The Sheaf Valley Railway

[olliereading1123]

The Sheaf Valley Railway is a small fictional preserved railway in south Yorkshire. I am building this with a course mate and we have each decided to model one Terminus each. My end of the layout measures 11’ x 1’ and can either be mounted table top or on its own set of legs. The layout is run using DCC and uses the basic Hornby Select controllers at the moment but this will be upgraded to the Bachmann Dynamis. Below is the original trackplan:

 

I decided to expand the layout and the current plan is this:

My station is called Leadmill General, this has a scenic section of 8’ x 1’. This is classed as the main station on the line as it is where the loco depot, carriage shed and carriage &wagon works are based. There is a terminus which can hold a 3 coach train in the main platform and a 2-car DMU in the bay so allsorts can be seen departing north up the line. This is more of the scenic end of the line being located within the sheaf valley itself. All track is Peco Code 55 and points are electrically controlled through the probe and stud mechanism.

And here’s a few pics of the layout as it developed:

 

This is the current state of the layout

 

I have a deadline to work to as the layout is booked to appear at Winfield’s exhibition at Bakewell in early June.

 

Any questions then please ask away

 

Ollie

[fatmanshabba]

Hi Ollie,

 

Very pretty layout, great attention to detail and very evocative of a preserved line! Wish I had enough room in my uni digs to build a layout, but I struggle to fit all my clothes and books in this room of mine. Have to wait until I go home to do any layout building!

 

Are the two termini going to fit together, or with a fiddle yard section in the middle?

 

Keep up the good modelling

 

Matt

[olliereading1123]

Hi Ollie,

 

Very pretty layout, great attention to detail and very evocative of a preserved line! Wish I had enough room in my uni digs to build a layout, but I struggle to fit all my clothes and books in this room of mine. Have to wait until I go home to do any layout building!

 

Are the two termini going to fit together, or with a fiddle yard section in the middle?

 

Keep up the good modelling

 

Matt

 

We are undecided at the current time, the original plan was to join them but my mate changed his mind. It is most likely that we will just do them as seperate layouts.

 

Ollie

[shanks522]

Really nice Ollie, I like the mix of old and new buildings, certainly captures the feel of a preserved line. Great photo's to.

 

Graham.

[Tricky-CRS]

Hi Ollie thought it seemed familiar must have seen it in Model Rail or on another forum. Looking good. You have finished Uni very early haven't you?

[olliereading1123]

Hi Ollie thought it seemed familiar must have seen it in Model Rail or on another forum. Looking good. You have finished Uni very early haven't you?

 

Very early lol, i'm on a new course (Railway Technology) so the Uni has yet to decide a seperate course for us (we have been teaming up with part-timers)

 

Ollie

[kiwinewt]

Looks good! Is all the track on the flat, with the embankment built up around it?

If so it's a very good job and hard to tell!

Also, by way of compliment, could I get a copy of your xtrkcad plan? I would like to give a slightly tweaked version a go as something I might actually get finished for once!

[olliereading1123]

Looks good! Is all the track on the flat, with the embankment built up around it?

If so it's a very good job and hard to tell!

Also, by way of compliment, could I get a copy of your xtrkcad plan? I would like to give a slightly tweaked version a go as something I might actually get finished for once!

 

All the track is on the flat, i didn't want to mess around with gradients. And hence all the embankments are built around them.

 

 

Ollie

[Lt_ELLZO]

Very early lol, i'm on a new course (Railway Technology) so the Uni has yet to decide a seperate course for us (we have been teaming up with part-timers)

 

Ollie

 

We are on a seprate course, we just share lectures.

[olliereading1123]

Well there is good news and bad news.

 

The good being that Sheaf Valley is just under 2 weeks from it's exhibition debut at Bakewell. The bad is that the layout hasn't progressed much since the last update! I really have my work cut out if i'm gonna be in a presentable state!!

