Hi and welcome once again to my blog. Before we get going on this week’s subject I have breaking news in the workshop department, it’s done! As you can see everything is in its place and as the title of this blog suggests I even had time for a tea break! The plan is to have three micro layouts on the go at any one time, one ready for cutting and construction, one ready for electrics, track laying and scenery and the third in the railway room for finishing. Now that the workshop is done I’m ready to rock and roll.
Why micro I hear you ask, indeed what is a micro layout? Put simply a micro layout is a one that you can operate in a small space but still have enough variation to be able to operate your trains and rolling stock. The SHIREBROOK range of layouts I’m producing will hopefully do just that.
The first question is how big or small is the layout? Now if I was building a model in say a cupboard under the stairs I would have dimensions to work with but as this project for others to purchase then I decided to go with one size fits all. It is also important that the layout can later be incorporated into a larger layout should its owner suddenly inherit a “railway room”. Below is my blueprint for the baseboards and as you can see (or can’t) the baseboard is 1030mmx 500mm. I got to this size simply by playing with some track and buildings and making sure I can operate trains and fit in buildings and scenery without compromising on the room the layout takes up.
So I’ve got my baseboards next what will the layout look like, as I said before the idea is to get as much operation as possible on a small space so with that in mind I came up with 4 options.
1. SHIREBROOK YARD.
2. SHIREBROOK STATION.
3. SHIREBROOK COAL YARD.
4. SHIREBROOK GOODS YARD.
So lets deal with these one by one.
Shirebrook Yard.
This layout is all about engines, as you can see there’s a double track engine shed, water tower and sand shed with a workers hut which may yet become a signal box. As far operation it’s quite simple really, engines come into the yard for water and any work that needs carrying out in the shed before the next job. What this layout does offer is a lot of movement with probably enough room for 8 engines at any one time.
At this point I should point out all four layouts have a fiddle yard. For those who are not familiar with this concept I shall explain.
The fiddle yard represents “the rest of the world” usually accessed via a tunnel it takes trains out of the diorama of the railway allowing other trains to come into the action. The advantage of this is again space saving and allowing a lot of train movements.
Well that’s it for this blog, next time I’ll wrap up the other three layout designs and then see if they go from paper to baseboard (fingers crossed).
Alan.
Railway Imp 