Modelling Mike

Over the past week or so, attention has turned from the layout itself to what will run on it. During the armchair years of my recent modelling life, I kept my hand in by buying stock that I fancied the look of and that may or may not suit the layout I was planning. Aside from the mad purchases (like the IET pictured above and a full 2+8 HST - neither of which fit on the layout!) I have also been adding to St Aldhelm’s resident loco roster. With the decision to go DCC being very recent, I’m obviously now facing the daunting prospect of fitting a large number of locos with a large number of decoders, so I have been painstakingly unboxing everything to find out what will fit where. A lot of locos look very easy to convert, but a surprising number look like they will be more tricky. The more recent purchases will be fairly easy. The Kernow O2 and Bachmann E4 are simple 6-pin plug ins. My oldest of the new generation purchases (made way back in 2008 when I first got back into the hobby), the Hornby M7 looks like it will be a simple conversion with a direct plug DCC Concepts Zen Nano chip, which was a nice surprise. In fact, it was surprising just how many older purchases were DCC Ready. But there were some disappointing finds. Although it’s away from its natural territory, St Aldhelm will be home to GWR Hall Class “Saint Edmund Hall” (bought for sentimental reasons - and why can’t a Western loco run on Southern metals in preservation, eh?!). It’s great that Bachmann saw fit to equip it with an 8-pin socket, but the socket is tucked right underneath the footplate, and there is absolutely nowhere inside the bodywork nearby to pop the decoder itself. I’m not even sure if a wired plug will fit the space provided...that is going to be a head scratcher, unless anyone out there has a solution?! I also bought the Bachmann Class 220 “Dorset Voyager” - the set which ventured from the main line into Purbeck and was named at a special ceremony in Swanage just after the connection at Motala was commissioned. I had hoped to run it down the branch in honour of that occasion, forgetting that the Voyager model pre-dates the time when DCC was pretty much mandatory. No socket, and the motor is in a centre car, so I’ll need three decoders if I want the lights to work too... Another big disappointment was finding that my Bachmann N Class, a stalwart of my previous layout, isn’t DCC ready at all. Looks like I’ll be doing some research into hard-wiring decoders into older locos soon if I want some of my favourites to run. Away from decoder problems, I may have an even bigger one to deal with on my Hornby King Arthur class “Pendragon”. A while back, I gave all my existing locos a run on a rolling road to keep them all ticking over. I remember putting Pendragon on the road, turning up the power on the controller, hearing the motor whir, but seeing the wheels stay adamantly static. Today, when I took a look inside at the DCC socket, I remembered the problem and decided to investigate further. It turns out that a cog connecting the motor worm to the driving wheel has cracked and come loose from its spindle. Has anyone else come across this problem? Sadly, I think unless I can get a spare cog from Hornby, this could be a terminal issue, as the crack on the cog spreads when it is placed back on the spindle, and I doubt it would mesh with the driving wheel cog properly even if it is glued back into place. I’d love to know if any of you guys can think of a solution, as this is one of my favourite locos, and I’d hate for it to be reduced to a static exhibit.

Thanks for the kind words Mike. I’ve been following Oak Road with much interest! As for running servo leads long distances, I doubt there would be a problem with signal drop, but you do end up with a lot of wiring! Even in the fiddleyard, I have ended up using quite a few extention leads to connect everything up. I’m going to have to add labels to make sure I don’t lose track of what’s plugged in where. The longest run I will eventually have is about 15-20’ - to the loco release at St Aldhelm when it gets built - with extension leads jumping three board joints. At least St Aldhelm & Talbothays are semi-permanent, unlike Oak Road...!

I’ve just been catching up on the last few months progress on this thread, and have to say this is promising to be a belter of a layout! The station area is looking fantastic. Just enough of a hint of Castle Cary, but with its own unique Somerset flavour. I thoroughly enjoyed the video. Nothing quite like an HST at full pelt through a sleepy station to get the blood racing! I was hoping to head along to the Gaugemaster event in September, work permitting. Now I know Oak Road will be there, that's even more incentive to make sure I can get along... Keep up the good work, and best of luck for Rotarail!