 

This is a shot taken the other week showing the layout from the operating side:

 

The final update is of my hawksworth inspection saloon, last time this was mentioned it looked like this:

 

But since getting back from Uni i have been back at club and a fellow club member offered to build the kit for me. I have since painted the majority of it and this is how it looks now:

 

I will be posting updates as and when i get work done so expect alot in the next two weeks

 

Ollie

[olliereading1123]

Hello all once again.

 

Small update to keep ya'll going. First i've had a better control board made which also acts as the base for the dynamis:

 

I spent alot of today painting the rail sides:

 

And here is an overall shot:

 

I didn't get as much work done as would have liked today as i had a misshap which involed a trip to A&E and my thumb now bandaged up!

 

Anyway expect more!

 

Ollie

[olliereading1123]

Afternoon all, well it's been over 9 months since i posted in the thread. Needless to say a fair few thing have happened, and here's 9 months worth of posts! (I've copied these from my thread on another forum so they are in present tense! lol)

07 June 2011


Afternoon Everyone!

Only 4 days left to go!!! Which means 3 days to get finished, thankfully i have been granted access to my clubroom when i need it so last night me and my mate Joe (Not the same Joe who came up with the name), who is giving me a hand at wiring the layout up, were at the club till gone midnight striping the wiring off the station board and then re-wiring to the new control board.

This is the older wiring job on the station board


And this is after the re-wire


This is how the control board looks at the momment, the second board will be wired up this evening


The inside



We are spending another late night at club tonight in which we will be wiring up the second board and cracking on with the scenery. I am actually starting to think i can get this finished intime for the weekend now

Anything you wish to know/say please feel free to speak up

Ollie

08 June 2011


onto the results of todays work. The second board now has all the points wired up and operational!



I have done a bit more on the cutting too


I have made the final hill too, adds a bit more green to the station. Also i have spent about 2 hours getting all the ballast done! i just hope the points still work!!




Now tomorrow will be the last day i will be working on the layout so it'll be testing and odds and sods lol


Ollie

09 June 2011

Hello once again,

Well it's ready for show or to be more specific, it's passable for show lol. By this i mean it's got the basic scenery complete and only the station/passing loop is currently working!



Here is a side on view (it's not the best quality)


And a few shots of details (including Geoff the trainspotter)




Let's just hope it survives the exhibition!

Ollie

10/11 June 2011 - Attended Wingfield Exhibition at Bakewell. First ever show!

13 June 2011
Well it survived!

Amazingly i had no problems with the layout at the weekend (well we didn't get the loco shed working in time but ho hum). Was a very good show and the layout seemed to generate alot of interest, i even got asked to another show

Anyways, here is a pic before the show opened


And a view down the layout



21 July 2011


Evening all!

First of all i'll apologise for the lack of updates as of late, had a fair bit of work on. Next some good news I now have my new place for my next year of Uni, so naturally SVR was the first item to be moved in.


As you can see there is a fair amount of room (enough for SVR and my house/coursemates layout) so this has already been designated as the train room.

The layout itself, well i've replaced part of the platform and thats about it. I'll bring you updates as and when...


Ollie

03 September 2011


At last i have a picture related update for you!!

I'm going to start with exhibitions, this time next week Sheaf will be at it's second exhibition (Glossop) so feel free to come say hello (If you're not at the N Gauge Show of course )

Now onto my Hawskworth Inspection Saloon, since i last mentioned it i have painted the roof Grey, glazed it, finished off the chocolate colour, painted the interior walls and added some basic interior. Just needs a few people and some decals to finish it off


More trees have appeared



I've been adding a few little details too, mainly ground signals and hand point levers



This is just a random shot of the shed added for fun


I've also finally added the platform edging to the platforms, makes one hell of an improvement..


And i'll end with a shot of the whole layout


So was it worth the wait?

Ollie

10/11 September - Glossop Exhibition - Second Show


Evening all!

