Winmar is no more

My New South Wales-based prototype layout, Winmar, finally came to an end last Sunday. I had been progressively dismantling the layout over the past three months and all that remained last weekend was the outside frame, the traverser, and some internal bracing (see photo).

The track had been removed some time ago and I had cut away most of the timberwork and the baseboard top. Anton's 60' turntable and the associated wiring had also been removed. The control panel was disconnected from the multitude of wires that fed into it (photo below - don't get confused by the orientation; the panel was actually sitting lengthwise on the floor but I reoriented the photo to make the panel easier to read ). All the wiring on the layout was disconnected from the track and point motors and much of it can be used again.

It was actually quite sad after the 16' x 8' outside frame had been totally unbolted and unscrewed from the woodwork. My dad had built the frame and the baseboard lattice grid for me back in the 1970s, using aluminium for the outside frame which I think was pretty revolutionary at the time. He bolted the aluminium outside frame to a wooden frame that comprised four sides and a 12" lattice grid supporting the baseboard (but obviously not including the operating well in the centre). He screwed every screw into the 12'' wooden lattice grid inside the frame by hand - and there were hundreds of those damn screws.

Later, I added risers and put a new plywood top on the frame and gridwork. Trackwork followed many years (and many houses) later. Scenery was postponed when it was clear that a move from Sydney to Canberra was beckoning around 2008. Since then, I have lived in four different houses. The current house has a double garage with a wall down the centre that splits the garage in two - each half being just wide enough for Winmar to fit but not allowing any movement of the 12 track traverser (fiddle yard). The traverser (photo below) was salvaged from the layout frame last Sunday and can be used again, given the right circumstances.

I now have an almost empty half-garage (albeit still prone to water seepage when it rains) which is waiting for some decisions as to how it will be used in the future. Competing for the space (in both halves of the garage) are the two cars that currently sit outide on the driveway. In Canberra, housing vehicles is a little more pressing than in more temperate climates like Sydney.

I recently had a couple of quotes for a carport out the front of the garage for the two cars. Alas, the carport would be outside the building line and unlikely to get official approval. The other option would be to see if we could add a second storey above the garage for a hobby room! I hear from some mates who were visiting model railraod layouts in Texas last year that building a second storey above the house or garage for a train layout is not as unusual as one might think! Obviously there's a cost to be considered with this option well above that for any possible (unapproved) carport.

The two Davids who helped me on Sunday with the final dismantling of Winmar were sure supportive of the second-storey above-the-garage option but I wonder how they'd feel if I started asking for building construction donations!

Update

It has been a while since my last blog post. In that time, I have been sorting through all the stuff that has congregated in the garage since our house move late last year. Unfortunately, the garage has become the place to put things when they either don't fit in the house, or where we don't know where to actually put things in the house!


To add to the mess, we had some rain last week and the garage sprung a couple of leaks that caused a few problems, but fortunately not damaging anything of importance.

I am experimenting with shelf support systems at the moment. I am trialling some slotted metal shelving brackets along a short length of wall on one side of the garage. On another wall, I am experimenting with a heavy length of timber dyna-bolted to the brickwork from which an arc shaped piece of plywood is nailed to support the layout benchwork. It was the method used for David Low's previous layout, Parkes, and looks a sturdy and relatively cheap method of layout support.


I'd like to get my layout, Winmar, out of the way too. As mentioned in previous posts, the layout is a single baseboard 8' x 16' and weighs a ton! It currently sits sideways and lengthways up against one of the outer walls of the garage. I need to get some mates around to move the layout outside to the driveway and then look at where to make the saw cuts to try and save the station area for a possible exhibition layout. The layout as it currently exists will not really fit and it no longer suits my model railway preference for operations. It has to go, but perhaps some salvage work can be done.


In the meantime, I also have some solid reading to do with recent issues of AMRM, Model Railway Journal, Model Railroader, and Model Railroad Planning 2010 to get through.

Railway operation is for me

Last night I went over to Rob's place for the monthly operating session on his VR/NSWR layout. The layout uses DCC for loco control and a card operating system based on train sequences.

