Inglenook V2.0

Having had some fun with Professor Klyzlr's ChicagHO Fork layout seen in an earlier blog, but my focus being on HOn3.5 rather than standard gauge HO, I have started work on a chainsaw layout.

What's a chainsaw layout?
Someone on Model Railroad Hobbyist (MRH) coined the term 'Chainsaw Layout' to describe a small temporary layout used to build skills on before embarking on the 'main event' layout. A place to make mistakes, hone technique and get something working quickly; and then dispose of it (chainsaw it into garbage bin sized chunks) without emotional loss. Lance Mindheim's No Skills No Problem blog is a great example of the genre.

I haven't laid track for a few years, scenery work even longer. Time for a practice plank. Somewhat following Lance Mindheim's example linked above, I purchased a plank, some timber edging and started construction. Mine is arond 1200mm long by 185 wide. The pine is 19mm thick, the Tasmanian Oak edging 25mm, so a thin piece of 6mm Tassie Oak is glued under the back of the plank to keep it sitting level.
Cheap poster paint was mixed to a grey sludge colour to paint the plank, and an experiment with track underlay was made.

As the image above shows, it's a foam sealing tape, self adhesive on one side, and only 3mm thick. Super easy to cut with a knife or scissors, very easy to apply without wrinkling. The track is glued down with occasional spots of water based craft glue, so if it needs to change or I want to salvage components, a bit of hot water will release the track without damage.

The track plan is simple, a run around and one siding. Total track is two lengths of Peco TT120 flex, and three Peco TT120 turnouts. I'm keeping the HOm/HOn3.5 track for the real layout.
To run as an Inglenook, the run around is used as two sidings, each holding 3 wagons between clearance limits. The longer siding holds a bit over 5 wagons, the headshunt 3 and a long loco. I have been generous with sizing as the current stock is very short, and longer locos and stock will be built in the fullness of time. Chicago Fork is a mini-nook, condensed down to a 3-2-2 formula, with 2+loco headshunt length. This is a full size/traditional Inglenook, 5-3-3 with 3+loco capacity. The run around facility is just for fun, since the plank was a foot longer than needed.

The photo above shows all the rollingstock available, as well as a new purchase: A Hornby TT12 Class 08 Gronk. It runs like a charm with a 9V battery for track power, nothing technical about this control system so far!
A problem now arises: I don't have enough rollingstock (8 wagons+loco required); and of the rollingstock I have, there were three coupling types fitted, with at most three wagons with matching couplers. Further, one of the wagons won't couple up to other matching coupler wagons due to the couplers being too short for the buffers! Oh, and the TT120 couplers on the grey wagon and Gronk are a prick to uncouple by hand.
So here's my challenge. One wagon per week, to operational level. That means wheels corrected for gauging, couplers fitted at correct height, wagon painted appropriately (albeit without decals on new builds) and two wagons will need to be completely built from scratch.
The delightfully smooth Gronk will hopefully wear a TGR Drewry V class shunter body and appropriate couplers when my 3D printer decides to print properly too.
Tune in for rollingstock updates!

Mini-Nook

My friend Professor Klyzlr built a pair of Mini-Nook layouts using foamcore to demonstrate both the material and compact layouts to a wide audience. One of the layouts, ChicagO Fork, was in O scale to try and get some of the NSW O scale fraternity to actually do something apart from whingeing, or at least that's how I saw it.

The smaller layout, ChicagHO Fork, is, per the naming convention, in HO scale, and now resides with me. Inglenook Sidings is a shunting puzzle beautifully described here. A mini-nook is a more compact version, holding five wagons instead of eight. Prof's version uses one Peco turnout and a sector plate for the lead and other turnout, and is about 120cm (4') long and around 20cm deep.

It's great to be able to hook up a pair of wires to an ancient H&M Clipper for DC locos, or occasionally my DCC rig for locos thus equipped.

The NSW 73 class is my favourite diesel loco, and this plastic Auscision model is a superb example, in a unique livery that really looks the part.

Goods rollingstock is all USA 40' prototype at the moment, one Model Power RTR reefer and the rest Accurail kits in use. Wheels have been swapped for cheap Chinese metal wheels via eBay and kadees fitted to most. After years decades of trying to create anything much in 1:43 scale on 14mm gauge, it was like a drug being able to assemble such easy kits in minimal time. You could purchase enough rollingstock for this layout within 15 minutes on Ebay, and any hobby shop that sells trains would have enough to fit you out as well.

As well as Auscision 7344, my HO diesel fleet also consists of a Con-Cor SW7, Life-Like Proto PA1 (totally fish out of water in a freight yard), SDS X200 rail tractor and a DCC sound fitted Atlas S2.

