Hiding the end of the line (Up-cycle pt.4)

Having settled on the brick wall along the rear of 'Up-cycle', I needed to consider how the end of the scene should be finished off.  Having rejected a simple fence I considered whether a building could fit in the limited height available.  Something flat roofed might just fit, but it will be a case of "mind your head"! Now what if the front line could go into a doorway in the building...

The corrugated iron/H-girder fence actually dates back to my OO gauge boxfile layout, it was a prototype for the scrap yard fencing but used 7mm scale corrugated iron rather than the 4mm scale material used on the finished article.  Here it attempts to provide some depth and hide the corner.

I was then asked if was worth having the building flat stepped so that one part sticks out more than the other.Ironically this thought had already come to me and I had made a suitably rough sketch, although this involved a drop in floor level and a caravan behind a fence:

Translated into a mock-up, this became:

The thought has occurred to me that the section with track heading into it could be an excuse for another attempt at the former Skegness Miniature Railway shed, as I think the last one was probably over-size this one can be a little under-size to fit!

In other news, the walls are now structurally complete, pillars have had their corners neatened up and mortar lines taken around the corners.  The gate has been completed with posts, planking and a latch:

Colin

All in all it's just a... (Up-cycle pt.3)

After experiencing a few issues with the right-hand point that led to the front siding (all due to it's slightly battered beginnings and my attempts to correct it) I looked again at what this Up-cycle should achieve in the way of being a test track rather than a micro layout. I set out the following new objectives:

• Some 16.5 mm gauge track to at least allow rolling road block testing (using DCC Concepts rollers).
• A length of un-ballasted 9 mm gauge track to allow rolling road block testing.
• Low-key scenic treatment on part of the board to use for photographic purposes.
• The ability to shunt a few wagons about as the mood takes.

So there has been a change to the track layout, the pit that accommodated the loco cassettes from 'Shifting Sands' has bee filled in, all gaps around the joins in the cork filled with decorator's flexible filler and the whole area painted with blackboard paint borrowed from the craft cupboard.  This area is the 'test' area, the other part will receive scenic treatment.  The area around the point could go either way at present, we shall see what develops...

I have also made some progress on a brick wall to sit along the back right-hand end.  Having had a wander around the canalside industrial area behind my workplace and taken a few reference photos on my phone (backed up with Google Earth) I had a good idea of what I wanted to build, I wanted a bricked-up gateway with a replacement smaller gate, plus a length of buttressed wall to the side - I didn't want a plain wall as it would be one of the main features of the scene.

This is actually wall v2.0 (the less said about the first the better...), using Slaters embossed brick in two patterns (in order to give some variety) mounted on 3.5mm foam core.  The majority is in Flemish bond, I found that the sheet I bought last weekend has little in the way of squareness in the embossed pattern, which was rather annoying to say the least...

The pillars of the gateway are built from a plain bond in order to make the corners easier to match up.  The infill section was recovered from the first attempt at the wall, but altered to incorporate a rebuilt upper section to add interest.  Capping is from the Wills 4mm scale roof/guttering pack.

Further along the wall is the buttressed section.  The buttresses are an overlay with a 40 thou piece of styrene behind, the top is tapered in to a slot in the brickwork.  The sides of the buttresses have the brick courses scribed in.  Again, there is a repaired stretch of wall along the top, capping is again from the Wills pack, the original capping is assumed to be the triangular pattern, the replacement is rounded.

Painting will follow in due course, I tend to find that I prefer yellow brick, but we shall see...

Colin

'Crompton' - In Numbers

Following correspondence during 2014 via the NGRM Online Forum I measured up the vital statistics of the 18" gauge Atlantic 'Crompton' at Cleethorpes for a gentleman planning a model of the New Brighton miniature railway in 6mm/ft scale.

'Crompton' was built to the order of Tommy Mann by David Curwen Ltd, notably after the founder had left the company.  An enlarged version of the 10 1/4" gauge Atlantics supplied by Curwen, it somehow lost the careful proportions of the originals in translation to the larger scale.

