Auhagen Platz

May I introduce you my new bit of layout: Auhagen Platz. A hommage to the manufacturer of the big Eastern German prefab building that adorns the square. The space next to the plattenbau will be used for some greenery and perhaps a kiosk or a fastfood burger place.

Conveniently, the inhabitants of Auhagen Platz will get their own tram stop with a good connection to leave their neighbourhood and do some shopping downtown. At Auhagen Platz the tramway leaves the concrete midtown environment to continue as a ballasted track towards Lileau's suburbs.

Looking forward to do some urban building again. Any ideas are of course welcome!

How 'bout a little triangular layout?

Just an idea. I think it'll look quite good with a couple of these in the middle :)

Design made with Tomix 103R and 140R curves/turnouts. Size 50 x 50 cm.

A small turning loop

Figured out what I believe is about the smallest possible turning loop based on 140 R Tomix Finetrack. I avoided an S-curve in this design, which could mean trouble for several coupled trams. The tram stop can be situated either along the diagonal S99 or along the S280 at the bottom.The baseboard for this loop should be about 50x35 cm.

My plan is to make two modules based on this design to get a basic layout, which can be extended with new in-between modules in the future. Decided to go for these instead of the Y-turns because of the ease of operation.

Turning trams: the triangle

The easiest way to turn uni-directional trams on a layout, of course, would be the turning/balloon loop. Just the polarity of the track would be a factor to consider. And if the tram line happens to be double track, even that wouldn't be a problem. The only drawback is that balloon loops are quite space consuming, epecially when not the smallest curve radii are used.

I have been looking for alternatives for the balloon, which there aren't a lot, but found the turning triangle quite useful, and also very easy to construct using the Tomix line of track:

The left design is basically a main line with a facility to reverse into and head back the other way. Several tram systems use these for backup turning options in case of a blockage further down the line. Note the use of an S99 piece at the end, which limits the length of trams. Of course any longer straight piece of track could be used here. (making the triangle considerably less compact though...)

The other option is the use of a turning triangle at the end of a (single track) line. See this video for a tram that uses exactly such a turning facility. By the way, I love the traffic lady and her little shelter in the video :)

This drawing shows a possible double-track solution. Left a balloon loop, using Tomix components (140mm radius minimum).
A turning triangle does require some action from the operator, but makes a great scene for spectators!

Going modular

If you already have plans to expand your Ikea-frame-based layout even before you start building it, why not start modular in the first place?

To see how things looked, I made this plywood base for a 15x35 cm micro module (which, conveniently, is the lenght of five 70mm Tomix straight track pieces).

And I must say I'm starting to like the idea!

A new idea

Just an idea for a new tram layout. It's designed to fit on a 30x88 cm Ikea picture frame (Ribba series). Yes, I love using these for layouts. Not sure about the upper left corner, this could be either a terminus with platform, or a car barn (or both...).

Drawing and ballasting

The weather has been tropical the past few weeks, so progress has been slow. But the plans are slowly turning into an actual layout.

This is the plan, a passing loop at the end of a tram line, somewhere on the outskirts of a city. There will be a platform with a little shelter between the tracks. This will be situated in a park-like environment. A path leads to the end of a road, which crosses the track a little further. A couple of houses will be situated next to the road. I will be using some DPM kits for these, which I'll slightly modify to give them a more european look. I'm not trying to model a specific country, this allows me to use any rolling stock I like :)

Although the Tomix track is a good system to work with, I had to put some effort into it to make it a little more believable. First of all, the ballast bed is way too high for a light railway like my tram line. The easiest way to solve this, is to raise the baseboard around the track. So, after glueing down the track, I cut some leftover 2 mm cardboard to fit and attached it to the baseboard around the tracks. Some big gaps needed filling, you can really use any filler for this job. The picture shows the track as it comes (in the middle) and the 'lowered' track at the right. Next step is painting the rails and the sleepers. Tip: paint the whole thing using a rusty brown colour, then use dilluted black paint to give the sleepers a slightly darker colour. This gives a quite realistic appearance. Then it's time to ballast the track. This fills the gaps and also looks much better than the moulded plastic ballast. I used fine grey Woodland Scenics ballast, using the dilluted white glue method. It looks a little light, but remember that the track in the picture still needs a final weathering job. Don't forget to paint the cardboard an earth colour before ballasting, this is much harder to do afterwards. At the left the finished result.

After cleaning any remaining glue and paint off the rails, it's time to test. I was very happy to see the Bachmann trolley do its rounds without any problems.There are still some sections to ballast, a perfect job to do indoors to escape the heath outside :)

More doodling in AnyRail

A couple more designs for a 30x40 cm baseboard, using the Tomytec Mini and Super Mini range. That stuff is really useful!

Designing a layout

I drew this design of a little layout, using Tomix Mini and Super Mini rails. It's designed to fit on a 30 x 40 cm baseboard. The layout allows me to run two trams, and still have some switching possibilities. The stub track can also be used for a short maintenance train. The right part will be a two-track terminus in a park, while the left side will be more urban. Watch this blog as the plans develop.
By the way, I used AnyRail for this, a great program, which is free to use for small layouts using less then 50 components. See anyrail.com.