Hello, old friend.

On November 14th I took the British Oak/ Crigglestone Screens layout to the Granite City Train show in St. Cloud MN. It was two years since the layout had last been there, and when I pulled the layout out of storage I was pleasantly surprised with the condition that it was in. I touched up a few pieces here and there, but for the most part everything was fine. The only real issue, as it was last time was bits of the "coal" bouncing out of the hoppers and onto the track causing derailments. I added some side curtains to the hopper chute in the hope that this would cut that down. It did. But not as much as I'd hoped. There must be another way around this. It might mean a total reconstruction of the loading facility. The structure was going to be rebuilt anyway. We'll have to see. 

Still, it was very reassuring to have the layout operate nigh on perfectly for the length of the show. It does vindicate my decision to build the APA box layout.

There was something that happened that made this day a very special one indeed.

I was operating the layout and a young kid said to me.

"Do you mind if I ask you an unusual question?"

"Sure" I think...

"Do you recognize me?"

"No." Should I? I wondered.

"Remember the Princeton Train Show in 2009?"

I wasn't quite sure where he was going with this.

"I'm Jeremiah."

It clicked. I remembered Jeremiah. He had paid a lot of attention to my Wingett's recycling layout back then. He was cognizant of what was going on with the operations. I think I even let him operate the trains. I even blogged about it back then.

I was so pleased to meet him again. He proudly showed me pictures of a project he was working on. Using a caboose as a basis for a snowplow. I was very touched that this boy had remembered everything from back then and I like to think I'd done something to inspire him to carry on in the hobby.

Off we go again

So we begin again. With a couple of invites to model railway shows in the offing, (Granite City Train show and Princeton, MN train show, both in November) I really should get on and start the rebuilding work. 

The first problem area to work on was the track and the front uncoupler. I've made a concerted effort to straight the track out over and around the Kadee magnet and done quite a bit of testing so far and the performance is much improved. I will be doing still more testing and tweaking to hopefully make it perfect. The switch that leads into the yard has been replaced as my KISS method of using only the switch blades to keep current flowing through the turnout was failing an brand new PECO turnout was sourced and installed. Though it may yet come out if I decide to replace the second switch as well it too is a bit dodgy, but is more buried in place, so it would be more awkward to remove. As you can see I've already removed a lot of ground cover already in the other work so I would be loathe to remove any more. The final thing I've done is removed, and pretty well destroyed, the original factory building. The new structure is going to be much bigger , more in keeping with the heavy industry I have planned. There were a few twinges of regret when I started the out and out destruction but now progress is moving on I feel much better about things.

Track relaid, old structure removed and the area cleared for the new industry. 

Loaded up

The thing that has fascinated me about Hamon Deltak across the road from my workplace, is the varying types of loads that leave there on flat cars.

Here's just a couple that I've photographed (one that I have modeled)

Interesting view that shows some kind of transportation cradle fabricated from girders (painted yellow)

This interesting piece of equipment appeared in the yard today, It could make for a very interesting model load for the new layout.

A couple of years ago three of these huge heat exchangers appeared in the yard on a fleet of flat cars

Model based on the above photos. It's basically a box made from Styrene sheet

These loads aren't the kind of thing you can buy from a hobby shop, you really have to make them yourself. Best thing is you can guesstimate the size. They don't have to be spot on accurate. As long as the proportions look right, you'll be fine.

Second time around

Hello again! (I wonder if anyone is still reading this)
It was way back in September 2009 that I started this blog and the Wingett's recycling layout. The layout went to a couple of shows including a successful turn at the Worlds Greatest Hobby show in St. Paul in November of 2010. After that show the layout went into hibernation, with the best laid plans of adding some more details and improving a few aspects etc: Well the hibernation went into a fully fledged sleep, and plans got forgotten about. The idea of an indoor scrapping business seemed sillier and sillier.
Yet I never broke the layout up. I knew it was a good layout. I was attached to it and kept it in the model railway room, where I could see it and be proud of it.
I never did write the article for Model Railroader though.
So let's fast forward through the intervening years. My employers moved location close to a rail served industrial park, and I got to see a lot of rail activity. One of the industries served was Hamon Deltak, a manufacturer of heavy industrial waste heat removal equipment. There have been several lunchtimes where I would watch large flat cars be delivered there and a week or so later they would leave, loaded up with some unfeasibly large industrial creation.
Naturally, this had an effect on me and I wanted to model such things. I bought loads of flat wagons of all types and sizes. Right now my largest model is the Atlas 89' 4" TTX flat car. These cars need loads so I also have scratch built several outsized loads for each of the flat cars I own.
I even built a 9'+ long layout with a huge factory on it to accommodate these vehicles and their loads. It only went to one show as there was something not quite right about it. So I went of modelling other things.
Facebook came along and I joined a few groups that specialized in small model railway layouts and other list members asked about Wingett's, and I looked at it again. The factory building was looking rather sorry for itself but the layout was still sound, so a week or so ago I made the decision to refurbish Wingett's and replace the scrapping idea with a heavy industry not unlike Hamon Deltak, (see below) I liked what I saw so I decided to start work on the project.

