Collaford BR(W) in OO

[Taz]

Collaford is my home based OO roundy roundy layout.

It's a fictional location but is based somewhere to the east of Plymouth on the ex GW main line in 1960.

I have based it loosely on Ivybridge (station immediately adjacent to a viaduct) but to provide more operational interest there is a branch line leading up onto South Dartmoor. The primary reason for this lines existence is china clay traffic but there will be enough justfication for a branch autotrain.

This initial sketch:

 

 

developed into this Templot plan:

 

 

Thanks to all who helped on my layout planning thread on RmWeb3 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=39922

 

I am fortunate to have a double garage which I have converted to give me a space 16.5' x 11.5'

I intend to use smp plain track with hand built turnouts using c&l plastic components. As the up line between Plymouth & Newton Abbot had been relaid in Flat bottom rail by 1960 I am also thinking about using Colin Craig components to represent this.

The fiddleyard will use peco Code 100 for the simple reason that I have loads of the stuff left over from my teenage layout.

With a demanding job and a young family I don't always have a lot of time to dedicate to modelling so this is going to be a long term project that will take years (decades?) to complete.

[Taz]

As this layout is a long term project I wanted to give it a decent home. This meant I wanted to do a proper conversion of the garage.

Fortunately my garage is double skinned and has a pitched roof. By creating a partition stud wall I was able to create a 16.5' x 11.5' train room and still be able to use the front up and over doors to access a shortened garage area where the bikes, lawnmower etc could live.

 

The first job I had to do was add an extra window into the rear wall of the garage to allow in extra light. This was a simple job of cutting a hole into the wall and slotting in a Wickes off the shelf upvc window.

 

The father in law busy cutting into the garage.

 

I also took the oportunity to replace the existing door and window with upvc items.

 

A stud wall was constructed and lined with plaster board. I also clad all the inside walls and the ceiling with plaster board.

The ceiling and stud wall were well insulated, spot lights added and then the whole lot was skimmed over by a plasterer (the only job I didn't do myself).

A couple of coats of white paint later and some lino on the floor and the room was finished. I has intended to document this as I went along but unfortunately my camera packed up during this stage.

 

This is the inside of the garage before the stud wall went up

 

This is the completed room from a similar angle.

 

I had some old kitchen units I had kept back and they went into the room to provide storage for tools etc. The layout will live above these.

 

This is the view taking in the new window

 

and looking out the existing door and window

 

This is the front of the garage through the up and over doors showing the other side of the partition wall.

[Taz]

Once the room was finished the first job was to get the baseboards up. I'll freely admit that I'm not a great woodworker and struggle to cut anything in a straight line. However, although the end result might not be pretty it is strong and level, which is what counts at the end of the day.

 

I started off by putting up 3"x1" battens up around the walls to support the baseboards.

 

 

They were set at a height of 39". This was tall enough to clear the kitchen units but short enough to fit under the window sills.

 

The baseboards themselves are made of 9mm ply. I used the ply to make a box structure, braced with 2"x2" blocks in the corners. A lip was left to slide over the wall mounted battens.

 

 

In hindsight this was completely unecessary for a permanent layout and I could have saved myself lots of trouble by just building a frame out of 3"x1" with the ply only used for the top surface.

The supporting legs were constructed of 2"x2" timber with adjustable feet to allow fine tuning whilst levelling the boards.

 

I bought these years ago from Red Dog for a previous portable layout which never got beyond the baseboard stage.

 

The first board goes up.

 

The individual boards where bolted to each other to form the circuit.

 

The fiddleyard boards

 

The scenic section with the printed out templot plan stuck down.

 

For the area where the viaduct will be I built a lower section and cut out the trackbed using the templot plan as a guide.

 

The wooden supports for this are tempoarily in place. Once I have finalised the design of the viaduct spans I will put in something more permanent.

 

Once this was all done I looked at designing the layout of the fiddleyard, using peco paper turnout templates. It soon became clear to me that unless I was not going to use half the width of the board the radius of the inside turnouts would drop down to 18" (2nd Radius). As I would like to use 3 links and the like I did some quick and dirty experimentation with a 2nd radius set track circle and it quickly became obvious to me that I would suffer with buffer lock on longer 4 wheel stock using 3 links.

