Tempfix Popular Post Rich Papper Posted January 8, 2017 Tempfix Popular Post Share Posted January 8, 2017 (edited) OK, first and most importantly: it's not Catford. It's nothing like Catford, in fact I don't think I've ever actually been to Catford. But my wife likes cats and when we moved into this house she gave me a whole room, so it works for me! What follows is a vague and rambling story of the home layout I have been tinkering with since moving house about four years ago (2012). I have an (accidental) exhibition layout called Oxford Road (link should be in signature below), but came into a bit more space when we moved and did the usual eyes bigger than my stomach thing. I went through various plans: different levels, exhibition layout, finding a way to incorporate Oxford Road, and most fell by the wayside. As usual the biggest problem was wanting too much from the available space and not being completely happy with settling on one particular location. Also in my mind were the job that steals about 15 hours of every day, my two nephews who live next door (3 and 5 years old - play value needed!) and our family expanding (my son is 1 and we have another baby due in February) - I realised this one would be a bit of a slow burner so I wanted there to be enough for me to be satisfied sorting little bits at a time, and keep me sane in my sleep deprivation My solution is a bit of a strange one: I decided to make four totally different layouts / areas / scenes in one layout so that I would be happy just operating or working on one bit at a time. Early days, but I hope this will keep me ticking along and let me keep working on stock for Oxford Road as well. First requirement was most ambitious: given the play value for small people, could I fit a twin track roundy-roundy in without it looking like a train set? Fitting it round (or mostly under) the other scenes should mean that when finished it shouldn't be too obvious how one area links to another. This will help run stock in (very useful given that Oxford Road is only 9ft long!), and mean that Thomas has somewhere to hide! Second: somewhere to photograph / work on stock that is easily accessible, takes up little space (as there is a hidden fiddle yard behind) and I can watch trains on the loop go by. Inspiration here comes from a well known park in Bath called Sydney Gardens. I have had to compress it a bit, and it isn't entirely NSE, but I have fond memories of the place before NR stuck up the awful palisade fencing. Third: I keep building DMUs. Not sure why, might be becoming a bit of an addiction. I wanted a DMU stabling point / depot - needed to be long and thin - just at the point of planning buildings at the moment. Fourth and final: I wanted a station, and in particular one with third rail to park up my growing collection of EMUs. I had it in mind that this would work best as a terminus, so inspired by a visit to Caterham I've started work on a small station which is accessed by a gradient at the far end of the room and sits over the main lines (haven't really finalised this bit yet) All of this should mean that when finished I will be able to leave two main lines running around (both have hidden passing loops to add variety / confusion at a later date), shunt to my heart's content in a DMU depot and run trains from the fiddle yard to the station at the higher level as well. Pictures below of progress (such as it is so far). Boards are built, all track is down, wired and working with an NCE ProCab. All point motors are in place and decoders present, some are connected. If I haven't added to this in the next ten years, it was still too ambitious. Rich A converted garage with some Ikea bits, and a lot of plywood. Preliminary fiddling with plasticard for retaining walls. Couldn't find anything like Bath stone, so scribed my own. Nearly killed me. Preliminary painting of walls. Trying to match Bath stone. Edited October 16, 2022 by Rich Papper Replace photos 25 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted January 8, 2017 Author Tempfix Share Posted January 8, 2017 (edited) https://youtu.be/ZsfNbgbtaQM Some camtruck footage taken last year. Sorry don't know how to embed it as a little window. Some changes since but a 1 year old helping is not conducive to rapid progress! Hopefully makes sense of some of the waffling above. Track plan attached below too. Rich Edited October 14, 2022 by Rich Papper Replace photos 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Prism Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 For a moment, I had a double-take and thought it was Sydney Gardens at Bath! http://www.networkrail.co.uk/assets/0/72/4294967297/30064771426/30064772515/30064773580/30064773581/8ee58d3f-493d-4821-ac48-de2476a3bc09.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold phil_sutters Posted January 8, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 8, 2017 Tricked again into looking at something, because it had a name borrowed from a location I knew and used to live near, but turned out to be a total fiction. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
380John Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Nice work here rich, Really great workmanship and plenty of potential owing to a decent size. As for the name I can see how it might cause people to mistaken it, but it's YOUR layout so call it what you want for the reasons YOU want. Looking forward to seeing this develop mate. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted January 8, 2017 Author Tempfix Share Posted January 8, 2017 For a moment, I had a double-take and thought it was Sydney Gardens at Bath! http://www.networkrail.co.uk/assets/0/72/4294967297/30064771426/30064772515/30064773580/30064773581/8ee58d3f-493d-4821-ac48-de2476a3bc09.jpg Hopefully it will look something like this one day. I chose the location as I liked it and seemed to have the fit space to give it a (compressed) go. Weirdly given the time scribing each individual stone it seems to be the most finished bit. Rich Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clearwater Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Within the last couple of years, one of the magazines (Model rail I believe) had a downloadable sample of Sydney Gardens bath stone David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackRat Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Tricked again into looking at something, because it had a name borrowed from a location I knew and used to live near, but turned out to be a total fiction. Nice tho isn't it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 OK, first and most importantly: it's not Catford. It's nothing like Catford, in fact I don't think I've ever actually been to Catford. I went there once. It was alright, sort of. If you've never been, I don't think you've missed too much. More importantly, what an excellent start... very much looking forward to seeing this come together. Good luck with it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Inspiration here comes from a well known park in Bath called Sydney Gardens. I have had to compress it a bit, and it isn't entirely NSE, but I have fond memories of the place before NR stuck up the awful palisade fencing. Oh dear. I had to "Google" that. I appreciate that the palisade is only a temporary measure, but having visited the Network Rail website and seen what they plan to do to the iron bridge, it's enough to make you weep. Nostalgia. It's a double edged sword, isn't it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted January 9, 2017 Author Tempfix Share Posted January 9, 2017 (edited) On 09/01/2017 at 09:11, Pete 75C said: Oh dear. I had to "Google" that. I appreciate that the palisade is only a temporary measure, but having visited the Network Rail website and seen what they plan to do to the iron bridge, it's enough to make you weep. Nostalgia. It's a double edged sword, isn't it? It's quite horrific isn't it? I know there have been all sorts of petitions by the local civic societies to get something done that is at least 'in keeping' with the area. They've got plenty of time to rally around - at current rates of electrification there won't be any wires there in the next 20 years. A few more pics below. This is the section next to the Sydney Gardens bit. Have been looking at ways of creating embankments and shaping the landscape that are a little more resilient and child friendly than wire mesh. This was various bits of styrofoam glued together with PVA. When all set it was attacked with a surform to get the rough shape. Then a layer of cheap B&Q polyfiller over the top, quick wash of brown emulsion and then hanging basket liner in the normal way. A bit messy getting the shape, but easy and quite satisfying. Polyfiller. Tried some of the fast drying stuff - wasn't as good - set too fast to get smooth layer so had to sand it a bit (our house walls are like swiss cheese!) Hanging basket liner. Still needs another haircut. You'll notice a prevalence of Humbrol 29 on the track Pete 75C! Rich Edited October 14, 2022 by Rich Papper Replace photos 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 You'll notice a prevalence of Humbrol 29 on the track Pete 75C! Just save some for me. I had terrible withdrawal symptoms when Plastikote Suede Touch in Tan disappeared. If there was a nationwide shortage of Humbrol 29 rattle cans, I think I may jack it all in and take up knitting. The embankment looks terrific. I use those Knaufboard foam insulation offcuts and it looks like pretty similar stuff. Dead easy to shape etc. Never used the hanging basket liner method, but for an overgrown scrubby embankment, it looks perfect. I shall add that to my "to do" list! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted January 11, 2017 Author Tempfix Share Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) On 09/01/2017 at 08:28, Clearwater said: Within the last couple of years, one of the magazines (Model rail I believe) had a downloadable sample of Sydney Gardens bath stone David I think it was early in 2016 in Model Rail. I had a look at it, but had already done most of this. Besides lacking relief, it suffered the same problem as I had with the commercially available stone walling I had looked at. The first problem is the regularity of the blocks themselves. Bath stone (an oolitic limestone for those making notes), is very easy to shape into regular blocks, but as the pictures below show there is only need to make them regular in one dimension to make a wall. In short, all the rows are the same height, but the blocks themselves are irregular in length. The second issue is how closely they fit together - there is very little if any mortar between them. All of the available stone walling I could find was either completely irregular in block sizes, or regular in both dimensions so it looked like a breeze block wall. I'm certainly not a rivet counter, they could have been painted and weathered the right colour, but they wouldn't have looked right. Shows the regular rows, but irregular block lengths. Also heavy weathering. Trying to be accurate. My long suffering wife. 'We'll have a day out at the park my love, it's a lovely day...' I'm not a slave to this level of accuracy. I missed out some of the curved transitions to the bridges and shortened it considerably. It just seemed like the best way to do it. Of course if I'd known how long it was going to take! Rich Edited October 14, 2022 by Rich Papper Replace photos 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted January 11, 2017 Author Tempfix Share Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) Iris waiting at signal at far right hand end of the section showing colouring so far. Needs a lot of greenery hanging all over it at some point. Waiting to have time to sort the removable bits behind so I can still access hidden sidings. Other end. I have done the iron footbridge in the middle. Appalling lighting. Garage conversion with one single energy save bulb in the middle of the ceiling. Will get a strip light one day. Rich Edited October 14, 2022 by Rich Papper Replace photos 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddys-blues Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 What a great thread ...... and your opening lines made me chuckle "OK, first and most importantly: it's not Catford. It's nothing like Catford, in fact I don't think I've ever actually been to Catford. But my wife likes cats and when we moved into this house she gave me a whole room, so it works for me!" Best regards Craig. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 I've driven through Catford, not somewhere I'd go for a day out. Layout looks great. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Popular Post Rich Papper Posted January 23, 2017 Author Tempfix Popular Post Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) Only a small update as have realised I haven't included any NSE stock yet. Just not good enough is it? Courageous at signal with what on the timetable used to be known as a 'Network Express'. Rich Edited October 14, 2022 by Rich Papper Replace photos 25 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRDBLUE17 Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 Hi Rich, That's looking really good, at least your finding some modelling time again. All the best Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJMR Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 A lovely layout and lots of potential with that room! I am embarking in a layout and lucky like yourself to have a room to do it in! I like the weathering detail, just adds to the end result! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan product fan Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 50 on nse mk1 look very smart mate nice photo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted January 27, 2017 Author Tempfix Share Posted January 27, 2017 Hi Rich, That's looking really good, at least your finding some modelling time again. All the best Mark It won't last Mark - baby 2 imminent! But I knew this was going to take years. Rich Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdw7300 Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Hi Rich Thanks for your compliments on my Laoson Valley thread. I've been a follower of Oxford Road for a while but not spotted Catsford until today. Looks a great start with some excellent 'sit back and watch trains go by' value. Hope all is going well with baby number two! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Brady Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Rich Looking at doing a simalar wall , what did you use for the for edging please ??????. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 A good well executed layout Looking forward to seeing it progress Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wigan Wallgate OO Gauge Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Superb Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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