The ?100 Project ? A complete layout build described in 9 days

[Katier]

It'll be interesting how you'll be dealing with the scenics, buildings and accessories, as they are features of a layout, after locos and stock, potentially another cause of overspending.

 

I'd use scalescenes and any other free kits plus some scalescenes paper and/or home made textures (although that does make it slightly more complex). Accessories would of course depend on what but I bet much can be cheaply scratch built ( matches for instance would be free - handy for fence posts ). Obviously the A4 needed would cost.. although not sure how to count the ink from the printer!!

[melmoth]

Dave, just a quick word to say I think this is an excellent idea and thread and look forward to how it pans out. It give plenty of food for thought not only to those on very limited budgets but also to those of us who have accumulated so many bits and pieces over time that we ought to be able to build a layout without spending any more money.

[mezzoman253]

In my experience, it's easier finding unwanted cardboard than foamboard, also card's surprisingly strong - think of the packaging that came with your TV or washing machine.

 

It'll be interesting how you'll be dealing with the scenics, buildings and accessories, as they are features of a layout, after locos and stock, potentially another cause of overspending.

 

Keep up the good work, however.

 

Most of shop signage is of a foamboard type contruction. You could ask at your local store if they have any that's being disposed of. It's where I get most of mine from.

 

Rob

[devondynosoar118]

Excellent idea, my shunting puzzle layout started as a budget build challenge, ended up being around the £150 mark tho!

Another way of obtaining very cheap base boards is to use off cuts of ply from carpenters or skips(ask first and never get in one etc!) building open frame types rarely needs big pieces.

[alastairq]

hi...just want to add my full support for the concept of this thread....

 

Regarding baseboards?

 

Speaking as an [un]civil servant, many of the [expensive??] cardboard boxes holding sundry top-secret gubbins where-I-work, is incredibly high quality and robust.

 

As a suggestion [not in this topic's case, but for others?] cardboard baseboards could also be supported underneath [for stiffening] by using suitable pre-formed expanded foam packings....these are incredibly stiff...so worth checking out electrical goods store skips?

 

To prove a point I posted yonks ago , I started to make a small board using the packaging from a Hornby Anglian trainset...leaving the expanded foam packaging inside the cardboard box. the whole shebang is quite rigid ....but I skinned the top with some very thin plywood [the backing off an old, scrapped wardrobe]....which would be the 'track-bed'............

 

Another alternative trackbed I've used [taken from an idea by Iain Rice]...is the dense foam found in camping mats [foamies?]....so if one knows someone who is junking such an item, maybe worth relieving them of the chore?

 

Glued to the cardboard surface, a quite resilient trackbed is to be had?

[BG John]

I'm intending to build my next layout with baseboards made from an old wardrobe, found in a shed when I bought my house. The bottom had rotted, but the sides were really solid 16mm ply, approx. 5ft x 18". If you don't have one lurking in a shed, try Freecycle or Freegle. I've also got assorted doors and other wardrobe bits that might be suitable too, if I didn't have other uses for them! Not all wardrobes are solid ply, as many are lighter construction, but these may well be more rigid than cardboard. Any big cardboard that turns up here is used for mulching the garden I'm afraid!

[ian b]

Great idea Dave! Might i suggest cornflake packets and paper for any raised scenery as if you use the stiffer card to make a lattice and then tear up the paper to make the surface you get a very cheap (and very light) surface for any scenery. Shoreham MRC's "Chelfham" scenery was done this way, including the valley with the viaduct.

 

My missus suggested this when I mentioned building a small portable layout (or even large modules) :

 

A pasting table. B&Q do them for about £15 but that would make a big dent in your budget for other things. But then I suppose anyone else on a budget wouldn't necessarily be using £100.

 

http://www.diy.com/n...noCookies=false

 

Tried this for a cheap option- not the most stable or well built (not a surprise for the price!) but the main problem is that the surface is far from level. Either the top surface would need replacing with something stronger or additional supports would need to be added which then prevents the legs from being folded away... either way its extra cost!

 

Loving this thread btw!

[gc4946]

I've examined several paste tables recently and the cheapest sold here in the UK have hardboard tops, ill-fitting and shaped timber frames and legs, often with "knots" and after a short time, sag in the middle where the two halves hinge.

Build quality's worse than about 20 years ago when some of the better tables, at least, had 1/8 inch thick plywood tops.

