Thursday 15 March 2012

Long and lean

This is going to be a very short post today.

The layout the boys created was very simple so they could to run their electric train on it. The elongated loop has wide curves to prevent the train sticking. At the top the placed a set of points and then created a long siding with a bridge to take it rover the bottom of the loop.

There are a couple of embellishments to the design including the tunnel and the additional two bridges in the siding, which serve no purpose other than make the train go up and down a bit.

Monday 12 March 2012

Warning: Boys at work

We thought it was about time you saw some of the process that goes into making the layouts. This sequence of photos is Isaac and his brother working out a new layout. It turned out to be one of the most ambitious layouts they have created to date.

What made it particularly interesting was that part of the way through Isaac ran out of some small but essential pieces and had to work out how to free them from where they were in the track so that he could use them else where.


These first three pictures show the initial stages of the layout. First, what will become the centre track is laid. The lift bridge and engine shed are good points of reference for later photos. The second photo shows this track has a Y junction at the other end which leads round to the turntable. In photo three the track is extended right the way back down to cross over the lift bridge.




In this next sequence of photos the track is extended again off the third branch of the turntable and the tunnel added, but the loop is left incomplete. Finally, the forth branch is completed which loops under the bridges that form the central track. Once this was done Isaac returned to the loop with the tunnel on it. To complete this Isaac used the two short double ended pieces.

Isaac then found he needed another double ended piece to complete the main loop. After a little while he figured out he could free both of the pieces by turning the turn table round by 90 degrees. It did mean having to redo the loop which went under the bridges. If you look carefully at the two similar photos to the right you can see the changes that were made. The loop joining the lifting bridge and the other end of the Y junction was completed, including the doubled ended piece.


The final elements was a passing loop that was added to the last straight and a short curving siding. It needs top be noted that Isaac's brother was definitely a co-creator of this layout and the boys cooperated beautifully to create a really pleasing layout.

Tracing my fingers round the track, as I do, I could see it had lots of possibilities in terms of routes and direction and it kept the boys busy for a long tie as they explored the options.

Sunday 11 March 2012

Sidings with a twist


 It's been a while since Isaac created a layout. This is the first one he did after a couple of weeks rest. It appears to be a layout that demonstrates his repertoire of sidings to the world, a little like one of those cabinet maker's apprentice pieces. As is fairly obvious from the photo that Isaac had to work this layout around a fairly busy room and he even incorporated the leg of the coffee table into the layout.

The layout consists of five sidings. Two finish at the repair shed and engine shed respectively. The other three are straight sidings for a single train.

The first of these is the wonderfully twisted one at the bottom of the layout. It does a full 180 degree turn before reaching the buffers. When I first came in and saw the layout it was this one that caught my eye as it was so prominent.

However the final pair of sidings are the ones that I eventually found most pleasing. I love the longer siding with it's double approach to it. It's wonderfully extravagant and a little overboard. What is so fun thought is the small siding that then pierces one of these branches like a thread though the eye of a needle.

If I was after a someone who knew about making sidings I would definitely consider this apprentice.