Heinz57

Funny you should say that but I have been thinking about adding OHLE on some of the tracks, perhaps just the back two tracks and some of the top left sidings, I haven't fully decided yet. However, I am more torn towards not adding them to allow me to back-date the layout and run it in a pre-wires period (I have loads of MML stock to create this alternate period). I also know how much of a pain in the behind it can be on a transportable layout! Cheers for looking, Matt

26/06/2021 - No Going Back Now! Good evening all, Construction has finally started on Venture Park! I have built the four scenic baseboards over the past couple of weeks. I have constructed the frames from 3x1 planed PSE timber with 9mm Plywood tops. This shows the three scenic boards that I will use at home sat on the bench with the extension board lent up to the right. Next job is to tidy up the screw holes with filler and give the boards a lick of paint top and bottom, then fit legs after. I am in no rush to do this as I haven't got any track yet. Thanks for looking, Matt

Locos and coaches! Looks like it was a successful running session. Great to see the layout up and running! Onwards and upwards pal!

Hi Ian, Thanks for those photos, they give a great view of the pics. Perfect for me! I think what I might do then, is use an 'I' beam created from either brass or Plastruct that I can solder or glue the rail to. These could then be sat atop a series of 'concrete' pillars created from plastic. Should be strong enough? Cheers, Matt

Hi buddy, My layout will be a HST servicing depot, and will carry out all levels of maintenance to them. Similar perhaps to Leeds Neville Hill or Bristol St Philip's Cheers, Matt

Thanks chaps, Ian those photos are most helpful. It looks like in that depot there is a horizontal steel or concrete lintal on top of the supports that the track sits on, am I right? Cheers, Matt

Hi Ian, Thanks very much for your help. The diagram is very interesting, its given me loads of ideas not just for the pits but the entire shed! I am modeling modern image so if you do have any more photos I would be very interested in looking if you are willing to share, I'm sure they will definatly give me some insperation and ideas. Cheers, Matt

Hi all, I will be including inspection pits in the shed on my new layout, however I want to do them differant to the typical Peco 'trough' style pit. Instead I'm interested in doing the 'open' style similar to the ones at Nevile Hill... (Disclaimer, these are not my photos. They were found on Google) It looks like they are actualy at two levels, outside of the rails is just low enough to put you at head height with the wheels whilst between the tracks is lower again to allow you to walk under the train. So my question is what is the best and easiest way for me to acheive this? I will be doing it on two tracks across a length of just under 4ft. So they will be quite long! I know I'll need to drop a big section of the baseboard, but thats about as far as I've got! Cheers, Matt

It looks great pal! Now all the track is 100% done and everything is up and running its like a huge milestone has been reached! My DRS stock is ready for the running session!

Thanks chaps, glad you like the idea! Nick, the layout will be 00 built using bullhead points and SMP track. I thought I'd post this too, its just a closer up view of the three boards that will create the shorter 'home' layout... I'm really looking forward to getting this project started. I have already orderd my baseboard materials with my local woodyard! Cheers, Matt

