A universal miniature '00' roundy-roundy

[Dad-1]

This has been at the back of my mind for several years. Dave with his fourways and Beynac
with his green bump, or BRRR are exploring the limits, but I was thinking of a universal
circle that will run virtually every commercially available locomotive.
Several reasons, one I'm running out of space and people are always wanting the smallest
practical running roundy layout. Then I've always fancied the miniature multi scene as Dave
will be exploiting with fourways.
As yet I don't think I have enough track, but planning on a 2nd radius set track circle. I want
divided into 3 separate scenes.
One other thing that's always bugged me is the lack of fall beneath track level datum. Most
start with a flat board and create upwards landscape only. Helping with my buddies fully DCC
sound layout at Harmans Cross (On the Swanage Line) it struck me more than usual. What I
want to do is have one 120 degree segments ground level well below the track datum. I also
fancy the actual board being in the round, with the track offset slightly so the distance betwen
rail lines and edge vary segment by segment.
Why now ? It was as cheap to buy a full 4' x 8' sheet of ply than get a half sheet where I need
4' x 2' for a job. That means I'll have 4' x 6' spare .... it needs to be put to a good use !!

Comments, this is up for discussion as I can't start immediately.

Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

There's one problem with a circular layout, it takes up just as much storage space as a square one. Having said that, I really enjoyed making my circular Christmas Tree layout in 009, which had just over half of the circle on view. A curved backscene "dark sky" passed in front of the tree trunk and curved away to the rear. We obviously have the same reaction to a board with track on it, we have to add scenery. My immediate reaction to building a circular baseboard with the capacity to have a dropped section would be to start with two sheets of 50mm Kingspan insulation cut away the area for the dropped section and bond them together. Then make a very thin ply profile board to go around the outside. Again bonded on with something like "No more nails" It's difficult to beat for lightness, and being intended to go in roofs and walls fairly resistant to damp. Providing the power connections, and any other wiring involves the 1/76th version of trenching and backfilling, or you can try a bit of "pipe jacking" from the edge to a small pit using a sharpened bicycle spoke as a boring rod.
Putting the track off centre would break up the symmetry ok but at the expense of making it slightly larger overall. As long as the offset was parallel to one edge I suppose my first point would come to the rescue, it would only be larger in one direction. The overall height with scenery added might be a problem, bonding it to a sheet of 4mm ply and losing the bottom layer of Kingspan might help reduce the overall height at the cost of introducing some extra weight, I suppose it all depends on where you have to store it. Remember that clause three of Parkinson's Law states that "Possessions expand to fill available storage."

[Dad-1]

While size of diameter is not overly critical it becomes compounded by adding overall height
through a dropped segment. The question is how deep to get either a culvert, or even road
running under the track. That needs to be added to the back-scene height which in my opinion
needs to be at least 5", or 125 mm. Certainly I want to be within a 300 mm overall height.

There are design considerations of having a suitable catch fencing on the raised track to
prevent a £250 sound locomotive being knocked off the track, down an embankment, off the
board, off the table the layout's on, to land heavily on the floor !! I know from experience a
board of this size will get the odd knock with associated movement.

Because I'll have the spare ply that will be my main construction material. Electrics no problem
as the dropped third will have it's power plug and feeds from the two thirds that'll have loads of
clearance underneath.
My plan is to have the dividing walls the full depth. I don't like corners so the inner angle will have
some curved card infill. This will leave a central gap into which it may be possible to have a lighting
rig plug in offering individual lights for each segment.

I am not intending to have a station, at the very best a small 'halt', the reason is that anything except
Hornby shorty toy coaches will not fit closely to a platform edge on second radius curves. That means
it'll probably only ever see freight - to anyone knowing me that should be obvious.

For storage I'm even thinking of hanging from the garage roof, with hooks engaging in the bottom
edge of those segment dividing walls. That would have all the scenic side hanging upside down and
reducing dust settlement.

The old brain is working ...... particularly as to what i might have to buy.

Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

...and another one who just can't resist the scenery. Welcome to the club Dave. I like the combination with the inglenook idea.

[Beynac]

A cardboard roundy-roundy layout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40Hs8GfnfZ4

[Dad-1]

This has temporarily ground to a standstill.
The full sheet of ply for use on a storage bin became a sheet of
Stirlingboard, thick, rough, heavy, not the thing to base a lightweight
small roundy-roundy on.
The spare is being used on my shed. This means until I purchase half
or a full sheet of 6 mm ply it's on hold, but still a plan I intend to work
through. Still spending too much time replacing images, about 1000
now sorted, 2000? still to go ?

Geoff T.

[Kentishman]

Evening Geoff,
I've just come across your thread and the point you're making regards levels. You may be interested in this layout, I'm afraid that I didn't note its name, which won the 'best in show' at Erith in 2013. The idea behind the layout is that it showcases loco's that were all built in Britain and were exported to a number of countries across the globe. So each loco will pass through a South African scene, Australian (I think, but may be wrong) and a Canadian one. I believe the scale is 7mm narrow gauge of 16.5mm.