Here, I have mocked up a typical large heavy industrial works. I like how the differing roof lines and annexes to the main structure give it an air of authenticity.

And so, we begin again. The first thing I have had to do is realign the front road. I was having issues with the Kadee uncoupler magnet as it was set on a slight curve. I hope that straightening that out a bit will help. 

Track lifted.

I'm also going to replace the switch into the factory grounds as the wire in tube operating system had been damaged.

So there we go. Hello again, welcome back and enjoy the ride.

British Oak in an APA - The Concept

Here's the idea then. The APA box we are all familiar with. If not, review this other blog posting. 

A Google search for "British Oak coal disposal point" will reveal some remarkable pictures to whet your appetite.

Trackplan wise there's not an awful lot you can do in 25" x 11" and given the industry the plan sort of suggests itself. One road to deliver empties to which are then picked up by a small shunting loco to be loaded at the screens. Yes, really loaded. (You know my beliefs about how small layouts should have working features to keep peoples interest up.) before being returned to the front road to be collected and sent off to the rest of the railway system.

As I got to thinking about this basic idea my attention was caught by my DMIR stock and looking at pictures of loading screens on both sides of the Atlantic I realised they aren't all that different and one structure could easily cover both locales. As this rendering shows.

So, a transatlantic layout could be on the cards then. This would make things very interesting at a show.  Bored with operating UK trains? People not interested in British Rail Blue? Change it over to DMIR maroon.
I like this idea.
A lot.
Follow along.

...and we're back.

So, after lying low for a few months things are moving again on the British Oak Coal depot scheme. With, however a significant change. That being the layout will be built in an APA box.
What prompted this return to modelling? And in an APA box too.
Well I've always liked the idea of having an English outline layout to show at train shows in the Midwest and already having the stock means that if anything was going to get built it would be something along the British Oak lines. (Pun not necessarily intended)
I don't quite know what prompted me to consider using an APA box for it though. I think I was perhaps inspired by what people were doing with the APA on the RMWeb community. They were putting me to shame. I mean, I proposed the idea of building layouts in APA's and I've done so very little with them. I was in the mood to do some "hands on" model making as much of my model making lately had been concerned with learning how to create 3D printed models for a new T scale layout. While technically "model making" there's no hands on cutting and measuring, just dragging boxes to shape and size on your laptop screen. That's not what I need right now, I want to feel like I'm building something.
So, I'll share the scheme with you later as blogger still doesn't seem to be suited to the iPad with regard to image posting.
But rest assured, there is progress a d new will be coming soon.

Fail.

It doesn't work.
Spreading the concept out over a period of time. It has to be done on 5 continuous days.
Monday was Martin Luther King day. I expected to work on the layout.
Below zero temperatures kept me inside.
But there was no motivation, no inspiration.
Nothing to get me off the couch and get modelling.
Big Fail.
Questioning my abilities in the hobby.
Other people have no problem building layouts.
Check back when I'm done feeling sorry for myself.
Normal service may be resumed.
Who knows?

Inertia

Clearly this isn't working as well as I had envisioned. It has been over a month since I last posted about the new layout progress and to date there hasn't been any further developments. Which, though not a cause for concern is a cause for comment. The first time I took on this 7 day layout malarkey it was so very easy with my calendar free and one days progress very naturally followed anothers. This time the gap between construction days means there's a huge inertia to overcome to get going again. There have been a couple of free days available to me to get some work done, but I just didn't feel like it. There's also been a lot of work pressure going on with ridiculous amounts of overtime to be had which may well have contributed to my attitude.
Right now, I'm hoping that I'll be fired up to get something done on Martin Luther King Day as the day is a holiday from work and I have had that day earmarked to do layout construction right from the outset of the project.
But then my good friend Ed Traxler found a certain picture on the internet and who knows where that might yet lead...

