Kevin G Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 (edited) Hello all. Welcome to Waddon South. This layout has taken about three years to build and, apart from a bit more detailing, is more or less finished. It is the first layout that I have completed, having returned to the hobby in 2018 after a gap of more years than I care to mention! Waddon South is an imaginary terminus set in the mid to late 1950's. It was never intended to be a terminus, or be called Waddon South! My original plan was to model an imaginary station on the West Croydon-Wimbledon line. The problem was that the layout is built in a small L-shaped box room and fitting in two workable fiddle-yards proofed to be impossible, so the plan changed. Even now the fiddle-yard space is very restricted. The layout is built along two walls of the room and measures 6'6" by 7'6" and is 12" wide, widening out to 3' wide at one end. Construction Baseboards are made from 6mm ply mounted on 2x1 battens and attached to the walls with large shelf brackets. Track is Peco Code 75 with live frog points. The 3rd rail bits are also Peco. Control is DC using a small Gaugemaster controller and the point motors are a mixture of SEEP and Peco. The majority of the buildings on the layout are from the Scalescenes range of downloadable kits, all modified in some way to suit their locations. The barn in the rag & bone mans yard is the old Superquick kit recovered in Scalescenes building papers. Most of the buildings have interior details and lighting fitted. The backscene was made up from images found online, resized to fit, printed out and, after carefully cutting out, stuck onto a Gaugemaster sky backscene. All the figures are either Dart Castings, Scalelink or Mike Pett. Signals are Ratio (non-working at present), and the other bits and pieces on the layout are from various manufacturers. An Imaginary History I like the idea of a layout having a back story and to fit in to the real world, so I came up with a 'might have been' scenario. In my fictional history, the area to the south of Croydon became built up much earlier than it actually did (during late Victorian times rather than the 1930's), which led the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway to build a single track branch line from the West Croydon-Epsom line near Waddon station to the the new development at what became known as Waddon South. The line had steady commuter traffic but limited freight until the 1920's when Croydon Airport and the Purley Way Croydon bypass were opened nearby. With the bypass came a host of new factories bringing a lot of freight to the line, along with extra traffic generated by the airport. On the layout there is is no room to model much in the way of goods facilities, just one factory and a coal yard, so it is assumed that most of the freight is handled off-scene with goods trains reversing at the station and heading off down a goods only line back to the fiddle-yard. With the ever increasing commuter traffic the line was electrified in the 1930's. Loco and Rolling Stock This is an area that has been very much neglected during the layout build and much needs to be done to build a fleet representative of the period and area. The loco/EMU stock at present consists of: Bachmann Class 416 2EPB. Weathered by TMC Hornby 2-HAL. This is in Southern Railway livery, picked up at a bargain price, and will be re-painted at some point. Bachmann N Class. Weathered Hornby Terrier 0-6-0T. This is really surplus to requirements, but I’ll probably keep it as it’s a good little runner. Plus on the workbench: Hornby E2 0-6-0T. The original body paintwork has been stripped ready for repainting. I have yet to decide whether to change the wheels and motor on the original chassis or fit a new chassis altogether. Mainline Class 4 4-6-0. I bought this for a pittance at a car-boot sale with the intension of upgrading it, but I’m really not sure if it’s worth the bother! Apart from a few modern RTR items, the goods and coaching stock is a motley collection which needs a lot of work to bring it up to standard. Edited January 24, 2022 by Kevin G 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 Very characterful! Did you know that for s while Standard Steel Company assembled and sold locomotives? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin G Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 Yes, I did know that. Narrow gauge locos I believe. Their factory had sidings off the West Croydon-Wimbledon Line. They must have expanded to Waddon at some point Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 They had license to build Jung NG locos in the U.K., but I think only two designs. Their factory was up near the top of Purley Way, so yes, it must have moved. Once again, an excellent piece of work! Kevin P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 They had license to build Jung NG locos in the U.K., but I think only two designs. Their factory was up near the top of Purley Way, so yes, it must have moved. Once again, an excellent piece of work! Kevin P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin G Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 Thank you Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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