All in the 009 news...

Just a quick post to keep things ticking over here. Another issue of the 009 news has been found in my mailbox. I'd just like to say how much I look forward to receiving it each month. Good photographs interesting modelling articles just the sort of thing I need to keep the enthusiasm level ticking over whilst I'm struggling with inspiration.

Tumbleweed time...

You've seen those old westerns with the deserted towns and the tumbleweed blowing down the deserted streets...
Well such is the state of my mind at the moment when it comes to developing this layout.
If you've seen some of the posts on my 4mm scale agonies blog you'll know that I can see in my minds eye just exactly what I want to put over on a model.
Lately, here that has just not been happening for me. I know what I want to put over in the model I just can't see how I want to put it over.
Mountain streams, Dinas junction station building, trees, mountains, slate built buildings. It's all there. I just can't see how these features relate to each other.
To me that is of paramount inportance. I haven't done anything to my P4 layout in months but my enthusiasm for this layout remains undiminished because I can see how every inch of the layout will look when finished. Ergo, it must be the same for this project.
In the meantime I'm reading and absorbing lots of material on all aspects of the layout. I found a fascinating piece in an old issue of the Review last night "Feldbahn Theatre" it was called. The layout was 1:22.5 scale, circular, about 3' in diameter. There was a lot of rumblings about smoke generators and such like. But the overall presentation had things that made me think. The lighting, the seamless semicircular backscene. Who knows where that article will lead me, if anywhere.
I've also taken some inspiration from Neil Rushbys' circular 009 layout. I like the way it looks. It's almost, but not quite, sort of like, almost what I'm thinking of. It nags at my brain in a way that other layouts don't.
So nothing much happenning but its not for want of trying...

The mystery baseboard

I've posted this picture on my 4mmscale agonies blog and I thought I'd post it here for devilment...

It's a piece of wood some 5' long by 1' at its deepest point, that has been languishing unnoticed in my garage for several years now. Coming in from a 15 mile run the other day I saw it and was struck by the shape. Initially I thought the curved edge looked like a river bank. It could just as easily be a rocky fast flowing North Wales river as it could be a slow silted up East Lincolnshire river mouth. Like I say just posted for devilment it would be a pity not to incorporate those curves on a layout somewhere...

Mail Call

Yesterday on returning home from work my first mailing from the 009 society had arrived.
It's interesting to see the difference in society introductory mailings. The EM Gauge society sends a huge wodge of papers in its manual and a CDRom as well. The Scalefour society sends a nice thick folder of papers too.
The 009 is much lighter. Not that that is a bad thing at all. Just a magazine and a letter of introduction and a couple of pages of rules.
The big surprize though was a free Colin Ashby wagon kit! I wasn't expecting that at all. Unfortunately the wheels snapped off at the axles on the wheels and and one wheel and both axles punched their way out of the envelope and got lost in transit on my kit. But that's not an issue, send me replacement and the same would probably happen. I have plenty of Microtrains wheels that I will standardize on for my layout anyway. But I was really impressed with that little extra in the mailing.
So I now consider myself a 009 modeller and a happy one at that.

Paperwork

Spent the last week or so going through some old model railway magazines looking for drawings of buildings and rolling stock to get an idea of what things will look like. Found some drawings of Ffestiniog Railway coaches in some issues of the Review. But most importantly I found myself a station building. In issue 62 of the Review is an article about Dinas station on the NWNGR/WHR complete with drawings. It's a nice small structure with lots of character and given that if the line to Betws-y-coed had been built it would likely have been operated by the NWNGR. So the building is totally in character. Looking forward to starting that one soon.

Counting the cost

OK a quick rant here about prices of imported stuff in the US.
I was in my Local Hobby Shop on Sunday (Hub Hobby in Richfield - excellent place) and I bought some track for this layout. A couple of PECO crazy track point $12.99 each. Not too bad a price I thought.
Yesterday I looked in the Walthers website the same items were $23.99 each!
Daylight robbery!
I will be off back to Hub Hobby to buy the rest of their crazy track points soon...

Cricket, Running and Betws (not necessarily in that order)

First off England won the Ashes!
Those of you who read my 4mmscaleagonies blog will know of my summertime obsession with the greatest game. So yesterday I was pretty happy.
I have also alluded to my passion for marathon running and Sunday was my first 20 mile training run of my current training campaign.
Twenty miles is a long way to run and it takes a few hours 3:18:12 to be exact, so it affords me a good length of time to clear my mind and think about things with no distractions.
Things like scenes I'd like to feature on this layout.
Some kind of station with a small loop and a siding, perhaps two, so that I could shunt some wagons.
A small river bed strewn with rocks and boulders with the water wending its way around them.
A small scene with the tramway running alongside the road.
The layout need some sort of large central feature to hide one side of the layout from the other to help seperate the the scenes from each other. Belfield Hall used a large wall and Ganaraska used a large building. What I'll use I don't know. A tree covered Rocky outcrop perhaps? Mustn't look to contrived however.
This is all good. The creative cogs are turning, visions are forming in my mind . Doubtlessly some sketches will be forthcoming in the near future.

The roundtuit (part 2)

Something I neglected to mention about this roundtuit. It was built with the idea in mind of mounting it on a turntable and being rotated to view each different scene.

This obviously plays merry hell with the idea of a conventional backscene. Which is why some of Neil Rushby's Blog entries entitled "presentation" 1, 2 and 3 have interested me somewhat. They are ideas that have buzzed around in my own head from time to time over the years. But I'd always discounted them because "staged presentation" was the vogue and I liked that too especially when the examples I'd seen were done well. Plus for a while there it did almost seem like heresy to be against it.

