Ruritanian Railways - Indoor Section

[Gizzy]

Yep, I used 'Brush it On' as Mel recommended.

I will be buying some more soon as the ballast needs topping up and patching up in places?

You will need quite a lot for your indoor layout though Peter? Might have to buy the 'bumper' pack....

 

[jameshilton]

In the smaller scales I use 'static grass' to create overgrown areas. You can use a £5 puffer bottle or £130 static grass applicator - yup, that's pricey, but the results are incredible. However with patience you can get a reasonable result with a puffer bottle.

 

[C&S]

I've used hanging basket liners for grass on the Cattewater & Southern. Thought the liners from Wilkinson's was a better colour than the large roll from the garden centre which was rather a grey-green and has a much looser texture. I pull the mat apart (the Wilko type has a papery-cloth centre with fibre on each side) , stick it down in small clumps, then fluff it up a bit when the glue (UHU) dries. Luckily the green hairy finger effect peels off when dry.

I've also used old felt type carpet underlay, also only using half-thickness. This needs colouring using some old green oil paint (Humbrol etc) plus large amounts of yellow and lots of white spirit - you don't really want paint, more green stain, which can be flooded onto the underlay. The only drawbacks to this material are that it tends to be rather dusty, and may be getting crumbly with age - however, it is normally free!

Varying the texture material also works well; on top of the "basket grass" try adding small bits of lichen, small clumps of teased out rubberised horehair (brambles) or even moss scratched out of the garden lawn.

Some basic hanging basket grass

Hanging basket grass and some lichen

A mixture of textures

 

[whatlep]

Agreed - the hanging basket roll isn't a very verdant green. I had some to hand, which is why I used it, and looking out on what passes for my "lawn" the colour didn't look too far off... which probably says more about my grass... Depends how lush the vegetation in Ruritania is, I suppose...

I think round the back of the shed where unmentionable substances have been dumped on it, probably not very!
Thanks to all for the suggestions. It's helpful advice like this that makes GSC a pleasure to browse.

Mel - expect a PM once I've got the rest of the track and electrics in place and had a quick check that trains will really move!

 

[whatlep]

Forgot to ask another question. Can anyone recommend a supplier for a water crane - preferably a lot cheaper than the £23+ now asked for the Pola item? Doesn't need to be weather or UV-proof!

 

[yb281]

Forgot to ask another question. Can anyone recommend a supplier for a water crane - preferably a lot cheaper than the £23+ now asked for the Pola item? Doesn't need to be weather or UV-proof!

Someone knocked a rather nice one up out of copper pipe in the Garden Rail a couple of months ago.

 

[C&S]

Just in case you don't find any ready-made water cranes, here are a couple (well, variations on a standard type) of metre gauge cranes which might serve a European style line. Both French, one from Corsica the other, with foliage background, from the Blanc-Argent line. Either could probbaly be made from various thicknesses of brass or plastic tube sleeved one into another with washers as the joints and pivot plates. The BA version looks a little easier to make as the 90 degree turn is inside a square box.

Somewher I have another picture from a standard gauge line that looks like a full-sized "kit-bash" as all the bends are done with angles of straight pipework.

 

[whatlep]

A quick update on the indoor layout. Following the last couple of postings, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse. Look what popped through my letterbox, respectfully addressed (to the amusement of our village postie):

Yes, a most generous gift of a water crane made, appropriately, from various sizes of plumbing bits and pieces. The donor must remain anonymous for the moment as he PMed me privately, but my thanks are boundless. GSC - where nice people browse! Now, has anyone got a small coaling plant they want to donate?

Here's the intended position, once I work out how to get the base fixed firmly and find a "volunteer" to do some spray painting. Hello, Mel! nphone:

Track to fulfil the redesigned plan arrived from South Wales with its usual efficiency and has been laid in, but then another minor miracle occurred....

 

[whatlep]

Mrs Whatlep paid a State Visit to find out what I was up to and saw this:

"Wouldn't it be better if those two bits of track were joined up?" said she. Well, of course it would be and who am I to deny my wife's brilliant suggestion? Sidestepping elegantly the topic of cost, my fingers dialled South Wales....

