Nixnie - a minimum size 009 layout

[tedp]

clogging the ballast with sand and ashes

In a reaction to my ballasting tutorial on the NGRM forum my ballast was described as too generous and unprototypical as it went over the sleepers and was unlike sand which is often used as ballast on NG track.

Normal H0 and even N scale ballast is too coarse and obviously will not do for a narrow gauge railway, unless subjected to further treatment. Badly maintained ballast, which I think is typical for at least some NG railways, will clog up with sand, ashes and weeds between the sleepers. So where ordinary 009 track is concerned, it has to be filled with something representing much finer material.

Apart from that, the N gauge track on much of the layout has to be concealed. In some prototype cases like the Isle of Man Railway, narrow gauge track was deliberately covered with sand and ashes over the sleepers, a relic from Victorian times. On some industrial lines a layer of rubble and mud covered the sleepers due to neglect.  

So what is needed in both cases is a treatment that will clog up the ballast particles and turn them pale grey, with some gravel showing through, as can be seen in colour photos of the Isle of Man Railway (see Robin Winter's book on the IMR), or on industrial railways.

Using plaster and black dye, a very thin wash of grey plaster is mixed:





This is then applied to the ballasted track with a paintbrush, and subsequently flooded with water:





Now we have very wet track which has to dry out. Note that in the sidings not used for normal running, the cover has gone up almost to the railhead, giving an impression of light industrial track. Some of the ballast applied earlier will come loose, which enables us to wash the particles away from the sleepers in the 009 track. In the N gauge track we will leave the mix to cover the sleeper web, but the flangeway has to be cleared. This is done with a small screwdriver as soon as the plaster starts to set so it still is pliable.







Further cleaning is necessary after all has dried out, as the track will be unfit for operation unless all traces of plaster and dye have been removed.

To be continued...

EDIT - Something which I forgot to mention is that using a lot of water helps the dye to diffuse into the surrounding area so the boundary won't be so sharp. Also, it tends to make the underlying texture (in my case the ballast) come to the surface which enhances the effect of something clogged with fine matter. The last photo but one shows this effect. I expect it will be more pronounced when dry.

[MickT]

That is looking very realistic and very impressive Ted. The guy who criticised on NGRM had a bit of a cheek I think as I don't actually remember seeing any evidence posted of his own ballasting on his layout.................... ::)

Mick

[tedp]

Well, let's say I know him as a know-it-all and sometimes a pain in the neck. I checked and didn't find a single posting by himself showing he actually built anything himself. The only positive effect is he made me look at the N gauge track and decide it could be improved.  :D

[tedp]

final scenic work

I should really say, final scenic work for the moment, as there is a lot of work to be done still, both on the scenic cover and on 'cameo' scenes. But for the Valkenburg show the present level of detail should be sufficient.

First, a close-up of the buried N gauge track with ballast particles showing through and the surface clogged with mud and ashes. The plaster turned out too dark (the colouring process is difficult to control) so I added a light wash of light grey acrylics and water:



Here are two views of last night's situation, with some green cover added around the brickworks, but no trees and bushes yet:





First I will show a number of improvements to the Nixnie station area. Some trees have been replaced by darker green specimens, and a lot of green ground cover appeared. The darker trees have been produced by spraying the Heki 'forest in a box' trees with Tamiya flat Nato Green. Here a railcar enters the station from the curve on the right:





A diesel loco hauling a short goods train from the tree tunnel. Note how the backscene has been closed off more effectively by additional bushes and small trees. Again, some different leaf colours are in evidence.



Hagrid's has gained a small crane, but I now notice the base hasn't yet been sunk into the landscape. The building is now flanked by trees and bushes.



The other side of the tree tunnel through the backscene, with the steam tram passing through. Again, the backscene, which is very close to the track here, has been closed off by bushes at ground level. Note the creeper on the tower of the brickworks - it was made 30 years ago with sawdust flock. For the moment it will do.





The tram loco and its little train crossing the bridge. More bushes and different trees have sprouted along the stream. The curve towards the shack in the station area has all but disappeared from view.



Two more views of the brickworks. Geologically the presence of a brickworks near a stream with a waterfall is doubtful - where would they get the clay? Well, it's only a demo layout! The steam wagon has been borrowed from Dunalistair.





