I saw that nobody had yet made any post's in this section so I thought I would start things off.
I currently have 2 layouts on the go, Draig Goch and Jochberg in Tirol. They are quite different from each other.
Draig Goch
Draig Goch (Red Dragon) is a fictional 2 foot narrow gauge railway somewhere in North Wales. It is loosely based on Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway practice.
The layout consists of a terminus station with single platform and run round loop, a siding serving the goods shed and 2 sidings serving the coal yard. A three road traverser is provded for the fiddle yard. The layout is 60in long and 12in wide.
The period is the early 1950's with coal and tourists the main business of the railway.
The rolling stock on the layout is almost all hand built from kits or converted from rtr european items.
The track is split into 4 sections each one switchable between 2 controllers. Points are operated using Tortoise slow action point motors and uncoupling is carried out using electromagnets hidden between the rails, coupling loops are only fitted at one end of stock to enable delayed uncoupling.
The track sections, point motors and uncoupling magnets are all controlled from a single panel.
You can some photo's of Draig Goch here www.draiggoch.fotopic.net (http://www.draiggoch.fotopic.net)
Jochberg in Tirol
My other Layout is Jochberg in Tirol and is still under construction.
Jochberg is 9ft long and 2 ft wide and is a continuous run based around a typical Austrian narrow gauge station with a four road fiddle yard at the rear. 2 roads are sectioned so as to hold 2 trains giving the abillity to hold 6 trains. Each fiddle yard road or section was designed to be of at least equal lenth to the longest loop in the station.
The station will comprise of 3 through tracks (standard Austrian practice) a long siding serving the goods shed, a kick back siding from this serving a wharehouse, a kick back siding off the inside loop to a log loading area and a further kickback siding off the outside loop to an engine shed. The track into the engine shed will disapear through the backscene so that I can add/remove or swap loco's if operation's require it.
Track work is Peco with point's being controlled by rod's under the baseboard. The point rodding also opperates a switch to change frog polarity. At the moment uncoupling is carried out by a number of fixed permament magnets, however once I have determind which magnets are acctually required during shunting opertations I will replace these with electro magnets and remove the unnesscesary ones. The whole layout has been designed to run off one controller with isolating sections where required.
Loco's and rolling stock come from the major European rtr manufactures such as Roco, Lilliput, Stangl, Narrownahn, etc.
You can see some photo's of the layout and progress made to date here www.jochbergintirol.fotopic.net (http://www.jochbergintirol.fotopic.net) or check out my blog at www.jochbergintirol.blogspot.com (http://www.jochbergintirol.blogspot.com)
Regards,
Darren.
Good photos Darren!
From the photos you would hardly believe Draig Goch is only a foot wide. It is very well proportioned. Do you exhibit it?
Is No.27 on Draig Goch from a Mocolova kit on a Bachmann 0-6-0 diesel switcher chassis? If you don't mind me picking your brians - how did you attach the Bemo/Peco type couplers? How did you do the wasp stripes?
Thanks Graeme glad you liked the photo's.
To answer your questions, yes I do exhibit Draig Goch in fact I will be at Mirfield West Yorkshire on the 6th of December and Dereham Norfolk on the 28th of February. I am also looking for further invites for next year and beyond.
You are right about No. 27, it is a Mocolova kit on a Bachmann Plymouth chassis, both bought from Brian of course.
The couplings have had their shafts narrowed so as to fit into the N Gauge coupler socket and then to the epoxied in place.
The wasp stripes are Microscale decals from America, they are intended for US diesels and come in various sizes and width's depending on what Railroad they are depicting. Usually they come on a sheet designed for a particular type of loco and Railroad in this case a Reading SW9 and need cutting to size. You get l fair bit of wastage to a sheet but things such as numbers and letters can find a use.
Regards,
Darren.
Hi Darren,
Still looking forward to seeing photos of the rest of the "30+ locos" as promised in emails and in the intro blurb on your excellent Fotopic site....... ;D
Best wishes
Mick
Thanks for the answers Darren! I have taken the buffer beams/pilots on my kit because they are not square. I'll take another go it this weekend.
I've just seen the updated set of photos in your fotopic link - excellent! You have a very impressive collection of locos with some fascinating imagineering on show. Well done! Very inspirational and thanks for updating the gallery! :D
Mick
I agree with Mick - very much enjoyed seeing your loco collection and imaginative modelling.
Julian
Draig Goch will be travelling down from Sheffield on Saturday to appear at the Mid-Norfolk Railways Model Railway Exhibition at Dereham, Norfolk. If you are there come along and say hello.
Other Society layouts attending include :- Glyn Valley Tramway, Southwold (1922), Avon Quay and Maul Valley.
Exhibition will be held at Neatherd High School, Dereham. A shuttle bus will operate from Dereham Station on the Mid-Norfolk Railway. Open 10am to 4pm. Admission is
This is a little late but here is a belated thank you to everyone who came along to Dereham on the 28th of last month, especially Graham and Caroline Watling of "Whitsend Tramway" fame and Andy McMahon and Sheila Perry of "Newton Halt " fame who took the time to introduce themselves. And of course a big thank you to the guys in the Norfolk Group and the people down at the Mid-Norfolk Railway who gave their time to organise the event.
One of the things I enjoy the most about exhibiting is the conversation with fellow modellers, and being able to answer in some small part the multitude of questions I get asked, usually about the remote uncoupling.
Right back to the modeling then,
Darren.
Late News
Draig Goch has recieved a last miniute invite to Wakefield Exhibition on the 27th (Friday evening) 28th and 29th of November.
http://www.wakefieldrms.org/ExhibitionNews.html
Anyone attending is welcome to pop by and say hello.
Darren.
Darren,
I plan to be at Wakefield on the Friday night. Look forward to seeing the layout there.
Quote from: NeilMac on October 31, 2009, 21:50
Darren,
I plan to be at Wakefield on the Friday night. Look forward to seeing the layout there.
Don't forget to introduce yourself, ;)
Darren.