After many years in storage the remains of the loco arrived at Cleethorpes in 2005 for the centenary of seaside miniature railways and have remained in store there ever since.  After some time stored at the back of the shed they were moved in May 2014 to a more accessible location:

'Crompton's Dimensions - Locomotive:

• Front bufferbeam to rear of footplate: 147”
• Width of front bufferbeam/rear footplate: 40”
• Length of rear footplate: 26”
• Length of boiler (front of smokebox to rear of firebox): 114”
• Length of firebox: 21”
• Width of firebox: 20”
• Height of firebox: 33”
• Length of smokebox: 27”
• Diameter of smokebox: 23 ½“
• Width of smokebox saddle: 14”
• Length of smokebox saddle: 17”
• Depth of frame plates: 12”
• Driving wheel diameter: 21”
• Driving wheelbase: 30”
• Bogie (and trailing) wheel diameter: 11”
• Bogie wheelbase: 21”
• Wheelbase (front bogie wheel to rear driving wheel): 87”
• Cylinder length (external): 10 ½“
• Cylinder diameter (external): 8”

Tender (Frame):

• Length: 88”
• Width: 40”
• Depth of frame plates: 12”
• Wheelbase: 47”

All dimensions recorded at CCLR 11/05/2014 by Colin Peake

Sadly, due to change of ownership at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, the remains of 'Crompton' left the railway on 15th August 2014 for storage at a private location.  Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time...

Colin

Up-cycle - Uncoupling Magnets

I have been experimenting with uncoupling magnets for Up-cycle in those few spare moments over Christmas. The Micro-Trains coupling system (as with is's larger Kadee cousins) has the useful facility to serve many sidings from one magnet in the headshunt, using delayed action to uncouple a wagon before pushing it into the siding.  However, this  is useless if you wish to uncouple within the siding itself, you would need another magnet in each siding anyway....

Having decided to install uncouplers in typical uncoupling locations rather than rely wholly on delayed uncoupling, my installation has gone through some development. I initially installed MicroTrains' own magnets, however I discovered that they are not ideally suited for shunting individual O9 wagons as the wagons are the exact same length as the magnets, making for all sorts of accidental uncoupling incidents whilst trying to couple beyond the magnets. I am advised that it is possible to carefully score and snap the magnets to make two shorter ones, but that wasn't really something to try at 3pm on Christmas Eve!

I have therefore created my own magnets from pairs of 18 x 3 x 3mm ferrite magnets from Squires, set approx 0.75mm apart with a styrene strip between, and with some 0.5mm styrene underneath (L-R: individual magnet; magnets in position; the packet as bought):

Some experimentation soon finds the correct orientation of the magnets to attract the droppers on the MicroTrains couplings. The two magnets should attract each other along the sides, the two top poles are the same. I marked each magnet to show which way around it should sit before installing them with the magnet tops level with the rail head:

The sequence shows the magnets in use, starting with pulling up over the magnet and the couplings starting to feel the force of the magnet below:

Pulling apart the couplings are fully attracted to the side:

Pushing back together the couplings adopt the delayed position, should that be required to push a wagon further down the siding:

Obviously these magnets are still quite experimental, but that all adds to the fun!

Colin

Up-cycle - Some thoughts on setting

Lets face it, there isn't really that much that can be done scenically in a space 29" x 6" and without much depth.  Whilst planning 'Up-cycle' my thoughts were alternating between a scene that could definitely be linked thematically to 'Shifting Sands', i.e. another part of the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway; or a generic scene that could be anywhere on a 15" railway.