There are some metal-framed and heavy-duty plastic paste tables available but they'll cost up to around a third of the total layout cost on this thread!

[The Evil Bus Driver]

Fair do's on the pasting table quality thing. If they're really that bad I might just as well go to a signmaker and get offcuts. Shame though.

 

I'm told many large timber firms sell offcuts quite cheap. Wenban Smith in my area does this. Sometimes you can get a pretty big piece of board for about a fiver. Just pays to ask really

[Dave777]

Bit late with today's update - been out all day and got back much later than expected.

 

 

3a - Track Goes Down

 

I didn’t have enough track at this stage to complete the plan so the remaining track was purchased at an exhibition - two lengths of £1.65 cheapo flexitrack (this means we’ve 3 different track manufacturers represented on the layout now!). I also took the opportunity to get some fishplates for £1.50 and some layout wire for £1.

 

The track was stuck down initially (and sparingly) with PVA glue – eventually the ballast will hold it in place. The sides of the rails were painted with enamels, which was a fairly tedious job, but at least I only had to paint the sides of the rails facing the front. I’ll talk about the cost of the enamels in a later post.

 

 

 

I then hit upon a bit of a snag - how to fix the wire to the track? I was planning to just solder it, but it dawned on me that then I’d need to include the cost of a soldering iron and solder, and that would have eaten a fair sized hole in the budget (yes I could have argued that a soldering iron is a ‘household toolbox’ item and so outside the scope/cost of the project, but the only thing I use my soldering iron for is modelling). As it happens, the layout only requires two power feeds, so instead I attached some fishplates to the end of the rails, inserted the wiring and then pinched the fishplates together to keep the wires in place.

 

 

 

Experienced modellers reading that will wince at the thought of relying on such wiring, and I do too if I’m being honest. But, needs must – I set myself a challenge and I needed to work within the confines of it. I will say that for the price of a couple of Hornby power clips you could do a more robust job, so simply adding around £4 to the overall cost would cover this. And if you remove the kick-back siding and make it two facing sidings instead, the whole layout can actually operate from the one power connection in the fiddleyard, which is just £2.

 

As it is, the method I’ve used is pretty damn solid and the wires aren’t going to be coming out easily. I would recommend however to anyone entering the hobby and conducting a similar build to get a soldering iron. It’ll pay its way via reliable wiring on not only your first layout but also all future builds (I’ve not included the cost of the pliers and wire strippers in the overall layout cost – these I have considered as ‘household toolbox’ items).

 

Very dull photo of the wiring under the baseboard:

 

 

 

Spends:

2 x Gaugemaster flexitrack lengths - £3.30

Peco Fishplates - £1.50

Wire - £1

Hacksaw for track cutting - £1.20

Insulation tape for wiring - £0.25

Masking tape - £0.50

Pack of modelling paintbrushes - £1.30

 

 

 

3b - Power... both on and off the track

 

I’ve not actually purchased a new controller for this layout as I’m simply using my existing one – a Bachmann controller that I purchased for £10, split from a set some years back. Checking completed listings on eBay indicates that similar spec, Hornby 'trainset' controllers sell regularly for £5 or just under, including postage:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-OO-R921-Power-Controller-Mains-Lucas-/300739242355?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item460574a973

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-Railways-SYSTEM-R921-Power-Pack-/330750566535?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item4d02452087

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-Controller-/170891152936?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item27c9e80e28

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lot-8-R965-Power-Controller-Supply-/251087666859?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item3a75fdbeab

 

Although an older design, these are all variable speed controllers that either plug into the mains or have a seperate transformer that's included in the price - they aren't the really cheap, 3-speeds-forward-and-reverse ones. So I think £5 is a fair cost to use as someone can definitely obtain a suitable controller for this price.

 

So that’s the power off the track, but what about on it? Well this is the layout’s motive power – a Hornby Class 25 purchased for £15 (£18 including postage, which is what I’m totalling it up as).

 

 

 

 

Excellent condition, runs faultlessly and I was the only bidder. Again, another check of completed listings just to check I’m being fair & transparent with my prices indicates similar locos having been sold for around the same amount (actually, I think I overpaid!).

