Horsehay Railway Modeller

Thank you for your advice. I think ill keep a small br halt on the mainline so i have somewhere to atleast photograph any new passenger stock i aquire whilst away from the main layout. I like the idea of it being a private yard and will omit the signal box and i think i may end up putting a lot iof rail served industry allong every siding that makes sense As for the industry sidings, would it make sense to replace the double shed with a smaller shed for the industrial loco and then have an extra siding for goods operations? something like this: the shed could be at the end of the siding with the red arrow. As far as track is concerned i was going to go with electrofrog points just so i can get really smooth slow running, also overcomplicated point control is one of my favourite hobbies so i will probably have a small panel or even dcc point decoders.

Thank you so much for the offer but i think id rather start from scratch particularly as its has to fold up neatly under my bed.

I appreciate more breathing space may be nice, however i am trying to get as much functionality into the layout as possible so it should be fun to opperate. In a way the rear line is a mainline / passenger line that i can shuttle passenger stock in and out of, and then the foreground is a goods yard. The main aim of the goods yard is to shuffle around wagons into different orders and make up different rakes. hence the inglenook. the runnaround adds possibilities when not running it strictly as an inglenook allowing more flexibility when moving wagons around the yard. it also allows me to change the direction the train is pushed/ pulled from. Bellow is a basic runnaround operation, shown with some paper cutouts on my track plan. i hope it makes sense Thanks, David

for storage i have taken a recomendation to stack them vertically as a closed box. to do this the right hand board is rotated and flipped onto the first board. each board will have one female dowel section in its backscene which alligns with the male dowel from the board join. This means when the board is flipped it has one alligning dowel at either end. finally the latch that is recessed in the bottom of the layout is now fliped to be in the top corner where i hope to have the corresponding clip so the "box" can be latched closed. clearence is tight inside the box so i will have to plan ahead carefully to make sure buildings and scenery dont intefere when they are flipped onto eachother, but with careful planning it should work. if worse comes to worse i will remove any items that are too tall prior to flipping the second board. i cant stack the boards any higher as the backscenes are already at the maximum height to fit under the bed.

I have spent the Morning drawing new plans for the boards, as well as looking at different sllignment options. I think I have now settled on a 9mm ply construction with a few square battons in the corners for extra rigidity. all joints will be glued and screwed and the framework will be screwed with plastic corner blocks (like those used in kitchen assembly) for allingment i will use 8mm steel cabinet maker's dowels. as well as small toggle catches. as you can see two catches on the back and one recessed under the front of the join. this is because if it were on the front of the layout it would not allow me to stack the baseboards as i will show in my next post.

Hi there, I layed this plan out on the pc with peco small points before printing it out and sketching over it. its a little tight but it all fits well with decent clearences, particularly for short stock.

Having browsed many of the plans people have pointed me towards I have come up with a design of my own I am reasonably happy with. Many of the designs I like have a runaround loop in the centre with various sidings branching off so I have taken this idea. I also want a semi disguised "inglenook" so I can sit and shunt about wagons to complete the inglenook puzzle. Here is what I have come up with. ( sorry for the quality I have temporarily sketched over a print out to save time on detailing a pc plan) As you can see I have the main line come from two long hidden sidings out into a small station. In the bottom left of the layout there is the Inglenook shunting sidings which may have some sort of goods platform or shed and a cattle Dock. The centre of the layout is a run around loop. And then finally to the right hand side of the layout there are two short loco sidings, possibly for an engine shed. The layout will have grassy enbankments on either side with the hidden sidings possibly under a raised retaining wall section. The right hand side of the layout has a raised road bridge that should hide the dead end track, but may also alow another off scene " fiddle stick" to be added when there is room I.E. If I ever move the layout outside my uni bedroom. All suggestions welcome. Thanks

