Philtown-Branch

Hello Luke,

many thanks for your reply!

Best regards, Phil

By the way some first hand impressions from the venue today:

Hello again,

good news from my 00-Layout "Plankwell Yard": the layout has its first outing at the Wiener Neudorf Model Railway Exhibition south of Vienna this weekend.

Best regards, Phil

Hi Mark,

thank you for your reply - yes, the scenic section of the layout is just 150 x 52cm, the fiddleyard on the left hand side (sector-plate) measures 130 x 42cm and the cassette-yard on the right hand side is just 80 x 42cm - connecting to this cassette-FY there is an option for future extensions, but in the meantime I`m busy with N-gauge club-projects   

Best regards from Vienna, Phil

Hello again,

a short update from Plankwell Yard - during the last days I finished a small cameo scene at the right hand sight of the layout. It consists of a scratchbuilt Abbey-Sprite Caravan (made from Card & Paper) and a (LED-) fire place. The figures (Workers & Foremen) are from Bachmann and a Diecast-Mini stands on the grass in the background...I hope you enjoy the scene

Plankwell Yard will have its first outing in Austria at the Wiener Neudorf Model Railway Exhibition south of Vienna which takes place from the 4th to the 6th of January 2019

With kind regards, Phil

Hello again from Plankwell Yard,

during the last week I worked hard in my workshop and now both fiddle yards are already finished - this means that the whole layout is now ready for exhibition. The very first outing is planned for the first weekend in January 2019 at the Model Railway Exhibition Wiener Neudorf which is very close to Vienna.

I`ve enclosed some pics from the new fiddles yards, enjoy it.

Best regards, Phil

The whole scenic section of Plankwell Yard in action

The Union Jack is from my N-Gauge layout Philtown Branch

The left hand FY is a 3-road sector plate (120cm) upcycled from different plywood-parts

The right hand FY is very simple constructed as a cassette FY (75cm)

The baseboard is also upcycled from an older dismantled module

Hello from Plankwell Yard again,

today the scenic section of the recently refurbished layout had its first outing in the garden. I made some daylight-pics of the scenery, enjoy it...

Kind regards from a warm and sunny Vienna,

Phil

A general overview of the scenic section by daylight

Special guest today, the ever popular Bubblecar

A cameo scene in the foreground: the farmers at work

A view at the lefthand-side yard including the mechanical horse

The Plankwell Cable & Wire workshops & ramps

At the righthand-side we can see the inglenook sidings,

the single track of the branchline can be seen in the foreground

Last but not least a closer look at the loading platform of the warehouse

Hello, beautyful weathering of the engine and a realistic crew in charge - very well done!

Best regards from Vienna,

Phil

Hello and thank you for the comments, in the meantime I`ve added some cameo-scenes at the Layout, which I`d like to show here: near Philtown Lock a ice-van is in position due in front of the pub the hotdog-van awaits hungry people. Near the road-over-bridge a scratch-built Abbey-Sprite caravan is on its way to the next camping- and caravan-park. In front of the family-home we can see some further details in the garden, for example scratchbuilt sunbeds and a sunshade. Enjoy the pics, will be continued...

Cheers, Phil

Two pics from the little canal-harbour near Philtown Lock including the Ice-Van

A closer look at the pub-scene near Market Street: note the laser-cut seats & tables (microwelten)

Camper on the road: the Abbey-Sprite-Caravan, a paper built model (designed & built by my wife in 1:148)

Barbecue-time: scratchbuilt sunbeds and sunshade

Hello, here are the pics from the nighttime at Plankwell Yard - a bit difficult with my camera, but I think it´s ok for the first time.

Regards, Phil

Thanks Phil - I noticed the lighting. I hope you'll post a night time photo soon. Is the platform scalescenes as well?

Hello, yes I will try to post a night time photo soon. Well, the platform/loading ramp is scratchbuilt - a mixture of plasticard, cardstripes and scalescenes textures.

Cheers, Phil

Hello, by the way after a couple of years working on club related continental modular layouts, I´m back in British outlined Railway Modelling and I´m looking forward to show you some pics of my very first British N-Gauge Layout which I`ve named "Philtown-Branch". It´s a simple station-to-fiddleyard Branchline, started life in 2007 (well, a bit old stuff indeed) and finished in 2011 with the extension of "Philtown-Lock", a small narrowboat-scene with harbour and railway bridge. I enjoy chatting with the English speaking MR community because I think that I´m the only one Railway Modeller in Austria who runs British outlined layouts in N and 00. Enjoy the walk along Philtown-Branch!

