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?

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.

Flurry of activity

Hmmm....
This is no less than the fourth post in THREE days to this blog. I haven't had activity like that since the start of the blog.
I don't know why. Surely its not just the impending arrival of that ExactRail boxcar...
Things have just conspired to inspire me lately. If I was at home this weekend who knows what I would do...
Anyway, I've also updated my list ofProto87 links over there to the right. P87 links are few and far between so if any of you have got any others and would like to share them. I'll post them there. I'm always up for inspiration.

Jiggery Pokery

So, feeling like doing little more today than resting my aching limbs after yesterdays marathon. I gave some thought to the baseboards for this little venture. I have, courtesy of my father-in-law, some 16 strips of 13/16" ply 4' long x 3" deep for the purpose of framing a baseboard or two. Bolstered by the fact that the really difficult job of cutting some perfectly, square level and flat has already been done for me I feel that I can safely make some baseboards... (famous last words there)

So the visible section of the layout is planned to consist of two identical baseboards hinged so that one folds on top of the other for easy transportation (what was that I said about things being safe). Perhaps the construction of some sort of jig is in order.

Ahhh now lets see about this. My woodworking skills are suspect, so I expect myself to make a jig to enable myself to make decent baseboards. Somewhere, somehow, this scheme is going to come crashing down in a pile of my own logic...

Would you watch a layout at a show from here?

So here's an idea for you. A little off the wall perhaps but here we go.

How many times when you were out railfanning/trainspotting did you sit on a roadbridge and watch trains go underneath you? Quite often, I'll warrant and even more often as a child if you were like me. How often do you get to do that on a model railway/railroad? Not very often. I can only think of two, perhaps three layouts where the principal motion of the trains is front to back. Nearly all layouts have you watching trains pass across your field of view.

OK so there are severe logistical issues here concerning the location of your storage sidings. Which has to make for issues with an exhibition manager an 8'x2' layout is easier to place than a 2'x8' one. But I in my own bloody minded way think it could be solved.

Anyway, here's a mock up to tease your brain a bit.

A loco would push some cars into the middle siding and proceed to switch them out to the sidings on either side replacing cars that would already be spotted there. A standard "inglenook" type switching operation. But all the switching moves would be to and from the viewer. There's not a lot room for folks to watch the layout end on with a 14" width as mocked up here. Even less when you consider the storage area will take up some of that. So some kind of concession needs to be made to letting people watch from the side. Perhaps having the layout open to viewers as far as the first buildings.

Having the storage sidings in front causes issues no doubt. But as I enjoy engaging the visitors in conversation (must be something to do with my accent) that wouldn't be an issue with me it could even form a part of the presentation.

Is it practical? I don't know. Its something to consider over the holiday weekend

What would we do without Railpictures.net?

I've found another picture of the Alaska Railroad yard on RP.

It's still a very appealing scene to me. I'm starting to have some crazy ideas about how to recreate this. More on those later.

Too quiet for too long

Been busy doing other things so interest lapsed for a while. I still want to build something in P87 but what?
Then I saw this delightful atmospheric small layout inspirational picture http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=286124&nseq=8

Right when do I start...

A couple of things

First things first. Remember this sketch of the front left hand side of the layout?

Well, I think I have sourced a suitable building for the location. It's this one. What do you think? I think it will be quite passable. It's from Northeastern scale models. I've never made a wooden kit before. So I'm quite comforted by the fact that these kits are designed for those who have no experience with wooden kits. I wonder if I might even be able to do a slight conversion on it and put an office door in place of the large door shown on the picture.

Secondly. I was planning to use this layout as the example for the small layout workshops I'm presenting at the Princeton Model Train Club in the forthcoming weeks. Well I had a rethink and I thought that it might be a bit big and involved for that purpose. So I have started to develop a new idea. A much smaller layout that will be much easier to build and complete in the alotted time set out by the workshop classes. As you may well know all my layouts have a blog and this new one will be no exception. You'll be able to follow it at Cwm Lwch.

There you go another layout, another blog. I'm a troubled soul. I really am

So much to talk about...

