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Going underground

I met an old friend for lunch on Tuesday. He’s having some building work done at home and gave me a small block of insulation material which is ideal for making model railway scenery. I thought it might be useful to make a rock cutting to act as a visual break between Colina Rosa and Casablanca but there’s not really enough baseboard width.

Plan B. The Facility.

This secretive government installation is in an old lead mine near Flujo de Abuso. An 18 inch gauge tramway connects the offices and laboratories to the FCPyF station and siding on the surface.

The mine used to be quite extensive with a labyrinth of passages and shafts underground.

Most of these are either collapsed, sealed or back filled. The remaining tunnel arrives at a stope where a turntable is used to access a couple of kick back sidings.

One of these extends into the laboratory cavern and is strictly off limits to visitors, the other is used for wagon storage.

This is not the first attempt at modelling the underground sidings, previous tries failed because of the poor running qualities of N gauge mechanisms on dodgy track. This time I’m using puppet rod driven locomotives borrowed from Clementine Wharf.

The library photo below shows the layout viewed from the “wrong” side, the points have since been removed and the off stage lead is now just plain rail. Plenty of work still to do but having most of the rock carved out of a single lump has made the job a lot simpler than it would have been using scrap wood and home made Sculptamold.

The shunting of wagons using the approach track and two sidings is complicated by only being able to get the loco and one wagon at a time on the turntable. This might seem odd at first but can be explained by the cramped underground location, if an explanation is needed. Whatever, it’ll keep me busy for a while. I need to find some suitable timber for cosmetic sleepers on the SM32 Inglenook and, moreover, the shelves usually dedicated to gardening supplies at my local hardware store are currently full of Hallowe’en tat and Crimbo glitz so I won’t be able to get any hanging basket liner for a few months.

I make no secret of the fact that I dislike fake electronic sound systems, especially the tinny shrieks associated with steam engines. This video is an exception to the rule. Just listen to the clunking of these gear driven beauties. It may be dubbed during production of the film rather than on board sound chips but it really captures what a Heisler or a Shay should sound like with the pistons pounding away while the locomotive ambles along.

Flat batteries

No.66 gets through batteries at an alarming rate. The motor is designed to run on a pair of AAAs and that’s what she’s got under the dashboard in the cab. An addition to the maker’s specification is the radio control receiver and I suspect this is what’s draining the batteries. There is an on/off switch in the cab, and I do use it to kill the power supply when the loco is not in use, but she’s dawdling again only a couple of days after I replaced the batteries. The RC receiver came out of a toy racing car designed to use three AA batteries but upping the voltage from 3 to 4.5 might make the loco go like a Ferrari so I don’t really want to take that route. I haven’t got any bright red paint for starters.

Nay matter, the batteries are cheap enough to replace, but I think I might use the Plymouth for shunting most of the time and keep the Hudson in reserve for special occasions.

The Plymouth relies on puppetry operation so it has no problems with a heavier train and no battery consumption at all.

The side entrance to the cab is perhaps too British and I am contemplating a partial rebuild of the diminutive shunt engine with access via the rear, including a low roof instead of it being an open cab, maybe in slightly better condition than this sorry individual.

Every day is a school day

Superelevation. If you know anything about railways you’ll know about the outer rail of a curve being higher than the inner. Hornby certainly did. I don’t have any but apparently they made superelevated curves so tinplate clockwork trains could fly round them instead of flying off them. The trouble with set track is that there is now allowance for graduation between tangent and curve. This is why train sets, regardless of scale, look like train sets instead of real railways.

Nothing wrong with this of course, with well thought out scenery and plenty of operating potential layouts like the one shown above can bring a great deal of pleasure. It’s just those sudden curves that make it look toy-like to me. Having said that, there are layouts where no attempt at all has been made to disguise the fact that they are toy trains.

Their appeal comes from their historical interest, vintage Hornby Dublo and Tri-ang layouts come into this category. Another non-scenic genre is the shunting puzzle like a Timesaver or an Inglenook.

On which topic, I’ve screwed the track to the modules for Smingle Nook this morning. It works, though the loco falters in places when it is propelling three wagons at once. I think the inside edges of some curved track sections may need polishing to reduce drag on the flanges. For now backing up and taking a run at it solves the problem. I needed to change the batteries in the handset and the loco because it was not responding to some commands. Stupid here tried giving it a prod with a finger to make it go. That doesn’t work on dead-rail!

