The 'Radio Times' Challenge Layout

[Ian Morgan]

Part 1 - The Challenge

Following much frenzied activity taking part in Channel 5's Great Model Railway Challenge, the 'Basingstoke Bodgers' team were slowly getting back to normal. While we waited for the programmes to air we started catching up with all the 'proper' modelling that had been put on hold for the duration.

Then, out of the blue, we were given another challenge. 'Radio Times' magazine wanted to feature an article to publicise the programme, and wanted to see a team in action, building a layout to a deadline - just two build days. They wanted to come down later that week to see us in action. Our team captain foolishly accepted the challenge, but did manage to postpone them a week and a half so we had some time to plan and prepare. I am not sure why we were asked to do this, but we do have our own clubrooms to do the build in, and we are not too far for the journalist and photographer to travel, and we are stupid enough to accept.

 

The 'Radio Times' Art Department supplied us with a set of old photographs from their archives, showing 'Radio Times' delivery vehicles and some newsagents' shops from what appeared to be the late 1950's.

 

(Photos courtesy of 'Radio Times' Archive)

Some of the photos were of the depot of E. A. Hellmuth Ltd, a contractor operating the delivery vehicles. It was a ramshackle set of buildings incorporating some railway arches. One of our team tracked down the location as Hercules Road, Lambeth, a short way from Waterloo Station. It was crying out to be modelled. The buildings have gone now, but the small arch is still visible, although no longer painted yellow.

 

So, challenge accepted, what would we do, and how would we do it?

 

[380John]

Very interesting! And very different, 2 days is nothing in model railway terms, definitely a challenge! I'm glad not all model railways have to be built like this!

 

Look forward to seeing the results!

 

John

[Ian Morgan]

Did you miss last week's 'Radio Times'? It was in the 95th Anniversary edition.

[Ian Morgan]

And now online:

 

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2018-10-05/radio-times-95th-birthday-replica-delivery-van-railway/

[Captain Kernow]

I'm confused.

 

I saw this featured in the Radio Times and thought it was one of the layouts built for the actual programme.

 

So is this something different?

 

Am I right that it was 2mm scale? Looked rather nice in the Radio Times.

[Ian Morgan]

Yes, this layout was built for the 'Radio Times', and it is N gauge.

 

The layouts for the Channel 5 Challenge are much bigger.

[380John]

Ah I see, thanks for the clarification, il have a look!

 

Cheers,

 

John

[Ian Morgan]

Part 2 - Planning and Preparation

To make the most of such a short build time, and with no budget, we decided to make use of a lot of things we already had to hand. I had a bare 4'x2' baseboard in my shed doing nothing, and we had various buildings saved from earlier layouts which were just stored in boxes. Plus we had plenty of spare N gauge track. In addition, I had Merg modules and servos rescued from our Challenge layout. We sketched some ideas, and came up with a simple track plan.

Then we got the baseboard and the existing buildings and scenic items and tried out various placements to see what would fit.

 

The Hellmuth depot would be at the front of the layout, with the railway on arches behind it. Instead of the mainline tracks, it would be a small goods depot, with newspaper loading/unloading platforms, coal staithes and a building supplies yard. The single track would then curve round the end of the baseboard on arches and disappear into a small fiddle yard behind the backscene. A road with terraced houses and a newsagents would cut across the layout, passing below the railway under two bridges. It would include just 4 points.

We would need plenty of railway arches. I already had the Scalescenes download, albeit blue brick rather than yellow, so this was re-printed in bulk. It was printed onto A4 labels that could be simply stuck to suitable card (mostly breakfast cereal packets) ready for the team to cut out and prepare as a kit of parts for attaching to the raised trackbed. Some terraced houses and corner shops from Scalescenes were also printed and prepared similarly.

The creation of the lorry fleet was covered in another thread.

 

I prepared the electrical bits, but I will describe that more in Part 3.

 

That is all for today as I have to get ready to take 'Freshwater' to the Fareham exhibition this weekend. Do say hello if you you get there too.

 

[Ian Morgan]

Part 3 - The Electrical Wizardry

I give no apologies for devoting a whole section of this thread to the electrical side of the layout. This is my area, and I am proud of it.

A lack of suitable DCC fitted N gauge locomotives of the correct period dictated that we would need analogue train control. I had a small Medvend controller from Hungary that I purchased a while ago, but had not got around to using yet. This is a very nice controller, but I am not sure if it is still available. I replaced the lead with a 4-core cable, and plug, so 12VDC power would be fed to it from the layout 12VDC bus.