 

There’s a variety of locos on offer at this sort of price range actually. Plenty of Hornby Class 37s and 47s, a few Lima Deltics, and a Hornby Railfreight Class 58 popped up at one point. So why the 25? Well the 37 and 47 are pretty ropey in the accuracy stakes, and the Deltic and 58 are either passenger or freight specific which restricts their usage a bit. A Lima or Airfix 31 would have been a decent alternative purchase if one had come up at the right price, but the Hornby Class 25 is still a fairly good representation even today, and many modellers use them as a starting point for detailing up. That’s not something I’ll be doing here (it would eat precious funds & time), but that’s not to stop someone following in my footsteps detailing up their Class 25 into something better as a good introduction to RTR modifying & detailing.

 

Spends:

Controller - £5 (theoretical)

Hornby Class 25 - £18

 

 

It’s basic scenery and ballasting tomorrow in Part 4.

[Donw]

My don't some people nit-pick. Its your project and you set the rules and there are no prizes (unless I've missed something). Personally I find it interesting. Oh and I recently took enough cardboard for half a dozen boards up the tip so you would probably find it easy to scrounge if you needed to.

Don

[Dave47549]

.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Dave47549
Removed pointless guff

[devondynosoar118]

Good motive power choice, they don't call them rats for nothing! Still enjoying the posts, maybe this could be next years challenge competition? Make everyone keep receipts and set a budget. If you get something free you need a name and signature to prove it?

Just as a side note I have a soldering iron I got in a budget shop for £4.99 with some multicore flex included.

[Dzine]

Dave, this is fantastic, keep up the good work. An inspiration to all of us, especially those on a tight budget, no excuse for not having a layout now.

Regards Paul.

 

PS the recycling credentials are good too....something we modellers have been a bit lapse in considering

[Dave777]

Just as a side note I have a soldering iron I got in a budget shop for £4.99 with some multicore flex included.

 

Oooh well done, that would have done the trick. Good find!

[Dave777]

4a - Scenery basics

 

 

Foundations for two of the main scenery items needed to go in at this point, namely the overbridge and platform. Some leftovers from the baseboard build provided the bridge foundations and embankment.

 

 

 

I’ve used the free warehouse download on the Scalescenes site to provide the brickpaper (fortunately the wonky alignment at the back will be out of sight under the bridge).

 

 

 

The embankment then had scrunched up newspaper added and roughly glued in place to increase the supporting framework. The retaining wall at the rear of the embankment has been brickpapered up at this stage as well (it doesn’t look too good, but it’ll be mostly hidden away later).

 

 

 

Since this siding is a little short (and to add a bit of variety), I decided to save an extra inch or so by not using one of the Hornby bufferstops but to instead model a basic sleeper-built effort that’s embedded in the embankment. Nothing fancy – just a bit of scored card with an additional piece going across, then a couple of slots for the rails to go through and PVA it in place.

 

 

 

The platform sides went in at this stage, being built from the pack of A4 card that was stuck onto the backscene. I’ve used a grey primer as the base colour for this, with some watercolour and enamels used to weather it. I’ll explain about the watercolour and cost it up at a later stage.

 

 

 

Kitchen towel provided the ‘ground’ – simply soak sheets in a solution of PVA/water and stick them in place. I’m not including the cost of the kitchen roll – I think we can accept that as a ‘standard’ item you find in most houses (grab a free newspaper and use that instead if we consider it really matters!).

 

 

 

I also stuck down some foundations for where the warehouse will reside.

 

 

 

With the basic scenery in place, the whole ground was given a coat of earthy brown from another emulsion tester pot. Don’t be alarmed by the colour of this as it’s all going to mostly disappear under further scenery work. This is mainly just a base coat for any bits that may show through.

 

 

 

I then completed the platform foundations by adding some scrap card supports.

 

 

 

To add a bit of detail, some strips of cardboard were cut and scored in the top to represent a cable run. A piece of concrete hardstanding was also added, using a printout from the cgtextures website.

 

 

 

Back to my sleeper built buffer stop for a paint job with our enamels, and to add the pillar to the retaining wall. I then topped this off with a strip of painted card to finish it off (cruel closeup photo here).

 

 

Last job at this stage was to add the Hornby buffers. I put in a strip of card between the buffer stops and then just weathered them up with enamels.

 

 

 

While all these additions are lightweight and don’t trouble the cardboard baseboard at all, I was a little concerned as to what all this emulsion and PVA might do to the structural integrity of the baseboard, but no worries – still as solid as it was before.

