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Flexibility

24 January, 2009

As I begin to put together the base units, one thing that keeps coming to mind is another track plan that I like from the proposals I did. This one is based on the Wiscasset Waterfront on the old Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington 2 foot railroad.

 

(take on Wiscasset)

 

It's simple and offers quite a lot of operational possibilities. I'd probably use it as a basic branchline end and "transpose" it to somewhere else. It would mean the use of tanked locos rather than ones with seperate tenders (I'd still buld my 2-4-0 though). There's not quite enough room for a turntable - maybe.

 

My concept for the base unit is for it to be flexible. I could have different layouts and use the same core base. Just make things removable.

 

Sun 25 Jan 2009 16:22

Just realized that I've been so busy trying to get stuff looking right spacially that I've ended up with nearly 22 inches width. This is a problem, because my shelf unit is only 15 inches wide. So it's back to the drawing board as 22 inches is too much of an overhang. 

 

posted on 13:58   link | comments (0)   . . . . .  

The big print

23 January, 2009

My second lot of foamboard arrived today and it is not bowed. In order to get a decent cutting I went into my main graphics program and tiled together 28 A4 pages. Once I had the outline of the base of the layout in, I did the print.

 

My new Epson printer is noisy, like seriously noisy, and for the next 10 minutes my studio sounded a bit like a garbage truck. Warning, if you don't like really, loud printers, don't get an Epson D92. This thing must have a decibel rating of around 95-100. Eventually I had my 28 pages with the line of the baseboard on.

 

Wait a minute, you might say, model railroads have straight edges and 90 degree corners, why print out over 2 dozen pages for this?  I never said it was straight.

 

The next job will be to size up the sectons of foamboard and get three sections of 36 inches by 24 inches - twice. Then the top part will have some areas cutout for inserts and the whole lot laminated together. The layout will break down into 3 units eventually. I'd like to use special magnets to hold them together, but need to find out more about that.

 

It would be nice to have the bases done within the next week. However, I have website to maintain, some software projects that are still in progress, plus my daughter and her husband are moving house. As she has just had a baby, it's mostly up to the rest of us. So I will be busy.

 

Will you have photo's of what you're doing Ted? No. I don't like websites that have "under construction" pages on and would never, ever, do that. The same principle is being applied to my model railroad layout. "Under construction" photo's are a no-no (unless of course it is a tutorial and only then parts are shown as they develop toward the whole). I figure it either works or it doesn't and if'n it ain't working you don't see it.

 

posted on 17:18   link | comments (0)   . . . . .  

Bows and bends

21 January, 2009

The foamboard I ordered arrived, very quickly. In fact I was a bit amazed at the speed. Unfortunately it is bowed. All twenty-five pieces have about a 2 degree bend, which means they are effectively usless. The size that must be dead flat is 36 by 24 inches and I need three final sections that size.

 

I contacted the people I purchased it from and am waiting until tomorrow morning to see if the stuff flattened itself out. If not they will send me another 25 pieces. In the meantime I will be printing out the master for shaping on my new Epson printer. It prints edge to edge so I should get a good template for cutting - after patching together around 27 pieces of A4 paper (that ought be fun).

 

The other thing I have been looking for is anthracite coal in sizeable pieces. I live within the London boroughs and it is illegal to sell this type of coal because of the smoke laws. So I have to go outside London to find some. Once I have a few good chunks, I can get to grips with doing a whole lot of moulds for cliff faces. I find it interesting that years ago I did this, gave the moulds to someone who then passed them on again. I checked out Woodland Scenics site. What do I see? The results of some of those moulds. Somehow WS got hold of them and used them as masters for a couple of the RTV moulds they sell. Amazing how stuff gets spread around in this hobby.

 

posted on 21:53   link | comments (0)   . . . . .  

Ah yes, old habits.....

11 January, 2009

Until I manage to order my foam board from the graphic supplies firm, I've been playing around with some forum code. I just couldn't help it, I'm so used to getting sites right that I slipped back into dev mode. Having said that though, a forum dedicated to American On30 narow gauge might work (sort of). The software is the problem. If you've read my main site blog you'll know I am a KISS rule guy and PHP does not fall into that category., so I use Perl (stable, backward compatible and very flexible).

 

I have been working on the last downloadable verson of Cutecast, but there are some things I'm a bit iffy on about it working on a sub-domain. I also have my old Forum2/3 software and have been playing around with it. Then, of course, there is the one I'm completely writing from scratch. Hummm, choices.

 

Back to the foam board. I want the 10mm stuff as it should be really solid. I can make fairly solid bases from the 5mm, if done properly, but would rather the heavier 10mm format.

 

Fri 16 Jan 2009 14:36

Just ordered my foam board. Not exactly what I wanted as the orders are by the carton. So I got some 5mm thick stuff that I'll have to double up for the main base and edge it out with single layer and single layer interior supports. Should arrive next week.

 

posted on 22:06   link | comments (0)   . . . . .  

Sniffles, snuffles and subjects to ponder

06 January, 2009

Here in flu land, with stuffed up head and feeling akin to something the cat drug in, I am looking at the site and wonder if at some time I might add a forum specifically aimed at narrow gauge model railroading. There are one or two forums out there (just joined one but forgot to put my email on the server so can't do much. They deal with the entire model railraoding community and have some narrow gauge stuff in, but are not dedicated to that aspect of the hobby.

 

Quite how well this would work on a sub-domain I'm not sure. The software I'm tweaking at the moment is a bit iffy on that score and I will eventually have it on the main site as well. Thing is it's small and not aimed at tens of thousands of users. Alternatively I could use my old forum software, but it would have to be inside a protected folder and all the associated hassle with memberhip being an add on instead of incorporated into the scripts - plus it's only a single forum thing.

 

Maybe when the head (and brain) clears up a bit I'll have another look at what could be done.

 

posted on 19:29   link | comments (0)   . . . . .  

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