Two weeks later, with loads of time available in the hobby room, here’s where we’re at... At last, I have a complete oval of track! But as ever, there remains a lot to do before it is ready to run trains... Who would have thought that a raised track section would be so complicated to get right?! This really has been a frustrating part of the build, and I’m glad its over (until I do the same again for the viaduct section leading in to St Aldhelm...but that’s a long way into the future!) The “dropped” boards (4 and 5 on the plan above) are just over 4 inches lower than the other boards to allow for some below-track-level modelling. The track is raised up on Woodland Scenics 4 inch risers, with the track bed itself being formed of 5mm plywood and a layer of cork. The risers have proven to be a great purchase, as they are strong, flexible and can be cut to shape easily (usual disclaimer). As you can see from the pictures, this hasn’t been a simple build, with the raised section also incorporating the platforms, space for the station building, a turnout that needs motorising, a curve towards the fiddle yard and a rail-over-road bridge. All of this has lead to plenty of head scratching, measuring, questioning my measurements, remeasuring, cutting, gluing, re-cutting and questioning my sanity. It has also meant that despite plenty of modelling time over the past two weeks, progress has been frustratingly slow (but what’s new?!) But all the hard work and patience is finally paying off and by the end of play yesterday, it all looked a bit like this, with all the risers and track bed in place and the track cut to size. The track is only loosely laid out, but is shown in its final position. The IET and MkIII carriages have been used to check clearances as my longest items of rolling stock and won’t be a regular visitor to Talbothays! The cut out section of riser near the bridge is for the turnout servo. I’ve cut it much deeper than it needs to be so that I can get my hands in there to work on/replace the servo in future. It’ll eventually be accessed via a lift-out section of scenery. The bridge itself has caused me no end of head scratching, and I’ll cover its development in a separate post. Although there is still a long way to go, I’m finally feeling tantalisingly close to having a working model railway, and all this work is finally starting to pay off. It was back to work today, so progress will slow again now, but the next part of the build is lots of little fiddly jobs which I’m hoping to get done before/after shifts and on rest days, so hopefully work won’t grind to a halt. First job on the list is...clean up the hobby room! I hadn’t realised just how messy it had got until I looked at the photos!

Crikey, doesn’t time fly?! Although I have been woefully bad at updating this thread, I’m pleased to report that progress has been made at Talbothays, although the speed of development remains only a notch up from static. Since mid-January, I’ve had a few opportunities to head into the hobby room and although trains aren’t yet running, I have been able to achieve at least some movement! January’s work involved tackling the wiring under the fiddle yard. It was really quite therapeutic, and satisfying bringing order to the tangle of wires. The layout will be DCC, so all droppers are attached to a power bus that will run the length of the baseboards. I came across DCC Concepts’ power bus connectors on their website and thought I’d give them a go. Although pricy, they’ve turned out to be an excellent way of connecting large numbers of feeds to one bus. They come in packs of two, so one pack is needed for each board, with only two wires then needed to connect each board. I’ll definitely be using them for the other boards. Next, it was time to install the turnout motors. I’ve invested in the Megapoints system and have to say that so far, I am very impressed. I followed Dave’s videos on the Megapoints website and in one evening managed to install nine servos. Even with a nasty cold, it was plain sailing, the most difficult part being cutting the aluminium tube to size and drilling the holes for the screws and armatures. A control board was fixed to the underside of the main fiddleyard board, and all the servos plugged in easily. I did come a cropper with one turnout which was a little too close to the baseboard edge to allow the full swing of the servo arm, but this was easily fixed by chiselling a chunk out of the woodwork. They’re so well glued and screwed together that I doubt it has weakened the structure at all! Having connected everything up to a multi panel and a few switches, I have to say it was very satisfying to find everything working first time. A few minutes configuring the throw for each turnout and it was all up and running. All that’s missing now is the mimic panel, which I may get made for me, or bodge together myself, depending on my budget. After playing with the turnouts, I couldn’t resist plugging the two fiddleyard boards together and hooking up a Hornby controller and running a loco back and forth. Finally, movement! (But sadly, no camera to capture the moment!) Unfortunately, the test run showed up a potential problem with my turnout installations. I tested a class 08, an M7 tank and Bachmann Tornado. The 08, with its 6 coupled wheels, ran perfectly. Sadly, both the M7 and A1 didn’t oblige so readily, both stalling on the curved points and short circuiting. It looks like the bogies are riding up on the points and coming into contact with the adjacent rail. With my modifications to the insulfrog points, all rails are live, whichever position the switch blades are in, and it looks like this might be causing more problems than I was aiming to solve. A job for the to do list is to try and cut the connection and see if I can rely on the switch rail making contact with the live stock rail. I’m hoping that using springy piano wire for the linkage from the servo means that, with regular cleaning, I’ll be able to rely on the electrical connection. Fingers crossed... Stolen moments in February and March have seen me return to the top-side and finish building my complicated point work straddling the baseboard joint. The third turnout was built and it all seems to work fine with a wagon and carriage pushed through the crossovers. Just the plain track needs to be added now, and then it should be plain sailing to lay the rest of the track through this part of the scenic section. Now we’re reaching the end of March, and still I haven’t completed that darned oval of track! I’m now half way through a fortnight’s break from work, and after some family business and household chores, I’m now looking forward to a few days dedicated to the layout. A trip to Ally Pally last weekend saw me gather a few supplies and I’m looking forward to cracking on again. The oval through boards 3 and 6 is nearly complete, and wiring should be a doddle compared to the never-ending task of wiring the fiddle yard! Then it’s on to boards 4 and 5. These have the added complication of being “dropped”, with the track elevated which should be a challenge! Not only do I have to make sure the track bed is stable, I’m also incorporating a bridge and I’ll need to install a turnout motor in the elevated section. I don’t seem to like taking the easy option, do I?! Hopefully more progress reports will be forthcoming soon!

