Here I am, happily ensconsed in front of a monitor, typing away into a not terribly quietly steaming PC and the thought crosses, nay, rages across the brain cell that it is about time that I did a bit of modelling.
The trips to the Paris fashion shows have been booked already. This is MJ among the shapely ladies on the cat walks, the tales of the designers, the press launches and the sheer glitz and glamour, but, in fact, that is another story.
I am actually envisaging the contemplation of the maybe-sometime construction of something not entirely dissimilar to a model railway. I appreciate that many of you are shocked to the very quick of being by this news and that such information has not been disseminated nor even mentioned within the walls of the Club for many, many years. I can feel the waves of horror that the thought of multiple and very similar, unpainted plywood structures that I have in my possession will cause when they apparently breed in profusion. The sight of a model railway consisting of several hundreds of such buildings, would, I am sure, bring much angst and drive many of our members to a premature pint at the bar.
The planning of this most signal project is perhaps firmly on the tracks and its station in the life of this particular fat controller is almost probably assured.
And so as the train of thought rolls inexorably towards the probably endless tunnel of destiny and as the shunter in the skies of time watches aghast as the fly-shunted wagon of fate smashes through the buffer block of metaphors, MJ will continue this story in the next Bulletin.
This is intended to be the first of a series of articles tracing the building of a layout, using simple tools as far as possible (kitchen table style) and a PC to print some of the difficult bits. Useful items such as a small spreadsheet for calculating weights, photos, diagrams and other notes will be put on to the MRC's website, (www.themodelrailwayclub.org) as the project progresses.
The project really started in October 1999 shortly after I bought a scanner. The box was kicking around the kitchen for a while and then slowly the penny dropped that I could fit a layout into it, or at least into a purpose built unit of about the same size. Coincidentally, this box was an almost exact fit into the cubby hole above the stairs and suddenly, by having suitable storage in an otherwise small house, the project became feasible. The brain cells started plotting…
After playing around with various configurations of boards, track plan and construction methods, the project gradually resolved itself to the point where building a layout (!) could start.
Constraints
The physical constraints of this project are:
1. The layout must be easily portable and light, eg ideally under 30 lbs (13.6 Kg), so that it could be treated like hand luggage.
2. It has to fit into an awkwardly shaped cubby hole.
3. Max length about 9 ft (2.7 m) to fit into the dining room.
4. Simple construction, simple electrics.
5. Overall construction time to be under one year (work permitting) ie quick.
6. Structurally strong.
7. Use simple tools for construction - kitchen table style.
8. Basic woodworking skills.
The modelling constraints are:
1. Period set about 1956 on the old Southern Region so that both the early and later BR logo could appear. Servicing area for cross-London services as an excuse to run foreigners.
2. Good ready-to-run locos, etc for the period are also easily available.
3. Environs are a loco depot, with one or two running lines and a railway viaduct forming a scenic break at the back..
4. Reasonable scenic breaks and backscene.
5. It must look right - architectural details, etc to be accurate as far as time allows.
6. If possible, to be built as a double-sided layout, ie can be viewed from either side, as an MPD from the one side and (if feasible) as an industrial site from the other glimpsed through the arches of a viaduct.
Planning
The fun bit - sitting at the MRC and chucking ideas at Pete Colton, listening to the others and generating ideas, silly, impractical and useful!
The cubby hole that the layout has to fit into is a right-angled, inverted vee above the stairs. It is useless for any normal storage, but with a bit of tweaking should be suitable for a box containing a layout. Foam board (also known as Kappa board) was considered - there was an article in Railway Modeller about it recently but the overall board depth (for the necessary strength) would have been too great for the space available. The board design changed to a lightweight plywood box construction, jig assembled to make it easy, accurate and repeatable. (Note that the jig only requires simple tools to build - all will be revealed!)
The normal trestle legs often seen while admirably suited to big layouts are too heavy for the constraints given. A novel and as yet untested idea evolved to build a set of self-adjusting legs that were pre-stressed and light.
