This page is set out in chronological order from top to bottom, making it easier to follow the progress than a conventional blog where newest posts appear at the top of the page.
Tuesday 28th June 2022 – The Idea
The Blackcloud Tramways Company operates a couple of short tram lines in the English midlands. These are modelled as simple (pointless) micro layouts using curtain wire and modified Matchbox Motorway track sections to animate the die-cast trams. Operation is totally ‘unplugged’ enabling the micro layouts to be used just about anywhere. The idea came about as an idle thought about using a single railcar on an ultra-small fishing line powered layout and blossomed following the timely purchase of two job lots of Lledo trams for bargain prices on eBay. The use of curtain wire means the trams can be swapped over more easily than if they were attached to fishing line, thereby making it possible for the double track on High Street as well as having several trams to mark the changes.
Church Square is an ultra compact single line terminus and High Street, only slightly larger, is a double track line passing through a town centre. These will be the first of the Blackcloud Tramways micro layouts
A notable advantage, especially for High Street where double track operation means the cars need changing at each end, is the short length of “off stage” track (marked X), Church Square could be operated using a single car shuttling from end to end though. These areas can be hidden by the foreground buildings to keep the layouts even more compact.
The trams, as mentioned above, are die-cast models by Lledo. With the exception of the work car these carry a uniform red and white livery but a combination of the adverts and weathering make it possible to distinguish individual cars of the same type. There are three enclosed double deckers, another three double deck cars have open tops and three cars are single deck. The single deck cars are converted from enclosed double deckers and one has been made into the work car for variety.
Enough of the theory, on with the actual models.
Saturday 2nd July 2022 – Church Square and the Depot
Church Square, as the name suggests, is overlooked by a church. Even in small scales churches can be quite overpoweringly big buildings so this one will be in very shallow relief, little more than a flat backdrop but with just enough depth to add some realism in photographs from varying angles.
The “wings” of the stage are provided by the thatched cottage on the left and a fairly modern chip shop on the right. I live in Sandbach, we have such disparate building styles in close proximity as a result of some questionable town planning. The trams enter from the right and terminate in front of the church.
While waiting for glue to dry on the foreground road surface I had another look at the offcut of MDF from Church Street’s baseboard. There is potential for a third micro layout here. I’m thinking about modelling the inside of a tram depot with three tracks entering the on stage area through the doors of the building.
If the cars furthest from the doors are pushed by the end of a curtain wire instead of having their guidance pins inserted into the coil it is possible to have two cars on each track. Awkward to explain but the video shows that the theory is sound. If I extend the conduit on Church Square to the far end of the baseboard this kind of operation will allow two trams at once at the terminus, handy for Sundays while church services are taking place
Sunday 3rd July 2022 – Enclosed cars and Church Square
To get more variety within the fleet of trams two double deck cars have been converted to single deckers, I have made a start on using the redundant top deck castings from these to make a couple of enclosed single deck cars (never throw anything away) by cutting new doorways at each end.
Then it occurred to me that there was another permutation, as crudely photoshopped above. There are some more cars due for delivery next week, one of which I intend to rebuild as another single decker. Its top deck will be used with one of the spare castings I’ve cut doorways in to make a fully enclosed car. It isn’t but this looks bigger than the other cars, even before running gear, roof and trolley pole are added.
Meanwhile, work continues on Church Square. The road surface has been levelled using filler and a start made on assembling the low relief church.
The image above shows the entire layout, so you can see how huge it isn’t.
When I was still driving for a living there was a lovely row of yew trees in the church yard of St Lawrence’s in Biddulph,
I believe the trees have been severely cut back since then but something similar would be very pleasing to the eye and also an effective way of blending the backdrop and foreground on the micro layout.
It’s Sunday, logically the busiest day of the week for the Church Square branch. Two trams wait to take the congregation home as morning worship draws to a close.
By Sunday evening the church was beginning to loom presentable.
It’s not bedded in yet because I want to complete it with the churchyard walls and yew trees as a single unit before attaching permanently to the baseboard.
