Phil Brighton Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Hi all, I thought I would begin a topic to chart the progress of the layout I am about to start. I have already being putting up some of my builds on the LNER forum and will continue to keep that updated. I decided I would start as others have with my thought process as to what layout to build. This is the first layout I will have attempted so please don’t see anything I do as necessarily a good way to go about things! Ever since I was a kid despite living deep in Southern territory I have been a fan of the LNER. This is undoubtedly linked to a certain fast blue locomotive that appealed to me as a youngster, so the ECML in the 1930s was the only option for me. Beyond that I had planned for a long time to make the layout location fictional thinking a real location would be too much for a first attempt. As I did more research I began to think a real location would be more satisfying and I do like doing the background reading. Looking at the models I have started to build and the RTR items I have the southern end of the GNR seemed the best go. Welwyn North was originally the station of choice being a simple double track plan with the viaduct as an interesting feature. I had got quite far along the road of drawing up plans but have recently decided to switch to Potters Bar (for the 1930s Potters Bar and South Mimms). Potters Bar has the added interest of a double to quadruple track transition, no viaduct (probably a good thing as I could not do it justice in the space I have) and will allow me to run inner suburban trains which wouldn't have reached Welwyn. The space I have for this in in the loft. Work on this is almost complete. New Insulation is in, lights and power sorted and am now finishing up with a large pile of free reclaimed carpet tiles. This gives me about 6.5m x 3.8m to work with. Due to the steep slopes on 3 sides of the roof this space is only available if I have the layout less than 1ft off the floor. Not ideal but as a fairly young fella I can handle a bit of crawling about. My layout plan so far is below done in SCARM. Track is planned to be Peco Code 75. Cost is very much a factor so at the moment I am looking at keeping the fiddle yard very limited. I don’t even have 4 different passenger or goods trains to put in it at the moment anyway! All the best, Phil 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 5944 Posted December 18, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 18, 2013 Looks good. A layout I'd love to build one day is Hadley Wood during the widening. Double track mainline, convenient tunnel mouths each end, good mixture of services, plus narrow gauge industrials trundling up and down. If I win the lottery....! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted December 19, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 19, 2013 Excellent, another ECML layout, at this rate there's only a few gaps to fill in and you do the journey! Does the low height affect working on the underside of the boards or are they easy to remove and spin over ? there's a lot of wiring even on a simple 2 wire DCC.(as I found out, 2 wires but 110 droppers!) Don't worry about the lack of fiddle yard, but what I would do is mark out the boards to accept as much as possible and work to that plan filling in as you require, if you can split roads up to accommodate various lengths of train. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted December 19, 2013 Author Share Posted December 19, 2013 I am not the only one planning to do Potters Bar either - I have been kindly offered help with research on the LNER forum from another modeller who is doing the same about 20 years later on. As for the boards being low to the ground and wiring I have a plan. The boards will be made from Dow Floormate foam with ply fixed to the sides. The droppers will then be fed under and round and all the connections will be mounted on the side. Ugly perhaps, but easy to get to. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted December 19, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 19, 2013 As for the boards being low to the ground and wiring I have a plan. The boards will be made from Dow Floormate foam with ply fixed to the sides. The droppers will then be fed under and round and all the connections will be mounted on the side. Ugly perhaps, but easy to get to. I don't recognise it as ugly, I think more Functional. Be interesting to see how you get along, good choice of prototype. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted December 30, 2013 Author Share Posted December 30, 2013 All the work is done in the loft. Very pleased with how much I have so far kept the cost down and how well the foil insulation is doing so far keeping the temperature reasonable. I have been doing some experimenting with the Floormate, screwing and glueing it together and think it should all work for my base boards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted December 30, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 30, 2013 I like the big wedge under the badly cut purlin support....... And Cornflakes.....hungry work? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted January 2, 2014 Author Share Posted January 2, 2014 I like the big wedge under the badly cut purlin support....... And Cornflakes.....hungry work? I am sure you will be pleased to hear the wedge is not my doing! I have however been busy building the first section of baseboard. Dow Floormate foam with 6mm ply sides. Legs are also foam attached to ply strips at the joins. The whole assembly is screwed and glued. It seems very strong and level. And finally with my one passenger train so far. Ian Kirk + Mailcoach kits 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNER4479 Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 Nice choice of prototype/era; good luck with the build. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 Nice choice of prototype/era; good luck with the build. Thanks very much. I must admit I am tempted to try to get up to Barrow Hill to see Grantham along with the contributions from the guys on the LNER forum but its a long way from the south coast. The foam is proving very easy to work with and the boards are getting done quicker than I would have thought. Certainly glad I went for this rather than timber frames. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted January 4, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2014 When building your fiddle yard, I would suggest adding in the next set of points but not completing the loops. It will make extending it in the future much easier, and you will be less likely to disturb track that is already laid. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Kris, thanks for the suggestion. I have thought about this and I am in two minds. Because of the 4 to 2 track layout I don't think I would just be able to put two extra points in to avoid pulling up any track. Of course the more points I put in the higher the cost. It may well come down to my budget when I do the big spend! More progress has been made on the baseboards. Station side is now all but complete. Edited January 4, 2014 by Phil Brighton 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted February 1, 2014 Author Share Posted February 1, 2014 Well the baseboards are done barring cutting away foam where the ground dips below the railway and a large delivery of track arrived today. I tend to buy nearly all locos and rolling stock second hand to keep costs down but splashed out on the track - ebay prices not being much cheaper than new it seemed to me. Track is all Peco Code 75 electrofrog. I am a bit puzzled that the gap between tracks suggested by my Peco way gauge doesn't seem to match the actual gap produced by the points or the Scarm print out. Its out but about 3mm or so. Am I being thick and their is an obvious reason for this? Also I need to decide how I will fix the track down. I am heading away from pins and am probably either PVA or use sealant - which the Americans seem to like. The loco is a J6 I built from a Nu-Cast kit. The previous owner had build it with a huge amount of glue but it stripped down and was soldered back together. The old Romford wheels it came with clear the code 75 chairs so that's a relief. I am very pleased with the Sprogg 3 unit I am going to use for layout control. Combined with Laptop and Smartphone which I am fortunate enough to already have it gives me digital control with handheld controllers for £60... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 Track laying has begun and I have now got the entire first loop (the up main) completed. The track is glued down with copydex onto very thin cork strips I have cut which are in turn copydexed to the foam. Holes for point motors are cut through the foam and the motors clipped to the points with paper to cover the hole. The wiring plan seems to be working with bus wires run around the side of the layout and droppers coming under and out to meet them. I did however make the mistake of my first (ever) point to be laid being a electrofrog single slip. This caused me no end of trouble as I wired it up backwards and laid it backwards a silly amount of times. Luckly the copydex makes pulling track up very easy and it's working now... There are a few locations where i need to make sure the track is level - bumps I don't notice when running my J50 to test but are given away when a pacific goes over them. Importantly trains are running and this is a good thing! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Quite impressed by the loft conversion. We have a 1930s semi and the loft looks very similar to yours. Maybe I should consider the benefits of movng the railway upstairs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 A loft conversion might be too grand a term for what I have done. I was in a position that the floor was already down and lighting and power very simple to take up there. The big test will be if the foil insulation is able to prevent the more extreme fluctuations in temperature. Its seems to be doing a good job so far but it's not been a cold winter and haven't yet had it up during a hot summer. Its does however give me space for express trains and there is no-where else in the house that could provide that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted September 3, 2014 Author Share Posted September 3, 2014 Its been a while since I posted on here and but the layout continues to make progress. The major part of the track laying is now done with the four track to double track junction down. The summer has also been a chance to finish up a Nu-Cast D2. This was from a very cheaply bought but poorly made model that was completely dismantled before reassembly and painting. A train of Kirk suburban coaches is nearly finished after being converted into a couple of articulated sets - with quite a lot of rebuilding of the brake to be an outer suburban train. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Bus Driver Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 Hey Phil if you're in Brighton have you thought about coming down to Brighton MRC at all? We're at London Road station on Tuesdays. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted September 3, 2014 Author Share Posted September 3, 2014 Hi, Yes I have thought about it and yes I should come along, you meet only a few minutes walk from my house. Work is my excuse but I really should make the effort! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold nest Posted September 4, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 4, 2014 Hi, Yes I have thought about it and yes I should come along, you meet only a few minutes walk from my house. Work is my excuse but I really should make the effort! You'd be absolutely more than welcome. Just started following this thread, looks like it's going to be an interesting layout. Especially considering the space you have available. Looking forward to seeing it develop... Nestor Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Bus Driver Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Hi, Yes I have thought about it and yes I should come along, you meet only a few minutes walk from my house. Work is my excuse but I really should make the effort! That's fair enough , I work shifts so I can;t always go either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted September 4, 2014 Author Share Posted September 4, 2014 Nestor, Just been reading you layout thread - I do like Southern region projects. I know I am lucky with the space I have but I am really pushing the limits of what I can fit with the layout so low to the ground. I will regret it all sooner or later when something under the board shorts and I can't get to it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted November 14, 2014 Author Share Posted November 14, 2014 (edited) Hi all, As ever not kept up with posting but I am now at a stage I have laid all the track except that which runs over the coal drops (which are not built yet). I am using Kadee couplers but hadn't really considered installing uncoupling magnets. Since joining the Brighton Model Railway Club and running a layout that used Kadees and magnets at the show I have decided they are a good idea. I will be using small 3mm cubes of neo-magnets, have bought a few and am experimenting to see how best to fit them - this I can do. I am less sure however where I should put them. As funny as my girlfriend found it when I explained my problem - that I don't really have much experience playing trains - I wouldn't mind some advice! If anyone out there would like to look at this track plan below and mark on where they would place magnets so I can carry out decent shunting moves, I would be very grateful. Thanks! Edited November 14, 2014 by Phil Brighton 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brighton Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 A few bits achieved over the break, bridge that takes Mutton Lane over the line build from foam covered in plasticard. Now painted and weathered 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard i Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 this is great, i will follow with interest Richard 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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