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Son of Tweedale


awoodford

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As this is the first blog post dealing with the new Tweedale layout, I'll start with some background.

 

The space available for the new layout is a spare room which had long been earmarked for the proper serious layout that never materialised, and has meanwhile been used as a storeroom/workshop/shed. The size of the room is 11x11 feet, though the planned layout only takes up about 8x6 feet. Well I'm not a greedy boy. Actually it had more to do with leaving access to other fixtures in the room, but it's probably just as well my ambitions are constrained if I hope to finish this in my lifetime anyway. The diagram below shows the general set up...

 

Tweedale32-1.jpg.4a3765d3a24a57c42f32d8d9873f0df6.jpg

 

The layout follows the general theme of the previous Mark 1 version. The place names are mostly the same and the line still takes a zigzag route up the dale (cunningly contrived so that I only need to detail and paint one side of the rolling stock). Although there is now more space, the stations will still need to be compressed and simplified to fit them in.

 

This is rather an ambitious scheme for me, having only ever had fairly small layouts in the past, and I'm still not sure how well I'll get on with such a monster. Maybe I am being a greedy boy after all. That remains to be seen, but for now the plan of campaign is to expand in stages with a modular approach, finishing off each section as I go. Then even if the layout is never completely finished, for whatever reason, at least what there is will be finished, if you see what I mean. The intention is to start with the area outlined in red above, and see how well I get on with that before committing myself to the rest. Here's a more detailed plan of that area...

 

Tweedale32-2.jpg.b746c3f7307d9b2c1a7dfb49825e5096.jpg

 

The greatest concern here is time. The original layout took 6 years to complete, and at its largest extent occupied 12 square feet. This layout takes up 30 square feet. It follows then that short cuts and compromises will be needed in plenty if I want to get it finished in a reasonable time.

 

Analysing the construction of the former 4 foot long 'Tweedale Lite' extension showed that the baseboard, track laying, wiring and gadgetry took about 2 months to complete. That was the technical side of things, all logical and thus fairly straightforward. However the scenery, or arty side, was much more vague and took 2 years to finish. A major part of the strategy with this layout will be to cut down the scenics drastically. After all my main interest is operating the trains, and while its nice for them to run through enough scenery to give them a sense of place, I don't really need to build a whole world however tempting.

 

Rather than fill every square inch of baseboard with scenery, the intention is to model not much more than that within the boundary fence. The track and scenery will be confined to narrow boards that will be short enough to be worked on at a table, and can then just be fitted together on the flat baseboard top. The style I have in mind is something like that of the Totternhoe Mineral Railway layout which can be seen on Mr Arendt's website here. However I may not neccessarily immerse everything in black as done there. I'll experiment with different methods of presentation and lighting later, once I have one or two fully scenified track modules available to test it all against.

 

A start has been made on the first track board here...

 

Tweedale32-3.jpg.f2e96af6f0993bc4b330a56f42c35980.jpg

 

It's 2'6" long and represents the exchange sidings for the Upper Tweedale line. It has a 6mm ply top braced with 25x6mm strip. The track is Peco code 75 with short radius points. The edging has been tacked on temporarily just to hide the ugliness beneath, but the board will eventually be expanded outwards by an inch or two each side to accomodate some lineside scenery. I've roughly edited the image below to illustrate the idea. If at some future date I feel like adding more scenery I can always spread out further.

 

Tweedale32-4.JPG.4626e65f4dbb6eb2f90254a961ee48b1.JPG

 

The baseboard supporting framework for this first phase is now almost complete, as shown below...

 

Tweedale32-5.jpg.0cb7935dbebf90054728be633d13bc54.jpg

 

So far I've managed to make use of timber I had around, much of which was salvaged from the remains of a pine double-bed frame (with all those handy 4'6" slats). It was such a useful source of timber that when the time comes to expand the layout, I'll probably pop down to the local charity furniture store and buy another, which should provide enough wood to complete the framework. Their beds sell for 25 to 30 pounds, which I reckon is a cheaper option than buying new timber from the DIY wharehouse, and I suspect its probably better quality wood as well.

 

Cheers, Alan.

 

Edited by awoodford
Restored lost images

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  • RMweb Gold

This is very, very interesting. I like the "system" approach.

 

Am I right in assuming each grid on the drawing is 1' by 1'?

 

Best

 

Scott.

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  • RMweb Gold

Nice use of reclaimed wood, Alan.


Will you be cannibalising the original Tweedale for scenery as you did with Tweedale Lite?

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Thanks for your comment Scott. Yes, it is a 1 foot grid.

 

Corbs, thank you. I'm not thinking of cannibalising the original Tweedale. I'm quite fond of that old layout and will probably hang on to it while I have the space.

 

Thanks Wenlock. I'm interested to see how this develops myself. Things don't often turn out as I first visualise them, so what I'll end up with is anyone's guess.

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  • RMweb Premium

I like your gift for keeping things to a basic minimum. One thing I’ve found on a simple layout of mine is it’s best to have all the siding leads straight off the main line, it doesn’t normally happen in reality because there’s far more space, but it does help with finding room on the sidings. You’ve achieved this on your plan with the exception of top LH siding at Slaghill. 

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Hi Northroader, that's useful advice, thanks. It's not something that had occured to me before but it does make sense. As to the Slaghill siding, the capacity would indeed be increased by taking it off the main line, but unfortunately that would open out the curve to the steel works too much, which needs to be kept at the minimum 21 inch radius in order for it to fit.

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