More in Paper, Pencil and Cardboard

After planning a scenic treatment for the Julian Andrews brickworks plan that didn't incorporate a running line hidden in a building, I decided to try a version that was closer to the original in that respect. This plan also moved the trees towards the background and potentially does away with the backscene on the left hand side of the board.

The building as sketched is a close copy of the one completed Misterton Fen Tramway structure, the workshop. I sold this on, due to storage space constraints, so it would be good to recreate it in some way.

Mocking this up in finest cereal packet card created a better effect than I had anticipated, The grouping on either side of the trees/smaller huts and the tree/tank/workshop seems to work well. The idea is that this layout will be my first use of a photographic backscene so there won't be quite such an apparent gap in the scene. The Port Wynnstay hut features again whilst the adjacent engine shed could equally be a concrete sectional structure rather like the old Skegness miniature railway example that I built extra wide and in low relief a few years ago.

There may be a few more ideas to consider, but I might have to eat some more cornflakes!

Colin

Planning in Paper, Pencil and Cardboard

Drawing inspiration from the old 'Misterton Fen Tramway' sketches and the more recent pizza exercises I have now sketched a few ideas for my project based on the plan of Julian Andrews brickworks layout. These initial ideas have dropped the line running through a building approach of the original.

The first sketch uses a round tank on stilts very much like the one in the old sketches. The arrangement on he left hand side incorporates a workshop containing some machine tools that I have in my possession. The building would be based architecturally on the one part of the MFT that got completed - the workshop. I sold this on, due to space constraints, so it would be good to recreate it in some way.

I came up with an alternative for the right hand side that used the Port Wynnstay hut and a modified Airfix/Dapol tank (on brick piers). However, my mind must be in 009 mode still, when I attempted a 3D mock-up it wouldn't quite fit as sketched and I had to adapt the idea a little.

This was certainly a starting point, I had a few concerns about being able to see both lines curving away and how that might look, especially as I envisaged backscene boards both sides of the scene. Also the two trees I had in mind to use in the scene have turned out to be better background trees than foreground examples.

More soon...

Colin

Pizza Ponderings 2 - Square Pizza

There used to be a pizzeria locally who's trademark was square pizza. I suppose it is better box space utilisation if nothing else... 

Curious I took the estate scene pizza and translated it to the same 13 x 19" board size as my 009 scene 'Old Quarry Line', retaining the 5" radius curves of the pizza but adding in a straight on each side allowing a short siding to be incorporated.

Having checked with a full size plan the siding would probably have to be curved in reality, but it just about fits. Overall the scheme reminds me of some of the micro layouts that James Hilton has built over the years, more recently in OO6.5.

At 13 x 19" is isn't much smaller than the 15 x 24" of my stalled corkboard scheme but it seems a very different style of scene. All this thinking is leading towards how this project could be restarted and as part of that process I have revisited some older sketches made during the development of the 'Misterton Fen Tramway' scheme (another square pizza) to see how I tackled issues such as the line vanishing behind the buildings and through the hole(s) in the sky.

In the scheme above a tank on brick piers, and a simple block structure hide the exits. The tank was the focus of my attention, I think it was envisaged as Knightwing on scratch built piers but could easily be fully scratch built. In the scene below the all too familiar hut appears!

Eventually a full size mock-up was made, by this stage I had actually extended the board a little at either end. A combination of structures and trees would hide the exits reasonably well.

Ideas are now starting to fall into place and thoughts are turning to how the corkboard inspired scheme can be taken forward...

Colin

Pizza Ponderings - Fresh Toppings

Some issues with the recent Christmas Pizza have led me to strip back the scenery to almost a bare board with embedded trackwork. There is a chance that I won't be reinstating the snow scene, at least in the same form, having found that keeping track clean and snow were not really compatible! The trees and other bits have been recovered for reuse but in the meantime I've been thinking what could be done in terms of a "re-theme". 

I recalled a sketch made some time ago for an O9 scene, representing an estate railway, split into three views of a roadway with vehicle/office or station/yard.

I have now created a couple of sketches of how it could look in practice. From the roadway side (without the vehicle in place) it can be seen that a Port Wynnstay hut and Peco phone box are envisaged, oddly enough both kits are to hand...

The yard side features a grounded van body, inspired by the Peco O-16.5 one used on 'The Headshunt' (indeed there may be a side from it somewhere!) and a series of junk bits.

During the early construction of the Christmas pizza a friend asked if the mounds were going to be sand dunes or snow, which must have struck a chord... A more recent pair of pizza sketches depict the familiar territory of a passenger-carrying seaside miniature railway, but a more run down, lower key setup than that depicted on 'Shifting Sands'. 

The sketch on the right uses an ice cream van as part of the disguise of the circuit, and whilst not split directly into thirds as per the estate plan sufficiently breaks up the scene. Wanting to see how it might work I made a sketch of how it might look.

It is funny how I can visualise these ideas but not the layout that I am currently stalled building - the Julian Andrews brickworks inspired scheme...maybe it will come in time?

Colin

The Trouble With Cloning

Following on from the theme of my previous post 'My Oh-Nine', another iteration of that thinking was seen late in 2020. I've always liked the outline of SMR no.3, a 4w diesel that has had many rebuilds over the years (seen here midway through the last one), but a loco that has a little too much overhang on the curves on the proposed layout. There is about 5mm of length beyond the ends of the Kato chassis at each end.

Frustrated by the Alan Keef project, I deduced that I needed a shorter version, and rebuilding to shorten it perhaps wasn't an option. So one Sunday back in November I started work on a new locomotive...

This draws influence from no.3 but with a few changes to make it a little different. There is perhaps also a little influence from the MG Models 'Classic' locomotive, but as they both perhaps have similar DNA that isn't a surprise.

Whilst it has got a little further since the last photo, progress stalled in December and it hasn't troubled the workbench since...

Colin