The best word to describe progress at Talbothays over the past few months is glacial. Family, household, work and other commitments have meant precious little time has been spent laying track in the scenic section, plus what little time I have been able to steal has been spent on trying to get my head around the intricacies of Templot! What has been vexing me in particular, has been the pointwork at the St Aldhelm end of Talbothays station. My decision to use handbuilt pointwork has meant undertaking quite a steep learning curve. To complicate matters, the three turnouts that comprise the station entrance are on a curve, and straddle a baseboard joint. To start with, I learned just enough of Templot to create individual turnout templates and created my first curved turnout as described in the last post. When I offered the point up to the baseboard, it became apparent just how complicated the build was going to be taking the baseboard joint into account. So it was back to Templot to draw the station entrance with its three turnouts in full. I managed to work out how to import the XTrackCAD plan and scale it, then drew the point work over the top. Then printed it all out. Then found out I had scaled the drawing incorrectly and it was too large! So it was back to Templot again, re-scaling the plan correctly and another print out, and hey presto, everything seemed to fit... After all that, and a few hours here and there over Christmas and New Year, I have managed to get to this point: The original curved point has been offered up to the new plan and adapted to fit around the baseboard joint. Where the tracks cross the boards, copperclad strips are being used and the rail ends will be soldered to this. Because of the angle of the tracks, the strips don’t run parallel to the sleepers. It’s not ideal, but I think this is the most robust solution, and once the track is ballasted, painted and weathered, I’m hoping the copper won’t be too obvious. I have endeavoured to maintain the structural integrity of the turnouts as much as possible, slewing the track work to ensure there are at least two chairs between the crossing V and the baseboard edge on all turnouts. There is only 1 place where this hasn’t been possible, and that’s on the little used goods yard turnout, and I’m hoping the soldered joint will provide enough strength. Although I have prepared the boards to be freestanding and capable of being moved, it’s worth remembering that they won’t be moved on a regular basis, if at all. So I’m being overly cautious here, but you never know what might happen in the future and I don’t want to regret any corner cutting later down the road. I have a much needed annual leave day today, and as its my birthday, and I’m recovering from a cold, and I think I deserve it, I’ll be spending all day in the hobby room. I might not spend time on the turnouts (butanone fumes + sore throat = not pleasant!), instead turning my attention back to the fiddle yard and cutting the tracks at the baseboard joints and wiring up some track. Who knows, I may even be able to run a test train if all goes well! ...but lets not get too carried away...

Fantastic progress being made here. I've been following with interest over the last few months. Despite your protestations, it looks like your first exhibition went well - the videos and pics look impressive, anyway! I'm looking forward to catching Oak Road at some point myself...and I'll be looking out for it in the Modeller! As for the bikes, being a Train Manager who has to deal with HSTs that are too long for platforms myself, I can tell you there are plenty of locations where its not always possible to have the TGS platformed. Westbury on the Up is a good example - a 2+8 HST will be hanging off the back of the platform if the signal is at danger on approach, so any bikes for Westbury need to be loaded into the front power car just in case. Kemble on the up is another - only 5 carriages fit, and because of the signal protecting the siding at the end of the platform,the front is always platformed and if you're in correct formation the TGS will be miles off the back. So bikes and their owners need to stay in the vestibule until Swindon. The regulars know the drill, but the weekend warriors find it all a bit confusing! So, maybe Oak Road should have a similar local instruction, where the leading 7 coaches are always platformed regardless of formation - rather than move the signals to possibly unprototypical locations - and let your 1:48 scale guard deal with the logistics

What a brilliant thing to do! I love the picnic table idea - I bet the kids all loved it. Well done raising so much money too. Definitely worth it.

