Cowend NSW HO Scale Plank Layout

Once again another interruption to my big picture layout plans.I have another layout (Mt Yatala) under construction, but this is quite large, it will take a while to complete as has a large surface area. It is not something I can or want to rush. I do however, have at least a perceived need to have a third layout for exhibiting that would bring more variety if i am going to exhibit more.
I've had an idea for another shunting layout kicking around for a while, with the theme of the end of a cow, not the rump, but the end of life. In a bit of a contrived scenario the layout will roughly operate like this, A train will arrive consisting of a number of wagons, one of these will be a cattle wagon. This cattle wagon will be taken to the dairy siding. This wagon shall leave and return, "collecting" the cattle and taking them to an abattoir siding. A milk tanker will then go to the dairy siding. The tanker and empty cattle wagons will then leave. A refrigerated van will then appear and collect the goods. A covered van will then come and collect the last bits, maybe with a glue theme...
Quite a contrived scenario, but should allow for some interesting operations.
There will also be a passenger service, interrupting proceedings to add interest.
It is a short board, 500mm deep and only 1200mm long, this allows it to sit on the back seat of my car. To enable shunting of HO wagons in this space I have designed it to use a run-around track, a non-sceniced loop, also containing a fiddle yard. I got this idea from a shunting puzzle app with a loop option on one level.
This allows me save on some of the building, as I will be using the curved sections from Mt Yatala as well as the fiddle yard. The fiddle yard for Mt Yatala is longer than the board here, so I will have to add some extension pieces.
I like to do my planning the old school way, starting with measurements and a calculator, then moving to full scale mock up.
Here we have a full scale mock up on a few sheets of butchers paper stuck together with Peco point templates blu-tacked on. Some of the proposed buildings as well.
All on the floor of a motel room while I am away for work

Cheers
Tony

 

Construction is by my standard method of timber framing with ply top, all nail gunned and glued together for strength. Once I had worked out where the points needed to be i could get going with all the bracing, done in a few hours, got to use my new table saw too

Then putty all the holes and try out my latest garage sale purchase, an old Hitachi orbital sander. I do own a random orbital, but I got this in great condition for another task around the house where the rotation would be annoying, so this was a good test of the old-school sander.

Next step is to seal and paint all surfaces. In Sydney's climate wood need to be sealed, otherwise it will take up moisture, this can lead to mould, which if it's painted, will simply wipe off.
Cheers
Tony

 

Butcher's paper I guess is just a generic term here for large sheets, usually for craft purposes. Happy with the coincidence here

 

To seal the lower side of the board I wanted to use oil based enamel paint. Over the years I have found it to be harder wearing and more chip gradient resistant than acrylic water based paints. Found a tin of an eggshell blue house paint in my stash, will work very well. The extra drying time is worth the wait

The underneath surface is a gloss, that is what i had, it wipes off well. The top was the last use of my non-slip textured paint, a Norglass product designed for boats, also oil based, scenery sticks well to it.
This time I remembered to drill all the wiring holes in a stack before installing them, so all the holes line up nicely
Cheers
Tony

 

Thanks Gary. Having it painted makes it easy to mark and read notes, the contrast is very good.
The next step was to make the extension sections to make the front of the layout the same length as the fiddle yard.
Once again, my offset drill head got a workout in the tight spaces available here to put the dowels and connecting bolts in. 81 class loco for scale.

I painted these all black to save time, I could just hand them up and spray them, all sides done at the same time and 10 minutes between coats. Durability is excellent too.

Cheers
Tony

 

The pace here is a little bit deceptive as I have taken these photos over the past couple of weeks and only just getting around to posting about them now. That said, it is progressing reasonably quickly.
No, it is not an Auscision 81 on the bench, it is an SDS one. I don't see any reason to buy another one from another manufacturer, I'm perfectly happy with this one, and its time to stop accumulating and enjoy what i have more than waiting for the next loco all the time. This hobby seems to be bad for this.
The next task is to make the legs. I have had another time, money and space-saving moment here in that I have re-used the legs from Gundah Junction as the baseboards are the same width. As the lengths are different I have made new braces to fit the same holes. The legs and braces for Gundah Junction were originally oiled, this has proven problematic with mould, better than no coating, but still a problem. I have painted the braces for Cowend the same colour as the underside of the baseboard so there will be no issues mixing them up.
As long as i don't need to show both layouts simultaneously then there won't be a problem. Setting it up all upside down proved easier than the right way up.

