When I started modelling in 16mm scale three years ago I had the choice of setting up in the garden or the spare bedroom, perhaps rather oddly I chose the latter.
A 16mm scale narrow gauge system in a 9ft x 7ft room sounds like the proverbial quart in a pint pot, and it probably would be were it not for the fact that I am modelling a diesel worked industrial railway with the following points in its favour:
Probably the only drawback with such a model is the limited operational interest but I find that 16mm scale models are nice to watch even if they are only trundling back and forth.
The model itself is based on systems still in operation near Barton on Humber. The only siding on the line is double ended and situated near the tipping shed providing a 'full' and 'empties' road, the dead end is just long enough to accommodate a two wagon train and the flat wagon used by the fitters when the excavator is giving trouble. As there is no loco siding May, a 20hp Simplex and the only loco, resides in the tipping shed overnight.
The track is flat bottom rail spiked to balsa sleepers which are stained with wood dye. Jubilee track which is found in places is represented by rail soldered to '0' gauge sleeper strip cut to the required length. Scenery is basically the same whether one is modelling in 4mm or 16mm scale except for grass - the one thing that seems to thrive in and around brickworks - so be warned, concrete is much easier to represent. I suppose I could have the area to look like one great muddy mess but no, I wanted a grassy area so I scrounged some straw coloured baler twine which I used with green scouring pads and garden twine planted in a soggy 'soil' of Polyfilla, brown emulsion and sawdust. As I didn't want the fuss of dyeing the twine the scene is set in autumn.
What of the machine that wanders through this grassy paradise'? As it was my first attempt at loco building, I cheated and fitted a plasticard body onto a Lima 4-wheel diesel underframe. The wagons have been described in a previous article and will eventually be replaced by better models. Hopefully the 3ft gauge track at the clay pit will be graced by an Orenstein and Koppel excavator.
Although the model is nowhere near complete, I believe it does capture the atmosphere of a narrow gauge industrial system which is what it was intended to do. It will also act as a display for a number of diesels I want to model, and various items of rolling stock. The future will see it superseded by a more extensive system capable of handling three trains, but it will be retained as an example of a small industrial narrow gauge railway - so many of which seem to be giving way to the more efficient but never so interesting dumper truck.
A 16mm scale narrow gauge system in a 9ft x 7ft room sounds like the proverbial quart in a pint pot, and it probably would be were it not for the fact that I am modelling a diesel worked industrial railway with the following points in its favour:
- sharp curves;
- short trains, a two wagon train is not unrealistic;
- locos and wagons scale out at 4ins or less;
- simple track layouts allow an entire railway system to be compressed in model form without that crowded look so often resulting when standard gauge models suffer the same fate.
Probably the only drawback with such a model is the limited operational interest but I find that 16mm scale models are nice to watch even if they are only trundling back and forth.
The model itself is based on systems still in operation near Barton on Humber. The only siding on the line is double ended and situated near the tipping shed providing a 'full' and 'empties' road, the dead end is just long enough to accommodate a two wagon train and the flat wagon used by the fitters when the excavator is giving trouble. As there is no loco siding May, a 20hp Simplex and the only loco, resides in the tipping shed overnight.
The track is flat bottom rail spiked to balsa sleepers which are stained with wood dye. Jubilee track which is found in places is represented by rail soldered to '0' gauge sleeper strip cut to the required length. Scenery is basically the same whether one is modelling in 4mm or 16mm scale except for grass - the one thing that seems to thrive in and around brickworks - so be warned, concrete is much easier to represent. I suppose I could have the area to look like one great muddy mess but no, I wanted a grassy area so I scrounged some straw coloured baler twine which I used with green scouring pads and garden twine planted in a soggy 'soil' of Polyfilla, brown emulsion and sawdust. As I didn't want the fuss of dyeing the twine the scene is set in autumn.
What of the machine that wanders through this grassy paradise'? As it was my first attempt at loco building, I cheated and fitted a plasticard body onto a Lima 4-wheel diesel underframe. The wagons have been described in a previous article and will eventually be replaced by better models. Hopefully the 3ft gauge track at the clay pit will be graced by an Orenstein and Koppel excavator.
Although the model is nowhere near complete, I believe it does capture the atmosphere of a narrow gauge industrial system which is what it was intended to do. It will also act as a display for a number of diesels I want to model, and various items of rolling stock. The future will see it superseded by a more extensive system capable of handling three trains, but it will be retained as an example of a small industrial narrow gauge railway - so many of which seem to be giving way to the more efficient but never so interesting dumper truck.
