Boomers Wood

Steve Cook

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
The good news, it works :) Track has been cleaned, trains have run, wagons shuffled and the hedge painted and flocked. The bad news - the daily driver (otherwise known as the layout transporter) is currently broken down 35 miles away outside work:( I've borrowed a car to get home, bought a replacement battery, got new batteries for both sets of keys and I'm hoping they sort the issue out - at the moment I can't even get the ignition on as there is a 'steering lock fault'. Best guess from net surfing shows the above parts stand a fair chance of sorting it out, only tomorrow afternoon will tell. The AA will get me home, but I'm not sure they'll transport the layout for me :)) And no, it won't fit in the Caterham either :))

The silver lining is it didn't do it Saturday morning (thats cursed it!) and I have some chance to fix it and get to the show. If you have a spare bit of good luck lying around, I'd appreciate it if you could chuck in this direction :D


Close as its going to get.JPG
 
ScottW

ScottW

Western Thunderer
Steve Cook said:
And no, it won't fit in the Caterham either :))
Click to expand...

If you had made a 2mm finescale layout you might have been able to squeeze it into the footwell. ;) That would be a novelty when turning upto an exhibition.

Regards,

Scott
 
Simon

Simon

Flying Squad
Sorry to hear about the bus - that wouldn't have happened to my old Cortina:))*

Good luck for tomorrow!

Simon

*(something simpler would have gone wrong instead)
 
Steve Cook

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Cheers for all the comments :))

Car is fixed, a bit more scenic stuff has been added, track has been cleaned for the upteenth time and I've run and shuffled wagons around again - I reckon I'm about as prepared as I can be in the timescale. 10 minutes work with a hot glue gun has seen some pegs glued to the inside of the baseboard framing - I can now hang an old bedsheet to clean up the presentation of the layout. Hadn't got a sheet big enough to do the whole thing, but I think it looks better than just bare legs and I can hide the mains wiring for a bit of a tidier look.

16 weeks.JPG

None of it is perfect by any means, but I've got the calender out and its 16 weeks from start to here, about half of which have been spent out of the country or doing other things. Time to take it all apart, load the car up and try not to forget anything. If I get half an hour left I'll try and sort out the front coupling on the 3F - the rear one is done but the front one is not quite so quick.
 
Arty

Arty

Western Thunderer
Just to upset Cookie, here's a little bit of vid, sorry about the shaky camerawork - it must have been the excitment.

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The scenics are really good - and his point rodding

boomers turnout2.jpg

rgds
Richard
 
Steve Cook

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Cheers Arty :)) All I see are the bits I didn't finish in time, and the initial pull away on the 3F is shocking :oops: Need some more fiddle time I think...

Got away with coupling up the 3 links though, smooooooth move...:))
 
Simon

Simon

Flying Squad
Steve Cook said:
Cheers Arty :)) All I see are the bits I didn't finish in time, and the initial pull away on the 3F is shocking :oops: Need some more fiddle time I think...

Got away with coupling up the 3 links though, smooooooth move...:))
Click to expand...

It all looks very good Steve, I hadn't realised you'd bought one of those lovely Bulldogs*

The point rodding is especially effective too.

So that's Gauge One, HO, 4mm and Gauge 3 off the list:)) - what's next?

Simon

* S&D-speak for 3F
 
S

Simon Dunkley

Guest
I'd just like to point out that despite "rubber gauging", Steve still manages to achieve more in just of his chosen/dabbled scales than most of us achieve despite having a more single-minded focus.
 
Steve Cook

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
A bit of a retrospective post this as Boomers Wood left my house today to make its way north with Arty of this forum :)

Why write anything at all you might be wondering, but then I thought it would be good (for me if no-one else) to actually finish off the story of the layout on here, this is where it started afterall.

In terms of what I set out to do, it achieved some aims and failed others! It didn't turn out to be that quick a project in the end (although eight weeks of work doesn't really fall into the 'slow' category), it didn't get used of an evening after work and it wasn't as cheap to build as expected. On the plus side, I got to exhibit my own layout, I've got back my investment (so the net expenditure turns out to be cheap), I made some things I've never done before (like point rodding and buildings) and I learnt a few more things to put into the next layout.

