Waddon

[rail_blue]

Ok, here goes, this is my third attempt at starting (and continuing) a layout thread so lets hope the saying is true.

 

A lot of the fantastic layouts I have been following on here seem to have only been posted once they have had a lot of work done to them. I had an idea that I would start mine almost at the same time as construction. However, I soon discovered that maybe people wait until they have done a lot of the construction is because it takes so long! I am hoping to produce something that does the layouts that have inspired me justice, but given that this is my first layout I hope I am not being too optimistic.

 

As you can see, my layout is called Waddon, and it is set roughly in 1970 somewhere very similar to Weymouth. Weymouth appeals to me because it is somewhere I know well and the station there has always had two companies, or in the case of BR two regions, operating services. I am a big fan of diesel hydraulics and BR blue with a bit of green, so the choice of 1970ish was easy. Initially I planned to do a scaled down version of Weymouth, however, I soon realised that with the space I had available I just couldn't do what I wanted, so I will save this project for another day and a bigger house. Instead I have decided on a track plan that is slightly altered from on one I saw in a magazine, although I seem to have lost the magazine so the name of the layout escapes me, but once I find it again I will let you know – if it was yours, thanks, I think yours is top notch. Waddon is a totally fictional seaside town, but the name comes from Friar Waddon Halt on the old Abbotsbury branch in Weymouth. Now, down to business, there is nothing new in the construction of the baseboards, 2†x 1†timber frame and 6mm marine ply on top with a covering layer of 3mm cork. I have built it as two separate boards measuring 4' x 2' with the corner cut off one of the boards to allow the layout to fit in the space I have available at home. I am not intending this layout to be portable, but I anticipate moving house in not too many months so I will make it portable enough that moving it once is not going to be too big an ask. The track is Peco code 100 with mostly electrofrog points, but the double slips are insulfrog. The track is mounted on 3mm cork tiles and all bar one of the points will be operated by Cobalt slow action point motors.

 

 

 

 

 

On the right are the four platforms and on the left are four sidings, one of the sidings is going to be a fuelling point, but I'm not quite sure which one yet.

 

I have now got almost all of the track glued down, I just need to buy one more length to finish off platform 2. The biggest problem I have had so far is positioning two of the points badly so I cannot get a motor underneath due to a support. With one of them I think I can offset the motor without too much trouble, but with the other I am going to use a surface mounted one, hopefully hidden under the platform.

 

 

 

I have followed the Cobalt instructions and removed the big chunky sleepers from either side of the tie bar on the points and have replaced some, giving what I think is a not too bad result. I have also been experimenting with weathering the sleepers on one of the sidings, unfortunately I didn't think to take any photos of this in daylight!

 

 

Hopefully will be back with some photos of at least a bit of weathered and ballasted track in a couple of days.