Page 118: June 2015

June 4, 2015 by Gert

And here is another Small Layout Scrapbook update for you to enjoy. Have fun reading!

Hoyt-Clagwell Tractor Factory

The layout is built in On30 by Geoff Potter from Wamberal, NSW Australia.

Small Street Car Layout “Point de Départ”

The layout is built in HO by Axel Vega from France:

“After a tymesavers build in 2006, I make last year a closed pizza box in 2011. It’s a little urban HO layout with railcar in a box (55cmx44cmx27cm). This box is close and we can see the interior only by few windows on the side. 1950-1960, middle-europa, night, light, 50′ movies atmosphere… If you read french, you could go on my blog to read all the story  step by step:
1.1 – Point de départ. – InTheBox II”

 South Dakota in N-scale

This layout is built in N by James Wilmus.

“This is my 2×3 N scale layout that I built for train shows.  It uses 1/2″ thick pine boards for benchwork, 1/2” thick foam for the scenery base, and a simple track plan.

While N scale is not difficult to use in a small space, creating a realistic operation and a depiction of a prototype scene like those found in the Midwest can be a challenge.  The classic midwest scene found from Ohio to Montana is the grain elevator.  Known commonly as “sentinels of the prairie”, wood-cribbed elevators play a big role in the heritage of midwestern farming communities, so to have such a operation is a must on any layout depicting the midwest.

 Spring in N scale

This layout is built in N by Alexandru Stoicia from Bucharest, Romania.

“My name in Alex Stoicia and I am from Bucharest, Romania. I am a small N scale collector (meaning that the collection is small, not the scale :)). I discovered this site and I was inspired by all this great micro-layouts. I decided to start myself such a project because I liked the concept – to chose a theme and express it in a condensed space without agglomerate it. As a result I made a Pizza layout of 49 cm diameter. The layout’s name is “Spring at N scale”. The layout is pure fictional and I tried to gave it an idealistic air. The theme is a beautiful spring Saturday morning in the mountains, near a cottage. Fresh green, pine nuts and people who have left indoor activities aside and went out to walk, to climb or just to have a beer at the cottage, each after force and abilities.”

It’s a beautiful weekend morning at the cottage Lonely Peak. A very appreciated area both by tourists and climbers, as the top is accessible by a marked tourist trail, and some climbing routes of various degrees of difficulty:

The morning train is coming! The station is not near the cottage, but one kilometer further, in the village. The tourists have to walk from the village to the cottage on a beautiful and scenic trail:

The cottage host is expecting the guests regarding the mountains:

A BR92 is heading also to the village with a beer car. It’s announced a warm day and lots of thirsty tourists.

Some of them start fishing hoping for a tasty lunch:

A team of climbers enters the route “Levitation” – difficulty 5B, on the front side, traversing the wall right over the Black Overhangs. A third climber is content for now with some bouldering at low altitude:

Although the climber is in a difficult passage, the belayer, probably relying on the good weather and dry rock, belay relaxed, I might even say careless, with the hand on the helmet! Blame it on the spring!

Meanwhile the tourists reached some height and they take advantage on their smartphones! They went online on Facebook and post pictures with landscapes in this beautiful day, to despite their friends from home:

This gorgeous day is also very good for flying. Some paragliders launched themselves from the top and give us some beautiful aerial photographs of the area:

Slate mine

This layout is built in HOf by Bertram from Germany.

“I am a follower of Carl´s website from the early days on. May you remember my 2 little layouts that were shown at the scrapbook in 12/2007 (gravel mine) and 3/2013 (chocolate box). Now there are two new micro layouts which I built in late 2013 (“Slate Mine”) and early 2014 (“Kaulsdorfer Mühle”-mill and “Wuhle-Bräu”-brewery). These 4 micro layouts were shown at the 20^th model railway show by the Berlin-Brandenburg section of the international “Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke” association in Berlin-Marzahn, Germany, in February 2014.

Today I want to introduce a real micro layout with a size of 30 cm to 27 cm. It shows a small slate mine with a light railway or tramway in H0f gauge (scale 1/87 light industrial railway).

Here is the story:

The layout shows the slate mine´s yard in front  of a high rock. A “Gmeinder” loco has left the mine at the left side. Before he brings the two flat cars – each carrying a big block of slate – to the workshop driver Paul has stopped for a short talk with his buddy Mario. At the right side the foreman already waits at the workshop (corrugates steel hut) for the load: the slate must be unloaded and split down before the resulting thin plates are dressed to shape.

Besides the workshop there is the repair shop. Mine management has bought an old loco from a brick works. This loco is on repair: It was newly painted and is now waiting for new axles.

The yard´s ground is covered with slate and some junk. Environmental protection is not a highlight at this company…

All running stuff (loco and flat cars) is from the German company Busch. As the Busch loco is light as a feather it has a magnet underneath. It´s counterpart is the track which has a metal sheet under the sleepers. The loco´s magnet presses it to the track and provides proper running action. The Busch loco is running with 3 V DC.

Because original Busch H0f light railway tracks are only available with large fixed radiuses I used Märklin Z scale flex track to be more flexible. To be sure that the loco will run correctly on these Z scale tracks I milled a groove into the baseboard and glued an iron wire into the groove. Than I glued the tracks onto the wire – and everything is fine.

I used a large number of materials to build the layout:

–          The high rock wall is from Noch.

–          The wooden wall besides the mine´s entrance is made of coffee stirring sticks provided by the famous international burger restaurant of the Golden Seagull…

–          The old shed besides the mine´s entrance and the repair shop are Resin kits from Modellbau Luft.

–          The stone hut and the junk yard at the left are from Wills, UK.

–          The corrugated hut at the right side is made of a 40 years old East German plastic kit from VERO.

–          Workers and birds are from Preiser and Merten.

–          Other stuff is from Kotol (barrels, canisters, oilcans) and Auhagen (loco on repair, old flat cars, railway tracks in front of the repair shop).

–          The ground is covered with a mixture of milled slate and coffee grounds.”

For more info about the layout, here is a direct link (in German):

http://www.stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=97563&p=1096514#p1096514

Bertram told me there is more to come! 😉

That’s it for now! I hope you enjoyed! 🙂