Starting In O Gauge 0-MF

I moved house in 2020 and I finally have a realistic space for some sort of model railway. I had already dabbled a bit in O gauge but now I am going to start properly and try and construct a layout.

The story so far...

Background: I have done some railway modelling off an on since being a boy, and have done a lot of Dungeons and Dragons (etc) modelling - mostly painting miniatures but also making various bits of scenery. Of course the requirements (particularly simplicity/robustness are very different to railway modelling) and am generally quite competent with my hands (when I set my mind to it and actually get things done).

Influences: I have never been really drawn by locomotives themselves, expresses thundering through the platforms - I've been really influenced by railways with real atmosphere - either dirty and engineering-ey shunting or, conversely idyllic backwaters; Ian Futers' Lochside and Martin Brent's Arcadia/Rye Harbour.

Tinkering phase

Unlike some prolific modellers, I'm basically quite lazy and have a short attention span so rather than rush in with too many expensive purchases I decided to start small and take things a step at a time. I really wanted to try to make models that look right even if this involves challenging and difficult modelling - such as hand made track on my first layout - and that would probably involved a lot of challenges and mistakes along the way. Hopefully each step up will include lessons from the last.

The first O gauge I made was a ready-printed Slaters PO wagon kit. Not in my preferred blue-diesel period, but I couldn't resist the pre-printed nature of the kit.  I made it as supplied (although the couplings were changed later) and weathered it. I was quite pleased so far, so as a reward for my diligence, I got some track components from C&L and made a tiny diorama track.

Modelling process: This was about 3 years ago and in a much smaller house. AFAIR for the wagon I think I used a mixture of liquid poly and normal modelling glue from a tube; craft knife and mini flat file to make this. I used a mix of the acrylic paints I already had to touch up the unprinted red parts of the body and to paint the underframe. The weathering was acrylics brown (maybe diluted with acrylic medium) and silver highlights on the metal as you can't see them on the model otherwise.

Track base: an offcut of expanded polystyrene (I should have used a bigger piece as it's not really possible to properly photograph models on it). The sleepers are C&L wood with plastic chairs and rail from the same place. I stained the sleepers with Newton and Windsor brown Ink. I make the track on a paper template, but the big lesson here is: don't attach the sleepers too firmly to the base. Selotape on the template, then double sided tape is much too firmly.The track was made with a set of O-MF gauges which I saw on a template forum from Dr. Deborah Katharine Stevenson-Jones at Speciality Gauge Products. The plastic chairs are stuck down with Mek-Pak.

The next progression was a whole yard of track on an offcut of plywood mounted on a softwood offcut stiffener, a couple of Dapol wagons -  and a Class 08 shunter. I used an old controller I had from the 80s when my dad an I did some modelling (including some lovely 00 wagons - but never a proper layout)

The van I bought was similarly weathered.

The use of acrylic medium to dilute the acrylic paint means that the paint is translucent (but doesn't puddle like it does if you dilute with water only) and is very nice to work with. It's actually fairly easy and quick to get nice looking wagons this way. Compare to the as-bought mineral wagon below.

After a bit of shunting back and fort (what fun!),  I decided I didn't like the 3 link couplings on an accessible track, let alone a layout, so I tried a couple of other options; Winterton (a fantastic idea and very clever - but I wasn't so keen on shuffling backwards and forwards) and Alex Jackson.

(AJ on the left, Winterton on the right). I decided that AJ is just sooo lovely despite the fiddle of making them (see a later article for that).

I hand built my first turnout (which wasn't so firmly fixed to the template) using the same methods as the track it went pretty well until I dropped it after moving house!

After I moved house I bought some Peco track for "playing" with and a few more items of stock, included DCC and sound - fantastic fun. This is what it looks like now:

Notice the very very old Triang controller - the small DC controller I was using for the 08 doesn't have enough grunt to move the class 26.

This post is already pretty long so I'll tell you how the very helpful Jeremy at Digitrains sorted me out with a great sound for the 08 and the two problems I'm still unsure about in another article.