Going back to Hornby tinplate superelevation, with no transition there would be awkward joins between straight and curved sections. This is where I have spotted something I’d not noticed previously. Some of the straight sections of Hornby track I’ve acquired for the SM32 project are lopsided to match superelevated curves. Fine for an oval but what happens if you have a reverse curve? Maybe kids in the fifties were not expected to do such unpredictable things as build layouts that did not go round and round and round and round. Anyhow, more coffee stirrer abuse was called for to level the top surfaces of the sleepers. When the track is ballasted the remaining air gaps will be filled and the whole will set quite securely.

The Hornby tinplate wagon seen in the earlier photos has been stripped down to its chassis and will be rebuilt using coffee stirrers to make a one plank wagon. In the meantime it’s masquerading as a tank car!

Go big or go home

I am already at home, so that just leaves the other option. After attaching the extensions to each of the points I decided to go the whole hog and make the layout into a full 5/3/3 Inglenook.

This is too long for the table so the headshunt is propped up in true bodger fashion with a chair. The edges of the boards have been painted green but I need a trip into town to buy some suitable screws for fastening the track down before work can commence on cosmetic sleepers and weeds between the rails.

A gate will define the outer end of the headshunt with temporary buffer stops attached to each siding. The removal of one or more of these devices will enable the layout to be extended in modular fashion at a later date, possibly into a roundy roundy or just as a longer end to end formation.

I have sufficient curves but not enough straight sections to extend from the kitchen to the living room.

Give it time!

Smingle Nook

Single? Yes. Ready to mingle? Nope, I am too old to go chasing totty these days.

A good many years ago Carl Arendt featured a G scale Inglenook on his website and called it a Ginglenook. By that logic an SM32 Inglenook could be referred to as a SMinglenook. Splitting it into two words, Smingle Nook, makes it sound more like somewhere you might find in a rural backwater. There was a time when road transport in rural backwaters meant muddy lanes that became impassable for motorised vehicles in bad weather. Precisely the reason that mining, logging and similar industries opted for narrow gauge railways. Sometimes just a few hundred yards of track, sometimes several miles.

A full 5/3/3 Inglenook in SM32 scale would be well beyond the scope of a micro layout. The temporary arrangement seen on my front room table is 50×16 inches, still too big unless the baseboard tapers with the tracks to just a few inches wide at the headshunt end.

I was originally planning to fit the track sections on individual baseboards a la Kato Circus micro modules but the geometry of Hornby’s tinplate points would make this awkward. I could cut the curved leg of each turnout as marked in red to get round this but I think the adjacent sections’ sleepers would then clash.

A better alternative would be to extend the turnout’s straight section by about two and a half inches beyond the frog. To create the layout seen in the photos I shortened two straight sections for the headshunt and long siding so there are a couple of off-cuts available to extend the points with if I decide to stick with the modular idea.

Conventional wisdom dictates five wagons on a reduced Inglenook but it is possible to operate such a layout with six if it is permitted to leave a wagon fouling the clearance between the two short sidings at times.

If you’re using Kadees with magnets just beyond the fouling point on each siding you cannot uncouple automatically to leave a wagon in this spot, hence the conventional five wagon limit. It is, however, possible if you are using manual uncoupling and a real railway would not think it unusual to leave a wagon sitting on the turnout during shunts. It is the headshunt as much as the sidings that defines the intricacy of the shunting puzzle. For a full Inglenook it is a loco and three, for the reduced version it is a loco and two. Six wagons, of course, gives a considerably greater number of permutations than five.

Returning to the modular idea. The layout in the photos would need six Kato Circus style modules. One for each turnout, one for the headshunt, and three for the sidings. These would enable the layout to be dismantled when not in use while allowing the provision of cosmetic sleepers, ballast and weeds to improve its appearance. The sidings could be arranged in a variety of patterns and additional track sections could be added later to extend the scope of the layout. One of the modellers on the NGRM forum has done something similar with vintage Billerbahn trains, though these use HO instead of O gauge track so the individual sections can be much smaller. I would not initially consider anything other than ground level “scenery” because doing so would need even bigger bases and any additional height would make storage difficult. In this scale the train itself has ample presence without needing much else. Perhaps a few lineside structures could be added, on their own separate bases, at a later date if they are needed.

One down

I was still not happy with the green one so it has been withdrawn for eventual restoration to its original condition as a Matchbox green diesel (not for use with OO9). Of the remaining three, the grey one now resembles faded Banger Blue. When I started work in the 1970s the entire railway was this colour… Apart from an oddball green class 40 often seen at Guide Bridge.

The red one could have been any shade originally. Put red paint in sunlight and it usually changes colour. Throw in some muck and your guess is as good as anybody’s.

Then there’s my favourite. The yellow one. If you like diesels and you ever visited Dinting Railway Centre you will remember RS8 clanking around the yard.

The locomotives are not intended for use on Willow Pool but it was the easiest way of filming them at silly o’clock in the morning, having been up since pee o’clock and unable to get back to sleep.