 

Spends:

Cardboard for scenery – free

Newspaper – free

Brickpaper - free

Emulsion tester paint pot for ground - £1

Enamels, primer and watercolour yet to add to cost.

 

 

 

 

4b - Ballasting

 

Nothing very exciting to report here – it’s a £1 bag of sand and PVA:water dripped on from a teaspoon to hold it in place. It was then coloured via a dilute grey emulsion tester pot solution applied using one of our modelling paintbrushes (the dilution is just to make it flow easier and cover a larger area).

 

 

 

(I've loads more photos of this, but... well... it's just pictures of track and ballast...)

 

 

Spends:

Sand - £1

Emulsion tester paint pot for ballast - £1

 

 

Up next are buildings and structures.

[Mike W2]

I'm quite liking the idea here!

 

I might even have a go at something similar but I think I'd still have some kind of wooden base. I'm sure a sheet of 4ft by 2 ft Hardboard only costs a fiver and most places will cut it half for nothing, so you can make up to an 8ft by 1 ft if you wanted. I've also got spare isulation board I could mount on the hardboard and in turn mount the track on that.

 

Just a quick thought regards the Hornby 25. If anybody wanted to do something similar to this but didn't mind spending a small amount extra, I reckon a second hand Bachmann 25 from the original batch they did could probably be bought for a relatively cheap price. the latest ones with lights etc new don't seem much over £50. Either way I agree something like a 25 is great choice.

 

thanks

Mike

[eastwestdivide]

Is a proportion of your inkjet cartridge in the budget?! Not sure what proportion you'd use up with that tiny amount of brick, and maybe there's more planned later, but maybe shop-bought brick paper would end up cheaper? One of those cases where a "free" download might be a pig in a poke (sure there's a better phrase for that).

Not so much a criticism, and it's pretty marginal either way, but just trying to keep the accounting honest!

[Dave777]

Oh there's quite a bit of printing to come

 

I used the printer at work, so my printing was free, but yes you could factor in the ink cartridge cost... and purchasing a printer. The problem with a project like this is trying to cost something like that up, and then you start getting into the really bonkers stuff like the cost of petrol to the model shop, or the entrance fee to the exhibition, or the cost of the interweb connection to access the Scalescenes website. Oh, and a car of course. And a PC

 

The cost of specific modelling items is what I kept track of.

[BG John]

you start getting into the really bonkers stuff like the cost of petrol to the model shop

Not just petrol. You need to apportion all costs of running and ownership of the car - petrol, maintenance, tyres, depreciation, interest on any loans etc. etc.. Don't forget to allow for the distance to the model shop compared to other journeys, as your fuel consumption will vary depending on the length of the journey, and traffic conditions. Then there's car park charges, wear and tear on your shoes walking from the car to the shop and back. A Cost Accountant could have hours of fun with this .

[JohnR]

A simpler way would be to charge at the HMRC rate which is supposed to include all such extra costs. I think its now 45p per mile.

[melmoth]

Dave - any particular reason for going for sand and paint for the ballast at £2, when you could probably have bought a bag of cheap ballast (Javis?) for around £1?

[Dave777]

No real reason Jon, other than quantity. I got a fair sized bag of sand for my £1, about the same as a 1kg bag of sugar, which I knew would be enough. But you're right, £2 of Javis stuff might well be equivalent.

[westcountryman]

I've really got to applaud you on this project, as it's a real breath of fresh air.

Many of the featured layouts are constructed as if money is no object, & it's lovely to see someone trying to budget their modelling.

I was chatting to a lad at our club the other night, & he was put off by the expense involved with setting up a layout.

I was delighted to be able to point him towards your thread as proof that it can be done.

Well done once again, & I'll follow the progress with great interest.

Cheers

Rob

[Dave777]

5 - Buildings & structures

 

So at this point the platform top was added. This is just a couple of pieces of cereal box card painted up with the dark grey ballast emulsion mixed roughly with the sky blue one. I didn’t want a neat, single overall colour, so I’ve stippled and streaked the paint around a bit. Once dry, a strip of masking tape was added along the front, just back from the edge, before again a poorly mixed concoction of the two emulsions was added, this time with a bias towards the lighter shade. A pencil was used to then mark out some individual slabs (pencil not included in cost - household item)

 

 

 

When building the bridge pillars I mentioned I’d used brickpaper from the free kits available on the Scalescenes website, and it's the free Scalescenes warehouse that I've used for my industry building on the layout. For starters, the supplied ‘concrete’ base provides the hard standing, with the card we already added raising the level up above the sleepers to rail height.

