4mm Super-speedy christmas trainset...

I fall into the category of railway modellers that I believe the 'Scattergun' metaphor was coined to describe - short attention span, easily distracted, finds it difficult to complete something. At any point of time, there's approximately five other things I ought to be doing (including the dishes!). I set a challenge to build up a small roundy-roundy trainset style layout for my young boys on relocating to Brisbane, Queensland (some 2,000km's north of my previous home in Melbourne, Victoria). Armed with a pile of Setrack and Hornby trainset trackage, some 4mm ply and pine stud, I planned out on the living room floor over the space of a week then set about constructing a layout. At this junction, it's partly wired and trains are running smoothly - in a two-week turnaround time. This is the kind of forward momentum that will lead to this layout being functionally ready for Christmas - scenically incomplete deliberately (as this is designed as an ongoing project to have something to share with the boys experience-wise, and to subtly foster and develop my eldest's fine-motor skills as his teachers have noted that they're lacking a little) but wired, tested, running and "made safe" for them to use.


Planning - using books, DVD's and tape measures to set up working boundaries.


Piles of timber in the cutting process


Framing - having two drills handy made this a breeze!! My last (aborted) layout project was painful having to forever change pilot-hole drill and phillips head driver! Note - if you can make them out - I'd thought ahead far enough to get a spade bit and drill cable routing holes through the bearers.... slowly learning from past mistakes!!


Test placement of the track (some of it may have been nailed down at this point - the inner oval I think?). The large central 'access area' is a big must-have.... for no other reason than to be able to pass along the very fond childhood memories of me poking my nose up through the access hatch in my dad's layout when I was about 5 years old. Nothing like being able to watch the trains rush around you. Plus it's been a godsend during construction, and makes handling the layout solo a LOT easier!! I've done everything you see solo - including carting the wood home from the hardware shop about 2km on a hand-trolley in the absence of owning a car!


Action shot with all track nailed down, basic wiring in place and trains successfully and quite smoothly running.

One of the important things to me was keeping everything simple. Regular Peco solenoid turnout motors are mounted directly to the Setrack turnouts, and all control will be by four momentary switches - on the outer circuit, "main" and "loop". The inner (completely isolated) circuit is main and siding. When the outer circuit is set to "main", a Peco clip-on DPDT switch on one of the motors permits a 3rd controller to run a train independantly from the loop around the outer branch line, allowing a 3rd train to be in operation on the layout for a bit of variety. I only have two working locos here at present, a pair of bulletproof little Caley tanks (one strategically and carefully repainted red!) - my dad has temporary custody of my Hornby (ex Dapol, etc.) J94 in LMR blue livery, my BR black pug and very early Bachmann '03', which will eventually be repatriated. I need to make a CDU and a third throttle (which will be panel-mounted) for the branch line - I have two sturdy walkabout handsets that the kids will be able to handle for the two main circuits. I will make up a small permanent "control panel" to tuck into the corner of the layout with the minimal number of switches and knobs.

I also wanted to make things safe - the underside of the layout at present is a death-trap of track pins. I plan to cut corflute board and staple it in place everywhere when everything has been thoroughly "shaken down" to keep wandering little fingers away.



Little video clip of the second "running session", about half an hour ago. You may need to click the thumbnail for it to work? I had a ceremonial first-run a few nights earlier on the inner circuit as it was the first thing nailed down... ceremony is important! No golden spike though, I'm afraid!!

I know this project doesn't fit with the norm of this forum.... but since it's the nearest I've come to a complete and operational layout in the last four years - I'm pretty chuffed, and it's nice to get the creative juices flowing!

flexible_coupling said:

I know this project doesn't fit with the norm of this forum....

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that - it's doing stuff and having fun which scores on both counts in my book.

I like that it's deliberately incomplete, and that there looks to be space for the younger enthusiasts to put in some extra sidings/build roads/add a spaceport and secret underground bunker. Should be a good basis for huge fun.

Neil said:

I like that it's deliberately incomplete, and that there looks to be space for the younger enthusiasts to put in some extra sidings/build roads/add a spaceport and secret underground bunker. Should be a good basis for huge fun.

Click to expand...

