Why Not Plan A Fun 0-16.5 Budget Layout?

[Mountain]

Keep it small and portable with an oval of track. Something around 2ft wide and 5 to 8ft long. (I have found 7ft to be ideal for me and I reccomend about 7 to 8 ft for passing loops). Use old 00 gauge locos, rolling stock and track etc. A yard length of track will turn 180° on a 2ft board in a single piece. The rest of the track can be whatever you have spare and cheap. As long as it works and does the job it fits the bill.
Locos do need a short wheelbase. The Hornby 0-4-0's are ideal. Tension lock wide type couplings work well if one only uses a single hook at one end of each vehicle and removes the hook from the other end.

It is a fun concept where anything goes. Make it wild and wacky, or make it a believeable concept. It is up to you. Just keep it cheap, small and fun and you can't go wrong.

Now go build ...

[Mountain]

Interesting.... I like to hear more!

[Mattc6911]

Hopefully getting something along these lines up and running over the winter. It gets a bit Baltic out in the workshop where the OO layout SHOULD be progressing so SWMBO has signed off on a small plank in the dining room running along on top of some low drawer units so will have about 8' by about 18" to play with. Got some O 16.5 track, couple of points, some second hand rolling stock and a couple of buildings stashed away, oh and some smallbrooke kits from last Christmas I've yet to build. Thinking an end to end shunting puzzle. But atmo I'm spending any spare time recovering photos for peeps so its all on the back burner lol

Soon though SOON I tell ya

Cheers

Matt

[Mountain]

Hopefully getting something along these lines up and running over the winter. It gets a bit Baltic out in the workshop where the OO layout SHOULD be progressing so SWMBO has signed off on a small plank in the dining room running along on top of some low drawer units so will have about 8' by about 18" to play with. Got some O 16.5 track, couple of points, some second hand rolling stock and a couple of buildings stashed away, oh and some smallbrooke kits from last Christmas I've yet to build. Thinking an end to end shunting puzzle. But atmo I'm spending any spare time recovering photos for peeps so its all on the back burner lol

Soon though SOON I tell ya

Cheers

Matt

Should be good. Which Smallbrook loco kits did you end up with? I have a few unmade loco kits myself.
If you give yourself a few extra inches in width at the ends of the layout you can make a lovely oval in that size along with a passing loop etc so you can sit back and watch the trains go by...
Mind you, shunting layouts are fun in themselves. It will be good to see what you come up with. Design it for fun and you can't go wrong.

[Mattc6911]

I've got ETNA, JUNO, ZEUS, ODIN and the rail car NG de layout Drome? Should be good fun to build. Negotiations were hard and space grudgingly given so dont want to push my luck I'm sure a close eye will be kept and regular measurements taken to make sure no extra space is taken But actually I'll be quite happy with a bit of shunting, although I am thinking of possibly slipping a traverse on one end and as this will be removable I'm not counting it in my space a location

Cheers
Matt

[Mountain]

I also have Odin and Juno. Waiting to be built. Also have two Thor's and two different diesels waiting. The problem I have is I already have three locos built and not enough coaches or waggons as yet, so the waggons and coaches take priority. Well, actually getting the layout running comes first and then couplings of the ones already made, and then comes more waggons and coaches...then scenery and finally extra locos. That is the plan so far! I tend to alter plans as I go along!
I like the look of the diesel railcar and the trams. If I get to extend to a third board, I could make some overhead and have some trams...

[Mountain]

How about this for some modelling inspiration....

https://youtu.be/O8nTquXf4sM

[Emettman]

I have my 0-16.5 loco up and running, complete to crew and couplings.

It has proportional 2.4ghz radio control, but the drive turned out with too high a top speed at first attempt, so I had to add in a reducing gear.
But there was room to do that without nightmares! I could get to love the more roomy boilers, tanks and cabs of 0-16.5.

