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.

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.