Wednesday 28 December 2011

Together everyone achieves more

The experimentation with the new pieces to the layout continues. Today Isaac and his brother cooperated very well and came up with a different way of using the track. They started by building a small layout that incorporated the engine shed, turntable, tunnel and repair shed. It was noticeable that the distance between these elements started to widen. Also there are no sidings. As I mentioned in the last post the engine shed is seen as a superior siding and the repair shed seems to occupy the same category. The turntable is still a track switching device though.

Once this was done Isaac's younger brother then busied himself with a second layout. It wasn't for himself, but for mummy. After trying for several minutes he called on mummy to help to complete the curves. It takes the form of a simple figure of eight which ingeniously uses the two small points as the crossover rather than the crossover piece or a bridge. I'm starting to wonder whether I will need to rename the blog at the rate Isaac's brother is catching up.

To complete the work there's third layout, consisting of just a small straight which is stand alone. This is daddy's track. And despite the fact that I have the shortest track I am afforded the longest train. I have seen small side layouts before, but this was the first time that there have been three. 


I am beginning to think we need more track and points in particular. Isaac's layouts, with the help of his brother, are starting to reach a level of complexity where there are not enough ways to join  up the loops and branches. 

Any ideas where I can lay my hands on cheap track, preferably free?

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Christmas comes but once a year

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. As would be expected, Christmas 2011 gave Isaac and his brother have had some additions to their railway set. An engine shed, turntable and tunnel on Christmas day and a workshop and new train on boxing day. Today's post is the layout Isaac put together on Boxing Day morning, before he got the presents for that day.

It started, of course, with the new additions to the set. The engine shed was felt to be a superior siding, but later another one was added for the train with the black engine, Isaac and his brother call this train Old Puffer Pete. For those of you familiar with Chuggington you'll understand. The turntable and tunnel were added in quick succession and then the serious layout building began.

Isaac started off with the two interconnecting loops. It was quite a nice arrangement that allowed the trains to come out of the engine shed and enter the first loop straight ahead. This loop then swung round and the trains crossed the turntable from another direction. They then proceeded round the broader loop and crossed the turntable third time and ended up back at the engine shed. It was all very neat, but also said something about the way the turntable was viewed. Rather than a device to turn locomotives and roiling stock round it was used much more a method of switching the direction of the track.

Isaac quickly realised that this layout out some limitations. The main one being he and his brother were often in conflict about the direction of the turn table. He then proceeded to build a third loop which became a wonderfully complex arrangement with a siding, crossover and bridge. This extra track solved most of the conflict, or at least spaced them out.

I'm sure over the coming days even more interesting layouts will be devised. Especially as the possibilties of the new track and buildings are realised.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Trains that pass in the night

Today's layout is about incorporation and separation. Sharing space without getting too close.

The last couple of layouts Isaac has created he has made a small loop for me as a separate element, see yesterday's post for a photo of one of them. Today he decided to take it a step further. When I left for work Isaac was busy experimenting with the track, this involved trying to use his hump back bridge as a ramp for one of his other bridges, but he promised he would make a track for me. This evening he had made it, but unlike other days, where my track was an aside, this one was semi integrated into his layout. He spent some time today explaining to my wife that the tracks were joined, but, at the same time, they were not joined . As you can see from the photo the small track crosses, but doesn't allow its trains to cross over onto the larger track.

The larger track itself is two fairly simple loops, each with its own siding of course. I am assuming that there is a loop each for Isaac and his brother. They share a straight down the middle with a level crossing on it.  The bricks on the crossing are gates, which were not Isaac's idea, but his brother's. This, apparently, was a cause of some friction with Isaac who didn't want the gates. As they were still in place this evening he seems to have come round to the idea.





Wednesday 21 December 2011

Getting it straight

Isaac has been into his curves lately and then today, out of the blue, he created a track with some strong linear elements. In many ways it was a catalogue type layout with a simple figure of eight circuit. What was very elegant was the curving siding that ended at a crossover. Unlike the other day when the track rambled the long way round this one had a simple curve that fitted within the loop of the track. He put one more siding in, again very straight, and seemed quite content. Personally I found the track very pleasing to the eye, maybe I shy away from the flamboyance of some of the other tracks.

After a few minutes Isaac realised he not only had a lot of curves left, but also a set of points so he built me a track to go next to his. Mine of course was a lot more curvy. Unlike my post a couple of days ago I have photos of it to show you today.

All of this work was done in the early morning and Isaac appears to have been pleased with his layout as it was unchanged when I got in from work almost 12 hours later.