As the layout is only in planning stages I have some time to play about with different board designs. I had avoided any vertical stacking due to height restriction under the bed but I'll certainly give that style a look. At the moment I have only just begun re buying stock for my main layout, having been away from the hobby for a while. But I have several "4 wheel wagons" . At the moment I have a 61xx prairie and a deltic but I am going to end up running alot of 64xx and 57xx as well as some industrial 0-4-0 s on my main layout as its a small ex gwr branch. So there will be plenty of small locos to take to uni with me I do intend on running a small passenger shuttle on this layout occasionally, whether its a dmu or a tank engine with one or two mk1s. But that be the only long stock that will appear on this layout. Thank you for pointing me at some sources I'll be sure to have a look. I am somewhat stuck with 6ft as it has to sit between the frames at either end of my bed. I am looking to have the "fiddle yard" consist of atleast two tracks about 2ft long hidden behind an angled backscene or enbankment in one of the back corners.

Whilst working on my main layout ( shropshire branchline ) I have had in the back of my mind that come sept/oct i will be back down in Portsmouth far away from the layout, meaning i will not be able to get any modelling work done. I was thinking I could work on buildings etc. that could easily be taken home and put on the layuout however I would also like to be able to buy new stock and be able to run some operations. This is where this layout comes in i thought id start a thread so i can snowball ideas and designs and get peoples ideas and advice. My room at university is only small so i have settled for a 6ft by 1ft layout that will sit easily on top of my bed. having looked at several other threads and articles on small layouts i have designed a frame out of 9mm ply that will hinge at the front to create a 2ftx 3 ft box that can slide under my bed. The layout will be dcc and i will simply plug my lenz controller into either my main layout or this portable one. Track plan and stock wise i simply want to be able to run some of my current stock , and possibly have an excuse to buy some stock from different eras that may look out of place on my main layout. I quite like the idea of a shunting puzzle as well as having a small statrion to allow me to run a small passenger shuttle. so far ive been playing around with variations on an inglenook shunting puzzle with 2 off scene sidings and a single line station. however none of them seem interesting enough or very prototypical. I was wondering if anyone had seen any good layouts roughly 6ft by 1 ft with interesting track plans. i will keep doing reseach and sketching my own plans in the mean time.

Thank you. At the moment I have bought a tub of woodland scenics fine "buff" ballast. I am definitely going to be airbrushing all of the track and ballast too. So i can play about with different tones and colours. This old image shows the ballast colour I'm aiming for.

The painting of the platforms took almost a whole week. With various coats of paint and dry brushing as well as air brushing. I began painting the top surface a slate grey colour. As well as using white acrylic to fill the mortar of the bricks. I used some light washes to bring out the texture in the slabs and also lighten them up as the initial grey coat was a little dark. In this photo you can also see that between coats on the platforms I glued in barrow crossings made of matchsticks at either end, and began painting the hills with greens and browns. Later on in the week I got the airbrush out and sprayed black acrylic. To make the bricks alot more sooty as well as the platforms. I later decided the platform surface looked a little too grimey. I also decided to get out my old homemade static grass applicator and add grass on various sections of the platform. I have seen many photos of other platforms on the line being almost entirely grass by the time they closed. The grass I used is an old mix I've had sat in a draw since my last layout. And definately needs toning down a bit but it gives an Idea of what I'd like to do. I was initially happy with the platforms like this, however I soon began to think the black "soot" on the surface was a little over done in places and looked quite patchy. Over several days I would walk into the garage. Wipe off a little paint or spray on some new shades. I ended up spraying the slabs with a concrete shade which lightened them up well. And then following up with a very dilute wash of brown which toned them down again. After various different coats and methods over several days this is the result I ended up with. As you can see in the second photo I sprayed the bricks with black but made sure to leave some cleaner areas. As well as wiping of all the paint except in the mortar in some areas to give the impression of newer patches at different times. I am very happy with the results over all. I may come. Back and neaten up the platform edge. And If I want to match Coalbrookdale a little better I need a strip of larger square slabs along the platform edge, however for the first bit of scenery/construction I've done in years I am quite pleased. More photos to follow.