Then check to see the right way...

Re-purposing the legs was made a lot easier with the right drill, the installer drill once again to the rescue, fitting in a place that would be impossible otherwise.

Cheers
Tony

 

Track laying time! Before I could do this i had to figure out how the points were going to be controlled. Manual points would save weight (important for an exhibition layout) and would be cheaper. They will require a bit more engineering to hide nicely into the layout (time is going to be a factor) and the end result is likely the controls to be either in the middle of the front or rear of the layout. I don't want to be standingvin the middle of the run-around loop all exhibition, and i don't want to always be in front of the layout to operate the points either, that would be too intrusive. A set of cranks to make the controls go to the side would also take a lot more engineering and time, more than i want to spend. My layout base is fairly low profile, Peco point motors are the chosen method under the track. I used for my last layout the extended pin ones with adaptor for the base board, rather than cutting big holes and attaching the motor directly to the track. I also could use the off the shelf switch made for these, I could have made my own switch, but I want this thing running by August next year, and time for the scenery is more important.
I am using a capacitor discharge unit again along with momentary toggle switches from Jaycar. This method works very reliably on my earlier layout, so I have repeated the process here.
This layout has been easy to lay tracks on as the main board doesn't actually contain a loop.

It's easier to see the track pattern emerging after all the tools are gone.

The black extension pieces have the end sleepers soldered to PCBs at each end of the board and the extension pieces. The track was attached in one long piece, then cut when soldered to the PCB sleepers.
Cutting the blank PCB board is always an issue. It is a fibreglass board with plain copper on one side and generally dulls hacksaw and scrolls blades very quickly. I used a different method this time which worked very well to cut it. For my 4" angle grinder they now make new thin black cutting discs for metal, instead of 2.5mm or so they are now 1mm. This means the discs might not last as long, but it is not wasting as much material. It was also very fast.
Station building for scale.

I mis counted the amount of track i had left, and am short one siding. I visited a model shop yesterday and bought the rest of the point motors, got distracted talking, and totally forgot one more piece of flex track, oops!
Cheers
Tony

 

Wiring time, it's so nice to just turn the layout upside down and do the work.
I am installing the switches, momentary centre off, for the point motors. Onto a thin sheet of aluminium recessed into the frame so the switches do not get bumped around in transit. Also installing the bus wires running under each track in colour coded fashion. Each section of track will have droppers soldered to it and attached to this wiring underneath.

To connect between modules I am using simple 6.25mm TS plugs and sockets. These are quite reliable and heavy duty for mechanical shocks too. They carry enough current for my requirements. They are also quite cheap. Each board finishes in a socket which is bracketed in. Separate jump wires will connect each module connected. This avoids any trailing wires which i have had under the layout before which tend to catch on everything. The only wiring i need between modules is for power, all the points are on the one board.
Even the extension boards receive the same treatment.

shown here with one of the jump wires attached.
Cheers
Tony

 

Well, summer and Christmas holidays have arrived and so has the opportunity to work on the layout. Today I got it to an operational stage, the wiring was completed and checked (remember to cut the joints in the conductive sleepers for board edges), and the first train has been run.
The wiring did not go the way I originally had in mind, but as I laid it I was always thinking of reducing the amount of weight of the whole layout, and that included the copper, and there is a bit of that under the layout.

There was one cold solder joint, but thanks to the colour and size coded wiring, fault finding was really quick. Strangely enough it was a joy to go through methodically and find the problem, usually things like that are quite frustrating.
The next tasks are to run a typical loco (73 or 47 class) with the selected wagons to test my track geometry, then track weathering, and building construction.
Cheers
Tony

 

Now that the layout is operational it is time to do testing before really making anything too permanent, making sure the geometry works and the sidings are long enough. The in-laws are here, so this can be a good time to quietly slip away and do some work without involving the noise of power tools to give my location away.
This layout is meant for small engine use so the 73 class shunter is in the middle of my expected size range. The siding on the right is tight for clearances once it is full, but it is only meant for short milk tankers and a bogie cattle wagon, maybe 2x 4 wheel cattle wagons but unlikely. A 40' flat wagon with 2 milk containers is likely not to fit, but that's a compromise that i'm happy with.
I have laid things out in a dummy form to get a sense of what building is correct and how much space I have versus what i should use.

