King's Hill

[hoover50008]

King's Hill has had a few guises over the years but to be honest it has never really got anywhere near what you would call a finished layout.  The track has been up and down up and down and nothing more than a test track every really evolved.

 

A change to O gauge got me thinking again about the layout in the loft, what was the point in having all these OO gauge locos and stock with nothing to run them on.  Should I sell them? leave them in their boxes in the loft or actually do something with them, so I decided on the latter although I did sell some of the stock to feed the O gauge addiction.

 

King's Hill is actually in Kent but my layout is based somewhere in the Midlands/ North of England which is reflected in the stock that I have, no EPBs or VEPs here, so why King's Hill.  King's Hill is actually built on the site of RAF West Malling and West Malling has a connection to where I live now as all the streets are named after WW2 airfields.  The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour was filmed there as well and reflects what it has been like building this layout, a bit of a mystery.

 

Entering under the bridge from the right the layout passes the cement works (under construction)

 

 

 

The cement works buildings are a mixture of ready to plant and scratch built. 

 

 

Then past the signal box and through the station.  

The signal box is a generic scratch built ARP type box not based on anywhere in particular.

 

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The terminus platform works on a Gaugemaster shuttle unit, this allows a DMU to shuttle in and out whist attention can be given to movements on the mainline and depot.

 

Finally exiting under the bridge to the left.

 

 

Backscenes are from Townscene with some buildings mounted on card to give a bit more depth.

 

There is also a diesel depot to the front of the layout for servicing locos.

 

 

 

The fuel tanks are based loosely on the ones that could be found at the depot in Buxton.

 

 

Operation of the layout is by 2 Gaugemaster Prodigy 2 DCC controllers, one for the mainline and the other for depot operations.

 

This is an on going project and have included some pictures of the progress so far, further updates will follow when the temperature allows.

 

E

Edited July 22, 2019 by hoover50008

[hoover50008]

As can be expected with the weather as warm as it has been it has been difficult to get on with anything meaningful as far as Kingshill is concerned, I suppose the answer is to insulate the loft, maybe one day.

 

Apart from the depot building which is from the Bachmann Scenecraft range most of the other buildings are scratchbuilt this includes the cement works building the two bridges and the signal box.  All are made with a carcass of 2mm mountboard covered with sheets of embossed plasticard,  The idea for the signal box came from a recent edition of Hornby magazine.

 

The station platforms are formed of Peco platform edges with embossed plasticard on the front faces, the platform surface is made using Wills plastic sheets.

[hoover50008]

Started the job everyone loves over the weekend as the temperature was cool enough to get in the loft.

 

I have used N gauge grey ballast which i sprayed in water first then stuck down with the traditional 50/50 mix of water and PVA with a drop of washing up liquid.

When its dried and I am happy with the shape and there are no more loose bits I will give it a coat of track dirt to tone it down.

[hoover50008]

I decided that the diesel depot was a bit overpowering so it has been downgraded to a Loco Inspection Point which I think is now more in keeping with the layout as a whole.  Fortunately I had a Bachmann single road shed which fits the bill. 

[Andrew P]

Yes Less is more, and the Single Road Shed suits the area perfectly, very nice indeed.

Edited September 13, 2019 by Andrew P