Postby Ian Roberts » Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:47 pm
Thanks to Grombert for his generous introduction and now I've taken the plunge to join the group. I've found the website really helpful over the last few years so I hope I can add something to it. In due course I will post some more pictures, but in the meantime I thought I'd give you some more information about the layout. It was built as a coversation piece for the group of narrow gaugers Grombert referred to. The layout is based on a "might have been" estate railway on the fictional island of Kiloran. This was the island that the Characters in the 1940's film "I know where I'm going" were heading to but failed to arrive. It's their present day decendents who run the place and Camas Orainn (St Orainn's bay) is the northern terminus of the railway. The main features are;
Scratchbuilt scenery - using card, paper, wire, fur fabric and synthetic steel wool - and so on.
Scratchbuilt rolling stock - most of the engines use the Bachmann 08 diesel shunter chassis. The four wheeled varieties have the centre wheels removed. The reason for using this chassis is because of the way the flywheel helps slow running. Most of the wagons run on coach bogies from the same manufacturer.
Figures - some are from kits and some from castings in a well known oven baked polymer clay.
Loads - After its last outing I replaced the last of the bought-in items with scratchbuilt ones. Cartons, vegetable boxes (and their loads), fish boxes (and fish), creels, oil drums and peat loads are all home made.
So why? Because I'm retired, I have the time, but not the money! Also doing everything yourself gives a cohesion to the presentation, I think. Mostly though, because I enjoy it.
Hopefully, more later.
Ian