Wellington - Shropshire

[Breaklight]

Introduction
 

 After many months of just reading the posts here and gaining immense amounts of inspiration and knowledge I have decided to open my own little thread here concerning my very own project "Wellington - Shropshire"

 

So how did this start? Well the funny thing is when i was about 7-8 yrs old I got an old cardboard box filled with old copies of Railway Modeller. If i remember correctly they where all issues from 1974 till about 1984. Wonderfully stuff. I think i read them a million times over and the funny thing was this...

 

I seem to remember that 8 of the 10 articles started with "I'm now in my mid thirtys and the wife felt i should get a hobby. So i dug up my old train set and...."  You can fill in the rest

 

So here I am... Im in my mid thirtys, and my shrink told me to get a hobby. 

Well, thats not all true. After my mum bought herself a Hornby Flying scotsman at a market (yes, the bug bit her too)  and then left it with me the plans really got out of hand and thus here we are.

 

I've decided to model wellington for a few reasons and I'll try to outline them.

 

The plan:

Together with my mum build a layout of wellington station, time period around about the 70's. Gives the most track and thus plenty of operational possibiltys from steam thru to diesel.

Although separated by 800km the idea is to build "exhibition" style modules. This way we can both work on the layout. When done the modules are brought together and hopefully all will work!

 

Another reason for the modules is although blessed with space I dont want a permanant layout in that way. The attic space has to be free for other uses and as i expect this project to take years I want to be able to move it around with out to much trouble.

 

I want it all to look as good as possible so after a lot of reading and pondering I have decided on  peco code 75 streamline.

Also want ot wire it up for DCCcontrol, would be silly not to i think

 

Why Wellington:

Its the station where I grew up so thats a memory nostalgic reason there; And being a mainline station and a branchline terminus it offers a wide varity of traffic.

Here is a foto of the OS map of wellington station from around 60's / 70's i think.

 

 

 

And here the sketch plan for all the modules.

 

 

And then the track plan sketch for the first module, the london side of wellington.
(Is that then called the downline?)

 

 

 

Obviously the modules are going to be made to fit in a car for transport between england and holland and to make storage / handling easy.

 

Work so far.

 

I spent many hours reading about baseboards, materials and how other people did it.

Here are some pictures of what I've used and created. I know I appreciate it when people post pictures so I'll do the same.

Who kows, i might inspire someone

 

Basic frame made up of untreated timber 45mm x 22mm. On top of that 5mm plywood. All glued and screwd together.

 

 

To join the modules I've decided to use nuts and bolts.

While I make the frame I put the two end pieces together and drill the holes to be shure of good alignment. I know people use cabinet alignment dowls but I could'nt translate it and this method is cheap and i think achieves the same. Works for me so far

 

Here are pictures of the two types I use and of two baseboards joined together. (Half of wellington station and the downline entrance)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the station area and part of the downline entrance. Its a massive 4,5meters long already and at its widest 80cm.

 

 

 

Next stepI decided was to place floor underboards on the baseboards.

My idea being that maybe i can cut out pieces where for example the signal box wil come. When its finished i just slot it back!

Thats theory.. when i get that far I'll let you know how the practice turns out!

 

Another reasoning was of course sound insulatioon and most of all, i think i might be able to use it to bring some 3d depth by scraping away at it here and there

time and progress will tell.

 

I glued the insulation board around the edges and on top of that glued on the cork track base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So thats the project so far.

 

 

[Breaklight]

While fiddling about with the baseboards I've been having a look into how I can get the track to look its best.

I'm not really bothered about things being slightly out of scale, just as long as it looks right.

 

A bit of searching here led me into altering the bits of peco track i had.

 

You can read the article about this here.

 

Here you see the peco track as is in front and behind with the sleepers roughly spaced 4,5mm apart with the excess plastic cut off.

 

 

But that then brings the problem of the turnout.

Still, plenty of tips on internet. Heres a picture of the turnout I'v altered so far together with one as is and the two pieces of flexi-track

 

I have found that cutting the plastic sleepers is very hard. How do you guys do that? Heat the knife?

 

 

 

 

 

But this has now led me to thinking about this..

 

With all this trouble fo altering out of the box track, maybe I should build my own. I'm thinking about this P4 / C&L track.

Now time and effort is'nt the issue, but finanace is.

