Pushpull33
Western Thunderer
A possible competition entry ?
Starting with, how the layout came into being.
Hope you are sitting comfortably as i think this may turn into a long post.
Some years ago, i visited a local exhibition. After talking to one exhibitor, i was invited to come along to one of their club days. This was the 3mm Society's Dorset group where i met a couple of fellow modeller's, who are now good friends. Lots of chat and meetings later, they informed me that "Pine Road" should be, and is good enough to attend exhibitions. There inlies the problem. It was never built as an exhibition layout. Admittedly it is in sections but not enough to be moved on a regular basis . They persevered with me and offered to help. "Pine Road" duly attended Five of our local exhibitions with offers of more. I was overwhelmed with the response. But 'oh' to move it just became problematic and declined the offers. The layout was also featured in Railway Modeller, April 2016.
Having got the bug for exhibitions , wouldn't it be a good idea to build a smaller version of "Pine Road" (bare with me, i'm getting to the point).
After a copy of the Model Railway Journal No 254 fell through the door one morning, There it was on the back page,the Competition. Could i build a layout to the standards required for the competition. The urge to building a layout got the better of me and the entry form was duly sent off.
The original layout was to be called either Charmouth Bay or Lockyer's Wharf. After searching around in books, on the interweb etc, i found a photo. To me this wasn't just any photo, there was something about it, it fitted in with the area and era that i have a passion for. Easiest thing to do is post the photo. If i'm not allowed to, copyright and the like, Simon will have to remove.
On the river Exe, This scene dose it for me. Ideas started flooding through one's head. The book "Branchlines to Exmouth" a Middleton press production was duly purchased. Any layout built to fit in a 2 metre baseboard is going to involve, at best, some modeller's licence.
Exton is a small village right on the edge of the River Exe Estuary, between Exmouth and Exeter. No quay side existed their, however Topsham, further down the line did have a quayside railway although a 1/4 mile from the station itself. The layout couldn't be named Topsham, well, it's not Topsham. As Exton never had a Quayside and as the Exe Estuary runs along side, let's suppose one was built hence Exton Quays. We now have an era, area, a scene to create and a name. What's next, yes, a Track plan.
I can post this, it's mine.
Not the ideal way to design a layout but, hey, i new what i wanted. After a visit to "Model railway Solutions" and speaking to Martin about a baseboard. He arrives back with a quarter circle board, saying, would this be any good. A board that had previously been made for someone else but no longer required, That's ideal, well, Almost. It was a foot to long and 8 inches to wide to fit in the space available at home. We duly hacked it about, added sides, back, front and fitted out one end to take the control panel. I like the idea on page 30 of "Creating Cameo Layouts" (yes, i bought the book) now become known as the "Bible".The final dimension came out at 5' 4" x 1' 4" and 2' 2" across the centre at it's widest point. This is how it ended up.
A lot of thought went into which way round to build this layout. After many a discussion on whether to have the curve at the font or the back. They layout being wider on the curve as opposed to the straight edge (now the front). The ends are angled, the fiddle yard fits on the left hand side, so , sitting there during operation you are automatically looking at the layout without getting in the way of the viewing public. I had various discussion on "depth of field", Perspective views, etc, as we know, you look down a street and it narrows in the distance, so the narrow side should be at the back! ok, look through a window and what do you do. Go on, try it. Secretly i asked Three friends to do this and all of them looked through the window and automatically looked left to right, i rest my case! Of course, this way round, its happily sits in the corner of a room.
So, how is the layout looking so far. The next few photos were taken a few days ago.
Its all wired and running. The backscene below i temporarily printed out on A4 and i stuck them all together just to see what it would look like. I took the photograph, off the end of Bournemouth Pier back in July, so , it represents a nice British sunny summer afternoon. 20 minutes later, it was pouring down.
The Track is SMP with soldered copper clad sleepers, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" I like to use this method as so far, it has never let me down. I had a long hard think about using C&L track components but i just can't warrant the costs involved, especially when i had plenty of sleeper strip and rail to hand from previous projects. The costs went to Cobalt point motors. I do like these, again, i have never had one fail. I know, in the "Bible" Iain Rice doesn't like them much as they are noisy, i will give him that one but it's better than that clank of a solenoid motor and in an exhibition hall, they are not that intrusive .