Great progress there, James. Glad to see you're on track for your first exhibition.

After all the shenanigans wiring up the fiddle yard, I finally had a chance the other day to start thinking about the scenic side of things on the St Aldhelm branch. After clearing the Talbothays boards, which had become a makeshift workbench-stroke-storage-area-stroke-rubbish-dump, I laid out the printed 1:1 track plan from XTrackCad to find, to my amazement, the majority of the plan would actually fit in the allotted space. Then out came one of my longest tender locos and 4x Mk1s and a fairly major problem reared its head. The passing loop is just about long enough for a loco+4 to be passed, but the rear of an “up” train will hang over the edge of the platform, which is shorter due to the entrance to the goods yard. This wasn’t obvious when planning the layout on the computer, so I was a bit miffed with myself. 4 carriage trains are a bit of a must for me. It’s probably just me, but a loco+3 in model form feels too much like train set territory. A loco+4 feels more lifelike for a preserved railway. Of course I’ll be running 3- and 2-carriage formations too, but I want the option to run 4. Extending the loop as much as I dare at the opposite end helps, but doesn’t solve the issue, and I don’t want the loop extending too far towards the fiddleyard. Much head scratching followed before I stumbled on a possible solution which might actually improve the model in other ways too. Currently, the track plan is based on Corfe Castle with the goods yard / head shunt leading off the up platform loop. If I make Talbothays a mirror image of Corfe, with the head shunt leading off the down loop, the loco on a 4-carriage train can pull up over the point work, with the carriages fully platformed. The goods yard and station building then move to the back of the layout, possibly creating a more open vista. But would it work? I fired up XTrackCad and had a play, and this is what I came up with... If I shove the loops closer to the outer (left hand) edge of the board and lose the second goods yard siding (shame, but not the end of the world) it just about fits. The head shunt is on a bit of a tight radius, so I won’t be able to store anything larger than a small tank or wagon in there without it looking odd, and I will need to shove the point work around a bit to avoid baseboard joins, but I think it’s workable. Note, the above photos were taken without shoving the tracks towards the outer edge, so there is more space for the goods yard than that shown in the photos. What do you guys think? I’ve roughly sketched in the platforms, buildings and roads/lanes to give a better impression of how it will look. The back scene will now look towards the village rather than open(ish) countryside, which might be a challenge to pull off. But I like a challenge! I have a rest day this Saturday, and I’m planning to print out the new plan and have a play. I do hope this works, because the more I look at the plan, the more I like it.

Another month down, and with a week of rest days and a week of annual leave under my belt do I have any progress to report? Thankfully, yes! Although both weeks off inevitably got filled with other household tasks and duties, I did manage to grab quite a few hours in the hobby room and made some inroads. Firstly, I concentrated on track laying and wiring in the fiddleyard. With so many turnouts and tracks straddling the baseboard joint, this task seemed to go on forever and took up all my modelling time on the first week off...and a lot of the second. It really was a long, arduous and seemingly never-ending process, but I got there in the end! The layout will be DCC, so I have soldered a dropper feed to every piece of rail. I've tried to keep work tidy, but being a non-scenic area, I haven't been particularly worried about it looking pretty - I'm more concerned with making strong soldered joints and making sure everything will work! All the track in the fiddleyard is trusty old re-used Peco code 100. Turnouts are insulfrog to keep wiring simple (and because I had plenty left over from old projects!) I have wired a single dropper across the stock and switch rails so that I'm not relying on the blades for electrical contact. The frogs are already insulated, so no need for further mods or microswitches here. At baseboard joints, I have used copperclad strip and soldered the rails either side (not forgetting the all-important cut through the copper to isolate each side). The rails still need cutting through, which will be done before the boards are lifted one-by-one to connect all the droppers to the power bus...another arduous job for another day. Wanting a power connection to every individual rail section meant some improvisation around the small (approx 1 inch) lengths between the turnouts in the storage roads. I decided to utilise the copperclad again to act as a sleeper base and soldering point for the wiring. The gauge is held by the adjoining turnouts, and its made for an efficient if not pretty solution. After so much soldering and wiring, I was desperate to move on to something else, so one morning set about building my second C&L turnout, and my first curved one. It all went without a hitch, and by the end of the day, I had a finished turnout ready for its tie bar to be fitted (a subject for another post, me thinks). All in all, a successful few days' work, I think. Although it still feels like I have a long way to go before trains can run...but progress is progress!

