[Sprintex]

Welcome to my layout thread

Disclaimer: I did have a "progress" thread running on another forum which sadly went downhill for reasons I won't bother you with here. Apologies to anyone who has already read my ramblings elsewhere and suddenly gets a feeling of deja-vu! To avoid information-overload I'll post from the start, adding bits in until I get up to the current state of play. Off we go then . . .

I started planning an N gauge layout a few years ago when I decided I needed a winter hobby, our cars taking up a lot of the summer with maintenance and shows. I'd had various layouts in OO and N as a teenager so a return to the hobby was WELL overdue

The basics are 12'x3' in two sections loosely based on the East Coast Main Line around 1990-ish and possibly somewhere in Lincolnshire. Stock will be Intercity Swallow HST, CL91 '225' set (meaning a foray into catenary at some point) and some loco-hauled, Regional Railways DMUs, and some old blue-grey stuff on the branch line plus some passing freight. The main thing I wanted was to see full-length expresses rushing through scenery.

The trackplan I came up with is thus:-

And with some basic colouring-in on Paint this is how it should look "Railway Modeller style":-

The scenic area as shown runs the entire length of the boards, and about two-thirds of its width, the top 1/4 as shown being the Fiddle Yard. The sharp curves at the 'North' end are hidden by hills, and at the 'South' end by the town. The dominating feature of the south board is the typical ECML station with two platforms and two central through-lines for high-speed traffic. Some trains to/from the branch terminate at Hasford Blacklock using the two bay platforms, others at peak times run a through-service using the mainline platforms. To avoid slow southbound trains from the branch crossing the mainline, an overbridge allows them to safely reach the mainline platform London-bound. The industrial building (in blue) is possibly the last rail-fed dairy in Britain! Road traffic to and from the dairy must pass under the branch-line to reach the main road into the town. The blank white area on the left will be the edge of the town which will be planned on an ad-hoc basis later on, although I do have some ideas for this already.

So, enough of the waffling, onto the pictures!

The boards are constructed from 3"x2" framing with 2"x1" bracing in a T-shape as shown below. This is covered with 6mm MDF (I can hear the Plywood advocates cringing from here

) which has been fully sealed. Slightly over-engineered but they'll never warp I hope!

Here you can see the initial track-planning going on in the garden as the layout only fits together in the lounge, and then only just and causing chaos

The blank rectangle on the right is where I planned the station, drawn out on a piece of cardboard seperately so I could move it around to try different locations and angles.

In that last one you can also see I originally planned the branch to join the mainline at a flat junction (left board), but then changed my mind to a rail overbridge to add some height interest (right board). This may be a controversial decision as you will see later, but I like it. Funny also that the station is loosely based on Hitchin, where currently the route onto the Cambridge branch crosses the mainlines, but Network Rail are planning to re-route this via . . . an overbridge!!!

That's all for now, all comments welcome

Paul

 

[Sprintex]

Next stage

The trackbed on the scenic side was cut out with a jigsaw and raised approx 1 inch to give a bit more depth to the layout. This also enables the mainline to dip down towards the tunnel to lessen the gradient up to the overbridge. The whole trackbed area was then covered with 2mm Warmaline polystyrene, not for soundproofing as once ballasted it's solid anyway, just seemed like a good idea at the time!

South board

North board

The trackbed for the branch will be put in place once the main lines have been laid and tested, and in the case of the scenic side ballasted.

And a momentous occasion - the first piece of track is put in place!!!

There will be one of these at either end of the fiddle yard instead of points to allow the storage lines to be as long as possible.

Paul

 

[Chinahand]

That's a good looking layout you've designed there Paul and it looks to be coming along nicely. However, while the way you are bringing the branch line in over the main line seems to add interest, I would question what sort of gradients you will need in order to do this exactly as shown on the plan. I'm guessing at about 1 in 20 which is somewhat steep and may nneed a bit of a re-think.

On a different subject AFAIK Warmaliine is just an expanded polystyrene sheeting, designed for use as a wall lining to reduce condensation levels. It should therefore have some sound absorption properties, though not as good as closed-cell foam.

 

[Sprintex]

Thanks for the comments

I did say in the first post that the overbridge idea would be 'controversial'

The gradient UP to the branch works out at about 1:35 (remember the mainline dips down slightly underneath), which sounds steep but is only the same as the gradient on the real-world rail overbridge at Welwyn Garden City that allows Class 313 sets terminating there to head back to London without crossing the main lines. Mine will only see 2-car 156's and 108's climbing it and both have been tested OK. The gradient DOWN is a little steeper at approx 1:25, but again the same units will only ever be going downhill and it's not too steep so as to look ridiculous

Paul

 

[Sprintex]

Track laying continues on the North board.

Here the sweeping S-curves on the mainline are being laid complete with superelevation.

Conveniently I found that cut strips of old RAC membership card are EXACTLY the right thickness (1mm) to give the desired angle of cant. They are only placed under the outside ends of the sleepers at the maximum-cant areas, the 'spring' of the track providing the gentle transition from flat to canted or from one cant to another. This will all become solid when the track is ballasted.

Most of the goods yard also laid, decided to angle it away from the board-edge slightly for aesthetic effect and also to fit in with the scenery better. The only bit missing is the unloading siding into the dairy as this had yet to be placed. On the left you can also see the road (eventually) leading up to the branch

And finally for now the fiddle yard on this board also done. I've used concrete sleeper track for the centre lines to differentiate them from the 'storage' lines, makes it easier on the eye when looking at eight parallel tracks!

South board next!

