Category: Layout Planning

Benchwork, Layout Planning, Planning BookLeave a comment

Life Makes Constant Changes

traiNmaster

As much as you like to plan for things in life, sometimes things do not turn out the way you wanted it to be. Take for instance the model railway. When I was in Malaysia, I wanted so much to have a layout even a small one. For first 30 years of my life, I lived with my extended family – uncles, aunties, cousins in my grandpa’s shophouse in Kuala Lumpur. Imagine 20 people in one house. It was in 1998 that I bought my first Life-Like HO-scale starter set – Santa Fe freight set – with my own life … Continue reading Life Makes Constant Changes

Benchwork, Layout Planning, Planning Book2 Comments

Finalised Tilt-table Benchwork (including measurements)

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Finally, after all the discussions and comments from fellow modellers and having sleepless nights how best to realise my tilt-table benchwork, here is the result. I have put down the measurements so that you too can build one. What is important to note is that you can adjust the size of your tabletop. I am doing 240cm (L) x 120cm x 15cm (H) using two equal frames. This translates to about 8ft (L) x 4ft x 0,5ft (H). You can have smaller or larger tabletop to suit your need; the largestever made was 5ft x 9ft by Suzan. The side … Continue reading Finalised Tilt-table Benchwork (including measurements)

Layout Planning, Planning Book6 Comments

Ballastless Track System for German High-speed Railway

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For those who wants to model the German high-speed railway network (read: ICE), the ballastless track system is a common feature on certain stretches, one of them is the Frankfurt-Köln strecth with 4% gradient. In this website Project VDE8 (Projekt Deutsch Einheit 8), the construction of the ballastless track system is explained and illustrated. This will help you in modelling the system in your preferred scale. Source: Project VDE8 Continue reading Ballastless Track System for German High-speed Railway

German Railways, Layout PlanningLeave a comment

3 Goldie-Loks(chuppen)

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3 engine sheds (Lokschuppen in Deutsch) at one location? Yes, Würzburg has 3; at least 2 are still in working condition. I guess it must be an important stop point during the steam days. There is an inland river port west of this station along the Main river. Würzburg is located in the midpoint between Frankfurt and Nürnberg (Nuremberg). 3 ICE long distance lines stop at this station – Munich-Würzburg-Hamburg, Vienna-Würzburg-Dortmund and Munich-Würzburg-Essen. The German ICE world speed record started from this Würzburg-Hamburg stretch on 1 May 1988. And who says you can’t have (open-air) engine shed for electric locos. Continue reading 3 Goldie-Loks(chuppen)

Benchwork, Layout Planning, Planning Book1 Comment

Tilt Table Layouts in Action

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It is good to know that there are people who have tilt table layouts. In Nscale.net and Nscale.org, the forumers referred me to their fellow members who have tilt-table layout – Gene (aka epumph in Nscale.net) and the late Suzan (aka steamedup in Nscale.org). With Gene’s permission and in loving memory of Suzan, who passed away sometime ago, I would like to share with you their construction of a tilt-table layout and how you could adopt them for yours. Gene (aka epumph) Gene from New Jersey, USA models a fictional Turtle Creek Industrial RR in N-scale on a 4ft 4in x 8ft 6in … Continue reading Tilt Table Layouts in Action

Benchwork, Layout Planning, Planning BookLeave a comment

Visualising My Layout – Peeling the Onion

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In my previous blog, I have showed how the prototype benchwork will look once it has been constructed. While waiting for comments and the quotation, I will explain how the layout will be built on top of the base frame. Remember that I am adopting and adapting Oliver Bachmeier’s Neustadt H0-scale layout in N-scale. Oliver’s original layout is 3.3m x 1.5m. My original intention was to scale that to 70%, to fit to the IKEA IVAR frames which when combined, will be 2.3m x 1.0m. If I follow truly to the scaling from HO- to N-scale, the same 3.3m x … Continue reading Visualising My Layout – Peeling the Onion

Benchwork, Layout Planning, Planning BookLeave a comment

Visualising My Layout – The Benchwork

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Call me crazy or mad but I believe in conceptualisation and visualisation. During my high-school days, we were taught a subject called “Industrial Arts (IA)”. In this subject, over a period of 3 years, we were taught metal works, wood works, electrical and mechanical works. I must thank my IA teachers for imparting to me the knowledge of drafting. So, instead of creating a physical prototype, I put them on papers. Here is how I envisioned my layout, starting with the benchwork. As I mentioned earlier, real estate space is a premium to me. I measured the space I could … Continue reading Visualising My Layout – The Benchwork

Introduction, Layout PlanningLeave a comment

All Aboard!

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Finally, I got the green signal to proceed, just like the engineer on this Deltic diesel loco. Well, I won’t be charging ahead at full throttle but at least I could pick up some speed – something to do over the autumn and winter seasons and to get my mind off work during the weekends. The drawings for my tilt-table layout, which has been gathering dust for the last few months, are now out of my file and are being fine-tuned. Oliver Bachmeier’s Neustadt layout – at least with some modifications – will come alive in N-scale on a 2.5m x 1.2m 2-level layout. I have a couple … Continue reading All Aboard!

Layout Planning, Product Review2 Comments

Turnouts Jigsaw Puzzle

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I have convinced myself that I would go with Peco code 55 Universal Fine Streamline turnouts and tracks for my layout. Although code 55 is actually code 80 rails embedded onto the ties, Peco is the only manufacturer that makes flex tracks with concrete sleepers for N-scale. It is a pity that other such as Minitrix, Fleischmann, Piko and even Atlas have not being able to convince themselves to offer flex tracks with concrete sleeps. For the US model railroad manufacturer Atlas, it is understandable as most US tracks do not have concrete sleepers. But for the European/German manufacturers, hmm ….. … Continue reading Turnouts Jigsaw Puzzle