The most recent task completed on the layout is the platforms for coalorsdale Station. Having looked at photographs of the Coalbrookdale platforms I had origionaly designed and 3d printed some platform edging strips similar to the peco ones. Unfortunately I made the capping stones too wide and some of the prints didnt come out too well. I have learnt from my mistakes and will definately be using the 3d printer in other areas. However I decided to crack on and use English bond brick plasticard. I also bought some paving slab plasticard as it matches the surface of the origional Coalbrookdale platforms well. Once the plasticard was glued down I still wanted some sort of 3d edging. After a last minute amazon prime order for match sticks, the next morning I began gluing them along the edges. This neatly covered the join as well as adding depth to the edges. Once all of the matches were glued I leveled them off with a chizel so they didn't stand proud of the paving stones. I then made an experiment block to practice painting. The result looks good. I will do a separate post on the painting of the full platforms later.

A few things have happend on the layout over the past week or two. ill be writing updates over the next day or so. The first thing i did was weather my Hornby 61xx. Here is a photo of it pre weather. I gave it a good clean and made sure it ran well. I then took about adding real coal, I smashed up a lump we had remaining from before the flue broke on our coal fire. I then weathered the body and underframe of the loco with black acrylic in the airbrush . I am very happy with the result, however i will likely return when my skills and techniques have developed.

Elsewhere on the layout I have just about finished the carving /melting of the foam for the Brook. This will be blended in with sculptamold when I have the viaduct built. I'm just waiting on some English bond brick plasticard to arrive for this. My sculptamold has arrived and I have been sculpting all of the embankments. Its not completely set yet however I am very impressed. It hasnt quite hidden all of the ridges, however a second coat probably would. I don't think I'll bother as most of the ridges will either be under woodland or long static grass. Finally I have installed even more lighting above the layout. I had initially replaced an old flourecant tube with three daylight white led bulbs, and was very impressed. until I came across a Canadian layout which made such good use of bright led strips. Some scenes on his layout look photo realistic simply due to the leds making it so bright and evenly lit.

3A few updates from the layout over the last week or so. As promised here are some photos of the weathering I did. I began on my class 55. Its an old lima model but the tooling looks quite good when the details are picked out. I looked through several photographs and the roof vents were black in nearly all of them. It looks like later resprays painted the vents the self's black to hide the grime but I chose to simply airbrush some grime on all of the grills. I also used some light white airbrushing as it seemed common for them to develop dusty white streaks on the fuel tanks and underframe. Finally I finished with some light yellowish dust up the sides. I made sure this was minimal as body panels always appeared clean in the photographs I looked at. Having finished the loco I still had a pale sandy colour mixed in the airbrush and decided instead of wasting it it spray a bit on the underframes of my mk1s. I also ended up dusting some of the side panels. I think the overall effect is good but I will definitely revisit coaches in the future as I only sprayed half of them, and it was just a quick test.

Ive now made a few orders for items needed to progress the layout, including sculptamold and plasticard of varying types. until they arrive ive been dabbling with different projects including carving the brook and weathering some stock. (photos to follow tomorrow) I think the first Building i am going to make will be the station building, based off of the station building at coalbrookdale. I am hoping to 3d print the bulk of it but i will use plasticard and other materials for some sections. I have managed to get vague measurements from google as well as many photos of different window placements etc. however i am unsure on the internal layout. I was just wandering if anyone had any idea. i assume it would be pretty similar to most GWR built stations of this size. if not a standard design. The right hand side appears to be a toilet. but i am unsure of the layout of the waiting room / office etc. here are some basic mockups all advice welcome.

I have just done some work to make a start on the new brook. i began by cutting the plywood under the double mainlines to a better shape as i know wish to leave this in place and scratch build a bridge around it. The works branch will have some sort of girder bridge construction that will be built seperately. i also ripped out the formers i had made and began experimenting with some insulation off cuts to raise the level up. i have also made another dodgy computer eketch showing my ideas for a smaller brook with a simple brick viaduct at the front and some currently undesigned iron or steel bridge at the back serving the works. there is also a gravel path to one side allowing possibility to old an old wagonway or abandoned buildings etc. i am not sure they would fit however some sort of ruined industtry etc. may be on the banks.

