Small, Broad and Totally Pointless!

[BG John]

Once upon a time, many years ago, and inspired by Barry Norman's lightweight ply baseboards, I started building my first 4mm broad gauge layout. It would have been some kind of harbour layout on three 4ft x 2ft 6in baseboards, so definitely not a micro! In the end, I decided it was too big a project, and built the smaller Hinton Burtle (that I'll write about one day), using heavyweight chipboard baseboards!

 

I got as far as building the baseboards, and proved that using 4mm ply could produce very strong and long lasting boards, as they spent quite a few years in my loft.

 

These photos were taken some years after building. The first two boards were like this:

 

 

I think the construction is fairly self explanatory. Everything was 4mm ply, except the timber packing pieces in the frames. Here's a closeup:

 

The third board had a dropped section that I think was going to be where the water went. I can't remember if there there was ever a track plan, or quite what I had in mind. The dropped section was where the architrave is in this photo, plus a bit that was filled in above it. To the left of the dropped bit was a strip at baseboard level. The lower photo shows it from underneath. I'll explain the architrave in the next part of this horrific story!

 

 

 

The boards were certainly strong, and didn't warp over a lot of years. The only problem I had was that it was easy to squeeze the frames together between the packing, and break the glue joint to the top, so if I did it again I think I'd put a thin strip right the way along the gap.

Edited April 8, 2013 by BG John

[BG John]

After about 15 years stored in two lofts, the boards finally found a use, but not for a railway I'm afraid! I was a director and half owner of a renewable energy company, and we needed an exhibition stand. Being tight, I remembered what was stored in my loft! So I cut one board in half and attached each half to one of the complete boards, and added legs from my ancient EM exhibition layout Abbotsbridge. The dropped bit was reduced in size to fit a computer screen, and neatly finished off with some architrave. And that's how it spent the next three years, until I left the company. Then it was back to the loft!

 

[BG John]

In 2006, I finally got round to thinking about using the boards for a layout! I can't remember now if this was because I'd discovered micro layouts, or if it was an RMweb Challenge. I think a Challenge to build a micro layout motivated me at some time.

 

So the board that was cut in two was made into two boards 2ft 6in long (the width of the old boards), and about 16in wide, I think, to fit the framing. And this mock-up of the plan was produced:

 

 

 

 

The idea was that the loco release crossover would be replaced by a traverser hidden under a train shed, and the pointwork for the other end of the runround and into the goods yard would be replaced by the sector plate in the fiddle yard. So I'd only need to build two points.

 

The buildings were from Abbotsbridge, and only temporary, especially as the goods shed was narrow gauge. The goods shed is a scratchbuilt model of Abbotsbury, and the station building the Hornby Dunster Station kit covered with embossed Plasticard, rather than the paper overlays supplied.

 

I'm afraid the remaining two complete boards got scrapped when I sold my house and went travelling, as it was too expensive to store them, and I didn't have time to rehome them.

Edited April 8, 2013 by BG John

[BG John]

I'd sold my house in July 2007, my dog and I were wandering aimlessly around Britain in our van, and after a while I thought it was time I did some modelling. With hindsight, it would have been easier to build an EM micro layout, as I had plenty of locos and rolling stock. I even bought a few SMP point kits. But in the end I went for a broad gauge one, although it meant I needed more stock. So I got the two small baseboards out of store.

 

In January 2008, I spent a few days at my brother's, using his very useful workshop, where I made the traverser and sector plate. While on the road, I built mockups of the train shed, platform and the bridge/walls to hide the fiddle yard. The train shed used photocopies of the drawings of Ashburton from the Great Western Branch Termini book stuck onto card. There isn't room for the station building, so I will just make the platform side wall. I also stuck down the cork underlay.

 

In April 2008, I spent a couple of weeks volunteering at the community at Monkton Wyld in Dorset, and while I was there used the workshop to do some work on the baseboards. They needed some finishing off, and I added the backscenes.

 

 

[marc smith]

Hi there John,

 

I'm pleased you started a thread for this layout

the photo you posted on RCF's thread made me think!

