6 x 4 Spiral

The title of this thread is a bit misleading. I have been given permission by Mrs C48NSW to build a 6 x 4 so this finding an interesting solution has been exorcising me. Wallace Creek (my other layout) is subject to cold weather (or rather I am) so a small winter layout that can be hidden behind a wardrobe is required.

So this is 6 x 4 but would require two additional single track fiddle yard extensions at A and B (if you want a longer train that 30 inches). The line to A rises and crosses the line to B on a bridge.

A passenger service can operate from either end to the station where it terminates (or can work through). A small siding sees limited van traffic whilst the quarry (or cement works) sees daily trains.
There is then a regular flow of freight services travelling A to B.
The hidden track (B) is hidden behind the quarry cliff face.
The Wallace Creek rolling stock would be used o this but it might just be an excuse to buy a railcar for passenger operations.

Attached files

 

Love Tassie! Did the Strahan Railway whilst I was there and saw a couple of freights - mind you that was 8 or 9 years ago!Thanks for the heads up on the curves.
Dave

 

Well I've started but having set the baseboard (which is one of Mrs Wells art canvasses which has a small hole in it thus scuppering her painting) up on the just under 6 X 4 dining table I realise the A and B extensions may not be particularly feasible in the space I have. Still if the up and over line becomes an additional siding then a terminating passenger station with a cement works/quarry facility still looks viable.
Thanks for the thoughts on the Railcar Chris. Not a big fan of those CPH units to be honest. If anything it will be a 622/722 unit but in the interim probably 48+carriage+brake van.
So far I have painted the baseboard a uniform colour. I need to experiment with whether I can put the track on the canvas but it has some give so I will either pact the back of the canvas with foam (to keep it lightweight for transit and storage) or possibly lay the track on a bed of balsa wood glued to the canvas. Now I've started the paint is taking an age to dry! Better take the Xmas tree, which is shedding pine needles at an alarming rate, down.
LATER - The soon to be ex cat has just walked all over the drying canvas.........

 

Well I have laid out the contents of the scrap track box on the baseboard along with some new points and have made a few changes to the layout. There will be a third loop at the station now and the up and over line is no more becoming a third siding in the quarry area. I think I can bend the track in the hidden section around the bottom side of the layout to get a good train length - 5 wagons + loco. This means the layout can fit on the dining table and no additional extensions are needed.
I experimented with a couple of lengths of balsa wood to support the canvas. Basically the canvas is tuat over an outer frame and this is supported by a small inner frame which actually sits back from the canvas. So I jammed the balsa between the canvas and the support frame and that seems to be a good solution. The centre of the layout will not hold any track so will not be supported - at the moment at least. Photos will follow when I can find the charger for the camera.
There are two schools of thought re the setting. Mowarra Junction (on my Wallace Creek layout) is the junction for a freight only branch to Timbillica Railhead (in reality it forms the continuous loop around the Wallace Creek layout) so photographing a train leaving Mowarra Junction and then arriving at Timbillica Railhead has an attraction (or at least it did when Mrs C48NSW suggested that I should build something completely different favouring a UK 1970s layout with a coal mine. That suggestion rather blew me out of the water, mainly because it would need a whole different set of rolling stock and one of her beefs is that I keep buying rolling stock for Wallace Creek.
Still having been a spotter in the BR blue days its not without its attractions - small industrial shunter, 16 ton mineral wagons, Class 24 and Class 37 freight locos and a Class 105 DMU. Well I don't have to make the decision right now - more a scenery thing but I am tempted.

The cat is still intact for those wondering...........
Dave

 

I think I may have just claimed biggest modelling foul up of 2018 so far. Mind you I'm pretty sure I'll outdo my self by 31 Dec 2018, but this was a real corker.
So I acquired some balsa wood to provide the backing for the canvas and was fitting it onto the back prior to gluing when it suddenly occurred to me that the layout was 12 inches short.
"Oh drat (or something similar)", I uttered "what a calamity (or something similar)"
So its back to the drawing board! Below is the 5x4 latest version. Long enough to operate loco + 4 - 6 wagons. Some shunting interest. Still debating whether this will be the inside section of Wallace Creek or a UK layout.
The baseboard is taking shape slowly but I think my concept is working - rigid enough and lightweight.

Attached files

 

Well after a bit of hit and miss I now have a 5 x 4 layout. The original spiral layout went early and the layout is similar in concept to the one above but with a different arrangement with regard to the sidings. I will probably build up the scenery as an industrial facility which could accommodate both UK and Australian rolling stock.

Attached files

 

Continuing this thread even though the layout has started but has no name. Godforsaken industrial estate is the theme and the loose link to my Wallace Creek layout is that its a stub off the main line somewhere just north of Mowarra Junction. Still thinking about getting some Uk stock to operate this layout as well.

Attached files

 

Still under consideration and still depending on what I decide for traffic to and from the two main sets of sidings. I suspect some of the buildings will be plonk on Skaledale type buildings (which as the layout has to be stored upright is a necessity) but I may (and accepting I am a dreadful scratch builder) try making some basic big square ugly structures to occupy the area in front of the fiddle yard and centre of the layout. The grassy section you see in the picture is meant to represent a bit of disused rail infrastructure and I may add some detritus to make it look a bit more godforsaken.

 

Thanks Pete- I will check them out. Because I am a bit clumsy and these will all have to be stored somewhere in a box, I am thinking about pasting to offcuts of wood or possibly making the base structures out of balsa wood. I also have somewhere a plastic sheet of corrugated iron that might prove useful.
The look I am going for will be massive buildings dwarfing the railway.
Hoping to finish ballasting and initial base scenic work around the edges today and then will have a short operating session.
D

 

This layout has developed into Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate and I will start a thread in members layouts sometime soon.

 

Spot on Ron - the working name for my new layout had been "godforsaken industrial estate" but when we passed the sign the other day on the A1 the new name for the layout was adopted!