Snuffles Street

[leopard]

While My main layout is progressing, slowly, I have a quantity of Hornby track spare. and various off cuts of wood.

what to do.

'Snuffles Road' was born earlier today as I cruised the A1 on my way home. a quick attempt at a track plan in xtrkcad proved it would work. so a trip to the loft.

now have a 4'x1' plank layout, can handle an 18" train, two road fiddle yard accessed via a sector plate, leads to a single front of house road with a pair of kick back sidings as a small goods yard. each road capable of three small wagons.

Currently occupied with my small shunter, a single LNER suburban coach and two wagons. eventually it will be GWR and totally seperate from my main layout. the goal was to create something cheap and portable.

both points operated by hand, its not wired up as yet, thats tommorrow along with the three final bits of track - the road ends.

piccies to follow tomorrow, this is following me to Oxford over crimbo where the rails will be painted and some other scenic work done, retaining wall etc.

Station will be a hacked superquick country station & platform thats I've had sitting around for a while.

operationally this is never going to be 'complicated', at most a train will be one bogie coach, or two four wheelers. but it can be handled quickly

[leopard]

Track Plan

[Chuffer Chuff]

Hi,

Considering the size of board that you have available to use, you have used the space really well with the track plan.

Having the trackwork at an angle rather than inline with the board edge is far more ascetically appealing and looks more realistic!

As this is quite a small layout, what cannot be made up with lots of track can be made up of very detailed and interesting scenery! This can be done well as i'm sure you know by using some of Ratio and Wills kits

Although a small project, I'm sure that it will be very enjoyable to construct and a lot cheaper than larger layouts!

Keep up the good work and I'm eagerly awaiting more progress!

Cheers

[superstat]

Very good considering you did the track plan whilst cruising on the A1

Look forward to see this...

Regards

[leopard]

"cost effective" sums it up, the total cost for materials to this point is a big fat zero, its been made from off cuts and sares from the main board.

will finish the track later, and get it wired then I'll post a piccy. The original concept had the station parallel with the yard, and a second sector plate, but i figure KISS for this one.

it may get DCC eventually, since is being wired 'all live', but for now there will only be one engine, as I only have one small locomotive.

scenery is what this is being built for, lets face it operationally its an inglenook with a hidden yard

the first draft had three sidings but with Hornby points they won't fit, so down to two, on the plus side I can have a goods platform of some sort now.

amazing what you can do with odds and sods really.

figured since the main layout was taking so long sod it I wanted to actually manage something

[Blaqkaudio009]

ill be keeping up to date with this one, i do like the sector plate idea, im new to these and havent encountered one, so look forward to seeing it in action soon!

[leopard]

piccies.


View from the fiddle yard side, sector plate under the cover at the far end.


Sector plate detail. its basically a strip of hardboard with a screw through one end, and a length of track glued to it. the runner is a length of pcb sleeper, mostly to raise the front to match the tracks.


looking down the platform, on reflection I'll prob not use the superquick station, it doesn't really fit.


the two road goods yard

also note the somewhat temp wiring board, a bit of breadboard configured to make everything live. discovered my secondary Hornby controller (about 20 years old) still works, but there something wrong with it.

on the ;to do list' currently is to get the track painted, then the rest of the wooden supports for the backscene can be added.

Sector plate works very well, and is a great space saver, this one is crude but it works. there is a small nail visible in the second picture, this stops the plate falling off the board, it also makes the alignment to the edge road easy, the other roads are done by eye, there is no locking mechanism, its stiff enough currently not to need one.

point operation is currently manual, given there is only two of them this will probably stay the case, basically because i forgot to drill the holes for motors. I may have a go at retro fitting some, not sure yet.

[leopard]

three things.

firstly, as always best laid plans etc. no space in the car to take this south, so no more work till i get back.

secondly some of the track is going to be lifted, specifically to have point motor holes drilled, should be a ten minute job, including relaying the track

thirdly, if yuo look at the last picture, of the goods yard, a few things become apparent, there are only two roads, there is no space for a goods shed and there is the space for a third track. as such a third road is possibly going to get laid. I have a third Hornby point, and I think its right hander though. have to check.

its a choice between three goods roads (avoiding using the sector plate for shunting) and an unloading platform. have to wait and see.

due to the first problem this will all have to wait a while though.

bah humbug.

[leopard]

ok back from humbug holidays..

paid a visit to the wakefield model centre, again, I now have a big bag of ballast, a starter signal, some embossed brick stuff a small signal box and a pack of people.

finished gluing the cork down, and the superquick platform has been sawn down to size (I decided to use it after all) and has been glued in place.

the rails are part painted, well the platform road is painted along with its approach. ballast is laid along this bit as well.. but I discovered the lemon juice squeezy bottle has been binned.. so the ballast is yet to be glued down.

but things moving on. hope to do a few more pics this week once I've got the glue to work.

buildings not being fixed down as yet, got to add the lights first.

the signal is assembled, but awaiting painting. it will be non functional mostly since I lack a drill bit small enough to clear the holes. but it was only cheap so I may fix this later. but frankly this I can live with.

