Reddibus

Work is continuing on Smallwood. We have now wired the point motors into the DCC accessary decoder on the station baseboard and we are now making more of the building that make up the town area. Also the glazing has been completed on the station canopy – just now need to weather it!

Part of the scrap yard on the lower level

A view of the town area that covers the area in front of the fiddle yard

Looking grand

Looking grand

• A view along the layout with the recently completed lighting unit above it

The disused low-level station is a good idea, I thought about doing similar based on Holborn viaduct low level.

The low level is totally separate from the top section and will be used as exchange siding for freight trains. A key trip working will be bulk oil tankers. The idea is that the area was a low level station that was closed in steam days

Looking grand

Thanks we are working hard to get the layout ready for our 50th anniversary exhibition on 16th and 17th September

I'm sorry for the break in posting about the layout but we are progressing well on the layout.

 

After starting to use our own hand made track we decided it would take too much work to get to work well so we have now used Peco code 75 track. All this now wired for DCC and all of the point motors are connected. Some still need wiring up to static DCC decoders.

 

Around 50% of the track is ballasted and we are progress well with the buildings

A view of a scratch built block of flats for our Smallwood layout

I'm sorry for the break in posting about the layout but we are progressing well on the layout.

After starting to use our own hand made track we decided it would take too much work to get to work well so we have now used Peco code 75 track. All this now wired for DCC and all of the point motors are connected. Some still need wiring up to static DCC decoders.

Around 50% of the track is ballasted and we are progress well with the buildings

Do you mean the app? If so I don't think they've written one for pc's unless there's an emulator that will run android apps on a laptop?

Hi

All the publicity for the Z21 shows that you can control trains/layout via a PC that is connected via a cable to the system rather than via a wireless system so how do you get this PC to run the software ??? 

hi

does anyone know how I download the download program I have got on my tablet onto a normal laptop computer

thanks

Since the Christmas break we have been working hard to clad the retaining walls in plastikard brick and finishing the all over roof for the station. Work will start on wiring the lower level tracks very shortly with a view to get some trains running

From the Smallwood team at the Redditch Model Railway Club - www.redditch-mrc.com for more details

One of the Class 37 locomotives and tankers that will operate on Smallwood is seen on test on one of the Club's other exhibition layouts

Attached is a track plan for Smallwod

Smallwood Track Plan.pdf

I will get a track plan posted shortly

Hi

Not from quiet the same era as the layout is set in the 1960's but the attached shows an advertising hording we have recently added to the Oakenshaw layout the Redditch Model Railway Club are currently constructing

The posters came off the internet via one of the sites selling full sized posters. Many of these sites put low resulution images of the posters to attact buyers. For the size need for a model railway layout many are usage images

Hi Karl,

The short answer is no we don't have a fixed completition date for the layout.

We are building partly as a test bed for a much larger DCC layout based in the same mid 70's blue diesel era we plan to build very soon. The layout will however be a fully working exhibition layout. I suspect it could make some sort debut in 2015 whether at our Club show in September 2015 or at another show if there are any exhibition managers who what to stick their neck out and invite the layout to their show

We are not adverse to exhibiting the layout in a part finished state. However the size of the layout means once the track is laid and the main structures are made there will be very little space for lots of scenery so it will be easy to create something farly complete fairly quickly

thanks

As well as constructing the station we have another Club Member who has been busy making the track which is scratch built on copper clad sleepers to oo gauge. All the points are built around full size templetes. Everything including the crossing V's are made from plain SMP rail

A few more pictures of the Station progress over the last week or so

The Smallwood layout objectives are :

• It will be a terminus to fiddle yard arrangement of a total layout length of 15 feet
• It will be set in the mid 1970's very much in the blue diesel era
• It will be built to 4mm finescale OO gauge
• It will feature scratch built code 75 track
• It will be DCC operated with lots of sound locomotives
• The layout will have two layers an upper four platform station and lower freight exchange yard
• It is being built as a test bed for a much larger layout set in the same era of a prototypical location - details will be posted in due course until then we will keep people guessing what it will be!
• Layout will be available for both one day or two and shows
• Will be built to usual standards for a Redditch Model Railway Club exhibition layout of correctly detailed and weathered trains for the era portrayed

This is sounding good and that overall roof is looking impressive already. Shall be following with interest. Not to far away from you either living just out side Birmingham. Been to your club exhibition a couple of times over the years.
Good luck with this project.
Happy New Year

Regards

Marcus

Hi Marcus

Thanks for the post

You maybe interested to know the whole of the roof is made of thick card with the curved sections coming from the card board circular ends of cable drums. Once it is all stuck together and painted you can't tell

Regards

A picture of the station under construction

Smallwood is a new exhibition layout is currently under construction by Members of the Redditch Model Railway Club.

It is 1976 which is best remembered for the long hot summer and the Montreal Olympic Games. On television we have the delights of When the Boat Comes in, George and Mildred and Noel Edmund's Multi Coloured Swap Shop has just started on Saturday mornings. Steam traction ended nearly 10 years ago and the railways have yet to change significantly other than the total  use of diesel and electric power. This is because of continued under investment and the industrial unrest that went with the 1970's. This in itself creates an interesting period in railway history to model. 

We are in the railway backwater of Smallwood a town somewhere in England with a terminal station that has seen better days. Some of glass has long since gone from the all over station roof and the provision of four platforms are from an era of far more affluent times than the current general run down appearance. The station still boasts a parcel depot as well as a small stabling point for DMU's.

The future will see further rationalisation as the Sprinter trains are introduced in the 1980's and the parcel depot is closed.   At a slightly lower level below the station are the remains of another station that now serve as exchange sidings for a number of local industrial concerns. These sidings would only just see out the 1970's becoming part of the town's bypass road   The layout is 15 feet long and 1 1/2 feet wide and is being been built as a test bed for a much larger layout based in the same blue diesel era.

The layout will be fully operated using DCC and features both scratch built track and buildings. Locomotives and rolling stock are a mixture of kit built and ready run items all suitably weathered and detailed for the era portrayed. The layout has been designed to create an interesting variety of prototypical train movements in a relatively small area. 

More details will be posted as the layout progresses