Finally, the mess left by two weeks of frenzied scenery building. I can well and truly say my modelling block is now a thing of the past!    ;)





Next week I will have a go at painting the layout fronts, and making a small fiddle yard so Hagrid can do his magic work...

Tonight I'm off to sea - have a nice weekend!

;D

[Sven]

I think it's really, really wonderful Ted. Congratulations on such a beautiful, inspiring piece of work.

[tedp]

Thanks, Sven. Glad you like it. I only saw your reply after a weekend afloat which offered surprisingly good weather. Today I continued the work on Nixnie.

behind Hagrid's door

The fiddle yard behind Hagrid's had to be a very lightweight affair. It is suspended from the actual Nixnie layout using two beams screwed to the sides of the layout, but it shouldn't upset the balance. So the structure was made using lightweight 4mm plywood and light softwood about 40x12mm. Along the edges low ridges were added to prevent stock running off.

The fiddle yard is glaringly white, but like the layout front it will be painted black, including the surface with the track on it. The track again is left-over N gauge sectional track and two Minitrix tight radius points, all used before. Who said that railway modelling is expensive?

The kick-back siding at the front cannot be powered unless I add a switch to override the Minitrix point isolation switch. But I'll use that to store stock. Behind the sidings is ample space to store additional stock off the track and out of sight. Finally, I noticed it is easy to ram the sliding door when you don't see it's closed. Perhaps I should add a switch isolating the fiddle yard once the door is closed...  ;)













Here is another view of a train coming into the little station, this time made up of ordinary 009 and H0e stock: a Peco Jeanette with Egger coaches, and a Minitrains Baldwin with Roco skips in the siding.





And two views of the brickworks with a train of Roco end bulkhead wagons and an Egger bash...





some notes on operation

After installing the fiddle yard, tonight I spent some time doing operating trials, and I have worked out a few useful sequences. They can be done using H0e stock like the Egger coaches and Roco skips, and a few small locos I have, but alternatively using the short C&DR stock shown in many of the photos. I can put all I need onto the fiddle yard and shuffle some stock round. It's not a real shunting layout but a running layout to keep the audience amused. But it has some interesting properties despite its small size and awkward sidings which put restrictions on what you can do.

It is possible for instance to run a passenger train counterclockwise, hold it in the platform and exchange a train of skips at the brickworks for a train of bulkhead wagons through the 'magic door' giving access to the fiddle yard. The passenger train can do a bit of shunting and drop a goods wagon in the siding at Hagrid's. This blocks the access to the fiddle yard, but the train of skips at the brickworks can now run a circuit of the layout.

It is important to realise this is a minimum size layout taken to extremes. Not like a pizza layout, but still with very limited running potential. Adding a foot or perhaps two feet in the middle would create a layout 110 to 140cms in length, with space for sidings and more industry. This would still be a very small layout but much more interesting to operate. Building such a layout would take twice as long as it took me to build Nixnie.

To be continued...

[petersmith1942]

Ted
you must not go on like this! I am already hooked and have drawn up a plan based on Nixnie on a spare board I have 1350mm x 750mm. I was worried when you added the fiddle yard; layouts really do extend into the space available plus 2 feet
Peter Smith

[Frank]

Ted,

This is really fascinating - thanks very much for sharing this.

It's really useful for me as a new modeller to see how to do things properly, as well as see what the possibilities are.   You can read about things in books or magazines, but actually seeing how an expert goes about it in practice is much, much more useful, as well as giving you confidence to have a go yourself.

Its also getting very tempting to have a go at a similar layout instead of the terminus/ fiddle yard I had in mind!

Frank

[tedp]

Thanks, both - I'm glad the idea catches on. Peter: 130x75cms seems a lot bigger than 80 (110) x 55, but you would increase the planning and track possibilities by a huge margin. You can even add a proper halt and extra siding at the brickworks end. Frank: are you thinking of a continuous run or and end-to-end set-up with a centre backscene? I would suggest to also have a look at Wood End by Chris Ford and Nigel Hill, a layout built about 12 years ago. This was an end to end layout with a central 'spine' and a curve round the front. Nixnie is smaller and has a continuous run.