(could be a dangerous thing!)

 

In fact, I've been sketching and doodling all sorts of 7mm plans since....

 

Anyhow, what you've been doing here looks great,

and I can't believe you haven't posted it before....

 

I too previously built baseboards using Barry Normans' method,

but found they weren't particularly lightweight

but boy, were they strong

 

Anyhow, please post some pics of how you align that stub point....
I'm interested - I think you've made a better effort than my designs..

 

PS. When you were roaming the country,

who got to decide your destination - you or the dog?

 

Cheers

Marc

[BG John]

Hi there John,

 

I'm pleased you started a thread for this layout

the photo you posted on RCF's thread made me think!

(could be a dangerous thing!)

 

In fact, I've been sketching and doodling all sorts of 7mm plans since....

 

Anyhow, what you've been doing here looks great,

and I can't believe you haven't posted it before....

 

I too previously built baseboards using Barry Normans' method,

but found they weren't particularly lightweight

but boy, were they strong

 

Anyhow, please post some pics of how you align that stub point....

I'm interested - I think you've made a better effort than my designs..

 

PS. When you were roaming the country,

who got to decide your destination - you or the dog?

 

Cheers

Marc

I think I did start a topic on the old forum. I'll have have a look some time. If I was making progress at the moment I would have started a topic before now. My current plan is to build my new EM layout first, but doing that creates space for visible storage of this one. I'll see it every morning when I get out of bed!

 

I decided the destinations, but Charlie was usually happy, as it often involved riding on steam trains, or cycling on closed railways!

[BG John]

I wasn't exactly rushing with this project, even when I was working on it! This is where I'd got to by mid July 2008. You can see the rather compact conditions I was working in. At this time the layout was living, and probably bouncing around a bit, in my trailer. I was standing in the kitchen when I took this photo, and somewhere in the van was usually a fairly large dog (although he may have been outside when I took this)! I'd started building the track, and you can see by the template that I was planning two sidings in front of the fiddle yard.

 

 

This is the sector plate. I must have paid another visit to my brother, as a chunk has been cut out of the backscene to give access from the back. I raided the family stock of useful materials, and found this nice piece of Tufnol. The rail is soldered to copper clad sleepers, and stuck down with, I think, Evo-Stik. At the far end it pivots on a screw. At the near end, the screw between the rails runs in the curved slot, and underneath is a spring between two washers, held at the right tension by a nut. It's operated by the brass handle, and held in place by friction. I'll take some more detail photos another day, when I dig the layout out of a pile of stuff in my workshop.

 

 

The track is made from copper clad sleeper strip, with Broad Gauge Society bridge rail soldered onto it. I had to buy an 80 watt iron to do this, and could really only use it when I was on an electric hookup, although I may have tried it on my 12 volt system with an inverter! The baulks (sleeper strip) were stuck to the cork underlay first, using Evo-Stik. I made gauges out of plasticard to get them in the right place. Once set, the rails were sweated on. Last time I checked, it was still in gauge, but I think it's time to recheck. If I had built the layout quickly, and it had gone out of gauge, it would ruin so much work, which seems like a good reason for taking it slowly! You can see the half turnout, with the crossing rather close to the baseboard joint.

 

 

This is the sector plate at the buffer end of the runround loop. It's made out of two thicknesses of Tufnol, joined with epoxy I think.The bottom layer has a gap, so it slides on the guide at right angles to it. The brass handle is screwed to the traverser, and is held in place by the guide block made from Tufnol. As with the sector plate, it's held down by a screw running in a slot (hidden under the handle), tensioned by a spring. This will all be hidden under the train shed.

 

[BG John]

A month later, and I had decided to add another siding, to make the goods yard into an Inglenook Shunting Puzzle! This required a 3-way point. Making baulk road turnouts was an interesting challenge, especially in the way I was making the plain track. I started by making a template by tracing standard turnout templates onto two pieces of greaseproof paper, and then overlapping them. These were attached to a piece of plywood face down, so the bottom of the turnout faced upwards. Copper clad strip baulks were stuck down with double sided tape, and I think were glued or soldered together in some places. To hold the lot together, I glued lengths of ply sleeper strip across them, at all sorts of odd angles, to make it into one unit.

