Model Railway Forum

For some time I have been thinking about building a small layout as my main HO fold-down layout is out of action
due to items stored underneath.
I have several unusual items which have not run for many years or not at all so I thought I would build a layout to run these on.
Then I thought why not make it fit in my car so that I could possibly take it to local exhibitions so this is what materialised.



The board size is just big enough to run a Eheim/Brawa Trolley bus minimum oval and I also added a H0e circuit to run
Eggerbahn/Jouef narrow gauge items into a common interchange station together with a siding for mineral trains.
Buildings are part of a job lot of continental items I bought last year.
The photo shows the test circuit and level crossing to test the bus operation over the crossing which it did without problems.
A viaduct is under construction to hide the back of the layout and to display statically other items.
Waiting now for some items which were missing from a Peco servo kit so that I can get the points working.
More photos to follow as work progresses.

Regards, Colin

Hi Colin
That's a good start. This layout is looking very interesting, I'm looking forward to watching it develop.

Nice one Colin

I used to have one of those little diesels and those little waggons. My loco was light brown with a red chassis. I believe every year they change the colour? I worked it out that there is just enough room to convert the loco to DCC by using a small Lenz N gauge decoder. (If you ever wanted to. Back then Lenz made the smallest decoder available).
I like the trolley bus. I don't know why these are not re-introduced in cities as it is by far the most workable solution.

How well does the bus steer? I have never had one myself but seen many in books etc. I take it they steer using the pantographs?

Looks like it will be an interesting layout.

Hi all.
Thanks for the comments.
The H0e items are all from Eggerbahn, Jouef and Roco and will remain analogue as I do not want to alter them.
The trolley busses steer from the overhead wires through the trolley poles. There are two types, roller contact and inverted "U" shape.
The roller contact type run a little wide on curves so I had to run these first to determine the road width on the curves.
The "U" shaped contacts track better so the road is a compromise for both.
Some of the trolley busses are about 60 years old as are some of the Eggerbahn items.
The layout has got to the point where I can ballast the track and will post photos later as at the moment paint is drying on the board and viaduct.
Here's a bad photo I took yesterday showing the station and viaduct in the background. Waiting for brickpaper to finish the viaduct.
The trolley masts will be re-fitted when the layout is comlplete as they are rather fragile.



Regards, Colin.

Very nice. It all looks rather fun. When I had H0e, I ran them on DC, but back then I had heavily invested in DCC for my 00 gauge collection so I was looking at the DCC potential of H0e for convenience.
With the kore recent love for 0-16.5, At first I put a DCC decoder in my first loco when I built it, but something inside me felt that I was to use DC instead. I love DC as I congratulate myself when I wire it up. It is something which I didn't quite feel the same witn DCC. For example, yes I spent ages programming the decoders I fitted to locos etc, but I didn't feel the same "Well done" moment somehow if that makes sense. I think it is that I have been brought up in an almost non-computer age (We had early computers but they disn't do much and everything had to be programmed by oneself for those lucky enough people who could aford them in those days). Maybe those who were born from the early 1990's on would feel different?

Wow. Simply wow. I am greatly intrigued by micro layouts in general, and the architectural edge of British modellers in the particular.
I've never seen one like this before, ever. I shall be following with avid attention.

A bit more progress today although I am waiting for brickpaper for the viaduct and missing servo parts and also a wagon turntable.



The buildings are not in their final places or even the final buildings as I have some others which may fit better.
Ballasting can wait until after I fit the point servos and then the house fences and gardens can be worked out.
Regards, Colin.

Hah! And now you have a view break in the form of a viaduct.
Well done! You also have a nice operational challenge keeping
the bus and the train separated, and on schedule.