The possibility of altering/extending the branch line that wraps around the two circuits is something that's certainly open for discussion if the layout maintains interest. There's a heap of clear board space and not a great number of buildings - I have three Metcalfe kits to build up (two of the terrace houses and a large corner pub) that are intended to go somewhere, but in the pattern of my own childhood train-set, christmas and birthday presents of miscellaneous Heljan and Life-Like HO scale building kits (and once even an N-scale factory building which Dad cunningly modified to suit the OO-9 circuit we had in the middle of the layout!) would end up getting shoehorned into various corners and gaps around the place. And that's all part of the fun!

Work has quietly progressed, a control panel (made from a cheap acrylic 'menu holder' cut up) has been marked out and reverse painted;



A CDU has been built up on Vero... a 3rd (panel-mounted) throttle is to be integrated into the control panel and is the next thing under the soldering iron. Hopefully over the next week, I'll be able to cut a clearing hole into the corner of the baseboard top to be able to apply the panel and have that as a permanent fixture. The end-game is to have a single four-core umbillical cable from the 'power box' to the control panel, internally splitting to power the CDU/peco point motors and to the three throttles - two of which are handhelds on cables, and each throttle can be plugged in either at the panel or through parallel sockets located inside the access hole (so that one of the boys can be "running the points" outside and one can operate from inside the layout...

There's a bit more wiring to get through underneath, but hopefully in the next few weeks it'll be done and rigorously tested to allow me to fit corflute board over the back to stop wandering fingers getting to track pins. Might get lucky and find a discarded real estate sign or two....!

The time is fast approaching for the layout to be finally revealed to my two boys (it'll be a complete surprise, all evidence of its' construction has been hidden in the garage "that has nothing interesting in it", and which they've never visited...). I've lugged it upstairs into the front room of my apartment in preparation. The control panel, pictured in the post above, has been fitted - 3rd throttle and CDU were both built up from scratch and installed and wired. I had a problem with the cheapie momentary SPST switches and ended up replacing them with more expensive but better looking and far better operating equivalents. The CDU build was a bit of a non-starter until I realized the error in wiring up the big MOSFET, then it's been working marvellously since. I also had a "duh" moment while cutting isolation breaks to separate the outer loop and branch from the outer circuit, and cut a piece of Peco settrack at a bad spot that led to the track gauge and height being poorly matched. I replaced the offending section completely this morning and ensured it was securely pinned down - lots of shunting maneuvers back-and-forth over the joint have proven its' success.

The aim of the layout - running wise - was to give a bit of versatility and occasion to have up to 3 people operating... without the risk of small people shorting out motors or crashing trains with complex switching and isolation breaks. This layout is nearly foolproof and yet, still gives a passing loop, an independent branch and a siding on the inner circuit for amusement.

The Metcalfe corner pub kit is nearly complete and should be ready to plant on the layout by Boxing day (when the boys come around to celebrate Christmas with me). It's pictured below in roughly the right spot, along with the rest of the buildings I have at this stage. I have a number of other little buildings - the Dapol/Kitmaster etc. coal office/track shed/water crane/loading gauge, some rescued HO-scale Life-Like bits-and-bobs, an old Wills signal box and level crossing, and a pair of Metcalfe terrace houses still to start building up. A station platform (likely to be augmented with a Dapol/Kitmaster building I've been eyeing off at the local shop), another signal box, and a set of coal staithes are on the immediate to-add list, as well as a hill for the tunnel to have an excuse to exist within!






- this end of the layout is fairly deliberately left clear for input and inspiration from the boys... I plan to take them with $20 each to pick out some plastic building kits and help fill in the scene...


- the power module, handheld throttles and control panel all in place - tucked inside is the CDU and all wiring


- with a platform in place in the large gap between the loop and outer circuit, and paint/ground coverings, this will become a busy little scene in no time...

What a lovely thing to do with/for your kids. I hope you all have a great time

Richard

I've come over all ga-ga!

This is very reminiscent of the OO railway I built up for Steph and which he took over when he was about 7 years old! Look what I started!

B

I found myself itching for a little modelling this evening after watching a stunning success on telly for my football team, so I sat down and completed the Metcalfe pub. These kits are meticulous in detail and are extremely satisfying to build... I believe I may leap straight into the terrace houses in the coming evenings!
I also set up and glued down the road-base for the level crossing (gates held with blu-tac at present to get the right idea).







Juices flowing... scattergun firing...

