6029 King Stephen Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I saw a "Plan of the Month" in the Railway Modeller from the 1980's that was based on Yarmouth Quay and designed to fit onto a 4' x 2' board, suggesting the use of 1st radius curves and modifying the turnouts to achieve an even tighter radii but one that RTR stock of the day could negotiate. The plan consisted of two sides to a quay that were connected by a tight radius curve and comprised 10 small radius turnouts, 5 left and 5 right. I had always wanted to build this layout but preferred not to have to cram it onto a 4'x2' board with such tight curves. Over the years I developed my model railway skills and after trying out 3 link and Dingham couplers, progressed to building my own track and more recently have been building locos and coaches using brass kits. I have found that 4' radius curves allow pulling and pushing of 3 link fitted stock without buffer locking. I scanned the trackplan into Templot and started adding the trackwork. When I was finished and printed it out, with 77 pages of A4, it was certainly bigger than the 4'x2' of the original plan. When taped together and laid on the floor it measured 12' x 5' excluding a fiddleyard! As you may know, I have (had?) two other layouts that I was building that have appeared as threads on this site; Friary Green and Tavistock North. The Friary Green layout had been built on two boards measuring 10'x2'6" and a third board had been constructed to extend it another 4' but it was too narrow to allow the goods area to be modelled and some of the trackwork seemed to have narrowed after it had been laid and ballasted producing tight spots. I had cut some platforms out of ply sheet but I became disillusioned with it and it ground to a halt. It lies dimantled and awaiting the track to be removed, in the corner of the room. With Tavistock North in N Gauge, I had scanned the trackplan into Templot and this fitted in a space of 12'x2'6" but would not allow me to curve the layout around to form a continuous run. I amended the plan so it would but this got rid of the 1:75 incline at each end and meant that I had to relocate the station to enable the viaduct to be included. The flat earth principle meant that the layout was very bulky so it has been dismantled and will reappear with L-Girder baseboard system, allowing the station to resume its proper place on the trackplan with the viaduct on a curve and the 1:75 inclines at each end. All trackwork needed has been bought and I am just awaiting an order of 3mm foam to arrive and the building of the L-Girder baseboads. Hence a new layout. I wanted something that could be built quickly and that would provide me with some operating enjoyment whilst completing it and to be a distraction from the Tavistock North layout. Having looked at the photos of the Templot plan laid out on the sitting room floor and the space available in the bedroom, I decided to modify the plan so that it only had one side of the quay layout and that it would curve around and then go into a fiddleyard. Using inspiration from the docks and quays of Plymouth, hence the name Sutton Harbour, the intention is for the line to exit the fiddle yard through a tunnel (there were similar tunnels under Devonport Kings Road and Friary stations on the ex SR) and across a level crossing (which will be the road that allows road vehicles to access the harbour) and into the dockside area with a small halt (Sutton Halt) for dockside workers and a headshunt beyond. I had already built the 10 turnouts using Templot and these are A5s. The layout is built on three 18mm ply boards of 4'x2', connected together with bolts. They were constructed using pocket hole screws. I have 10 lengths of SMP nickel silver track and 2 lengths of Peco code 75 that I might use in the fiddleyard. For the fiddle yard I am thinking of using a traverser type fiddle yard that will incorporate some kind of tray so that stock can be lifted and turned around. This will most likely fit on another 4'x2' board bringing the total layout size to 12'x 6' in an L shape. I have tried to attach some photos of progress to date but only the forwarding email attached! There will not be any underlay used; the track will be glued down using Febond PVA, ballasted with Woodland Scenics fine ballast in the areas where there won't be handstanding. Sheets of plastic card will be used to infill these areas and between tracks and then SE Finecast sheets will form the top surface. There will be dockside cranes straddling the sidings at the baseboard edge and a separate section (L shape board) will screw into the basboard side modelled to repesent the quayside and water with model ships and boats adding interest. There will be dockside buildings and an engine shed (as at Millbay docks) with coal and water facilities. I will try uploading the photos when I get home. Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHC Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 A couple of years ago Railway Modller published an article about the Cattedown lines in Plymouth. This coincided with the release of the Sentinal industrial loco in Esso colours by Hornby. Keith HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I have a vague memory of seeing the original 4'x2' layout (or a close copy) at the St Albans show in about 1995. It seems like a good idea, if you could put up with the sharpness of the curves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted October 25, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2016 I had scanned the trackplan into Templot and this fitted in a space of 12'x2'6" but would not allow me to curve the layout around to form a continuous run. Hi Steve, Templot includes functions to wrap a scanned mage onto a curve, so that you can turn this: into this: More about the process here: http://templot.com/companion/wrap_picture_shape_to_curve.html regards, Martin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 Thanks for the advice Martin but my comment wasn't actually referring to Templot but to the width of my baseboard in that there wasn't sufficient width to allow the track to curve round and form a continuous run. I should have made this clearer. Thanks for the tip as it it is useful to know. Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 No progress on this so far this week. I have have looked at the tie bars on my turnouts and they are almost all very thin PCB which will require a small hole to be drilled in them to allow the tortoise operating pin to pass through. I have ordered the Expo mini hand drill that should be perfect for this task. I will also need to order a Wills platform halt kit and several sheets of different thickness plasticard. I should be able to rout out the small holes for the turnout operating wire to pass through and fix the turnouts down with PVA and connect up the lengths of flexi that I have, also fixing that down with PVA. For the short connecting pieces I will make these up using either pcb soldered rail or C&L/Exactoscale individual components. Hopefully, this weekend I should be able to get something running to give me an idea of operation. I was also interested in using wire in the tube turnout control, something that I have experimented briefly with in the past. I have some guitar wire, metal tubing and angle cranks and some other items from the GEM system knocking around somewhere.... Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted November 7, 2016 Author Share Posted November 7, 2016 Tracklaying was started yesterday and so far I have laid two points and two sidings. I drilled holes in the tiebars of all the turnouts to accept the tortoise point opering wire and glued the first turnout down and the siding off it when I suddenly realised I had not drilled the hole in the baseboard for the operating wire. I might have to resort to wire in the tube with a crank to operate this one or extend one side of the tiebar to allow another operating hole to be drilled nearby. I have soldered PCB to the rails where they cross the baseboard join and remembered to rout a hole in the board for the operating wire of the second turnout. Hopefully, I can lay another two turnouts this afternoon and some more plain track. Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 I managed to lay another three turnouts and some plain track yesterday afternoon/evening. I have four more turnouts to lay and some more plain track. I will print out my curve from Templot and will build that using C&L Hi-Ni rail soldered to copperclad. I have soldered rail to copperclad at the board joins and once I have laid all the track I will cut through the rails. It will then be the turn for wiring and I will solder feed dropper wires to the side of rails or to the copperclad sleepers and drill holes for the wires to pass through the board. As the area around and between tracks will be filled with plasticard or plaster I don't have to make a tidy electrical connection to the rail as they won't be seen. I will then separate the boards, invert them and fit the bus wires and solder the droppers to them. I will also fit the tortoise point motors. After connecting all the boards together, I will be able to do my first test runs before moving onto the scenics and buildings. I have ordered a Wills halt kit and two Dapol dockside cranes and these will be placed to run on rails, straddling one of the quayside sidings. I will try to get some photos uploaded to make this thread more interesting. Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted December 22, 2016 Author Share Posted December 22, 2016 I have managed to lay most fo the track onto the boards but had a slight problem at the end of November in that the air conditioning unit in the bedroom above the layout had leaked and the central part of the boards had been covered in water. After mopping up the excess, only one piece of track had become unstuck and now that the unit has been repaired I can continue with progress. I have run out of flexi track and will now need to make plain lengths using rails soldered to copperclad using the templot template. These will be a slightly time consuming process. I received the Dapol cranes and the Wills halt kit, as well as some cardboard sheets that will allow me to scratchbuild some dockside structures. I am hoping to make some progress on this layout over the Christmas break. Then I will need to cut through the rails across the baseboard joints so that I disassemble the layout to install the wiring. It will be DCC so I need to have a bus and wire droppers connected to each piece of track. I have to order some tortoise point motors to enable the points to be operated - at the moment I am having to keep the tiebar pressed over using a long screwdriver whilst I push stock around the plan as part of the tracklaying process. Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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