Tropical Pizza - a 600x600mm tropical island themed switchback layout

This layout, which took a number of months to construct (even though it’s only 4 square feet in size), and still has some work to complete (don't all model railways?) had a few goals:

• To use up the remaining model bamboo, agave, and palm trees I purchased for my Brazilian micro layout.
• To use up the remaining XPS insulation foam used to build my Brazilian micro layout.
• To fill in the gap under my Petra pizza micro layout.
• To explore what is possible in a 2×2 feet / 600mm x 600mm space, that is more complex than the standard loop of track.

Locale

This layout represents a standard guage railway that mainly transports bamboo and some general freight between the bamboo plantation and the harbour, with some tourist trains to add interest. The locale is a fictional small island nation, somewhat near to the equator in the western Pacific Ocean, that grows bamboo for export and enjoys the usual amount of tourists (there is no airport, so they arrive by boat). The nation, which owns and operates the railway, is somewhat cash-challenged and has purchased all motive power power and rollingstock second hand ‘on the cheap’, mostly from Australian railways wanting to rid themselves of old motive power and rollingstock but also from anywhere else that such items can be procured as cheaply as possible.

Track Plan

I designed some track plans, some of them being derived from the traditional ‘pizza’ type track plan, some based on the late Carl Arendt’s ‘Square Foot Estate’ but in HO / OO, and some that are just ‘out there’. I had planned to build and use a CD turntable – basically a CD / DVD disk converted to a model railway turntable – but in the end I decided to go for a more sane approach. The plan I chose was this one, very similar to the late Carl Arendt’s “Square Foot Estate”.

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There is a sector plate in the top right hand corner, with 3 tracks branching off it.

Scenery

After I ordered the motive power for the layout I spent a lot of time getting the scenery done. The layout has the following scenic features:

• A bamboo plantation.
• A port area.
• An old abandoned car on a hillside.
• An old water tank.
• Grass, bushes, tropical plants and other foliage.
• A freight loading area.
• A passenger ‘station’ (really only an area designated for passengers to join and leave a train).
• A mountain range between the single track at the top of the plan and the next track down on the plan so that there are effectively two switching areas forming separate scenes.

Some photos of the layout, taken in mid November 2020.

Above: An old derelict ute that has seen better days.


Above: Harbour and surrounds.


Above: Parking area near the harbour.


Above: Foliage on a hill.


Above: Plantation freight loading area


Above: Some cut bamboo at the plantation loading area, ready for pick up by a train. ​

 

Making a HO scale micro pizza model railway layout to be more earth-like for scale sized citizens, plentiful plants and realistic railroads rendering.

In the previous post I described the more or less current state of the layout, but not much info on construction, motive power selection, etc. So this post will cover early construction of the layout, and the following posts will cover scenery, motive power and rollingstock. The content of this post is derived from my Blog at: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2020/10/11/terraforming-a-pizza/ .

Terraforming is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying something to make it more Earth-like, usually to make it habitable by Earth-like life. It is something that to date has never been done in the real world, but the concept abounds in science fiction and has done for many years. A model railway builder engages in a sort-of terraforming when he or she builds a layout. Especially when the goal is to make the layout as realistic and earth-like as possible.

Over a number of weeks I engaged in “terraforming” the scenery on the HO scale Tropical Pizza micro Layout. The layout started with a blank and flat XPS foam surface on top of the wooden base and frame, and progressed to having some hills, gullies, and other changes in elevation, as well as all track laid. The end result provided a good base for the next step – adding ground cover, foliage, buildings, etc.

Here are some photos of the layout as it’s early construction progressed.

Above & below: before much paint and shaping.
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Above: Overall view of the layout before track was laid, harbour area at top.


Above: Overall view of the layout before track was laid, harbour area at bottom.


Above: The 'mountain' ridge that separates the two scenic sections of the layout.


Above: all the trackwork completed. No turnouts or other complicated trackwork!​

You may have noticed a different sleeper / tie spacing between the sector plate track (in the quarter circle section in the photos) and the other sections of track. That is because I removed quite a few sleeper / ties and re-spaced the remaining ones to be further apart to give the impression of a lightly built railway. But as the sector track is basically a section of sectional track and I needed the rigidness provided by the piece of sectional track, so it’s sleepers / ties were not adjusted.