Can I come over and play after Christmas dinner?!!

JB.

My father and grandfather both model Welsh locations - preservation-era Llangollen (complete with a real-water river!) and 40's Abergavenny and surrounds respectively. Dad had custody of my childhood OO collection, of which a trio of locos and four wagons arrived "home" today. Visiting my grandfather's for the first time since Easter, an inquiry about surplus tension-lock couplings ended with me bringing home five GWR locos and a coach to "fix up" for my boys. Now we're fitting the Western Thunder vibe!





All bar the duo of Caley tanks haven't run in a long time - sadly my old Bachmann '03' has a split nylon axle and a few other grumbles and might need to be retired if replacement wheelsets aren't available. The Hornby Pug is complaining and will go in for surgery soon. The J94 runs like a trooper thankfully!

Of the "new" locos, a very old Bachmann Mogul needed the tender coupling-bar repaired (reinforced with the steel arm of a tension lock coupling!) and a clean of the wheels and it runs marvellously. A Mainline Large Prairie needed a thorough scrub but is now running quite well - the open-frame motor and worm drive growling menacingly! Two other Mainline locos - 56xx and Collett Goods - use the Ringfield-style motors and pancake gears and run poorly - the 56xx will get taken apart for a scrub and lube in the hope of getting passable performance, as I quite like the 56xx design! I also really like the Collett Goods (I'd like a JLTRT one in O one day!) but it's highly unlikely to be a runner and the tender just drags itself off at every point. I think it'll form part of a static museum on the layout - possibly as part of a future extension... The real surprise package is the Lima Small Prairie... runs like a dream, won't skip a beat and probably hasn't ever had its' wheels cleaned... perfect machine for young rough-and-tumble hands too.

The boys will start off with a loco each and a small core volume of rolling stock... slowly, further locos and stock will "magically appear" from storage as they prove their care, caution and respect...

You'll be adding an MPD next.

Jim.

The 56xx has been officially relegated to static model now, alongside the Collett Goods, and it seems that my little blue 03 has completely done its' dash as well - a known issue with the Mainline/early Bachmann units with splitting axle inserts. Sad to let it go... but the mooted museum is filling up! Somewhere in boxes at home, an old Mainline Castle (note the theme here...) with motor removed is all dolled up as a static, along with a Warship, Hornby 47 and Jouef 40...

Loos like excellent "play" value
Chris

Some real modelling has happened in the last two days! The other two Metcalfe kits for the semi-detached houses have been built up (chimney pots forgotten but they'll go on tomorrow!), and the included self-adhesive paving stones from both kits have gone to excellent use, forming a lane/alley around the back and side. Also included in the house kits was a panel of brick paper, which I carefully sliced up and formed a brick wall to segregate "railway land" and the laneway, currently temporarily held with blu-tac. Very happy with how this little section is progressing - when the buildings are set down and we can start on weeds, graffiti, litter and the like, that'll be great fun!

Visible in the first picture is the blue tarpaulin I've purchased, cut a hole out-of and stapled over the entire underside of the layout to keep fingers away from track pins and electrics. It's extremely cheap ($5) and perfectly effective with about 200 staples all over it, pinning to all cross beams etc.

Bring on Boxing Day!!

Well, boxing day (and a holiday away to Melbourne) have come and gone. The train-set was a smashing success, although tiny niggles are still to be ironed out. The boys surprised me with the general responsibility shown; only a small handful of minor derailments occurred, and shunting activities took place at a respectable speed. The old Lima small prairie was solid as a rock all weekend!




Wagon-loads were improvised... I should also point out that it's very much a hot Australian summer at present!

The layout has been taken back downstairs to the garage, and after some re-shuffling of the space (giving me twice the benchtop space in the process - no complaints there!), the feasibility of an extension to the layout is evident. I've mocked up the spare pieces of ply roughly in position;



This gives an extra 3' or so to play with, I'm presently thinking of redirecting the long siding to turn to the right and splitting to a pair of sidings - one for an engine shed, one for a short platform. Doing this also gives a lot more clear space for the hill/tunnel as a scenic break.

The next major project is building up some trestles to lift the layout up - and to support an extension outwards. I had originally planned to use inexpensive saw-horses but some kind of dedicated timber frame will be a better and safer long-term prospect.