| In the beginning there was The Plan. Originally, because of space, I intended an end-to-end layout, rather than a continuous loop. But somewhere I read that locos need to be run in, so the obvious solution for that is a loop. But I'm planning to disguise the loop - read on! |  |
 | The project is slightly constrained by space. There isn't enough! So the layout is laid on half-inch MDF (5'8" x 2'8"). Construction does sometimes involve using electric tools, and the noise insulation in these flats is almost non-existent. Also there is a certain amount of noise simply from running trains and operating points. So I want to be reasonably quiet.
So after the Plan there was a Table. In the bedroom! |
| To lessen the noise of construction and eventual running, I laid polystyrene ceiling tiles on the table as insulation. (Now you know why the plan has red grid lines!) I drew the plan on to the table with a red marker pen and then wished I hadn't, because ..... |  |
 | .....after The Plan came The Change. There has already been a fair bit of tweaking, of tearing up and re-laying, of plans torn up and discarded. In the end it's a case of "make it up as you go along" but with a vague idea of what I want. Now the red lines are more of a distraction than an aid. The latest version of The Plan on paper looks like this: |
| The idea now is to have a fiddle yard (for the non-technical, that's a storage area for rolling stock often out of sight of the main layout) at the top, and the whole top section to be tunnel. There are sidings on the right, maybe a (goods ?) station below, and factories off to the left. Sounds vague? Yup! At the end of February 2009, the track is finally laid. This is a photo version from above. It doesn't look much like the original design! However, now it's just a matter of wiring everything up, creating the hinged hillside at the top to hide the fiddle yard, and painting scenery. Oh yes, and getting some locos and wagons to run on the track! |  |
 | November! Well, the track was finally laid, and yet somehow it didn't feel right. It's taken until now to do anything about that, given the usual summer activities and absences. But yesterday a local model railway exhibition just managed to stimulate the imagination enough to make me sit down and reconsider the layout.
I realised that this railway had too much railway! It was just too "busy". So now there is a glimpse of a plan for the whole layout, and I have ripped up the bottom right-hand corner completely. Here is the new plan. I'd better say "provisional plan" because change happenz (as the Zurich advert says!). |
| Well, change has happened. It still wasn't right, so I ripped some more, and relaid some more, and here's the result. The station (bottom right) has turned into what will be a train depot, and the top left area will become commercial and loading bays. I think! The small gaps are for isolating various parts of track to make multi-movements possible. Inspiration sometimes comes late! There's no need to make the tunnel hinged, just leave the back of it open. Only I will know that it's a hollow hillside. Simple! |  |
 | Now it's September 2010 and the whole layout is upside down! Literally! Now that the actual layout is finalised, all the track laid and all the points working and all the LEDs showing which sections of track are live....and all that, I couldn't bear the mess of wires underneath. When a problem arose, it was almost impossible to trace a wire in order to see where the fault lay, so I decided to rewire it completely. And there it sits, upside down on a card table with its legs in the air, undergoing major surgery. However, it is already a much neater wiring layout than before, but it's very time-consuming and finicky. I've had to make a new control board because the old version was just too small. |
| The control panel has to take all the wiring for points and LEDs, and using the SEEP point motors, this means six wires for each point, and twelve points...do the maths! But every wire is colour-coded and pinned down in groups to make each one easily identifiable and traceable. Points are switched using simple press-ON button switches, and a capacitor, and most points have the integral switch wired to LEDs. So it's almost ready to be turned downside up and to make sure everything is still working! |  |
 | Here's part of the control panel, showing the layout plan and the various switches. This mimic image is 14"x8", which gives space between switches and LEDs for the wiring underneath. The whole control panel is 24"x12", which means there's space elsewhere to add a track controller and odd things I might think of later - such as lights for buildings, rail signals and so on. The only quirky thing is that it's at right-angles to the layout, simply to avoid walking into it, and I'll have to mentally transpose what I see by 90°. |
| Now all the wires are connected the right way round and all the points are working, it's time to begin developing the trackside. The first and possibly the most tedious task is ballasting the track itself. This entails pouring very fine ballast on to the track, spraying it with water to dampen it, and then using a small syringe filled with diluted PVA glue and some washing-up liquid to fix the ballast in place. When it's dried, it really looks extremely authentic. There's a slight problem where points are situated because there's a hole in the baseboard through which the actuating rods poke up into the point mechanism. So careful use of sellotape covers most of the hole, and I hope people won't notice! |  |
 | About a year after the last burst of energy, I've managed to get the hillside foundations built (polystyrene - really tough material!), and the next job will be to cover the foundation with grass, shrubs and whatever. I had a long piece of wood which I've suspended as the base for the top of the hillside, and then built up in front with sheets of ceiling tile. It's very fragile at the moment, but when it's covered in plaster bandage (sometimes known as Modrock), it will be very strong and hopefully looking like hillside. |
| From the back you can see the wooden strip which supports the top of the hillside, and the mostly open trackwork. The only parts I can't easily reach are two small lengths near tunnel entrances, but this isn't likely to cause a problem. |  |
 | Several months have gone by between the last picture and this one. Now I've managed to create the basic shape of the hillside, using ceiling tiles and Modrock. Folded newsprint is useful for creating the lumpy effect of a hillside; a tip which I read somewhere: when folding newspaper, roll it from both ends towards the centre; this gives bulk but also a reasonably flat surface which you can then shape as you wish with the wet Modrock. There's still some more to do in the foreground. Then it's the tedious job of ballasting the rest of the track and grassing the hillside. Maybe this time next year...? |