Above: The harbour area.​

I tested what rollingstock and motive power would fit on the sector plate, and found that a OO scale Ruston & Hornsby 48DS and two 22 scale feet British outline wagons fits.

Above: OO scale Ruston & Horsnby 48DS and 2 22 scale feet British wagons on the sector plate​

As they fitted (just), I decided to purchase two HO scale 4 wheel NSWGR S trucks, which are 18 scale feet long. This should give me just enough room to have a loco such as an X200 NSWGR shunter / switcher and two S trucks or trucks of equivalent length on the sector plate. I have also been giving some thought to which structures to have on the layout. The plan was to have a port in one section, and at the other extremity of the layout (on the opposite side of the hill that runs roughly down the middle of the layout) I had planned a warehouse with a bamboo plantation nearby. The plantation happened, the warehouse didn't!

 

This post is about motive power and rollingstock, and is mostly derived from my blog at: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2020/11/15/its-alive/ .

After early construction phase of the layout, I ordered and received the motive power for the layout – an NSWGR (New South Wales Government Railways) X200 class 4 wheel rail tractor, by IDR Models ( website ). My wife called it “cute”! I think the purchasing of the motive power was really the motivation for getting the scenery as close to complete as possible so I could actual put the layout in situ under my Petra Pizza layout and start operating it. Here are some photos of the rail tractor and two 4 wheel open wagons, also of NSWGR origin, on the layout.

Above: X200 rail tractor and 2 x S trucks approaching, or maybe leaving, the harbour.


Above: X200 rail tractor and 2 x S trucks at the harbour.


Above: X200 rail tractor and 2 x S trucks at the bamboo plantation freight area.


Above: X200 rail tractor and 2 x S trucks at the bamboo plantation freight area.


Above: X200 rail tractor parked on the storage spur near the harbour.


Above: X200 rail tractor and 2 x S trucks at the bamboo plantation freight area.
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When I purchased the motive power there was still some scenery work to do, and I ordered a pack of 27 HO scale palm trees of various sizes whose delivery I eagerly await.

I had been wondering what control system the layout will have. The rail tractor I purchased is DCC ready, but instead of adding a decoder to that locomotive I wired a decoder into the wiring under the layout and set the decoder address to 21 (the rail tractor has the number “210”, so 21 is fairly easy to remember). Instead of buying a decoder and then risk it not working on the layout for some reason, I removed the decoder from a locomotive that I never use. This layout would be strictly a single loco railway, so there is really no need to have a decoder in the loco. Having a decoder wired into the layout will mean I can control it using the same DCC system as my Box Street, Pier 39 and Petra Pizza layouts instead of having to connect a DC controller independent of the DCC system used for the other mentioned layouts.

Above: DCC decoder wired underneath the layout frame.​

After I wired the decoder in, I did a quick test using a H&M DC controller to see if the decoder would work with DC (it did), and then I temporarily attached my DCC system to the layout and tested the layout on channel 21 (it worked too). It lives!

 

Here is a photo of the 48DS, X200 and Plymouth ML-8 for size comparison.

 

Tropical palm and fern trees and some people add more life to a verdant tropical island HO scale micro layout.

Since the last blog post about my Tropical Pizza layout, I have received and added tropical trees to the layout. I also found some HO size people to add to the layout, adding some much need human population to the layout.

As a point of reference, here is the layout scenery before the trees and people were added.

Harbour view

Storage track

Plantation

Plantation passenger ‘station’​

And here are the same views after the trees were added.

Harbour view

Storage track

Plantation

Plantation passenger ‘station’​

The addition of the trees has made a marked difference in the over all effect. I guess that’s what happens when around 20 trees are added to such a small layout. The next post will be a continuation of this post...

Regards, James

 

... Continued from previous post.

Adding people has also added interest to the layout, providing glimpses of life on the island. from the old lady waiting for the next passenger train, to a cleaner trying in vain to keep the harbour area clean, to the man trying to convince a friend of the size of the fish that ‘got away’.

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Here are some more detailed photos of the island’s palm and fern forests.

