Serendipity (Planning Part 3)

Planning (Part 3)

Now we put it all together and create a working drawing of our plan. As we add our desired scenes and elements, we can move things around a bit, making sure that everything fits and that we are not trying to put too much into our given space.

The station and goods shed require some space along the track. The station will fit between the main track and the edge; and the goods shed will be at the end of our short siding. The passenger platform and the loading dock will fit in the areas as the tracks converge toward the points. The goods shed should include access for vehicles to deliver and collect goods. There should also be a road which will go to the left of them, and to avoid a crossing over the movable points, I placed the road just to the left of the points. I won’t model the road access to the station as it will look crowded with roads on either side of the tracks, so it will be assumed that it is in front of the modeled portion of our layout.

On the other side, the waterfall needs to be toward the right, in the mountains that our tunnel passes under. The waterfall needs to be located inside the loop of track to keep our trains hidden has they pass through the tunnel behind it. To give our river some “room” to flow through our scenery, I will place the bridge to the left, just before the curve (to avoid using a curved bridge).

The tunnel …. On the scenic river side, I placed the tunnel portal just at the end of the curved portion of the track to give it the impression that our trains are running straight rather than curving around to come out the other side … this adds to the illusion that our trains are not going round and round in a circle. On the station side, I placed the tunnel portal on the curve, compromising between a long tunnel to hide the train, and allowing more flat area for our goods shed and station (and perhaps more importantly, to ensure that our train clears the tunnel while stopped at the station).

The road overpass …. This is the view-block between the station and river scenes and will be on the curve. To avoid symmetry and create some viewing interest, the overpass was not placed in the middle of the curve, but rather, it was offset towards the river scene. This also gives the road a little bit more space to make the curve and decent down to the station.

The mountain …. The highest point of the mountain will be on the upper right corner. The source of the river for our waterfall will be “hidden” in that area. The road overpass will be the highest point on the right side and as it curves down toward the front, the terrain will slope down to its left, and rise to its right. I want to avoid unrealistic slopes other than the rock cliff where the waterfall and tunnel emerge. 45 degrees would be ideal, 60 degrees is probably the most that can be “convincing” without retaining walls. I may use retaining walls along the road and/or along the parking area behind the goods shed. Will see how the scene plays out when constructing the terrain.

Drawn with XTrackCAD

This is the final “working” drawing for my model layout. It includes the track, the structures (station, goods shed, platform and loading dock); the road and parking area; and the river/waterfall. The colored dashed lines are indications of the elevation changes.

Serendipity (Planning Part 2)

With our baseboard and track-plan sorted, it is time to work out the scenery. This is an iterative process with developing the track plan; and it can be done in either order. For my exhibition layout, I knew that I wanted an oval loop and a single siding; so with that decided, I could plan the scenery around it.

For the siding, I want a small goods shed. The train set that I had, included a couple of open wagons and a couple of vans that would feel right at home in a goods shed with a loading dock. And with the goods shed, I will add a small passenger station and platform. That will provide two small structures that will not require a lot of space, but can service a lot of rail traffic.

I want a tunnel … just because tunnels are very interesting features on model railroads as they make the trains “disappear” and then “appear” somewhere else; this can make our small layout seem larger … who can say how far our train traveled while it was out of sight?

Tunnels work well with mountains. And again, mountains are wonderful elements for making our layout seem larger that it is, because we can’t see all of it at one time; the mountain blocks our view of the other side.

A bridge was also needed because they are interesting structures and enhance the third dimension of our model by changes in elevation of the terrain. The bridge should have a purpose, and for my exhibition layout I want a rural scene to contrast with the station and goods shed; so I decided to include a river that the railroad crosses. Water is an interesting item to model as it provides something different from the rocks and trees and grass that dominates much of our layout.

A waterfall … since I had a river and a mountain, I want to include a waterfall. This may be a challenge to model properly, but I think it will be worth the effort, and of course nothing is permanent … things can always be removed and redone as our skills improve.

Finally, I needed another element to separate the station and goods shed from the bridge and waterfall. I had a tunnel on one side, so what to do with the other. Lots of options here, a stand of trees, or even a cut through a ridge would work; but I think a vehicle overpass would be an interesting element and it would provide a road for the station and goods shed that will also make our small layout appear to be a piece of something much larger. :)

In planning all of this, I used a bubble chart to get an idea of how each of these elements would relate to each other ....