I made simple car cards to shuffle and randomly select. The white hook is a handle for moving the sector plate.

The layout is supported by a fold-up keyboard stand when in use or on a shelf when stored.
I think i'd like to build a full 5-3-3 Inglenook in N scale too!

Portable steam

It may seem quiet, but not all is lost. Currently steam power is the focus, with two such projects underway.

First and most complete is a Langley Models OO scale Foster Portable Engine. This engine will power a sawmill, quite common in Australia. Indeed, the finished sawmill may portray a small portable mill, as many mills were moved from valley to valley as areas were cut out and new leases opened. Timbertown, at Wauchope NSW uses a portable engine to power their vertical sash gang saw.
The Langley kit builds a circa 1907 era engine, so it's not new in my preferred era. But it is earning a living and thus is maintained to a reasonable standard.

It's my first time using Vallejo paint. Previously I have used Humbrol enamels, Games Workshop Citadel acrylics and Tamiya acrylics. They all have their strengths, but I dislike cleaning up after enamels.
Two quick trips to the hobby shop later and I have almost enough Vallejo colours for this model! Had to use some GW metallic silver and Humbrol metallic copper for a few details. Mixing enamel and acrylic, ooh nooo! Works fine.

A place of solitude

Every layout requires a place for quiet contemplation; here's a trio of single holers of mine.

The first is a quite old Sentinal white metal kit, superglued together as per instructions.

It has since received the last wall and roof, and has been primed ready for painting.

The following pair are kits by Master Creations, from the USA, and are laser cut from plywood. One is built as per instructions albeit with a corrugated iron roof, the other has some poo tickets by the throne and will receive a corrugated iron roof in due course.

I don't have a lot of time to make models, so small projects such as these allow something to be accomplished without bogging down on major projects.

The Zig Zag Railway

Last father's day, my wife Clare gifted me a trip on the Zig Zag Railway, which had reopened in 2023 after a long hiatus. We finally made the trip on the 25th of May 2024. Last time I rode the ZZR was around 2004!


The Zig Zag Railway is a tourist railway built on the roadbed of the former Great Western Line of the NSW Government Railways. Bypassed in 1910, it was reawakend by volunteers in the 1970s, extended in the late 1980s, closed for reaccreditation in 2012, burnt in bushfires, flooded and burnt again but thankfully back in action better than ever before!

The line has phenomenal scenery, steep grades, two tunnels and three large stone viaducts. A return trip is around an hour and a half.

The ZZR wasn't able to source standard gauge rollingstock when they first formed, however modern 3'6" gauge steam locomotives were available from Queensland (and South Australia) so the decision to narrow gauge the line was made.


Our loco for this trip was ex-QR AC16 number 218A. A child of WW2, when seen in 2004 it was under tarps having had sporadic restoration work done on it. It looks and sounds amazing now!

Here it was in 2004!

Our carriage was Ex-QR BUV 1412, a combination guards and passenger carriage. Seen here at Top Points, as the loco runs around the train to set down the middle road.

Way back when, the train would stop at various other locations along the line, with a fair sized picnic area below viaduct number 1. From there you could walk to the base of the huge stone columns, and really get a feel for the engineering involved. I really hope they are able to reopen the picnic areas in due course. As it is now, each train is a sell-out, and you can't head down on one train and back on another a few hours later, as you once could.

Back in 2004, I was able to spend ours with my friend Peter Grace around the workshop area at Bottom Road photographing and measuring rollingstock and equipment. There isn't enough time to do that on the current operating schedule, again, hopefully that will be available in the future too. The big 400 class Garratt has had some work done to it since I saw it in 2004, although that may be asbestos removal rather than any form of restoration. Get the wet asbestos lagging off the boiler and it'll slow the rust monster significantly!

and back in 2004:

It was a great day out! The current modus operandi is a long was off the old, when more than one steam loco was available, and there were lots of places to get off and rejoin the train later making it was a full day event rather than a 2 hour event. However I wish ZZR every luck in the future!


P.S. I think I would like to spend a day photographing and bushwalking the area soon...

Corrugations and Religion

The Will HO/OO Corrugated Iron Church is a "good ol kit" that lends itself to kitbashing. A number have been converted into engine sheds for OO9 layouts.
It has been a few years since I attempted a structure kit, so this is a good and cheap one to practise on. Here's my take on it...