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The $18 spent on the trees in the above photos was money well spent! A few of the left over palm trees were also used on my Brazilian HO scale micro switchback layout as well.

In the time since the trees were added, I have also worked out a train sheet, with a few freight trains and some passenger trains depending on the day of the week being operated. Operating the layout is quite complicated, as siding space is limited and freight cars all have to be loaded or unloaded at the harbour, which means a lot of shunting is involved. I am quite happy with this little layout. It has been a joy to build, and it is fun to operate.

Regards, James

 

Thanks Gary. Had a look at the video. Certainly makes a difference after some repainting.

Regards, James

 

Here is a video I made of trains running on the layout.

 

A recent mishap on my Petra Pizza layout presented an opportunity to replace a longer flat car with a much shorter customised one a similar length to the 4 wheel open gondollas on the Bamboo Island layout.

I was walking past my Petra Pizza layout some time ago, and I happened to knock the baseboard, and one of the 22 foot open mineral hoppers fell off the layout, and smashed to the floor. The carriage was somewhat broken with the chassis and hopper section separated and bits and pieces strewn all over the floor. Originally the carriage looked like this one:

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As you can imagine I was annoyed at the carnage and I wondered whether I should try and fix it or scrap it or something else. I had been wanting a shorter flat car for a while, and as I surveyed the damage to the hopper that little light bulb above the head went on, and I realised I could convert it a flat car. So after some further thinking and experimenting, I came up with this:

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Basically, it is the chassis of the 22 foot mineral hopper, with a 20 foot container glued to it. I think it's come up ok. So now I have a short flat car in keeping with the other short rollingstock on the Bamboo Island layout.

After some looking closely at the ex-Southern Pacific caboose which is used for the passenger train on the layout, I am thinking that I could shorten it too by removing the platform and steps at one end and cutting either side of the side bay to make it a lot shorter - not quite as short as the flat car above, but still a lot shorter than it currently is. These changes are quite in keeping with a cash-challenged railway separated from other railways by ocean, and the need for the railway to make do with what is available in the form of quirky and unusual custom rollingstock.

Regards, James

(From: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/08/11/tropical-pizza-flat-car/ )

 

Shortening of the caboose used for passenger trains on the Tropical Pizza HO scale micro layout makes car movements easier.

In the previous post I described a 22 scale feet flat car that I converted from a 22 foot ore hopper that suffered a mishap. I also mentioned that I had an ex-Southern Pacific caboose on the layout that could also be shorted. After some brooding over how best to approach the task of shortening that caboose, I finally settled on a plan of attack, and commenced to shorten it. It started off looking like this.

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I cut at one end of the bay window and close to the end of the caboose, discarding the section between, and then glued the two body parts together. I also had to shorten the weight attached to the floor, then shorten the chassis. By the end of the conversion, with some weathering and painting to enhance how it looked, it looked like this.

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To change the chassis to the same length as the shortened caboose body I had to cut the floor in a similar fashion to how I cut the body, then cut the chassis so that where it would join would be offset compared to where the floor was cut so that there was not a weak point with the floor and chassis needing joining in the same place.

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After all the sections were shortened, the weight was screwed onto the floor, then the chassis glued under the floor, and the end result is a fairly strong and very short (approximately 22 scale feet) caboose / passenger car for the Bamboo Island railways passenger trains between Harbour and Plantation.

Short train of NSWGR X200 class rail tractor, short flat car and short caboose leaving the Harbour​

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and after operating it for the first time I was impressed with how the shortened caboose enhanced operations.

Regards, James

(From: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/09/01/hello-shorty/ ).

 

Thanks Gary.

The modification wasn't done so much for the curves on this layout, as it has approx 18 inch radius curves, but rather for better operations using the sector plate. I found that it was hard for that piece of track to be used to it's full potential with longer (even 40 scale feet) cars. The short car also just fits in the passenger 'station' area at Plantation which is an added bonus (I didn't do the conversion with that in mind).

After I tried it this layout I did try this car on my Petra Pizza layout which has 11 inch radius curves on it and it worked a treat there (as would be expected), so even though I didn't convert it specifically for the Petra Pizza layout's ultra sharp curves I can see it might be 'borrowed' by that layout from time to time!

Regards, James