simon83

So three months on, and the cork trackbeds are down, and tracklaying is complete. I chose tilling elite track work, and despite reading about it, wasn’t quite prepared for just how flexible the turnouts are. I’m quite happy with how it’s all gone down. Getting the track across the baseboard joins caused quite a bit of head scratching. I’d originally planned to solder the rail to the tops of screws, but found it very fiddly and not as robust as I’d like. In the end I opted with using epoxy to hold it down, and cutting it to shape under the rail whilst it was curing. Time will tell it holds up Next up was the wiring. Most of the feeds are soldered to the underside of the rails, and I was pretty relieved that it all works! I’d also started becoming aware of just how big the boards are with an integrated backdrop. I think it’s probably a solution best suited for layouts that are less deep than the 750mm on this one, so I got the router out and took them off. And here we are now, all ready for landscaping and scenery!

Cheers Justin, they were cut by 3 way displays in Chesham. It was quite amazing the difference in the quotes I got from different places, and to make it cost effective I managed to squeeze the right hand fiddle yard out of the third sheet of ply

A quick snap of the finished scenic section baseboards

Well, it’s been a week of mainly ordering things for Dingolfing, which isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to post about. But, this morning I head over to collect all the laser cut plywood for the baseboards I designed. wow, stuff always looks bigger in real life! A trial fit of the bottom parts of the first board, and the feeling of relief that I got my drawings right is always good! and with a br185 loco on the longer board, not too cramped really! now.... where’s the wood glue and screws?

Today I spent a few hours planning the baseboards for the scenic section. I'm going for two boards for the scenic section, one of which will be 1000mm, the other 800mm. It's all going to be laser cut 9mm birch ply. I took massive inspiration for the board design from Tim Horn's incredible range of precut baseboard kits. The join between the two will be kept in alignment with pattern makers dowels, the holes for which will be pre cut into the cross members at the end of each board. The blue pieces are polystyrene, which will give me something to sculpt into to get the sloping away from the track. The curved corner parts in the back are for where the backdrop will eventually be mounted. Here's one of the boards in exploded view. The cutting files are off with the guys who have the laser cutter now, fingers crossed it'll be the next few days I get the kit back.

Welcome to my thread, which is going to be the home of my first layout I've ever built. It all starts three years ago with a trip to Munich, which has to include a trip to the BMW factory (if you're into your cars that is). Having done the city centre factory tour before, I took the train on the Munich to Passau route down to Dingolfing, where BMW have their largest factory. It was only when I got there that I realised how much their production relies on raw materials being bought in, and the finished cars being transported out, by rail. The two resident br363 shunters at the station were being worked hard shunting the wagons bought in by the Siemens and Bombardier locos from Landshut and other nearby industry. The passenger service from Munich comes through once and hour, more frequently during peak times, and returns from Passau on the other side of the platform. This is usually an alstom br 440, or a loco hauled train of doppelstockwagen This photo was taken on the East side of the station, next to where the old goods/parcel depot once was. It really captures the feel of the place for me, and I was keen to get it in my layout. The loco stabling point will be based on this picture. This is another photo facing towards the Eastern end of the station, and again really has the feel of what I'm looking to recreate. To build a faithful model of Dingolfing station, even with some severe compression, would require five meters just for the scenic section. Now, I've only got 4 meters to play with, and that has to include the fiddle yards, so I pretty much ruled this out. It was only after being seriously impressed with Chris Nevard's awesome small layouts, and seeing photos of 'Rosamund Street Low Level Sidings', I realised that I could model a small part of it and leave the rest to the imagination. I decided to focus on the West end of Dingolfing station. In particular the junction with the factor line, the mainline and the exchange sidings, and try not to fit the entire thing in. Also, concentrating on a smaller layout, I stand a much better chance of finishing it, and start playing trains. In real life, the exchange sidings form a loop back onto the mainline, and the locos arriving from the left will detach from the train off scene on the right before the shunter can back the train down the factory line the two miles to the BMW factory. I noticed that quite often the train will be split in two and taken down the factory line in two trips, this adds some operational interest. Running around will used a sector plate on the right. The two lines either side of the platform are a passing loop for passenger trains, again, they'll be swapped from each side on a sector plate off scene on the right. Allowing for 1400mm maximum train length, a 1500mm fiddle yard on the left, and some space on the right for the passenger trains to go off scene, I've settled on a scenic section size of 1800x750mm. At only six foot long for the scenic section, its going to be really interesting to see how much of an impression of these long trains I can get across, and also the sense that its a properly busy place. Oh, this is also my first post ever, so I guess this is the time to say I'm really looking forward to getting to know you all and getting stuck in. Next post, baseboards! Simon