The experience of operating this layout has reinforced to me that I really love model railway layouts that feature a system of "prototype" operation. Now, this layout wasn't run exactly as on the prototype because it represents a railway line between towns in Victoria and the southeast coast of NSW where no real prototype line existed. But that's not the point: the layout is run as an approximation of prototype railroading with an emphasis on establishing a real purpose for the movement of particular trains and the locations on the line. This blend of operation and railway purpose is what is of greatest interest to me. It also helps to have a good bunch of people to be with during the operating session and Rob's "crew" certainly fits that category.

I am now more seriously considering that when the move to the new home takes place in a couple of weeks time, the "old" layout (Winmar) will get dismantled. I need to build a new layout based on my model railway operation-oriented preferences. My thinking at this stage favours a shelf type of layout. The design of the layout will be planned specifically for the actual size and shape of the available space in the garage of the new house. I shouldn't need to compromise the new layout because of a previously designed and built layout from many years ago; one that was constructed within the parameters of a different overall plan and housed in a different location in Sydney.

The development of Winmar did offer some operational potential with the proposed Lake Hume branch and the industrial siding leading off to the traverser (fiddle yard). However, in the new location in Canberra, a single-top baseboard that is 16' x 8' in size does not really fit conveniently within the space available, and nor does it really offer an easy path for any potential Lake Hume Branch extension in the future.

The stage is therefore set for a new layout design that reflects my current thinking and preferences. The layout will be designed specifically for the new physical space of the garage at the house we move to at the end of the month. I think we have a new beginning...

A new house, a new model railway?

Regular readers might know that I have been looking at buying a house in Canberra for some time now. Well, the house I blogged about on 26th September is now the house that has been purchased. In a month's time we will be living in our own house in Canberra and we can put to an end the renting cycle that has bedevilled us this year.

The house has a separate-standing double garage with two external doors, and two roll-a-doors at the front. The structure used to be a single garage but has been extended to a double. It now incorporates a pitched roof, but the original outer brick wall remains as a central divide in the remodelled double garage.

I mentioned in that previous blog post in September that I was concerned about the brick wall down the centre of the garage. However, I can now report that this isn't such a major problem after all. Firstly, the brick wall doesn't extend all the way to the front of the garage and there is sufficient space to wind a peninsula around the edge. Secondly, the brick wall is certainly strong enough to run a shelf layout around it (and through a couple of the bricks if need be). And thirdly, I can pull the brick wall down if I really have to since it no longer provides any structural support.

The garage has to have insulation added to the walls and under the pitched roof. The walls also have to be lined. I may paint the concrete floor, although I am not so sure that this really helps all that much in preventing the build-up of dust. There also needs to be improved lighting. And oh by the way, somehow I have to find room for a work bench, a couple of steel cabinets, all my tools, gardening equipment, a lawn mower, and three bicycles. And Winmar. Hmmmmmm.

This brings me to my closing thought on this evening's blog post: should I keep my existing layout, Winmar, or should I scrap it and start a new Australian-prototype layout from scratch?

Buying a house for the layout

I spent much of today looking at houses for sale in Canberra. The reason is that the family is sick of renting and we are keen to find somewhere to live that we can call home now that we have settled back into Canberra life (we lived in Canberra for five years in the late 1990s). Naturally, we have some pretty clear ideas as to the type of house we are looking for and what attributes are important to us. You can guess at what I am particularly interested in.

The first problem is that Canberra house prices are ridiculously high; almost as high as Sydney property prices for equivalent stock. The second problem is the complicated triad of relationships between the type of house, location, and the market price (i.e. the price at which someone will pay - often much higher than what most of the houses I have seen so far are actually worth). And thirdly, at what point does one compromise space for that dream layout if nearly all the other desirable attributes of a home can be ticked off the checklist?

The latter point is a problem that I now face after viewing one of the houses for sale today that had most of what we are after within that complicated triad of relationships. The price is within bounds, the basic house layout and structure are ok, and the location is within an acceptable distance from work. And yes, there is a double garage but there is also a solid brick wall down the middle, possibly the original outer wall of an original single garage. The actual length and width of this double garage are also an issue since I don't think there is enough space. The garage is capable of fitting in a car on each side but without too much extra space for anything else (not that I would actually put a car in there!).

I sometimes read about modellers who "build the house around their model railway empire". I'd like to say that this will be possible, but somehow I rather doubt it. Pity really.