Sandpits
This is a very simple layout built to demonstrate the minimum space concept applied to On14 modelling. On14 is O scale 7mm to one foot or 1:43.5 as a ratio, running on 14mm gauge track. This represents the 2 foot gauge track used by many quarry and mineral railways up to fairly recently. Just one or two systems still operate. The scale/gauge combination is the same as Brymbo featured elsewhere on this website.
The gauge is the same as some of Wales Great Little Trains, such as Ffestiniog and Vale of Rheidol, but unlike these, and indeed Brymbo, the motive power seen here is far more diminutive. The Lister is a lightweight (weighing between 1 and 2 tons depending on the model!) based on the Auto Truck that hauled trollies around railway stations between the wars. The engine in the loco modelled here is a 650cc JAP air-cooled engine.
The model is a Roy C Link (RCL) kit which has a double reduction gearbox driving both axles, and the Rugga skip wagon kits are also by RCL.
The basic layout is a more or less perfect circle about 300mm diameter of 14mm gauge track constructed by spiking code 115 rail to RCL plastic sleepers. It was laid on a base of Sundeala with a sub-base of 6mm ply. The whole of the rest of the board comprises a waffle structure of 6mm ply, most importantly incorporating the basic shape of all the tunnels, embankments and the few small flat areas.
The waffle was infilled with solid lumps of expanded polystyrene and the ground was filled to level with ceiling tile cement. Much of the surface was rendered with sand from the local strata (Shotover) sprinkled on to a PVA wash.
The layout provides no scope at all for operational running, but will happily purr around all day, providing an irresistible attraction to children as the train dives first in to the tunnel and then goes through an impossibly low door in to the factory. The driver cannot even negotiate this door facing the other way!
I nearly always run the Lister with a desk top supply as used in laboratories. This gives a guaranteed clean supply, without any chopping or harmonics, and has very useful voltmeter and ammeter. I usually use about 4.8-5.5V which is a reasonable, but not quite snail like crawl. With a good power supply like this there are no over-heating problems. The Lister went round about 250 times during a recent exhibition without any problems, essentially unattended.
The building does rather overwhelm the rest of the layout doesn’t it? Given the scale of the thing it isn’t that big though. Basic construction is a box of plywood, with individual pieces or plastic sheet representing 6ft x 3ft panels of corrugated iron glued to it. Glue was evo-stick, which will distort and even dissolve the styrene sheet, but this adds to the rusticity. The difficult bit was making sure there was clearance for the trains inside, without seeing daylight from one end to the other.
To find out more about the layouts being worked on by the Oxford and District Model Railway Club, then please click here.
