Horton Road TMD

[56303]

Hi all,

 

I've been lurking on the forum for a while now so I thought it was about time I created a thread for my layout so here goes...

 

Horton Road TMD is a 00 gauge modern image DCC layout loosely set in the midlands to refuel, service and maintain a wide variety of mainly freight loco's e.g. 37's, 47's, 56's, 57's, 60's, 66's from across Freightliner, DRS, EWS, Fastline and now DB Schenker so the layout covers the time period from 1980's up to present day.

 

The layout was started at the beginning of 2009 and progress has been a little slow due to working away from home quite a bit and DIY on the house !

 

The layout was originally supposed to be a smallish TMD to allow me to learn about DCC, wiring points, wiring lights etc before potentially starting a larger layout in my loft. But the track plan kept changing !

 

So what started as a small TMD, now stands at 6ft long by 1 1/2 ft wide and also a 3ft fiddle yard has been added as well so total length is now 9ft.

 

Control is by a NCE powercab as this allows basic programming and reading of CV's and also to move the points which would save on any additional wiring !

 

All track is Peco 100 streamline and set-track with electrofrog points which have been modified to (hopefully) prevent any shorting when loco's pass over. I've used Tortoise point motors as these seemed to be the best but they were expensive.

 

Baseboards were constructed using 6mm plywood and frame with 2x1 softwood which was glued and screwed together to prevent warping. Inspection pits were fitted and track laid to check what it would look like and cork was also put under the track to reduce noise level prior to wiring in the point motors :-

 

 

 

That's all for the moment, I'll post some more pics over the next few days.

 

Thanks for looking and any comments welcome !

[60026to]

Looks very good so far and professional too.

Cheers.

[Jon.G]

Hi Tim,

 

Looks fantastic so far this will be a superb depot to operate and view once finished do you intend to take it to exhibitions dude?

 

Cheers, Jon.

[56303]

Thanks for comments guys.

 

Hi Jon - not planning to take it to exhibitions at the moment but you never know in future !

 

So here are a few more pics :-

 

Fitted the base plate for Shed 2 (which is actually sold as a Heljan car repair workshop !) and also cutting cardboard to size for the concrete area :-

 

Track has been painted using Rusty rails paint and for the concrete area for Shed 1, as I was running out of cardboard, I had to find alternatives to raise the level up to just below the rail heads so I could then use 1 layer of cardboard :-

 

Fiddle yard was built and added to the layout and then wired up, the 2 lengths of track are DCC programming track and also DC track so I can use it to test loco's, then run them in on the rollers before installing the DCC chips.

 

Also, preparing the back scene board which again is 6mm plywood glued and screwed onto pieces of 2x1 inch softwood which are then screwed onto the layout base.

[56303]

Thought I'd update the thread with some more pics of progress with back scene in place :-

 

 

 

I also fitted the buffer stop lights however, I've since decided to extend the furthest left track back to be in line with the others so all the lights will be in line:-

 

 

I temporarily wired up the yard lights to check they all worked and to check the positioning of them would give the necessary light coverage. They were only temporarily stuck down with blu-tac and 1 was already starting to fall over as I took the pic ! :-

 

Thanks for looking and I'll post some further updates at weekend.

[westerner]

Interesting that you say set somewhere in the midlands. As you probably know Horton Road was the GWR/WR shed at Gloucester.

[porkie]

That looks ace 56303, Loving the tower lights

[56303]

Interesting that you say set somewhere in the midlands. As you probably know Horton Road was the GWR/WR shed at Gloucester.

Hi, I decided on that location so as to get a variety of different loco's visiting and yes, I used the name Horton Road as I'm from Gloucester

 

That looks ace 56303, Loving the tower lights

Hi, thanks, they were expensive but they look superb. Can't wait until they're fully installed but that's a way off yet

 

Tonight's update is the ballasting as the rails have been painted with Rusty rails paint and the shed concrete area's are down and weathered.

 

I used the usual method of brushing the ballast into place and then stuck down using a mixture of PVA, water & washing up liquid.

 

 

Buffer lights were connected up as well :-

 

And I couldn't resist a quick demo with a couple of loco's :-

 

[Brush47337]

Hi 56 303

 

The progress between 14th April bare boards and today (16th April) with ballast, paint and retaining walls is fantastic.

I had to check it was the same layout

 

At this rate you will be finished before May.

 

Well done

 

Stuart

[56303]

Hi 56 303

 

The progress between 14th April bare boards and today (16th April) with ballast, paint and retaining walls is fantastic.

I had to check it was the same layout

 

At this rate you will be finished before May.

 

Well done

 

Stuart

 

Hi Stuart,

 

it's surprising how much difference a bit of ballast and paint makes isn't it !

 

I'm posting photo's of work on the layout which has been done over the past few months which is why so much is happening in such as short space of time

 

I've still got lots more photo's to post to catch up to where the layout is at the moment and I'll post some more as soon as I can.

 

Cheers, Tim

[Pete Harvey]

Tim

 

Well it looks very good it will be nice to see it finished keep the pictures coming.

