Versions

 The Hamon Deltak concept stuck with me for quite some time. Though I think that was mostly down to the huge machinery that came out of the premises. They are pretty fascinating. Items like these would be relatively easy to scratch build as they are all  straight edges, square corners, and in some cases, tubes. Exact measurements aren’t really needed as these are all custom made to suit the task. Just copy what you see and make to proportions fit.

The effect of seeing the items in real life translated well into the model. Look at this view below on the original Hamon Deltak APA box layout. Though this is only a test shot, set up during construction. I Feel better about this shot than many other views from completed layouts. It was so much fun to look at the photos and try to work out dimensions. I am more than a bit curious to find out what size a heat exchanger like this would be in O scale. Not just the size, the volume. In O scale these would be BIG things. 

I tried a couple of other iterations of the concept to use this piece of heavy industry I created. One used the baseboard from Wingetts recycling. But having two concepts I was keen on melded together kinda cancelled each other out. I thought it was going to be the great solution to everything but it just wasn’t.

Then there was this version. I think this one was actually going to get built, but it got cancelled when we moved house and downsized. I really liked the arrangement of the main building, the way the track curved behind it. Though the radius of curve I’d have to use in O scale would probably preclude me from directly translating this plan into O.

After these recent posts, I think you can get a fairly good idea of what I want to achieve in my small P:48 layout. Next time, we will talk about what you Americans delightfully call “Givens and Druthers”.

How small a space can you get away with?

 You will have seen in these last few posts one of my basic tenets of micro model railway layout design. The desire to get a quart into a pint pot. I do not have the space in my house (or garage for that matter) to recreate class 1 railroading. Or even shortline railroads for that matter. So I concentrate on where products starts and finish their journeys. Industrial subjects. Places where things are delivered to, or dispatched from, by rail.

The layout where I pushed this to the absolute extreme was Hamon Deltak. Built in H0 scale, it was inspired by a heat exchanger manufacturer premises that I can see from my desk at work. A good few years ago  now (perhaps 2010) I witnessed several enormous heat exchangers being dispatched by rail for somewhere. 

Google Earth view of the Hamon Deltak facility

Old photo taken on a primitive digital camera of two of the huge heat exchangers

I tried to cram the essence of the facility into an APA box (a flat pack toy storage box from IKEA, about 27”x14”.  Certain elements of it worked, some didn’t. It was maybe a bit too small for what I was trying to convey, and my constructional skills were lacking for my first attempt with the box kit.

This was the entirety of Hamon Deltak 27”x 14”

 You should be able to glean the track plan from this image.
A single track runs through with a siding in each direction 

Another view of the layout in its box

The structures on the layout and the backscene were based on what I can see from my office, (to really locate things) Though not exact copies of the structures they definitely look like them. 

The important thing on the layout was the finished product, the huge heat exchangers. They had to be modelled. I think I may have made those first. They did have to fit through the doors of the factory after all. 

The model of the heat exchanger that started it all

I often think back fondly of Hamon Deltak. It wasn’t perfect by any means. But there was a lot I really liked. There was the challenge of distilling the essence of a very heavy industry into the smallest possible space, and then there was those amazing heat exchangers. They would look great in O scale. Wouldn’t they?

Further layout ideas

If you know me, you’ll know there’s two types of cars on American Railroads that I really like. Railboxes, (I have four different types in H0 scale and now one in O) and Coil cars. I have three or four different ones of those in H0 scale as well. So I’m always looking at ways to get both into a layout.

In the preview issue of the Micro Model Railway Dispatch I suggested a micro layout based around a small steel distributors/fabricator. Steel could be delivered in Coil cars and flat cars. Where finished products could be dispatched on flat cars in in boxcars. That sort of layout would be a win, win for me. Even better than a scrapyard layout perhaps.

Duluth Steel Fabricators was one such place. I'm very familiar with it as it's visible from I-35 when driving into my favourite Minnesota City. 

Google Earth view

As you can see from the aerial view, it was once served by rail. Although it is still quite a large structure, if modelled in low relief, I think the basic elements of the structure could be distilled into about three feet in length in O scale.

Below is the conceptual vision I had for the layout, as it appeared in The Micro Model Railway Dispatch. I delighted in throwing in some items that really located the model firmly in Duluth. The Overpass section of I-35 and the advertising hoarding. The billboard would work in H0 scale but might well be a bit too big for O scale.

A visualization of a simple version of the layout.

Explanatory trackplan. 

Spots for just two cars on the layout may not seem like much. One under cover for flat cars and Coil cars. One outside for boxcars. But moving one car out from under cover and replacing it with another when a the outdoor spot is occupied, calls for a judicious amount of car shuffling. I think this might work out in 6’ x 18”. It might be a bit cramped at that. But I hope I’d be able to fit a representation of the office side of the building, something else that would really help locate the model.

Distinctive structures help add atmosphere

Now all this puts me in mind of another layout I built a few years back. Hamon Deltak, where I tried to fit the largest industry I possibly could in the smallest space I had. That’s a story for another post.

Track planning a P:48 Micro (part 2) The Scrapyard

As I have already bought a locomotive suitable for being a private scrap yard loco. How should I deal with the scrap yard section of the concept? This is where the inspiration boards really come into their own. There’s so many images out there that inspire. Images that I find inspiring, you might find dull, and vice versa. This first inspiration sheet is a handful of images I found in about 15 minutes. There’s a couple of images on the first sheet that really grabbed my attention. The wheels, and the half cut up box car. The Wheels because there’s always piles and piles of wheels in a railroad scrapping yard. Once removed form the scrapped cars, they get sent away to be re-tired and can then be re-used. The cut up box car would make a great scenic view block to hide an exit offstage, a micro layout design trick to make the layout appear bigger. With some panels and doors removed it would obstruct the view of whatever passes behind it on the tracks. In this case, the scrapyard would become a sort of “ghost industry”. That’s an industry that is not on the layout but receives traffic. Cars would be pushed off scene pretty quickly with little indication of what’s going on. A fail on the “telling a story” angle. There’s a part of me that feels that wouldn’t be right and I need to see more of the scrapyard than a cut up box car and a pile of wheels,

This second sheet is some of the research pictures from Northern Metal recycling in St. Cloud, MN images that I used in my Seven Day Model Railroad project back in 2009. The layout caught the attention of quite a lot of people. Even to the extent that employees of the company who came to the Granite City Train Show in St. Cloud one year recognized the structures on the layout, and still talk to me about the layout several years later. I guess that means the layout was a success in the “distilling the essence of the location”. These employees quite happily discussed their work and shared details that helped the model develop. For instance, did you know that different weight/sized wheels were painted different colors on the axle ends to distinguish them? Orange and White are the colours in the pictures. Paint axle ends orange and white on your model scrap wheels to distinguish them.

I look at these pictures some thirteen years later and they still fascinate and interest me. Just look at those boxcar ends being used to hold back a pile of scrap metal. I would never have thought to model something like that if I hadn’t seen it myself. I learned so much from Wingett’s Recycling. It was a very successful layout. I miss it. 

I enjoyed it so much. Perhaps it begs another question. Should I recreate it in P:48? That’s a subject for another post.

Plans afoot

Anyway, having spent a lot of the holiday weekend thinking about the concept and how to go about it. I came up with the following scheme.

I have incorporated the idea about the webcam. I don't know how practical it would be as my laptop is a MacBook Air and the screen isn't that big. You certainly couldn't get many people around it, probably not as many as could take in the actual end on view on the layout.

I have also mooted the idea that the central sorting road could be extended onto another baseboard/fiddle yard.

The "end on viewing" concept is stressed by angling the baseboard and the track backwards from the fiddle yard and blocking off up to half the layouts length with industrial buildings in front of the viewer. Thereby forcing the viewer to adopt a more end on view of the layout.

A crazy idea for the structure at the front would be to have a cut-away interior displayed. The viewer could then watch the loco and cars pass by the windows and loading dock doors. Perhaps.

Perhaps that's too crazy.

Right now it seems like a reasonable idea. This is after all, a small shunty-plank (switching layout) and devices would be needed to keep peoples interest up.

Practically speaking. Could I build two baseboards exactly the same and make them fold up with hinges as I've suggested? My carpentry inabilities are legendary.

The siding lengths are designed around my preference for the longer, more modern stock rather than the old fashioned 50 footers beloved of some layout builders who try to shrink layouts to microscopic sizes.

There's nothing wrong with the track plan. It's an Inglenook. Tried and tested proven over 50 plus years of railway modelling. It's all down to how its executed and the industries that I choose. I've got a few ideas on that front. More of them later

Page from my sketchbook

I said I could see a vignette in my minds eye concerning the front left hand corner of this layout. It wouldn't go away so I had to sketch it out on paper to get it out of my head. Maybe to create some more room for a few more ideas too...

Looks pretty reasonable to me...

Plans and problems

Well then, here we go another round of planning inspired by the baseboard.

First things first, when I sketched out the first plan back here. I drew a nice smooth arc between the two front corners of the triangular baseboard. When I cut it out of the wood I cut the arc to the circumference of a 4' radius curve. That is how I ended up with over 3' of depth.

This opened up a whole new track of thought for me. The front siding now no longer parallels the front edge of the baseboard and I gained a lot more space to sit the railway into the landscape, (away from curious little fingers at a train show).

(OK I know I drew a tree as the scenic break front left, a real cop out. But I can see a really nice vignette here for the train to pass through with the tree, the lumber company office and the premises sign there by the roadside)

However I immediately started to see problems.

I plan to display this layout as a "stage set" with a proscenium arch picture frame front. Similar to Wingetts. So I immediately began to wonder if a 5' 8" long curved front fascia board would be practical. Is that length too long? would it sag, or even worse topple the layout with the weight from the lighting inside it? I could add supports from the rear. But where would they be sited? Has anyone got any ideas or experiences on the matter?

So the idea develops and more problems emerge. I'm sure they will all get resolved before long though.

A proper plan!

So, with the sketch whizzing around in my head it was time to put pen to paper and try to work out how plan it out on a baseboard.

The first and most important thing for me these days is to avoid rectangular baseboards at all costs. I also knew that having watched the trains on the curve on Wingetts Recycling. I liked that and wanted to have that feature on the new layout too. The curve would have to be really generous working in P87. One thing lead to another and before I knew it I ended up with this triangular based scheme.

Quite how I came up with a triangular based layout I don't know though I have always been fascinated by Roy C Links Crowsnest Tramway and in particular the third incarnation which is would you believe it, is a triangular based plan. So that must have come back out of the depths of my mind to haunt me. So I just dropped my previous sketch into a triangular baseboard and everything seemed to fit quite nicely.

The numbers by the pointwork indicate the frog size and hand (6L is 1 in 6 left hand) the 6L's will be converted Micro Engineering points, the 5R will be built from one of my Proto87 stores kits, though of my turnout building fails there is plenty of room there to replace it with a 6R. The two sidings disappearing off to the right will enable me to load and unload cars in the loading shed and fill up a woodchip car by the loader. All in all the layout is about 5'9" long by 2'4" deep or thereabouts. For a Mk1. its a pretty good start.

Another Plan

Since the idea of a logging line crossed my mind the other day my mind has been somewhat busy coming up with ideas. That the concept should be centered around an inglenook track plan was a given. How I should present it was the problem. The Hull Oaks sawmill featured at Dawson Station has an inglenook track layout. So I started there. I also wanted to operate a diesel logging loco conversion of sorts so I needed a seperate logging line in there as well. This started off as just a seperate unconnected line at the back that just ran to the rear of the sawmill building. I envisioned a converted SW1500 with a couple of flat cars running along there the loaded cars would disappear behind the building to reappear empty and head out again.
"None to exciting" I felt as the music of Phillip Glass started to play in my head...
Once I connected the single logging line at the back to the mainline railroad at the front things happened...
This then is the Sawmill of R. Scend of Nowhere, Minnesota. (Some Brits may well have burst out laughing as they said that to themselves and trust me it is totally and utterly intentional). There really is a Nowhere in the state of Minnesota and it was established for the logging industry too. Once I discovered the name Nowhere I just had to use it.
Back to the trackplan. A 5-3-3 inglenook at the front is linked to the single logging line at the rear in front of the building entrance. This would enable the logging loco to work the inglenook too. There would be a lot for it to do as well with switching the lumber cars and pulling a car through the wood chip loader that you can see at the end of the middle siding.
Operation would be sort of like this. The mainline railroad would bring a selection of cars into the front siding where it could either switch them about in a typical "inglenook game" or it could leave them for the logging line loco to work. Otherwise the logging loco would shuttle along the rear siding bringing flat cars loaded with lumber into the building and taking empty ones up into the forest.
So lots to do on such a simple trackplan and with a name like this one. It would be too much to pass up.
Wouldn't it?

