1/16 Diorama - Backyard Hospital Supply Railway (inspired by Lainz)

[mad gerald]

G'evening all,

As it seems I'm tending to be easily distracted from my stuff (and attracted by new projetcs), instead of finishing some of my humble modelling attempts, apart from the permanent lack of time and space (and periodical occurence of problems with my thumbs joints), I came to the conclusion to combine all my little projects and build a kinda "minimal layout" in 1/16 scale. I have the idea in mind of a scene, representing the backyard of a hospital with a supply railway, comparable to a layout built by Ian Campbell years ago: Potter & Klayman (please scroll halfway down) ... or have a look here: http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page76/campbell.jpg



This loose arrangement of semi finished (or just started) modelling objects consist of a circular testdrive (gauges 16,5 mm and 26,7 mm), a piece of track (gauge 26,7 mm), a card board mock up of some building's backsides, the CAT-style forklift truck (still under construction), a former test chassis from styrene representing a waggon and the reference guy in 1/16 scale.

I'm not quite sure, if the layout will finally have a circular track.

In case of interest please feel free to make any input/suggestions -would be very much appreciated.

Planning or building progress respectively will be reported as well on my blog, now mainly focussed on 1/16 scale modelling ...

Cheers

[Chuck Doan]

Looks promising!

[Ray Dunakin]

Sounds like a good idea to me!

[finescalerr]

When I see a circle of track in such a small space it destroys any illusion of realism. I would encourage you to use wider curves and/or straight track even if you can only run the loco back and forth. Your modeling is too good to let an unrealistic loop of track compromise the overall impression. -- Russ

[mad gerald]

When I see a circle of track in such a small space it destroys any illusion of realism. ...

... don't worry, my intension ist not to build a kinda pizza layout, with a building in the middle and a train running around, which seems a quite popular layout type among the Gn15 guys. But I'd love to have a moving vehicle on that layout, just for meditative purposes ...   ... and will try to find out, if it would be possible to hide a part of the track/full circle and eventually  add i. e. a switch or crossing, to create an illusion of realism. If it does not work, I'll change the layout to an (automatic) shuttle type, moving between start and end.

At first I'm gonna think about (and build) a matching new mock up showing the rear side/back yard of some workshop (buildings). What would be typical for a backyard scene in your imagination: brick walls, halftimbered, concrete, well-worn stucco? I'd like a combination of all, i. e. stucco (wall) on the right, may be with a chimney (bricks) on it's left corner and wooden shed addition on the left ... well, let's see, how the backyard of a hospital would look like ... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Narrow_gauge_railroad_-_Geriatriezentrum_Lainz_21.jpg

Cheers  

[mad gerald]

G'day all,

Recently I started to create a mock up of an rail tractor from card board, even smaller than the CAT rail tractor, which has been heavily inspired by an ASEA storage battery locomotive (Lok 23) of the Frövi Maskin & Bruksbanemuseum. I did not finish it as it appeared too bulky (not to say ugly) to me, but I thought the chassis looked very pleasing and could be useful to build a matching kinda "modern" Feldbahn wagon. So I created this mock up of a bulkhead flat car, whose platform has the dimensions (in scale) of an Euro-palette (1200 x 800 mm).







I'm gonna use 1/22,5 scale Feldbahn wheels which have mainly the dimensions of the ones used on the wagons former running at the hospital supply railway in Lainz/Vienna. As the gauge in Lainz (500 mm) is close enough to my prototype gauge (430 mm), I decided spontaneously to build the backyard of a hospital with supply railway instead of a workshop backyard. To give you an impression what I have in mind or how the "backyard" of a hospital may look like respectively (example Lainz/Vienna):


Linked from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Feldbahn_Geriatriezentrum_Am_Wienerwald Author and owner of Copyright: User NVO

The orange colour I chose is in accordance with the colour used in Lainz on the Struppe Akkuloks and wagons. The transportation purpose of my tiny hospital supply railway layout will not be the distribution of meals, but the transport of laundry and supply goods. Regarding the small dimensions of rail tractor and wagons, the operation of the railway can take place in the basement of the hospital buildings as well. Indoor operating hospital supply railways did exist in the past in a few places, IIRC the Hôpital St. Jean-de-Dieu in Montréal and eventually the Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur too was/were among them IIRC ... http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IgJvpZ33MpM/UjIEyXLeT9I/AAAAAAAAYnQ/NKmgQORMbpo/s1600/st+jean+de+dieu+hospital.JPG