I'll start off with a very big grin How chuffed am i at the TINGs annuncements!!
Lets start with the NGS LMS Inspection Saloon, I can certainly see a couple arriving on Sheaf next year Thankfully i have a GWR one so we'll have a bit of variety
On to Dapol and their Working Semaphores. I think i'll have to be saying goodbye to the current non-working ratio signals in favour of the working alternative, it'll also allow me to have Upper Quadrant instead of the current GWR Lower Quadrant (Not very south Yorkshire...)
I've also heard that the Farish A1 was released this weekend so i can imagine a Tornado gracing Sheaf Valley Rails in the next few weeks (Depending upon me getting my possible new job [at Rails of Shefff])

Anyway onto the layout itself, sadly i couldn't attend TINGs as Sheaf is currently being exhibited at the Glossop Model Railway Show for the weekend. And for the first time it has performed faultlessly (for today at least lol)

Here are a few pics of the layout just before the show opened




Oh and a bit of self advertising


Lets hope it still works tomorrow!

Ollie

07 October 2011

Evening All,

To start with a few random pics,

37 'on shed' (which is still not finished!)


Mayflower draws past the carriage shed (It's a thomas event!)



Now onto a few updates. First is i've finally got some more glue so i can resume construction of the shed , pics to follow as and when.

Next i've bought some peeps to go on the platform as they are looking a tad bare!


And on the topic of people i've been populating coaches again, and also my green 108 (inc Driver)



My Inspection Saloon now has a few transfers on to bring her to life a bit


I've recently bought a few 1/144 plastic kits to have a play with and as my paint arrived today i've got one of them finished off (minus canopy) Everyone builds a spitfire at somepoint, Lancaster and Messerschmitt will follow.


Now the bigger news, i have decided to re-do the loco shed area as i didn't like the concrete effect. This is the how it looks right now.


To finish with, its' the Dapol open day tomorrow so i've spoken to a friend who's going to hopefully pick up some bargains for me. And as i may know already what Dapol are or may not be announcing i'm not saying any more

Ollie

10 November 2011



Evening all!

To start of with i have good news! Sheaf has been booked to appear in it's third exhibition This being the New Mills and District Railway Modellers exhibition to be held 25th/26th February 2012. I hope to see you all there!

Next onto some new additions, i recently picked up the new Farish Digital Commuter set so i have a new Digital 24 and some more maroon MK1's to add to my growing MK1 collection.


Speaking of MK1's i have also got hold of some more green ones for a decent price.


I've also increased my wagon fleet with these two new Private Owner wagons, local to Sheffield of course.


And this is the reason for the lack of updates on the layout itself, currently 'in store' whilst the living room is being used for other projects.


That's all for now!

Ollie

03 January 2012



Hello all!

Apologies for the lack of updates. Been busy building a layout for someone on another forum so had alot of my time spent doing that. This has been completed so it means as of next week Sheaf will be back! And with it's exhibition at Chapel En-le-Frith just over 7 weeks away i have a few things i want to get sorted so expect many updates! I've got many things planned for the layout including:
-Fitting of Dapol Magnets/Couplings
-Re-Ballast of the entire thing (Don't like how it currently is)
-Addition of Dapol Signals
-Construction of a Lighting rig

Oh i nearly forgot i've also got Sheaf booked in for it's fourth show It's in September and is easily the show i most wanted to get into, none other than.....

..The International N Gauge Show!!!! So yeah not bad for what currently will be it's fourth outing!


06 January 2012



Anyways i thought i'd provide some proof that Sheaf does still exist

As you can see it's very cluttered owing to work i'm planning on doing.

I never put a pic up but this lovely item arrived before Christmas, very nice indeed!


And of course my Christmas Money went on locos and i picked up the following:


And...
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii309/olliereading1123/N%20Gauge/SDC14025.jpg[/img]

Now to get chipping these and get cracking with the layout!

Ollie

See more in next post....

