Shillingstone recap
Entry posted by Barry Ten
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As documented on the old forum, I'm building a 12x11 foot 00 layout based loosely on Shillingstone, on the southern portion of the Somerset and Dorset. The S&D has a strong family connection for me (and I was born within a week of the closure) so it's always been a line close to my heart. The arrival of Hornby's excellent Bulleid pacifics, and the opportunity to obtain a ready-build model of a 7F, were the final straws - that and the dismantling of my old layout prior to a house move, meaning I could start with a clean slate. After bingeing on many S&D reference books over the last year or so, I eventually settled on Shillingstone as my chosen prototype since I felt there was a fighting chance of squeezing the essence of it into my layout room. However (as it transpires) even that was optimistic, and now that I'm getting down to the nitty gritty of trackwork, it's clear that "essence" is about as close as it's going to get. In fact I've ended up taking major liberties.
The layout is built with the track close to eye-level, not because I necessarily thought that was a great idea but because it forms the second layer of a disconnected double deck, with an American-based layout on the lower level. However, while there are some drawbacks to working at altitude, I've generally been very pleased with how easy it's been, with the eye-level views of locomotives and rolling stock being a bonus.
The layout is a simple continuous run with a fiddleyard along one wall, but rather than consisting of a single scenic portion, the rest of the layout is divided into three self-contained modules, linked by non-scenic bridging pieces. Work is progressing on all three scenic modules, but by far the most advanced is the northern module, supposedly set north of Shillingstone (and, I've just realised, also mounted on the north-facing wall of my train room. Which is nice.)
Here's the plan, more or less:
The only major difference between this and the thing currently under construction is that I've moved the turnout at the southern end of the station onto the non-scenic part.
Here are some pics taken during the construction of the north module. Track is C+L finescale (with Peco points elsewhere) and is laid onto Woodland scenics foam underlay which is in turn glued onto extruded polystyrene. I'll probably leave the ballasting until quite late in the day.
More to follow in the next few days.
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