The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. - the baseboard part one

The main baseboard was constructed from some spare chipboard scraps which were recovered from a skip. The two cable drum bases were of different sizes and needed a fair bit of trimming and sanding before they were joined together with woodworking glue.

As you can see in the first image, I used a simple pieces of string and a pencil to mark-out the curved front edge.

The front was cut with a jigsaw and I used more scrap wood (pallet wood) to add supports to the under side which were both glued and nailed in place.

The final image shows the simple oval track plan being drawn on to the baseboard. The biggest disadvantage with the construction is that the 20mm thick chipboard is so heavy. I will have to do something about that.....

Tony

The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. - the planning

In this post I have included some of the many sketches I produced for The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. layout. The design progressed from this first image to the more complete plan at the bottom of the page.

The design called for a continuous loop with a loading siding to the front and some storage sidings to the rear (under the rocky back scene).

The trestle (to the front) was discarded as being too complicated and a possible weak point in the front of the layout (being too easily damaged).

The number of storage sidings (under the rocky backdrop) was still to be confirmed.

Hopefully this post gives some idea of the thought that went into the design - I had learnt from my earlier OSO Salt layout that Finley and Charlie just wanted to see trains running and were not interested in a back-and-forth design, added to this the trains will disappear into the tunnel entrance and then re-appear from around the right hand rocks.

In the next posts I will show how the baseboard was constructed.

Tony

The Yellow Pelican Mining Co.

The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. is a true flight of fancy, a scratch-built narrow gauge railway layout that I am building as a side project for my grandsons - Finley and Charlie. The model is based on a small, imaginary mining operation in the California/Nevada mountains and uses a run-down 18 inch narrow gauge steam railway to transport the ore. 

The model is being built to the scale of 1:27.7 or 1mm = 1 foot running on 16.5mm HO-OO/Peco 'Crazy Track'  track. The unusual scale means that almost all of the features will need to be scratch-built on HO-OO engine chassis and wagons.

The steam engines and wagons have appeared in earlier Blog posts while the layout baseboard was started during 'lock down' 2020, I am now waiting for the weather to warm up so I can continue with construction. Don't expect loads of updates as 'other' projects have and will continue to take priority, but I will try to post details of the planning and early construction steps soon.

What is Yellow Pelican?

A name made up by my grandsons and one that I quite like. The wooden box featured above was built by me last year from some spare pallet wood to store items during construction and features a hand painted yellow pelican and wording created on my computer and again hand painted.

Tony

Emmanuel Nouaillier

I've found myself at a bit of a loose end this week, the weather, doubts over Corovavirus, different magazine projects coming to an end and nothing new on the horizon so I started tidying up some magazine articles I'd been storing in the attic.

Emmanuel Nouaillier has written for Military Modeller, Continental Modeller and a number of French language magazines over the years. I have collected a number of these magazine articles and thought it was time I collated them into a clear pocket folder. In the end I filled three presentation folders with the articles I had collected!

Details about Emmanuel Nouaillier can be found here.

Hopefully I will have something positive to report on soon.

Stay safe.

Tony

So how many Flintloque minis do you own?

Earlier this week, I was reading about people who collect Panini football stickers and try to completely fill their Panini albums - this got me thinking.....

Do you own EVERY Flintloque/Slaughterloo miniature from Alternative Armies?

I don't. 

I know that I have many, (OK most), but not every mini, so how close are you to having a full set - a full album and how many are painted?

Tony

Magazine haul

Earlier today Sue and I drove out to Bewdley and had a delightful walk along the river. On the way back home I stopped off at Bewdley railway station on The Severn Valley Railway and picked up these magazines from one of the charity wagons situated in the car park. Nine secondhand magazines for just £1.80

This is the first time Sue and I have visited Bewdley in over 15 months and it was a real treat to once again be able to visit this beautiful riverside town.

After quarantine - 72 hours in the garage, I'll have great fun reading these sitting in the garden.

Tony

What next for my magazine articles/tutorials?

Earlier this month I posted details of part one of my Windmill build featured in Miniature Wargames issue 457. Next month the second part will show how the model was painted and finished. See this post for more information.

I'm now looking around for some inspiration - maybe even suggestions as to what next!

Do you have any suggestions - remember, the more unusual the better. I want to be 'pushed' and not just produce variations on a theme.

Tony