Tortoise installed

Today I mounted the two Tortoise switch maching. Nice, slooow moving.

Underground...

Simple, but effective. The front will receive a nicer facia as soon as the scenery nears completion.

Inspiration: Westbrook

A small layout with a US theme and track plan that could be operated Inglenook-style:

The layout is described here.

 
Video of the prototype:

Warehouse construction continues on Father's Day

Good progress on the Auhagen warehouse kit. I shortened the depth of the building itself, the roof and loading platform to fit my layout. Assembly is so far complete. I still need to do some detailling, coloring and weathering. But first I want to build a second kit to double the length of the building. By this, I can avoid color differences between the two sections of the building.

Goods can finally flow in and out of Valkenveld. A general warehouse gives me good reason to drop a variety of cars and loads.

Detail of the shortened depth.

Terrible "flash" image. Final detailling, coloring and weathering to be done.

Warehouse kit from Auhagen

This warehouse will feature beside track three as background to the layout (Auhagen No. 11436 half-relief warehouse). I might buy a second kit to double the length. The sides will have to be shortened to fit to the layout.

A batch of 8 freight cars arrives in Valkenveld

With 8 more NS cars added I have more than enough freight cars to operate Valkenveld Industriespoor according to the "Inglenook" rules. The operational fun can begin!

Full house. All tracks occupied to their max with all my current rolling stock (except for the self-unloading hoppers). This image also demonstrates the correct length of tracks for an "Inglenook" yard: track 1 in the front can hold 5 cars, tracks 2 and 3 can hold 3 cars each. The yard lead to the left (not visible) holds a locomotive and 3 cars. To play "Inglenook" 8 cars are needed.

Valkenveld featured on the OMC website

The OMC (Omroep Modelspoor Club) featured an article about my "little empire", see here.

Valkenveld Industriespoor is operational

Tracks are glued rock-solid to the cork-bed. To prevent the locomotive and cars drop of my little world, I screwed wooden boards to both ends. This is a temporary measure until a proper backdrop will be installed.

Next project: installing Tortoise turnout motors.

Tracks glued to cork

It's not the prettiest sight, but be sure, the white glue will dry up to an almost invisible state. Tomorrow, trains can run on Valkenveld Industriespoor!

Track laying in Valkenveld Industriespoor

With the wooden frame for the 150x30cm H0 Valkenveld Industriespoor built and a layer of 3mm thick cork installed on top of it, I started with track laying today. All tracks were cut to the right dimensions and I soldered feeder wires to the rails. Only work to be left is to glue the tracks in place and install the underground switches - apart from ballasting that is..

Overview of my small switching layout with the "Inglenook"-style track plan. The track on the left holds a locomotive plus 3 freight cars. The front track on the right holds 5 cars and the two other tracks 3 cars each.

The tracks are glued on a layer of 3mm cork. In the yard area the tracks are on same level as the surrounding surface, only for a small section of the in/outbound track I used an N-scale cork bed. This might seem low for H0, but fits perfectly to the light railroad theme in the early 1960s. The "geometric" feel of the cork structure will of course be smoothened out once I start with landscaping the layout.

Feeder wires are soldered underneath the rails. This ensures they become invisable once the tracks are ballasted.

Tracks still have to be glued to the cork surface.