A Model Railway Corner

First a picture of the layout in it's surroundings. This layout has been built to live in the dining room and fit as part of the furniture, which I think it does well, though the Ply could do with staining to match. However the recent change has been that I have acquired the shelves above for my railway books (well, mostly). With the bureau cupboard storing my modelling bench, toolbox, and some materials, it is virtually a model-railway corner!

The reason behind the reorganisation is that we are expecting a second child in April - and that of course means the spare bedroom will be required! There will be more sorting out, decorating and DIY to come I'm sure! It also means that the deadline for the Sussex Downs members day (7th March) is more important, as after that I'm likely to have less modelling time for a while ...

The second picture shows the advantage of having the layout so accessable, that working on it is so easy, even just an hour or two at a time. Here the layout is slid forward and the lighting beam removed, to make it easy to work on. I've recently formed the gravel and cinders yard areas made from layers of sand and painted them with acrylics, then formed the the contours of the small parts of land not rail, buildings or yard, with polyfilla/powder paint and newspapers over the polystyrene. As shown in the photo the first layer of grass scatter has been applied too, so the scenery is really progressing.

Sliding mounts now fitted

Last weekend I managed to get the layout fitted to it's permament support, rather than just resting on top of the bureau! The key components are these drawer sliders, recovered from some old furniture by a Sussex Downs club member. I have used 4, 2 each side, to take the weight without twisting. They are fixed between two strips of wood, one fixed the the wall (in this case the side of the chimney breast) and the other to a shelf.

The shelf is a ply and MDF laminate, the ply (top layer) is cut to fit inside the bottom of the layout. The shelf doesn't take the weight of the layout as it baseboard is rigid, so the weight is supported by the softwood ends straight onto the sliders.

The layout sits flush into the alcove, but for full operation it slides forward by about 7 inches, allowing the fiddle yard to slot onto the right-hand end, canterlevered over the mantelpiece. The fiddle yard just pushes in supported by it's extended frames.

When I put the wood for the sliders on the walls I got my calculations slightly wrong, and the layout was about 1/4 inch high and hit the shelf above - that's how tight the clearances are! With a little adjustment of the shelf design I managed to lower the layout by 1/4 inch so got the clearance back.

Once the layout is finished the ply will be stained a similar colour to the shelves above and the fireplace, so it appears to fit into the room as a piece of furniture.

So there it is, pulled out and reasy for use. Well apart from the rest of the work to complete the layout!

The plan for the new layout

Southon Yard has been sitting on the bureau, in the alcove next to the fireplace in our dining room for the last 3 years. This has been great as I can play trains at any time, and it is good to show off my loco's. However it struck me that it wasn't fully utilising the space there, and the limitation of Southon Yard is that you can't really run trains, just move loco's about.

So I decided to build a layout to fill the alcove, which gave me 3 foot 6 inches by about 13 inches deep, but also restricted to 12 inches tall at the backscene due to shelves above. I seem to have collected some tramway style loco's, with skirts fitted, and also some coaches that would look good on a tramway style layout, but how do you capture the feel of a roadside tramway in such a small space? I also wanted good shunting potential. I thought a train length of 12 inches, plus loco (up to about 4 inches) was sufficient. That means 2 bogie coaches plus brake van, or 3 4-wheel coaches, or about 5 wagons.

So I came up with this plan, you may recognise elements from Wantage - particularly in the Station with overall roof and the goods shed behind. I also have a goods yard, and a factory, so 4 sidings to shunt. I even got an engine shed in! Low relief buildings and the factory will give an urban back-streets feel. The line runs onto a removable "fiddle Yard" which will use the cassette system I designed for Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry, as that worked well. The fiddle yard will sit over the mantle piece, but will only be fitted when the layout is slid forward about 6 inches, so I plan to mount the layout on drawer runners into the alcove!

I have started building the baseboard - but more of that later. However I have not come up with a name for the layout yet, so suggestions gratefully received!

Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry - Cubic Challenge Layout

This layout was built for the “Cubic Challenge” – a maximum dimension of 500mm cube - at the 2005 EXPO-NG. The scale is 009 narrow gauge.

It depicts a granite quarry in mid Wales. In the foreground are the sidings where wagons are filled with granite under the large corrugated iron structure, before departing to the “main line” past the engine shed and under the bridge to the left. On the upper level a short train of skips runs back and forth with stone from the quarry workings the other side of the hill.

The layout has some unusual features:

• The design of the layout makes good use of depth and height to create the scene of the railway in the countryside, whilst providing operational interest.


• This is complemented with a “Proscenium Arch” approach to presentation, with in-built lighting and a curved backscene


• The fiddle yard uses a cassette system to minimise space.


• The layout is constructed using Foam-core board, which is quick and easy to use and lightweight. This is a first for me.


• Also a first for me is the use of “Microtrains” buck-eye auto- couplers


• An automatic shuttle controller is used to operate the upper level track

The wagons used on the upper level have a novel design with a reversable skip, which has a full "load" on the underside of an empty skip. Thus as the "full" wagons are pushed through the unloading shed a piece of wire rotates the skip to show the empty skip.

The wagons on the lower level are loaded with real granite via a chute which (disguised as a covered conveyor) comes out the side of the layout.

Like Southon Yard, I re-used buildings originally built for a previous layout that was never completed. That layout was called Pen-Y-Bryn, so this became Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry.

For more pictures click here: http://campbell-modelrailway.fotopic.net/c746098.html