Beginners OO 1950's Banff

Ian N

Western Thunderer
Don't know if the Maquett range is available in your part of the world. If it is they may have something suitable. Here's a link that provides better indication of the range White Super Styrene Profiles.

also thinking outside the box... plastic food containers might have something suitable as a starting point. How you'd glue it back together the correct size is another questionimage.jpg
 

aardvark

Western Thunderer
Many thanks to all who contributed to the discussion on how to model the water tank. I think, my preferences are:
  1. A wooden block, routed and/or sanded on all edges; then, failing that:
  2. Card and/or styrene construction using Maquett's 4mm quarter round rod, imported at great expense.
I was initially tempted to start on the base, but I think I'll do the tank first, then the base to fit.
 

Ian N

Western Thunderer
Are you planning to model the original base, as per your photo, or the latter heightened base?
There's a nice colour photo by R.F. Payne (ARPT), probably taken April 64 in The Last Years of Scottish Steam in Colour by David Dunn, published by Book Law Publications. It's a similar viewpoint as This but the wagon doesn't hide as much.
 

aardvark

Western Thunderer
That's an interesting question.

I think I'll model the raised version. Without any evidence, I suspect that the tank was lifted with a couple of rows of concrete blocks when larger "modern" steam locos were run on the line.

I'm not entirely sure how long the tank was in use for, as the line was only 6 miles to Tillynaught.
 

aardvark

Western Thunderer
Gee - it's nearly been a year since I last posted.

In the meantime, there has been an announcement that we're to move house, followed by an aggressive period of de-stuff-ing, painting & decorating. It's amazing how much work there is in making a house look like it is low maintenance. Finally, the house is on the market, but, of course, we've probably chosen the worse time in history to sell a house, save the 1930's.

Amongst all that, I lost enthusiasm for a layout that would probably be dismantled, and began investigating alternate locations for a future layout in a future space in a future house. In the end, I've done a full circle and come back to consider how I might add a fiddleyard to the existing Banff layout in a future shared double garage.

Banff_ordnance_5q_peco - mkII.jpg

Here, I've given myself 2 x 4.8m because I can't be sure I will be allowed a fully half of the garage, and because it's easier to make layouts bigger than smaller should I be surprised.

The four boards at the bottom are the existing layout, already 4.8m long. The left-most one will require re-laying of track, but not a substantive reconstruction of the baseboard itself. Everything else would be new. Most of the boards are 600mm wide. The wriggly bit on the left will be train-in-the-landscape. The background there is borrowed from a CJF plan, and is indicative rather than prescriptive. There may be a bridge or halt midway.

At the top, in the blank bit, will be the fiddleyard. I haven't drawn anything here yet because there are many options, at least including:
  • fan of turnouts
  • traverser
  • turntable
  • sector plate
  • cassette
or combinations thereof. Not having had any sort of fiddleyard previously, I should take time to look at each in turn.

In the case of Banff, there is no need for trains to be turned. Most, if not all, locos ran into Banff tender/bunker first. I suppose goods services still had brake vans at the tail, but in-bound passenger services all seem to have had the guard compartment of the 3rd-brake immediately in front of the loco. With a downhill gradient and a loco in reverse, I suppose there was no chance that a decoupled train would run-away unnoticed. So the fiddleyard merely has to get the loco on the other end of the train. A locolift may be sufficient.

There's plenty of time to consider the options. Doesn't seem like I'm going anywhere.


While the northern hemisphere people are asleep, I added the following ...

Fiddle Yards: The Unglamorous Secret to Great Operations seems to offer sagely advice for fiddle-newbies like me:
  • fiddleyards should be as long as your longest train, including the loco, plus another 50mm or so. To some extent, that requires a crystal ball to see into the future, but I get the drift and I'm off to measure my rolling stock.
  • you need more tracks than you expect: at least twice the number of tracks as trains running simultaneously, plus two.
 
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Phil O

Western Thunderer
Having over the years used all the options, and I have come to the conclusion that turntable fiddleyards are the best option, as they require the least amount of stock handling and once each train has been to the station and back, it takes less than a minute to be back at the start.
 
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