Nano Layout?

Finally finished the tiniest layout I’ve ever built. Just 14x4 inches without fiddle yard. Designed to live in a small plastic storage box. Working in such a small scale and footprint definitely sharpens up my act, the camera getting a lot closer than the eye! This was a commission, the owner supplying the baseboard with a length of track pinned down - my job was to decorate it to make it look ‘West Country’. I’ll miss this one when it goes on Monday. Could such a small layout (if it can be called that) be a new sub genre #nanolayout ? Rule: 2 square feet? 

Layout in a Box!

Brakevan rides today!

Happy New Year!

Apologies for the lack of posts here, I've been rather busy with photographic shoots for Model Rail magazine and more recently a few commercial model making commissions. Drop me a line

Enough of that, back in the autumn I was approached to build a layout in a box. I must admit to not really looking at plastic storage boxes to house a layout until then, but the owner needed to be able to store the layout under a bed or on-end in a cupboard when not in use.

Everything had  to be completely self contained in a foot print of 80 x 30cm - and being a fan and serial builder or micro layouts, I enjoy the challenge to see what can be squeezed in, whilst still creating a believable scenario so this was right up me street.

The scenario to be depicted was that of the early days on the Bluebell Railway, featuring a truncated railway halt for brake van rides - Freshfield Halt being some of the inspiration with the line running through a shallow cutting.

The layout is fully scenic, this end can be used as a fiddle yard.

Nice an tidy - just 80 x 30cm! There's scope for projects like this to be extended

If you enjoy these daily post, feel free to buy me a bev  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Point of No Return

Extending Brew Street from its original 2 x 1 feet to a whopping 4 x 1 - I think I've reached the point of no return.

In its original format, I could never see me taking it to a show. I'd have been pulling my own teeth out after 15 mins. I might last up to an hour after the extension. Operation isn't really my thing. If I didn't do the odd show I wouldn't even wire them up. 😱

The right hand side will feature a larger canal wharf with a few boats exiting through a heavily embellished Metcalfe factory entrance. Sort of Snape Quay/malting like. Just had to be done with that arch!

I was asked to do the Metcalfe factory for a magazine feature, but it's silly it gathering dust with no home. The original concept of Brew Street was designed to use spare buildings and other clutter up, whilst having a bit of freelance fun, so this will carry that on.

I need to finish this within 4 weeks to make way for commercial stuff. All going well I'll be linking it to Fountain Colliery at Wycrail first Saturday of November.

I'm using baseboard kits from www.timhorn.co.uk

Extending Brew Street

A little messing about to possibly extend Brew Street. And in anticipation I've ordered another diorama case from www.timhorn.co.uk to match Brew Street's, however a little carpentry will be required to turn it in to one big case - a mammoth 4 x 1 feet in total!

Brew Street, built last Autumn over 2 weeks was a spontaneous project using up spare bits and bobs, so this carries on that theme. In the past I've built quite a few serious projects (handmade everything including track), but from time to time it's fun to do a quickie.

When planning layouts I like to do mock ups using structures and templates, a pleasing composition is important to me, especially due to the fact that photography plays an important roll in displaying and sharing the layout to a wider audience. I'm not a huge fan of exhibiting, more often than not I'm performing with my band at weekends (my other interest).

I have to get this one finished by mid October to make way from some new commercial modelling projects, a business area I'm slowly moving in to as part of a lifestyle change away from the rat race. The book is filling up.

Power!

Thursday afternoon saw the final wiring go in to place. I won't show you that, because I'm no ambassador of layout electrics. Just imagine a few random wires. That's all I'll say on that matter. It works though.

Point operation is simple, just wooden knobs attached to wood dowels with a bit of wire poking up through the baseboard to the point tie bar. Push. Pull. Easy. Cheap.

Note the 'acoustic' controller, a trusty Gaugemaster feed back style hand held unit. No DCC for me, I've tried it, and do own some Lenz DCC thing, but prefer the analogue approach (I prefer acoustic guitar to electric as well, works in a power cut too). I've far too much stock, and even if there were enough hours in the day to convert it all, I really cannot justify the cost. I only really play trains at model railway shows - maybe one or two shows a year.

I still need to sort out out a couple of fiddle yards, I do have two generic cassette yards I use for all my layouts, but they're really too big for such a tiny layout.

Brew Street will form part of the Model Rail stand at the Warley MRC show at the NEC Birmingham 26 & 26 November 2016. See you there.

Vobster

Messing about with ideas, taken on a cell/mobile dog and bone.

Messing about with Polbrock's old diorama case, backscene and baseboard. Possibilities could be an a couple of dead end sidings with working narrow gauge serving standard gauge.  

