I have only been a member of RM Web for a few days, but I thought that I would get started with a blog about the construction of my first solo model railway. I have had no previous modelling experience other than helping my dad build his, never finished, layout when I was a child. This is definitely going to be a learning process.

Today I thought I would introduce my layout and hopefully I'll get round to adding some photos of my efforts in due course.

My layout, named Skaleby (a combination of Skaledale and Hornby as I will be mainly using off the shelf products) is a shelf layout measuring some 12 feet in length. It incorporates a small, two platform station, with a small goods yard and coal merchants area as well as a single road locomotive shed. The station is loosely based on Goathland on the preserved North Yorkshire Moors Railway, with some serious pieces of artistic license. My station is not a through station, but a terminus on a severed branch line.

For those that know Goathland, the Grosmont end of the line is the severed end with all departures heading in the Pickering direction. Once the train passes under the road over bridge all links to Goathland end there. The line is planned to pass through a short cutting before entering the fiddle yard via a tunnel. One line will deviate off onto a wider section of baseboard in front of the fiddle yard. Here a larger locomotive shed has been planned which will incorporate the Hornby Coal Drop structure as a scenic break between shed and fiddle yard. I hope that makes things clear to everyone.

As I am a steam enthusiast, it is steam that will be the focus of my layout. At 36, I am too young to remember steam working on the national network and so my interest has come from the preservation era. Therefore my layout will be that of a preserved line. This allows me to run a wide variety of locomotives in whichever livery I desire. My collection is very mixed although the majority of engines carry B.R livery. I do not favour any particular area. I have examples of locos from all Big Four groups.

So far

The track into the station has been laid onto the Gaugemaster pre ballested underlay. All platforms have been checked and placed and the scenery has been built up to allow the buildings to be placed onto the layout. I used cut off polysterene pieces from Skaledale boxes, glued down and covered with plaster bandage to act as a base.

My biggest success so far has been the construction of the large embankment at the back of the baseboard to the left of the station platform. If anyone knows Goathland, this is the embankment which includes the steep footpath to Darnholm.

I built this up using more polysterene blocks, with screwed up newspaper added to create a rough shape. I then cut thin pieces of card and glued these down to provide a flat base for the footpath before everything was covered in plaster bandage. After drying I painted the whole structure with brown poster paint and covered it with dark green scatter from the Woodland Scenics range. When this was dry I added tufts of hanging basket liner to create the look of rough grass, and then used clumps of Woodland Scenics dark folaige to represent plants. These then had assorted colours added to the top to create the look of flowers. Some trees from the Skale Scenics range have been added which completes a scene that I am very pleased with. I used Metcalfe stone sheets to build the retaining wall at the front.

I am quite pleased with the result so far. It provides a back drop to the one picture I do have. It shows my Hornby Railroad Jinty standing in front of the embankment and retaining wall. This cheap engine is perfect for test running to avoid spoiling my more expensive models.