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Thanks Lyddrail - any more pics you have will be more than welcome. I think that point was probably intended originally to allow a diesel loco pulling stock to escape back onto the main line. I dare say it is little used nowadays, and as you say it would not be of any benefit to my layout because it will only ever have EMUs in it (even though the photos here show different!)

No problem James, hope it was helpful.

​Ah, yes I wondered whether it might be n gauge ballast - it does seem more in scale than the oo gauge stuff. I like the pinkish tinge you've achieved too, it looks spot on for the ballast we have here in the south east - I kind of wish I'd taken longer with ballast selection. I am using the woodland scenics medium grey blend as it seems like a good all round colour, although it does lack the warm brownish tone that yours has. I'm hoping I'll be able to compensate later on when I spray on the brake dust weathering! Anyway keep up the great work, it's really coming together!

Looking great David, the ballasting really does compliment your trackwork nicely. Out of interest, which ballast are you using? It looks finer than the oo gauge stuff!

Wow, some great modelling there - you have done a superb job on the track weathering and concrete bridge in particular - I look forward to seeing more of this. p.s. Love the desk in the portacabin as well - it just needs a slightly 'yellowed' 1990s telephone and fax machine to complete the scene!

Pandora, Blue - that's really helpful guys, many thanks. You're absolutely right re the 'gusset' marked 10 on my plan - actually my diagram doesn't show exactly what is built on the layout - there is an extra point there. However, I have also had to make another compromise re the siding. The railway track diagrams book shows the following, with the pointwork in question highlighted: Part of this pointwork is replicated on the layout, but when it came to the siding, it transpired that having it running all the way to that location brought it too close to the wall. I therefore had to cut the siding back, so it was still long enough to accommodate a 4 coach emu, but far enough away from the wall to allow clearance. I also couldn't really see the point (pardon the pun) in replicating that final point that connects the end of the gusset with the down main, as it would not add any operational value to the layout. So I omitted it! Agreed, it's a deviation from reality, but then the whole layout is a compromise, it's never going to be a 100% accurate because of the compression. The picture below hopefully explains:

Really useful info, thanks again Blue - it is good to hear from someone who knows the station and its workings so well, I'm sure I will need to pick your brains on many things so hope you wont mind! Was interested particularly in what you mention about the sidings - particularly the un-electrified one, I had noticed a siding right over to the left as you look through the road bridge from the platforms - always wondered whether it was in active use or not - I've incorporated it in the layout as I thought it would be a good place for departmental stuff to sit, tampers in particular! Sevenoaks fascinates me because of the sheer variety of movements, particularly freight and departmental, that come through there!

Blue, love the pics! Thanks for posting - I hope I will be able to capture the character of the station, your input will be very gratefully received! Particularly like the last picture, nice to see this end of the junction and a bit of the substation which I do hope to include on the layout; I am now thinking I'd quite like to feature the signal box as well!

Your buildings are a work of art, very nice modelmaking skills!

Hey South Central! I just found your CIG build thread, it looks great - very interested to see how you progress with that, as it looks like you're doing a sterling job. Those MJT sides are not the easiest of things to work with, I have some for a refurbished CEP and I did find rolling them into shape quite tricky! Keep up the great work

​Hi James, Cheers for the kind comments, and interesting to read about your proposals for the garage layout! I'm not an authority on baseboard construction by any means, so I can only run through what I've done here. The hinged sections were fairly easy to achieve, as most of them are bridging a gap and can be supported easily at both ends of the fixed board. The biggest headache was the reversing loop, because that had to be self supporting. It is permanently out at the moment, and held up on metal tubular legs that are located in metal collars on the floor. Eventually I will look into some folding legs but it's not a massive priority at the moment. In terms of electrics, I just ran the bus wires from the hinged end and under the lifting sections themselves, so they are all powered in their own right. The fixed boards of the layout are all 15mm conti-board, which runs around the room on top of free standing book cases. The lifting sections are mainly 15mm MDF, except for the sidings which are also conti-board. Some pics here which I hope will help! Diagram showing lifting section. The hinged end of the tunnel section (opens to give access to the room) The other end of this section showing track joins and stops The section in place (it is screwed down when the layout is being used to ensure smooth running) Another view of the stops. This is another small lifting section that is joined to the reversing loop board. These narrow butt hinges come from B&Q, I've found them very easy to use and fit.

