Kingswood

[Westernway]

 I have always had a keen interest in railways, just not the time or skill to build what I wanted.

 

My 'skills' if they can be described in such a way, are centred around figure painting, mostly 28mm historical. I have been lucky enough to gain a few loyal customers over the years so I decided to put the money I have made towards finally realising a long term dream, my own model railway.

 

Having never taken on just a task and not wishing to waste my time and money making countless mistakes, I decided to have the basic board, track and some greenery professionally built. I calculated (as it turned out correctly) that  in the time it would take me to build the basics I could more than cover the cost by doing over time at work and painting figures to sell.

 

So I placed an order with Train Line Models for an end to end board, 10' by 18" this being the only space available to me, the plan being to keep it interesting by running very many different trains over it and allowing a couple of sidings for shunting.

 

The board arrived in September of this year and I have been adding details, making some improvements and sorting rolling stock since then. My skills are no where near as good as members of this forum and I feel very out of my depth here however I am keen to share my experiences and no doubt learn lots from you along the way.

 

John

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by Westernway

[Westernway]

Arrival Day.

 

​​I am very lucky because my wife, Sue, is also keen on trains. She helped to unbox and set up the basic board and has added her views and suggestions along the way. The only thing we do not agree on is she loves Steam and dislikes Diesel, I am just as happy with either.

 

 

 

​It all proved far too much for Aphrodite one of our Whippets.........

 

 

John.

Edited December 22, 2017 by Westernway

[Westernway]

Once it was unboxed, legs attached and bolted together I set about adding the buildings, trees, people, animals and all the other bits that make a model come to life.

I had been collecting things to add to the lay out for a few weeks and although not as easy as having the thing in front of you, I was far to excited to wait lol (yep I am 57 going on 5 lol).

 

I had a HUGE list of jobs to do, from detailing the buildings with gutters etc to painting boarding black and making cassettes for trains. I work in a factory and one part of it fabricates/powder coats Aluminium building products so I have a fair bit of 1.2mm Aluminium, shaped and painted now.

 

These photo's show the first additions, some of which have been since changed.

 

 

[Westernway]

This is how the lay out looked at the end of the day it arrived.

 

[Westernway]

Some of the rolling stock. The last photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Westernway]

I had an awful lot of 'problems' to solve, extending a siding, making the tunnel end of the lay out look right etc etc. I had also never had a lay out with working lights, point motors or signals before and had never done any wiring to a train set other than plugging in a Hornby power clip.

 

I was fortunate enough to meet, via a forum I joined, two local guys one of which is a very experienced railway modeller and exhibitor, the other is a very knowledgeable railway buff. I also live next door to the guy who runs Kidderminster railway museum on the SVR so this is a massive bonus

 

I had original planned to do a 1956/57 BR Western Region terminus station branch line, this was quickly changed to a through station. Also I decided to have enough cassettes made at work to enable me to run a 1961 'Day Light' Western Region, a 1965 Evening/Night Time Western Region and an anything goes shunning game. The shunting game as proven very popular with my family, friends and "Come to see your layout" visitors.

 

These photo's show the Aluminium cassettes I use and how they fit in..........

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Westernway

[Westernway]

Another problem I had and an age old one, was to be able to join my trains together, realistically but with out relying on my fading eye site and fiddley coupling/uncoupling tools.

 

I needed some thing both easy to use but strong and reliable. After much head scratching I came up with a system using rare earth magnets. The trucks will cope with curves and can be pushed/shunted around with out parting company. It is also easy to 'uncouple' them.

 

I have videos here showing them 'in action'

 

 

I have managed to pull over 20 trucks with out a problem.

 

 

 

[Westernway]

​I made a cover for the end of the board, again out of 1.2mm Aluminium, this was powder coated black and darkens the tunnel really well.

 

[Westernway]

A slightly longer second siding was needed so that I could move and store the same sized trains on both it and the one for the goods shed. It took an evening to do but made a big difference to ease of shunting.

 

To start I removed the buffer stop and dug out the pile of ballast that was resting on it. The track was then added, I took care to ensure it was level.

 

 

 

 

[Westernway]

Next I added a buffer stop and ballast. 

 

[Westernway]

The track and ballast was weathered. I made sure that it still conducted electricity, which luckily it did. 

 

I added a fence, a few detailing parts and a few adverts to brighten the fence up a little.

 

 

 

[Westernway]

The goods area is not large but is in constant use and gets very busy at times, resulting in the occasional fopar by the workers!