Back in very late December 2015 I showcased Bart’s then pretty new O (1/48th) scale layout – 33rd Street. It’s been just over 12 months and he’s been making improvements the entire time. And they’re very, very good improvements.
Click over to Bart’s flickr site and get acquainted with his work. Some really good stuff here for the model builder, especially those of us bitten by the O scale bug to see what can be achieved in a relatively small space.
In addition since I last visited his site he’s extended the track plan somewhat giving himself more room to play in. Enjoy and keep a watch on his stream. He updates his images fairly regularly.
Site 2: Bart’s YouTube page has updates too
This is just one of his posted videos. There are more available after the jump -just click the YouTube logo to go to Bart’s YT page.
Take a look around and enjoy. It’s a great idea for a layout in any scale. Looking forward to giving his street light a go.
A very big thank you to all of you this year for reading and taking part at Andrew’s Trains. I’ve not been able to achieve all of my goals for the site, however I’m pleased to have achieved what I have. There’s only me at the other end of the keyboard, no production team, no writers, designers or PR people swilling champagne (thankfully). Just me.
I’ve already prioritised projects for 2017. Among them are:
A smaller HO scale layout (for use inside the house and on the Australian exhibition circuit
A re-purposing of the 3 4′ x 2′ boards in the garage to an O scale layout specifically for exhibition (and the occasional playing session at home when the weather is nice, and
Completion of all the outstanding model building articles
None of these are in any specific order, they are on my hit list.
It’s been a good year
It’s been a good year for me on Andrew’s Trains. I’ve managed to more than double visitor numbers and page views. And that is very pleasing. While the year’s final numbers are not in, just yet, I’ve already reached my personal goals for this site in 2016 calendar year.
What I’d like to focus on during 2017
I have some woodworking projects to complete this year. I need to finish the design of my exhibition saw-horse stands and make a couple of test units to prove the concept. Then there’ll be more wood working for the book shelves in the house where the new HO scale layout will live inside the house (where it’s warm, and nice during Ballarat winters). And from where I can run my fun sessions with the family when we feel the mood take us.
Track laying in O scale will be the next thing to learn. It’s something that I’ve wanted to learn for a very long time. Now I’m finally brave enough to give this a go.
Finally, all the best to you for the year ahead. I hope that you have an enjoyable, fulfilling and worthwhile year. I’m aiming to live the hell out of 2017. See you their next year.
I’ve had a lot of fun weathering cars this month. I’ve photographed as I’ve gone along and added pages for diesel era weathering of freight cars. This is because I do not model the steam era. There’ll be additional content uploaded as I go through the month. In addition I’ll be making videos for all parts of the process on the next piece of work using the multi-media weathering techniques outlined.
To get started head up to the menu and look for Modelling Articles > Weathering > Multi-Media Weathering. There are two pages completed and these are the:
Goulburn NSW, once a major service centre for trains on the main southern line into and out of Victoria, played host to another type of rail event in early October: Streamliners 2016.
Image courtesy John C Benson
It was a big deal with a whole gaggle of locomotives coming in from all over Australia to celebrate 65 years of active service of the Streamliners on Australia rails. You can also visit the Facebook page for more images and information. What happened after the event though is just as important.
On December 2 this year Southern Shorthaul Railroad train 4578S departed Northern Power Station at Port Augusta South Australia heading for New South Wales. Consisting of 90 empty hoppers formerly used on the Leigh Creek coal train, it was the second of two transfers. Hauling the train were five of the Streamliners from Goulburn (all operated by Southern Shorthaul Railroad:
B61 ‘Bernie Baker’,
S317,
GM27,
GM10, and
S302.
This video has some great vision and sound of the train departing the power station, being passed by several other trains before approaching and then crossing Mambray Creek. The last scene, between Gladstone and Caltowie, shows the train struggling on the 1 in 80 (1.25%) grade accompanied by the sounds of locos working hard and doing what they’ve done (in regular revenue service) for just on 65 years. Enjoy!
If you’ve not run across the work of Tim Warris before then let me introduce you to his excellent work. Tim is the person behind the Fast Tracks range of track jigs. You can read more about Tim’s day job here. Let’s take a look at his excellent layout and the work on the display aspect of the layout.
Tim’s layout is a masterwork of track, operation and layout design in a small space. The layout shows what can be achieved with the right prototype and the ability to see a project through to completion.
It has not been without its challenges however. Among them the trackwork for this great little location.
All of the layout switches were handmade by Tim for the layout. And they work a treat too. Head over to his YouTube channel and look at the posts in uploaded videos section that begin at 6 years ago. There is a lot of information there on the layout, build and other processes.
Site 2: Rusty Layout Edging – links below
The picture below is from a post on the Free Rails forum from 2008 showing the thought put into the design and execution of Tim’s layout (above). He put a lot of thought into how the layout should look, and the way it should be perceived. What water scene does not have rusted metal after all?
You can view the original posts on the Free Rails forum. To see the effect being created Tim shows the process of creating the fascia design in the video below.
Take note of what he did there; the effect is simple, eye-catching and convincing. The drill that he is using is a Forstner bit. Not cheap but well worth the value and something which you’ll use in the future I’ve no doubt.
Small layouts are my thing. Like most modellers in Australia space here is at a premium. So a small space layout, offering lots of operating potential, is the way to go.
Recently a long time model railroad friend Shortliner Jack shot me several links over to look at. We’ll be coming back to look closely at those this month. For right now though let’s take a look at a downloadable and one of Shortliner’s links.
