Day 16 Fencing

This is really only a half a day, as I’ve been spending time putting together the Autumn issue of the Micro Model Railway Dispatch. Articles for inclusion come in in fits and starts so. It’s best to put them into the magazine layout as and when they arrive.

The idea of a rusty, corrugated iron fence in the background of the skip loader has been rather well received so I spent some time mocking up that. My time could probably been spent more productively working on the case for the layout. But that’s woodworking. As most of you know I hate woodworking, so I really have to be in the mood to do that. Here’s a few mock ups of possible layouts. The general hope is that using under scale corrugated sheet fencing there will be an element of forced perspective. Especially behind the mound right at the end.

From this angle the full length fence looks good. It’s a nice looking scene.

Here the fence looks like it is the backscene, there is a feeling of perspective.

The first consideration was a fence that runs the full length of the back of the loader section of the layout. There’s a hard edged cut off to break the two scenes apart. Though I like it, I’m not 100% convinced that this the solution.

With a 2/3 length fence, it’s still a nice looking scene

A section of fence that runs two thirds of the distance looks good. I like the fact that the fence doesn’t go all the way to the end of the scene. It helps to separate the scenes. This area could be filled with scrub, undergrowth and weeds to further help fill the area and separate the scenes.

I tried the 2/3 length fence running the other way. It’s not the same

Still a ways to go… More thinking to do.

 

Day 15 or so. Showing off.

As you know this will be an exhibition layout that will appear at train shows in the MidWest USA (model railway exhibitions in UK parlance). So it will need some kind of casing around it to protect it during transit and also add lighting to show it off during a show. Exhibition hall lighting is not perfect. I’ve been to some shows here in the USA where it’s downright horrendous. But the vast majority of exhibitors are content to show their layouts under the hall lighting conditions. Not me. So this is all very important when I consider the presentation. 

The easy way is to box in the whole layout and have it viewed from the front. Then as I was looking down the layout the other day I saw this view. It echoes a view I saw of a German Feldbahn clay pit tipping platform. The resemblance was eerie and momentarily stopped me in my tracks.

I love this low down viewpoint.

This is a view that you wouldn’t see if you could only see the layout from the front, head on, so to speak.

Clearly some kind of re-think of the showing of the layout is needed. The end needs to be open.

Having the end open creates a new vista of the layout. One where you can take in several feet of layout depth. That’s the experience I want to give the viewer. To be able to draw them in to the scene and forget that they are in an exhibition hall. Because when you look at the layout from here, there really is a lot of depth to take in.

Quite the depth to the scene. Not bad for 16mm scale.

This end of the layout is really resolving itself now. I’ve said a few times that I thought there should be a small hut at the base of the retaining wall. I think that my ubiquitous corrugated shed (which is actually 1:24 scale) shows that this would be a good idea. Look at the juxtaposition of surfaces and textures. The wooden retaining wall, in front of that the corrugated hut, and in front of that the breeze blocks of a sand bin. Quite the view.

Now I have to start pulling together the other scene on the layout. The skip loader, compared to the tipping dock, there’s not much there at the minute.

This area needs more

Currently, there’s only the loader in this scene. So I added my corrugated wall to the background for ideas. Let’s face it a a rusty corrugated iron wall fits into any industrial scene. Hmm… If I placed it behind the sandy mound at the back there, perhaps the fact that it is 1;24 scale might force the perspective, adding extra depth to the scene.

Some more research is needed here methinks.

Day 14 (or so) Bins

What I really want to be able to do on this layout is to empty the contents of a skip into the back of a truck. A long search, accompanied by helpful advice on the NGRMOnline forum, has sourced some good ideas for suitable builders lorries to receive a load. However, one particular manufacturer is quoting 2 months delivery on an item, While another would appear to be reticent about delivering to the USA. (To be honest, I don’t blame them. The transatlantic mail service is not what it used to be.) So, I’m giving consideration to making a bin to tip into, while I wait for a lorry to arrive from wherever it may be. 

From the outset I’ve been considering the concept of tipping different grades of sands or gravels into different bins. I thought perhaps three at the start, now I think only two different grades would be needed. To that end, I started to mock up the size of bin that would be needed. I’ve no idea how this feature would translate into 16mm scale so mock ups are a must.

