Northam Central

[norseman]

My workbench was converted into a reasonably finished layout in three busy weeks leading up to the Stavanger exhibition last weekend. I managed to cover all remaining white spots viewable from the public during a hectic Friday night, and had to accept that not all houses had chimney pots, guttering and downpipes finished. My football ground lay empty as well, as ordered spectators at ebay where smaller than h0, even though they were announced as 00 scale.

 

As a relative newbie to the hobby I had the same feeling prior to exhibiting as I had prior to important games when I played football a decade ago. I learned a lot, not least to allow at least two hours for set-up time, even though my 8-year old boy did a great job assisting me. As I was so busy finishing the scenic part of the layout, the fiddle yard took second prioritiy, and was finished an hour after the exhibition started. A bit embarrasing, as was the fact that a couple of locos failed to run on the Saturday, as well as one of the two controllers I had brought with me. Much appreciated help from two senior members at the Stavanger club with the locos made them ready for Sunday, though, where I also could enhance the fiddle yard to enable me to run more stock.

 

Despite all help I had to make it simple, running just a double track line through the layout, and because of only having one controller I ran just one train at the time, having to change all the points in the hastily arranged and temporary fiddle yard by hand. Still I got a lot of positive encouragement from more experienced modellers, and many viewers were particularly interested in the football ground. (event though it lacked details like seats, floodlights and crush barriers).

 

My layout depicts a fictious Northern town east of Manchester. My rolling stock concist of two Pacers in light blue livery, a Class 156 in Regional Railways livery, a couple of 155s in Metro Train livery, a class 101 in yellow/blue. All trains I think was appropriate for the aera in the early 90s before privatisation. As my line is fictious I also included diverted HSTs, a steam exursion train (4-6-0 Patriot) my son insisted on running as it is his. My limited fleet of goods trains was a 47 and a 60, one hauling a rake of petrol wagons and one a rake of seacows.

 

Probably not the most exiting layout in terms of operating potensial, but a great way for a beginner to take his first careful steps in scenic modelling. I now have promised my lad to build a couple of similar sections, but with the thought that he should be able to play with cars on it as well as run trains. I will have to build it all in modules as we don't have space enough for a permanent railway room, but the plan is to turn the sections inwards when we run trains at home, sitting with the back to each other and running trains to and from each other's stations.

 

A last point I learned from the week end: Some have claimed that railway modellers are smelly old (or not so old) men. I now understand why: It takes it's toll setting up your layout in a damp location. My wife sent me directly to the shower both days when we returned home!

 

Here are a few pics:

 

Proud first time exhibitors!

Football ground, still needing a lot of detail. Only managed to put up a few advertising hoardings as time got spare.

Layout after finishing set up

A class 60 speeding through the layout

Same, but different view

 

Nice to see people being interested.

A HST pulling through the station

A bit of photoshopping, with sky above the "Saracens Head".

Edited February 4, 2012 by norseman

[0O00]

Hi there

 

Love the football ground idea. Like you say, just need a few supporters (and the smell of pies and bovril wafting from under the layout)!!!

 

Alex

[russellwar]

Great Start to your career!

 

As it should be trains in a landscape.

 

Love the football groung (if the team play in blue and white )

 

Keep up the good worl!

[norseman]

I have to admit working day and night on the layout to have it as ready as possible for the exhibition took it's toll on me. Work since has been scarce, and because of the cold Norwegian winter I have not been able to take the layout outdoor for any decent photo shooting either.

 

To answer a few questions by the last poster (thanks for kind words about the layout)!

 

- The exhibition was at Stavanger Norway, organised by the Stavanger Model Railway Club. Just seven layouts attending, but the exhibition was about modelling and hobbies in general, bringing in all sorts of exhibiters.

 

 

- The scenic part is only appr. 244 cm long and 70 cm wide. I built a temporary fiddle yard enabling roundy-roundy running, but with four sidings at each end in addition to four tracks going round. I plan to use this as a basis when I finally get on to making the fiddle yard permanent. The whole idea was to construct a layout that I would be able to finish, and as I am more interested in scenery than having a complex track plan I ended up with having just two plain tracks running through a station. Below is what the layout looked like from behind at the exhibition:

 

 

- As for the football ground, plans are to include at least a few hundred spectators, and to have players on the pitch, either warming up or playing. I think about crowding the streets outside, which should indicate that there still are a few minutes until kick-off. I have no idea about the time it will take. So far I have only purchased five hundred unpainted "chinese" spectators.

 

[DIRTY DIESEL]

Your Main stand has a look of the old main stand at Watford about it and behind the go is Altringham, football and trains you've just had the thumbs up off my 7 year old lad.

Im glad you went for the old looking ground look instead of the Flat Pack Ikea things that they now put up with no charm or history.

Fantastic layout.

 

Stu

 

MUFCUM

[pauln]

Lovely layout, especially considering it was done so quickly. Could you tell me how you are doing the road surfaces and markings please - they look good.

[norseman]

The road markings were carefully measured and made using Adobe Indesign software, and then converted into pdf-files. First I printed them at home to see if my measuring was right. After a lot of adjustments I finally got the pdf-files printed on self-adhesive paper at a local printshop. Quite cheap as well as an A3 sheet cost about a pound. The adhesive is a bit poor though, and tend to loosen some places.

 

I originally wanted to paint the road and markings with acrylics, but found I didn't have a steady enough hand to get it right. I am not entirely satisfied with the solution I went for, as the colour seem a bit too artificial compared to real tarmac. However, as you probably will agree: It is all part of the learning curve.

[Rammy]

Great looking layout. My 8 year old lad would love me to put a football pitch on my layout, I'm sure.