Just a couple of shots of the fiddle yard and reverse loop area - I only realised now when taking these photos how much the lifting section of the fiddle yard has bowed in the middle! I was surprised how well most of my stock copes with the tight curves in the yard area - apart from the Eurostar which doesn't like it at all, and won't be using the reverse loop section. As you will see from looking at the track plan, only half of the sidings are there at the moment. The longer sidings that run all the way along are still to go in, and will be on a separate lifting section.

Lyddrail, thank you very much for these fantastic pics - they are really helpful, as I have very little other references for this area. If you had any other pics of this area I'd be really interested to see them.

Thanks everyone again - I'm really glad I finally took the plunge and started the thread, as the encouragement and positive feedback has been great and really given me some much needed motivation! I am really grateful for all the kind comments and advice. David51/WesterhamStation - many thanks, I do have that Middleton Press book and indeed it is a great resource! I agree also the Kentrail pages on Tubbs hill are very handy! It's fascinating in particular to see the old pictures before the reconstruction, with the outermost platforms etc. From the various resources I've found, I have been able to produce some drawings of the station that I'm working from for the layout. Dan, thanks for the kind comments - I agree the NSE livery is a great one and seems as fresh now as it was 20 years ago! I'm finding some frustrations with stock in oo gauge too, most notably the complete absence of any Electrostar models from any manufacturers. Bachmann is the obvious candidate as they have already produced the turbostar units, although there seems to be nothing on the horizon. For the time being, I have some of James Makin's brilliant cab castings, and will have to try my hand at a conversion job! Joseph, cheers re the fiddle yard layout - I'm not sure it's ingenious but it's certainly busy! I did try to make the most of the space available but my Eurostar set doesn't like the reversing loop very much - it will have to be relegated to one way operations only! Nothing much new to report today; I've done some more track weathering and hope to finish this and get some more ballasting done over the weekend. And the dreaded 3rd rail, which I am putting off as long as possible!

Sorry, not quite worked out how to use the 'quote' feature on this forum yet! But to kintbury jon, yes it is custom 465 unit. It was built using some spare unpainted networker bodies and chassis parts. I have another one in Southeastern livery underway, but it takes ages and the parts are not easy to find.

Thank you very much, appreciate the kind comments on the track plan I enjoyed making it so probably got a bit carried away! Here is the complete track plan 'as built' showing the 'behind the scenes' areas. It looks a bit chaotic (and it is) - but there is a method in the madness; not having enough room for 'roll on-roll off' sidings, I wanted the layout to have maximum operational flexibility so that trains could leave the station and then return to it from the opposite direction. The reverse loop allows that, although it gave me an awful headache when it came to the wiring - Brian Lambert was a huge help with this, and gave me some very useful pointers on isolating and switching. I am in his debt as I would still be scratching my head now without the benefit of his wisdom! The strange shaped lines represent board breaks, which allow various sections to lift and fold out. This was essential because I need to get in and out of the room! I'll post some shots of these areas if people are interested but as they are non-scenic, they are not terribly interesting! I'm toying with the idea of turning the sidings area into a 'Slade Green' type EMU depot, as a separate scenic section, although the density of track on the board doesn't leave very much space for anything else!

Ha ha! Yes, shouldn't speak too soon. Personally, I quite like it - probably looked quite futuristic when it first appeared!

Thanks David indeed it does have quite an interesting history! I've studied quite a few photographs of the station before its reconstruction in the 1970s - I noticed the track layout of the junction was also simplified a great deal at some stage, as it used to be possible for trains to enter the Otford branch from all 4 platforms. The design of the current station itself is quite unique, I am surprised to be honest that it has survived until now with so little alteration, as the large expanse of metal siding is not to everyone's taste I'm sure!

Hi Jonny, many thanks for the kind comments, much appreciated. That is an excellent pic - I really do like those class 319s, and they did look great in their original NSE livery! This shot is particularly interesting as it's one of the few I've seen that shows the newspapers platform and shelter. The platform itself is still there now, although the shelter is long gone. I think it was originally meant to allow papers to be taken straight off the train and onto a van standing alongside - shame this doesn't happen anymore. You're absolutely right about the frequency of trains! - that was what interested me about the station, there are loads of passenger services but also a great variety of freight and departmental traffic, it's a bit like Tonbridge in that way. I did think about Tonbridge but somehow the station buildings at Sevenoaks seemed more inspiring!