31/05/2021 - Change of Plan There's been a change of plan. So true to his word above, Simon sat on AnyRail until the small hours of Sunday morning coming up with a new plan for me. It was waiting for me in an email on Sunday morning. I was absolutely blown away by it! A few minor changes were made on Sunday and a few emails and WhatsApp messages were fired back and forth until the plan was finalised to something which is ultimate perfection... The plan is based on the track layout at Derby Etches Park, straight away eliminating the 'back and forth' that Eleveden Road seemed to have. Look, don't get me wrong Elveden did have a good track plan and was great for the knowledge and space available at the time. To this day I still stand by it was a good plan, and so is the one above. But this new plan just stomps all over it! It is actually bigger measuring a grand old 23.5ft by 2ft6 deep! First off, I'll say I don't have that space available to me at home, so what we actually have is two layouts in one. Let me explain, the first three boards from the left create a smaller 13ft version that I use at home. The two entrance tracks above the central shed create a scenic fiddleyard. The next two boards create an extended layout for at shows. The first version of this plan Simon sent to me was 17.5ft and just had the extra scenic board creating two headshunts. I then suggested what about adding a proper fiddleyard and added a 4.5ft traverser. Simon then extended this to the final version which is a teeny bit over 6ft in length. This will now allow me to run a shortened HST into the fuel tracks at the front of the layout. I'm thinking East Midlands Trains (ex Grand Central) buffer fitted sets. The plan features a couple of subtle nods to my original Elveden Road plan, such as the shed in the top right corner (although it will probably be low relief on this layout). It will also operate the same as Elveden or indeed my plan above. However it will also allow for a lot more movement. The smaller shed will be used for DMUs and power cars whilst the main shed in the middle of the layout will be for coaching stock. There's a couple of CET and fuel tracks, plus a lathe shed. The entrance to the fiddleyard will be disguised with a road bridge (again a nod to the original layout) which in the case of this layout will be the A14 approaching J9 from the East setting the location of the layout. I could sit and type all day about the plan but I will probably bore you all to death. I think this plan is that good it speaks for itself. I am beyond happy with it, cheers Simon! Thanks everyone for looking, hope you like the new plan as much as I do! Matt

27/05/2021 - Revisiting an old idea Hi all, Some of you will be aware that I have recently put my other project, Gresty Bridge, on hold for a bit to work on something else. This is my new project, Venture Park. When I say 'new idea' I'm actualy revisiting an old idea and will be doing something similar to my previous layout, Eleveden Road. The theory of it is simple, a modern day maintenance depot servicing HST stock. Mostly coaches but power cars and DMUs will also be present. As with Elveden, rakes of coaches will be bought in by loco where they will be dropped off, and then shunted around the layout by a pair of 08 shunters. Other coaches will then be shunted into short rakes to be taken away by loco. Most of the stock on the layout will be Midlands. So we're talking East Midlands Trains, Midland Mainline etc. However there will also be east coast examples such as LNER, Virgin East Coast, GNER etc. Similar to what you might see at Neville Hill. Of course my layout isn't situated near the East Coast Main Line so perhaps they've just been bought over for servicing. Many people will question why I'm going back to an old idea, surely I should do something completely new and fresh? Well anybody who knows me will tell you that the HSTs are my favourite trains, I currently have seven full sets and I am constantly expanding my HST fleet. I also have five hundred quids worth of custom EMT 08s that I originally purchased for Elveden (and will only run on a layout of a similar idea) sat doing nothing. So these reasons combined it’s a no brainer really. Also, the HSTs have recently been retired from the Midland region so that gives me all the more reason to do it. Elveden didn't have a specific setting, just 'somewhere in the East Midlands'. For Venture Park I am doing it differently, I am giving it a set location. This will be next to the Midland Main Line in the south east corner of Kettering, Northamptonshire. The red square in the screen shot below shows the location of my layout. Venture Business Park, the name sake for the layout, is situated just to the north, on the other side of the A14... The plan is actually one I created back in 2017 when I still had Elveden Road. I was looking for something to replace said layout and this was a contender. Of course I instead went for Gresty Bridge... So that's the plan and idea for now. I am going to be quite clever in the way I build this layout. I'm going to do it in such a way that allows me to change the era between the early 00s and today with minimal changes. And run it as a normal TMD for my DRS stock should I wish to, again with minimal changes. I hope you like my idea, Thanks for looking, Matt

23/05/2021 - Check In Hello everyone, Its been two months since I last posted anything. Over the last couple of months work on the layout has once again ground to a halt. This time its nothing to do with work or other commitments in my life but purely down to the fact that insperation and motivation on the project has all but gone. It is on that note that for now I have put the project on hold, and for now I won't be doing any work on Gresty Bridge. I have been working on the layout since 2018 and I have progressed very little, the amount of work I have completed could have been done within a couple of months. I know I was on and off at times, however I feel that I could have progressed further if the interest was there and I didn't keep finding things I wasn't happy with or just wrong. Gresty Bridge will be stored away for now and I will revisit the layout at a later date. For now I am looking into a new project which I expect to start within the next couple of months, so keep an eye out for that one! Cheers, Matt

Woohoo, it's up and running! I can't wait to have a test session on Buxton now restrictions have been eased. I wonder what HST power cars would look like in the depot...