It has been suggested and I agree that the 2 houses here are too far back and need a backyard, I was just a bit careless with placing them. I had intended to use another building, but it didn't look right. These two were built for my other under construction layout, but they might get pinched as ready made structures. This style of house is very common in the Newcastle area and there are lots more variations of these that i would like to try anyway.
The shed on the right hand side is not going to be used, it was just on the shelf awaiting a home. I am going to scratch-build something for there with its own loading platform, taking inspiration from the old Esbank milk siding building in Lithgow, the old meat building at St Leonards and another also demolished at Cowra.
The PC3 station to the left is the one for here, but I have a kit of one which will be easier to paint in the scheme I want, which is the turquoise colour used in the 70s and persisting into the 80s. I will also scratch build a platform for it, still tossing up whether a rail constructed one with a concrete top, or a brick edged one.
Along the rear track I will have a long, low relief building with platform(s). I have a few buildings to put together for this in quite a mash-up.
Making the building for the right hand siding is the next priority as well as weathering track and sleepers as this is easily done while the board is empty. Ballast, while tempting at the moment given the high temperatures will wait for other scenery.

Cheers
Tony

 

Hi Jim, the thought of half a road has crossed my mind, i need to find some pictures of well done versions of this to help convince me. Not all blocks in Oz are large, I live on about 750sqm, my Dad and where i grew up is on about 1200sqm, but plenty of those blocks are now being halved and a lot of new ones are 500sqm or less, older ones in the inner city are smaller.
And for Gary, here's shot of the front of the point switch-board, i had a bit of a whoops with with the router.

Cheers
Tony

 

Well, over the Christmas break I received one of the best presents a modeller can have, TIME!
The in-laws have been in town, and between lots of cooking for more people in the house and endlessly emptying the dishwasher I have managed to get some modelling done. This has been scratchbuilding a small goods shed. I have extensively kit-bashed quite a few buildings, but I don't think done one totally from scratch, I am using commercial windows and doors however.
This is first time I have really got to use my new mini T-Square, must say, I wish i bought it sooner.

It is the one with the orange top.
I then had to cut out lots of hole openings for windows and some doors, this has been done using a technique I picked up from Adam Savage's you-tube channel. Score the outer faces, then score diagonals. Re-do these diagonals full depth, doesn't matter if you press hard and it wanders, as long as the start is in the right spot, this is easy to do, and the end just has to intersect with the one from the other corner. Then fold in the four triangles to split them off, and you have a window that is the size you want it, and with very little extra trimming or filing.

Once i had the 4 walls done it was time to make the little platform at the track side. I was going to have this brick, but the brick styrene was a little too embossed on the rear and overall it was quite thin and not able to really support itself. So i built a plain styrene under-structure for it.

One this was built, the brick styrene went on really well.

Hoping i have enough corrugated stuff for the roof tomorrow.
Cheers
Tony

 

Today we had a reprieve from the 35+ degree run of days that we have been having of late here. I did manage some work on this building yesterday by moving my modelling materials into the house and the air conditioning. When it is 40 degrees outside, it feels like walking through an air fryer, and a garage that has 2 big single skin metal doors to it really becomes one with the outside temperature, the sort of conditions that allows ballast to dry quickly, but also allows paint to dry on the brush between the pot and the piece of work.
Until its final placement I am calling this building done, there are minor things like glazing, window treatments, signage and other greebelling that needs to be done.
Pretty happy with how it turned out, it has the architectural features I wanted, and it fits the size I have. The is certainly nothing at all like it on the market.

And from the side that most won't see, although I feel this is a bit of a shame, as I rather like it from this angle.

Now onto the platform and station building. That last photo has a station building in it that is identical to the one I will use, but I have an unassembled version, which i will use as I want to have a different colour, and changing the colour will be much easier as I assemble the building.
Cheers
Tony