Monday 19 December 2011

Taking the scenic route to bed

Isaac's take on sidings is that they are somewhere for trains to sleep. For Isaac's trains, as for many of us I suspect, there must be days when sleep would be very welcome, but there's a lot of ground to cover before we get there. Today's track was a case in point.

Isaac started off by building the two loops that shared the hump backed bridge in the middle. This amused him for a while before he realised to his horror that there were NO sidings. He quickly added two short sidings. And that would have probably been that normally, but today Isaac was a 4 year old on a mission and that mission was to use as much track as he could. He wanted to extend one of the the sidings to make a third loop and was dismayed to discover he had no more points in the box.

I thought he might dismantle the second siding and do without any, but this would be like having a house with no bedrooms in Isaac's world. So he dug out his crossover and placed it in one of the loops and then proceeded to join the two sections of track up. If it had been me I would have taken the shortest route, but it became clear that this was going to be a very long way to the buffers for Isaac's trains. My sympathy went out to the drivers of the trains, who, at the end of a tiring day, would pass tantalisingly close to their final destination only to realise there was a long detour to make before the came right back to where they started.

After building this track Isaac spent the rest of the day trying out various constructions with his wooden bricks. I have added a close up of his tunnel. He's been attempting to build one of these for a while, but has been thwarted by the soft foundations of the carpet. He resolved this today by using his level crossing, which worked brilliantly.

One small foot note, Daddy finally got a look in as well. No siding for me, but Isaac had a few bits of track left over so I gout a very little circuit all to myself. No photos I'm afraid, but I do feel that I have arrived.

Saturday 17 December 2011

It's a family affair

This afternoon events took an unusual turn. The normal process for creating a railway is left to Isaac and then, once the heavy engineering work is done, his brother will join in to run the railway. Today Isaac was rather taken with another toy and was not letting his brother get a look in on that and so his brother trotted off and got the box of railway pieces. Being a bit younger than Isaac, his ability to join the gaps was more limited. He built some fine straights with a small curve at the end but he soon requested help from mum to do the sidings. By this time Isaac's interest was peaked and he joined in too.

Mum built the passing loop, a brilliant idea considering how many heated debates have happened with the siblings over on going too slowly and the other can't pass. There are times these trains might as well weigh a hundred tons for the lack of will there is to lift them up and over the slower rival. Isaac finished of the broader curve and then proceeded to extend it some more to make the loop larger.

The boys are now soundly in bed, but the layout is still up, an accolade only awarded to the best layouts. It will probably be played with a great deal tomorrow and no doubt improved. Watch this space for further updates on the family track.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

And then there were three.

Isaac built quite a simple layout today. Two loops that over lapped today. I love the little loop with the bridge over it. Imagine that on a full size track it would turn a railway journey into a roller coaster ride.

What interested me though was  that Isaac had added an additional siding. One for him, one for his brother and one for ??? As ever my wife had the answer. And one for mummy. A thoughtful gesture. Everyone should have a siding in their life where they can park themselves and have a little rest.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

On behalf of Isaac rail we would like to apologise to passengers.....

Railways are not simple affairs and they need maintaining. This was theme Isaac decided that he would like to explore today. In true Network Rail style he closed off a vast section of his track making normal services difficult, especially for his brother, as one of the sections under repair was his siding. Isaac used the jenga bricks to mark off the track that needed repairing. I would like to say he laid on a bus service, but I saw no evidence of this and presumably passengers on Isaac Rail arrived home late and grumpy.

 I did remove the bricks to reveal a rather elegant design that was based on a figure of eight that was then extended out (the bit under repair) to give a varied journey to passengers by allowing them to do an oval circuit as well as the original figure of eight. Isaac continued with the very curly sidings theme again, squeezing one into an already tight loop.

After a few days of struggling to get photos of rather extended layouts it was nice to come into one tha fitted the frame rather well.

Sunday 11 December 2011

A mystery is solved

I really should talk to my wife more! We were discussing Isaac's designs and why there is always a siding and more often than not two. My wife pointed out hat the reason is, that Isaac wants some where for his train to sleep and if his brother is playing with him then there needs to be a second one for his brother's train as well. In honour of this insight her slippered feet have received a special place in every photo today.

Today's design is no exception to that siding rule. It's another use all the pieces track that has two quite curly sidings at one end. The one problem that Isaac does have is only having one set of buffers and a siding is not a siding without them. This requires some negotiation between the siblings. At the other is a long loop. In between is a quite complex layout of points, crossovers and bridges. The basic design gets trains from one siding to another, but at first glance they can do that through the long loop. However, careful examination reveals a little short-cut that involves a bit of reversing. This short-cut also serves the purpose of being able to turn the trains around. Ingenious!

