Norm's Loft Layout

Hi All,

Well here goes my first post on my WIP Loft OO guage model railway.

Having been away from the hobby for longer than I would care to mention, but its well into double figures, I decided a year or two ago, to sort out the loft & try to find all the boxes which have not seen the light of day since we moved to West Sussex over 13 years ago, & have another go at a hobby which I have loved since childhood in the 60's.

Well that took care of most of the 1st year ! Sorting the loft, clearing it sufficiently to be able to move, installing some velux rooflights & having the water tanks moved, to avoid them being a central island; then insulating & lining the loft with plastic sheeting & hardboard - were a few occassions I have to say when I thought am I sure I want to be doing this LOL !

Anyway in parallel to the "muck & bullets" prep. works in the loft, many an evening was spent scribbling possible plans, scouring the railway modelling press (* forgot to say I had built up a collection of about ten years worth of Railway Modeller still in the plastic wrappers, which were also found in the loft - lots of copies still to open / read !) & starting to visit a few local railway exhibitions / shows, including Worthing, Brighton & Chichester,to both get ideas & also try to play catch up on how the world of model railways had moved on during my "gap decade" - what on earth is this DCC thing; how can they have trains double headed, & numerous trains on the same track !!!!! What a learning curve I still have to climb.

Well eventually got to the stage that baseboards could be assembed / built, & plumbed for the more traditional 6mm marine ply solid deck, on the basis I could build upwards from that, with a timber softwood framework below. The loft space being rectangular about 18 feet x 6ft 6 based on a baseboard bottom level about 2ft 6 / stool / chair height off the ground, was what I had to paly with - seem like a lot to me !!! Big problem obviously being tight curves at each end, as I did want to be able to "watch the trains go round" to some extent at least - you have to relax sometime eh ?

Well having now built the baseboards (* hopefully see pics below), I then after much grey matter scratching opted for DC (* I can hear the groans now !!!), as I was keen to be able to run my old engines which I have accumulated over the last 40 years or so; also its what I thought I might remember (eventually). I also opted for Peco code 100 track & electrofrog points. As in the dim & distant past always had better running over that type of point.

So thats enough of the the history lesson, but just wanted to set the scene. I have now progressed quite a bit of track laying, which I have done on a cork base, generally one layer over the complete ply baseboards & then a second layer under the tracks themselves. Have added a few inclines to link some upper level sections, & also some hidden loops behind some demountable retaining walls, the current finish on which needs a lot of development - but thats on the to do list, or should that be to do "roll" !

Have hopefully attached a couple of overall pics of the loft as it currently stands, & look forward to using the knowledge of others & learning my way back into this great hobby, with the assistance of other members on this forum. Happy railway modelling & Cheers for now,

Norm

PS. Will try to add some pics a little later - after lesson 2 LOL !
PPS . Have added a few pics in an album, but cannot seem to get them on here - must try harder LOL !