End of day one

So, with the layout sat in the corner of the room with the glue setting there was nothing more to do for the day there. So I turned my attention to the loading screens. Surprisingly for such in interesting subject for the railway modeller there are precious few photographs for research material out there on the internet. The best pictures I've found on the interent are in this Flickr photostream. They certainly show the ends well enough but views of the sides are quite tough to find. In fact, the search is still going on.

I made an artists impression of what I imagined the loading screens looked like. It's a step in the right direction. We'll see what else I find out there and how things change the more info I find. 

It's all very well coming up with the idea but it helps to know what size the structure will actually be. So with the glue well on the way to setting I fleshed out the idea by placing track on the baseboard in the approximate position. It gives me an idea that the screens will cover an area of about 22" x 11".

There you have it. The first day done. A real mixed day. First the really good solid baseboard construction that makes you feel the project is progressing very well and then the research work. Though not showing any real progress is just as important.

Still at the end of the day I'm exactly where I expected to be. I don't know when the next appointment with the project will be though. It might not be until next year what with the holiday season now upon us. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for checking in today.

Addendum:

After writing this post I discovered a few more pictures of the screens that would seem to suggest that the arrangement is quite different to how I have interpreted the photos I first found. More to come...

Lunch at day one

It's 12:15 as I write this post. A scant four hours since I started and as you can see from the picture below the baseboard is as good as done. It is now faced with cork tile and is ready for track laying once the adhesive has set fully.

So, what has happened since the last posting?
Not as if you can't tell from the picture.
Well, while the adhesive was setting on the baseboard I found it necessary to go shopping for some cork tile for the baseboard surface (it turns out I had 4 square feet of cork for the surface and needed five) and foamcore board for the structures. My plan was to go to local DIY emporium Menards but when I got there the car park was chock full of Thanksgiving shoppers and not fancying an elbow digging fight in there I headed over to Office Max where I was almost the only shopper. On my return home the cork tile was glued down and everything now sits under a several years of National Geographic magazine setting.
In the picture above you can also see the tools used and the mess I have created so far. I think you will agree that's not many tools and not much mess.
So considering its lunch time I think I am a bit further on than I expected especially when you consider that most of the 4 hours so far have been devoted to glue setting.
Now I'll grab a bite of lunch and start to block out the loading screens. Give the structures some size and bulk to see how it sets out on the baseboard.
See you later.

And we're off!

So at 8:15 this morning with the wife just reversing out of the driveway and  slip sliding down an icy 1st Street, I disappeared into the basement. With nothing more than a craft knife, a couple of sheets of 3/4"(approx) expanded white polystyrene sheet and some Loctite Powergrab adhesive... 

Slicing up the styrene sheet is so much easier than working with wood. Not to mention a darned sight quieter. Ten minutes later I had one of the sheets cut up into strips for the framing and could set about the gluing. A word about slicing the polystyrene sheet up. I find that if you cut it like you would any other material with a knife you'll end up blunting the blades quite quickly. 

For slicing the strips up I used one of those knives that have the long blades that you can snap the end off when it blunts. I extend the blade out to its fullest length and use it like a saw. Only if I need to make a second pass do I use a cutting motion. That way you make a better use of the blade and can make a much cleaner cut with very few of those annoying white polystyrene beads around to get in your clothes and hair.

So there you go after no more than 10 minutes of cutting I had all the strips of framing I needed cut up and very little mess to boot.

Next, the gluing together. I used some Loctite Powergrab that I had lying around. It had been lying around for several years so a couple of days before I glued up some offcuts of polystyrene sheet to see if it still worked. It did. So it was a very simple task to glue the whole lot together to make a model railway baseboard, as you can see from this picture.

This job was completed by 9:05. Less than an hour to get the baseboard done. Now I need to let it sit a while for the glue to start to set. Before I apply to cork tiling to the surface.

Appointment with destiny

OK so that's a bit of a grandiose title for a blog post. But my first planned date to work on the new layout will be this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Not being keen to fight my way around any stores in search of bargains and having been totally smart-alecky and pretty well finished my Christmas shopping ALREADY. I've decided to let the wife go off on this annual consumer tradition.
The plan of action for the day will principally be to construct the baseboard. Which will be a simple task of slicing some 3/4" styrene sheet to frame the baseboard surface of 3/4 styrene. Much as you would if you were constructing a wooden baseboard. Then I'll face the baseboard surface with 1/8" cork tile. There are two purposes to that:
1. some sound deadening
2. give me something to pin into if necessary.
Whilst the glue on that little lot is setting I'll get the chance to block out the main loading screen structure and if the foam board adhesive sets fast enough there could even be track down by the end of the day. That would be something wouldn't it?
Check back here on Friday for "as it happens" updates.