Tick tock, tick tock...crickey, doesn't time fly! Sorry for the lack of updates over the last three months. Sadly, with work, holidays, family and household commitments, there has been precious little opportunity to get into the hobby room and crack on with the build. I have managed to grab an hour or two here and there over the summer, but it literally is only a few hours, with very little to show for the effort. Track laying in the fiddle yard has been the name of the game, and I have made quite a bit of progress on that front, wiring up track sections and point work. I won't bore you with pictures, as I'm sure you've all seen a fan of sidings made from Peco code 100 track before! I have a much needed week of rest days coming up this week, and I plan on spending at least a couple of days cracking on with the wiring of the fiddle yard. The soldering iron had better not pack up on me! I also have two more C&L turnouts to build so that I can get the first circuit completed through Talbothays. After my first successful build, I'm eager to crack on with these. Although I won't be making my deadline of "the end of the summer" for the first trains to run, with next week's rest days and a week of annual leave next month, an early autumn run around the loop is a possibility barring any unforeseen problems. Here's hoping it all goes well!

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. To be honest, there's not a lot to report as work and home commitments have kept me away from the hobby room recently and work has slowed down considerably. A run of five rest days two weeks ago ended up hurtling passed without a single hour of modelling time which was very frustrating... However, I have managed to grab the odd hour here and there and have managed to build this: My very first hand-built turnout looks vaguely like a turnout! It's still not finished - check rails and electrical connections need adding, and I'm currently investigating the best way to do the tie bar - but it doesn't look too bad. I suspect I've used far too much butanone on the chairs, so will dial that back on future builds, but the wagon (a special edition Bachmann item bought from the National Railway Museum in 2012) runs through quite happily, so all good so far. With C&L closed for business online until at least next month, I'm panicking a bit about getting hold of supplies for the three turnouts I'll need to complete the main running lines through Talbothays before the end of the summer. The plan over the next two weeks is to continue to familiarise myself with Templot so that I can follow Martin's advice and create some templates, and then head to Railex in Aylesbury on the 27th armed with a list of components I'll need to buy. (C&L will be there, according to Railex's website...) My next rest day week is at the beginning of June and I'm determined to spend at least a few days cracking on with jobs in the hobby room. There are a lot of fiddly, annoying jobs to do, including fitting the connections and alignment dowels to the last board, building a small corner piece to fill the gap by the door and painting the fiddle yard boards. At least when they're all done, track laying in the fiddle yard can finally begin. My aim is to have the fiddle yard track all cut to size and laid by the end of June. There, I've said it...now I've got to make it happen!

Hi Martin, I have spent the last week or so doing a lot of forum lurking, reading and thinking about track building, as well as getting more familiar with Templot. I had thought that the C&L website had suspended trading for now, so decided to buy the DCC Concepts gauges from their website. Only when a bit of internet research led me back to the C&L website did I see they were still trading till the end of the month, but they also had the DCC gauges on sale! Ho hum, we live and learn, and it's not a great expense. I've ended up buying both the DCC Concepts (roller and 3-point) and C&L gauges (including 15.2 check gauge) and see how I get on with both... While I'm waiting for them to arrive, I'll be spending the odd morning before work continuing to familiarise myself with Templot and when I've next got a full morning or afternoon to myself, I'll start the turnout build. As long as the build goes well and I'm confident, I'll then start re-building my track plan in Templot before tackling some more involved turnouts... There are still a few baseboard building jobs to finish off, too. The next few weeks are pretty non-stop work-wise, so I'll be concentrating on the turnout build in between shifts. Then I'll be finishing the boards and cracking on with laying the track and wiring up the fiddleyard over my next week of rest days at the beginning of next month. Here's hoping that by the end of April I'll have built a useable turnout and I'll still be on track to have trains running on the Talbothays oval by the end of the summer...

Hi Martin, That is one large can of worms duly prised open! But these are all important points you make and I do appreciate you taking further time out to help a newbie in need! To answer the questions you raise, it might be easier to illustrate with a photo. Here's the contents of the kit laid out... So, we have the pre-built common crossing rather than just the vee. I believe the flangeway gap is 1.0mm. I was asured this wouldn't be a problem. I'm happy to build to 00-SF standards, and was told I would need a different set of gauges to do this (the supplied gauges are indeed 16.5mm, rather than 16.2mm). I meant to pick up the replacements but annoyingly I forgot to. Because of the transfer of ownership at C&L, they're no longer taking orders on the website, so I may have to source the DCC Concepts gauges or wait until at least June to be able to order C&L's...you say C&L's are preferred, but will I be hopelessly lost if I order DCC Concepts' in haste? I'm working my way through the tutorials on Templot at the moment - grabbing an hour or so here and there where I can, and slowly getting the hang of the programme. It's a great piece of kit once you get the hang of it! I'm looking forward to being able to do more with it soon... All the best, and thanks again, Martin.