Hi David, Sorry forgot to answer your question - yes, the layout is purely DC at present. I have quite a fleet of Networker units so moving to DCC will be a mission! Whilst I like the benefits of DCC, I'm not altogether sold on it but I imagine I'll be moving over eventually! I am a huge fan of your Dover Priory layout by the way; have been following the thread for some months now and I must say the level of detail you've achieved with it is amazing and inspirational! If my layout ends up being half as good as yours, I will be happy.

Cheers everyone, really appreciate the positive feedback! I'm glad you liked the platforms - I must admit I was quite pleased with how they've turned out - it was something of a labour of love and they were built over a series of weeks. The surfaces were created by applying a thin coat of polyfilla onto mountcard - this dried to quite a stone like finish and appears to have tiny particles of grit in it which help to give a slightly rough texture. I then applied a uniform grey acrylic and airbrushed darker and lighter shades in the likely 'heavy traffic' areas. Finally, I hand painted various patches with lighter or darker shades to represent the usual repairs and patchwork appearance of old tarmac. Also found rubbing the surface with a cloth soaked in a very thin wash of darker colour seemed to work quite well. Pete, thanks ever so much for the hints and tips re 3rd rail - I have laid some before but not a great deal, so your advice will definitely come in handy. Next stages are to finish the ballasting and track weathering, and then I hope to tackle some of the 3rd rail this weekend, if I can muster the motivation! Thanks again to all for the kind comments, much appreciated.

Thanks guys, appreciate the encouragement! A few pics of the layout are attached; please note it is obviously a work in progress! Lots and lots to do, but ballasting is well underway, and the 3rd rail will be going down shortly (not a job I'm looking forward to if I'm honest). Construction of the station main buildings has also started so I hope things will start to take shape and I'll have more to show before too long! Anyway would be very grateful for any feedback, comments or questions - or criticism! A close up of the southern end of the platforms, with Networker and Class 319 occupying the down platforms View as looking south from the road bridge - the somewhat exaggerated curvature of the track layout to fit the space is evident here, although I'm hoping that the addition of the station buildings will detract from it a bit! The trackwork for the junction at the northern end of the platforms - this is taken from just under where the road bridge will cross, and the viewpoint roughly in line with the road. A wider view looking north from the southern approach to the station. As you can see, a lot of ballasting and track weathering still to do. Close up shot of the FCC Class 319 (a Bratchell Models kit) on platform 4. A close up shot of the Networker with 319 in background.

Firstly hello to all, this is the first time I've posted here although I have enjoyed following the fantastic layouts here for a few years! Like many I had a layout as a child, which my father built for my brother and I. Sadly this layout ended up being mothballed and stored away in the attic over 20 years ago. In 2009, I was walking past our local model shop when I noticed one of Bachmann's 4-CEPs in the window, resplendent in full blue-grey livery. Taken aback by the level of detail, I bought one, even though I didn't have a layout to run it on! After several months of looking at it sitting on a shelf, I decided it was time to build it a proper home. Much indecisiveness ensued, but finally 3 years later I decided on a plan, with the help of the brilliant AnyRail software. Although I'm based on the south coast, Sevenoaks interested me because it's on our main line to London, and it sees a great variety of passenger and freight traffic. The layout is now well underway - progress has been slow but steady, and has gathered pace in the last 6 months! As the plan will show, it is a somewhat 'compressed' version of the area, to fit the space I have to work with. However, I found it lent itself to this, and I've been keen to keep all the characteristic features of the station and surrounding areas despite the spatial distortion! The traffic will be from 1990s to the present day, and I hope particularly to focus on the more unusual visitors to the station, including the VSOE, and of course Eurostar, which originally passed through Sevenoaks and Tonbridge until recent years. All of the track is laid, as well as the platforms and some of the ballasting, so I will be posting some progress photos in due course, but I wanted to give a brief introduction to the project first, and introduce myself I guess! Comments are always more than welcome

Hi there, just found this thread - have to say really amazing work, this is particularly interesting to me as I'm working on recreating another Southeastern station, Sevenoaks, for my layout. One thing I noticed looking through the thread is that the light blue colour used on Southeastern's stations is causing you a bit of a headache - I think you need to forget that it's blue, and approach it from the other end - mix up some very light grey, and just add a really tiny amount of violet-blue. Colours at this scale should always be much less saturated and lighter in shade, so you may find that just a very light 'cool' grey looks much better. Anyway you're doing a superb job, amazing modelling and love the attention to detail - keep up the great work!