 

So can someone tell me what the true cost of this would be?

 

When i look at the prices online it would seem that a single turnout is going to cost me about 50 pounds?? shurely not?

[Breaklight]

And now for the last questions I have at this moment.

 

I am correct in thinking that the next step is wiring before i put track down?

(be it the peco 75 or whatever else i go for)

 

I need to put the Bus for the DCC in place correct?

I have mains copper lying about left over from wiring up the attic would this be good to use?

 

After adding droppers to the track and getting my turnouts ready, can i then go about glueing / nailing it down?

 

Whats the order in which you guys go about doing this?

 

Thx in advance !

 

Breaklight (and his mum   )

 

[Lee m22]

Hi.

 

I solder the droppers on then mount the track. I use double sided tape to hold it in place before ballasting, where the glue provides the final fix.

 

I don't know if mains cable is a bit excessive for a model railway. If anything, it would add excess weight, but I imagine it would work.

 

Regards

 

Lee

[Barry Ten]

You'll get a million different answers for the best way to lay track. For now, I'd recommend sticking with Peco - it can look good if ballasted and painted, and when you've had some experience building and running trains, you'll then be in a good position to decide if you want to go with finer track/wheel standards. There's a lot to get right if it's your first go, so it's maybe not a bad idea to minimise the variables and stick with well-made commercial track.

 

You can fix track down before you worry about wiring, yes - either nail it or glue it or tape it. You can then solder the track feeds to either side of the rail, which is how I used to do it, and it works. If you use glue, consider using PVA which, being water soluble, allows you to take up the track again at some point. If you want to test some trains, use crocodile clips to apply a bit of power to a section of rail.

 

What I prefer to do now, but which does take a bit of forethought, is the same as Lee - solder the droppers onto the track while it's upside down on my workbench, and only then transfer the track onto the layout. This makes for an invisible electrical feed which is neater. It also turns out to be easier, in my experience, than soldering once the track is laid.

 

In terms of the type of wire to use, I'd get along to a model shop (plenty of good ones in the Netherlands) and ask some advice on the correct gauge of wire for track feeds, then buy a few different colours and a bit more than you ever think you'll need...

[Joseph_Pestell]

See the Grantham thread for tips about how to alter Peco. You should be able to get a good representation of Wellington using the Code 75 track.

 

Yes, Exactoscale point kits are expensive - but a good design. If you did want to go down the route of a more correct-looking OO track (it's always a compromise!), Marcway points and SMP track is a cheaper alternative.

[David C]

Marcway points aren't that cheap. They are not as realistic as C & L/P4 as they are basically rail soldered to copperclad sleepers with no chairs at all. The cheapest option is to make your own turnouts by this means - its not that difficult if you use track templates or follow the geometry of Peco or other commercially avilable points for instance. This is what I have done on my layout (see "Woodstowe" in the Layouts section), but there are plenty of other really good layouts which use this system, in conjunction with SMP track (which is very nice and does look very effective - eg, Bacup, Penhydd

 

There are many descriptions on how to make turnouts using copper clad sleepers on RMWeb - its worth having a go because the result, if made properly, is a very strong, reliable turnout.

 

David C

[Breaklight]

Thank you for taking the time to reply Gents. I do appreciate the advice, tips and pointers!

 

I think your right Barry Ten, that i should stick with the peco75 specially as its my first project. Because there are so many possibilties and products you can sometimes get lost in the woods.

Sort of forget which path you've decided to take.

 

Anyway, along with the pointers from Joseph-pestell referring to Grantham and David with his Woodstowe I've got renewed confidence.
I'm not to shure yet about mixing SMP or C&L flexitrack with peco points... I'm gonna sleep on that one for a few more nights.

 

What I have been up to is applying the knowledge gained from Grantham.

 

I prefer the 4.5mm spacing and not only because it wil win me some cm's on my baseboard!
Also I cant stand that diagonal last sleeper on peco points... I dont know, it just doesnt feel right. So new tool in hand, I set about trying it out!

 

Here you can see the points prepared. I've opted to keep the sleepers whole instead of halfway.

 

 

And then sliding through the chairs together. Actually quite easy with the right tools.

 

 

 

Here you can see the end product. I really do think that the absence of diagonal sleepers is so much better!