I want to have actual wagon loading as its feature filling up wagons with loose aggregate or minerals as its 'feature'.

Should be a very quick project. Just need to build the track and scenics. I've enough stock and buildings kicking about and of course the carpentry is done.

Might call it 'Vobster' which was a well known and fascinating area for quarries and mining located a few miles west of Frome. http://www.bgs.ac.uk/Mendips/assets/pix/Vobster_minemap_large.jpg

Sweet Bridge

111008_cornish_int_IMG_1410_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

A very kind Mr Sweet mailed me this rather nice bridge casting for the Cornish project last week. I'm sure you'll agree that it is a wonderful piece of work, with nice deep rendering which would be quite tricky to achieve by scratchbuilding.

When it arrived, I expected it to be resin or plaster, but much to my surprise it is fibreglass! The stone being moulded into the gel coat. The joy being that it is very tough and very light - ideal for a portable layout.

The shot above shows it in primer in preparation for dry brushed top coats of various pale greys, beige, browns, creams and so on. Real stone is a fascinating mix of subtle different colours and shades, and certainly nothing like the painting-by-numbers approach often used which feature large blocks of solid colour - that approach suits engines and carriages just fine, but not hacked up materials straight from the ground which will have been exposed to the elements for decades.

I'd be very interested to know more about this stone effect beauty, because fibreglass is not a material we normally associate with toy chuff chuffs, it being more a material of yachts, dingies,  kit-cars and the aeroplane industry.

3 hours work with glue, hammer, saw, blood, less fingers etc....

110927_cornish-interlude_IMG_1336_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

3 hours work with glue, hammer, saw, blood, less fingers, and we have a baseboard in a box.

This is probably the average time most armchair modellers sit online before lunch pontificating about flanges, why they've lost interest in the hobby, why they don't have enough time to actually do anything, why 66134 has not been released in S gauge, why aren't model railway magazines free and how much Photoshop does that Mr Nevard use on model chuff chuff pics (very little). Actually I don't really dislike armchair modellers, in fact "some of my best friends are armchair modellers", they're just an easy target like people with caravans, lager drinkers, Nissan Micra owners, shell suits and trainspotters with adenoidal voices. In fact, I'd like to see a gallery of these armchairs to see who has the most impressive one. Does anyone have one with a high wing back in red velvet with an ornate gilt frame like on 'Big Bruverrr'?

Back to the trainset - The box is not fixed to the baseboard at this stage, that won't happen until after the track has been laid and the bulk of the scenic work done. Actually I might just screw it into place to allow future removal should I want to extend the layout. The backscene will be on flexible plastic and will sit inside, the natural curve of the plastic will ensure no sharp corners. The local printer will print my home-grown photographic backscene onto it.

The track will be laid straight onto 5mm foam core (there is a plywood base underneath), it takes glue easily, it might (though I doubt) just sound-deaden a tad, lies flat and it easy to draw on. As long as the surface is waterproofed (primer) before ballasting with diluted PVA there won't be any problem with the card de-laminating away from the foam core having used it successfully with Brewhouse Quay and Catcott Burtle.

Next, I'd better get some track laid I guess, I'll be using C+L components for that. Before I go and pour a well deserved beer, this is the inspiration for the exit on the right hand side http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ron.strutt/fullpics/helland.jpg

• Lost? Yesterday's introduction to this little project: http://nevardmedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/having-little-doodle.html
• Any thoughts on a name for this little layout?

Having a little doodle

I like doodling and thinking of ideas for small layouts, small layouts appealing to me because they can cater for all the different type of railways I like. I don't think I could ever commit to just one big project, I'd probably get bored halfway through.

Here we have a back of an envelope plan for a 3x1 foot (excluding fiddle yards) micro depicting a fictitious halt and crossing on the Wenford Bridge branch line. The forthcoming Kernow Model Rail commissioned Beattie Well Tank being the catalyst and now on order!

The rear of the layout will be about 3 inches higher than the front which will be a gnat's todger lower than the rail height, the halt being set into the cutting on the far side. High 'Cornish hedges' will add a nice and easily achieved feature. The backscene will be photographic as with Catcott, (see here) this I'll shoot myself, and prepare for the local repro/printing house (I have just penned an article for the popular press on how to do such). I will probably use a flexible 1 foot high plastic base for this which will give me the all important curved corners rather than using 'Bendy MDF' as with Brewhouse Quay. The photographic image will be treated a little in Photoshop (with 'Paint daubs' as with Catcott) to get rid of the pure photographic look, it's important that the modelling takes centre stage rather than the backscene, but it's also important with such a small layout that it feels like it is part of a much bigger landscape.

• A detailed construction of this layout starts in the May 2012 issue of Model Rail Mag - find out more here.