Now look what you've started!

... which is exactly what I said when the 'Beck Bridge' met the baseboard for the project that it's now abandoned extension plan kick-started...

I've filled in the joins in the corner of the backscene to allow a smooth transition between side and end boards. You might also notice a touch of Morecambe and Wise along the front edge where you now "can't see the join" after application of Milliput and some smoothing...

On that seasonal favourite I'll wish all readers of O9 Modeller a Happy New Year.

Colin

Plan B - for bodgery!

 (or how not to build a baseboard...)

With plans to expand 'Beck Bridge' from diorama to micro layout now abandoned, work on progressing "Plan B" has started, despite my intention to leave it until the new year. The 23 1/2" x 7 1/2" board first envisaged as a test track has been expanded into a board that is 30" in total length with provision for a water feature in the front left hand corner.

On the front edge I cut the pine strip back at an angle over the end of one of the battens underneath in order to get the most support for the join. The new backscene is 3mm ply on the back and 5.6mm at the end, both from the extravagance of new sheets of material! A piece of recycled ply forms the base layer of the trackbed extension at the left hand end. This piece was in undercoat already and conveniently the required depth. It has since been topped with a piece of foamcore board that was also spookily correct in one dimension...

The less said about what goes on underneath the better, but it's pretty solid. Just visible on the right hand side are the trim pieces added around the top and sides of the main backscene board. All new exposed timber has now had a coat of gloss oil-based varnish as the first stage in protecting it from the thrills and spills ahead.

There will be a fiddle yard run off added after Christmas, using the ply that was cut for the extension of 'Beck Bridge'. Very little goes to waste!

Colin

There's always Plan B...

There is a piece of training we deliver at work where at one point we explain how the system warns you if you are about to take a "destructive action". Layout planning doesn't always do this for you but having spent a good few days doodling, brooding and examining, it became clear that extending 'Beck Bridge' might be a destructive action too far and that I would have to up the game for plan B. Whatever that was...

Plan B is envisaged to be based on the corkboard-esque board that was in service as the "new" test track, albeit then on the mk2 version. Whilst this worked satisfactorily, I was torn between leaving it in bare boards form, some low-level scenic work or something more layout-like with backscene boards etc added. 

It also became apparent during my recent coupler clinic that as a test track it took up too much desk space to be able to work on the item being tested. So I have replaced it with a smaller version, constructed from oddments during my initial workshop investigations into the 'Beck Bridge' rebuild.

An off-cut of ply 18.75" x 4.25" forms the top surface with framing from window beading strip that once graced a real 15" gauge carriage. A coat of varnish makes it all look a lot better than it really is and Peco track and MicroTrains uncouplers were recovered from the bigger version to create a two short sidings holding two wagons each, which is enough for testing purposes.

Which of course frees up the original board to potentially rebuild as plan B! There is an option to break out of the desk-sitter mould and extend the board by another 8" to the left if required and a potential extension could include a dropped area for a water feature, but probably not another bridge!* Track layout possibilities include recreating the mk1 version of the test track;

or adopting the basic idea from the 'Beck Bridge' extension; or even a new take on this plan that I drew up 15 years ago before going down the 'Shifting Sands' path....

Colin

*and yes, I have thought of recycling the bridge off the diorama...