H0-layout with Finnish
prototype
The theme of this layout is a small Finnish
town by the see in late 60's. The track is designed for children
also and the youngest ones can run a train in a closed track section
when some of the turnouts are fixed. The track table is lower
than usual (100cm). Naturally there is a turntable with round
loco shed. Due to the fact that no commercial models of Finnish
rolling stock are available, almost all models are built from
scratch.
One of the first decissions was the track
system. I already had experience of both 3-rail (Märklin)
and 2-rail (e.g. Roco) tracks. 3-rail track is not visually at
2-rail's level, but the running reliability and overall quality
of Märklin products made me choose the 3-rail system with
Märklin Motorola Digital Control System. The track material
is Märklin K-track, which is quite easy and cheap to buy
as second-hand from Germany. A good source is Ebay's website in
Germany, constantly about 40.000 H0-items. Link: Ebay (H0).
Track layout, 4,0m x 1,6m/0,9m
01.09.2002 The start of the building.
20.09.2002 Turntable in it's place
21.10.2002 Assembly of the rails.
The track is glued on a 3mm thick polyurethan
track bed. No screws are used, the white glue works fine. On main
lines the track bed is 6mm thick with bevelled sides as in prototype.
02.11.2002 Mounting the Below Baseboard
turnout mechanism.
12.05.2003 Rails for the turntable.
8.6. 2003 Painting the track
For painting the track (and other
things) I bought a cheap dual action, internal mix airbrush from
company Biltema (50,- EUR). This air brush (which is a far east
copy of western quality air brush) has been a good investment.
The painting finish is good and function trouble free.
07.09.2003 Stone wall under construction..
The natural stone wall is made with Darwi-
modelling paste on a steel grid. Later the wall was painted with
Woodland Scenics'in Earth Color paints.
05.10.2003 Turntable ready.
Landscape creation started 24.03.2004.
The rocks are molded with Woodland
Scenic's Rock Mold Base Rock (C1243).
Rocks are first primed with light
grey acrylic emulsion paint. The grey surface is painted with
a layer of EberhardFaber's Granite paint "Basalt Sierra".
Tunnel portal.
The grass areas are primed with
a green acrylic emulsion paint.
Adding grass started 03.06.2004.
The rocks are first dry brushed with black and different brown
colors. The grass is mainly Heki's "wildgras" colors:
1573, 1574, 1576.
Sand is grade 0 - 0,6mm.
First trees are planted. Almost
all trees will be self made, here however Woodland Scenics' Fine
Leaf Foliage - trees, Olive Green F1133.
Here are first self made sprues.
Instruction for these are in a Finnish hobby magazine "Pienoismalli"
issue 6/2001.
30.06.2004. The eastern curve is
ready for finishing.
After a short break the track building
continues again in 2005. The steep end of the bank is made with
steel grid. On top of the grid I glued pieces of newspaper.
The other end is made with styrofoam
sheet. The pieces are glued with white glue and the biggest holes
are covered with tape.
Next the bank is covered with plaster.
The stones are molded with Woodlands Rock Molds.
The plaster is painted with green
acrylic emulsion paint
On top of the paint there is Woodlands
Turf and Heki's wild grass. The trees and other details are added
later.
In December 2005 the assembly of
the catenary takes place. The catenary is Märklin's new type.
Since the Märklin masts are
green, they have to be painted gray for finnish layout. The other
picture shows the attachment of the arms, which have to be removed
for painting.
Gray masts.
On the station yard there is four
bridges for catenary. I couldn't find ready made Finnish style
bridges, so they have to be built from scratch (took about 50
hours). The materials are Plastruct's 1,6mmx1,6mm L-profile and
the diagonal pieces are 0,5mmx1,0mm in vertical parts and 1,0mm
round bar in horizontal parts.
First I printed a picture on a
sticker sheet, which I put on a styrofoam piece. The balks are
8mmx8mm and the height of the vertical parts are 115mm above the
rails. The lenght of the horizontal part depends of the yard.
The assebly starts with glueing
the L-profiles with a few drops of glue on the picture. I used
also pins to guide the diagonal supports.
The diagonal supports glued.
The first side is rised up and
the second diagonal supports, BUT NOT THE THIRD L-PROFILE, are
glued. Next phase is to make an identical half.
Both halfs are glued together,
and a complete balk is ready.
At the lower end of the vertical
balks a 11mmx11mm piece of plywood with a 3,5mm diameter hole
for a M4 screw is glued
Next the vertical rods for the
catenary arms are added. The rods have two 1mm holes for attaching
the arms.
The arms have pins for the holes,
but the rest of the plastics around the pins has to be removed.
Bridges are ready for wires.
On 12.7.2008 this layout was put
down to make room for new Fremo-modules.