Presented back in 2015 at the NMRA’s Thoroughbred Limited 2015 MCR Convention in Kentucky I felt that this download (in PDF format) provides a great overview of small layouts and a bit of learning about the why and how along the way.
The details shown on the Inglenook drawing on page 4 are wrong (you can find out more about Inglenooks in this post); besides that however there are some exceptional small layout designs that should inspire the modeller in you to get out there and make something.
This is the site that Shortliner Jack pointed me to as a source for his next layout inspiration. Being in the far north of Scotland, buried in snow for 9/10ths of the year, and surrounded by only boxes of Whisky for company he has a lot of time to work on layouts. One layout in Proto48 caught his eye specifically:
There are so many more designs in this thread large and small that you’ll spend several hours looking through and pondering them all. Great ideas and thanks to Robert Chant for sharing his design on the forum.
It’s been a long road, with many changes since the original Andrew’s Trains site hosted by FotoPic went under. With files lost, and images gone, and an audience to rebuild it seemed a big hill to climb. After some time I’d gotten the HVL website (www.huntervalleylines.com) established, files and images uploaded and people coming back to visit and a lot of good press going.
Then change rolled around again and before I knew it the hosting company no longer supported my prefered image and blogging packages. With the loss of that support all the content I had worked so hard to upload, discuss and write about was gone.
In 2013 I made the move to the WordPress free version. It was a hard decision to start again for the third time but it seems that it was ‘the charm’. Sometime yesterday a visitor dropped in and viewed the site and helped to double the stats from 2015.
When I started this blog in 2013 I did so very quietly, to get my feet under me while I began transferring data across. 2014 was quiet again as I got used to the platform and my direction.
2015 was the year that things really took off. I had more time to work on the site and the content (though sadly I’ve been grossly under employed since this time in 2014 after being laid off).
2016 has made me very glad to have stuck with it, to get it done and rebuild. With more time to develop the content (the upside of being laid off) and less spent on the mechanics of the site, projects coming out of mothballs with the freeing up of a little money over the next 6 months, I look forward to what I can give back to you.
Site stats to October 31 2016
I’m a one man band. There are times when I just don’t have the energy or the time to post. Sometimes there is too much to post. I’ve done the best I can to make it all work. Thanks for being willing to come along for the ride. Small layouts are my thing. I enjoy the fact that they are easy to build, take up little space and allow you to operate when and where you are able.
In summary I just wanted to say thank you for your ongoing support, suggestions and comments. I love model railways, and small layouts in general. Mostly I like my fellow modellers who share their dreams, their schemes and even their memes about railway modelling.
All the best, and for those who like my family are Northern hemispherically influenced, Happy Halloween.
One of my favourite past times is to travel to shops of dubious regard and seek out old model railway magazines. Most recently I’ve been seen haunting the bookshelf at the Ballarat Tramway Museum and going through the old model rail magazines. One issue of Railway Modeller (August 2003 no less) really took my fancy. Contained inside was a very small but very pleasing layout. Onto today’s site seeing.
In said magazine I found Shell Island. A very small layout, two turnouts, end of branch line UK seaside, you get the picture. My adventure could have ended right there, but it didn’t. The images were mesmerising. They displayed a visual depth that made you believe you were only seeing what the camera could show. Great composition, colours and models.
Image linked courtesy of Rushby’s Railways Blog
As you can see from the track plan, this is no last layout effort. It is an end of the branch location, on the coast, with a little traffic and a mostly disused goods shed. And by the way it’s on the ocean.
Image courtesy of Rushby’s Railways Blog
And that maybe all the difference it needs. It’s idyllic, industrial and ramshackle and yet it stirs emotions and my wanderlust wants to go here and see this little out-of-the-way slice of railway. It looks better on-screen than it does in the magazine too. I want to go to this place. I want to sit at the Cafe table, eat my fish and chips and take in the train action. Even if that is simply a loco idling on the weed strewn siding. I can smell the salt, the seaweed and hear the gulls calling me.
Image courtesy of RMWeb
And that is a powerful skill for a layout builder. To stir in others a need to relive this moment in time, even if it is false, and never was. Neil – my hat’s off to you brother. You are in a class of your own. Read more about the layout, the builder and his other projects which are as good on his blog from the link above.
Resources:
More images of the layout can be found in the links below:
This section is where I’ll be posting well thought out designs that I can’t be fussed putting into the various railway CAD programs.
Each is at the concept stage and I’ll provide an overview of the location, industries and an operating scheme for these small layouts. The first layout so covered is on the Vinson Lead in Austin, Texas.
If you’ve a moment head on over to ‘The Vinson Lead – small and simple V 1.0‘ and see if this fits your bill for a great little model layout. There’ll be more to come as I now have a new scanner (yippee!).
If you’ve not heard of Adrian’s site before then you are in a for a treat. This site has everything that you ever wanted to know about shunting puzzles, including the Timesaver and the Inglenook.
Image courtesy of Adrian Wymann
Of interest for those of us thinking of building a layout using the Inglenook design is the discussion on the design of operation and movement for the layout. Additionally there is the mechanics of designing and building the layout also. Very well worth the look.
Putting the Inglenook to work Adrian’s great little layout deserves a look. Well designed, well executed and well presented Adrian walks you through the design and build process and provides a lot of insight into the process.
Image courtesy of Adrian Wymann
Head on over to the websites and do a bit of reading – you’ll not be disappointed.
Andrew's Trains 