And then there were four

A couple of days ago I ordered a box of six wire brush drill attachments for removing paint. When the parcel arrived this afternoon I thought it looked a bit on the large side. Upon opening it I found two boxes of wire brushes, six in each. Now, I am not complaining at getting something for nothing, I checked the billing and I have only paid for six. It would probably cost nearly as much as the purchase price for return postage if I send one box back so that is not going to happen.

Anyways, eager to see how much easier they made paint stripping I tried one out on the Matchbox diesels. It does not give a polished metal finish, there are very fine scratches on the surface of the die casting, but when repainted these are not visible. I was not happy with the drab colour of the green one as seen in the photo taken yesterday so I stripped it down to the metal and started again. All four are now awaiting their internal cradles (more coffee stirrer abuse) adding so they can ride on a Kato 11-109 chassis for use as OO9 locomotives.

It’s strange how our memories work. As I was using the drill attachment it made a distinctive hot metal and burning hydrocarbons smell that took me back to primary school days when a group of us used to play around the industrial units behind Brookfield in Glossop.

Imagine that eh? Not industrial units, making stuff. If you look hard enough there are still a few hidden among all the wholesale distribution and delivery units that just move stuff about. Imagine kids playing around those industrial units though… During the day… When the units are in use… With metalworking machinery… The Safety Elf would have kittens!

I’ll have one in each available livery

Do not panic. I have not joined in an RMwobble frothfest. Nor am I pledging a year’s ration of beer tokens on the latest mega-expensive releases from Bachby or Hornmann.

There is a fourth in the pipeline, it will be in ex-works condition, possibly carrying a photographic grey paint job. They’ll all share the same chassis and be destined for use on Alta Ronda and my Kato Circus style OO9 mini modules.

If you’re thinking you’ve seen the weathered yellow loco somewhere before, you have. Just not in the same scale.

Matchbox musters

You may be excused for thinking I’m drifting away from toy trains but be assured I am firmly on track. A delayed delivery this afternoon has provided another three of the little diesel locomotives. Work on the one mentioned yesterday is at a standstill, the paint is proving more resilient than expected and barely softened by 24 hours in neat loo bleach. I have ordered some wire brush drill attachments that should make removing the paint easier.

Anyhows, back to today’s arrivals. The three diesels will be similarly stripped and repainted in different liveries and weathered conditions to give me a variety of OO9 locomotives to share a single Kato chassis.

Also in the job lot were two steam engines. These have limited use unless I fit them with tram skirts but might eventually end up on Alta Ronda and/or the Kato Circus style OO9 mini modules. The flat car should be quite easy to fit on an N gauge wagon chassis to supplement my OO9 rolling stock.

I am guessing this Ford articulated lorry is about 1:50 scale, near enough to be of use with On30’s 1:48. It needs quite a bit of work to replace a missing axle and fit new cab glazing. While I am at it the trailer will probably be shortened then the rig will be parked on one of the railway’s bridges.

Matchbox matters

I have a number of Matchbox diesel shunters that have been hacked about to various degrees for use as puppet rod locomotives on San Fernandez Works, Poachers Hill, Muchness Light and Queso Shed. I do not need any more for On30 scale.

There are also a pair of On18 examples available for use with Clementine Wharf…

…and another on the mine tramway at Flujo de Abuso.

What I am lacking is a OO9 diesel loco to keep the railcars company on Alta Ronda. Obviously a puppet loco won’t do for a roundy roundy so I intend to use a Kato four wheeled drive unit instead.

I have dismantled a fresh die cast diesel this morning and it is currently soaking in neat loo bleach to remove the paint. An internal cradle made from coffee stirrers will support the body as a push fit on the chassis, perhaps secured with a bit of BluTack if necessary. Small magnets will be used for couplers. I also have some more Matchbox diesels coming in the post (they were actually due yesterday) so I will be able to make two or three more loco bodies in different states of dilapidation between lightly weathered and falling apart that can share the same chassis because only one train at once can run on Alta Ronda.

This will not be the first time I have used a Matchbox diesel on a OO9 layout. When I was in my early twenties I built the Am Valley Railway. As a precursor of things to come many years later I used a motorised coach to push a variety of dummy locos, one of which was the diesel. Unfortunately the loco does not feature in these old photographs but the ghost power coach does. The mechanism in that coach was a Minitrix class 27 diesel. The exact same mechanism was still in use as ghost power, disguised as an On18 boxcar, until Allt Na Ballt was converted to OO9. I will now have to build a suitable 4mm scale body to fit it, possibly a replica of the Am Valley brake third, I have a suitable OO scale coach to act as a body donor.