The biggest thing to take away from the whole experience was that a single siding and a run round loop was not enough to keep me entertained, at least I know that now and I can ensure future projects incorporate more operating potential - I'm pleased I didn't pick another gauge / scale combo in order to find that out too, that would have been rather annoying after considerably more effort.

Aside from the positive experiences of showing the layout and learning a few new techniques, I felt rather unsatisfied at the finished result. I think some of it is to do with the fact that I didn't set out with a clear vision of what the layout should look like, it sort of just evolved, but having got to the end, it all felt a bit hollow really. I did enjoy being able to buy track and rolling stock to get things going, but conversely perhaps that lack of involvement didn't help. I daresay that weathering the stock and having more of an input into how each piece looked would have helped, maybe a more complex plan in conjunction would have been a longer lasting solution.

The rushing towards the end to get the layout ready for the show was definitely a motivator, but it certainly reduced the enjoyment of building the thing - a floor to rail height of 108 cm was also too low, I ended up with backache after the weekend session. Future layouts will be at least 120cm to rail height, possibly even more.

Overall, It was better to have done the layout and sold it on rather than have not done it, and in that respect I consider it a success. The flip side is that I could have spent the time doing other things which would have been more useful for my long term interests and goals, but I've learnt by doing and I now know the answer to some of the questions I had before I started.

So thats it really, a chapter finished for me and the layout, but a new one starts for the layout as it goes into Arty's man cave to become a branch line extension on his empire :D If nothing else, it will be fun to see what happens to it, and I'm sure I'll get a chance to operate on it again (just not six hours this time!).

A couple of shots from the last day

Going

Last Day1.JPG

Going

Last Day2.JPG

Gone

Last Day3.JPG

Whats next? Well having cleared the space in the lounge, the sensible thing would have been to get on with the list of garden related projects that need doing. Thats not very me though, so to keep the subconcious bits of the grey cells ticking over Arty helped me get the next indoor layout project down from the loft. Thats a story for another day though...

Ex Stroudley Green.JPG
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Love the second shot in your last post of the Hymek.........mind you BFYE Hymeks trundling around branch lines near to closure with short pick up goods tend to push all the right buttons for me :cool:

I have really enjoyed watching your progress with this project Steve :) :thumbs: ...............maybe the operating interest would have been greater as a through station ?
 
Neil

Neil

Western Thunderer
That's a very interesting summing up all round Steve but this phrase stood out:

Steve Cook said:
.... The biggest thing to take away from the whole experience was that a single siding and a run round loop was not enough to keep me entertained, ....
Click to expand...

It struck me that while the loop and siding indoors and in 00 didn't maintain your interest, a single line in the garden has. I started to wonder if the greater bulk and presence of the models lends greater interest or perhaps it's that live steam is more involving than electrically driven trains. This led to further speculation that the garden line is operated at will but Boomers Wood committed you to building it by a set date and then standing behind it for a set time for the entertainment and education of the exhibition going masses.
 
ceejaydee

ceejaydee

Western Thunderer
I spent a long time building an N Gauge layout 3 or 4 years ago and whilst I enjoyed doing at the time it had in fact started out being a paid project for someone else and when they chose not to proceed I was stuck with a layout that materially owed me nothing (it possibly even gave me a return as I was given a large amount of stock too) however it did not detract from the fact that I had invested a large amount of time in what always felt like it was not my layout which was why I chose to sell it.
Steve Cook said:
Overall, It was better to have done the layout and sold it on rather than have not done it, and in that respect I consider it a success. The flip side is that I could have spent the time doing other things which would have been more useful for my long term interests and goals, but I've learnt by doing and I now know the answer to some of the questions I had before I started.
Click to expand...
In the end I came to a similar conclusion and realised that building the layout had taught me many lessons and also allowed me to experiment with many techniques that I had not practised before.
Shockingly I found that the simple ovals on a relatively small board kept me amused for hours and were very relaxing after a hard day at work.
However whilst I really enjoyed the landscaping opportunities that N Gauge offered I also felt that it was too small to build locos and rolling stock to the standards that I wanted - if really high quality RTR stock was available I might have reconsidered as I really enjoyed running trains in a landscape that I had built.

Glad that you have learnt from the experience and that the layout has found a new home where it will be run and appreciated.
Interested in the new project too.
 
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