I have done a write up for Calshot in case I decide to publish it in the model railway press.

Let me know if there is anything you think could be improved, i'm sure there is!

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Calshot A slice of the South Coast in the late 1950s

JAMIE WARNE wanted to create a layout with little space, less skill, and even less money, but still try and create a convincing scene of the South Coast.

Calshot was always a place I had admired since I came across a picture of a Fairey Swordfish there amongst the infilled narrow gauge rails and in front of the various buildings on the spit. I wanted to be able to include features of the real place such as the Sopwith hangar (a Belfast lattice truss) but I also wanted to put in a bit of ???modellers license??™ so I could get away with not including the whole spit! Also, I wanted to add my own twist to the history of the spit and engage my brain into a bit of imagination to make the model my own personal ???tribute??™ to Calshot and its history as one of the major seaplane RAF bases in Britain. This is where things became more difficult than the idea sounded. Somehow, I had to squeeze the seaplane base, narrow gauge railway, and my own fictional extension to the Fawley branch onto a baseboard capable of being taken to local shows, and more importantly not upsetting the household authorities!

History

There never was a standard gauge line at Calshot as there wasn??™t deemed enough traffic for an extension to the Fawley branch, plus the building of the Fawley oil refinery made it hard to build a line to Calshot. I have assumed that the RAF base did in fact generate enough traffic to justify the standard gauge extension, and that the builders of the line found a way of getting across the marsh land and other major obstacles. The line would have had a small personnel halt in the form of one of Exmouth Works precast concrete platforms.

I have also made sure that there are some similarities with the real location such as Sopwith hangar, and a slightly smaller representation of Calshot Castle. I was pleased when at my debut exhibition in my local village a chap came up to me and said without even reading the layout name he recognised it was based on Calshot even without the new extensions on (more later) and gave me a few of his memories from when he was in the RAF base for which I was both surprised and relieved!

The idea

As I am sure many of you can understand, the layout took a lot of planning to get to a point where the layout plan looked pleasing to the eye. It took many attempts at sketching plans and discussions on the online forum RMweb (which I would thoroughly recommend joining) to come up with a pleasing design. Now, as I hinted in the opening few paragraphs, the layout was originally a lot smaller than it is now, that is until I exhibited it in May 2009 where a couple fellow modellers suggested how easy it would be to add an extension to the layout. Of course, I immediately set about sketching after the exhibition was over and initially came up with a huge design of an MoD design with a few corrugated warehouses and a nissen hut. That was until I realised that it was both too big and almost irrelevant to the RAF theme! I turned to a much smaller design incorporating just a small engine shed, just big enough for a class 04 shunter and a bridge over a stream emptying out into the Solent. This extension was small, but still big enough for me to be able to incorporate that precast platform I wanted to have. I have learnt a lot of lessons from layout design and construction by adding just this small extension, and I intend to pass them on so you don??™t make the same mistakes! Firstly, make sure the track base is flat ??“ there is nothing worse than rolling rolling stock, and this is something I will have to live with now. Also, it is much easier to add an extension if the track on the edge of the board is 90 degrees!

Whilst this was underway, I realised that something was missing and the layout felt unbalanced. Another extension was soon on its way. This time I opted for a curving baseboard towards the back of the backscene which I hoped would give a nice flowing feel. A plan was drawn up and a small representation of Calshot Castle would be included as well as a beach to disguise the baseboard join. Groynes were also built to split up the expanse of sand. A narrow gauge track was then layed from the engine shed, across a bridge and behind the cafe before running in front of the hangar and going into some sidings around the castle.

Construction

The baseboards were made in an open frame format. This involved constructing 4mm ply uprisers spaced a certain distance apart attached to battens between the uprisers. Then builders??™ polystyrene was glued on top of the supporting battens between the uprisers. Track was laid on top of the polystyrene, but in hindsight I should have glued cork on first to reduce the noise reverberation from the polystyrene. Where the track was due to be infilled, a filler mix was applied and scooped out of the rails so rolling stock would freewheel. The infilling was then scribed out to represent concrete slabs and painted to enhance the effect. The same applies for the quay walls around the lifeboat station. Some of the quay walls were created using Wills random stone walling and weathered slightly to suggest age.

Buildings

The hangar was constructed using Wills corrugated asbestos sheeting. The sizes were obtained from scaling down from a reference picture of the real structure at Calshot and the dimensions were then put onto plasticard and carefully cut out to form the basic structure. Where there were joins in the plasticard, the two edges were mitred to ensure a nice finish. The roof was constructed from card in one piece to minimise visible joins. All that remained to do were the two giant hangar folding doors. I have only used folded paper to do this which looks unrealistic but I am developing some textured paper doors to use instead. The cafe was constructed from the Wills waiting shelter kit but the internal wall was eased out and the gable end cut off and used for the gap where the wall wasn??™t quite long enough. The roof is yet another Wills product ??“ corrugated sheeting. Drainpipes were added and a coat of paint to finish it off. The lifeboat station is yet more Wills sheeting ??“ this time cement blocks. The same process was used here and the roof was some Wills slating cut to fit (can you see the recurring theme!) Therefore, I won??™t need to tell you how the engine shed was constructed apart from the roof beams which were matchsticks cut up and assembled to represent rafters. The roof and lean-to are Slaters plasticard this time as it is easier to cut.

Conclusion

As with any modeller, there are things you can improve to any layout and things that you wish you could have done differently. I have outlined some of these earlier but I must say that despite all the difficulties, I have gained experience and learnt lessons. I am very happy with how Calshot has turned out ??“ and it looks like others like it too judging by the comments received from modellers I am inspired by. It is nice to give something back to the hobby.

It remains for me to thank those who have supported me during my experiments of layout building. Thanks to my Dad for advising me and helping me to construct the baseboards and woodwork and to my Mum for putting up with modelling sprawling around the house and a layout in the dining room! Thanks to John and Matt for being very friendly likeminded modellers and for the puns ??“ supporting each other at shows has been great fun.