Part 2....


07 January 2012



MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS ON SHEAF VALLEY RAILWAY

As mentioned a few days ago i am planning to re-ballast the track. After assessment i found the easiest way to do this is to lift the currently laid track. I thought i'd do it a board at a time so it still looks like i have part of a layout lol. Anyways this is what i've been doing for the past several hours:


I've also had a thought, if i replace two of the points around the signal box with a double slip then i can arrive into either platform and the depot head-shunt from the main:


I'll also be adding magnets for the Dapol couplings for remote uncoupling as i believe i've found a way to hide them and still have them work efficiently

Ollie


12 January 2012


Update on Sheaf Valley's Winter Maintenance[/color][/size]

Hello all, the re-laying work is continuing at a reasonable pace. This is how the station board was looking earlier in the week

You may notice in this i have decided not to add a double slip, this is because it was cheaper to buy a standard point and it'd give me a longer run-around.

A little shopping trip on Monday to Rails, Antics and Sheffield Transport models meant i had the following bits to play with


So after a few hours work the new track was starting to take shape


And this is where i got up to


I did come across one problem, i 'forgot' to take note of where the track left the board so i had the following issue


This of course led me to taking up the track on the C&W works board earlier than i planned, but on the plus side it's made me re-think the layout of the yard and it is quite possible a lovely new loco shed may be arriving within the next few weeks. So as of 10am today the whole layout looks like this


So i best crack on with things!

Ollie


19 January 2012


Evening all!

Work is continuing and i now have the main running line laid


Further progress will be delayed a few days as i'm waiting for this lovely loco shed to come from Jeff0052



More to come soon!

Ollie

27 January 2012


It's Update Time!

with just over 4 weeks until show i've got my work cut out! But things are progressing and this is an overview so far


This is the new shed, as you can see i have made the depot three lines instead of the 4 it was as i felt it was a bit crammed in before.


The Carriage shed is exactly where it was before but the track on this board will be slightly altered too


Scenery wise i picked these Ugly things up the other day


Oh and talking of 'Ugly' things i may have bought a new loco...


....And 6 GBRf Hoppers to go with it


And a general shot of Geoff's Corner showing the Telegraph poles


More to come later!

Ollie

27 January 2012


It (Re-)Lives!

I've spent the afternoon re-wiring the station board and amazingly it worked first time! (Well apart from 1 point which needs a clean!) This gives an idea of what things used to look like


Oh and i got the first loco line laid too.



Ollie

31 January 2012


Anyway on to today's update, We're Making Progress!!

All the track has be re-laid, re-wired and tested so now Sheaf is back in one piece as a technically working layout


And these two show the new 'track plans' for the yards.



So the rest of tonight will be a Testing session then ballasting can begin!

Ollie

02 February 2012


Ballasting has begun!

I've got the ballast down on the mainline from the fiddle yard to just past the carriage shed.



I should hopefully get the ballast into the platforms done tomorrow evening and then the layout will be starting to look more complete lol

Ollie

04 February 2012


Evening all,

Not much to report today, but i guess regular small updates are better than none at all!

The ballasting has been put on hold as i've decided to make the most of the new layout by extending the platform slightly, also the signal box will now be a platform box. This is the new section in position but not fully secure/blended in.


With a few days off work i should get a bit of layout work done, this may also be helped by the way the Weather is going...


Ollie

08 February 2012


Evening all!

Ballasting is continuing and i now have some of the platform lines ballasted up (the middle section here is dry, the far ends have just bee glued)


Also can you spot the magnet(s)? With ballast over the top they are fully hidden and still work fine


Ollie

18 February 2012


Evening all,

Well with less than a week to go until the exhibition i've got my work cut out! Things have been progressing slowly due to doing extra shifts at work but i do have a couple of pics to keep you entertained.

