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A model railway inspired by the works of Agatha Christie

Entries in this blog

The Layout's First Locomotive

I actually pre-ordered this in August last year, with an estimated delivery date of January. At the time of ordering I'd hoped that by January I would have some track to run it on. However, it is now February and, because I've changed my mind several times about the method of track construction, I'm not as far along as I hoped.   The locomotive is a GWR Pannier Tank (No. 8762). I'm by no means an expert on locomotives, but a quick google suggests that this particular engine was built in 1933.
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Ballasting Begins...

Ballasting has begun! In the end I opted for the Chinchilla Dust rather than using sand. The picture shows it in it's un-weathered state. Once all the ballast is down it will be weathered using some light paint washes to tone down the light grey colour. The ballast was glued down using the traditional method of using watered down PVA to soak the loose ballast in situ.   The reason why the Chinchilla Dust won over the sand is that is just looks better from a distance. Although sand looks great
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Sleepering almost complete...

Just a quick entry to say that the sleepers are now all glued down ready for the next step - ballasting...!   I've just ordered some milled PCB sleepers from the 2mm Scale Association for extra strength at the baseboard joins. These might take a little bit of experimenting with to ensure they fit (the wooden sleepers I'm using are thicker than the PCB or Easitrac sleepers by the 2mmSA).   I'm also in the process of adding more "About the Layout" pages to the website. At the moment I've got o
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Beginning Sleepering

After successfully completing a test section of track, it is now time to embark on the real thing! Unfortunately the process of gluing the individual sleepers one by one to the baseboard is mind-numbingly tedious… There must be a better solution to all of this? Of course there is… And this is how I did it!     Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way of gluing a whole section of sleepers to the baseboard, whilst keeping the correct spacing? Because I’m building to 2mm Scale the spacing of t
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2

Another Track Test! (Part 2)

After doing a quick track test using real wooden sleepers and plastic chairs, I’ve done another quick test track. This time I’ve painted the sleepers and used sand rather than Chinchilla dust to ballast it. I actually mixed some paint in to the PVA and water mixture that I soaked into the sand to glue it down. This coloured the sand slightly to stop it being too “sandy” in colour.   There are a few final details to attend to, such as painting the chairs and the rails. I was also a little too g
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Another Test Track!

I've just done a quick tester to see how using real wooden sleepers for the layout would look. Now, you'll have to use your imagination a bit, as the sleepers are in an unstained and unweathered state.   The wooden sleepers are from www.handlaidtrack.com, in America. They are actually a little too short in width for the era I'm modelling, but if the overall effect is better I think it's worth loosing that extra mm.   The chairs could be from either the 2mm Scale Association, or from Britis
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Another Updated Layout Plan!

One of the issues of the previous layout design was room for storage. I have now decided to have a double-layer layout, so that when the trains disappear under the London Section they descend to a lower level for storage and can be turned around on a turning loop. This new arrangement also simplifies the track layout on the top layer.   The space that has now been freed up will also allow the London Section to grow across to the left and blend into the Paddington Section (which makes a lot of
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Digital Modelling

I'm trying a relatively unusual way of creating the buildings for Murder on the Tracks. Most of the buildings are to be based on real life locations, and these will generally be the locations used in the ITV adaptations of the Agatha Christie books.   Almost all of these locations still exist, which makes research relatively easy as you can walk up to most of these places and take some photos. Taking photos is not just for research purposes. The photos will be used to create the models themsel
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Updated Track Plan

The new track plan has a revised layout for the Burgh Island section. The island is now slightly smaller, but is now surrounded by water. This should make it easier to create the illusion that the island is “floating” in the sea.   The track layout from St Mary Mead to Burgh Island now has a gentle curve to it, in an attempt to get rid of the “train set” look of the straight lines.   Follow my blog at murderonthetracks.co.uk
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A new way of building track!

Choosing a type of track for this layout has been a bit of a challenge, but it looks like there might be a new solution!   I've always planned to use 2mm scale track components from the 2mm Scale Association. The track has a much finer and realistic look than standard off-the-shelf track, even the finescale variants. However, because of the track radiuses required to fit the layout in to the space available, the track cannot be built to the full 2mm Scale Association Standards. The compromise
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Assembling the Jigsaw!

The day has finally come, and the laser cut baseboard has arrived. After starting work on the layout it soon became clear that to get the finish I wanted, that laser cutting would be an ideal solution. Not only does it create a precise fit and finish, but the layout of the railway (as well as marking the numerous Agatha Christie locations) could be etched into the surface of the wood.   The cut wood arrives from the suppliers with masking tape holding all the parts together. For the most part
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Laser Cutting and Making a Model of The Model!

In the last post I talked about changing the way the baseboards would be constructed. Now they would be completely laser cut. The major advantage of creating something laser cut is the precision. Using AutoCad, the various sections can be designed in “flatpack” form. Because all the pieces are precisely cut you don’t have to rely on your own carpentry skills to make sure that everything is square and aligned. You can build that all into the design. This all should result in a strong, crisp, pro
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2

A Change of Plan!