First step: square up the windows.Using a 90 degree chisel and files, remove the otherwise lovely stained glass window frames and make them a tad more agnostic

New window frames were 3D printed to suit (more on that to come)

Initially I was going to use it as a community hall or similar; dance halls, schools of art and various secret (mens) societies were common in the earlier West Coast Tasmanian towns.
I intended on keeping overall dimensions and shape the same, apart from the front vestibule that was just too church-ish for my liking.

The Zeehan School of Mines is one such inspiration:

Browsing photos of mining boom towns, and false front inspiration struck:
A bit of Evergreen styrene, the original kit door and a few more holes to fit windows and we have ourselves a different flavour.
False front buildings were not as common as 'normal' front structures, but there were enough around to make this plausible. The mix of corrugated iron and weatherboards was common enough too. Curiously, many photos of corrugated iron structures have the corrugations running horizontally on the walls as per the Zeehan photo above, unlike the kit.

The structure was then shortened for aesthetic and layout size purposes

The lean-to at the back where a priest would take shelter from his herd had a fairly substantial chimney built into it. I replaced the roof with offcuts from shortening the main roof. The back wall will need something to hide the ugliness of the misisng chimney.
Looking closer in proportion to the Zeehan Printing Office now:

New windows that are a little bulkier (and hide my poor efforts at filing the openings to size) have been printed, but yet to be fitted.

Hopefully it won't be long before more progress can be made :)

Hornby TT120 kitbash

Last post I had a chassis from a Hornby TT120 4 wheel wagon seperated from it's body.
This post it gets a new body!

What started out as a copy of a Chiver's Finleines O16.5 wagon, that I redrew, stretched, changed details ready for O14, and never did much with. It has since been cut and shut again, rescaled, lengthened, redetailed and prepared for printing for HOn3½.

In the slicer, ready to send to the Form2 printer I use. I'm afraid FDM printers just aren't good enough for fine detail work. I'm also afraid of the cost of Formlabs resin and consumables!

Fresh out of curing, and with support truss removed

It's great to knock out a quick wagon to get an idea on size of details and how much detail to include. I have a bit of a problem with people making fantastic 3D models, incredibly detailed, but nearly impossible to get all the supports off cleanly and for the details to not be too flimsy.

I will have to decide on couplers shortly! Buffers, and hence bufferlock on curves, is going to be a problem. The PVH diesel loco has prototypical screw couplings, the existing fleet from Andrew Collier has a mixture of Greenwich and Roco couplers (and not all wagons can currently couple together due to coupler lengths), and of course this new wagon has a Hornby dilemma slung below it. Paint will hopefully happen this week too!

TT120: Thy lord Hornby giveth to HOn3½ modellers

I wouldn't have considered moving to HOn3½ if it wasn't for Hornby and Peco introducing their ranges of TT120. I had always kept an eye on the various HO narrow gauges, HOn3½ always seemed just a smaller version of my tribulations in Sn3½ and O24.5. I like the idea of building a lot of stuff. I like the idea of having fairly unique models. I don't like the idea of getting my grandfather's watch making equipment out to build models. I almost tried Nn3 when younger, but even the best models in magazines and online still looked like rough castings.

My biggest issue with O scale was space. Loco construction was enjoyable, the quality of details parts amazing.
My biggest issue with S scale was availability. While building locos and rollingstock is fun, not being able to buy basic detail parts, figures or even corrugated iron for structures is quite problematic. Stagnation was the flavour of Sn modelling to me.

Enter HO narrow. Space is not a problem (well, it always will be, but it isn't all the same). There is very few useful kits on the market for Tasmanian locos or rollingstock (yet I have managed to acquire kits for an SAR T class and a GMA(M) Garratt as well as the previously posted scratchbuilt models by Andrew Collier). 3D models are available for a few items that are of use to me, the Mt Lyell M wagon by Jamie Mac and the TGR 6 wheel B class carriage, also by Jamie Mac, on Thingiverse in particular. I will post my printed copies in a later blog.

Now Hornby and Peco have taken a long-almost-extinct scale and gauge and revived it. With considerable luck, it's a gauge that suits 3'6" gauge models in the most abundant scale around. Thus HOn3½ re-entered my radar.

I procured this example from Woodpecker Model Railways to see how TT120 can assist me. TGR and EBR predominately used 2'7" dia wheels, or 9mm in HO scale. I knew Peco's wagons used 8mm dia holey disc wheels, not ideal. Hornby wheels are at least properly spoked, but are unfortunately also 8mm dia.
No matter, this underframe will still see some use. At $37.90 per wagon I won't be buying many if any more. The wheels may be useful for log bogies and freelance gap-filler rollingstock. Not sure that i'm keen on the couplers either!