I took the Two pictures below about a month ago
What! is that a catch point i see, yes, there's Two.
I think that's enough for now.
I would like to have posted this in the Competition entries section but unfortunately it won't let me. A note to whom it may concern, should you think that Exton Quay's may be a contender feel free to move the thread.
Starting with, how the layout came into being.
Hope you are sitting comfortably as i think this may turn into a long post.
Some years ago, i visited a local exhibition. After talking to one exhibitor, i was invited to come along to one of their club days. This was the 3mm Society's Dorset group where i met a couple of fellow modeller's, who are now good friends. Lots of chat and meetings later, they informed me that "Pine Road" should be, and is good enough to attend exhibitions. There inlies the problem. It was never built as an exhibition layout. Admittedly it is in sections but not enough to be moved on a regular basis . They persevered with me and offered to help. "Pine Road" duly attended Five of our local exhibitions with offers of more. I was overwhelmed with the response. But 'oh' to move it just became problematic and declined the offers. The layout was also featured in Railway Modeller, April 2016.
Having got the bug for exhibitions , wouldn't it be a good idea to build a smaller version of "Pine Road" (bare with me, i'm getting to the point).
After a copy of the Model Railway Journal No 254 fell through the door one morning, There it was on the back page,the Competition. Could i build a layout to the standards required for the competition. The urge to building a layout got the better of me and the entry form was duly sent off.
The original layout was to be called either Charmouth Bay or Lockyer's Wharf. After searching around in books, on the interweb etc, i found a photo. To me this wasn't just any photo, there was something about it, it fitted in with the area and era that i have a passion for. Easiest thing to do is post the photo. If i'm not allowed to, copyright and the like, Simon will have to remove.
On the river Exe, This scene dose it for me. Ideas started flooding through one's head. The book "Branchlines to Exmouth" a Middleton press production was duly purchased. Any layout built to fit in a 2 metre baseboard is going to involve, at best, some modeller's licence.
Exton is a small village right on the edge of the River Exe Estuary, between Exmouth and Exeter. No quay side existed their, however Topsham, further down the line did have a quayside railway although a 1/4 mile from the station itself. The layout couldn't be named Topsham, well, it's not Topsham. As Exton never had a Quayside and as the Exe Estuary runs along side, let's suppose one was built hence Exton Quays. We now have an era, area, a scene to create and a name. What's next, yes, a Track plan.
I can post this, it's mine.
Not the ideal way to design a layout but, hey, i new what i wanted. After a visit to "Model railway Solutions" and speaking to Martin about a baseboard. He arrives back with a quarter circle board, saying, would this be any good. A board that had previously been made for someone else but no longer required, That's ideal, well, Almost. It was a foot to long and 8 inches to wide to fit in the space available at home. We duly hacked it about, added sides, back, front and fitted out one end to take the control panel. I like the idea on page 30 of "Creating Cameo Layouts" (yes, i bought the book) now become known as the "Bible".The final dimension came out at 5' 4" x 1' 4" and 2' 2" across the centre at it's widest point. This is how it ended up.
So, how is the layout looking so far. The next few photos were taken a few days ago.
Its all wired and running. The backscene below i temporarily printed out on A4 and i stuck them all together just to see what it would look like. I took the photograph, off the end of Bournemouth Pier back in July, so , it represents a nice British sunny summer afternoon. 20 minutes later, it was pouring down.
The Track is SMP with soldered copper clad sleepers, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" I like to use this method as so far, it has never let me down. I had a long hard think about using C&L track components but i just can't warrant the costs involved, especially when i had plenty of sleeper strip and rail to hand from previous projects. The costs went to Cobalt point motors. I do like these, again, i have never had one fail. I know, in the "Bible" Iain Rice doesn't like them much as they are noisy, i will give him that one but it's better than that clank of a solenoid motor and in an exhibition hall, they are not that intrusive .
I took the Two pictures below about a month ago
What! is that a catch point i see, yes, there's Two.
I think that's enough for now.
I would like to have posted this in the Competition entries section but unfortunately it won't let me. A note to whom it may concern, should you think that Exton Quay's may be a contender feel free to move the thread.
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