Tuesday 5th July 2022 – Revised plans, track-bashing and overhead wiring
I’ve revised the plan for High Street, it’ll now have the tramway in the foreground and the side streets at the back.
This means It will need to have external off stage areas and either a proscenium or bridges to frame the scene, possibly a railway bridge at one end and an arch through city walls at the other. What is track-bashing? You may ask, thinking perhaps about the railway enthusiast’s term for gratuitous travel, instead of trying to get somewhere, just to fill in bits on the map. No, not that, track-bashing in this case is akin to kit-bashing except it involves more destruction of vintage toys by a maniacal modeller.
As made, the Matchbox Motorway spacing is too wide for a double track tramway. The inbound and outbound tracks should be closer to the road’s centre line, so I’ve altered two sections for use on High Street by making the central strip about a third narrower than it was.
At the time of writing Church Square still remains the only tram micro to have progressed beyond the drawing board, work on the scenery is well advanced so it’s time I thought about the overhead electrification. I have been sorting through my extensive collection of dried out ball point pens (never throw anything away), the flexible tubes that hold the ink will be used for the posts to hold the overhead wires with registration arms made from paperclip wire. But what about the wire itself?
What about it?
When modelling overhead electrical equipment the wiring is almost invariably over scale, it is hardly visible in real life so the best solution is to omit it.
Other finishing touches include the yew hedge in the churchyard, some patches on the tarmac in the square and, not visible but very important for a micro that is intended for display on items of furniture, self adhesive felt pads attached to the underside of the baseboard.
The micro is not quite complete, I’m awaiting delivery of suitably sized figures to populate the scene and may consider adding some market stalls on the square as a future development.
The second batch of trams have been delivered, including three open topped double deck cars.
Rather fittingly, given today’s date, this is one of them.
By bedtime I had the guidance pegs fitted to four of the five new trams so they can be run on the layout. The fleet at this stage comprises of No.1 (work car), No.2 (single deck), Nos.3 to 5 (double deck, closed top) and Nos.6 to 8 (open top). No.9 remains to be reworked, I want this one to be a fully enclosed car. Initially I was planning on using two top decks to create this but I’ve realised this evening that the ends of the upper deck sections will fit over the open driver’s platforms of the lower deck so this is what I’ll be attempting. The big advantage of doing it this way is that the running gear will not need rebuilding. Hopefully the accompanying photos will help to show what I’m intending.
Photo 1 shows the car as designed by Lledo. 2 shows a pair of top decks. 3 shows the car as designed and one of the spare top decks. Finally, 4 is photoshopped with enclosed cabs. I’ve got two spare top decks, if I mess up with the first I can try again. If I mess up on the second I can reassemble the tram in its original form with open cabs.
Thursday 7th July 2022 – Car 9
Just a quick update today, no progress to report on High Street or The Depot but car 9 is coming along nicely.
The cabs for car 9 have been cut and loosely fitted in place using Blutack, the project is definitely doable. I have another project in mind, possibly not so easy. A Rawson Demi-Car would involve much more complicated cutting and shutting.
Perhaps a car too far? It’s going to need new running gear, ends, roof and trolley pole but the sides are Lledo originals!
Tuesday 12th July 2022 – The depot, car 9 and painting
Blackcloud Tramways’ offices and tram shed (carbarn for US readers) are in a stone building dating back to the start of the twentieth century, as the tram fleet was supplemented the shed was extended to the rear. Originally timber, this annex was rebuilt in the 1930s as a modern brick and glass structure.
Most, if not all, layouts are designed to show off the models clearly. This is not most models! The trams are virtually hidden inside the building. It is not as daft an idea as it seems, the viewer has to peep through the windows, drawing him into the scene so he can no longer see that there’s nothing other than the shed in the layout.
By the time this report was being typed the Depot was almost complete. The Tri-ang loco shed had vents on the roof, holes where these have been removed were papered over and I’m allowing the glue to dry before applying the SuperQuick slate paper.
Car 9 has also been completed but the paintwork on the lower cab needs panels improving. I’ve got no red acrylic in stock at the moment though.
