Plans afoot

Here starts my plan and experiences in building my first etched kit, obviously this is going to be a long process and I have picked a simple loco (Tmf2_2) to start off with at least I think so though the engine and gearbox placement will have to be carefully thought out. I have started by using Adobe Illustrator to start creating the etch plans and am going to build up the etch layers so that individual components can be checked and refined. Once these plans are completed then tests can be carried out using 3D CAD to check space and tolerances. I am going to be trying out a couple of packages, but this is a little further down the road. So there is quite a steep learning curve for this and the ultimate goal is to produce a couple of kits for my own personal use and then to move on to some more stock, but I am not getting to carried away with this.

Birthday pressies

Finally I have got hold of my birthday pressies and these books were part of that. I have for some time been looking for decent drawings with measurements of RhB stock both old and new. For some reason there seems to be very little information freely available, or maybe I am just not looking in the right places. So with these 2 books the plans for producing some TTm scale loco and stock moves every nearer. I am starting off on a small scale with one of the Shoma built Tmf 2/2 tracktor units as this is an easy box shape to replicate. Having spoken to my friend with considerable knowledge and practice in making and building kits, the suggestion is that the loco be made up of an etch brass/NS kit and the motor be mounted in the engine compartment of the kit. I am going to put together some drawings and then go from there. Having just got CS4 Illustrator and Photoshop to aid in the task of making the plans I can now make changes to plans much more easily and also all ething companies prefer drawings in digital format making it cheaper to provide the etches. But at least I have the reference material for loco and coach plans now. Also I plan to travel to Switzerland this year to experience the RhB for real! and get detailed prototype information for my self. So more to follow on this soon.

014 Possible plan

Whilst trawling through old CD's of backups form last year I came across a plan that I knocked up for a modular layout concept that never really got off the ground, but in the back of my mind I always liked the idea of of a forestry narrow gauge line. I kind of think that it would be a freelance setting based in the highlands of Scotland as that seems to be the most possible senarios. I realise that this would take a huge amount of trees to make and that might be restrictive time wise, but I guess once you get an idea in your head.. I think the challenge to this is also that the lines enter either side at the same heights but there would have to be some gradients in order to carry the line over it's self. There again if the lines entered at the rear then that would make the problem a whole lot easier. Some more plans and variations need to be worked on I think to get this how I want it.

Boxhill Micro-Layout

Having seen the growth in many micro and boxfile layouts I thought that it would be an excellent way of having a layout to play with. Quite a few sites have sprung up and in my opinion the premium one is still Carl Arendt's. There is so much content to help you think, plan and visualise concepts. But one of my favourite sites is a 2mmFS members blog which has given me the inspiration for my micro layout, well allowed me to take and change the idea into some thing of my own. Originally I had decided that I would do a boxfile layout but the more I thought about it, the more I felt for me it was too constricting and that there had to be some operational interest with being able to shunt wagons around which is what I like..

In another thread on rmweb, the name was provided for the boxfile, of originally "Boxhill" so that has stuck and although the plan has changed some the name will remain the same! As a bit of background, Boxhill is set in mid E.Sussex somewhere and although there is a real Boxhill in Surrey that's where the similarity ends.. The time is near future and there has been an increase in rail traffic, more so in commuting passengers than in freight. The local economies have seen a growth because of economic downturns making more people buy produce and goods nationally and locally due to ever escalating transport and fuel costs. The TOC companies have benefited from this by a new government promoting public transport and freight traffic, which has invested large sums to enable this to happen. A small local TOC has sprung up to move freight and marshall trains for mainline operators from the expanding food producting economies, and there is talk of extending the line on from Boxhill, but this is proving to be difficult due to stockbroker belt nimbyism. Occasionally in Summer there are steam excursions that are hauled by a loco preserved by local business and volunteers, with the occasional foreign visitor interloping.

At the moment the track plan is fairly simple with a platform road, run round loop, a storage siding and unloading siding. I am going to see how much space I have before I commit to structures and bays etc. But I think there should be enough space.. OK on with more planning and drawing up a stock list. I deliberately want to keep it small with a couple of DMU's and a few 66's and an 08. main freight wagons will be container and box vans with the occasional flat car and tankers. More to follow.