 

 

Slots were cut out of the cork underlay to take the ply strips, and it was stuck down with Evo-Stik. (This photo is actually jumping forward a couple of months, so you haven't missed the wall building!)

 

 

This may seem a bit basic, and asking for a bad outcome, but the mixed gauge pointwork on my previous layout, which was on cross sleepers, had been made pretty much by trial and error, and worked very well.

[BG John]

By mid September 2008, I'd got this far. The card mockup of the bridge and wall hiding the fiddle yard had been replaced by one made from plasticard, with Wills stone walls. There wasn't room for a road, so this is more of a footpath, or bridleway. There was still a lot to do to it of course. I can't spoil my track record of not finishing things! You can also see part of the platform, built from strips of plywood with Wills stone wall, sandpaper surface, and edging made from a strip of plasticard with the gap between slabs made with a file, and roughed up with sandpaper. I think the platform surface is too course, but it's what I had at the time!

 

 

 

The copper clad baulks were all in place for the turnouts, and rail attached to the plain track. Transoms were cut from matchsticks, and stuck in place with a drop of superglue. The aim was to ballast level with the top of the baulks, so the finished appearance should be reasonable. The train shed is still the card mockup, that covers the traverser.

 

 

[glenng]

Nice little layout & love the little engines

[BG John]

Nice little layout & love the little engines

It's not a little engine! It's a mainline express engine (in as much as anything on the South Devon Railway was express!), and totally unsuitable for a small branch line

[BG John]

Also by mid September 2008, the layout had been wired, but nothing had run on it, as I discovered that both of my locos had faults!

 

This is the control panel. The plastic box had previously been used as a hand held panel on an old layout, connected by a ribbon cable, hence the excessive number of holes for switches. Only two were needed this time. As you can see, it was fitted to the back of the layout in the fiddle yard.

 

 

This is some of the wiring under the layout, showing the baseboard connection using a D-plug. When separated. the cable was held by a spring clip you can just see on the right hand board. In the bottom left corner of the photo is the underside of the sector plate sprung fixing, running in its curved track.

 

 

This is the electrics connected to the sector plate. It's wired so that the two micro switches switch power to the right track. When the sector plate isn't in contact with either switch, the centre track is live, but I can't imagine this causing many high speed crashes, so is no problem! The spring under the baseboard tensions the sector plate so it's held in place by friction, and the track alignment can be adjusted by moving the micro switches. It has to be aligned to the centre track by eye.

 

 

The traverser is also switch by two micro switches, but in this case there is no centre track, so it's dead when being moved. Again the micro switches also act as adjustable stops for rail alignment. If it's visible under the trainshed, the platform will have a removable section fitted.

 

[BG John]

On 13th September 2008, the layout made its first, and only so far, appearance in public, at the Broad Gauge Society's exhibition in Newbury. With borrowed locos that actually work, it ran for the first time, and with no problems, although the goods yard wasn't usable, due to lack of rails!

 

 

Edited April 11, 2013 by BG John

[skipepsi]

This did appear a long time ago it stuck in my mind because I had begun a broad gauge layout long ago which was far too ambitious for my abilities I still have a block of brass milled to 28mm as a track gauge that my Dad got from work for me.

[BG John]

This did appear a long time ago it stuck in my mind because I had begun a broad gauge layout long ago which was far too ambitious for my abilities I still have a block of brass milled to 28mm as a track gauge that my Dad got from work for me.

The Broad Gauge Society do enough kits and components to build something small Skipepsi. Unless you can afford to get someone to build a loco for you, you need to build a fairly complex kit though, although if you're happy to start with something freelance, there are easier ways. I'm afraid the next episode will have something about over ambition in it .

[chrismears]

What a fantastic layout. I like the plan and find the idea of modelling broad gauge railways a fascinating subject. I hope you continue with this project and continue to update the thread. Thanks for sharing this project with us.