One of those “half hour” jobs was done this morning. The body sides were masked with tape making painting the trucks a simple task, most of the time involved was applying the masking tape!
Tuesday 26th July 2022 – Inertia
My tramway modelling has been in the doldrums for a while, mainly because I am having difficulty finding a suitable baseboard for High Street but also because a big gas and electric bill has put the kybosh on buying suitable kits for the shops and houses required. I have got a bag of 1:100 scale people to be going at and provide population for the micros but most of these will need repainting before they can be used.
That’s a job for winter evenings in the kitchen when the garage is too cold for railway modelling though.
If/when High Street takes off it’ll be severely downsized and single track. I’m now thinking of having the trams viewed as if down two parallel side streets, passing behind the main street’s buildings in between.
Thursday 4th August 2022 – High Street
High Street is going to be a bit smaller than originally planned, I have salvaged an old box file that will provide the base for the diorama. The ends will need gaps cutting in them so the staging areas can be external and another two gaps will need cutting in the front of the box for a side street and an alley. These will compromise the file’s strength so, in addition to the plastic track, the card bottom of the box will be reinforced with hardboard inside and out.
High Street will offer the viewer just fleeting glimpses of the trams as they pass the narrow side street and an even narrower alley. At the alley end the scenic break will be a low relief rail bridge over the street while the other end’s exit to fiddleyard will be hidden by the tall foreground building.
Built up areas do not have the panoramic vistas found in rural retreats.
This idea worked well for Short Street, a OO9 layout I built several years ago.
With a suitable base found, and the track cut to length and width, there should be some progress with High Street this week. I’d like the buildings to be fairly tall, at least three storeys, as befits a major town centre. They might be quite modern too (if late 1940s and early 1950s are modern) following the attention of the Luftwaffe during the 1940s. There are some MDF kits that might be useful to this end but I’ll work on the baseboard this week and use the polystyrene mock-ups to visualise how it will look with buildings in place. In order for the box lid to close the buildings will need to be removable so they won’t be part of the baseboard’s structural integrity.
Tuesday 16th August 2022 – High Street
After a number of false starts things are actually moving with the High Street diorama. Serious surgery on the boxfile has provided openings at each end for the trams to run on and off stage.
A couple of wargame 15mm scale MDF building kits (eBay photos above) represent an old mill and a new department store facing each other across High Street. The exit to fiddlestick at the other end is to be hidden by a railway on an embankment, often the only bit of greenery you’d find in an early 1960s urban environment. The area in the centre foreground is the factory yard, the orange lorry is on a service road for the department store.
With its structural integrity weakened by the holes at each end the boxfile requires reinforcement so an offcut of hardboard has been glued and pinned under the base.
Tuesday 23rd August 2022 – Scenery
As posted in today’s main blog there has been some significant progress with High Street. The roadway and the railway embankment are glued in place and home made Sculptamold provides the base cover for the scenery. Imagine grass and weeds on the embankment and a generally run down appearance to the factory in the foreground contrasting with the new department store on the other side of the street.
That’s the look I’m aiming for.
Tuesday 4th October 2022 – Greenery
It has been a while since I did anything with High Street’s scenery, this is more down to building other micro layouts than it is to lack of interest though and the boxfile has not been forgotten.
Last night I glued some poly fibre cushion stuffing to the railway embankment, it has been peeled off again this evening then painted in shades of green and lightly covered with scenic scatter to add more varied texture. The dark satanic mill has also been painted a sooty brick colour and the department store roof has a dusting of fine cement powder to look like gravel.
I am indebted to Blair (Hobby) on the NGRM forum for the short length of HOm track on the railway embankment. Now it has been ballasted it passes nicely for TT standard gauge. On the topic of track I still have to bite the bullet and draw the tramlines on both High Street and Church Square. Not a task I’m looking forward to!
To be continued.
I realise now that this page is getting a bit unwieldy but there should not be many more entries before High Street is completed so there’s not much point in starting a second one.
Playing Trains 
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