Takahachikawa

[railsquid]

Festively random seasonal greetings!

 

 

[cteno4]

Hey, Squid has his own painted train!

 

Like I’ve said many times: “Any train with a Cephalopod on it is a good train!”

Cephalopods rule!

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Meanwhile, no rest for the wicked. The depot staff have been complaining about the lack of surfaced walkways connecting the different areas of the depot, so taking advantage of a lull in traffic the contractors have been busy.

 

depot-area-2022-12-26_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited December 26, 2022 by railsquid

[railsquid]

Right, 5 years on since the last tabula rasa, I will have to dismantle it all due to the A/C unit above the layout needing to be replaced. This has always been a possibility so the dismantling will be largely non-destructive.

 

Unfortunately this time round I'm not sure if I will get round to reassembling it, as That Virus™ came visiting earlier this year and I am still suffering the after-effects...

[railsquid]

Though on reflection in the surface of a nice hot bath, I think what I could do is convert it into a dogbone around the available edges of the room, mainly ca. 30cm deep except for the end curves, which would also free up a bit of space in the room, though part of it would have to run behind my work desk.

[Beaver]

I like that idea. More realistic appearance with a real sense of journey. You could have central Tokyo at one end and the valleys of Yamanashi at the other end!

 

Around a foot deep is in my experience about right for a long thin layout. Deep enough for complex trackwork and scenery that isn't just a transect line, shallow enough to be easily portable and restrained in volume. To be honest a shallow layout can actually look more realistic than a deep one, perhaps because it's obviously not a stereotypical train set rectangle.

 

The only obvious issue is that the up and down lines will be at opposite polarities since they are basically opposite sides of a single track loop. So creating crossovers between them or loops and sidings that connect to both could be tricky. Unless you wire the end curves as reversing loops........

[ianlaw]

One thing to note with a shallow layout is that you won't be able to get good photos if the track is too close to the edge. I'm adding 10cm here and there to the front now just for that reason. 

[railsquid]

Scenes of destruction:

 

takahachikawa-2023-05-07_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

But this is what one end of the dogbone could look like, reusing some of the existing scenic infrastructure:

 

takahachikawa-2023-05-07_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

After a bit of consideration I will make the layout 60cm deep along the full-length wall, as the baseboards are 60x90 and that way I will have less to cut.

[ianlaw]

My shelf/ dogbone layout is also 60cm deep and can reach everywhere. Obviously the return loops for the shinkansen have to be wider. And I'm adding 10cm at certain locations to enable better photography. I do however have to fit 2x2 tracks and where the diesel line splits 3x2 tracks.

[railsquid]

Almost exactly 5 years ago:

 

reconstruction_001 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Today, WIP:

 

takahachikawa-2023-05-14_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I think I have hit on a way of holding all the flat woody bits in place against the siren call of gravity which involves cutting just 4 pieces of wood and no thick paperback books.

[railsquid]

So... first flat woody bit more-or-less fixed in place (part of the brilliant idea is to fix some of the supports to the wall rather than the previous free-standing frame), and good enough excuse to run a train for the first time in yonks, which especially for the occasion is the Kato "Kokuden" unit which was the thing which is responsible for my descent into borderline train hoarder some 9 years ago).

 

Work-in-progress... by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited June 25, 2023 by railsquid

[railsquid]

And the next bit is in place:

 

takahachikawa-2023-07-01_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Not going to win any woodworking prizes, but turned out better than I hoped, and gives me some room to maneuver while I work out how to rearrange everything.

Edited July 1, 2023 by railsquid

[railsquid]

A side-effect of this is that I've been motivated to tidy up the under-layout storage, and have finally organised the Chuo Line full-size bookcases into a single contiguous section (lower part of the shelving units):

 

 

 

[railsquid]

And some actual progress after a long interlude...

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-08_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The scenery will be modified in due course.

[railsquid]

The scenery being modified in due course:

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-11_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[cteno4]

Where are the chopsticks?

 

jeff

[railsquid]

2 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Where are the chopsticks?

 

Some are partly exposed between the centre and right-hand tunnel mouths.

 

I was thinking to myself as I squid-handled the section back-and-forth twixt layout and workbench that the structure has proven nice and solid.

[cteno4]

Ahh I see em! They really are a great material. I have a big box of them (even though we always ask for no chopsticks, they just can’t do take away without chopsticks!) that I use for all sorts of things in the shop, but I need to start using them on train stuff!

 

jeff

[railsquid]

More chopstick exposure for anyone interested:

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-12_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Turns out I need to realign the inner curve so ripped out the tunnel. Don't try this in real life though, folks.

[railsquid]

Once again the high plains of western Tokyo have echoed to the banshee wails of the bodgeridoo, and as if by magic a corner section has appeared:

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-13_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

[railsquid]

In today's slow march of progress, we stress-test the connecting gradient between lower and upper loops, using British motive power as it usually lacks traction tyres:

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-15_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Went better than I thought, apart from the tendency of Dapol coaches to uncouple themselves at the slightest unevenness of track.

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

apart from the tendency of Dapol coaches to uncouple themselves at the slightest unevenness of track.

Makes them good test cars!

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Time for some chopstickery again:

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-26_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Need to expand a bit of hillside. Tunnel mouth placed temporarily while I work out how which bit of scenery to fix it to.

[cteno4]

chopstickery, I like it!

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Chop chop, stick stick:

 

takahachikawa-2023-08-26_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr