All the buildings for Penzance are now finished, except for some final cleanup and detailing which will be done at a later stage. As usual, the closeup pictures in this scale are cruel.
Construction of the trains needed for the layout is well under way. All the locos and passenger stock are done, with the goods wagons coming soon. The hidden tracks can store about 10 feet worth of trains nose-to-tail, so that is enough for a decent variety. All are 3D printed, with a combination of paper sides and hand painting for the detail work.
The Malmsbury station buildings are now largely complete. Final details such as fences, lamps and signs will be added as late as possible since they are quite delicate. As usual, while the closeups are cruel, it looks reasonable at a normal viewing distance.
The first steps towards the Malmsbury model have now been taken: a site visit and photo session, all structures have been 3D printed, the baseboard built, the track manufactured, and final positioning mock-ups are under way.
There has been a lack of recent progress on Penzance, with me hesitating at the large number of buildings that have to be painted. So, to recharge my batteries I have started what I hope should be a fairly quick and simple 2-3 month side project. Serious planning began on May 1st, so let's see how well that time estimate holds up.
Malmsbury is a minor station about 100km north of Melbourne, with some local fame from having the largest stone viaduct in Australia. My usual 6' x 2' layout size is big enough to include both the station and the viaduct, with no compression. The layout will be in 1:480 scale, set in the 1960s at the end of steam, and consist of a simple double track oval - the station sidings and loops will be dummies. This will finally give me somewhere to run my VR trains, and an excuse to build more of them! After my brief venture into slot cars, it is back to railways again, with some Victorian Railways models in T Gauge (1:480). A Walker railcar, J and K class steam locos, and some typical wagons and carriages. As usual, these are low resolution 3D prints with printed paper sides.
Here is the conclusion of this little experiment in tiny-scale slot cars.
One idea for the linear motor track that I have had from the beginning is to use it for a very small scale slot car set, but without slots. This little layout uses 4m of my standard road track, and the new control computer developed for Penzance. That has two sets of track outputs, intended for dual cab control, but is used here to coordinate the two lanes of a race track. The cars are Z scale (1:220), but I will try some in 1:300 or so along with a proper road surface and a bit of scenery.
All the buildings, railway and non-, have now been built. The platforms, and the foundations for the ground, roads and dummy tracks are taking shape. It is finally starting to look like a full model.
|
Overview
British and Australian model railway layouts in T, N and OO. My Layouts
Friends' Layouts
Main Articles
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
AuthorMartin Kaselis |
- Home
- My Linear Motor Layouts
- My Conventional Layouts
- Other Layouts
- T Gauge
-
Electronic Tips
- Blue Pill - Bare Metal C Programming
- Working Roads
- Hybrid DC - DCC Controller
- Using LEDs
- Connectors
- Controlling the Fleischmann Turntable
- Constant Brightness Tail Lamps (OO scale)
- Point Motors and Relays
- Point Motors and Toggle Switches
- Dapol Signals
- Colour Light Signals and Automation
- Synchronized Fast Clocks
- Wire Sizes and Voltage Drop
- DC Controllers
- Controller Types
- Feedback Controllers
- Working Level Crossing
- General Tips
- 3D Printing
- Contact
- Links