My first thoughts were for a shed scene, the "other shed" that must exist somewhere on the SMR as the sheds at 'Shifting Sands' are not that large.  My original idea was to have a dummy traverser on the rear line to create a three-road shed (inspired by the traverser that used to exist at Steamtown, Carnforth - as pictured here), however by the time I came to sketch the idea out, a dummy point was planned due to space restraints.  The shed would have been a removable facade only, the tank on it's stand adding some much needed depth:

At the other end of the board, a workshop building based on the old Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway workshop (now hidden amongst other buildings) could have stood in front of the fiddle siding.  This sketch also shows (lower left) an alternative idea for this siding based on the 'Shifting Sands' WW2 pill box and some Peco railings. Upper right is an idea for the right hand end using a removable container as part of a permanent way store:

These last two sketches could come to fruition, as the scenic work is more likely to follow the more generic path. As an example of the sort of thing that can be achieved using walls, fences and scenic details.  This is a diorama I produced several years ago which may provide some inspiration for the scenic treatment on Up-cycle:

May I take this chance to wish all readers of O9 Modeller a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Colin

Introducing 'Up-cycle' - A MicrO-9 Project

As some of you will know, I'm very short on space about the house these days and my workbench lives in a walk-in bedroom cupboard, aka the 'Railway Cupboard', aka the 'Tardis'.  Over the years various schemes have been sketched up to get a working bit of railway in there but most were just too daft to actually build, or would compromise space somewhat.  Last month I pictured the workbench in a rare, tidy moment...

This month it's a bit different:

I've always come back to idea that the best way of getting a working "layout" in there is simply a desk-sitter shunting plank.  So the size is rather pre-determined.  Finding space to store it whilst not in use is the other main design criteria. 

During a week off work in early December I managed to create a workable baseboard based on the principles of a box file layout (which was an alternative at one point) - i.e. three low sides and a base, but dispensing with any folding bits and incorporating some timber under the base for strength and to give the wiring somewhere to run. What you see above is all 29 1/2" x 6" of it, underneath it looks like this, you can see that with some foresight I drilled two 16mm holes in the ply roughly where the slide switches for the points would be:

Almost everything is recycled from somewhere or second-hand, hence the project name 'Up-cycled' (and we know what happened to my last project name..).  The ply was part of some boxing-in we removed from the living room during redecoration and the timber (allegedly pine but I'm not convinced) from a shelving unit I built as a shoe rack during that week off. The strip along the front is some 'J' section timber, marked up as costing me 20p at some point in the past. Everything was glued and screwed/pinned together and the result is a lightweight, strong board. All ply and timber parts are varnished to help avoid warping.

On top of the ply is a layer of 5mm foamcore and then cork tiles, this composite accepts and holds track pins with nothing poking out underneath.  Trackwork is all Peco, the points were secondhand some time ago and the track is mostly some short lengths I picked up for 50p at a recent exhibition, although some short rail lengths were swapped for longer lengths from the spares box to avoid too many joins.  Points are operated and frog polarity changed using slide switches recovered from an earlier project:

The overall height of the sides of the board is 70mm.  This is very low to be a backscene but can be disguised with walls and fences. This is where the second part of my design criteria came into play - any micro layout had to store in a very shallow space above a set of drawers:

All wiring is now complete and test running has commenced using my MG Models tram loco and A1 Models diesel. I hope that eventually I will be able to do a little shunting of sorts and certainly for testing MicroTrains coupling set-ups. This low level shot shows that there is enough depth to also allow use as a photographic backdrop:

More as and when the project develops.

Colin

Infamy and Inactivity

Examination of the latest (December 2014) issue of the 'Railway Modeller' has me, and 'Shifting Sands' implicated as an influence on Peter Leadley's O9 'Clee Valley Railway'....

Do have a read about Peter's exploits in a version of O9 that is very much in my own, miniature railway, way of thinking rather than industrial.  It is no secret that his Paul Windle-built locos were a driving factor behind the creation of my own 'King George VI' locomotive.

This isn't the first time I've been implicated in the 'Modeller this year, I seen to recall getting a mention in the articles on 'Roundtree Sidings' earlier in the year, and a picture of one of my 4mm scale wagons recently appeared in 'Traction', sans credit <<grrr>>

You may have noticed that it is three months since the last update of this blog - I've been rather tied up with domestic activities of late, however the workbench is now clear of other-roomly content, a few bits of storage moved about and is ready for take off, although with precisely what remains to be seen - watch this space.

I can't let a title such as Infamy and Inactivity go without this....

Colin