Noughts and crosses

Isn't always the way? Yesterday I decided to post a layout that I normally wouldn't have shared, just to let everyone know we hadn't fallen off the edge of the world and then today I come home to a new layout!

Isaac is maintaining the simplicity theme. In fact today's track seems to be all about places where rolling stock and engines can be stored rather than any sort of journey they could make. The one circuit is completely inaccessible to any of the trains using the main track.

The forest on the plinth is back and there are three buildings as well. The combination of repair shed, tunnel and level crossing in close proximity is intriguing.

At the other end of the line is a rare example of the turntable being used to access sidings rather than a a replacement for the cross over. 

For such a small layout there was a lot of rolling stock, but only one engine. But whatever it's quirks it's nice to have Isaac building again.

The roundabout way from A to B

It's been a bit of a linear day for our sons. The first layout was built by Isaac's brother, I have no photo, but it was described to me by mum. It was a straight track with buffers either end, it had both the turntable and cross over in it, but the essential main line was the straight track. Isaac's brother then put the battery train it and ran it from one end and back again for quarter of an hour.

Later Isaac got to work on this layout. Although it looks quite complicated it is actually just a track between two points, the siding and the engine shed. It is also sprawls, which is why none of the photos quite get it all in. Despite it's simple form there are a couple of marvellous elements to it.

Starting at the engine shed you come to the loop after the bridges. Instead of taking a tight turn Isaac made a loop that had a single track in and out a set of Y points. The train is turned around and goes back down the way it came. It can either retrace the route back to the shed or continue down the line.

Continuing down the line brings it eventually to the siding, which is tucked down the side of the sofa. On the return leg the train can take a little diversion onto a small circuit. But once on there you have two choices:
1. Get very dizzy
2. Reverse off

I do like the mixture of simplicity and little twists in this track. It feels like you're taking a journey and yet not going too far.

Giving it all we've got (almost)

It's nice to be right once and a while. The New Heights track did remain up overnight and Isaac busied himself extending it in the morning.

He started by putting in the lifting bridge and this set the direction of the build. The suspension bridge was added to make it over the other side of the loop. To start the the new loop Isaac extended out the siding that had the repair shed on it. I was expecting that he'd aim to join the other side of the loop back on somewhere near the tunnel. making a layout of twin loops with a share track on one side.

But Isaac had other ideas and put the siding in on the loop that went under the new viaduct. At the same time he put the turntable back in and added a couple of sidings for rolling stock to be kept. This is one of those rare occasions where the turntable is used in more conventional way. The sidings and position of the new points led to a lack of straights to complete the layout. Rather than compromising the plan Isaac turned to me for help. I suggested using his hump back bridge and level crossing on one of the original loops to free up some of the straights.

Once all this had been done there were very few pieces left in the track boxes. I suppose with some more planning even they could have been integrated.

I have to say the layout is a really pleasing one if you're looking for a long journey on a train before getting back to where you started from. It is possible to do a route that involves a circuit of all three circuits before you get back to square one.

As an aside, Isaac and I worked out a solution to one of those problems that had been vexing him for a sometime. Namely the issue that the red suspension bridge did not have enough clearance for his Thomas trains. The solution was two piece of Lego under the towers raising it by just enough so Thomas could pass by smoothly.

Loops and bridges

I always said to myself that this blog would only be written when Isaac created. For a few days Isaac has been content to play with other toys and leave his track packed away. But my patience was rewarded by this fabulous creation.

Isaac started off with the turntable and the repair shed. He then built the loop that ran straight out from the repair shed looped back on itself through the tunnel and over the two bridges ending in the engine shed. Even Isaac commented this was a long way for a sleep. He then realised the other axis of the turntable had no track an built a straight line out of either side. The need to join these up resulted in the rather wonderful and compact lines at the centre of this layout.

This is the first time the lifting bridge has been used for a while. That is mainly because it has been in for repairs for the umpteenth time. It relies on two small pieces of hardboard to support the slopped tracks where the connect with the bridge. The hardboard seems to break off rather easily necessitating a dab of glue. The bridge had just come back, however close inspection will show a block being used to support one slope because yet again the hardboard broke. Some times Bigjigs quality is let down by little material weaknesses such as this or the crossing gates that sheer off with use.

I digress, back to the layout. Meanwhile Isaac's brother had been playing with a few pieces making sidings. There was a little collaboration and this became a completely separate loop. Finally it was decided to join the two tracks. Though the two tracks don't allow trains to move between them I think the intricacy of the way they weave in and put of each other quite brilliant. The remaining track was then used for a couple of sidings.

There is something very satisfying about this layout that I can't quite pin down.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.