fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Tag: unitrack

Restarting the restart

Oops, it’s been over two months since my last post and although there’s been no noticeable activity on here there has been progress in the background with some rationalising of the model rail empire in order to make way for new items that are more in line with the direction of my modelling for the moment. With the weather changing for the better now is the time to get outside and do any dirty work needed. I will be posting about that nearer the time I start out as I have a load of work to do on my room first to covert to a proper bedroom railway room, such as painting and decorating, building a workbench come desk, and some shelving. Like most things house related there are a bunch of other things that also need to happen and that’s before I have to get stuff done out in the garden, but following the mantra of fifteen minutes a night means a little progress is still progress. Little things can be tackled whilst waiting on the big things.

So what’s with the new plan? Well actually it’s not that new and after thinking that I had a lightbulb moment I realised that I had already visualised it for a previous project. However they do say that good ideas float to the surface, or something like that, and it is as good to me the second time around. The idea revolves around the layout having two halves with a rural section and an urban section. I can’t claim to be the originator of this idea and I originally saw it on the Oops, it’s been over two months since my last post and although there’s been no noticeable activity here there has been progress in the background with some rationalising of the model rail empire in order to make way for new items that are more in line with the direction of my modelling for the moment. With the weather changing for the better now is the time to get outside and do any dirty work needed. That will come in time and I will be posting about that nearer the time I start out as I have a load of work to do on the room first, such as painting and building a workbench come desk and like most things house related there are a bunch of other things that also need to happen and that’s even before I have to get stuff done out in the garden, but following the mantra of fifteen minutes a night means little progress is still progress.

So what’s with the new plan? Well actually it’s not that new and after thinking that I had a lightbulb moment I realised that I had already visualised it for a previous project. However they do say that good ideas float to the surface, or something like that, and it is as good to me the second time around. The idea revolves around the layout having two halves with a rural section and an urban section. I can’t claim to be the originator of this idea and I originally saw it on the late Carl Arendt’s site some time ago and although not the exact idea I contemplated it certainly sowed the seed of the current plan. I have scaled back over iterations as I started out with a rather ambitious plan, but I have been trying to encourage focused and achievable modelling and rain in my expansionist tendencies. I did get somewhat zealous in my desire to simplify ending up with the idea of just having a circle of track as I diaorama but realised pretty quickly that it wouldn’t be very fulfilling in operational interest but could allow for testing out some new skills in a small limited space in the future.

Effectively this is just a roundy roundy layout with the yards in the visible sections rather than hidden away from the onlookers gaze. It is a designed to just watch trains and with a bit of automation one can sit back and imagine sitting on the platform watching the world go by with maybe a cool drink on a hot summers afternoon. I tried designing the plan for Kato Unitrack but found that prohibitive cost of just a simple track plan was going to add up to far more than I was prepared to pay. The Unitrack system though is great for starting out and enthusing the young in my view and bit by bit an empire can be built. So that leaves me the option of using Peco code 55 finescale track with handlaid switches. This not only makes for swift progress in the bulk of track laying but also allows me to have custom geometry to squeeze in a little more detail or lines where the Unitrack wouldn’t allow. After quite a absence, I need to brush up my Templot skills and draft out the preliminary idea. I find that it is a great assistance to seeing how the railway fits the room (meaning the actual room and the room on the board) as the 3d world doesn’t always match the reality, my last plan being case in point as it looked great on screen but was never going to fit the space in a month of Sundays.

I am going to attempt shorter posts but more often with a round up probably on a Sunday in order to make it easier to keep up with this blogging malarkey, something along the lines of blog concisely and blog often. It takes me what seems like days to write a post but really what most people myself included want to see it pictures of progress. I hope to have some exciting news for next weeks episode so stay tuned and till next time..

Up hill down dale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9wn_CSVUWM

Just a short post to show a rather ramshackle test proof of concept for the GEX set going round a 150mm curve radius helix. As this is only for the none scenic sections it will all be covered over, but access needs to be possible as there will be switches half way up for the middle level and due to the tightness of the curves derailments may occur. I set out to get 50mm of lift in the helix in one turn which is probably double the amount Kato allows for their lifted sections but there recommended clearance is 50mm so it was a good guess.

As you see the loco easily pulls the coaches up and I did a test with the full compliment and it didn’t struggle at all but as I am only going to be using 4 at most this is a satisfactory test.

From small planks, big layouts grow.

Although I completed this yesterday (almost) I thought it would be wise to have a bit of a test bed to trial a number of techniques and products I have never used before that being mainly the Kato Unitrack. I have kept it deliberately simple and at most will have two turnouts/switches on it. I thought that I could use it as a DCC test track and that will fit down the back on a small ledge behind the line shown on the right hand side of the board. I am thinking about adding my SprogII to the underside but will see how I go with this, I may just stick to the Kato controller that came with the GlaicerOnTour set.. Having Bachrus rolling roads that I can set up on it for running locos in is going to be useful and it delays the need for installing Decoders into the locos. On with point Digitrax do a drop in one but other wired ones can be installed just it is a bit harder due to space constraints.

I will be trying out joining Peco concrete flex track to the Unitrack and may try a bit of hand lay just as an experiment. The original discussion see-sawed around wether it would all be hand laid or all Unitrack then a mixture and then back and forth but the upshot of it was that the ends have to be Kato and anything in the middle is fair game as long as it allows the Kato and any future stock to run over it.

So todays 15 minutes are to finish the backscenes and create the fiddle yard. then its off to the model shop to find some ballast material. Well actually that will be tomorrow as nothing open today, being Sunday!

A test bed for Swiss GEX layout ideas

A test bed for Swiss GEX layout ideas