Silver Sidelines

We had moved into the new house and there was a space. What to build?     In fact there would be a space of five years before the ‘room’ for the railway would be available. Five years might seem an over long time for planning and day dreaming. However I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of time spent looking at other people’s ideas and prototype station layouts. Only then are you in position to draw up some ideas for yourself. In my case this was fifteen years ago and pre ‘layout design software’. I am a still a great believer in using paper, pencil and a rubber. I would probably still choose this option today. I like to be able to see the big picture rather than having to remember what is off screen. Using a scale of ½ inch to one foot it is easy to sketch up possibilities and more importantly borrow and trace ideas from other sources such as CJ Freezer’s layout plans in the Railway Modeller. Courtesy of CJ Freezer Railway Modeller September 1971 ...

How to construct the baseboard? This question seems to be asked on a regular basis. I will describe my own experiences. The woodwork in progress I have used the same basic approach for all three of my ‘big’ layouts. I would say it is my variation of the ‘L’ Girder technique. ’L’ Girder overview according to CJ Freezer I spent some time this weekend searching through old periodicals to see if I could find the original article that inspired me to use the ‘L’ Girder technique. No luck – I think it was a US layout. I did find an article in the Railway Modeller from September1969 which linked back to an earlier article from October 1966 which I do not have. These articles provide a useful overview of the technique but differ slightly in detail from my own practice . For my basic structure I made ‘L’ girders by screwing and gluing 1x2 inch planed timber to the top of 1x3 inch planed timber to form an inverted ‘L’. PVA provides the bond and a few strategically ...

I am reading on RMweb that there could be a shortage of Hornby models. When I saw this truck for sale a little under £100, I would snap it up. £100 Truck By chance I had stumbled upon a video on YouTube which had been made using the Branor Systems Cam Truck . I was impressed and I thought that I would investigate further. In fact I have purchased truck No. 230. Branor Systems Cam Truck I have swapped the standard Hornby couplings for the older Mainline type with a shorter hook. I think this gives better control when being pushed up and down the gradients on my layout. All my rolling stock has metal wheels so I have also fitted turned brass wheels. This may have enhanced the ‘ride’ – it has certainly changed the track noises being recorded. The Cam Truck is equipped with a 120 degree wide angle (fish eye) lens which is coupled to a sensor which gives full HD 1280 by 720 pixel definition and 30 frames per second MOV file video. The truck is completely self contained and th...

This Post is a direct follow up to my previous post and provides some illustrations of the mid level ‘round and round’ (the continuous run), and the low level reversing loop. The pictures also feature Hornby R3191 which has recently taken up a lot of my time. It is getting to be quite an expensive engine – well if I had to charge for the time I have spent fettling it. The Grand Plan – with photo locations As planned and initially constructed the layout was to be ‘Out and Back’ with a Main Terminus, a double track mainline leading to ‘the Main Junction’ and then heading off to a return loop with storage sidings. I have annotated the track plan above to show where the pictures were taken. The locations are labelled A to L in exactly the order that trains travel around the layout. Location A Starting out – the double track main line from the Terminus Station   The double track main line from the Terminus Station starts out at the lowest level. This allows the...

Enough of Duke of Gloucester and on with the current layout. The Grand Plan – at inception As planned and initially constructed the layout was to be ‘Out and Back’ with a Main Terminus, a double track mainline leading to ‘the Main Junction’ and then heading off to a return loop with storage sidings. The plan would build on past experience.   The Bracken Ridge Layout My first serious layout, the Bracken Ridge layout dated from around 1980. It was an ‘out and back’ layout and occupied about 16ft x 6.5ft with a minimum radius for running lines of 3ft. Entry was at the top left by ducking under. There were three levels. The terminus was at the top right on the intermediate level. The hidden sidings and reversing loop were at the bottom right at the lowest level. There was an intermediate station at the top left at the highest level. I wanted a continuous run (for testing) and this was achieved with a non prototypical single line along the bottom of the layout whi...