 

 

 

The Scalescenes warehouse is available for download in two brick finishes, so I used one option for the bridge and the alternative finish for the warehouse. I decided to only use parts of the kit to give the layout a bit of individuality, plus I wasn't sure if the size of the kit would dominate the layout too much. I placed the finished building with the siding disappearing into it to suggest a larger loading facility (the red/white clearance warning squares either side of the door were simply created in Windows Paint and printed out). I used cereal box card as the main structure, and some clear food packaging for the window 'glass'.

 

 

It looks like I've done a poor job on the right hand side of the building, but it's dead straight and square - it's actually the backscene that's on the skew a bit

 

 

To complete this area I used the cgtextures website for some wall sections and gates.

 

 

 

This small hut is scratchbuilt from the quality card leftover from the backscene. Since the back of this won’t be visible, I’ve just made three sides, scored them to represent planks, added a doorframe and doorhandle, and then fitted a roof with some strips to represent the individual roof sections. Offcuts were used to hold the whole thing together, with enamels used to finish it off. Total build time? About 40 minutes. Okay, so there’s a bit of a leap from this to creating a station building, but if you’ve simple huts and the like to add to a layout, you really can make your own for peanuts.

 

 

 

 

 

At this stage I also needed to put in some signs as the base needed to be buried in further ground coverings. Signs were either from the Scalescenes kit or printed out from the interweb, with the posts being folded card that's then glued with PVA. As you can see, 'extensions' on the posts are glued to the ground to affix the post in place.

 

 

 

 

For the road overbridge that masks the fiddleyard exit, I enlarged and printed out a section of tarmac from cgtextures and PVA-ed it onto a single piece of cardboard box that I’d cut to shape. Printed sections of paving slab from the same website were then stuck onto separate cereal card strips and added along each side. Masking tape and a white enamel were used for the road markings.

 

 

 

 

To add sides to the bridge, some girders were made from the last of the quality card, painted with primer and weathered up, and the walls are just more of the Scalescenes brick papers topped off with card strips.

 

 

 

 

The final job at this stage was to add another printed texture from cgtextures for a road next to the fuel depot, and to also add the two supports for the fuel storage tank (just two pieces of card, painted up with enamels).

 

 

 

Regarding those enamel paints, I used a job lot of paints that I secured on eBay. Purchasing single pots will be around £1.25-£1.50 a time, but if you keep a look out on eBay you’ll regularly see lots of partially used pots going cheap (try the ‘model kit’ category). If you’re prepared to wait for the right sort of selection to come along you should be able to secure something sooner or later – avoid the bright gloss colours and instead keep a look out for a military modeller looking to sell some matt greys, browns and greens. I failed to win a few auctions but managed to get these 6 partially used pots for just £3 including postage. All are still at least two-thirds full.

 

 

 

Spends:

Buildings – all free

Enamels - £3

 

 

Half time score:

Hornby Track Pack E - £22.50, model shop

Peco Y point - £2.50, model shop

PVA glue - £1.50, Wilkinsons

Craft knife - £0.64, art supply shop

Pack of A4 card sheets - £1.20, art supply shop

Light blue emulsion tester pot for backscene - £1, Wilkinsons

Large paintbrush - £0.50, Wilkinsons

Gaugemaster flexitrack lengths x 2 - £3.30, exhibition

Peco fishplates - £1.50, exhibition

Wire - £1, exhibition

Hacksaw for track cutting - £1.20, Wilkinsons

Insulation tape for wiring - £0.25, Wilkinsons

Masking tape - £0.50, Homebase

Pack of modelling paintbrushes - £1.30, Wilkinsons

Bachmann controller - £5, eBay (theoretical)

Hornby Class 25 loco - £18, eBay

Brown emulsion tester pot for ground - £1, Wilkinsons

Sand for ballasting - £1, pet shop

Grey emulsion tester pot for ballasting - £1, Wilkinsons

Enamel paint x 6 - £3, eBay

 

Total so far: £67.89

(primer and watercolour not yet added)

 

 

Part 6 tomorrow covers probably the most challenging aspect of this £100 build – the rolling stock.

Edited September 4, 2012 by Dave777