Project 20 - 0 Gauge Layout - Part 9

All the track for the scenic section is now laid. Rails that are to be embedded in tarmac have a hardboard sub base. The blue colouration is a throwback to when some of the hardboard was used as a sky back scene for a previous layout. It gives me a good feeling to recycle materials, not only from a cost aspect but also to reduce my stock holding by bringing it back into use.

The tarmac will not be laid until I have tested the track thoroughly with train movements, in case some rail adjustment is required. It will be difficult to make adjustment after the rails have been buried.

For train movements to be effective I'll need to make at least one fiddle yard at this end and maybe a second at the other end.

It may be of interest to know that scratch building track work consumes time. The track here was made over 1.5 months comprising a few hours most days.

Positioning the two sidings at the far end was problematical. I wanted to create a paper mill scene similar to this photograph. The idea being the two sidings would pass either side of the large building with the small building being a gatehouse. When I came to mark their positions on the layout the realities of 0 gauge space requirements hit home. There was no room for the small building and the width of the large building needed to be reduced significantly.

I had to sketch out dimensions of the large building to determine the positions of the two sidings.

For the large building, shown on the link above, there are inadequate photos from which to scale and no plan. This, together with reduced width to fit the space, meant that the building design would be freelance. This proved a bit intimidating because I normally scale and create from a real building plan and/or suitable photographs, where dimensions simply fall into place.

The problem was where to set the position of the two upper floors and windows. I remembered I had a give-away card kit from 'Scale Trains' magazine (August 1982) of Alresford seed warehouse. It was a simple case of transposing the 4mm scale dimensions to 7mm.

I shall try and incorporate the finish/texture of the large building shown in the photo linked above and will fit an overhead walkway across two tracks that will help to disguise their exit from the scenic board.

Positioning the two sidings at this end posed no problem as I had already found a good photo of a trans-shipment shed and scaled from it. All I had to do was make sure there was enough space for vehicles to pass between the curved siding and shed.

To Part 10.

To Part 1.