A toe in the water (OO steam DC)

[fourtytwo]

A goodly portion of a year has gone by and the layout has moved from Norfolk to Lincolnshire! The new house is in such a state (some emergency plumbing done already and a full rewire next week) that although it has been bolted together in it's new location that's as far as it's likely to get for quite a while yet. Still the principle of portability has been established though finding space for it caused many houses (that were probably to small for us anyway) to be discounted. In line with our forthcoming unaffordable energy the layout now lives in about a 3rd of the living room (many thanks to SWMBO), rather than a separately heated space.

[Mountain Goat]

I saw you had mentioned not knowing the length to allow for coaches.
I found in 00 layout planning, it is relitively safe to rely on a foot per coach (30cm). A few modern coaches are longer but in general a foot per coach is a good rough measurement because if gives one about an inch of leyway per coach "Just incase".
Rolling stock... Bogie stock allow a foot per vehicle. Short wheelbase one can get three in a foot. Long wheelbase are mostly two vehicles per foot unless very long.
It amused me when I started on the railways how they measured their sidings using a similar method that I had done and they call their measurements SLU's or "Standard length units". By doing this and knowing if the vehicles are longer (Where rough calculations are made) or within the SLU's length gives a quick and easy calculation to work out if ones train is going to fit before one gets there! And yes, on occasions it can go wrong! Once heard about a traincrew doing a shunt and a member of the public down the trackside to call them to stop. Sixteen loaded coal wagons had been shunted over the edge into an enbankment as the buffer hadn't held and the traincrew had completely forgotton that they had a longer train than the usual 30 merry-go-rounds to shunt and had used their stopping points as if they had the usual 30!

Making layouts semi-portable or portable is a good plan if one does not know if one is staying put in the future, as in the past I have taken part built layouts up due to relocating rooms let alone a house move. I was thinking how I was fortunate they were not fully completed and only part sceniced when I had to dissasemble them. Had they been portable some sections at least may have survived, but it was fun as I always loved the planning and the building stage as it let my imagination flow.

[Chops]

Remarkable work. Keeping it together through all the recent travails equally remarkable. The SWMBO is one heck of a gal, bless her heart.

[Simon_100]

A fabulous start and a some much needed inspiration for me!

[fourtytwo]

Thank you for your kind comments everybody

I have managed to move a tiny smidgen further along by refitting the layout lighting along the back of the main station boards, of course I should have done this before I re-assembled the layout as the rear of the boards are hard up against the wall so I had to part dissemble again, all in all a mornings work so not too bad.

The lights themselves are I recall T4 LED modules of about 2.5 watts 12v ac/dc. Before I used wooden battens to mount them on that were quite obtrusive so this time I decided to push the pins into the end of 1mm twin&earth lighting cable (left over from the recent re-wire) this proving stiff enough to support the led module. I found #4 screws slim enough to screw into standard 1mm cable clips (avoiding the built in nails that were removed) so as can be seen the cable is clamped to the backscene & also under the frame to make the mounting stiff. The cable can then be bent to any desired location, the total overhang from the backscene being limited to about 18" before it droops to much.

I hope you enjoy the pics and as winter is approaching finding more time to model vs the constant demands of the garden etc

Unfortunately I have discovered multiple leaks in my garage roof but more seriously that it is structurally unsound and actually falling down so modelling is severely limited (I just thank god the railway is not in the garage).

[Puddles]

Hello forty two
I posted my welcome before I saw this post And found your pics.
Looking good
Puddles

[fourtytwo]

**********************Happy new year everybody *****************
An update for 2023 so far, not much in the way of construction except working semaphores for platform starters, inner & outer homes.
Good running session earlier this evening that culminated with 5 loco's in steam!

One in the shed coaling, one shunting the yard, one waiting for release from goods arrival, one waiting release from passenger arrival and finally one at the head of a passenger waiting for departure clearance.

The goods office is getting a bit worried about the state of the yard as there are quite a few wagons in the wrong place and the shed is going to get very busy with two delayed loco's to service and no spares ready on shed.

And just to complicate matters another passenger will soon arrive followed by yet another goods (why hasn't the yard shunter cleared the arrival road yet) ........and those cattle trucks are making a nasty smell right opposite the ticket office (invisible).





Looking forwards to the next running session when time permits to clean up the mess!!