There’s been a slight change in how the baseboards are going to be constructed! It became quickly evident that using a full size paper plan glued to the baseboard as a template wasn’t an ideal solution. Unfortunately the paper just wasn’t robust enough at the edges. Although the glue used to hold the paper down was easily strong enough, the paper itself wasn’t. The layers of the paper actually started to come apart.   If this was happening now, with just the sleepers glued down, would this pr
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Starting To Make Tracks...

The track for the layout will be built with 2mm Finescale components, but to N Gauge Standards. This will hopefully give the best of both worlds.   2mm Scale track has a much more attractive appearance, but the larger radius of the 2mm Standards mean that it wouldn’t be possible to create a full loop layout in the space available. Building to N Gauge Standards is a compromise which allows the tighter curves that are require to build the layout. Using the full scale template now glued to the b
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Assembling The Baseboard

There are six baseboards which make up the whole layout. I’m going to choose the easiest to begin with! The baseboard which mainly contains the St Mary Mead section doesn’t have any points, making the track work and wiring a lot simpler. This is a great bonus considering I’ve never made my own track before! I will be building track using The 2mm Scale Society components, but to the 9mm gauge and the standards of the N Gauge Society.     The absence of point work on this section of the board a
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0

Baseboard Construction

I commented in one of my previous posts that even though this is a layout set in the last century, it is being built in this century and I want to use 21st century technologies to build it. This is why I want to move away from the traditional all-wood construction when making the baseboards.   Instead, aluminium extrusions will make up the frame which will then support the plywood top. Hopefully this combination of aluminium and plywood will result in a very strong but light baseboard.   Alu
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Controlling the Layout

When planning a new layout, unless it’s tiny in size, there doesn’t seem to be much of an argument to go with anything other than DCC control. To start with the basic wiring is a lot simpler – you don’t need to create lots of isolating sections to control locomotives individually.     I say the basic wiring is a lot simpler because wiring for DCC can become incredibly complicated if you want it to be! Here lies the magic of DCC – it is easily but also massively expandable. Just want to run a
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Introducing Section 4 - Burgh Island

Burgh Island Hotel is closely linked to the crime novelist Agatha Christie, as it inspired the settings for both And Then There Were None and the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under the Sun. The ITV adaptation of Evil Under The Sun used the island as a filming location. This area of the layout will definitely be a challenge. An island section surrounded by the sea is going to be difficult to fit into a layout which is essentially a loop that needs to flow seamlessly from London to the countryside
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Introducing Section 3 - St Mary Mead

It would be hard to create a Agatha Christie themed layout without recreating the home of Miss Marple. St Mary Mead. St Mary Mead is the quintessential English village. Quaint and sleepy, the village is supposedly located 25 miles from London. Murder at the Vicarage is the first book set in the village but it is also mentioned prior to that in The Mystery of the Blue Train (which ties in nicely with this layout!).   The village of Hambleden has been used for several of the recent Marple and P
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INTRODUCING SECTION 2 – LONDON

With so many Agatha Christie stories set in locations around London it would be impossible not to include a London section.   London is also home of Hercule Poirot and the geometrically perfect Whitehaven Mansions, where he lives. In real life Whitehaven Mansions is known as Florin Court, located in Charterhouse Square in the City of London. Those of you who have seen the ITV Poirot adaptations will already be familiar with the buildings distinctive architecture.   Other locations to be mode
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Updated Layout Plan

The track plan has been updated to include some more hidden sidings, as well as being tweaked slightly in some other places to allow more flexible running. The main layout is a double-track loop, with a loop line serving St Mary Mead. However, it is intended to be operated more as an end-to-end layout, with trains running between Paddington and terminating in the hidden sidings before returning to Paddington. The option of having a continuous loop is great for the days when you might want to ha
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1

Introducing Section 1 - Paddington Station

When deciding on the London terminus for the layout there was really only once choice. The only station that actually appears in the title of one of Agatha Christie’s books. Paddington.     Obviously this ties in well with the Christie books The 4:50 from Paddington and The Plymouth Express as these trains would both depart from the station. We have to use a little more artistic licence for The Orient Express and Le Train Bleu (the trains that appear in Murder on the Orient Express and The My
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INTRODUCING THE LAYOUT

The layout will be constructed in four main sections. Paddington Station, London, St Mary Mead and Burgh Island. The track plan above gives a rough idea of what the layout should look like, although there are still a couple of little details missing. The hope is that all the sections will flow seamlessly into each other, whilst also keeping the individuality of their separate locations. The layout will be built across six baseboards with space in the middle for a scenic backdrop. The model is d
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4

A Matter of Scale

Deciding on a scale for this layout was particularly tricky. Originally I wanted to model it in 2mm Finescale, as championed by the 2mm Scale Association. The much finer quality of the scale, particularly of the track, definitely appeals to me.   I wanted the layout to be quite compact, the overall footprint being approximately 950 by 3000mm, for transport as well as storage purposes. I also wanted to include a full loop rather than just model an end-to-end layout. Unfortunately the 2mm scale
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Welcome

Welcome to the blog for Murder on the Tracks! A model railway layout inspired by the works of Agatha Christie. You can read more about the layout here. Hopefully the blog will be updated regularly with the progress of the layout…
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