So little time.
I've got lots to report and no time to tell you about it in detail. Yet.
I took delivery of the ME turnouts for the layout yesterday. So I'm just waiting on the P87 conversion units from the P87 stores to arrive to be able to get on with them. Looking forward to that.
I've had a plethora of rolling stock arrive in the past few days too.
A nice pair of Walthers wood chip hoppers that I will describe in detail just as soon as I can.
An ExactRail Thrall Railgon. It is quite exquisite and the best piece of R-T-R stock I have ever seen from a detail point of view. More to come on that soon too.
In addition to that. The ply strips have been cut by my father in law and await collection to be made into "Barry Norman" beams to frame the baseboard.
If that wasn't enough the Small Layout workshops that I will be presenting in conjuction with Lakeside Hobby will be starting on February 20th. At least that will enable me to get rolling on construction.

What "wood" you do?

This Sunday just passed I handed over a couple of sheets of 1/4" ply to my father-in-law for him to slice up into 3"-ish wide strips for the framing of the baseboard.
But exactly what I will do with them when I get them back? I don't know.
There's two courses of action open to me:
1. Turn them into "I" and "L" girders to frame the baseboard. A method poularised by Iain C. Rice.
2. Make some ply/softwood beams the preferred methos of Barry Norman. Here you take two of the ply strips and every foot or so place some peices of 2x1 pine between them to lmake the beam.
Both methods are said to be strong and light.
I don't know which to use. I've never tried either. Let's face it for me even using wood is something of an adventure.
I'm going to end up flipping a coin I think...

Copping a quick feel...

... for the design...

Yesterday I had a move around in the model railway room and allocated a space for the layout. With that done I could move on to the next stage of the designing progress. Confirming that what I had on paper was going to fit. I threw some track down to the approximate plan, found some old buildings and boxes and scenic bits, placed them where I thought they looked OK and checked the siding lengths with some cars. Now I can really see how everything will come together. Take a look...

1. A general view of the middle of the layout. To give you an idea of the depth here a couple of the trees are over 1' away from the bulkhead flat car.
2. Left hand side. I was a tad concerned that there wasn't going to be enough room for the building between the two tracks. That worry was unfounded. This will be a nice vignette as I first thought.
3. The business end. The main building and wood chip loader. Again I think things will come together nicely here. It looks like there will be more of the low relief structure than the sketches had envisioned.

All in all the pictures give me a good idea of how the whole thing will come together and I think I'm on to something. It gets me all fired up to start work properly.

Ploughing the lonely furrow

Or is that plowing? All depends where in the world you read this I suppose. Plowing looks really, really wrong to me...

So I'm coming to realise that this P87 malarkey is quite the lonely field to be in. I've posted my P87 intentions on a few message boards and for the most part have been met with silence. Perhaps I just picked the wrong message boards.

Just my luck.

I have though, managed to find out that there is one more P87 modeller in the great state of Minnesota. Though I do have hopes for one more. You might also notice that the links section to your right is growing slowly too. This is all down to the members of the Yahoo! P87 group. So if you're interested in P87 I guess the only place to be is there.

This has to be contrasted with the adoption of more "proto" standards (EM, P4) in England. There, the interest is staggering by comparison. There healthy societies manufacture a huge range of bits and pieces for the aspiring finescale modeller. It is no exaggeration to say that when a new Ready to Run diesel locomotive is released that within a matter of perhaps weeks Ultrascale will have the P4/EM conversion kit for it released.

So why is this such a lonely furrow to plough? Why is it that so relatively few modellers in the US adopt "Proto" standards?

It can't be that they don't appreciate the details. US modellers are renowned the world over for their attention to detail in their locomotives, rolling stock and scenery. Then why on earth don't they adopt that same standard in their trackwork?

The arguments for changing from H0 to P87 are exactly the same as if you were to change from 00 to EM/P4. (Cost, time, yada, yada, yada...) I've heard them all before and I bet they are plastered all over the internet too. Of course there is no reply to the "I just don't care" argument. You can't beat that and that's fine by me.

But there's no two ways about it though if you desire a truly "realistic" model railroad then your trackwork has to be to proto standards. You can have a high level of realism in your models without them being realistic.

I think that deep down a lot of modellers realise this too. How many times have you marveled at a picture of a great model in a magazine only to realize the train is photographed so that you can't see the wheels and it is covering up the turnouts so you can't see "the Grand Canyon of crossing flangeways"?

You know I'm right...

But we're still not answering the question 'Why are there so few P87 modellers out there?"

It must be that most people are ignorant of what it takes to be a P87 modeller.