In the middle is also a small loop that serves no noticeable purpose other than adding a little flourish to every journey. As so often Isaac has combined the practical and the frivolous effortlessly.




















Saturday 10 December 2011

Take my word

No photo of today's layout, but it's development was interesting. Isaac built a loop with a crossover in it. It began and ended at a set of points into a siding. Trains using the loop went into the siding and the reversed out. And about half way round was another small siding. This worked well until Isaac's little brother wanted to run his train on the same track. Isaac's solution was to build a second loop and join the two by using the second siding on his original layout as the joining track. Interestingly the second loop also involved a siding where trains had to enter and then reverse out to complete thei journey. Isaac's brother liked this solution and left Isaac in peace... for a bit.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Wow!!


After a few days of trying out ideas Isaac got the whole box out and built this brilliant layout. It was rather large and I'm afraid it was hard to get it all in from the vantage points left to me. I hope these pictures do it justice.

The main track is a long circuit with a couple of bridges. These end at two sub circuits one of which loops with in the other. There are a couple of sidings. One of which has a bridge to nowhere over it. This last feature is unusual for Isaac who normally like the tracks to relate to each other.

The wall like structure started life as a tunnel, but Isaac couldn't get the roof clearance for the train to pass through. Eventually it became two parallel walls with the purpose of stopping the trains falling off the track.


Monday 5 December 2011

Getting over it

Isaac has been experimenting with how to extend his bridges recently. He's been trying various supports for size. His wooden building blocks were too low and he couldn't get the track to line up. But Duplo seems to be the answer. Here he has built two piers from three blocks of Duplo each and has extended the link between two of his bridges.

I think concentrating on the bridge led him to develop a less than satisfactory layout by his standards, as the circuit ends in a siding which the train has to reverse out of to complete its journey.

I don't know if you can see on the red suspension bridge, but there are blocks of Lego. Isaac wanted 'traffic lights', signals, for his trains. The other day at the station, a real one, he was asking about the red signal lights and wanting to know how they worked. As you can see he's got two trains on this track and the second one is waiting for the first to clear its section before proceeding.

This was definitely a day of trying things out..

Sunday 4 December 2011

Keep going until you hit the jackpot

Isaac persevered with the track in the previous two posts. Finally deciding that a bridge would be the answer. What he came up with was quite stunning.

I love the criss crossing route that snakes around until eventually the train can go up and over the bridge. Once over you have the choice to rest is siding while the adrenalin rush subsides or do the whole thing over again. Maybe Isaac should design amusement park rides.

The great thing is this route can be done in reverse with the bridge fist, but taking the route that way gives new options not available to trains travelling in the opposite direction. In fact for the real adrenalin junkies you can loop back on yourself and do the bridge twice. how cool is that?

If at first you don't succeed

Remember yesterday's track? Well this was Isaac's attempt at an improvement. The problem was that he didn't really solve the problem he had yesterday. He did add a level crossing into the middle of the loop, but you still had to reverse you train to return to the sidings. But the siding loops have become a wonderful arrangement with the addition of a bridge and a second siding.

Maybe, like many of us, Isaac doesn't want to tackle the real problems and gets busy working in the things that work anyway.

Saturday 3 December 2011

Watch your nodes

Isaac is currently on a quest to avoid layouts that get him into a loop where the is no way out other than reversing down the track he's just come up. There's probably a metaphor about life in there somewhere. This track was one of those examples where he didn't quite pull it off. From his siding, and there is almost always a siding, he designed a little loop to let him turn the train around, but got into problems in entering and exiting the big loop.

Monday 28 November 2011

You have got to start somewhere

My son Isaac is 4. Knowing little about child development I take what Isaac does as what most 4 year olds must do, however I'm told that his ability to visualise and construct complex deigns with his wooden railway is very good for his age. Whether or not it's an excellent talent compared with any other children I don't know, don't all parents think their children are special, but what I wanted to do is to record and share some of the wonderful designs that Isaac constructs from a finite resource. It always amazes me what he's been up to when I come in from work.

My regret is that there is about 3 months of ingenious designs that I have failed to record and share, but you have to start somewhere.

Today's track is elegant in it's apparent simplicity. I love the level crossing to the car park that is so exclusive that only two cars would get in there. I also like the fact that trains leaving the sidings would have a number of options for how they wanted to negotiate the layout to basically return to where they started facing the other way.