I wondered if it was too broad for its gauge but, on checking, I found the Vale of Rheidol locos have a width over four times their gauge and this is just on three.
Behind is the Faller Hit Train O scale coach, still on its 32mm gauge wheels.

Photo more blurry than I thought.
Will try again later.

Chris.

[Mountain]

I have my 0-16.5 loco up and running, complete to crew and couplings.

Chris.

That looks fantastic. (I shortened the quote a bit so this post isn't too long).
It should be easy to fit a 00 gauge chassis to it even if you have to use smaller wheels. Have you been on the Vale of Rheidol Railway? The narrowness of the gauge is 1'11½" which may seem narrower then most, but it was used due to the sharpness of the curves needed to hug the mountain contours further up the line. Also it made sense as there were many users of the gauge including it being one of the main gauges used by the British government in ammunition factories along with trench warfare supply trains of WW1. It is slightly puzzling why they didnt make it half an inch wider to be 2ft, but this could be so that other countries would expect it to be 2ft and try to use their own locos on the lines during a war situation? Though if this was the case, the thought behind this predates WW1 by some 15 years approx.
Back to the model. Your loco is amazing, though my attention is drawn to the coach. It has good potential as even if it needs cutting down in width and slightly in height to fit my loading gauge (Which at the moment is non existent but it needs to be roughly similar to most of my other coaches so it does not look too out of place).

[Emettman]

my attention is drawn to the coach..

To me, the verandas appear cramped so I am currently thinking, if I can get another coach, is to make a three bogie articulated set with one single central veranda, making the outside ends plain.
I have seen pictures which make the ides not totally unreasonable.


Aside: on totally unreasonable, I stumbled on this, heretofore totally unknown to me.
http://haylingbillyheritage.org/engines ... ng-island/

Chris

[Mountain]

my attention is drawn to the coach..

To me, the verandas appear cramped so I am currently thinking, if I can get another coach, is to make a three bogie articulated set with one single central veranda, making the outside ends plain.
I have seen pictures which make the ides not totally unreasonable.


Aside: on totally unreasonable, I stumbled on this, heretofore totally unknown to me.
http://haylingbillyheritage.org/engines ... ng-island/

Chris

Have you seen what they did when they converted 4wheel coaches with verandas into bogie coaches on the Corris Railway? One of these conversions now lives on the Tal-Y-Llyn Railway. I've travelled on it about 15 years ago.

Just to say that I dont think I'd like to travel in the inspectors saloon if a driver was heavy handed with buffering up to another vehicle! It does go to say though that there seems to be a prototype for everything!

[Mountain]

One of the joys that I have found with a freelance scratchbuilding approach info 0-16.5 modelling is that it is not too difficult to find items which are ideal for modelling purposes. Some things I would not even expect that they could be used had I not modelled in this slightly larger scale and gauge. Often I tend to completely bypass model railway commercialism altogether as I find things to suit the purpose from non model railway backgrounds which are ideal for such a purpose. The main feature of this aspect of modelling is in making waggons. Chassis either come from 00 gauge wagons or bogies, or (Depending on the purpose and design of the waggon in mind) can be scratchbuilt usually quite easily.
Locomotives are probably the largest challenge along with coaches but they need not be too difficult to end up with a finished 7mm narrow gauge product. It all depends on how you go about it and how much work you want to give yourself. It goes without saying that the more work you are prepared to put in the better the results will be, even if the attempt is a failure for now, as every step is a learning curve to success, so do not think that any failed attempt has not been worth the effort you have put in. Some attempts at building that I've tried have not worked. But had I not tried I would not have known that or found out why they didnt work! It all helps in the general knowhow and methods you can learn as you discover the joys of making your own items.
Most items you can make can be converted from a donor 00 gauge item. This is generally the easiest method. Countless attempts have taken place in the past it converting cheaply obtained 0-4-0 shunters which usually come from Hornby into nice little narrow gauge locomotives. It goes without saying (As the expression goes) that there are also some lovely body kits to fit these locos, though naturally it is cheaper to scratchbuild if you can. I was going to suggest that by scratchbuilding the results can be more individualistic, but as even kit built locos built to a freelance design can easily be altered if desired, even if several builders choose the same kit and all make them in isolation, the results will be very individualistic indeed. I love this individualism to modelling which can be missing when following prototypes where most models built will either look like the prototype or the builder has failed. With freelancing who is to say your model does not look like the real thing? As long as you make it look plausible and that it makes sense. For example, if one has converted a model from a body that does not have outside cylinders and the chassis you have used does, then add some pipes to make the model look plausible. The same can be said where pipes need removing if they head towards cylinders which dont exist on the chassis of the model. (This is one of the largest failings of two models from the Peco 009 body kits that have been sold over the years that were designed to fit Graham Farish chassis). To make a loco look right, just go through the model and look at a few prototypes and you should start to get a feel for what does what on the prototype and how your model should generally look so it makes sense. I'm not saying a carbon copy here. We are freelancing. We just need something plausible.

