Grand Central - (no longer) waiting for Boris

[woodbury22uk]

Today I have started work in earnest on a small layout intended to be finished over the coming three months. It is about 1100mm x 600mm and as well as trains will feature a tram track and Tomytec Moving bus layout. This was the road layout being finalised and tested yesterday. The bus chassis are due to receive the Oxford Diecast Borismaster (New Routemaster) bodies which will hopefully arrive in August or September if we believe the most recent advice from Oxford Diecast. I have to install the magnetic pause sections and there are already some switched stop sections which will require hooking up to a handraulic system.






http://youtu.be/3T8Gtx5dfXI

[Newportnobby]

Looks good, Mike (and the bus service is better than anywhere I know in the UK)

[woodbury22uk]

Looks good, Mike (and the bus service is better than anywhere I know in the UK)

Yes, Mick, the pause sections should put an end to that, so buses will spend more time off scene. But there is a loose relationship between the layout and the area around the new Grand Central shopping centre over the top of Birmingham New Street station. There are very few conventional vehicles on the street running section of the tramway, and there are also virtually bus only roads too which give the impression of an intensive bus service.

One of the jobs on the go at the moment is the design and testing of a mounting system to unite the bus chassis to the bus bodies allowing quick installation of a newly charged chassis .

[GaryAlan]

Looks good, especially when the bus turns right at the crossroads.

[scotsoft]

I always find layouts with a moving road system takes that layout to a different level. I still find them fascinating to watch.

Cheers John.

[woodbury22uk]

Today I have been home alone so decided to mockup the layout.

Overview




Since my last post the Tomytec tramway and the 4 leaf clover roadway have been laid and tested. I have installed 12 stop/pause sections on the roadway with  4 controlled stops which can be used to control the traffic and avoid collisions on the crossroads. Half of the stop/pause sections are off scene so allow a bus to disappear off-scene and not return for a longer period. The other half are regular bus stops where the bus pulls up, and pauses for 7 - 10 seconds before setting off again. A complete circuit of 3 leaves of the clover takes 2.5 minutes. The controlled stops will be wire-in-tube operated.

The tramway is an end to end shuttle with an off-scene diode controlled stop section at each end. I will probably automate this and provide a stopping point midway along the scenic section at the front using a Heathcote Electronics circuit.

Now to the pictures of the mockup. The buildings you see are not how the final layout will be although I have to confess I rather like the way they look today!
A couple of scenic side scenes have been installed - its a building at the west end and a container handling depot at the east end. This is actually in Vietnam but looks the part.


Close up of East End




Close up West End




Crossroads




The bit with the trains and track is just loose laid to see if it meets with what I was looking to achieve. There will be 5 platform faces at each end of the layout although trains will only move on the two outer tracks. These link up around the back of the buildings which is essentially a hand fed fiddle yard. However I am planning to use some sleight of hand to make the place seem busier than it really is.

My plan for this little layout - 1130mm x 600mm - was to have a convincing operating bus and tram system on the roads, and a big station with lots of trains in it, although only 4 tracks are active. The Kato Unitrack looks better than I expected and once the platforms are in and the high ballast shoulders concealed I think it will look good. Originally this was going to be a 25kv electrified terminus, but I have convinced myself now that it is going to be diesel worked. I have more than enough Midlands DMUs to do the job.

I want to give an air of the mirrored steel cladding on the new Birmingham New Street/Grand Central development, so I am going to mock-up that a few times to get the impression without it being a job that takes as long as building the real place. I will also be avoiding creating the 60 degree Celsius hotspot which the real cladding has created down in Stephenson Street when we have the wrong sort of sun.

The two obviously vacant lots on the mock-up will become a park with some fast food joints adjacent to the tracks (à la Euston Square Gardens) at the west end and a coach terminus at the east end, which may have an air of Euston bus station about it. I may make these as removable modules so I can develop separate interchangeable scenes to ring the changes. The detailing of the whole thing will take forever, and I am looking forward to doing the road markings, traffic signs, traffic lights as things develop.

And I am still waiting for the Oxford Diecast Borismaster buses ( due early September if I am lucky) which will need to be butchered to accept the Walthers/Tomytec chassis. In fact the first two Borismasters have been released in Hong Kong in fictitious advertising liveries. The photos of these have struck fear into me because they all have either an assembly or a moulding fault which means that the front of the bodyside sticks out by a noticeable amount where it should make a smooth join with the front. Hopefully this will have been improved before they make the London versions.

I will keep the Forum up-to-date as things progress.

[railsquid]

Looks good 

Ghostbusters?

[woodbury22uk]

The Borismasters have arrived. They are 1/148 scale and the concerns I had about the fit around the front corners are not readily noticeable. Motorising them is going to be a challenge as the way into the model is by removing the printed clear plastic front which appears to be glued in. It will give me something to ponder on while I am on my holidays in the sun.

[Bealman]

This is so uber cool 

[mika]

I like the concept of your layout.
Looking very good.

Cheers
Michael

[woodbury22uk]

I have broken into the Borismaster.



First shot a motorising here.



http://youtu.be/gg8aaFbJXIk

[Pengi]

Really enjoying reading this thread