[BG John]

Thanks Chrismears. I'm not sure if I said earlier, but I have a space reserved for it where it will be seen every morning when I get out of bed! Hopefully this will encourage some work, but I'll be giving priority to my new EM layout, that will be even more visible when I get out of bed!!

[clecklewyke]

I decided the destinations, but Charlie was usually happy, as it often involved riding on steam trains, or cycling on closed railways!

A cycling dog - cool!

 

And the layout's great, too. I like micro-layouts, especially out-of-the-way subjects, like this.

 

Ian

[marc smith]

Looking good John
And what better sight to greet you,

when you first wake up in the morning, than a model railway

I do like the design of this one

it's something different, and not just because it's broad gauge....

Cheers

[BG John]

The horror story is yet to come! I'm afraid I've been distracted by a new four legged hairy thing!

[marc smith]

Oh no, the dreaded distractions
Well, please don't forget to post any reports / piccies, if you do make progress...

Cheers again

Marc

[Class 74]

Fantastic layout, well done!

[BG John]

Oh no, the dreaded distractions

Well, please don't forget to post any reports / piccies, if you do make progress...

 

Cheers again

Marc

I'm making fantastic progress, but not with the layout, although she is small (for her breed!), but certainly not broad, and not entirely pointless (look at those pointy ears!)

 

[BG John]

Anyway, back to this sorry tale (rather than tail ).

 

Some of you may be wondering why, when the topic is "Small, Broad and Totally Pointless", there are points on the layout. Well I'm afraid to say that there aren't any more . The layout was living in my trailer that tended to get damp in the winter, and I was also finding that although it was a small layout, working on it in the small space of my van was quite difficult. I'd also replaced the rear passenger seat with some shelves that I'd built, so I had more storage in the van. A visit to my brother's workshop resulted in the sidings being lifted, and the baseboards being attacked with a saw, to reduce the 16" width to 12". The boards then fitted on one of the new shelves in the van! So my 12ft x 2'6" baseboards had now been reduced to 5ft x 1ft!

 

Here's the bottom of the cut down station board, stored on its new shelf, showing the sliding mechanism for the traverser at the far end:

 

Here's the station board partly slid out to show where the siding was, and the bottom of the fiddle yard board. I'd moved the controller to the front of the layout, where you can see it set into the board at the top of the picture. You can also see the sliding mechanism for the end of the sector plate at the far end. I'd also added another one in the centre of the traverser, as I'd found that the Tufnol sector plate wasn't staying flat:

 

This is a the top of the station board, cropped and rotated from the above picture:

 

Then I got involved in other stuff, and didn't get any further. When I bought a house and stopped travelling, I decided there was no point having two boards for a layout this size, so the plan now is to permanently join them. I'll do that when I have some suitable bits of 4mm ply, or similar, to fix along the front and back edges. I don't know what I'll do with the sidings yet. It may just be one so there are no points at all, or I may sneak a point in somewhere to add excitement.

 

So that's it for now. As I said earlier, I have a space to store it where it will be seen every time I get out of bed, so when the shelf is made I'll find it harder to ignore! I think my priority will be the new EM layout though, as I have more than enough stock to operate that. I'm sorting out a currently unused part of the house at the moment, to use as temporary meeting and office space. When it's ready, I'll try to get out the layout and stock, and take some more photos, and maybe make a plan.

[marc smith]

Sounds like you have several plans on the go there John....
Good luck with that - I know I always have several rushing through my head,
at any one time......

Just a note from your earlier photos,
I did spot that you were using Wills 4mm scale stonework sheets...

Anyhow, I have seen these used very successfully in 7mm scale
One layout that stands out in my mind, being "Y Cae"
I saw it at Telford a couple of years back...

Although some may have thought it too small for 7mm
it certainly looked the part on that layout...
As indeed it does in those pics of your footpath / bridge

Just thought I'd mention it, for those doubting stonework intended for the smaller scale...

Cheers again
Marc

 

Edit; Your new four legged friend looks great too

Edited May 1, 2013 by marc smith