[Graeme Dunbar]

The beauty of "Hagrid's door" from the point of view of a demonstration is that different schemes can be tried, illustrated or explained.

A substantial fiddle yard is no doubt convenient at a busy exhibition, but simple cassettes might be suitable for home use.  Looking at it another way, cassettes might appeal to the modeller who has a large number of locos he wants to see running in fixed trains/consists and a fiddle yard might appeal to the modeller who wants to shunt a variety of stock. Either way it is a good talking point to explain the options of fiddle yards, cassettes, possibly also traversers, train turntables....

Nixnie continues to give much food for thought!

[tedp]

Yes you are right. It is possible to run Nixnie as an industrial railway with skips and very light stock (Hudson toastrack stock comes to mind). The alternative is a Col Stephens type light railway with bigger NG stock serving the brickworks, the odd steam loco and a railcar. The skips then remain on the hand operated tracks in the brickworks yard. I could even change to a preservation scheme if I wanted. However, the main idea is to show you can build a working layout that can be stored on top of a closet, which won't cost you a packet. Initially it was therefore termed 'the demo layout'. I think I spent about 80 pounds in new items - most of it could have been bought at a swapmeet.

Most of the track is second-hand, some of the buildings are, and others are dead cheap kits. Even the baseboard is made mostly of offcuts I found in the attic. Some of the techniques I used are a bit more advanced than a new modeller would use. The ballast and the river could have been done with a more basic approach. Many years ago for instance I made reasonable waterfalls with watercolours and varnish (see this photo). If I'd used coloured plaster only as ballast the texture would have looked a bit less convincing, but still good enough for a starter layout. I know because I used it for years and indeed some of the C&DR still looks that way. I hope I will be able to explain that to the public when I exhibit the layout.

Regarding the type of fiddle yard, cassettes and even a sector table have crossed my mind but I had a few bits of track and the two points at hand to build it like it is. They serve the most immediate needs, and if I have to change some of the stock I use items stored off track. Curving the approach meant I could do with a 30cm lightweight extension fixed to the end of the layout. This was the easiest solution in the short time available.

[tedp]

Final work, and a small accident

Yesterday and today I completed the last work on Nixnie before the Valkenburg show. I painted the layout front and sides, and the fiddle yard black. In addition I fitted a switch to the sliding door at Hagrid's. This involved cutting a rail in the siding and laying wires under the door to a microiwitch glued on the backscene. The switch is worked by the door, which has a handle on the back.

When I wanted to lay the wires I accidentally cut through three wires running under the siding. These were a track link and illumination wires running to the shack at the other end of the layout. So I had to dig up all of the wires and repair them:



Here are two photos of the switch behind the door:





This is how it looked after the ground cover had been repaired:





And Brian M will undoubtedly be glad to see I followed his idea of a link between two rails in the fiddle yard so I can access the kickback siding under power:



Finally a few shots in direct sunlight,made yesterday as the black paint on the layout sides was drying out in the attic room:







I'm now performing running trials - I'm ready for the show!

[tedp]

Today I added the complete story of how I built Nixnie to the Dutch Group website, copied from what I wrote on this forum and rearranged in three web pages, in English and Dutch.

The link to the Dutch Group site is: http://www.009dutch.nl/

- Enter the site by clicking on the 009 logo, then choose English in the index bar on the left.
- Click on 'latest changes and news' at the top of the page.
- You'll find the new page links at the top of the news page.

[Isle of Stoner]

I love the track and ballast, perfect. I find there are a large number of non builders on NGRM forum who just like to tell those of us who actually get our baseboards dirty how we've gone wrong. Still I suppose if you put your head above the parapet people are entitled to shoot at it!

I shall have a go at your ballast technique on Underhill once the wiring is finished. Pics to follow.

Cheers


John W

[tedp]

;D

Looking forward to see your ballast, John. The guy in question on NGRM who had something to say about the ballast was right, you know. And it resulted in improvement.

I improved my technique by looking at the work of Henk Wust and Reinier Hendriksen. Some people manage to look at the real thing and reproduce it in small scale modelling. The coarse to fine texture approach in my ballast is inspired by their work.