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.

Inspiration: Switching Puzzle Websites

I love small switching layouts. Here links to my favourite sites:

 http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/

www.layoutvision.com

http://www.carendt.com/micro-layout-design-gallery/inglenook-designs/

http://smallmr.com/wordpress/

NS: voor elk vervoer een wagen

"Valkenveld Industriespoor" H0 Track Plan

Three new freight cars for Valkenveld H0

Box car with brakeman's cabin, NS 14438 CHOK, grey (Roco 66361)

Box car, NS 14253 CHOK, brown (Roco 66362)

PAM tank car, NS 501 374, black (Roco 67454)

With only 150cm in length Valkenveld Industriespoor requires short freight cars to operate an 8 car Inglenook session. The first three to join the fleet (already in the collection are 3 self-unloading hoppers, "Kalk"-cars that I bought with the NS 2200) are cars that fit the Dutch III era the layout is set in. I am particularly fond of the black PAM tank car..

A tribute to the 2200 series as I have the NS 2200 now in N and H0 scale. Bernard van Vlijmen: NS 2201 in Amsterdam CS, 1959. Source: nicospilt

Valkenveld goes H0

18 April 2015 saw the arrival of an NS 2200 from Roco, 3 self-unloading hoppers for chalk transport, two turnouts and a few pieces of track - start of the H0 era in addition to my N scale endeavours. Or better said: back to the roots as I started off in H0 scale as a boy. I intend to build a small (150 x 30 cm) switching layout with an Inglenook track plan. More to come...

One of the 3 NS self-unloading hoppers I bought together with the NS 2200 (Roco)

My son tests Roco's NS 2200 on the living room table.