Prototypical or how you call it, I dont know. But my gut feeling never liked em.

 

 

Now I also went about altering the turnouts with the next method.

Beware though that if you intend to do this, your going to need decent point motors that hold the pointblades in place!

 

First off, I cut the sleepers from the turnout and size down the remaining 'large' sleeper.
I posed the question how do you it? I used my new tool see below! Makes jobs like this a lot easier than a stanley knife.

 

After removal, i toke four sleepers still joined from a length of flexi track and pushed these over onto the turnover.

Note that you wil have to size down the toes on the inside, of the sleeper which comes closest to the pointblades.

 

Here moving sleepers.

 

 

And here notice the cut down toes due to the pointblades.

 

 

End product after about 15 mins work. I'm happy with it.

Center to center is 45mm which is apparantly more realistic,
Diagonal sleepers are gone so my gut feels better,

and the giveaway bulky Peco pointwork has been sized down.

 

 

Thats it for now.

Hopefully get some wiring soon and start to seriously line out the centers for the trackwork.

Again, thx for the advice and tips, and especially for taking time to reply to this newcomer.

 

Almost forgot, heres my new tool. It was a small investment but well worth it!.

It comes with sanders, grinders, cutters and drills!
There are all sorts on the market and i would recommend it to people who intend to get serious about chopping and cutting track and other such jobs.

 

 

Breaklight

[Joseph_Pestell]

You are making terrific progress there!

 

Just keep in mind that you will need to widen the spacing of the double track when you get to the hidden (?) curves at each end of the layout or passing trains will strike each other.

[Happy Hippo]

Our club, Telford Railway Modellers Group, are currently building Wellington in N Gauge.

 

Our exhibition in September will feature Wellington, modelled in EM, by David Amias.

 

Some years ago, there was an article in Model Trains(?) (the successor to model Railway News) on Wellington as a basis for a modern image model railway, using the centre roads to reverse trains going into the MoD Depot at Donnington using the old Wellington to Stafford line.

 

Although the MoD line closed in the early 90s, and the track was lifted. It was relaid to create the Telford Freight Terminal, which has not so far realised the traffic it was hoped would be created.

 

Regards

 

Richard

[Breaklight]

@ Happy Hippo,

 

Hello there! Yes I remember that track towards Donnington. I used to live next to it at leegomery.  Remember class 31 / 33's (?) with short goods trains coming past. And also once with flatbeds with the humber 4x4 recce vechiles. This is back in the early eighties.

 

Also that there was a big fire at that MoD place which was followed by a big Asbest scare. I think i was about 5 then

 

I dont suppose you have that article at all about wellington? I would love to see it!

And also any pictures of the layouts you mentioned? Would be great to see how you guys make it?

 

Which time setting have you guys chosen?

 

I have gone for the track layout from 1959, it offers the most for operations. (the mainline, engine shed on the church side and the  bay platform where the branchlines terminated)

 

I'm going to try and be so true as possibly but this being my first layout ever I'm shure I'll probably make a few concessions here and there.

 

See the below picture for the module I'm currently working on.

Do you maybe know what kind of crossing the what i have marked as singleslip was?

 

 

For the rest, just been prepping the turnouts and doing my first bit of soldering!

And drawing in where the approx center of the rails will come.

 

 

1: I movedthe siding up closer to the mainline. Was nt happy with it so far away.

2: Prepping all the turnouts

3: Drawing in the track centers

 

 

Thats it so far ...

 

Regards Breaklight

[westerner]

No body seems to have mentioned there was a well known EM (I think) exhibition layout of Wellington. If my memory serves me right they even gravity shunted the bay platform. The last time I saw it was at Splading (I Think) a few years ago.

[Barry Ten]

No body seems to have mentioned there was a well known EM (I think) exhibition layout of Wellington. If my memory serves me right they even gravity shunted the bay platform. The last time I saw it was at Splading (I Think) a few years ago.

 

That's the David Amias layout as mentioned a few posts above. It was in Railway Modeller a long time ago, and also (I think) a bit more recently in Model Rail. It's a fine looking layout.

[SNCF stephen]

Having spent many a morning in the Platelayer Cafe as a student I am looking forward to seeing this one develop. You have made some good progress with the trackwork (certainly faster than I could ever hope to achieve). Good luck with this one.