Serendipity (Planning Part 1)

With a simple track arrangement consisting of an oval loop of track with a short siding, there isn’t a lot of variation for the track plan. To keep the overall size of the layout to a minimum, I decided to place the siding inside the loop. This arrangement would fit nicely on a baseboard of 2 feet by 3 feet.

One could simply obtain a 2’ x 3’ baseboard and lay the track down, get the trains running and then add scenery to fill in the space; and a lot of starter layouts are constructed in this manner. But, for an exhibition layout I wanted to have a solid plan before starting any construction to: 1) ensure that my ideas would fit in the available space; and 2) prevent re-work later from not following a “plan” ... I needed to get it right the first time to meet the deadline.

One method to make our layout look larger is to avoid running the tracks parallel to the edge of the layout. Even a small angle of 3-5 degrees is enough to give the illusion of more depth. Another consideration is to avoid laying the track right next to the edge of the layout. Just a couple of inches of scenery between the layout edge and the track can make a lot of difference; and it gives a little buffer in the event the train comes off the track that it won’t end up on the floor.

So, to make the best use of my small baseboard, I rotated the oval about five degrees from the edge of the layout. I positioned the oval to ensure a minimum of two inches were available on the upper and right edges of the baseboard. That left about three inches along the bottom of the baseboard where I had positioned the siding, which would be useful for including some small structures to give a purpose for the siding.

Drawn using XTRAKCAD

Serendipity (building an exhibition layout)

Where to Start?

I want to build a model railroad for the purpose of exhibiting it at the Colombo Model Train Show in August. This gives me about ten weeks to finish it; but the exhibition requirements require the layout to be “Ready to Show” by 15 July 2023, or in about six weeks. So, I had to move quickly …

For an exhibition layout, I desire the following:

• Transportable. This means that it needs to be small, and lightweight. It also needs to be sturdy enough to withstand the moving around from place to place.

• Continuous Running. Allowing the trains to just run on their own, without any real supervision is nice for an exhibition layout. Thus the track plan will incorporate some form of loop.

• Some Operations. Having the capability for the trains to do some “work” (i.e., drop off and pick up cars) is also nice for any layout as it provides some interest other than just watching the train run around and around.

Fortunately, I have a head start on this project: I have a Graham Farish (by Bachmann) Freight Set in N-scale. This set includes track for an oval loop; a small steam locomotive with a tender, two open wagons, 2 vans, a brake van; and a DC controller … pretty much everything needed to get a model train running.  I ordered a set of Graham Farish points and some sections of straight track to create a short siding inside the loop to allow for some operations.

Beginning Anew

 

Dream it. Plan it. Build it. Run it.
(Just) Do it!

I have been dreaming and planning model railroads for a very, very long time now, and although I’ve occasionally started building one, I’ve never taken it to the next level of operations. So, back to the basics, and let’s make this one work.

Living in Sri Lanka has certainly constrained my involvement in model railroading. There really are no “hobby shops” here, so any equipment needs to be “imported” and that makes it quite expensive on account of shipping costs and the imposed duty clearing it through customs. And until very recently, I thought that I was the only model railroader in the country …

… and then I met Wasanta at St. Andrews Scottish Kirk ....

Wasanta has recently gotten into the hobby of model railroading … and he got into it really deep, really fast (and may be showing signs of regret as he is looking for a buyer for ALL of his model trains and equipment). Wasanta got in so deep on account of a small circle of friends who are avid model railroaders; and he introduced me to many of them. I was invited to run some trains on one of his friends layouts. My trains are all packed in boxes in storage, and I really didn’t look to hard for a certain British outline 3F (0-6-0T) dcc with sound loco that I had imported from the UK several years back as I was not sure of what to expect … but, Nalin had a rather large layout in progress with 3 “loops” of track (with very broad curves) operating with a MRC DCC controller … and … WOW!

After that I was connected to several other local model railroaders and many of them have very nice largish layouts (even by US standards); One of them, Kittle, is very active in building layouts from benchwork to completed scenery for others …. Well, the bug has bitten me again.

Playing with Trains

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