 

Will you be fitting lighting in the sheds?

 

Pete

[56303]

Tim

 

Will you be fitting lighting in the sheds?

 

Pete

Hi Pete,

 

Yes, I've already bought some LED lighting strips from Express Models to fit in the sheds and also some external wall lights for outside lighting.

 

Cheers

Tim

[56303]

So after ballasting was completed, it needed to be weathered. I don't own an airbrush so I bought Railmatch aerosol cans - sleeper grime, frame dirt and roof dirt and I think overall it turned out OK despite being a bit heavy in some places

 

 

 

After cleaning all the paint off the tracks, I tested with a couple of loco's to check the track and of course the points still worked

 

 

Cheers

Tim

[Arpleymodeller]

Hi

Its really good to see the layout progress,I like the last shot of those Colas 47s as the weathering stands out well B)

Regards

Lewis

[Jon.G]

Hi Tim,

 

47's look superb the dirty track really sets them off to a T.

 

This is developing in to a great depot layout and the track work and placement of points is outstanding you've really done a cracking job with the track plan and shed placement is also spot on the best depot layout by far keep up the good work matey and keep adding pickys for us all

 

Kind Regards, Jon.

[56303]

Hi Lewis / Jon, thanks for the positive comments !

 

Here's some more pics of progress :-

 

The inspection pit steps and walkway plates in shed 1 were painted using Railmatch warning yellow and then I weathered them down a bit using a bit of Railmatch roof dirt. Once dry, they were glued into position :-

 

 

I also using LED lighting strips from Express Models for internal lighting for both sheds and I wired up shed 1 lights to check they were OK and using resident test loco 60048 to see how it would look with a loco inside :-

 

 

Since these pics were taken, I've sprayed the internal walls and roof white to better reflect the lights and I'm also going to rewire the lights using white coloured wire to blend in with the walls.

 

I've still got the shed 1 external wiring to start but I got sidetracked onto the other end of the layout whilst waiting for the white paint to dry by looking at a way to disguise the fiddle yard entrance.

 

After much thinking and looking at the space I had to play with, I've gone with a road bridge and the pics below show what it will hopefully look like when it's all glued together and the blue polystyrene painted dark grey !

 

I'd previously sprayed the tunnel area with matt black paint and also along the side of the track for a road surface but I've since changed that idea and I'll leave that for a future update.

 

 

The framework for the bridge is basically some left over bits of 6mm plywood and softwood and I'm then going to glue on some Peco bridge sides which have been shortened slightly.

 

 

 

I also had some additional retaining wall pieces which I've cut to size and also I decided to use Scalescenes tarmac sheets for the road surface which will be printed onto card and then glued to the plywood.

 

 

Thanks for looking and I'll post more pics of progress later this week.

 

Cheers

Tim

[frame69]

Nice tidy work Tim.

Frame.

[56303]

Thanks Frame !

 

So, at the same time as building the road bridge, I also decided to replace my idea of using matt black paint for a road surface into the depot area and use Scalescense tarmac sheets instead. These were printed onto card, cut to fit around the ballast and aligned so the shades matched as best as I could do but they look OK. They will then be glued onto the layout and then left to dry overnight. I left an area to create another concrete area as I've got a couple of knightwing portakabins to go there (see top left of pic below).

 

 

The backscene has also been painted light blue above the retaining walls and also the bridge has been built and is nearly finished, just got to add a strip of card across the top of the retaining wall and also add a small strip of grass across the back:-

 

 

 

Cheers

Tim

[Temeraire]

Nice work Tim, that Scalescenes roadway is just what I need for my overbridge.

[David Rickard]

This looks really nice

[Trainsrgr8]

The track weathering looks stunning Tim! Do keep it up my freind

 

Danny

[Arpleymodeller]

Hi

Its nice to see the layout coming together into a fine scenic model,See you have a Sound 60048,a video would be great showing it maneuvering around the layout. B)

Keep up the good work!!

 

Regards

Lewis

[56303]

See you have a Sound 60048,a video would be great showing it maneuvering around the layout.

 

Cheers Lewis and yes, I will have to record some vids at some point as I've got a couple of sounds loco's

 

Progress has been a little slow recently due to working away during the week and weekends just aren't long enough

 

The concrete area for the portakabins has been put down and weathered and also I've started building the portakabins. These are knightwing kits - a single and a double.

 

 

I also installed an exterior floodlight to the side door of shed 1 and I'm also going to have a couple above the main doors.

 

The fuel point is nearly finished as well. It was originally going to be one of the Knightwing kits but I changed my mind and bought one of the excellent Bachmann ones which saves me having to assemble it and then paint it

 

The lighting is an Express models kit for the Knightwing fuel point but it fits fine. I've drilled a small hole in the base to feed the wires through but I still need to drill the hole through the baseboard and connect the wires properly.

 

Cheers

Tim

[47541]

Really like this, the track and ballasting look fantastic, that's before you look at anything else !

 

This is going to be a great TMD !

 

Cheers,

 

Graham.

 

 

[jackrob]

Your lighting is great! And what ballast do you use?