Starting again, in N, again.

[Alexander Court]

What you can do for inside buildings on the cheap and easy, is print of pictures of inside buildings and glue them within your building.
If you think you will struggle with scale, use Microsoft word. Put a sheet of A4 paper against the monitor and make work space the same size with zoom function. Then you can use model people, by putting against the screen, to make the picture size the right size until happy.

Thanks. I'll remember that for if I ever manage to obtain cartridges for the second hand printer I got in a charity shop today xD

[Alexander Court]

So for the plan I've tried to consider money, compactness, time I'd get to run the layout and so forth. From that I looked back at my old layout Tonglington Vale which featured the village of Muddleston of the Muddleston and Siddington light railway but was named Tonglington Vale after the massive hill which dominated one end of the layout and was home to Tonglington Hall. Here's a pic of it at an early stage (god I miss it):

27.JPG (78.94 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Anyhoo, I based my plan off of that layout, using the track I had to the best of my abilities. the TV layout above was roughly 8 foot by 4 foot so in N gauge I halved it to make it 125cm by 62cm or just a smidge bigger than 4 foot by 2 foot. As you can see its just Muddleston, no Vale of Tonglington, there is a single track line (how I originally envisaged the light railway anyways) and some things haven't been included, like the fuelling road which was nice for photos but annoying in operation. This plan generally uses one to two locos 'in steam' as there is a passing loop made of the two platform roads but the sidings lay within that so its fine if theres two passenger trains running but if there is a freight it generally would take the inner route in the loop. The idea is that grass, ballast, track and roads will be done on the board and everything else removable to allow for storage or changing buildings to allow 009.

Muddleston N 125 by 62cm 800 pix.jpg (120.73 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Thanks,
Alex

[Alexander Court]

Time for another update on my planning. I've since decided to use the circle of curves I have for a 009 project (yes I know all the bunf about sleeper spacings) and have started trying to design an N gauge layout I can leave up in the spare/privy room if I can remove the bunkbeds from in there and put them in the landlords shed. I designed a new plan that is 1 meter long, 40cm wide and then would need another half a meter for a fiddleyard where I would have 45cm long casettes which can receive trains, turn them around and send them back, I'd have preferred a reverse loop but I'd rather have a simpler set up for storing trains off scene and to spend less on it too. So in keeping with my railway companies theme I could make the station Upper Muddleston, this is the plan I came up with anyways:

Upper Muddleston

100cm by 40cm N gauge terminus.jpg (106.54 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

The loop can hold two bogie coaches, a cassette will hold a tender loco and two bogie coaches, or a tender loco, 5 wagons and a brakevan. The idea is that a goods train can arrive while a passenger train is in the station and it can go into the bay platform and shunt into the kick backs. There is the factory and I'll have a stables behind it for dray horses, I didn't have the ability to mark on a cattle dock alongside the bay platform. Theres also a goods shed on the factory road and behind it would be a small bus depot. By the station there is a road leading away which has a corner shop on one side and a pub on the other, the scenic break would be covered by a road overbridge. I'd need to squish in a signal box, water tower and coal stage at the front of the layout between tthe sheds and the exit to the fiddleyard. I'd love to get started I just don't have the wood.

That's all for now, need to resize some pics of my test set up of it to post.
Alex

[Alexander Court]

So in the meanwhile I took down the bunkbeds out of the spare room and cleaned the room up, its not a terrible space now. I think I am ok allowing myself more space, so my layout can be 150cm by 40cm and then the cassette's would be making it into an L shape. I didn't change the terminus design as I like dt5he way I planned it already, I didn't want to make the loop larger just because I could. I moved the scenic break but now it will not have a backscene, at least now I won't be able to see easily from the scenic into the fiddleyard and complain about seeing the yard, I'll be able to look onto the scenic from the yard. In the top right corner is now a farm/manor house and where the dray horse stables will be, and on the bottom right and along the front are the ruins of Tonglington Abbey.

Upper Muddleston and Tonglington Abbey

150cm by 40cm N gauge terminus forum.jpg (53.26 KiB) Viewed 1865 times

Alex

[Alexander Court]

So baby number 2 is going to be here in a few weeks and housing is still an uncertain future really, so I've been trying to think about where I am going trainwise, in between visits from family and whatnot and I have been busy helping Amelia enjoy where we live and doing hospital trips and I've had less and less time for trains.

HOWEVER,

Amelia seems to love the model trains, in fact she runs to the room I keep the trains packed away shouting "choo choos" even more now. I have tried to use the N gauge with her but little hands like to try and pull the track off of the table and the trains are a bit too delicate. Therefor I have elected to surrender my N gauge ambitions (for now at least) and will put the majority of what I have acquired up for sale. I'll keep some of the rolling stock and my 4f which is in no condition to sell and enough track to run my 009 stuff on.

With that in mind I guess I'll have to dig out my 00 stuff and see if she handles that any better....and if I ever build another layout it'll have to have a bus depot. Why? You might ask, well, Amelia just happens to love buses as well, which is great cause when we head into the village there are lots bringing tourists round the ring of Kerry every day.

So this is the end of this thread I guess for now, incase I get in the mood to make more potential N plans in future. I'm like cheap cellotape rip offs, I stick to things for a little while but then peel away.

Alex

[Bigmet]

Alexander, congratulations on an addition to your family. We've all been there, family life, the need to earn a crust and find and maintain a place to live, and don't whatever you do fail to attend to your wife; altogether this means some things have to give. The modelling interest will probably have to find most of its expression for now in aspects that engage the children's interests - wherever that may lead.

But all things pass, and in time who knows what you may be able to do? For now, without regret, concentrate on family life.

[Alexander Court]

Charlotte is less than a month off of being a year old, Amelia is nearly three, our housing situation is still uncertain but the landlord wants his house back and my family want us to move back to the UK and try make a life over there. I've stripped my 00 layout back to the board and have to offload a box of buildings and a tub of trains to half my collection, I've taken N back up and made a small project diorama which some photos will show as the setting, though i threw it away and sold all my N track and bought a kato V5 oval. So I shall resume this thread with my planning of my next layout until it gets to the point where I can change to a construction thread, and maybe the odd photo of some stock, but I think I shall have to start with an n gauge workbench thread. But for now here's a few shots of one of my latest acquisitions.

A.jpg (46.97 KiB) Viewed 1285 times

B.jpg (44.73 KiB) Viewed 1285 times

C.jpg (87.35 KiB) Viewed 1285 times

D.jpg (88.69 KiB) Viewed 1285 times

Alex