Hi scottmac99, That is a really nice shelf layout you built. It looks like you used real dirt on the base, it looks good. How long is the shelf layout?
Ed
1.9 meters. The baseboard is an Ikea 'Lack' shelf, that comes with a metal framework to enable effectively invisible mounting to the wall. The shelf itself is ultra-lightweight.
It was (and is) a bit of an experiment, but I couldn't import the baseboard(s) I wanted (from the UK) because of the Oz Govt's restrictions on importation of wood products that are not certified as having been treated to get rig of bugs.
So I sloooooowly built up the back and sides, as shown the pics attached. The overall structure is still pretty light, I can easily lift into position on the wall.
There is a shorter version of the Lack shelf, so in theory I could extend the layout at one or both ends.
The plan is, of course, closely based on John Armstrong's switching puzzle, with the addition of the turntable. The turntable was never meant to send locos anywhere, it was a means of turning them (should I want to to) but more importantly to act as a sort of sector plate. By having the turntable instead of extra track, I've probably saved a half meter or so in the length of the baseboard.
The only drawback with the turntable (as I have posted elsewhere) is that one of the rails lost power. I eventually worked out how to get the top surface off, lifted it up and exposed the two little spring-loaded lugs that pick up the power and transmit it to the track (and also reverse the polarity as needed). The only problem with that was that one of the teensy-tiny little springs went 'ping' and bounced off to I know not where. I could barely see it when I knew where it was, let alone where it might have gone to. Somewhere on the floor probably. I dragged a magnet around trying to locate it but to no avail. So power is now (for the time-being) delivered to the turntable via a couple of ugly screwed connections right next to the sidescene. That of course means I can't use the turntable as a turntable proper. But I've decided (out of necessity) that using it as sector plate is fine (and also adds just a little more challenge to the switching tasks).
[Replacement lugs cost only $USD2.30 approx, but $USD20.00 postage from the USA to down here, which amounts to about half what I paid for the turntable in the first place. So I'm not buying any.]
The trackwork is Peco HO/OO even though the layout is On30 (with Bachmann locos and cars). My technique is to remove every third (say) sleeper/tie, then rearrange what's left so that the track looks a bit rustic.
Yes, the ballast is real gravel, collected from the roadside, and sieved to be super-fine, then applied in the usual way and fixed with a white glue/washing detergent solution dripped on.
The Peco turnouts allow for super-reliable electrical continuity, if you can be bothered setting them up with the appropriate switches. I've just left them as is and they seem to work OK. I had contemplated some sort of wire-in-tube control from the front of the layout, but decided that the big-finger-from-the-sky would be good enough. And it is.
It's a tiny little layout, but one that I find is fun to use. Lots more to do, e.g. build up some of the Clever Models card kits as building flats/low relief to go on the backscene.
I'm currently using just two locos, the Bachmann On30 Forney, and and Ixion Models On30 'Coffee Pot' (based on a real-life and still operating Sth Australian prototype). Both are very good runners. The Coffee Pot doesn't have couplings as such, so I use it more as a shunting device. It also functions as part of the puzzle, in that when it's in the way, I have to move it to somewhere else on the layout. Unfortunately it's just a tad too long for the turntable, but that's not a biggie. [I also have a couple of the Bachmann gas 0-4-0 engines, but they are pretty unreliable electrically because of the very short wheelbase - plus one of them seems to have stripped one of its drive pinions.]