I am a Merg CBus convert, and love the way that any size control panel only needs 4 wires to connect it to the layout, compared with the huge bundles of wire I see used by most exhibition layouts. I had some CBus modules already built and tested, left over from the Channel 5 Great Model Railway Challenge, so it was just a matter of re-connecting and re-configuring them for the new layout. I like to temporarily screw modules, point servos, switches and LEDs to an offcut of wood that I can put on my table to work on in comfort rather than fitting them all to the layout and trying to get them working in-situ. Once it is all working, the modules can be moved to their final positions on the layout and reconnected with longer wires.

Merg CBus is a simple message bus, based on the CAN hardware commonly used in modern motor cars. Modules can broadcast messages, called 'events'. There can be thousands of different, numbered events. Each event can be sent as either an 'On' event or an 'Off' event. Modules will all receive all the broadcast events, but will be configured to perform actions only when certain events are received. In a very simple layout, a switch connected to a module can be configured to send an event (e.g. Event 100) when the switch position is changed. When the switch is set to 'On', the 'On' event is broadcast, and when the switch is set to 'Off' the 'Off' event is broadcast. A second module on the bus can be configured to operate a point motor (either a solenoid, a stall motor of a servo, depending on the module type) when it receives event number 100. An 'On' event will move the point one way, and an 'Off' event will move it the other way.

To operate the points on the layout, I used a CANMIO-SVO module. This can operate up to 8 servos, plus it has 8 inputs that can be used to generate events. I decided to use these inputs as feedback to confirm the position of the points by illuminating LEDs on the control panel. I fitted three microswitches to each servo mount, one to switch the frog polarity and one for feedback at each end of the throw. The Peco points were modified so the point blades were electrically bonded to the stock rails, and the frog was isolated from them. The over-centre spring was removed to allow slow movement of the point blades. The feedback lines were connected to the auxiliary connection of the CANMIO. Where one point led to two other points to produce the 4 sidings, the output of the feedback switches of the first point was used as the 'input' to the feedback switches of the other points. This meant that when the first point changed, both feedback lines of the following point on the deselected route would go open circuit, and the LEDs for both those routes would extinguish.

 

Fitting the point servos to the underside of the upper level track base, before turning up the right way

 

A view underneath the layout showing point servos and the CANMIO-SVO module

For the control panel, I used a CANPAN module. This module can control up to 32 LEDs, and can be connected to up 32 switches or push buttons. A plastic takeaway container proved just the right size to hold a CANPAN. Six push buttons would be used to select the four sidings at the front and the two sidings in the fiddle yard. I wanted to provide a visual feedback of the layout, so I cut a piece of Veroboard to fit the lid, next to the row of buttons, and fitted a number of 3mm LEDs to mimic the track plan. I did not have enough of the same colour to complete it, so I used white for the front of the layout and yellow for the fiddle yard.

 

The CANPAN and CANACTOUT modules in the takeaway container

 

Veroboard with LEDs and switches and connecting cable to the CANPAN module.

 

Takeaway container lid showing LED track plan

 

Control panel in use

A CANACTOUT module was fitted to one end of the take-away container. This module just consists of the standard RJ22 CBus connectors for a 4 way cable to attach it to the layout, with a bus activity monitor built in that flashes a blue LED whenever an event is broadcast on the bus. A second CANACTOUT module was fitted to the layout.

 

The complete layout is powered by a single 12VDC power unit from the Merg Kit Locker, but with my now standard replacement of the 12V plug with a 3-pin XLR plug.
 

For more information about CBus, download the free book from the Merg website.

 

Next up, Day 1 of the layout build.

 

[Ian Morgan]

Part 4 - Build Day 1

We had arranged for a Monday and Tuesday to build the layout, and then the Radio Times could only spare the journalist and photographer for one day. Could we complete the build in one day? No!

So the Monday saw just the team getting stuck in to woodworking and some track laying, while a start was made on preparing buildings and railway arches, vehicles and figures on the modelling tables. We knew that the first day would involve quite a lot of work, but not produce much visible evidence, and that the second day would be when the real magic happened.

A sheet of plywood was cut to shape to form the track bed - a sort of horse shoe shape with the loose ends joined by a large triangle that formed the goods yard. Large holes were cut in the chipboard baseboard beneath where the tracks would run to allow access to the point servos, and reduce the overall weight.

Expanded polystyrene blocks were cut to support the track bed at the correct height for the railway arches. Unfortunately, our last remaining hot cutting wand gave up the ghost, so we had to resort to knives and saws, and the mess they produce.

The track bed was not glued down yet, as it would be easier to mount the point servos and complete the wiring while it was still separate. Most of the track was laid, but the last couple of pieces were saved for day 2, and the camera.