This is what £166 looks like after a trip to the Ally Pally show! Hidden in that little lot is the answer to my question the other week of what track to lay through Talbothays. The sharp-eyed amongst you will spot some lengths of Peco Bullhead track. I went with Peco after taking a look at the DCC Concepts version on the Gaugemaster stand. To be honest, there's not a lot to choose between them, but I went for the nickel silver construction over the steel. As far as I can tell, it's only the colour of the rail that steel has over nickel silver, and mine's going to be covered in weathering paint and powder, and I'd rather have track that's more easily soldered... You'll also spot two types of turnout. I had a good chat with the friendly guys at the C&L stand who assuaged some of my fears and doubts about building my own track. I decided, despite the cost, to try one of their kit bags, choosing the smallest radius (which I later discovered to be roughly equivalent to Peco's medium radius turnouts, which is handy as I have a lot of them in my plan!). I've bought two Peco code 75 curved turnouts too, and will see how I go with the kit. If all goes well (and I don't take too long building it), I'll buy more components and go with hand-built turnouts throughout. If I'm still not convinced, I'll fall back on Peco for now and get some trains moving then make a decision how to move on at a later date. All in all, it was a successful shopping trip. I managed to get most of what I was looking for, including some loco crews and the small bridge kit to take the line over a lane near Talbothays station. The copper clad strip is for baseboard joints. The only thing I couldn't find was some woodland scenics foam risers which I want to use for the "dropped" boards. I guess the're too bulky and low-value for traders to bring, so I'll have to get them from a friendly online retailer instead. I'm now back at work with no significant time to model for another few weeks, but I'm spending the odd hour here and there trying to familiarise myself with Templot. It's a great programme once you've got your head around how it works and how different it is to the usual Windows programmes! I'm also hoping to build that kit before I crack on with laying track through Talbothays...

Harman's Cross was the end of the line back in those days, so there was a lot more action back then with the run around ready to return to Swanage. Only one platform in play too. I remember reading all about the work to extend the line up to Corfe, then taking a look at the work taking place at Corfe station as it was slowly and painstakingly restored. It's a totally different place today. I need to pull my finger out and get my own trip planned soon. I want to avoid the big crowds so that I can explore and take plenty of reference photos, so I'm probably looking at late summer / early autumn - but I will be avoiding the galas for now. Perhaps I'll head down for one or two when I come to think about operations...

Thanks Tim. I agree with you and don't understand the negativity surrounding the heritage scene amongst some modellers. There is just as much of a challenge to get this to look right as if I had been modelling the branch in LSWR or BR Southern region days. Plausibility and realism are key aims for me. Of course, I am modelling a fictitious location, and I will be using modeller's licence, including bringing some classes and locos back from the dead, but many modellers do that anyway. How many times have I read in the modelling press "the branch closed in the 1930s, but I'm imagining what it would have been like in the 1970s", or "of course, the class xx never made it to yy but it did get to nearby zz, and I wanted one, so it runs" or words to that effect?! A lot of modellers model the railways of their youth. A trip down memory lane for me is summer holidays camping near Harman's Cross and being excited about seeing the steam trains on the Swanage railway at the bottom of the hill. So that's what I'll model!

Hi James, looks like a great layout you have there! I'm also modelling the preservation scene, and it's great to see someone else modelling it seriously. It's a shame that more modellers don't see the potential. Keep up the good work. I'll be following with interest. Mike