A baseboard idea

As you know I'm no woodworker. I'll go to all kinds of lengths to avoid using wood for model railway baseboards. Pink foam, cardboard boxes even storage boxes from IKEA. All to avoid putting a saw to wood. 

Three or four years ago I was presenting a series of workshops at the local model railway club on Micro model railway layout design and construction and as an experiment I made a baseboard up using 3/4" expanded polystyrene foam for the surface and framing with a cork surface to lay the track onto all glued together with foamboard adhesive. The other day whilst looking for some tools to work on my MGB I re-discovered the baseboard and took a fresh look at it...

This is what I found after 4 years of being baked in close to 100 degree heat in the summers and -30 degree chills in the winters. Still flat and square and level. A sturdy and very, very lightweight baseboard. I think this method can be used on the new layout. I have plenty of the styrene sheet in hand too. Some 4" x 14 1/2" sheets. Which as you will know from the previous post is pretty close to the size of the proposed layout.
Everything is just falling into place, isn't it?

A plan, A scheme

So, I've been spending idle moments running the idea for the next 7 day model railroad through my mind. Looking though all my plan books and photo albums for inspiration. Not really finding anything that grabbed my attention. My wife had given me an Athearn Genesis SD70ACe in UP Stars and Stripes livery to mark my gaining US citizenship, but even that failed to ignite my creative juices. I've got lots of large 6 axle diesel models that have little place on my small layouts. 

"Perhaps some model of a railroad workshop to display them all". I thought. 

But I am a small layout fan and I have definite ideas about my small layouts and what they really need is some kind of working feature. I haven't yet worked out what kind of working feature such a layout would have so that's on the back burner for the moment. 

Then I looked in the stock drawer that holds the English outline 00 scale stock that I have been accumulating randomly over the years. I found a couple of shunters (switchers) lots of coal wagons and hoppers. I could see some sort of trend here... 

Almost immediately I recalled a plan in the excellent book "Model Railway Planning and Design Handbook" Published by Santona Publications of the British Oak Coal plant in Yorkshire. A compact plan some 4' x 16" or so in size. This is a quite well known subject in British railway modelling circles due to its compact plan and capability to be worked quite intensively loading coal wagons at the unique loading screens. (There's my working feature)

Curiousity awakened. I looked in my track box. Would you believe it? I have all the turnouts needed to produce the trackplan as featured in the book, so why would I need to come up with my own scheme? I'm so used to coming up with my own ideas, this would be a real change of track (pun intended) for me, working from another persons previously published (and probably copied by others) scheme. That of course gives me my opportunity to put my stamp of individuality on the idea. I've found some good pictures of the loading screens and am looking for something a bit different to the loco shed depicted in the sketch.
I also have the baseboard sorted which will be something different and is a subject for another blog post another day...

The rules have changed... (but the game remains the same)

When the 7 day model railroad concept first presented itself it was very much a make it up as I went along concept. I had time off work. I wanted something to do, so I built a model railroad. The rules made themselves up as the project went along. There were even unexpected surprises such as a bomb scare in town that led to another research trip to St. Cloud to get more photographs.

The reaction from you, the followers and readers of this blog surprised me. I've got to know some of you quite well. I'd go so far as to call some of you my friends. Even at train shows people still talk to me about how good an idea this was and I can't help feeling that I want to have another go. Perhaps this is what I'm meant to do in the hobby. Rather than build a basement filling HO scale empire. I should be building these small layouts to a deadline. Setting myself challenges in that way. 

So how do I approach the 7 day deadline for another challenge? 

I don't have any vacation time free right now. But I do have a deadline to aim at. The Granite City Train Show 2013 is on Saturday April 13th. 

I can't start the layout on April 6th and build from then. That would be killing the momentum and enthusiasm I have right now. I need to start pretty soon.

Thinking back the layout was originally built in five days, Monday thru Friday. Five eight hour days. 40 hours. A work week. So I could set myself a 40-56 hour time limit to complete the project. But I'm not keen of keeping an hourly record of progress. I'm a model railroader, not an accountant. The thought of having to keep a log of an hour here, two hours there to keep to the deadline is against the spirit of the concept. 

