TRAIN TIME: A Yank Does Hornby Pt 13 - Let the Scenery Begin

Gosh, I totally forgot about posting updates to the Hornby layout! Good grief! Well, to make up for lost time I'll kinda roll several posts into one. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

July 2018

With the basic board built and on legs I started planning the layout. This was my first go-round but it didn't allow for a long enough main line.

Here's what I decided on - a simple loop with one siding off to the left nearly forming a circle. I could have done a circle but then I couldn't use the Mettoy bridge where I wanted it. For a small layout this is just fine.

That brown paint is from a can I've been using for nearly the past ten years! A little here on this layout, a little there on that layout and there's still enough for as couple of small layouts like these

After seeing this paint at Lowe's I thought it would work as faux ballast or roadbed under the track. It's thicker than normal paint, has some granular texture and little black flecks. The photos don't do it justice but it looks great!

Started painting in roads (the tan vertical stripe to the right of center) and making hills - the paper template is to the far left of the layout

August 2018

After a brief pause Ipainted in ground area using a dark gray - nearly black - paint. The large Styrofoam chunk to the left will be wittled down so that a road can pass through

September 2018

More roads, two hills to the left and the structures temporarily in-place. I had been buying some vehicles but the pics only show a Corgi Scammell Mechanical Horse for now. For hedges I used Loofa sponges already dyed green and cut down to represent hedgerows. I wanted to try this because a lot of the early Hornby scenery plots utilize Loofa as trees and hedges and I was hoping to achieve a vintage look.

One of the reasons I bought the Hornby France Crossing Gate was it's two-piece construction. I know it utilizes a different gate structure than that in the UK but there was no more room on the layout for a Hornby UK Crossing Gate as utilized on the upper end of the road

I tried to lighten up the dark gray with some light gray highlighting but I think it needs more. The dark gray is too overpowering me thinks!

 

TRAIN TIME: Custom Marx Army Commodore Vanderbilt Clockwork Train

A couple of months ago I latched on to this custom painted 3-piece Marx Commodore Vanderbilt (CV) set which included the engine, tender, and caboose. The paint job was nice enough and the person who redid it looks like he used a homemade rubber stamp for the US * ARMY lettering. The three piece set was very reasonably priced so, what the heck, I took the plunge. I went from being anti-clockwork a couple of years back, to grudging respect, to being fully on-board with the whole thing. I finally realized that trains like this were at the low end of the price spectrum and often times were the only trains some families could afford. It represents a simple pleasure from days gone by and I now accept it for what it is. As I was playing with this I toyed (pun intended) with adding cars, but hey, watch the videos and see for yourself. 

This portion of the old train board is just big enough for an oval of track. For this video I pulled out vintage Army toys from Ideal, Auburn, Marx, Tootsietoy, Triang Minic, Renwal, and Payton. Oh, and BTW it wasn't 'til after I was finished filming that I noticed the tender was on backwards - DOH! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Three unit train

Four unit train

Five unit train

TRAIN TIME: A Yank Does Hornby Pt 11 - Planning a Small Clockwork Layout

Welll, it's time to show what I've been up to in regards to all the Hornby postings lately. Even though I can take any clockwork/wind-up train and run it on either of my two 3-rail layouts in The Cave, I wanted to do something else. Actually, the itch to build yet another layout was getting to me again :-)

I went out to the storage shed in the backyard and pulled out a 2' (60.96cm) x 4' (121.92cm) piece of particle board I had scrounged from somewhere and thought it would be make a nice platform for a little wind-up layout. I gave it a quick coat of this light brown paint I've had like forever and started the process of planning.

This was back in March of 2018 and I had just acquired a Hornby MO Goods Set.

One of the cars was missing wheels. Replacement wheels were graciously supplied by Graeme Eldred in Bannister, Scotland!

Graeme BTW operates the Binn's Road website and is an excellent source of info on toy trains - see the sidebar to the right for a link to Graeme's website.

Sooo, I set up the track along with a points (switch/turnout) and fiddled around with it for a few days. On the one hand, I do like drawing out my plans on paper, on the other hand, it's only when you actually see track and accessories sitting on a board IRL that you can get a feel for what a layout is actually going to look like.

I liked the overall look and feel to this small layout but I really wanted to do a little more. One of the reasons I held off on this design was that the crossing would not have fit properly on the straight-a-way and I really wanted to use it. So, plans for this small layout were shelved and I had to come up with something else.  Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

TRAIN TIME: A Yank Does Hornby Pt 8 - Hornby France No. 1 Level Grade Crossing

My on-going, and as yet unrevealed, train project needed a second grade crossing. I had already acquired the Hornby UK No. 1 Level Grade Crossing but needed another. There was a problem though - no room for another crossing. I had room for something around 7" or so but these crossings are at the 11" mark. This crossing, as you can see, is designed in two pieces joined to the rails by small clips. Sooo, even though this was French it appeared as if this next project was taking on an international flair. That's okay - I'm going for an overall European look and I'm quite okay with this. Besides, this is just one fabulous Hunk 'O Tin with beautiful lithography, nice detailing, working manual gates, and gatekeepers office. What's more is that it can be used for 2-rail or 3-rail O-gauge track.Overall the crossing measures 10 1/4" (26.03cm) W x 11" (27.94cm) D x 4 1/4" (10.79cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The two halves are secured to the track by means of clips

They stay in place well enough without the two pieces being moved about by vibrations of the train board