Can't wait for the 500 chinese spectators to arrive! lol

I think you have the same bus as me, the Trent Barton 92 to Derby? I also have the matching return bus to Ripley.

Keep up the good work.

 

Dave

[norseman]

I have finally got back into some serious modelling after a few months with ice hockey and skiing taking main priority. Best (or worst, if you don't like snow and ice) winter in south-west Norway for almost 70 years is finally coming to an end, and it is time to go ahead with an extention to Northam Central. I thought about having a siding into a brewery yard, but as I run modern stock it is probably not very prototypical. Because of that I have changed plan to include a single track branch line disapearing behind the brewery into the backscene, but with a (derelict?) siding into the brewery just to be able to shunt a but if I want.

 

The card boards are out on to the dinner table, and a few buildings are taking shape, all scratchbuilt using card and brick paper. Not the best photos, but here are a few samples:

 

 

 

 

 

I will also include the Metcalfe Petrol Station and signal box, both which have long been constructed, on the new boards.

 

Plan of the layout extention is as shown below:

 

[Arpleymodeller]

Nice football ground model B)

[Sasquatch]

Great layout! I like the heavy police presence, it adds to the atmosphere.

How did you get on exhibiting a british layout in Norway? Mixed reception huh I bet they all asked which football club.

[Trainsrgr8]

Looks great, crammed full of atmosphere! Your extension plan looks great too, really promising!

 

Danny

[norseman]

Two new baseboards are now constructed, increasing the overall length to appr. 16 feet. I had to compromise a bit in the new corner as I didn't have space enough to let the track disappear right at the edge of the scenic boards, as my "railway room" is only appr 18 feet long. To be able to run trains at home I need to have part of the curve back into the fiddleyard underneath a scenic corner, now consisting of a main road leading out of town. I have started building from this corner, and will work my way towards the "old" layout. A few buildings need to be finished, but today I scattered Javis tarmac on the roads, after first painting the cards black/grey, and then gluing thin strips of paper for road marking. Reasonably happy with the result and much more realistic than the printed roads I have used on the first part of the layout.

 

Here are a few updated pics on the progress:

 

Two new scenic boards in place

 

Busy traffic on the main road, while the corner shop need some goods in the shop windows.

 

Close up on the road markings

 

Scratch built terraced shops

 

Overview of the scenic corner

 

From another angle, showing the track disappearing under a bridge

[xkopite]

Hey Norseman,

Any more progress with spectators and have you thought about floodlights to finish the ground scene off.

Any more pics please.

[JackBlack]

Nice layout. The plan isn't on here for me.

[norseman]

Home after Northam Central's second exhibition at the Stavanger club. Now measuring 610x70 cm, built on five seperate baseboards, it was a lot bigger than it's first outing a year ago. With reasonable finished scenics I got a lot of positive comments. And many couldn't quite believe that all but two buildings (petrol station and signal box)were built with cereal packets and mounting board, as plastic is used by almost all Norwegian modellers.

 

I ran it together with a friend, with my young son drifting in now and then to help out with the industrial siding. Quite a few kids also had a go at the shunting.

 

A turntable fiddleyard in each end proved quite succesful, even though I made the mistake of running too small radius into the fiddle yards, making some trains derail now and then.

 

A great experience to exhibit once again, Thanks to the lads from the Stavanger club for setting up a great show!

 

Below are som pics, mostly from the new sections. Apologies for few pics having trains. I will post a video later with footage of the running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[marsa69]

Excellent

[pauln]

That's a really nice layout. So many litle details to pick out.

[mudmagnet]

I really like the way the buildings nestle into the back scene. Great work.

[norseman]

Video from layout at exhibition can be found at youtube

 

Also found some other pics from the exhibition at a Norwegian MR forum at http://www.norskmjforum.no/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7390

 

[Sasquatch]

Great layout. Loved watching that video too!

[George Hudson]

Excellent "feel good" layout with plenty to see and some really original touches. You have created something with an individual stamp on it. Loved the video too!

Keep posting the updates.

Andrew

[norseman]

Thanks for good feedback. The thing is "Northam Central" has been put to rest for the moment, as it is too big to set up in full length at home. The layout was built without too many thoughts about it's long term use, as I had set a target to exhibit at a local exhibition in October 2010. All points are short ones and insulfrog as well. So at the moment I consider it's future. I have space enough to store it, and sometimes put up about half of it and have small running sections with my kids. We even featured in our local newspaper on Christmas Eve-two full pages!

 

 

But as Northam Central has not been a priority over the last year or so, I have kept making buildings, as that is my main interest within the hobby. The plan is to move all kinds of rubbish away from an insulated shed 325x190 cm and use that as a permanent railway room. It means that Northam Central will be stored there, and I will build another layout, portable if necessary, but mainly for the purpose of entertaining us at home. It will be set in the same era, around 1987-1993, but will feature a small town terminus, a combined goods yard and industrial sidings, and also a country section where my boy can have his farm, and play with cars/tractors etc.

[norseman]

After being stored away in my shed for the best part of the last two years, Northam Central had a rare glimpse of daylight today as I took it to a children-fun-day at my local church. Two simple loop-fiddle-yards made it a dogbone layout, as it had to be simple for the kids to have a go at driving themselves. Loads of kids coming in to see it, plus many dads who spent most of the day in front of the layout while their kids where enjoying other actitivites such as bouncing castles, inflatable slides, sumo wrestling and driving radio cars.

 

No prototypical running, but here are a few pics and a short video;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, being back in the shed, with the smaller winther project above it:

 

 

A short video from Youtube

 

[ollieholmes]

A very nice layout and its nice to see it growing.