7mm Invermire

[mike knowles]

Posted below are a few photos of our 7mm layout, Invermire (loosley based on Wick/Thurso in the North of Scotland) which is currently being constructed by members of Hessle Model Railway group.
The photos were taken at a test session yesterday when we hired the large room at the Hessle Town Hall (where we are based) so that we could set up the full layout (30 feet long).
The latest additions are the fiddle yard, the ballasting and the start of the station building.
The test session went very well. hope you like the pictures and if you want to see the real thing it will be exhibited at the Hull Model Railway Club's Summer Show at Walton Street, Hull on Saturday 4th June.
Hope to see you there.

Despite being a Scottish layout we did have some Western Region interlopers though!

I'll post some historical photos of the layout showing construction from day one in due course.

 

[Scale7JB]

Looks brilliant!

All the diesels and rolling stock are the wrong colour, but looks great all the same...

JB.

 

[Tappa]

Looks very promising Mike. Would love to see it on the 4th especially as it is local to me but sadly clashes with DEMU Showcase.

Jeff

 

[The Penguin Of Doom]

Looks brilliant!

All the diesels and rolling stock are the wrong colour, but looks great all the same...

JB.

Since I painted the Diesels, may I ask what makes them the wrong colour? I didn't think there were any other colour schemes on BR around 1980?

 

[oldravendale]

Wrong colour green, Sean.

 

[mike knowles]

I notice that my original post has not uploaded as intended. One of the pictures is on twice and a number are just thumbnail attachments. As I think this is the first time I've tried to add a number of photos to a post on here could someone explain what went wrong?

 

[The Penguin Of Doom]

Wrong colour green, Sean.

I sometimes wonder why I bother......

 

[Cliff Williams]

The Mk1s look great Sean (but in the wrong colour hehehehe) what are they from?

 

[mike knowles]

As promised a bit of background to the development of the layout up to its current state.
The layout is being built at our local club – Hessle MRG and represents our first foray into the so-called “senior scale”. It is roughly based on Wick/Thurso and will have a representation of the relatively short train sheds found there and also along the lines of these locations, loco hauled stock will be propelled back out of the station area to allow the loco to run round. (This means no uncoupling/coupling under the shed roof is required).
Baseboard construction was started in early 2012 using 9mm MDF for the sides with 12mm chipboard tops (a bit heavy but should be durable). There is a quayside at the front hence the step down. The photos below show 3 of the 4 boards so far constructed giving a total length of 18 feet but there are already plans to add two more 5 foot boards to extend the run of the single track mainline and give the locos some thrashing room!


room!

 

[mike knowles]

After teaching myself how to use Templot, the full size track plan was printed out on A0 size paper (work does come in handy sometimes) and stuck down on cork underlay. I did cheat a bit by using a C&L template for the three way turnout rather than using Templot, but overall I would thoroughly recommend its use.

 

[mike knowles]

Ply sleepers were individually cut from a sheet of 1.6mm ply (much cheaper than buying pre-cut ones and not TOO tedious), stained with wood dye and glued to the template with PVA.

 

[mike knowles]

As the track is being built to O-MF standards (31.5mm gauge with 1.5mm flange clearances) the common crossings had to be hand built so a set of gauges from Speciality Gauge Products (Debs) were purchased.

 

[mike knowles]

The next step was construction of common crossings for the pointwork, the following photos show my method of construction, though other methods are available!



More to follow.

 

[The Penguin Of Doom]

The Mk1s look great Sean (but in the wrong colour hehehehe) what are they from?

Hi Cliff.

Thank you for your comments. The Mk1s are from easybuild and the Mk2 is a heavily modified Big Big Train (well, two of them).

Cheers.

Sean.

 

[40126]

Like the buffet, Mike

Steve

 

[mike knowles]

A bit more background to the construction of the layout.

Next stage was to file up some switch blades.

 

[mike knowles]

Track laying then commenced starting with the three way turnout and gradually spreading out from there.

















More to follow.

 

[BCN-Pete]

Enjoying this thread immensely - definitely the right colour and era for me

Nice flowing track and rolling stock too - staying tuned...

 

[FiftyFourA]

Just bumped into this thread. As well as the late steam era, I also dabble in the blue diesel era (around 1977/8 period) and this new layout is looking very interesting so I think I will also be "staying tuned". By the way, the trackwork is very nice.

Shame that its outing in June clashes with the GOG Doncaster show; any other dates booked?

 

[mike knowles]

Shame that its outing in June clashes with the GOG Doncaster show; any other dates booked?

It certainly is a shame as I intended to go to the Doncaster Show but having promised Ken Gibbons at the Hull club we'd take it, it would have been rude to change our minds! Should have checked the dates.

No other shows booked as yet (unless any other organisers out there are interested). Note the layout is obviously far from complete so is being exhibited as a work in progress, in reality an extended test session.