[80064]

Great stuff! I love this micro layouts, they are genuis! Send it to Carl at http://carendt.us/index.html and see if it gets included.

I like the sector-plate idea with the station, gives a feeling of depth to the whole shelf. Well done!

[leopard]

I may send it off, when it looks a bit better.

now have the track ballasted alongside the station platform, and glued down. I tried to do a pic but the flash objected to the wet liquid. but I dare say this has seriously fixed the platform in place.

also got the signal painted, sort of (No green paint), the signal box is brown (mostly).

job for tomorrow, assuming the ballast has set (if not the day after) is a dark colour wash over the ballast & weathering the sleepers.

not had ballasted track in years, looks good. once its set solid I can move on to the task of infilling the goods yard area and painting etc.

also converted both my four wheel coaches to OO (back from the EM I converted them to, from OO.. lifes complicated) well I say converted, more a case of finding the wheelsets and using them.

nice to see them alongside the platform they were bought for, finally.

also discovered I need more paints to make the people look decent, a fleshy tone would be a good idea for a start.

[leopard]

piccys


Looking towards the sector plate


and looking the other way


Looking down the platform


overview of the station


Station from ground level.

Overall I'm reasonably pleased with the track, painted in 'rust' then ballasted, ballast glued down. today the track gained a darker brown/black wash to tone it down somewhat. been to many depots but never yet seen orange track this looks better.

some of the ballast has had a dark wash as well. the rest will follow and then some of the ballast will get dry brushed.

this also shows the part finished signal box in lightly weathered 'wood' and the new signal.

station positioning makes fitting the two coaches very easy. the area in the foreground will eventually be a grassy slope, a gentle one, possibly with a tree or two and a small shunters hut inset with a little retaining wall. it will obscure the view of the station slightly but I think it will look ok.

the wires will be painted then hidden.

slow going but its getting there.

[leopard]

more progress, piccies tomorrow when the glues dried and hopefully the support clamps have been removed. two changes, one major one minor.

the minor one is more track painting and ballasting around the tunnel mouth and the painting starting in the goods yard.

the biggy. glued the retaining wall behind the station in place on two new supports. but then fixed the brick plastic cover in place, and fixed some buttresses in place. also a home made arch for the tunnel entrance. modelled to look like a bridge and not a tunnel.

trains can't be run round, so they will leave with the loco pushing. the idea is there is a turning triangle just beyond the bridge.. (fiction but it works) hence the bridge effect.

this now seriously looks better, had a layout with track painted before, even had some of it ballasted,but this is the first 'back scene' hides the fiddle yard nice and well. also ballasted upto the wall behind the platforms, just waiting for all that mess to dry.

of course the wall needs painting, its in a briskish red plastic but def needs paint and weathering. of course this means getting some brick red paint at some point.

[leopard]

Looking down past the unfinished signal box towards the tunnel entrance


Wall behind the station platform


Closeup of the arch.. built brick by brick, not as bad as it sounds though this is a tad messy


overview showing the new wall and general layout

[leopard]

ok, the wall is now structurally complete, extending past the tunnel and half way down the goods area. with ballast in place (basically to hold the foot of the wall in place).

I've decided (partly for effect and partly since I ran out of the plastic used for the wall) that the end section will be a warehouse frontage, with a small loading platform and canopy, it will hold two small covered vans and allow the front of the siding to hold two more.

essentially the wooden uprights here allow the building to be inset enough to provide space for the small platform, it will be modelled with the doors shut (since the sector plate is behind them) hope to get the material to make the decking this week, as well as the stuff to make the bridge by the station entrance.

I've decided to drop the superquick station building, its too big for the station really, and given the nature of the layout a smaller, grubbier halt type building is needed. I may have a go at designing and building this myself, but something like the PECO station building in general layout. this also allows the approach road to be lifted to match the platform height.

also got some polystyrene stuck down opposite the platforms, just need to get some filler on it to smooth it out etc.

also realised the other day I've not actually run anything on this layout as yet. have to sort the controller out and see how well it actually works. though not with the little shunter which doesn't do slow speed, hoping to find a small LNER locomotive for this layout, an 0-4-4T or similar.

the larger layout is progressing on paper... and will require the current yard to be lifted, and relocated. ho hum. but that will be LNER as well so this will become a DC controlled test area for stuff prior to DCC conversion, hence it will find a home even when the larger one is complete