[Mountain]

The Easiest 7mm Narrow Gauge Conversion Kits (From 00) That I've Come Across So Far.

http://www.smallbrookstudio.co.uk/commu ... 687095.jpg

This kit by Smallbrook Studios is probably one of the easiest ways to start in 7mm narrow gauge modelling. The kit is the 0e "Ceto" which is a case of removing the cab and chimney of the donor locomotive and building the new cab and using the new chimney provided in the kit.
An ideal Christmas present to give oneself.
For those who have the GWR body style here is a similar kit which is made for this body. It is the 0e kit known as Aura.

http://www.smallbrookstudio.co.uk/commu ... 506959.jpg

Both just are simple to build and are reasonably priced considering the prices that other manufacturers sometimes charge.
For waggons, probably the easiest to build type are kits like this:-

http://www.smallbrookstudio.co.uk/commu ... 952703.jpg

And this:-

http://www.smallbrookstudio.co.uk/commu ... 952795.jpg

Or this:-

http://www.smallbrookstudio.co.uk/commu ... 952919.jpg

All kits are reasonably priced. The waggon body kits are designed to fit Dapol chassis (Though I've cut and filed other chassis to fit in the past when building a coach I have. I split a shorter chassis in half and glued it in as two seperate halves).

.

[Mountain]

I have my 0-16.5 loco up and running, complete to crew and couplings.

It has proportional 2.4ghz radio control, but the drive turned out with too high a top speed at first attempt, so I had to add in a reducing gear.
But there was room to do that without nightmares! I could get to love the more roomy boilers, tanks and cabs of 0-16.5.

I wondered if it was too broad for its gauge but, on checking, I found the Vale of Rheidol locos have a width over four times their gauge and this is just on three.
Behind is the Faller Hit Train O scale coach, still on its 32mm gauge wheels.

Photo more blurry than I thought.
Will try again later.

DSC01037.JPG

Chris.

I've just had my Christmas present early. It is a green version of your yellow coach and I'm currently working on it to make it narrower and shorter (In height). All is going well so far.

[Mountain]

I have my 0-16.5 loco up and running, complete to crew and couplings. It has proportional 2.4ghz radio control, but the drive turned out with too high a top speed at first attempt, so I had to add in a reducing gear.But there was room to do that without nightmares! I could get to love the more roomy boilers, tanks and cabs of 0-16.5.I wondered if it was too broad for its gauge but, on checking, I found the Vale of Rheidol locos have a width over four times their gauge and this is just on three.
Behind is the Faller Hit Train O scale coach, still on its 32mm gauge wheels.
DSC01037.JPG
Chris.

I have seen something... Would this be close to your loading gauge as potential for conversion? It is a Postman Pat train. It seems to be of a similar size to the Faller coaches but I've not measured them. If anything it may be a tiny bit big then small.
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/6264170