Cheers

[Malachi Constant]

Do the scene in that last photo -- it would make a wonderful vignette / dio that would get rid of the "typical" little circle of track and show off the equipment beautifully!     -- Dallas

[mad gerald]

Do the scene in that last photo -- it would make a wonderful vignette / dio that would get rid of the "typical" little circle of track and show off the equipment beautifully!    -- Dallas

... don't worry, Dallas ...just in case it would gonna have a circle of track, latter will be either mainly not visible or or not being recognizable as a (full) circle ... and the scene shown in the last photo is one of my favourites at the moment ... 

I have plenty of pics in stock regarding the supply railway in Lainz (can't show them here), but these are accessible to good old public: http://schienenfahrzeuge.netshadow.at/db/categories.php?cat_id=1637&page=2

Cheers

[finescalerr]

This is a very unique and creative idea. I like it and look forward to seeing what you do. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Cool project! I had no idea that there were hospital with their own railroads.

[mad gerald]

G'day all,

While working on a first sketch/card board mock up, you might be interested in some more stuff about my inspirational prototype in Lainz ...?!

Well, here you go ...

This video is mainly about delivering the meal containers to the single buildings in 2009, while the railway was still running ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcCybrLDA20

and this video has been recorded in December 2011 as a kinda farewell event, when all railway operation ended (after over 100 years!) ...

http://vimeo.com/34046022

Enjoy ...

BTW: I once started to build a model in 1/22,5 scale of the Struppe Akkulok (kindly supported by Frithjof), but failed at first attempt due to lack of necessary skills (and tools) ...  

[nalmeida]

It's an amazing little railroad right in the middle of the city, a wonderful subject you choose.

BTW: I once started to build a model in 1/22,5 scale of the Struppe Akkulok (kindly supported by Frithjof), but failed at first attempt due to lack of necessary skills (and tools) ...

You came a long way Gerald, great work so far.

P.S. Your "first" try looked very clean and well built.

[mad gerald]

Nelson,

BTW: I once started to build a model in 1/22,5 scale of the Struppe Akkulok (kindly supported by Frithjof), but failed at first attempt due to lack of necessary skills (and tools) ...

You came a long way Gerald, great work so far.

P.S. Your "first" try looked very clean and well built.

... thanks for your kind words ... everything went swimmingly so far, but the styrene went out of shape after a while, due to some solvent/component of the liquid styrene glue I suppose, apart from the fact that I overrated my modelling abilities regarding i. e. the axleboxes, as I recognized receiving some close ups like this one (kind contribution/by permission of User Soundy of EBFÖ):

[mad gerald]

G'day all,

well, now this is going to be a little more serious ...  

To get a vague idea regarding the dimensions, I chose a square piece of cardboard measuring 40 x 40 cm, which eventually has to be enlarged a few centimeters. On it I glued the shape of an a circular track with a diameter of 30 cm, as well as a diagonal arranged piece of (more or less) straight track, each one printed simply on paper. The building mock up itself is made from cardboard with brick wallpaper (brick laying enthusiast may look away  ) ... and it is huuuuuuge in 1/16 scale - even it's not a whole building. This diorama corresponds with the above mentiones scene, where the meal containers are loaded to the wagons of the supply railway.

The circular track (not sure, if it will be still a circle in the final diorama) is not visible and recognizable as a full track because of several buildings covering/hiding the track (supply railway ist running indoors in that sections).

Even this diorama is not going to be a copy fully true to the original supply railway in Lainz, it is heavily inspired by it. Therefore I guess I have to think about another storage battery locomotive or storage battery rail tractor respectively, showing basic elements of a Struppe Akkulok or an AEG Akkulok.

Cheers







For better comparison:


Linked from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Feldbahn_Geriatriezentrum_Am_Wienerwald Author and owner of Copyright: User NVO

[mad gerald]

G'day all,

after building the cardboard mock up I started building an archetype model made from styrene, using strips, shapes and sheets mainly .020" (0,5mm) thick. This archetype has already a slightly more narrow wheel base in comparison with the card board mock-up, regarding the real tight radii. Building the next (real) model I'm gonna make some minor changes construction wise, to make the wagon more sturdy.

Cheers