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brammie

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  1. brammie
    Prior to moving to a large house in Germany in 2005, we had occupied a bungalow in Dorset. Whilst there I had developed a layout in our loft, but soon came to realise that a layout located just under the roof of a house was uncomfortable at either extreme of the season without environmental control, and far from ideal as far as smooth operation of locos was concerned due to extremes of temperature. When we moved to our present home (with 5 large double bedrooms) in 2005, I immediately claimed an upstairs bedroom for my intended layout. I must have spent many months planning and finally settled on a theme; Clacton-on-Sea terminal circa 1955, relocated to the Colchester main line site (to accomodate a "through" station), and surrounding scenics based mainly on my earlier childhood experiences living near Jaywick in Essex.
     
    The room that my layout occupies measures 5mtrs x 5.3 mtrs, with two doors; one in/out, and another leading to an outside balcony. To faciltate access to both doors and a large window, the layout is built along one of the 5mtr walls, and extends at one end to 4.1mtrs in width and 3.1mtrs in width at the other. I believe that the resulting shape is referred to in geometrical terms as a "right trapezoid". A central "operator area" measures 1mtr x 3.8mtrs. I haven't actually measured the continuous outside loop, but it must be in excess of 15mtrs. The height of the supporting boarding is 80cms. Anyway, I am a great believer in that saying "a pictures paints ..... etc" so:
     
    I have a large library of pictures of the layout; if there is sufficient interest in my blog I will include more detail (with explanations) in following posts. I would add that although I thought at times that I was near to finishing the project, as I continue to add to the diaoramas I see more and more that needs to be done.
  2. brammie
    Thought I should say something about Clackwick control systems before going on to layout details:
     
    My loft layout in Dorset had relied on two single-loco controllers "of the day". Although my loco inventory was still quite small when we moved house, the new layout possibilities soon provided indication that a more sophisticated form of control would be required. I was quite inspired by the "new" ZTC system, and so invested in a 505 controller, and associated gear. The new layout slowly took shape, old locos were "chipped" and new locos and rolling stock added and the scenics slowly progressed. Then, one weekend we had visitors. Friends of my (German) wife from earlier times.
     
    On the Saturday I fired up the layout and did a demo for the benefit of their two pre-teen sons, they loved it. On Sunday morning I was out of the house for a few hours, and on my return found the two lads on their own "playing" with my layout. They had managed to fire it up, and were carrying out "crash tests". I bit my lip, ushered them out of the room, and locked the door. Following a quiet afternoon they left, and I checked out the damage. Not good, in fact to the point where I simply lost interest in my project. I closed the door, and left it for several years.
     
    I can't remember what prompted me to pick up the cudgel again but, once started, I got to grips with it and soon had the layout restored to status quo. The exercise also provided me with new initiatives, and during my lull, sound had made its' way into the modellers' world. It wasn't long after I had restored operations to normal running that my ZTC controller failed dramatically, taking several loco chips with it. After much deliberation, I went for the ECoS controller as a replacement - and am well pleased with the way it performs. So, details of my control system:
     
    The ECoS Controller:

     
    Lighting and De-coupler Switching:

     
    Track Layout and Point Position Indication:

  3. brammie

    Clackwick - Buildings

    By brammie,

    The buildings on the Clackwick layout have come from a range of sources during the thirteen year build period to date. They range from "substantial" to "trivial", but all conform to the same basic theme - being "that out of the box" is far from finished. The first to be pictured here is the goods warehouse; I begin to see that some of the "visitor" damage has yet to be repaired and several other aspects of this area are far from finished, but will be embelished with far more detail in the next few weeks:
     

     
    "CJH Corner": In addition to the CJH factory (initials of the friend who gifted it to me as a kit), this corner is home to the local coal merchant and to a scrap dealer. Again, it now occurs to me that much detail is missing - to be added in the next few weeks.

     
    Clackwick Station from the track side:

     
    Clackwick Station from the street:

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