Leon

From this to this.

Work has started on the scenics

New Blue & Grey rolling stock. 
 

starting to like my loco hauled trains now after watching YouTube clips of Inverness in the 80’s & 90’s

Thank you David. 
 

Had a bit of time off due to not having enough time but trying to fit some in. All wired up now and running good which has spurred me on.

spent the evening building up the hill on the layout entrance and  building a few walls. Some new Blue & Grey coaching stock arrived too. 
 

Picked up some new stock today and have a few coaches due via the post this week. Work has started on the scenery working from left to right..

Hello, 

Been a while. Track has been wired up and all signals too. 

Will be updating more.

Picked up a nice Class 121 from Lord & Butler today and a few open wagons for the Speedlink service. 

Just thought I would set up a Youtube channel documenting the progress of the layout build, i'm hoping this will be the last build so would like to capture the process. Im no Youtube expert as you can see, maybe over time I can add more bells and whistles....

A bit of time spent laying the cork under the trackwork. Starting at the ten road fiddle yard.

Work started on the entrance to the layout. The exit will be crossed by a motorway or hill. Also dug out the canal or feeder which will run along the front of the layout.

A RES/Parcels 47 from Crew Depot rests between duties with a pair of South Wales workhorses.

First picture showing the freight yard. It will be four tracks in total. A daily Speedlink service will arrive in the morning and depart in the late afternoon. Engineers trains and other freight stock may also stable in the yard. The tracks will have the impression they continue under the motorway.

Second photo shows a class 47 in the station.

Third photo a pair of Trainload Coal 37,s on the stable point.

Hello. Overall view of the scenic part of the layout, looks a bit like Didcot, station with stable point and yard.

Getting on with adding the backboards. I will see how they undercoat first before deciding if they need a paper covering of if I can get away with a light blue coat of paint. This is the Station and yard end so will need a board added on the end also. 

Good morning all. Fitted the layout leg supports last night. Bit of tweaking then I can lay the cork and track work.

I didn't realise track from the big boys are hard to get at the moment, had to pay a bit extra to get all the points on order. 

There will be a small yard where the HAA wagons are in the 1st picture. A station where the rake of Intercity coaches are in the 2nd picture.

It's fantastic having a well lit temp controlled room, no more climbing up into the attic.

Thanks Mike, 

Yes that makes sense, i'm not planning on taking it anywhere so would be cheaper to do and pretty straight forward. 

Many thanks for the reply. 

Still deciding what to do about legs/supports, do I build something from timber of spend £80-£100 on DIY saw horses ? Any thoughts ?

Bit of work on the 1st of the three boards, each board is 2.4m x 800mm. 9mm ply delivered today and cut to fit the top, the 400mm off cut will then be used as the back scene so not to waste any material. 

Good evening everyone, 

Firstly hope you are all well, secondly i'm excited to get on with layout building.

I think this is the track plan I will base the new layout on, I was going for a simple approach of something like just two running lines but this would need a fiddle yard at both ends and two decent length fiddle yards would eat into the room I have, my longest wall is 4.8m, 4.8 meters sounds a lot until you put a train on it. Part of this length will be the curve into a fiddle yard on the other wall.

So at the bottom the track work enters through the tunnel from the fiddle yard, There is to be a station on the left to run my coaching stock, Class 158 and mail stock.

The track beyond the station which is the end of the layout will run under a bridge giving the impression the mainline continues. Passenger locos will of course need to uncouple and run around its train and return to the fiddle yard, I know this would be the case in a terminus but not sure if this ever happens on a through station ? Unless I pretend the line continues freight only.

The third length of track from the left will be the freight loop, this is where freight trains come in, the loco can then run around its train and shunt into the 3 or 4 track yard.

The two track towards the bottom are fueling and stable point. The is based on Tidworths track plan. Im not sure how many mainline station have a yard and service point, I will need to research this. 

From what I can see this will give me plenty to play with without having to offload coaching stock or freight stock. 

Any advice, ideas or comments most welcome.

Been in the new house a month now, building the framework in the garage then it will be taken up to the new train room. The frames will be 2.4m each by 800mm. There will be three in total, two running along the one wall, then the third at 90 degree along the other wall, this will be the fiddle yard. Im not having end to end as most of the layout would be fiddle yards leaving only a few metres for a layout scenic section.

Ordering the ply next week and something to use as legs.

Im thinking of a much simpler layout in the new house, to save time and costs, also on my own it will be easier to operate. Im thinking just a double track mainline with a freight loop to add a bit of interest. Although its always nice to have a TMD or servicing point.

Fiddle yards have been removed. 

Saved a lot of track which will keep the cost down on the new build. We have to be out of the house by the 30th this month and i'm looking forward to having a new train room. 

Well most of the layout has been removed, I managed to save a lot of track work which is a bonus. 

Good evening all, 

All the rolling stock has now been boxed up and started on the loco's hopefully moving home in the near future and South Wales Freight will be restarted there. It won't be possible to save any of this current layout so im looking forward to starting a new one.