Mosslanda: Night Shift - an introduction...

I have a bit of a creative itch, I want to make something new - but something quick enough to progress without lots of effort - something then, about the size of a Mosslanda...

This time, building on what I have learnt recently on 'Inside Out' and the wonderful interplay between light and dark, possible despite the small scale, I'm planning on building a model to play with in the dark...

As a child I loved the idea of trains at night. I wired grain of wheat bulbs up to a 12v lighting circuit I installed (in a somewhat rudimentary fashion, fed from the supply on the back of my Dad's old H&M Clipper). Signal boxes, station buildings and platform lamps glowed with a warm incandescent light whilst the Dapol 14XX shuttled around the branchline in the pitch black...

Taking inspiration from another childhood reference, a book I've had for over 30 years provided two images that will allow the scene to be visually contained and give something of the light to bounce off, rather than a sky. Otherwise, the inside of the box will be all matt black - and the light provided by 3 or 4 'yard lamps'. I also intend to add an LED inside the warehouse, but hidden so it provides a warm glow that bounces out of the doorway casting light onto the tarmac. The only other light source will be in the fiddle yard, and the LED will be shielded from view by a shroud so instead it just adds a little light over the uncoupling magnet to aid operation.

I have a Mosslanda already - the one intended initially for the Colorado - this is at eye level so is perfect. I will make a new casework with a slightly beefier fiddlestick support to allow the sector plate to be mounted - this itself will have a 'slot' where a sliding magnet will give the DG couplings an uncoupling location that suits both front and rear tracks.

Imagine the room, completely dark - not bathed in the warm glow of layout, just a faint sheen on the roofs of some vans at the warehouse... a shunter shuffles in with a new load, and swaps out the empties, watching the rods rotate and the way the pools of light cause shadows to dance across the hard standing as the locomotive and crew go about their work. Just another night shift.

I can't wait to see how this works out, what opportunities it brings for video and photography - and, in a small space, realised in a short time, what it can tell me about the longer term ambition of adding lighting (of a similar nature) to Beaverbrook. Until next time, more soon...

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