With kind regards from Vienna,

Phil

Let`s start with a general overview of the layout which is exactly 4m long (including the FY), situated at my loft

The first part of the scenic section approaching from the FY is the scenery around Philtown-Lock: a class 108 DMU is on its way to Philtown

Some minutes later a class 08 passes the canal-bridge with daily goods

A Pannier Tank loco with an autotrain in charge

The BR Class 2MT with a special service, I´ve called it the "Dinner-Train"

On the return leg we see a Pannier with a rake of B-Set coaches

The daily milk-train from Philtown is in the hand of a Hymek today

Let`s come to the middle part of the layout which is called the "Market-Street": the branchline runs along of retaining walls before crossing "Philtown-Bridge"

A special guest on the branch was Cranmore Hall, running towards Philtown with a rake of Mk1`s

The job of the day is already done, the Class 08 returns with the brake-van

The inspection saloon is in charge on the branch - a bit overmotorised with the Class 37

Two pics from Philtown-Bridge & Market-Place

And last but not least: impressions from the Terminus Station "Philtown"

There is a signalbox and a goods yard as well, a Class 42 Warship awaits free road to run out from the bay-platform

A pleasant afternoon in the garden behind the railway line: the barbecue is ready for the sausages

A busy day at Philtown-Terminus: passenger-services are coming and going, shunting-duties especially with the daily goods are common

The very last picture for today shows the "Philtown-Branch"-Layout on the annual Model Railway Exhibition at "Breadway"-Centre Vienna in December 2017, the layout is already booked for the next event at the same location in November 2018

Technical background information of Philtown-Branch:

Scale: British - N, 1:148, Gauge 9mm

Era: British Railways Era 5 (6), Steam Late Crest/Diesel BR Green

Rolling Stock: BR Western Region, exceptions possible

Dimensions: 400 x 40cm (inluding the 6-Road-FY)

Points & Track: all PECO Code 55, Point-Motors mixed PECO & SEEP PM1

Controls: Analogue with GAUGEMASTER Handheld-Controller

Buildings & Scenery: Bachmann Scenecraft, Langley, various kits

Trees & Landscape: Faller Premium, Polak, et. al., mixture of grassmats & static grass

Road Vehicles: Oxford Diecast

Narrow-boats & Locks: Langley Models

Legs: IVAR (110cm high)

This Layout is available for Model Railway Exhibitions in Austria.

What a great looking layout! Is the brick built warehouse from a kit or scratchbuilt?

Hello, and thank you for your positive comment - the brick built warehouse is from scalescenes downloadable kits, it`s part of the first stage of the micro-layout which was built by my German colleague in 2010. During my recent refurbishment, the canopy of the warehouse is also equipped with LED-lighting. Figures (Bachmann Workmen) and different goods (Knightwing) are in place at the loading ramp.

Regards, Phil

Hello and many thanks for the reply - if I come up with the Hoellgraben-Project, I will start a new topic here. Certainly I will model the Waechterhaus and the entrance of Pettenbachtunnel. In the meantime I`ve ordered the photo-backscene for the scenic section, which will be delivered in about 2 weeks. Thank you for your personell background-information too, I know the Semmering Railway very well because I grew up near Muerzzuschlag and finished my studies in Graz. After 10 years working as a tour-guide & operator in different countries (especially in the UK and IRL during the summer months as well), I´m in charge as a geographer/historian in Vienna for 18 years. I´m involved in the MEC N-Spur Austria/Vienna for many years, so if you are planning a short-term stay in Vienna, I would looking forward to show you our large Semmeringbahn-Layout in N-Gauge, which is homebased in our clubrooms in Wien-Meidling. Since 2016 I´m also involved in the Austrian Railway Group/UK and worked for the society at different events here in Austria and also in the UK (2 times at the Ally Pally Show).

With kind regards,

Phil

Hello, I´ve posted some pics of my recently refurbished British 00 outlined Branchline & Shunting-layout "Plankwell Yard" at RM-web yesterday - during my session at the forum I had also a closer look at your topic about Donnersbachkogel. It´s a superb layout design and I´m very impressed about your construction of the overhead live wires and mast-equipment. Well, I´m working on an Austrian layout too, but it will be a bit smaller than yours - it´s an N-Gauge design of "Höllgraben-Viadukt" at the Semmeringbahn (North-ramp). At the moment I´m working with the baseboard of the scenic section and I´m planning to open an extra thread about this topic if working is progressing.

With kind regards from Vienna,

Phil

Hi Phil,

Great looking layout with bags of detail, can I ask how uncoupling of wagons is performed?

 

Regards John.

Hi John,

thank you for your reply - well, the uncoupling of wagons in the yard is managed by an simple uncoupling-tool which I have bought from Layouts4you as shown in the pic. One of these tools is LED fitted too. Maybe I will switch over to magnetic uncoupling with the help of small neodym-magnets as described in the topic of Jonathan, we will see...as first step for easier uncoupling I will remove the hook of the tension lock coupling on one end of the wagons/locos, otherwise it`s tricky with the tool.

Best regards, Phil

Hello Jonathan,

many thanks for showing the development of your shunting-puzzle-layout! I am very impressed of your simple magnetic uncoupling method, and I´m thinking about trying this method on my own Inglenook sidings at "Plankwell Yard".

Best regards,

Phil

P. S.: I will open an extra topic about my "Plankwell Yard" Layout soon.

Dear Grahame, many thanks for the pics of your superb N-gauge layouts, a lot of inspiration for future projects in 3rd rail, especially in NSE-Era!

Best regards from Vienna, Phil