Now with a rotating layout there is no way I can have a conventional backscene attached to the rear of the layout. But some kind of freestanding backdrop (tree covered mountainside) like in part 1 would seem like a good idea. Of course then there is the issue of changing trains out via the cassette access at the rear of the layout. The backscene would then get in the way.

I need some clever lateral thinking here...

The roundtuit

You know I said that I had a round baseboard?

Well I took a closer look at that tonight and it even has a trackplan from the previous scheme scrawled on it. With a bit of thought it might be workable.

Here we are then. At the front we'd have a small station with a passing loop long enough for a Peebles loco and 3 coaches, that would be approx 16-18" long I think. With room in front for a goods yard of a couple of sidings perhaps. Exactly what would happen on the way to the rear of the layout is uncertain. But at the rear you can see 2 lines go off the edge of the basebaord. That will be the access point for a couple of train cassettes to get the trains onto the layout. It's an interesting starting point to get me thinking some more...

Getting a roundtuit..

The one great thing about being a serial layout builder is that I have started many layouts. Equally so I have not finished many layouts. So I have a ready supply of baseboards around the house. I have one at 4' x 14" one at 4' x 18" one at 4' x 2', a triangular one 4' long along the longest edge and the one that just caught my eye a circular one 3' in diameter. I don't know why it grabbed my attention. Perhaps because you don't actually see many circular layouts about. I can only think of two. Stephen Browns' Belfield Estate Railway which really excited me when I first saw it and Christopher Creightons Ganaraska Stone Quarry Tram layout. A layout that equally fascinated me when I first saw it featured in Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. Perhaps I can do something with the circular baseboard.

Perhaps I could do something with the triangular baseboard. You see even less of them about Once again I only know of two. Both from Roy C. Link the second of his incarnations of the Crowsnest Tramway and his current Narrow gauge Sand and gravel layout.

Maybe it's not such a good idea to plan a layout around an already built baseboard. I might find myself compromising my ideas to make them fit the space. But as I've gone to the time and effort to make them already it would be foolish not to use them and with plenty of sizes and shapes to choose from I should be able to get an idea to fit.

A Train in my Brain

That's what it feels like when the creative juices start flowing. I'm seeing all kinds of things in my minds eye that I'd like to incorporate into the layout. The line sharing the road with horse drawn traffic in the village of Betws-y-Coed. A stop outside the Swalllow Falls. Travelling along an embankment along the river valley with the Ugly House (Ty Hwll) in the background...
A station along one edge of the village green in Betws at right angles to the standard gauge railway station...
Sometimes I hate my brain...

Sign me up.

I love the heady excitement of the first days of a new project.
Coming up with a witty title for the blog for example was fun. It just jumped into my head from nowhere. "Betws-y-Coed in my basement" just didn't have the same ring to it.
Having forgotten most that I ever knew about 009 modelling I thought it would be a good idea to seek out like minded modellers. There are quite a few on Rmweb but from there I was directed to Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling online.
An extremely friendly group. I've already received offers of research help wich may turn out to be quite useful being 4,000 miles away from Betws.
I also signed up for the 009 society. I always feel that its a good idea to be a member of a specialist society (if there is one) when you are modelling something other than the R-T-R scales. The 009 Society have their act together and you can join up online something very important to me on the other side of the Atlantic. Done in 5 minutes. With a monthly 009 specific magazine I'll be able to get a good regular fix of narrow gauge modelling inspiration.
I wonder what I can do next?

Why Betws in the basement?

Why indeed.

It's Carl Arendt's fault, sort of. He was good enough to send me some of his duplicate copies of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review (the Review). I did warn him that reading these magazines would likely lead to the building of a new layout. But little did I know where that inspiration would come from.

Issue 57 . An article about the Ganz Electric Locomotives for the Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway and a model built in 16mm scale. I was smitten.

But why?
I have no idea except for the fact that the line was in North Wales, my favourite railway location in the world.

The story of the Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway (hereafter referred to as the PBSSR to save my carpal tunnel) is a great story. A line promoted to link the slate mines at Croesor and South Snowdon with the coast. Work started on construction, locomotives were ordered but the line was never completed and the route ended up being incorporated into the Welsh Highland Railway. The wikipeda article made for fascinating reading. This lead me to another history where mention was made of a proposed line on towards Betws-y-Coed.

Ah... Betws-y-Coed. Scene of many happy childhood holiday memories. The seeds of inspiration were planted and starting to grow. I envisioned a line travelling up the Nant Gwynant, passing the beautiful Llyn Dinas and Llyn Gwynant lakes. Heading over to Capel Curig via the Nantygwyrd valley then passing Swallow Falls and the Ugly House and into Betws-y-Coed where the line would terminate close to the Railway Station.

So it seems like it would be a good idea to build a model inspired by Betws-y-Coed.

There you have it. Betws in the Basement.

Here we go again...

Another layout, another blog.
What am I playing at? Aren't I satisfied with a T scale Japanese layout and a P4 scale layout based on a fictitious Lincolnshire light Railway? Not to mention My HO scale US outline shunting plank and the Gn15 Purespring watercress?
Clearly not.
I have said before that I am a serial model railway designer and builder. One layout is not enough for me. I like lots of different prototypes and I have to model them.
The latest prototype that I have been bewitched by is the Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway in North Wales.
I'm a sucker for the Narrow Gauge lines of North Wales and the discovery of this started-but-never-completed line with its overhead electric locomotives was too much to resist.
So here we are, with thoughts of another layout for the model railway room in the basement. Who knows where this adventure will lead me at the moment.
As always it will be fun finding out.