Paul

 

[Sprintex]

The final bit of trackbed - the raised branch - constructed but not yet fixed as the mainline needs ballasting first.

. . . and a full length view of the layout (on the floor, still no legs yet!) . . .

As you can see I decided some track testing was in order before going any further

Some of my stock lined up

Even Tigger dropped by to inspect the workmanship

And finally, a (bad quality) short video of the testing. Hopefully here you can see the effect of the superelevation on the S-curve:-

Paul

 

[Sir Dubalot]

Hi Paul

Things are really progressing very nicely now, I hear that Tigger approved of the test run and kept a watchful eye on the proceedings. Great vid thanks for posting.

Best regards

Willy..........

 

[Sprintex]

QUOTE (Sir Dubalot @ 28 Dec 2010, 19:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I hear that Tigger approved of the test run and kept a watchful eye on the proceedings.

Yes he did. Sadly the bit that I didn't catch on camera, and that I should have seen coming by the ominous tail-swishing going on, was that after meowing at the Class 04 a couple of times he promptly batted it off the track and across the floor on the third lap

Paul

 

[Chinahand]

Yes. Cats do tend to do that Paul, though I'm surprised he managed to hit it at the speed it was going !

Joking aside, it's really looking good now but definitely needs to be up on legs soon, even if it's only to remove it from Tiggers area of patrol.

 

[Stephen7F]

Great to see some long units racing around a good size layout without looking like it's just a small loop of track that a kid is having fun with! Get it on legs and with scenery it will look realistic and great!

Can't wait to see it develop!

 

[frame69]

Nice job.

Frame.

 

[Sprintex]

Happy New Year all !!!

Thanks for the comments as always.

Next job was detailing and ballasting the track, only then could the rail overbridge be permanently fixed down and the final pieces of track laid. Firstly the rail sides were painted with a red/brown mix of my own concoction. Now I believe that the track detail is as important as detail on stock, buildings, etc., especially as we spend a long time looking at it as trains pass over it! So in the era I'm modelling concrete cable troughs and orange trunking are as important as gutters and drainpipes on houses. Like this . . .

Dummy point-motors are painted Knightwing items. Cable troughs were relatively easy - ordinary matches with the head cut off, then three cuts half-way-through with a craft knife gives you a 'strip' of four sections that can be laid in one go. Glue down, then paint over with suitably coloured paint.
The orange trunking was a little more tricky in this scale. After much searching I found that the orange wire in standard telephone cable that I had lying around was just about thin enough,

. . . so after cutting small lengths and scraping off the printed white banding small holes were made under the rails with a hot needle and curved pieces of wire threaded through so that the ends stick up slightly. Thought is needed where to place these so I used the real railway I see every working day as reference to make sure I only put them where they would be needed. Finally the entire scenic trackwork was ballasted with Woodland Scenics fine grey via the tried and trusted method of misting first with water (to stop ballast floating away on a sea of glue!), then dribbling with a mix of PVA/water/WUL until well-soaked.

Here's the place on the S-curve where the cable troughs swap sides . . .

. . . and the junction under the overbridge. The 'concrete' walls are just 2x1 painted with concrete paint.

With the ballast itself I tried to avoid the look of level ballast perfectly aligned with sleeper tops and not a stone out of place, as that isn't what the real ECML looks like. There are shoulders of ballast along the sleeper-ends, deep troughs between these shoulders, and where there are areas well away from tracks it's like the surface of the moon!

There also tends to be broken lines of ballast down the middle of the tracks, presumably from vibration.

Hopefully the first pic in this post and the following two will demonstrate this.

Still needs toning down with general grimyness here . . .

. . . and the station area after a spray over with Sleeper Grime

Paul

 

[Chinahand]

You have captured 'the look' perfectly I would say, and the attention to detail for the positioning of the orange trunking and concrete cable ducts adds tremendously to the overall look. Well done.

 

[M8 INTERNET]

QUOTE (Sprintex @ 2 Jan 2011, 23:03) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The 'concrete' walls are just 2x1 painted with concrete paint
What make and colour is this?
I've looked through various ranges for Concrete, but couldn't find any

Two of the bridge supports I am cladding with Metcalfe brick paper, but I need concrete for some others

 

[Sprintex]

Thanks Trevor

M8, the paint is Railmatch 422 Concrete, although on the bridge walls it has been 'cleaned up' a bit by mixing with white enamel. When it's used neat it comes out more of an old concrete colour, like this on the Woodland Scenics tunnel mouth at the North end:-

Hope that helps

Paul

 

[M8 INTERNET]

Good old Railmatch, must have been on my shopping list but out of stock!

It's really strange, I can't find any locations in the UK where a concrete bridge spans four or more tracks!
I tried to take photos last year, but at every location the track separates into either 1+2+1 or 2+2

This is going to be spanned by such a concrete bridge :
5 formation

There is a similar one on the other side of the bridge, which will be 4+1 formation

These two are going to be spanned by brick bridges :
1+3 formation

 

[mixa]

Love the attention to detail looks great the track plan is the type i would like but in oo so may copy parts have roughly the same room about 12"6 x 4" and your balasting looks perfect

 

[Rowan]

G'day mate ; bonzer layout you are building there.
Your work on the ballast has paid dividends as it looks great mate!

 

[Stephen7F]

Blimey!

Great work Paul!

If you're as good on the buildings and scenery as you are with the track and tunnels/bridges I can't wait to see them!

Nice one!

 

[jamesukusa]

Great layout, just watched the video and when I see full length trains like that at speed it really makes me want N gauge.

Look forward to watching this progress.

Cheers
James