This left me with a dilema of either changing my desired coupling method or rethinking the fiddleyard.

In the end I decided to rip out the fiddleyard boards and build a traverser in their place.

So a trip to ScrewFix for some heavy duty drawer runners and much woodwork later and I ended up with this:

 

 

It is over 9' long and will take 12 to 14 tracks, each capable of holding a 9 coach express. Not quite scale length but very satisfactory.

The approach track on the inside loop will still be a quite tight 24" but this should cope with the couplings I want to use.

 

The only remaining job then was to create the lifting section that would go next to the entry door:

 

open

 

closed

 

Now that is all done I can finally move onto track laying.

From starting on the garage conversion to this point has taken me a year.

[Waverley West]

 

A very nice layout room you've created for yourself there, Brian. Nice work. 16 x 11 is a good size too.

 

Looking forward to seeing the layout and thread develop.

 

Cheers,

Dave

Waverley West

 

 

[7APT7]

Hi Brian

 

Nice work on the progress of the layout with good strong base board that should last the test of time. Wish I have the same amount of space. I take it there is going to be some kind of viaduct in the one corner...? I look forward with interest of the progress and the regular updates of photos...

 

It great to see a new layout from the start and to see it transform into the lively layout with plenty of atmosphere, just like Dave's Waverly West's...

 

Warm Regards

Jamie

[Taz]

Thanks guys.

 

Dave, if I can get even close to the standard of your work I'll be a very happy boy

 

Jamie, yes there will be a viaduct in the corner. Not quite as big as the full drop down baseboards but at this time I am not 100% sure on how I am going to tackle it so I gave myself more room than I need. I think a field trip out to Ivybridge to photograph a real viaduct could be on the cards soon.

 

Cheers.

[edcayton]

They did something like this in Colditz and built a glider behind it! Whoever gets this garage after you had better like Smart cars!

 

Ed

[Anglian]

All looks great. Your wood working skills are far greater than you think!

[gwrrob]

Taz,thats a very nice set up going on there.I will follow your build with interest as I too model the Western mainlne in South Devon albeit in GW days.Plenty of Castles perhaps ?

[Brinkly]

Looks very nice so far Brian, I take it the viaduct will form a style of Pendon Dartmoor Scene forming the centre piece?

 

Regards,

 

Nick

[Taz]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

 

Whoever gets this garage after you had better like Smart cars!

Hopefully I won't be moving for a long time, if ever. Worst case scenario is its half a days work to rip out the stud wall

 

Taz,thats a very nice set up going on there.I will follow your build with interest as I too model the Western mainlne in South Devon albeit in GW days.Plenty of Castles perhaps ?

 

Robin, I have ben following your layout as well. Can't have too many Western layouts or Castles!

 

Looks very nice so far Brian, I take it the viaduct will form a style of Pendon Dartmoor Scene forming the centre piece?

 

Nick, I don't think it will be quite as impressive as Pendon - for a start its a fraction of the size. Fortunately some of the river valeys in the area can be quite narrow and steep. What I would like to model though, and which I haven't seen before, is the disused pillars of the previous broad gauge trestle viaduct next to the in use one.

[Karhedron]

Can't have too many Western layouts or Castles!

Well said!

 

That looks a very impressive layout and I am envious to say the least. If you have not already done so perhaps you might want to take a look at Iain Rice's "Mainlines in modest spaces". He has a layout for Bodmin Road in a similar space that really caught my eye when I was going through it. Of course you may not want to change anything at this stage but since the prototype is very close to what you are planning anyway it might be worth a look.

[westerner]

I can't agree more with Karhedron, about the planned layout but also DO take a look at Iain Rice's book. I only wish that my space had been 4ft bigger all round and I might have had a go at it, rather than the single track mini version that is Wencombe.

I shall be following with great interest.

[Taz]

That looks a very impressive layout and I am envious to say the least. If you have not already done so perhaps you might want to take a look at Iain Rice's "Mainlines in modest spaces". He has a layout for Bodmin Road in a similar space that really caught my eye when I was going through it. Of course you may not want to change anything at this stage but since the prototype is very close to what you are planning anyway it might be worth a look.