Mocking up the bin

As you can see, once you add the Land Rover and a bin, the area starts to fill up. I think I could only get away with the one bin on the layout. A few millimeters here and there in the size of the bin are going to  make all the difference. Proportions of height to width, are important. If you make it too tall and thin it’s going to look flimsy and like the walls could collapse under the weight of sand. Too short and fat and the sand or gravel will spill out of the bin as the amount tipped into the bin increases. 

How much gravel/sand will a bin hold? How much spillage outside the bin will there be?

A mock up and test is needed.

The bin holds a lot of sand/gravel

Successful tipping experiments

What this tells me is that despite the long drop there is no overspill. Perhaps as the bin fills up the chance of material ending up outside the receptacle would increase but right now I’ve emptied 6 skip loads into this bin and there’s no overspill. I’ve also run out of fine buff ballast so I can’t add more. I think that’s a success.

I’ll add a handle to the back of the bin so I can easily slide it rearwards off the layout to be emptied or perhaps even change it out with a lorry when it is full. All in all, a successful days work.

  

Day 13. Jiggery Pokery.

There’s a lot of glue setting going on on the layout today as I prepare to think about boxing the layout up in its display case to help protect the EPS substructure.

If you’ve been following along with the blog posts. Then you will have noticed that I have made several jigs to ease construction of layout elements. Here they are gathered together for a photograph.

All the jigs

It was James Hilton, in his blog at Christmas who described his use of jigs or templates, on a project he was working on. The relevant part of the video is here. I took this information on board and saved it 'til later. As I started work on this layout I realised that now was the time to make use of this insight. 

The jigs were all very simple and very easy to make. They were made from foamcore and stripwood. Oh, and one piece of embossed styrene that just happened to be the right size.

The one that looks least like a jig, the large carpenters square, was pretty important as it enabled me to lay the sections of stripwood for the tipping dock deck and retaining walls squarely.

Above that is my old faithful mitre box. It was taped to a piece of foamcore and an adjustable stop, also made of foamcore, was taped at varying distances to get the correct length of decking, posts and styrene girders that I needed.

Above that, the one that I used to make the three rail fence. That one took some working out, getting the rails at the right height.

To the right of that is the one I’m most proud of. If one can said to be proud of a jig. The one used for the posts for the safety railing on the tipper deck. 

To the right of that, is the one for the bents to support the deck. It was the first one I made and if I had made it later, after having built the others. Then I would have probably done something different. But this did the job perfectly.

These simple jigs made the constructional tasks on this project much easier. They were really easy to assemble. If you ever have to do several of the same thing on a project, then you should probably be assembling a jig. 

Day 12 The skip loading chute. A day of mixed fortunes.

I wasn’t expecting this to happen…

When I changed my mind about having a workshop on the layout and replacing it with a loading chute. I knew exactly what I wanted. Something akin to the one that features on David Barham’s Fen End Pit layout. I am not planning an operating dragline excavator though. 

Having a working feature like this at the front of the layout opens up interesting opportunities at a show. One could invite viewers to load the skips, thus drawing them into the world of the layout rather than just watching. 

The first mockup of the chute was well received over on the NGRMOnline forum and I got some good feedback on things to incorporate. 

As per usual, a drawing was produced, The most important thing about this drawing was it would enable me to get the size of the panels for the chute correct. Something that required me to dredge up knowledge from grammar school technical drawing classes to correctly design and build it.

A quick layout drawing of the loading chute

With the help of the drawing, progress was pretty swift. By lunchtime I was well on the way to having it completed.

Coming along nicely

Though much of the design is inspired by the design on Fen End Pit, as I worked further on it, I decided it needed a bit more bracing between the legs to aid rigidity. Plus it would give the structure my own touch of individuality. Luckily, I did have enough right angle section to be able to do this, and as my afternoon tea break approached, things were looking very good indeed. 

Another structure looks pretty good.

While the kettle was boiling and the tea brewing, I took it outside to give it a quick spray of primer, and then let it dry whilst I enjoyed my Earl Grey and biccies. 

Suitably refreshed, I went outside to continue priming.

OH SH!T.

A gust of breeze had got up and blown the model off the bin I had been spraying on, and it had fallen on the concrete path. To say I was shocked was an understatement.

Perhaps as a testament to my construction processes, the chute only broke into two parts. So repair shouldn’t be too difficult. But it most certainly wasn’t what I was expecting at the end of the day today. 

Day 11. Railings

I was pretty nervous about this project, so I spent quite a bit of time working out the best way to complete it. 

In smaller scales of course, you just go out and buy some fencing to suit. If there’s anything in 16mm scale I couldn’t find it. So scratch building was called for.  

I did my due diligence, researching dimensions and sizes. I wanted to use styrene tube for the posts and rail. In the end it turned out I didn’t have any tube in the size I wanted. I had lots of 2.5mm rod though, and it looked like it looked right. So rod it was. I’d just have to drill a few extra holes, that’s all. These extra holes were going to be in the end of the rod though. But as I had already drilled out rod when working on the exhaust pipe for my “Huddy” I wasn’t phased by that. The first thing I needed was a jig.

Another task, another jig.

Pretty much every job on the layout has needed a jig somewhere to aid its construction. This one was no exception. Sections of strip wood hold the rod in place, and allow me to cut the rod to the correct length. A section of the corrugated sheet that I used for the sleepers had holes drilled in it at the correct distances for the safety rails. This should, in theory, give a batch of identical fence posts, and it pretty much did.

All identical (or pretty close)

A hole was drilled in the end of the fence post, to accept a short length of .75mm rod to locate it in the deck and similar lengths of the rod were placed in the holes on the post to help locate the rails.

From then on, it was pretty simple. Yes you had to be careful, but as all the rods had been cut to the same length and drilled correctly it all went together quite easily. I didn’t even need a jig for this stage of the project. Before long I had a pretty good looking section of safety railing.

First section. Yes, I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.

The second section was a bit more challenging. But not much. It involved a right angle turn in the railing to enable it to go partly across the end of the deck.

But simply with careful drilling and lining up of the holes the pins were easily placed to make the turn possible.

By now, I’m feeling invincible

Some holes were drilled into the deck and the safety rails were put in place for the first time…

Well, what can I say?

Even the right angle turn worked out.

A quick spray of paint to cover the white and job’s a good’ un

Needless to say. I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself. This is something I’d never needed to do before. It was something that I didn’t have the foggiest idea how to do. There may even have been an easier way to do it. Though I’m not sure that just butt jointing the sections of post and rail together would have resulted in as good a join as I have this way.

The lesson everyone can take away from this is never be afraid to try something out of your comfort zone. 

Day 10 - some thoughts

(A day late sorry)

Sometimes you don’t realize how long you spend thinking about tasks on a layout until you actually start logging your time. 

Like with these daily blog posts. I look at the work I’ve done, and yes, some of it like cutting the deck of tipping dock. Took a heck of a long time. 

But then there was the working out how to make the jig for the yard fence. I swear that measuring up and working out where all the stops and supports went took longer than the actual assembly of the fence sections themselves. I may have already made a mock up of the wagon loading chute, but there’s a drawing being done to help me make the actual thing. The safety handrail for the dock is another thing being worked on. There’s a lot of time being spent thinking.

I have pieced together several drawings for projects for the layout. I use an app called Graphic. They help me visualize the construction and any problems that might occur. They may, or may not, depending on the structure, be to scale. They may, or may not, depending on the finished model be an accurate copy of the prototype.

Tipper shelter, so many things to work out. So much head scratching.

A drawing for the tipper shelter was a case in point. It was an absolute must. The prototype was so flimsy there was little to go on from the prototype photo. In fact the whole thing didn’t come fully together until I worked out how to make it stand up by itself. Which I couldn’t do until I saw the finished shelter.

A full size drawing didn’t help work out how to stand the shelter up.

The Handrail is not a difficult task. Not compared to the shelter or the forthcoming loading chute but it still needs a drawing.

Handrail details

I need to visualize how to actually construct the thing. How do I fix the rails to the posts? How do I fix the posts to the deck? This quick visualization explores the idea of the construction of posts from styrene tube, with a section of rod glued inside them as pins to locate them in the deck. Similarly, the rails will be located in place thanks to pins through the posts. Now I need to spend more time figuring out the jig to drill the holes in the correct place. I hope that once I get through this next batch of thinking time I’ll be able to get started on the handrails soon.