individualise the models, adding some basic hinge details to the drop-side wagon and handles either end of the one-plank to allow the body to be removed Heywood-style.

A closer view of the handles, formed from 0.7mm brass wire. With the 0.7mm drill bit out I also drilled the bufferbeams to accommodate Grandt Line 1 1/2" NBW mouldings to break up the plain surface. Not visible are the two holes drilled underneath the chassis on the centreline at each end, 1.5mm apart, ready to secure Greenwich couplers in due course.

Both wagons are now cleaned up and ready to paint. The third chassis with the experimental (and indeed removed) axleboxes is being brought into line detail wise and a body is planned using some recycled material... 

Colin

422 Wagonry in Resin

Having completed the Motor Rail/Simplex and with my mind telling me it was an 18" gauge loco rather than 15" gauge, I felt the need for the some suitable rolling stock for it to work with. Having followed the development of the 422 Modelmaking range of resin cast O9 wagons, Narrow Gauge North provided the first opportunity to see them in the resin, so to speak...  

I chose to sample one of the 1-plank fixed plank and a 2-plank dropside variations along with a few spare bits and pieces. The castings are relatively clean, requiring some fettling of flash around the bottom edge of the bodies and top of the chassis, and a quick sand on flat 400 grit wet and dry paper to level off these surfaces ready for assembly. After cleaning up the castings I posed them for the camera.

The chassis are designed to sit on Peco N gauge 10ft chassis with their buffers removed and weight still attached above, so a suitable example was purloined from the stores. Bearing in mind this is sat on the flanges and not on rails, the axleboxes are quite low to the ground and do seem a little large compared to the wheels (which admittedly you cannot really see!).

I appreciate the need to hide the Peco undergubbins but I decided that this area required a little further consideration. I did purchase a spare chassis and also a version without axleboxes. This has allowed me some room for experimentation, the earliest of which was to see if the axleboxes could be cut off an shortened in height, not a resounding success... On the opposite side of the chassis I squared off the bottom of the axleboxes with the idea a square cover could be added along the lines of the Heywood or Theakston axleboxes. This is the state of play on the right of the photo.

Some further thought produced the option on the left. By carefully drilling with a 3mm drill bit and some gentle opening out with a round file I could insert a length of Evergreen 3.2mm tube. The remains of the cast axlebox from the halfway point of the tube downwards was removed, co-incidentally lining up with the triangular support gusset either side. The hole needs filling with a slightly protruding length of rod to resemble the axle end.

I will probably opt for this option as the end result will not be too dissimilar to the Black Dog Mining style axleboxes on other O9 models. It also has a clear lineage to the originals in terms of shape etc.

Colin

 

Finishing Touches for Number 6

Work progresses on the FK3D Motor Rail 'Simplex', firstly with a little weathering... 

Initially I focussed on the underframe, where I first sprayed with Humbrol matt varnish before starting the weathering itself. To achieve this relatively easily I used post-it notes to mask off the bodywork during the spraying. This gave a much flatter base to work the weathering into, including colour washes, dry-brushing and a few oily/wet patches. On the bodywork some lighter blue was dry-brushed around the body edges to give a lightly-worn effect and weathering applied to the grilles, chimney/exhaust and air tank on the bonnet top. 

Once I was happy with the weathering I glued the driver into place using the pin in his posterior in the hole drilled into the seat support, having to clamp him down whilst the glue dried as otherwise he did not sit into the seat properly. Unfortunately his feet don't quite touch the floor but I'm not sure what I can do about that! The cab roof was then glued in place and again had to be clamped as it had a slight bow to it. 

At this stage I had thought I was finished but having revisited David Malton's drawing in the Railway Modeller I realised that 'Druid' retained the Motor Rail handrail at the bonnet end despite there being nowhere for someone to really stand and hold on for dear life! I therefore fabricated one from 0.9mm brass wire and soldered it together in an improvised jig.

 

After cleaning up the soldered joints the handrail was blackened and then painted to a faded black finish and sealed with matt varnish, before carefully gluing in place into two carefully pre-drilled holes on the front footplate.

Photography of the completed loco on the mini-diorama and 'The Headshunt' shows how well the Kato chassis vanishes into the murk in layout conditions. I believe taking the skirting away from the base of the print has really made a difference in this area. However, the finished loco is currently residing in the display cabinet on a shelf at eye level, where the chassis is all too conspicuous...

Colin