So I need to block out days, solid eight hour days to work on the project. A Saturday here, A Sunday there, National Holidays. You know the sort of thing. I can probably block out three days quite easily. The day after Thanksgiving, Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day. They are all holidays I get from work. Three days for the project there. Will they be at the start, or in the middle or at the end of the project? Right now I don't know. Work pressures could even curtail progress on those days. Perhaps I might have to work with half days. We'll see what happens. 

But the concept is sound. Block out whole days to work on the layout. So I have 5 -7 days between now and April 13th to get the job done. Now all I have to do is find a project.

That's a post for another day. 

Back from the Dead

Look at that, a good 14 months since I last made a post here even longer if you're after a post of some significance. Truth is, I have been distracted by all kinds of things, Layouts in IKEA APA boxes, marathon running as well as the most beautiful rubber bumpered MGB in Minnesota. Time flies by and all of a sudden you find you've done nothing with more with the concept.
Today I got a shot in the arm/kick up the arse with regard to the concept. It was the Granite City Train Show again and so I took Wingetts recycling out of retirement as it hadn't been seen for a while (nearly two years) and put in front of the viewing public once again.
The weeks before the show were taken up with adding a chain link fence between the front siding and the middle siding. This was something that I'd wanted to do for a while but never got around to doing. The impending showing gave me an excuse and I used my old standard method of using Tulle (bridal veil material) for the fence and styrene fence posts. Quick, easy and very effective. I also cleaned the wheels and track. As nothing had been done to it for 14 months.
So, this morning we set out for St. Cloud in a relaxed leisurely way. Setting up is always a breeze with Wingetts it has been done so many times.
But wait!
Calamity!
The operating handle of the leading turnout on the layout broke off leaving me with no way to operate the turnout. A repair would have entailed digging up the scenery to solder the handle back on. Not something I was prepared to do 45 minutes before the doors opened. So I made the decision to operate the turnout by switching the roads with a chopstick that I use to help the Kadee uncouplers when they refuse to co-operate. Not an ideal state of affairs but it would have to do.
Ten am came and the doors opened and as usual we were swamped. I have often said before what a great show it is so very busy, yet so very friendly. Friends old and new turned up to see the layout and many people paid a lot of attention to the operation. Aside from the aforementioned turnout issue the layout performed almost perfectly and I came away from the show feeling tired but very rewarded. I had my enthusiasm for the hobby renewed.
"This is the best layout you've ever built." One person was heard to say. I won't disagree, though I do like the Purespring watercress layout.
I remembered how rewarding it was to build this layout against the clock to a deadline. I really want to do that again now.
I think you can be fairly sure that there will be some kind of update coming here soon

Once more around?

It's been a good while since Wingetts was rested from the exhibition circuit and I've been flitting around in the model railroading world doing a bit of this and a bit of that and a bit of the other. All good fun. But lately I have had a hankering to do another layout in the 7 day mode. As followers will know I've purchased a few APA Boxes from IKEA and find myself wondering about building a 7 day layout in one of them. Perhaps using Fiddlestick technology in some way. I have plenty of Micro Engineering flex track and turnouts. Modern Stock to cobble dogs with. So it wouldn't be too difficult. If I think about it too much I'll end up doing it. This old blog needs a new lease of life anyway...

'Ello 'ello

A quick word of welcome to those dropping in from Carl Arendts website this month.
There's not much to see here now as the layout is in a semi retired state but I have other blogs for you to peruse:
more-t-please
smallmodelrailwaylayouts

both are pretty active currently and contain much of the same witty entertaining banter that this blog was noted for... ;-)

See you there!

Another new blog

I can't cover the construction of my next model railway on this blog so I've started a new one specifically about small model railway layouts for model railway exhibitions.

Its called Small Model Railways I hope you check it out.

A Challenge worth taking?

At the Granite City Train show over the weekend I was challenged to re-create Wingetts recycling in 2-Rail O scale by a 2 Rail modeller there.
I have to admit to being sorely tempted by the idea. I like O scale. I like the size and the feel of the stock. They have a mass that HO scale models just don't have.
Whether I would re-create Wingetts or not is another thing. I wouldn't want to do something exactly the same. But a the idea of a small layout in O scale holds a great deal of fascination for me.
We'll see. I have to build something new for the Easter edition of the Granite City train show anyway.