 

can't agree more with Karhedron, about the planned layout but also DO take a look at Iain Rice's book. I only wish that my space had been 4ft bigger all round and I might have had a go at it, rather than the single track mini version that is Wencombe.

I shall be following with great interest.

 

Thanks guys. I have had a quick look for the book but can't find it in stock anywhere (apart from a couple of SH dealers who are asking quite a lot for it).

 

Alan, yours is another layout I am following and is providing lots of inspiration for me

[BlackRat]

Excellent! really looking forward to seeing this one develop!

 

Brill use of the garage, no excuse for anyone out there with a garage saying they dont have room for a layout now!!!

[Oldfield_Park]

Looks like a great plan (and room) you have there!

 

One thing you may find of interest. This area of Devon was subjected to significant flooding during late summer and early autumn 1960, which saw parts of the line between Exeter and Plymouth swept away. I should imagine a lot of the mainline trains were diverted through Tavistock and Okehampton but with a bit of modellers licence it might provide you with an opportunity to run expresses from Penzance into the station to terminate and run-round, passengers making their way onto replacement buses. Might add an extra bit of operational interest.

[Taz]

Time has been short recently but I have made some progress.

To start with I am concentrating on the traverser. As said above I have loads of Peco Code 100 left over from a previous layout so all my offstage track will be laid with this.

I have laid 1" strips of copperclad down the ends of the traverser boards and where the feeder tracks meet the traverser. The rails are then soldered to this. I have fabricated a simple allignment and locking mechanism with bits of copper tube and rod (curtesy of Eileens):

 

 

Power is fed to traverser through two of the all metal drawer runners. These are each connected to one of the copperclad strips which are then 'gapped' with a disk cutter to ensure power only goes to one rail. Copper wire is soldered from line to line so all will be permanently powered.

 

 

I have also rigged up a complete circuit of code 100 so I can at last start to see something running.

 

One of the first runs - the two new castles on the Cornish Riveira Express:

 

 

The loco in the foreground is one that started it all - a 1982 vintage Mainline Standard4.

 

I have also settled on DCC and have purchased a Roco MultiMaus and a hand full of decoders. I chose this because I prefer rotary controlers, it's relatively cheap, and if the DCC bug bites big time it is comaptible with Lenz equipment

 

Next to my venerable Duette which is currently powering the layout.

[Dudley Dodger]

The duette's a fantastic controller. you can make almost any gearing a realistic speed with it.

That aside, It's coming on well. I'd lose patience by this point.

[gwrrob]

Time has been short recently but I have made some progress.

One of the first runs - the two new castles on the Cornish Riveira Express:

 

 

Don't forget a nice Fox Transfers CRE headboard on the front Castle Taz.Very nice. B)

[NSE 108]

The duette's a fantastic controller. you can make almost any gearing a realistic speed with it.

That aside, It's coming on well. I'd lose patience by this point.

 

and they just seam to last forever.

[Taz]

Thanks guys

 

That aside, It's coming on well. I'd lose patience by this point.

 

I know what you mean, but I started this knowing it would take years to finish. I'll get there in the end

 

Don't forget a nice Fox Transfers CRE headboard on the front Castle Taz.Very nice.

 

Yep, headboards are on the to do ( or is that to get) list.

 

 

and they just seam to last forever.

 

Yep, my Duette dates from my first 'train set' in 1982. Since then it has been abused, left in damp garages (note the rust on the casing) but it is still going strong. If it wasn't for going digital I would probably keep using it.

[westerner]

Good to see this one moving forward. By the way what is the turquoise material you have laid your track on? and thanks for the comments about Wencombe.

[Taz]

Good to see this one moving forward. By the way what is the turquoise material you have laid your track on? and thanks for the comments about Wencombe.

 

It's foam underlay for laminate floors, from Screw Fix. It's 3mm thick and resonably dense. I am trying it out as an alternative to cork underlay.

Once I have finished the traverser I'll give the whole lot a spray over with grey paint so it isn't so gaudy.

[Allegheny1600]

This is an interesting situation which I also find myself pondering about.

 

All the points on my scenic area will be hand built and I have recently aquired all the C&L and Exactoscale components I will need for this, including C&L roller gauges and b2b gauge. These are set to14.8mm b2b.

I will only have one peco point in my off stage area (I am using a traverser).

So far I have been concentrating my meagre modelling time on laying the track on the traverser. To test my track laying as I go I have two test trains - 1 Bachmann Mk1 rake and 1 freight train consisting of a mix of 4w stock.

I have opened up the b2b on these to 14.8mm using the C&L gauge. This wasn't as straight forward as I'd hoped with several of the Mk1's developing an anoying squeel since I have done this and Bachman's standard 4w fitted underframe needing some plastic filed away to take wheelsets with the increased b2b.

None of this stock has any problem with my single peco small radius point.

 

Question is, should I persist with the rest of my stock or will 'as supplied' RTR b2b work fine on handbuilt turnouts constructed with C&L roller gauges? Or should I look at an alternative source of gauges? I think some experimentation will be required once I move onto turnout construction.

 

I am prepared to modify all my b2b if necessary but it would be a shame if that meant my stock wouldn't work on other peoples layouts or their 'standard' stock on mine.

 

 

Hi Brian,

Forgive me but i've quoted from the question you raised in the topic on back to backs!

I believe that you've given yourself a two fold problem here! At least!

 

1; by opening up the b2b's on your RTR stock (using the original wheel sets!) you're now placing the front of the wheels into close contact with the bogie/body mouldings, hence the squeals! Although RTR stock can allow easy replacement with EM wheel sets (with larger b2b's) the wheels themselves are so much thinner, the overall width of the complete wheelset is not too different. Going that little bit more, into P4 - can cause this sort of problem!

 

2; if using a 14.8mm b2b and building pointwork to match - you are actually building in 00 fine! Great, well done! However, you would really need to rewheel all your stock with finer wheels to get reliable running. Once you've done this - that Peco point will no longer work very well!

 

3; You will no longer be able to have stock exchanges - reliably! I'm not saying it won't work at all - just not so well!

 

My suggestion would be to change your gauges over to ordinary 00 gauges, rather than 00 fine. This would mean setting your flangeways and check rails back to contemporay Peco standards and resetting your b2b's to 14.5mm.

I hope you have not gone too far with your track building program to be able to do this.

I'm not advocating a return to Peco points, either! You can still build the excellent C&L track, giving you a lovely British look to the track - you just have to beware of mixing standards! This is assuming that you still want to do stock exchanges and not bother with re-wheeling everything!

Hope you're not too confused,

Best regards,

John E.

[Taz]

John,

 

Thanks for taking the time to give me your advice.

I haven't started any point building yet so it's not too late to change plans if necessary.

 

 

Regarding standards, I want to get it as fine as possible but still be practical.

 

I'm planing on using the methods described by Norman Solomon in the excelent Right Track DVD series. So I won't be using the roller gauges to set the check rail spacings but will construct a U shaped jig out of three small pieces of copper clad sleeper. This will give a check rail spacing of 1.06mm.

I have just checked the DVD again and Norman uses a test bogie with one wheelset set at 14.8mm b2b and one at 14.5mm b2b.

 

I think what I shall have to do is get a 14.5mm b2b as well and use that as my minimum and adjust upwards if there are any problems.

 

I am surprised at your comments regarding the wheels. I though most modern RTR used RP25 standard wheels which I thought was the same as required for EM. There certainly seem to be plenty of examples on this forum where EM modellers have just pushed out RTR wheels on their axles for quick and easy conversion to EM. I have no problem rewheeling my older stock (I am already most of the way through an exercise to rewheel all my older plastic wheeled stock).

I will take another look at my test coaches which squeel though. I did check that there was free movement when I converted them but I can see that if there is any side to side movement in the axles then the wheel faces could rub against the sides of the bogies. As the issue only seems to affect a couple of axles in the entire 9 coach rake you may indeed have pointed me in the direction of the cause.

 

Many thanks again