The final (no, really, it is final) trackplan will now look like this:

 

[adeshers]

I wouldn't go to Rochdale via Oldham........ in fact I wouldn't go at all.

Hat, coat etc etc etc

 

[whatlep]

Anyway, power has now been connected, reasonably discreetly hidden away in the far corner of the layout. LGB wagon chocks "Hemschuhe" will be used to prevent runaways. You can see that there is precious little clearance (2mm) between the top siding's track and the door, even with the rail joiner removed. Phew!

So, we're in business. The new layout provides much-needed extra storage and - hopefully - a bit of [strike]playing[/strike] testing potential too. Mallet 104 prepares to move off shed on a wet Friday afternoon...

 

[whatlep]

I wouldn't go to Rochdale via Oldham........ in fact I wouldn't go at all.

Hat, coat etc etc etc

Careful, or there'll be a chipfatwa larded against you.

 

[Gizzy]

Mrs Whatlep paid a State Visit to find out what I was up to and saw this:

"Wouldn't it be better if those two bits of track were joined up?" said she. Well, of course it would be and who am I to deny my wife's brilliant suggestion? Sidestepping elegantly the topic of cost, my fingers dialled South Wales....

I was going to suggest that myself, but it's much better that you have the Budget Holder's approval....

 

[yb281]

Mrs Whatlep paid a State Visit to find out what I was up to and saw this:

"Wouldn't it be better if those two bits of track were joined up?" said she. Well, of course it would be and who am I to deny my wife's brilliant suggestion? Sidestepping elegantly the topic of cost, my fingers dialled South Wales....

I was going to suggest that myself, but it's much better that you have the Budget Holder's approval....

Woman's intuition??

 

[jameshilton]

Wonderful, the water crane is impressive and will look fantastic with a coat of paint

 

[ceejaydee]

Looks like a practical and fun solution to using the space.

Apologies if I've missed it in the thread but what size is the board that the layout is built on?

I am tempted to build a shunting type layout in my room/office (spare bedroom ) but cannot decide which scale to use at the moment :thinking:

 

[Willem WDLS]

Nice project Peter!!

 

[whatlep]

Looks like a practical and fun solution to using the space.

Apologies if I've missed it in the thread but what size is the board that the layout is built on?

I am tempted to build a shunting type layout in my room/office (spare bedroom ) but cannot decide which scale to use at the moment :thinking:

Thanks for the kind words. The gridsquares from AnyRail (which I heartily recommend for layout planning) don;t show up brilliantly in the low-res images needed here. The cellar is under our garage. The boards are 2 feet wide, with extensions at either end wall, and a smidgen over 18 feet long. The OO was abandoned partly because I'd made all the boards too narrow through lack of planning (hadn't discovered AnyRail!). A minimum of 30 inches, or better 33 was really required, but that would have taken too much of the floorspace. The alternative of using all four walls was a non-starter for various reasons.

Mind you, I once squeezed a G scale "puzzle" layout in a bedroom/study 8'6" by 6'6" wide, using three of the four walls. I'll try to remember the track layout and put it into AnyRail format.

Edit: Put that 8'6" by 6'6" room layout in another thread. Here it is: http://www.gscalecentral.net/m125518

 

[whatlep]

The extra track for the revised trackplan arrived promptly and has been put in place, completing the "puzzle yard". Eight vehicles are enough to permit a surprisingly complex shunting puzzle:

The "Barkerised" battery Stainz was first on duty to do some shunting. The van nearest the camera contains the batteries and r/c gear. The yellow LGB wheel chocks mark the "shunt limit" which only allows a loco to shunt 3 vehicles at a time. Using the chocks makes it simple as can be to adjust the headshunt length to suit different locos, maintaining the key inhibitors that make an "Inglenook" puzzle interesting:

Scenery still to start sprouting!

 

[jameshilton]

Peter - it looks like wonderful fun, what a great idea to use the chocks as well!