 

Robin, Dave and Pete checking the track that has been laid on the track bed plywood. Old fluorescent light ballast units make handy weights.

 

Preparing the back scene woodwork

 

John and Robin fitting the point servos to the up-turned track bed, using a hot glue gun instead of screws.

 

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

Part 5 - Build Day 2

 

Second day of the build, and we were all wearing our red BNHMRS polo shirts as team branding. Our visitors arrived - Michael Hodges, the Radio Times 'Editor-at-large', Andy Earl, the photographer who usually snaps A-list celebs and rock stars, and a guy from Channel 5, presumably there to ensure no secrets about the Great Model Railway Challenge got leaked.

 

I am not sure they were to impressed by our antiquated clubrooms, or the rather barren looking 'train set' we had created the day before, but after a cup of tea, and seeing some of the finer details in preparation, the camera started clicking. The final lengths of track were laid and the trackbed glued into position. I could then join up the final bits of wiring, and by lunchtime we had a train running. The visitors seemed to enjoy the wares of our local 'chippy' that our club chairman fetched in. It was probably very different to the food provided by Madonna or Iggy Pop, Andy's assignments the previous week.

 

After lunch the team were full out on adding the scenery to the layout, while I retired to the work tables to put together a BH Enterprises telephone kiosk, and paint some figures, post boxes, etc. Peter was working flat out to complete the iconic Hellmuth's building.

 

Our visitors were really starting to get enthusiastic about what they saw, and Andy even started giving us artistic advice about where best to place things for the best composition.

 

5pm, and we declared the layout complete, and working. Much relief, and lots of group photos finished off the day and our visitors departed.

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

For the last two and a half years, the layout has been quietly sitting on a shelf in the clubrooms. This was partly because we had mislaid the box with the control panel, controller and road vehicles in.

 

However, the box has finally been found this week, just in time to fulfill an invitation we have had to take something along to the 'Thornycroft Day' at Brookfield Community Centre, Basingstoke on 26th June 2021. We took another layout there two years ago and had an enjoyable day, helping to raise funds for the creation of a replica of the clock on the former Thornycroft works to be fitted on the top of the lift shaft of the community centre. It is only a small affair, but they usually have a couple of old Thornycroft lorries parked outside.

 

So, Covid permitting, we will tidy up the layout and have a good time chatting with the locals, and maybe entice some new members to join us when the clubrooms can reopen again.

 

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Ian Morgan
re-loaded image

[Ian Morgan]

Unfortunately, the 'Thornycroft Day' at Brookfield Community Centre had to be cancelled when Covid restrictions were extended, but we have continued to refurbish the layout.

 

(Photo courtesy of 'Radio Times' Archive)

 

 

Photo by Peter Thorpe

 

(Photos courtesy of 'Radio Times' Archive)

 

Photo by Peter Thorpe

Edited June 22, 2023 by Ian Morgan
re-loaded images

[Pete Thorpe]

Here are some more pics of E.A.Hellmuth's distribution depot in Hercules Road. The model is a combination of guesstimation from the original photos and limited space at the front of the layout so the photos don't align with the originals as well as the two above.

[Ian Morgan]

Our efforts to re-vitalise the layout did not go unnoticed by the Radio Times staff and they are doing a follow-up article in the 20th November edition (available from tomorrow?).

 

I have no idea what they will say or show until I have obtained a copy.

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

Ok, so it is a nice, almost full page spread in the 'Feedback' section, near the back.  Four new layout photos (albeit quite small) and a couple of their 'archive' photos to match.

 

I do not know it it will appear on their website.

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

The "Radio Times" layout, plus its extension baseboard, was at OxRail 2022 this weekend. The extension is just bare baseboard with track laid and wired up, but will be sceniced soon.

 

When the story behind the layout was explained, most visitors seemed to find it interesting and enjoyable. We were running trains with DCC, using slightly more modern stock than originally intended for the layout. While the existing board is set firmly in the 1950's, the new board will feature the current offices of "Radio Times" and will depict the current day scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

The scenic work on the 'new' baseboard is now complete and the layout will feature in an article in the Radio Times centenary issue, 23-28 September 2023, on sale from next Tuesday 19th.

 

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

The 100th anniversary edition of the Radio Times magazine is out today, and has a half page feature in the 'Feedback' section about the extension to the layout. The included photos are very small though.

 

The layout is going to be set up in the foyer of their HQ offices for an unspecified duration. They will be collecting the layout this Sunday so I do not know exactly when it will be displayed.

 

Meanwhile, here are some larger photos of the build in progress: