Model Railway Forum

Shunter wrote: ↑Thu Jan 21, 2021 6:41 pm Great idea but I've got to pay the bills for a few more years before I can bin the desk.

You still need the desk to put your tea and packet of biscuits on. Can't risk getting crumbs on the track

I also have an alcove/shelf to play with. I was thinking of tucking a goods yard/industry up there - it's around 15mm above baseboard height.

Any ideas..?





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You may be able to build a station on the shelf with the lines running along the front of it.

Puddles

May also knock through wall into the next room from there at some point; although it's a bedroom with en-suite shower etc so humidity varies.

Maybe that's where a fiddle yard will eventually go.

Have to get desk built before I do much else, then get the first bit wired-up and operational.

Quick update post-weekend.

Have now got the baseboard for the larger station completed and have started on the final board which will be flared to accommodate the station throat to allow for a double platform and run-around, larger goods yard with more sidings and run-around, along with a bigger loco shed scene on this side.

It just needs the middle stringer trimming and a few more ribs cutting, along with the top which I'll be able mark up from the framework once it's completed to make sure I get the angle of the flare right for a neat fit.

Best of all, it came in nearly spot-on levels-wise, despte the fact the room has a slight slope. One corner's around 1 - 2mm out, but I can shim that to square it up.

I haven't drawn up an exact plan, but the goods yard will probably sit in the corner at the back with a landmark building like a brewery/factory, along with some low-relief buildings.

The bottom shelf in the alcove will be incorporated into the layout, although I've now binned plans to knock through into the next room. Tucking a station building etc in there would free up a lot of space further downstream and the shelf looks more or less platform-height parking a coach next to it.

Looking good!

I thought the shelf was just about platform height, if you line out the inside with a scenery paper and a few vehicles in the background with station buildings and platform furnishings positioned at the front it may work out with a bit of juggling. Maybe some lighting too.

Puddles

It's all looking very good - you will soon have trains running.

Getting set to trim the final board before we're more or less there base-wise.

The best bit is I'm only 1 - 2mm out levels-wise despite cutting the lot by hand, which I can easily shim.

The design's evolving too. Through twin-road station and a couple of other bits tucked in the alcove.

Goods shed on the triangular section.

Main lines carry on off-scene behind some large factory/industry-type buildings into a hidden run-around.

Something similar in the middle of the board to serve goods shed and should be room for a head-shunt and factory sidings too.

I've had a rethink - after reading don't fix track down too soon countless times. I've also read flat is boring so many times I'm starting to agree.

So I'm going to jack the whole lot up on foam insulation board cut to form some embankments, cuttings etc.

This also gets me out of jail when it comes to installing a bus wire under the baseboards along with fixing droppers through it. I can run the bus behind and conceal it at the base of the embankment next to the walls, so I an get to them if/when I need to, but you won't actually be able to see them.

It also means I don't have to cut holes through the MDF tops to install point motors underneath as I can just drop them into the foam boards or stash them in the scenery etc.

I never realised how much dust MDF gives off either, so bye bye to that too.