04/04/2021 - Short and Sweet Very quick update today folks, I have started the hard standing... The bridge has been recycled from v1 of the layout (probably the only building that is being reused), it is in place but not glued down yet. The hard standing itself is made from 3mm cork and is over halfway done, I need to do the crossing over the tracks and of course between the rails. There are also some imperfections that need tidying up here and there. In a similar fashion to v1 of the layout I will use cork to 'raise' the car park area up, as it sits slightly above track height. Pavements will probably be done from plasticard. Finally, note in the second photo that I have sealed up the 'up and over' garage door by building a stud wall behind it, I have insulated it with 100mm foil backed insulation board and finally lined it with ply. This should hopefully make the room a deal warmer for the winter! Thanks for looking, see you in the next update Matt

I have just come across this great looking layout. You don't see too many modern image tail chasers around so I will be following with interest!

Drabford is looking great Shaun! The slight change to the road makes it look a lot better pal!

Its looking fantastic mate. Just placing the stock on the track as you have there really brings it to life!

Looking awesome now mate. Can't wait until this madness is over so I can come over for a running session... DRS 68s at Buxton anyone?

Its looking awesome pal! Its really coming together. Can't wait to see it working and full of locos and coaches!

Those gradients look great, they will really bring the layout to life and add a bit more interest to it

Yeah mate, it will be renumberd to 20305. We also saw it at Gresty open day the same year

Return of the Mack Matt Dear friends and followers, I hope you are all keeping safe and well. When I last updated I really didn't think it would be eight months before I posted again, but unfortunately here we are. Let me apologise for that! When I first dismantled version one of Gresty Bridge, I intended to have the boards built, track laid wired and working, with hard standing completed and essentially have the layout in the same place it was before I dismantled it by September of 2020. A tall order, but something that at first didn't seem impossible. The boards were completed within a week or so of my last post on here. Unfortunately my hand built point work took longer to arrive than expected and didn't arrive until late August. Around this time I changed careers, plus we were plunged into another confusing round of tiers and lockdowns both delaying work on the layout. I managed to get the track laid and wired by the end of September/early October. After this time work in the garage all but dried up and I didn't touch the layout until about two weeks ago - I didn't even test it! My get up and go had got up and gone! But its back now though and I am eager to get stuff done on the layout (we've heard that before!). I have glued the backscene images to some board and fixed them to the layout, got the boards bolted back together and after a quick troubleshooting session had a mini running session this afternoon. I haven't got any 'in progress' photos as most of these were on my old phone so I have sadly lost them. So what you see here is everything I have listed above on a handful of photos I took today... Here is my point work from Marcway and backscene image of the 'MornFlake' factory that overlooks the depot. This photo was stiched together for me by a friend from several photos I took at the Gresty Bridge open day a few years ago. I still can't get over how good it is. The picture above really doesn't do it justice. When you look at it in person it really is stunning, she has done an absolutely amazing job of it! Here is some of my DRS fleet during today’s test session. Note in the background that I have done the embankment. I did this prior to track laying using polystyrene cut/filed to shape and then covered over with plaster cloth. And finally my latest additions to the fleet... Two of the new Bachmann 20s. One will need re-numbering and both weathering. But these models are absolutely fantastic. We've waited a long time for Bachmann to release these but they were very much worth the wait! That’s about all for now. The next update will feature the starting of the groundwork/hard standing. Plus hopefully a building finished! Most importantly you won't have to wait six months for that update, let me promise you that! Thanks for looking and once again to the regular followers my sincere apologies for the delay in this post! Matt

Just got myself caught up on this thread. The layout is looking awesome mate! That warehouse building is fantastic!

I was waiting for you to get this project on here! Such a good idea, can't wait to see it up and running!