Finally, after a nearly three week hiatus, I've managed to grab two days to crack on with baseboard building. Although I was eager to crack on, the novelty of woodwork has started to wear off now...this is definitely not my favourite part of the hobby! With four boards complete, I had plenty of problem solving to do. First up, how to align and connect the "dropped" baseboard 4 to baseboard 1? As you can see, because of the drop, there is nowhere to clamp the two together to fit the alignment dowels, or to fit the toggle catches. After a little head scratching, I decided to temporarily screw the two boards together using a scrap of wood on the top surface. With the two boards now firmly mated together, I then took to contorting my body into confined and awkward spaces (whilst being very careful to avoid injury to hands and eyes) and I managed to drill perfectly aligned holes for the dowels and a pair of M8 bolts, secured with wing nuts. There are four small holes left on the top surface, but they'll be easily filled / hidden when the scenic work begins. Then it was back to the easy work - building the frame for board 6 and legs for boards 5 & 6. I say easy, I did manage to lure myself into a silly mistake. Having decided, looking at the plan again, that board 6 would be full-height, I proceeded to make it some short legs matching those of the dropped boards. This lead, first to some rather colourful language, then after a cup of coffee and a sit down to gather my thoughts, this rather Heath Robinsonesque fix. I don't have enough timber left to make brand new legs, so this will have to do. The extension pieces are surprisingly robust, glued and screwed together as they are (that Gorilla glue really is strong stuff!). They've also given me another unexpected bonus - the adjustable feet now sit outside the leg, and as I'll be ducking under this board to get to the fiddle yard, I won't be snagging socks and toes on them as I pass beneath! So, with boards 1-6 now complete and in place, the first part of the layout is really taking shape. Just in time, too, as I had a surprise delivery this afternoon. S&DJR no 89 has been on pre-order for quite some time. I couldn't resist tidying up and taking a look at how the curve through Talbothays might look with Fowler's finest posed in what will roughly be the "up" platform. I've been after a Bachmann 7F for some time, and it doesn't disappoint. I think she'll be a regular performer at St Aldhelm! More family commitments tomorrow, then it's off to the Ally Pally show for a spot of shopping and inspiration on Saturday. I might have a tinker around in the hobby room on Sunday (I need to build a small extension piece to board 3 to fill in the gap near the door), but then it's back to work again on Monday, and another inevitable hiatus. It would be nice to think I might get trains running by the end of the summer...but that seems like a long way off yet...

Hi Martin, Thank you for your excellent advice. I do appreciate you taking time out to explain things. It's given me a lot to think about. I knew building a curved turnout first would be a bad idea. You're right, there are plenty of straight turnouts on the plan, but the fiddleyard will be laid with code 100 (I have a large amount left over from previous projects, it's non-scenic, so I'm happy for it to be non-prototypical, plus I'd like to be able to re-configure it easily should I need to). Also I'm keen to get trains moving as soon as possible, so I need to crack on with building Talbothays before thinking about St Aldhelm. I have a large number of recent purchases which need to be run in, as well as some older stock which could do with stretching their legs. I need that oval built PDQ! I had never really considered using Templot before. As I already knew my way around the former, I didn't fancy the prospect of starting over from scratch. I had no idea I could import files into Templot from XtrackCAD. That makes it a whole different story, so I will be taking a closer look. I'll have a lurk in the forum too, and see what I can glean... So, the dilemma is, I need to get trains moving on the Talbothays side of the layout, but I'm not experienced enough yet to build the kind of track I'm after. I think a compromise might be for me to lay Peco flat bottom turnouts on Talbothays for now, with bullhead flexitrack. I can then get trains moving sooner rather than later. I'll then have a go at importing my plan into Templot and building some straight turnouts for St Aldhelm. If they're a success, I can then think about building turnouts to replace the Peco ones at Talbothays. Exciting times ahead!

