Timber!

A bit of progress on the baseboard front yesterday!

Having remembered that in my lockup, I already have sheet of 12mm ply pre cut into 150mm strips for the layout I had started in our previous house, I have updated the plan to make all of the top and bottom sheets, side rails and cross members from 12mm ply. This has the added benefit of enabling two 6mm sheets of bendy MDF to be used on the one side rail that curves on the left hand board These will be laminated together to make which will make a strong section to match the 12mm ply used on the rest of the boards.

Having forgotten to pick up my black and decker workmate on the way home from work before the Easter weekend, the pavement outside the front of the house had to do for my mitre saw, and the kid's Ikea table sufficed for the rest of the jobs.

Next on the list is to route rebates into the oak end rails to accept the side rails and cut some 2x1 for the carcassing.

The curved section of the top and bottom panels of the left hand baseboard will be cut once I receive the full size plot of the layout that a friend has promised to do for me. This plot will also form the basis of the template upon which the track will be built.

Pair of Ratio GWR Open Cs

The vast array of unpainted rolling stock may be accounted by the fact that I haven't got round to getting my airbrush equipment together for a very long time, I am thinking that I might as well get a good batch of models together to paint in one afternoon.

This pair Ratio kits of GWR Dia 08 Open C, whilst being out of production, like some of my other kits, are occasionally available on eBay. Although some are of better quality than others, it is a great way to add interest to a layout and as time passes these kits will become rarer and less seen on the exhibition circuit.

The instructions for the Open C's are not that easy to follow especially when it comes to the break rigging, thankfully Paul Bartlett's site has many examples of British locos and rolling stock to draw information from, the picture of the Dia 08 giving a good idea of the construction of the brake rigging.

From the above photo you will also notice the white metal buffers. These are available from Lanarkshire Models. Available in different versions to suit many prototypes, I find these buffers much better to use than most buffers that are supplied as standard in kits, the ones supplied in kits tend to have a lot of flash and mould lines in undesirable places. The ones supplied in this kit also differ from the prototype.

Cambrian Models GWR T13 Sleeper Wagon

Another of my current projects on the workbench is a pair of Dia T13 Sleeper wagon for carrying Chaired sleepers used by the permanent way department. Only six of these were built and featured lever handle brakes, self contained buffers, vac piping and screw link couplings. Capable of carrying 160 chaired sleepers I will model it carrying six rows of 26 sleepers tied down using Cambrian Models fine chain (scroll down) which has 33 links per inch and comes in 1m lengths.

Currently the plan is to keep the costs down by using redundant Peco sleepers. As can be seen in one of my previous You Tube videos, I had started a layout using the original Abingdon track plan in the loft of our old house. The trackwork was Peco code 100, passed on to my by my father, supplemented by a few new points. On the move to our new house I have decided to switch to hand built construction using code 75 rail, thus leaving plenty of spare sleepers to play with.

Although the sleepers are not to scale, they are to hand and have moulded chairs saving me time and money in buying scale sleepers and chairs, most of which won't even be seen below the first layer.

The rest of the track will be kept for now, enabling me to put together a basic track to run stock while the building of the trackwork progresses, which will keep my two kids happy! The fiddle yard will also use the Peco track.

Tower Street Station Track Plan

This is the proposed track plan of the Tower Street Station Layout based on the track plan at Abingdon Station, a typical busy GWR branch line terminus with ample provision of goods yard facilities, which will add to the operational interest of the layout. The plan has been mirrored to suit the location of the layout within our hobbies room and has been compromised in a couple of areas to enable it to fit. The headshunt will remain and will extend onto the traverser to enable longer trains to be worked in the goods yard while keeping the running line free for passenger traffic.

The layout will comprise of two main baseboards, each being 1200mm wide and a traverser fiddle yard also 1200mm wide. The baseboards will be of monocoque construction using 9mm plywood for the tops, bottoms, which will have holes cut out for access, and sides. The side on the left hand baseboard which curves will be formed from bendy MDF while ends of the baseboards will be formed using 20mm thick oak plank left over from flooring our hallways and living room.

All trackwork on the baseboards will be hand made using code 75 bull head rail and copper clad sleepers and ballasted using C+L Finescale 2mm ballast for the running lines and ash ballast for the goods yard and headshunt.

At the moment the plan is to use proprietary kits by Wills, Ratio and Scalescenes for the buildings and accessories including a couple of items from Hornby's Skaledale range and to slowly replace these with scratch built items as my skills develop and time allows.

At the moment an interest in Green Diesel era motive power collides with an enthusiasm of GWR rollingstock and liveries, running sessions at home will not prove a problem, but if the layout ever gets to the exhibition circuit, as is hoped, then investment in GWR motive power will be needed!

The layout will be operated using Bachmann's wireless Dynamis DCC controller and will use a control panel, yet to be designed, for point and signal control. One of the members of Cardiff MES, of which I am a member, has developed and produced a point and signal machine, the signals to be used will be Ratio kit items.

K's GWR 6 Wheel Low Siphon

One of my current projects, a K's kits plastic 6 Wheel GWR low siphon for the transportation of milk churns. Bought on ebay, there seem to be a few versions of this kit, available in all metal, metal under frame with plastic body and roof, or finally an all plastic version, which is the one I ended up with.

I am currently waiting to see if Lendons have any Romford 14mm Mansell wheel sets, the plan is to replace the current plastic sets with the metal wheels and to file down the flanges of the centre wheels to enable the van to negotiate tight curves. If this fails, a friend has suggested gluing the centre wheel set in position and filing a flat until there is a gap of around 0.5mm above rail height to overcome the problem.

I also plan to place a perimeter of Peco milk churns into the van before the roof is glued into place to disguise the lead ballast, of which I have a stash of.

To see the completed kit, see the new post here.

First Post

Welcome to my blog and this, my first post, as a quick intro, this blog will be a diary showing the development and progress of my new layout based on the GWR track plan of Abingdon Station. This will also be a work bench blog showing the progress of smaller projects within the build including building and weathering rolling stock and motive power.

This is the place where it will all happen, I share the room with my good wife Annamaria and two kids, she has a sewing corner, there is a corner used as an office, the desk space in the middle belongs to whoever gets there first and rear wall on the other side of the room, out of shot is where the layout will live.