River Dee Meats ... My first foray into O Gauge

The third baseboard has been built and erected. It is 3mm lower than the existing two but that will be remedied once the cork goes down under the rails.

I have changed the design slightly by adding a curve at the left hand end and a road bridge, aka scenic break. This curve will lead on to a small fiddle yard. I'm using the Lima set track curves as a template for this. The Lima curve track has a 30"radius radius which will suit all my locos and rolling stock.

Now to get some track down...

Cheers, Gary.

 

No Ron, no vegans were harmed or will be harmed in the making of this layout !

Yes Pete, hopefully plenty of operating potential. I can see a short train enter, loco run around train, detach brake van and park in short siding then shunt such wagons into the appropriate spots. during this phase of operations, the empty cattle vans will need to be collected, salt van moved about and the loaded meat wagons taken off scene....

Now, back to the base board...

I wasn't happy that the third base board had no moulding on the front edge, so I had to fix that !

This is the existing moulding on the 1st and 2nd base board...

The difference between the two basebaords, baseboard 2 and baseboard 3...

A strip of MDF was glued and nailed to the baseboard edge and rasped down to the required height...

Then the moulding was applied to match the existing, or at least close enough !

I'll have to sand back the existing moulding and treat all three the same, probably just paint the frame and mouldings black !

As they say, the devil is in the detail....

Cheers, Gary.

 

I have not yet decided on couplers yet. Maybe you could advise me on the bets fit for my rolling stock. Which ever way, it needs to be simple and easily obtainable !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Oh, as for the radius of the curve, the old Lima Class 33 runs around it easy !

I'll wait on the couplers to be decided upon in the future. No rush into that just yet as I still have a layout to build !

Thank you Chris for your insight into the varieties available.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Chris for the extra info regarding radius. I have also read elsewhere that the Dapol Pannier will run on a minimum radius of 1020mm (40"). So I will look at what can be done to accommodate a larger sweep At the moment, 30" (760mm) is going to be two tight for other locos, but will be fine for what I currently have. Now I'll just play around with my track plan before laying track so I can get this right for the future.

Thanks again.

Cheers, Gary.

 

I printed out the track plan yesterday as a centre line diagram to save on ink. Now the fun of laying track will shortly begin...

Cheers, Gary.

 

When I got home from visiting my parents today (dad was taken to hospital yesterday) there was a parcel sitting on my verandah at the front door. It contained some goodies all the way from the UK !

My Parkside kits have arrived...

I better pull my finger out and get some track down soon !!

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Paul & Toto.

My dad is ok, considering he is 90 years of age, a few ailments tend to creep in...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Reading what York Paul has written about facing points, I looked at my layout track plan and had a rethink. Now being a branch line, I would always imagine that facing points would appear as they could never totally be avoided, but with a new track design, I have eliminated any facing points, except in the siding itself.



One thing I'll have to re-evaluate is the length of the headshunt on the lower right hand corner. Being only 24" long, it will mean that a Jinty and brakevan (or any single wagon) can be shunted back and forth, but if I intend repairing/detailing my old Lima 33, well, I doubt I'd have enough room for loco and wagon. The deciding factor that I am working with is the red lines on the plan above. These represent the joins in the base boards and something I don't want the points to bridge.

So, some constructive criticism is required from you chaps....

Cheers, Gary.

 

Okay, I have just measured out 24" (600mm) on the layout and the old Lima 33 and the BR brakevan I purchased off Kimbo fits quite easily ! Now using Chris's advice on adding an extension piece of 2" (50mm) between the points can also be accommodated, although not shown above with the series of points on the right hand side.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Once again, I have changed the track plan...

Utilising the track I have, I have created this variation of the above. Just some subtle changes, but it introduces another few angles to the scene. The abattoir building has become smaller and no wastes platform, just the main building and the cattle yard. The introduction of the platform/station, goods shed and loco facilities adds to the whole scene. Would be great to lengthen the sidings to the goods shed and engine facilities, but the 24" allocated seems to work ok.

Note that there is a gap between the two running lines. I found it difficult to manipulate short sections of track into the plan !



Now, if I was to shift the plan to the left a little to increase the goods siding and loco facilities, where would the best place to cut through a point be ??

Cheers, Gary.