This shows the main state of the loco shed, with a full day of layout work tomorrow i hope to get this looking a little less bare..(Oh, can you spot my bargain Warship? £55 at the Donny show  )


And a small loco update, i picked up some transfers at work today and i renumbered one of my black 5's. I know it's not perfect but pretty good for a first attempt


All being well i should have some more for ya tomorrow...

Ollie

19 February 2012


I've been doing a bit of ballasting and hard standing so far today, with a bit more to come later (part 2 should be on this evening)
Here are several shots showing the layout so far:





Just a quick one to show that the hard standing is now complete (well for this exhibition anyway) and some more ballast has been put down


Ollie

20 February 2012.


I've been playing with my Modroc

Tonight i've got the new mound made around the yard, this is currently drying but come morning it'll have the base coat of brown.



Amazingly with this covering a lot of bare board it makes the layout seem less unfinished in an instant!

Ollie

21 February 2012

Work continues!

With the exhibition getting ever closer all my spare time is being put into the layout. Tonight i've got the hill's painted (Maunsell Green) and got the majority of the ballast in this yard done.


Also painted and scattered a random patch down by the carriage shed.


Tomorrow is my day off, and last full day of working on the layout. So it'll be full systems go, leaving Thursday evening to have a massive test session!

Ollie

22 February 2012

Well it's pretty much done, apart from testing and adding a few tiny details.



A pic to show what the layout will look like at the show (including the new curtain)


Ollie

25/26 February 2012 - New Mills & District Show - Third Show

Well this has been one enjoyable weekend. The layout ran very well (well apart from the depot which we didn't bother using) and got invites to some more shows! Here are a few snaps from the weekend(Showing JC92, my co-operator:





The layout will be stored for a few week now as i've got a couple of layouts to do which i've been asked to build.

Ollie

17 March 2012


Evening all,

First of all Sheaf has come out of store earlier than expected! A customer at work does photography at college and the theme for his current assignment is Hobbies, it told him about Sheaf and tomorrow it's being photographed and used as a basis for his college report!

So Sheaf is up for one day only, then i'll have to take it back down so i can finish off a layout i'm building for someone.

I've also been having a re-think about the layout. One thing that has been bugging me for a while is the Fiddle Yard. As it was done before the re-build it isn't really suitable in terms of operational interest. This is how it looks at the moment:


The long road holds a 3 coach passenger plus loco with a bit to spare.
Next road has either a small freight of 'local' passenger.
Lane 3 is the Shuttle line so holds a 2-car DMU or Autotrain.
The short line plus two small sidings have extra locos which 'release' whatever has come into lane 1.

So whilst it can fit a fair amount for a small layout it means stock is re-appearing on the layout every 15 mins or so and the only was to alter it is by manually swapping the stock. (Also lane 2 isn't long enough to release a loco without blocking the points or having a very short train in tow)

I've got a spare piece of 4x1 ply hanging around which i will be using for a new fiddle yard. So this means it'll be longer and wider which equals more stock room. I have the following as a first idea:


Essentially it's a longer version of the old one but has 3 more lanes.

The Middle 3 will be for Passenger trains.
Next one either side will be for Freight/Special (TPO, Dining etc) trains.
One set of smaller sidings will be for shuttles
The other will be for the loco release.

So expect some pics in the near future!

Ollie





Well that brings this thread up to date. Hopefully there's enough there to have kept you interested!

Ollie

[olliereading1123]

Hello all! It would appear i have neglected posting any updates on this thread for a fair few months!! Over this time the layout has had many changes which would take an age to post about so instead i've got some pictures of the shows i've been at. Sheaf has attended the following shows since i last updated this thread:

 

International N Gauge Show - September 2012

 

Bradford - May 2013

 

Leyland - August 2013

 

And i am scheduled to appear at the following shows this year:

Model Rail Live - September 21/22

Sheffield - October 12

Hazel Grove - October 26/27

Retford - November 16/17

 

Any questions, feel free to ask

 

Ollie