 PAGE 53a - SEPTEMBER 2006, ©2006 Carl Arendt Linked index of all Scrapbook pages |
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H O T I D E A S F O R S M A L L R A I L R O A D S Appearing right on the heels of the first installment of this shelf-layaut collection are more dramatic examples of how fine scenery and interesting trains can combine with good operation on a shelf. The frontispiece again is the fine On30/0e layout, Josephtown Craddonium Co., by Fabrice Fayolle, from Amiens, France (see plan in #24). |
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| L A Y O U T S W I T H T R A V E R S E R S Traversers
(transfer tables) are a very easy and useful way to move cars,
locomotives or even entire trains from track to track behind the
scenes. Because such tables were used in the prototype, they can also
be left in plain sight. Here, however, are several examples of
"backstage" traversers, used to keep traffic flowing in the visible
part of the layout.
 A branch line that was planned but never built provides the backstory for Hans Bauer's N scale layout, Innhafen.
Hans lives in Wasserburg, Bavaria, Germany, on the Inn river ... and
the fictional Wasserburg line is featured on his layout, fed by a
three-track traverser in the fiddle yard. Naturally the rail line
serves river traffic; our attention focuses on the large crane at the
waterfront.
    The three-track traverser in the fiddle yard is constructed from metal tracks for drawers, as shown in these photographs (below).
   Shortliner Jack Trollope,
who lives in the Highlands of Scotland, designed this 1x4ft micro
layout for a friend who needed a "one turnout" layout with operating
potential. A wagon (car) repair depot is modeled. Two traversers, hidden inside kitbashed Peco
locomotive sheds, make it possible to access all the tracks and feed
traffic to the layout (a wise builder will omit the sheds' rear walls). Trace out
the movements required for the pilot loco (switcher) to take a car from
the fiddle track at upper left to the crane track at the lower left!
 Steve Christopher, from Ottawa, Canada, is building this new version of his original layout, as it was redesigned by Jack Trollope and called Pine Ridge II. Got that? This is Pine Ridge Version II-A!
Overall length is 40in, with a detachable 15in traverser. The whole
works fits in Steve's car to take to train shows. For progress reports on
this work in progress, see Steve's web site.
  Neil Rushby, from York England, has returned to mid-Wales at the beginnning of the Seventies for his new 6x1ft layout, Abergwynant. It's EM gauge (4 mm scale on 18.2mm gauge). The photo at left shows most of the layout and the entire track plan. There's a concealed three-track traverser just visible behind the bridge at the rear. It both feeds the layout and completes the runaround, much like Pine Ridge II-A above. As there's a narrow-gauge quarry tramway at the real Abergwynant, Neil included a short, unused stretch of track in his model (right front). |
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CLIMBING THE HIMALAYAS IN GERMANY Alexander Kaczmarek, from Berlin, Germany, is building his first On30 layout to depict a portion of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India. His plan, shown under construction at right, is an adaptation of Chuck Yungkurth's popular Gum Stump & Snowshoe.
Rather than rising up and switching back over itself on a bridge, this
line emulates the real DHR and operates as a straight switchback
(zig-zag) line.The layout measures 210x45cm (83x18in). Alexander is modeling many typical details of the real DHR, including a "muddy road" paralleling the center track of the switchback just as the old British road runs beside much of the real railway's trackage. Alexander is still busy building Indian structures and scenery for the line, a process made somewhat more difficult by the fact that he has never been to India! Many details will be required to capture the crowded and exotic flavor of this Himalayan mountain line. This layout illustrates well the advantages of building a switchback line on a long, narrow shelf. We'll try to keep you posted on Alexander's progress. For details of the real DHR, one of the world's most fascinating railroads, he recommends the DHR Society website.   |
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A WORLD WAR I TRENCH RAILWAY MODEL  Charlie Bryant,
from Asheville, North Carolina, USA, is building this World War I
trench railway in 1n20 (1:32 scale on 16.5mm gauge). He's just begun to
build scenery in the photo above, which also shows Charlie's ingenious
PVC plumbing-tube support structure for the shelf... lightweight and
easy to dismantle and transport. At left is Charlie's scratchbuilt
"armored Simplex" loco, a 40-hp unit often used in the First World
War to distribute supplies at the front lines. |
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HIS FIRST MICRO LAYOUT Influenced by the designs on this site, John Sparrow
from Wiltshire, England, is building this OO scale micro layout using
much of the OO material he has accumulated over the years. Designed as a simple experimental layout, the pike measures 48x11in (120x28cm). The fiddle yard (behind the sawtooth-roofed factory at right) is a straight track. suitable for Giant Hand Action (GHA). |
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HERE'S A NEW PEEK'S PIKE VERSION - IN ENGLAND! Still under construction but already looking good is this version of Peek's Pike being built by Martin Hogg, from Mansfield, England. There's more information in Scrapbook #48, and still more at Martin's website.
In this progress photo, the birches are looking great! They're made
from real birch branches, but each one had to be painted to make it
white and with appropriate markings. The layout has finally acquired a
name, reports Martin: it's called Zebulon Rocks. This intricate pun is based on the title of my layout, Peek's Pike,
which is a play on the name of the well-known American mountain, Pike's
Peak, that in turn was named for Zebulon Pike, an early frontiersman
who discovered and named the mountain. Got it?
