Mickoo's American Modelling Empire

mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
New thread as today....well tomorrow actually...is the start of a new adventure and another step in consolidating the paying side of the business.

I'll keep adding to the original dabbling thread as and when but I'm finding harder and harder to find my stuff; so this thread is devoted to my US modelling and hopeful planned new layout.

Today marks exactly 1 year to the day since I handed my notice in at the Port and took a career change.

Part of that plan required a new workshop with some decent space to put the bigger and smellier tools in, I'll also have somewhere to give the finished models a decent test run and set up a pukka photo booth.

It'll clear the garage of the larger tools and make a big dent in the home workshop for space to...well to actually move around really.

The old shed 8' x 6' was knackered and suffered badly being moved to install the new fence, it didn't take much to pull down by hand and throw in the skip to be honest.

The new shed base 17' x 8' for the new bat/man/modelling cave was laid last month and today the first pieces of the structure arrived. Pretty much all of the wood for the carcass is now here as well as the new steel roof sheets.

Construction starts tomorrow and hopefully by the weekend it'll start to look like a new workshop. Insulation and exterior cladding plus doors and windows should arrive in the next couple of weeks to close it all out. Then it'll be time to add the lighting, power and heating and throw some benches up.

Once the workshop is finished then we can finally get some sort of garden back, quite frankly it's been a bit of a :shit: hole for far too long. Part of that plan is to have stone borders and plants in pots, rather than traditional soil borders, which basically means all those digging and cutting tools got thrown in the skip.

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mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Jordan said:
Wot no trains yet?? :p:)):)):))

Only kidding. Words like "workshop" and "business" linked to US model trains have my attention. :thumbs:
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Not yet, not quite yet :cool:

I have boxes stashed on top of boxes with US modeling projects, some with 3D print upgrades, some with etched upgrades, let alone the stash of work stored on the PC waiting for time to do something with them. I doubt the new bat cave will give me more time, but what it should do is reduce the amount of time I have to move stuff just to get to something I need...and then put it all back.

If you add all that up then it comes to a frighteningly large amount of just wasted time.
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Yorkshire Dave said:
Ey oop. The plinth is not large enough for a workshop, layout and a storage area for all of the US stuff.....:D
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Well I'm hoping for L shaped 8 x 17' layout, minus of course the wall thickness so realistically 7 x 16' and I may still got N scale :))

The other 'front' wall will all be work bench, space for the big ultra sonic tank, spray booth, shot blaster (probably Walnut) and photo booth, that should still leave a spare bench space of about 6' for 'doing' stuff.

This'll go in the new cave and I'll run an air line back to and through the garage to a bayonet coupling for the tyre inflator unit I have. The compressor will have an accoustic cover over it. To be fair it only runs once every couple of months and does about six or seven tyre top ups on a single charge which only takes 3-4 minutes of running to recharge.

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I'll run a short line in the new cave with regulated tap offs for the air brush and bead blaster, having said that, the walnut blaster is not temperature dependent (possibly moisture sensitive mind) and they can be dusty so it might be better off sticking that in the garage in the space cleared once all my crap gets moved to the cave.

Either way, I have options :thumbs:

Layout wise, if it's not N then it'll either be a depot based set up or industrial switching. No definitive plans drawn up, I seem to work better with bits of track on a board to get a spacial feel than planning it all out in some PC Program.
 
Yorkshire Dave

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
As for a layout - why not taken the tracks out of the workshop around the garden on waist height loop.... load the working Bethgon freight cars with rabbit food and dump the contents into the hutches..... no need to bend down to feed them.... :))
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Yorkshire Dave said:
Is it really April 1st .....:)):)):))
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I kid you not, I nearly picked up a few Gevos and ACe's at the recent US model show last month.

I can extend into the garden but only a large U shape, crossing the decking is going to take more than I can manage to convince the garden management :p

I'd prefer a line that emptied the rabbit waste into the bins without bending down to be honest :))
 
Jordan

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
mickoo said:
I'm hoping for L shaped 8 x 17'
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Coincidentally the same size as my loft layout (which is a roundy-roundy). For O scale it compares in proportion to a bit bigger than 8ft x 4ft in HO, so not that big a space, really. Can't see all those huge brass steam locos you have taking 3ft radius curves, somehow!! :confused: :D
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Jordan said:
Coincidentally the same size as my loft layout (which is a roundy-roundy). For O scale it compares in proportion to a bit bigger than 8ft x 4ft in HO, so not that big a space, really. Can't see all those huge brass steam locos you have taking 3ft radius curves, somehow!! :confused: :D
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Yeah, they're not going to work in that sort of setting :)), even L shaped would tax them. The biggest probably won't even fit on the proposed turntable, well, I know they won't as I'm limiting it to a 100' table if I go down the depot route. Therefore the biggest will go off stage to the local Wye for turning is my excuse, I may be able to get an overlapped Wye internally with just enough headshunt for the articulateds to be turned, but I've not worked out the logistics, feasibility or even 'wantability' of that yet.

The roundy roundy at the recent US show was 7½' wide and even the 70' Amfleet stock didn't look that offensive, the curves looked a lot better with 50' box cars and bigger 60' were not to bad either.

Realistically a roundy roundy inside is not practical, it has to have a workshop ability as well, I need the space, tools, machinery etc to help the business.

If I want to run trains roundy roundy then it'll be N gauge as I really like big scenery type layouts and you could squeak a run around loop under the workbench easily enough or spirals at each end.

For O gauge then it'll have to extend outside, I will almost certainly extend along the back fence to give a decent 8 m run for testing etc and have little interest in adding any sort of scenery really, too impractical.
 
JasonD

JasonD

Western Thunderer
O-scale at chest height. More storage underneath and you don't see the sharpness in curves. Outside - runner beans, etc growing up the legs, teasing those well sheltered rabbits underneath. Less grass to mow - robot mower. Insulate the shed properly.

Strewth, most sensible post since I turned 75 :drool:

Jason
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
JasonD said:
O-scale at chest height. More storage underneath and you don't see the sharpness in curves. Outside - runner beans, etc growing up the legs, teasing those well sheltered rabbits underneath. Less grass to mow - robot mower. Insulate the shed properly.

Strewth, most sensible post since I turned 75 :drool:

Jason
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Looking at height of 48" and shelves underneath for storage. Outside - zero interest in wildlife, biology or cultivation :D grass may go as the dogs just turn it into the Somme in the winter time.

Insulation is 100 mm jablite on all surfaces including floor, if that's not enough I'll add another 100 mm skin inside on top of that. Fortunately the shed is tucked in a corner so three faces are protected from the wind which will help.
 
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