Thought I would get in the spirit and finally build a ho layout for my Bachmann gandy dancer.

Board constructed from pine frame with 6mm mdf.
Scenery is polystyrene salvaged from packing of different things.  Covered with modrock.

Trees are Bachmann except the lit up one which is bursh
Lights are gaugemaster.
The gandy trundles up and down using shuttle unit although I can extend this into a fiddle yard if needed as the track carries on into the tunnel.

I still have a bit more to go yet until it's finished but hope to cracking most of that today. Today is mainly wiring up.








Cheers

Jonny

Looks great, Jonny, although I have no idea what a gandy dancer is
Is it from Bollywood?

I think we call them pump trolleys NPN.
Bob

This is the gandy dancer that will be running this Christmas.  Although I may run a small train to bring folk to see santa.



Bachmann call the trolley a gandy dancer 💃 although if you check the meaning a gandy dancer 💃 was the worker not the trolley.


"Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British equivalents of the term gandy dancer are "navvy" (from "navigator"), originally builders of canals or "inland navigations", for builders of railway lines, and "platelayer" for workers employed to inspect and maintain the track. In the U.S. Southwest and Mexico, Mexican and Mexican-American track workers were colloquially "traqueros".

One of these appears  in a famous scene from "Blazing Saddles".

Quote from: Jonny on December 20, 2014, 11:07:31 AMand "platelayer" for workers employed to inspect and maintain the track.

Thank you for that, now it all makes sense, sort of :
A  long time ago when I was very very young ( and dinosaurs roamed wild ) I had a Dublo train set and my dad ( who was into woodwork) made me a very fine "Plate layers hut ". I never knew what a plate layer was or why he would need a hut, but it always took pride of place on any layout I built ( on the front room floor ! )
I knew of course that rails would need laying but 'plates' ?
And there it lay in the dim recesses of my brain cell, , ,
till now ! Ah nostalgia !!

So, plates are ??

Quote from: MalcolmAL on December 20, 2014, 11:35:04 AM


So, plates are ??

Something to put your Christmas dinner on, you silly boy

  LOL!
when I were a lad we were so poor we couldnt afford plates, had to eat off the table Oh sorry, wrong thread

Found it, platelayers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platelayer
and plateways http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plateway

Isnt this interwebby thing the beesknees !

Oh sorry Johny, I'm forgetting my manners,
a very fine Xmas scene/layout, thanks for showing.
Seasons greetings etc.

Great job, may have to copy this idea if the Grandkids ever venture this way at Yuletide.

So in the meantime I will get my Xmas spirit from a bottle.

Happy Christmas.

I like it! Very festive! 🎄🎄🎄

I like it too, very nice. Well done sir. I'd like to see more snowy layouts and less summery ones.

Yeah very nice layout,quite unusual.Re GroupC's post,do those people who bought the NGS
snowplough have snowy layouts?

Thanks for the nice comments guys. It was a spur of the moment thing that I started last Saturday lunchtime and have only spent a total of about 12 hours on so far.

Thanks

Jon

Quote from: Agrippa on December 20, 2014, 06:10:01 PM
Yeah very nice layout,quite unusual.Re GroupC's post,do those people who bought the NGS
snowplough have snowy layouts?

Not mine
The snowplough will just be parked in a siding as a 'just in case'.

FYO lads, plate-layers hark back to the days before railways. One forerunner was the plate way where trucks ran on L shaped plates on stone sets.