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L A Y O U T S W I T H T U R N T A B L E S
Visible or hidden, a turntable greatly enhances the operating possibilities of any layout and saves a whole lot of space to boot! Here are some layouts that use turntables effectively "onstage" to get more operation in very small spaces.  Brian Wilson, from Sidney, British Columbia, Canada, found a way to adapt E.L. Moore's Shortline Terminal to a very small shelf, in On30 -- including a piece of a traction line! Brian's clever plan is shown above -- notice that the turntable is an integral part of the operations! The key component of operations will be the Interchange track -- from regular railroad to traction (under overhead wire). The design evolution of this plan is described well on Brian's website. Construction is underway -- we'll try to bring you progress reports as Brian develops the line. Shown below are the original E.L. Moore terminal design (at left) and the IKEA shelf unit arrangement that Brian plans as the base for his minimum space layout.    Hans Schuemie, from suburban Rotterdam, Netherlands, built this O scale railway, the Beaver Creek Line, in just 245x60cm (96x24in). "At the back, " Hans notes, "is one standard gauge track with a small siding. The rest is a narrow gauge (0n30) yard. " Hans drew a plan to show us the track arrangement.  Another design from the ubiquitous Jack Trollope,
up in Ross-shire, Scotland, is this design for Jaxcilli Industries IV
... the latest in a series of offbeat designs for interesting
industrial railways. This one features a small wagon turntable (perhaps
created on a used CD disk), which uses three capstans (at A, B and C)
to guide a hauling rope by which the loco pulls cars in and out of the
building! Note that the loco is not allowed on the turntable (too
heavy), and sometimes must use a "reach" wagon (spacer car) to place
cars on the table. This is only an experiment at this point, but Jack
is determined to give it a try!
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INSPIRATION FOR THE HOLIDAYS! Frenchman Nicolas Kieffer built this charming little HOe/HOn30 layout as a Christmas holiday treat in 90x35cm (35x14in). It's a Fork layout (see Scrapbook #44), but Nicolas uses it with an electronic control as a back-and-forth display with a waiting period at each end. The centerpiece tree is a Noch product, using very small LEDs for illumination. All buildings and rolling stock were scratchbuilt of wood by Nicolas. It's not too early to start thinking about your holiday display this year! |
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A VERY SMALL DIESEL SERVICING YARD  Dave Carson, from Stowmarket, Suffolk, England, revamped an older layout to produce this 36x6in (90x15cm) HO diesel servicing facilty, Helper Yard. Dave describes its operation this way: "Bachmann GP40-2's from Alaska RR and Conrail arrive as helpers paired together, uncouple, then each loco goes through its fueling and sanding sequences before rejoining for departure." An ingenious use of a simple plan! |
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SOME FRESH IDEAS IN GERMAN RAILWAY STATIONS For fans of small layouts with prototype roots, one of this site's contributors, Herbert Fackeldey, from Aachen,
Germany, has written a new book showcasing a variety of German stations
and has designed track plans for model layouts based on them. Even
better, his publisher, Mittelpuffer magazine, has published both the
prototype and model layouts on their website!If you're interested in unusual fiddle yard designs, German prototype stations, or ways of adapting real track plans to model spaces, this site is a good guide to potential shelf-layouts. If you wish, you can also buy the book there -- the descriptions of each layout are quite detailed but are written in German. Summary pages are included in English and French. |
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MORE INSPIRATION - AN HO/HOn30 INDUSTRIAL LAYOUT Inspired by this website Christian Danziger, from Kaufering, Germany (near Munich), designed and built a dual-gauge HO/HOe layout, "Die Werksbahnen der Lechfelder Kieswerke" (in English, Lechfeld Quarry Tramway). The layout is built in two sections, each of which required three to four months of work to complete.
The first section (overview below), 107x42cm (42x16in), depicts a stone quarry operation. A narrow gauge tramway hauls sand and gravel from the rock crusher (left rear) to the interchange with the standard (normal) gauge at the front. The crusher loader has two electromagnetic latches so that the railroad car can be filled with sand at the push of a button. Christian has built a working model of a piggy-back operation in which the standard-gauge open cars are carried to the crusher on a narrow-gauge piggy-back car ("Rollwagen" in German). The photos below show this rollwagen operation. Christian explains, "The Bemo diesel loco on narrow gauge tracks brings the standard-gauge wagon on the Rollwagen to a ramp, where it is pulled onto the standard gauge by the normal gauge loco (a V36 Diesel Loco from Lenz)."      The open wagon is then hauled to
the second section, the harbor /port (photos below).
In the port, the sand is shifted onto a ship for transport to
industrial costumers. This second section measures 40x42cm
(15.7x16in) and features a waterfront crane for transferring sand.
Empty standard-gauge cars are moved back to the interchange ramp for
Rollwagen transport back to the crusher. Christian's daughter, Magdalena, is a big fan of the railroad and often "assists" in its operation, as does his wife, Michaela.
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