Let's talk track... I need some advice and/or your opinion to make up my mind what to do. Up until now, I have used Peco code 100 track on my projects. Like many, it's what I grew up with and I stuck with it because of a fear of not being skilled enough to go finescale. Before my modelling sabbatical, I'd tried Peco code 75 instead. It's a vast improvement over code 100, but the compromises such as sleeper spacing, the over-centre spring and the two-part assembly of the switchblades and closure rails are still there. So I've been doing a lot of research and thinking about what to do, but it's not a simple case of choose a product and go with it, as the market in OO track is changing by the minute. A heritage branch line such as St Aldhelm would have been laid using bullhead rail. Ultimately, that's what I'd like to use. But how will I achieve it? PECO I was excited to hear Peco had finally decided to produce "proper" OO track, and bullhead at that. I saw the sample shown at Warley last year and was impressed. It looked like I might have my answer. But... Only lengths of flexitrack are being produced so far. Turnouts are in the pipeline, but apparently long radius straight turnouts will be released first and I'm relying on a lot of curved and medium radius turnouts for my track plan. Two of the three I'll need to complete the Talbothays oval are curved. I have designed the track plan in XtrakCad using Peco code 75 templates, and I understand the new bullhead turnouts will match the geometry of the existing range. So if I do decide to go with Peco, I could buy flat bottom turnouts for now, and exchange them for bullhead as and when they're released. I'll have to wait before ballasting but scenic treatment may be a while off yet... LEGACY DCC Concepts' new range looks exciting. In many ways, I prefer the look of their bullhead flexitrack. However, like Peco, there are no RTR turnouts in the range...yet. I'm not averse to trying to build a turnout kit, and the Legacy kits look great for a beginner like me to get my teeth into. However, the simple assembly means soldering the rail directly to the sleeper, and to me that instantly makes them look more toy-like. Apparently, cosmetic chairs are in development, but are some way off from going to market, so I'd be stuck with unrealistic-looking point work for some time. C&L By far the best option for realistic-looking track work, but... Although I'm a beginner, I'm fairly confident that if I took it slowly, I'd be able to produce a half-decent turnout from a turnout kit. The C&L website insists they're easy to build and I believe them! But... Again, the problem of the track plan comes up. Two of the three turnouts I need to start with are curved. Is it a good idea to start my track building career building turnouts on a curve? Has anyone else tried this? Is it recommended? It's a big leap from code 75 to building your own, so I'll need some reassurance. Then there's the matter of matching the Peco geometry. I've tried to use large and medium turnouts wherever possible to improve the flow of the plan, but in yards and sidings, I've had to use one or two small radius. Is it possible to match these with C&L (or Legacy) kits? I've tried to research my way around this, but I'm afraid the terminology baffles me...especially when it comes to comparing RTR and kit-built products. There's also the matter of price. The C&L range is impressive, but the prices are significantly higher compared to RTR trackwork. If I was to take the plunge, I'm looking at a substantial financial outlay which will put pressure on to get the build right! The key advantage of using C&L is that if I can overcome the geometry questions and my beginners nerves, everything I need is already available. I believe C&L will be attending the London Festival at the end of the month...I may have to pop along and have a chat with them...and I can see me returning with a few bags of bits! I have taken a look at some other ranges (Marcway, SMP, Tillig, etc) but have discounted them for a number of reasons. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and any advice you could impart would be much appreciated!

Thanks for posting the video, Martin. I thoroughly enjoyed that! Great to see the contrast between the 70s decay and the vibrant scene today. You must have been there shortly after I last visited...I distinctly remember the timbers going up for the new signal box. Lovely stuff.

Hi Zomboid, If you're referring to the run around on board 6, this is the goods shed area. (I haven't had time to draw in the buildings and platforms at Talbothays). It is based on the layout at Corfe Castle, pre-heritage days (as illustrated in this image from a thread in the Templot forum). It has been a while since I visited Corfe, and I need to head there again soon to see what they've done to the area in preservation. Looking at Google Maps, it looks like they've cut back the area considerably, with just a single road leading to the goods shed (and expanded the head shunt area with an extra siding...but I don't have room to model that). I included the loco release and run around to see if it would fit. It does, just, but I would probably never use it, as I won't have any goods operations (except maybe the occasional demonstration goods). When I reach the track laying stage, I'll be playing around with some turnout templates to see what works best. Part of me is thinking I'll end up with two sidings instead. Also, I'm not convinced the head shunt is long enough to be feasible, so I may have to swing the connection around to be accessed from the St Aldhelm direction. So when I said Talbothays is shown pretty much how it will appear in the final build, what I meant by that was...um...yeah, there's still a lot of thinking to do!

I couldn't resist. With no time for woodwork, but a free hour the other night, I took the opportunity to lay some track down to see if the fiddle yard concept would work. The fiddle yard will be laid using Peco code 100 flexi and setrack pieces. I'm still umming and arring about exactly what kind of track to lay in the scenic areas, but it will be finer and more prototypical. I have used code 100 in previous projects and have plenty of it knocking around...in fact, I can lay almost the entire fiddle yard with what I have in stock. At the top end of the yard, we have the track heading in from St Aldhelm towards the through road on the left (A) and from Talbothays into the storage roads on the right (B). I have drawn in where the points will connect with flexitrack. A lower angle of the crossover which will eventually form the "running in" oval. At the bottom end, the fan of storage sidings all fit, with what looks like enough space to "fiddle" with train formations. The red line shows where the through road will connect with the loop, allowing me to mimic movements at St Aldhelm while I wait for the track to be laid there. The siding nearest the baseboard edge will act as Combe Hardy's loco spur and will be protected from accidental knocks by a ply barrier. And just to prove I can fit the planned trains in the sidings, I unboxed some coaches. There's plenty of room for four coaches plus a tender loco in the two longest sidings. I had hoped to accommodate trains of at least four coaches, so I was very happy!