Face Off

And we return to Corri-llyn.

For such a simple layout, it's deceptively tricky and not as quite a clear cut build as it first appears. In this example, I really need to get round to finishing laying the track, but as I want the station building and engine shed to be almost parallel with each other I need to get the platform either in place or at least marked out. But in order to get the platform true dimensions I need to add the facia boards in as they add another 6mm of surface space around the edge of the layout.

As you can see, it very easily gets out of control.

So making a start on the facia boards, it was a case of taking two steps forward one step back. The station platform will eventually be realised with layers of 1mm card, so a rough template was cut out. The platform ends were then marked on the baseboard top allowing for the extra height to be marked somewhat accurately onto the facia.

From there it was just a case of slowly working my way round the board, measuring twice, cutting once and adding in the undulations of hills and dips along the way. The four facia boards were then attached to the original baseboard simply using a mixture of PVA and panel pins.

Surprisingly, it all went together very smoothly. My ability to cut with a tenon saw & razor saw must be improving, or maybe I just got lucky with all the curving lines!

Variations On A Theme

Everyone has that one kit they love, no matter how many times they build it. For me, it'd have to be the 'Vari-kit' 009 tank engine produced by GEM. It comes in two flavours: The slightly larger A type to fit an N gauge Arnold chassis, and the B type to fit a Minitrix chassis. Outwardly though, both kits look very much the same, with only the larger rear bunker/cab sheet of the A version being the giveaway, used here in an inverted style on a smaller B type:

I am a little biased though. Back in the early days when my dad was modelling in 009 and I wasn't he had many of these tiny tank engines. It's only natural that the liking for them should pass on to me. Even with what some would probably class as a limited number of parts, the scope for variations is surprising.

Sadly (At the time of writing) the GEM kits have been unavailable for a good few years now. A quick search online gave no clue as to where the moulds have gone, or if there any plans for the kit to return. In the meantime though, the 009 Society sales stand sees them occasionally appear, so there's hope for spares or rebuild projects yet.

"Very interesting, but what's the point of all this?" I hear you ask.

Well, a few weekends back I was having a tidy up of the kit stash and stumbled upon the unbuilt pieces of a Varikit, and a well and truly knackered chassis plate for the kit, the white metal part having separated into three different pieces. Wanting a quick distraction project from both work and Corri-llyn an enjoyable afternoon was had creating a tramway style chassis plate with side skirts, using the origijnal kit pieces as a guide.

The main box construction is of 40thou plasticard, whilst the motion covers are rectangles of 20thou sheet with a strip of 20x10thou strips along the top to represent some sort of hinge detail. It just requires dumb buffers and steps to complete what the white metal offering would have looked liked. Though for even more variation I am tempted to leave them off.

Mostly though, I'm just proud I managed to remember to cut out the coupling slots BEFORE finishing assembling the kit!

Track in the Box

Hopefully I'll run out of terrible box jokes for titles soon.

Very much a continuation from last weeks post, I quite like the space and less restrictions offered by the second folding option, having the two baseboard halves wrap round each other. So, with a set footprint, and more importantly a preset split line, I started doodling ideas for a potential 009 layout to fit the space. 

And so a simple terminus plan materialised.

Subconsciously I suppose I've probably drawn inspiration from the Rev. Awdry's Ffarquhar MK2, Neil Brigg's Scarside & Robert Michael Shemilt's Hylton. 

I tried to avoid the obvious trope of the join being hidden totally by a bridge, though I did conceed defeat and have one cover the fiddle yard entrance/exit. For a bit of variety, the main hinge section would be disguised as a large water tower, much like the surviving structure at Peel Station, Isle of Man. The tank would act as a topper locking the two halves in places, but be detachable to allow them to fold round on each other.

The Fiddle yard consists of a single cassette, though at this size two or three could possible be stored on the folded down layout. Like many micros, they'd get there power from simply plugging into a pair of fishplates soldered on to the main layout. I did originally consider trying to squeeze in a two road sector plate, but train turning would have been a real hassle, this solution is much easier for an operator.

This is very much a layout designed for small engines, in this case a GEM Varikit was used for measurements. Even in this small space, a goods train consisting of locomotive, three 009 society four wheel wagons and a Corris brake van was possibly in the fiddle stick space.

As mentioned last week, this is all very much in the 'potentially' category at the moment. Well see if there's any traction in this for me in the coming months I'm sure...

Thinking Inside the (Shoe) Box

This last weekend was just... mad, to say the least. No physical modelling done, but I did find myself with a bit of time whilst burning the midnight oil to do some potential layout sketches. By pure chance it happened to coincide with the release of the rules for this years micro layout challenge from the 'Micro Railway Cartel' Facebook group, so that gave me a good starting point.

This year sees the challenge of creating a shoebox layout, very much in the spirit of those seen on Carl Arendt's 'Small Layout Scrapbook' and also a similar challenge held for ExpoNG roughly 20 years back. Either style is acceptable: Be it a layout that fits exactly into the footprint of a shoebox, such as those by Chris Krupa, Chris O'Donoghue & Richard Homewood, or a layout that is bigger than a shoebox but can be be folded down to fit within one, such as Michael Campbell's 'Southon Yard' (A layout I've long thought about imitating!)

Much like last years pizza layout challenge I'm not quite sure if I intend to actually enter, but there's certainly no harm in doodling a few rough ideas. Even if they don't lead to a physical layout, it's a good way to try old ideas out in a new style and potentially discover some new ones on the way. And rather conveniently, I just happened to have a shoe box to hand, the dimensions of which are 34cm x 24.5cm x 11.5cm.

Naturally, the first thought was how to actually fit a baseboard in the box. 

For maximum baseboard area, the best idea was to have two halves folding on top of each other. Nothing new here, there are layouts that have been built like this for well over 60 years (Peter Denny's 'Leighton Buzzard' is a great example) In this case, assuming it was just the one folding join, the fully folded out baseboard size would be 24.5cm x 68cm, roughly 9.5"x26.5". With some very careful planning structure, stock and sector plate wise you probably squeeze a OO gauge micro on there.

The second idea sees a layout in two halves, both 12.25cm x 34cm with a hinge in the middle so they can either swing round to face each other or have the back-scenes go back to back. A nice advantage this one has over the earlier idea is that height isn't so much of a problem.

And as a third idea, thinking outside the box for a moment, combing the two ideas and having the layout essentially laying on its back when folded away. It does of course have some disadvantages, in this case the baseboard width would be a very tight 11.5cm/4.5" but again with an overall folded out length of 68cm.

All ideas to mull over, and if nothing else, hopefully they might give somebody reading a eureka moment.

Thinking off of the top of my head of simple track plans to work with a split board, James Hilton's 'Quart into a Pint Pot' track plan based on the liskeard - Looe branch is a very tempting subject idea...