My lost masterpiece?

In the preface to his extremely funny classic work of modern literature "Lake Wobegon Days", Garrison Keillor describes the early draft of a story called "Lucky Man" which he lost (on a train journey no less) and has never been able to recall or recreate in the intervening 35 plus years since its disappearance in the toilets at Portland Railroad depot.

Well I, like Garrison, have lost an early draft of a idea from many years ago. The fact that I have lost an idea is extremely galling. I normally file them so well.

My idea though was a concept for a model railroad layout and there the similarity ends. But it was a good idea. Actually time having blurred my memory insists it was a bloody good idea. But as hard as I try I can't recreate the niceties of my original sketch. I've tried below. The basic idea is there but it's not quite right.

The half relief water tower in the background isn't there and the cutaway multi-storey car park (parking ramp) is a 21st century addition. It's close. It recreates the feel and spirit of the original design.

But it's not just the design that is lost. It's the scribblings that would be on the paper too. Those probably told me which DPM buildings to use. Every time I see a DPM building kit I am reminded of this idea. Other observations too. All gone.

Sometimes when I'm operating at a model railway exhibition I hope that the full idea will come flooding back to me or that one day when rootling behind the back of a bookshelf I'll find a crumpled up yellowing piece of paper that has all the details and scribblings that will enable me to make this layout how I saw it in my minds eye many years ago...

Watching the trains

Here's another idea from "way back" that might just have some possibilities for my P87 dalliance. Called "Watching the Trains" it was designed for regular H0 scale as a layout for operating modern, large box cars and Big loco's like C-44's. The interesting view blocks of a car park (parking garage) and box car ends have always appealed to me and I'd like to try them out.
The layout did start to get built. The unusual traverser with a turnout on it worked perfectly but C-44's struggled to navigate the curve that I increased to 18" radius at the right hand end. So that would be a no-no for P87. But I think that the scheme could be adapted in some way. Or at the very least I could use the parking garage view block on the layout.

Concrete Canyons

Concrete Canyons is another idea I've had in my head for quite some time. I can put it's inception down to about 10-11 years ago when I arrived in the States and lived in Plymouth MN not far from the I-494 business park indeed my first job as also on the outlying fringes of the park. This is the more modern aspect of American Railroading Large industrial parks on the edes of cities with many rail served industries. You can read more about it here.
http://iholmes.com/pages/journal/planning_06.html
It's another idea I like. But I am currently railing against long thin layouts (shelf layouts) where the tracks all run paralell to the front and rear edges of the baseboards. I know that to a certain extent that is unavoidable given the constraints. But its not too difficult to try and treat the plan to disguise the fact. I tried by using cut-away buildings so you could watch the cars go in and out of the warehouses.
So it appears to me currently that a good plan would be an amalgam of the Rat Hole and Concrete Canyons. Not surprisingly I am working on that. It will be while before I get back with something as I head down to Dallas tomorrow to run the Whiterock Marathon. Who knows what might happen down there? I might turn a corner and discover an inspirational scene I have to model. We'll have to see.

The Rat Hole

The paper is dog eared and yellowing in places and the paper feels old. This is an old plan entitled "Rat Hole". Quite how old this doodling is I don't know. Over 11 years certainly. It was first sketched out when I had this notion that American railroads were all street running and sharp cures with lines appearing between houses and crossing roads at will. This view was bought about by seeing some of the steam-era layouts in Magazines such as Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman. Once I moved to America and experienced Modern US Railroads for real I saw things weren't necessarily like that anymore. I still think its a good idea. Thats why I've kept the plan for over 11 years.
So, here's a close up of the sketch. I visualised it as something of a small layout perhaps 4' x 2' and quite intensely scenic. Locos and cars would appear and disappear between buildings. Definitely a moving diorama type layout. It has everything that I mentioned in the previous post. Wether it would actually translate to P87 I don't know perhaps the curves are a bit too sharp. I don't know But it's food for thought and has got the creative juices going.