Definitely plans for some sort of pecket to work the ironworks sidings. Exactly what's been bothering me recently. I think I will sit and sketch some ideas in some form and decide what to do next. The river was added before I decided the layout would be a compressed version of the Wenlock branch. And therefore very obviously isn't the severn. I may end up redoing the framework allowing for, as you suggest, a smaller shallower tributree

This is what I've ended up with by the station. I started by sketching out a rough idea. With a main road coming from under the works and crossing the tracks. Then a lane branching off to the station as well as some sort of raised area for whatever building I decide to place here. Having made my initial sketches I decided it made more sense to put in the road and embankments first and then I can model whatever fits in the raised area. I began by adding an mdf riser to make the tunnel the same height as the station and then adding risers to create a gentle slope on the road. I then added a raised section just a little higher than the station area. Finally I created the embankments using crushed paper balls. I used this method as apposed to cardboard formers quite simply because I was fed up of cutting cardboard strips This was then covered in plaster cloth and will be covered in sculptamold In the future. pan widgetspan widgetspan widgetspan widgetspan widget

Work has recently progressed on the first stage of plastering the cuttings and hills. There is now atleast two layers of plaster cloth on all of the terrain (except the river banks as I am currently deciding what to do here). You can clearly see all of the ribs, however this is fine as I am going to fill in all of the embankments with sculptamold. Sculptamold will fill in all of the dips between ribs as well as allowing me to sculpt the landscape exactly as I want and add different textures etc. I have mocked up the slope for the river temporarily with masking tape. However this is likely to change as I am not currently happy with it. This is what I have done to the right hand side of the station. My next post will go over this in greater detail.

perhaps you are right. I was just worried it would look a bit "train setty" with a row of houses or cottages backing on to the line in this loop. maybe slightly more seperation can be acheived with i line of trees along the retaining wall? not as a scenic break but rather as if they had been planted to deaden some noise from the works. Then i should get away with a station masters house/cottage and gardens. there is a small level space along the gradient which may suit the back of a row of cottages, at the moment i had only planned it as a feild or woodland. now that is something i hadnt considered. perhaps i could model one on top of the embankment at the other end of the layout. This is where i had origionally planned a stone church. I think a tin chaple would nestle into the woods above the tunnle quite nicely. As it happens i walked very near there today. it shouldnt be too many years before telford steam trust reinstate the line through this crossing. I believe they already own some crossing light and signs and were doing well laying concrete sleepers on the track just north of here until lockdown.

I also need some advice for the last unplanned bit of baseboard. the area between the track and the incline. i am thinking of raising it up slightly, probably to the same level as the platform and station, and adding a slope down to the the track. then constructing a station masters house or old farm house with a nice detailed garden and driveway. i will also need some sort of access road for the station. probably tarmac possibly gravel. accessed by either a tunnel under the gradient or via a level crossing, or both. here are some terrible sketches. all input welcome.

chipping away at the layout again. i have now made the control panel for the ironworks. Its very simple, just three switches for point control. I'll update the building diagrams when they get added to the layout. I have also begun work on the station. After measuring all the scrap wood i could find i discovered an old desk i had built was mostly 18mm mdf. This is perfect for 00 platforms and sits just below step height. I made templates using a mk1 coach and pencil and then cut them out with a circular saw. the platforms are about 3 ft long meaning i can fit 3 coaches comfortably or four at a push. i then decided to blend the main platform into its surroundings as often the station and its car park etc. are level with the platform. This was acheived using another peice of 18mm mdf and then using cardboard formers to begin the hillside blending the platform and the incline. i also decided tio put a small gravel lane down from the station towards the signal box and sidings. Elsewhere on the layout i have applied plaster bandage to the large cutting and tunnel , as well as working on several 3d printed and CAD items such as a custom designed tunnel portal and platform edging as well as cad for the station. all of these will be posted later on when complete.