That's fine. So am I. I'm less ignorant than on Sunday December 6th when I started this blog. But I still have astounding levels of ignorance about P87-ing. However I figure that with my enthusiasm and the small band of P87 modellers out there I can solve the problems that come my way.

Perhaps you think P87 is deadly serious and that I'm being too flippant about it. Perhaps Proto modelling is perceived as a deadly serious branch of the hobby. Maybe I can help put that straight for when it comes down to it this is only a hobby and hobbies are about having fun. If as a result some more of you come over to the world of P87 that will be a bonus.

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...

Icicle Works

Some of you will have seen this already if you're on your toes.
Otherwise http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2010/01/ice-to-see-you-to-see-you-ice.html
What I find fascinating is that the icicle is pretty much shaped to the loading gauge...

Sorry I no speak Ameri-can..

"England and America are two countries separated by the same language" So wrote George Bernard Shaw.

Never was that statement so true as today when I emailed Terry over at Lakeside Hobby wanting "Two Micro Engineering Code 75 points" for this layout.

When I got home from work there was a message on the answerphone (voicemail) waiting for me. He didn't know what I was talking about.

American railroads don't have points they have switches. On top of that the Mico Engineering switches I wanted are in Code 70. If I remember correctly I reckon I used to scratchbuild my switches/turnouts/points for my E.M.Gauge layouts from Code 75 bullhead rail. Very common place in England.

So now everything is sorted and two Micro Engineering Code 70 switches are on order...

To be honest though you'd think that after 11+ years of living here I'd have this sorted out by now.

ExactRail Concern

Concern runs through the body of the Protocrastinator this morning.
Why?
Yesterday saw the releaase of the HO scale Thrall gondola model in a variety of liveries.
I wanted one in the Railgon livery. I like Railgons as much as Railboxes. There are less of them on the railroads and as a consequence are more difficult to see.
ExactRail models are superb. The best there are. I suppose its a testament to their quality that they sell out so quickly.
I placed an order with Terry to get me one last weekend. I hope he managed to get one...
Update: No he didn't. Terry is rather frustrated that as a retailer he can't even get hold of the stock. Me? I'll have to keep looking...

Interesting Video

The following video at the link below came to my attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7KHkp0oJd4
For those of you who think that finescale layouts are slow running layouts that have trouble with stock staying on the track. This video of the "Mostyn" P4 (the finescale version of 4mm scale -British 00 scale) layout disproves all that.
The trackwork is excellent and the running is outstanding. There is nothing more to say.
Enjoy.

The Rev.Peter Denny

I am saddenned to report the passing of the Rev. Peter Denny age 92. Railway modeller and pioneer of finescale railway modelling.
His EM gauge Buckingham Great Central layout was an inspiration to us all who aspired to "go beyond the train set". I would encourage any of my American friends who read this blog to Google him and find pictures of his Buckingham Great Central layout. This is a layout that was started some 60 years ago. His influence on the Hobby in the UK can be compared to John Allen and his Gorre and Daphetid Railroad layout.
He was a founder member of the EM Gauge Society.
I can still remember how taken I was by the pictures of his Buckingham Great Central in one of the first issues of the UK magazine "Railway Modeller" that I bought in the late 70's. The layout had everything, detail and atmosphere.
Reflections of the man and his legend will fill the model railwaying internet soon from people more knowledgeable about him than I.
I'm just going to remember a very influential modeller. If anything I ever saw in his layout has manifested itself in my approach to modelling, then I'm very happy and I'm sure he would be happy that he ideas were being taken up too.
R.I.P.

Here comes another one!

With the old year drawing to a close and a new one appearing over the horizon, it is customary to offer up some sort of resolution. Something to do in the new year. Quite why you need the arrival of a new year to resolve to do something is something that I've never quite understood. You can resolve to do something anytime you like. You don't hear of many folks offering up a birthday resolution though do you? So I might as well jump on the bandwagon, even though it is probably very full with well meaning overweight, unfit, smokers etc: and offer up something. By this time next year. I'd like to see track down and trains running on the P87 experiment whatever form it takes. I'm not going to make any rash promises about a full detailed working exhibition layout. For only having converted on freight car and soldered up a P87 frog I know there's still a long way to go. But with the Model Railroad worksops at Lakeside hobby to look forward to. Positive progress would seem to be assured. If only I can decide what to do...
So a Happy new year to all of you. May your new year turn out to be as successful as you wish for.