Six A1 sized sheets of card were used to build a full-sized mock-up of the layout to get the details right. Card behaves in a very similar way to plywood and is easily cut. PVA glue is sets quickly and so structures were built quickly to see the overall shape of the layout and check how well it worked as a concept. The mock-up was an essential part of the planning because it helped formalise ideas, show up the weak points in design and just prove that what was desired was actually possible in the space available.
The main card structures that were built are a railway viaduct running along the back, various bridge abutments, and a couple of rough attempts at the main bridge. I chose not to use proprietary kits for the viaduct since the ones I examined did not look quite right - they did not have enough brick courses above the arches. This then gave the freedom to design buildings to fit the layout rather than make the layout fit the buildings. The intention is to make all the main viaducts out of 1mm ply, using brick paper for the walls and specially generated brick arches with four course brick arches printed using the PC. The completed mock-up was taken to the MRC for comments - Francis Dobson gave me a reference to a really useful book on bridges, "Bridges for Modellers" by L.V. Wood (full references below). A lot of useful constructional detail was also gathered about the bridges and abutments. Once there is a little background knowledge, it is amazing what can be seen with knowing eyes, five course arches, skew and straight…more later.
Clearances and Structures
An important bit! For the layout to look right, the clearances between lines and the structures, especially under the bridges had to look right, so time to get out the 'Locomotive Engineers' Pocket Book'.
The clearances used were a mix of Great Western (boo!) and Southern (hooray!) since the book quotes the SR loading gauge and the GW construction gauge. This was crucial to laying out the intersection plate girder bridge over the access to the yard. The viaduct also had to have sufficient clearance between the top of the brick arches and the cess, ie the 'base' of the trackbed. The viaduct parapet walls above this point have a minimum thickness of 18" and the top to be 18" above rail level as an anti-derailment feature. There also needs to be a handrail of a minimum of 4'6" above the cess. The viaduct will have refuges above each pier, on alternate sides for the whole of its length.
Diagram 1. Clearances
The depth of the intersection bridge in the middle of the viaduct was calculated at 1.5" for an 18" span (3.9 and 45.7 cm respectively) ie 1/12 of its overall length. (Note: the usual figure for calculating the depth of an older girder bridge is about 1/10 to 1/12 of the overall span). There should be cross girders on the underside of the bridge supporting another pair of girders running longitudinally and it is on these girders that the bridge plate and running lines lay.
The Layout
Diagram 2. Track Plan (9ft overall)
a. The Southern Layout
The up (London) side of the layout is to the left, so that the through loco shed and workshops are 'off stage' in the Upper Yard. There is another, big, viaduct that cuts across the yard and provides the scenic break (no trains will be run on this line).. The Lower Yard is to the right and the main viaduct at the rear of the layout runs approximately north-west to south-east. The feel is intended to be somewhat like Stewart's Lane in a cramped site, almost surrounded by railway bridges, etc.
The period is only ten years after WW2 so that there is still a lot of bomb damage evident. There are scars in brickwork with large patches of new brick in the viaducts. The rear viaduct itself is part of a flying junction to a branch and is electrified with a shuttle service using an ex SR 2 car unit.. The lower line is a steam service with the very occasional shiny bright and new DMU or even a Hampshire unit. It will be properly signalled to work the junction to the yard with signalling inside the yard to cover access to the main line. All working lines are bi-directional.
The down end serves a nearby station with good tram and bus connections so that most of the shed staff come through that station and use a push-pull service to a staff only platform in the yard area. Cramping the yard is a bridge abutment for another line that originally passed over the yard to form a junction with the high level line but the steelwork for this bridge has been removed, leaving only the brickwork. Further down the yard (off-scene) are the facilities for water, ash and coaling in the Lower Yard. The Upper Yard is hidden behind the viaduct and will probably have a four road traverser. The locos are substantially SR constituent companies, BR types and a sometimes an ex-LMS type that has arrived via the West London Extension or Holborn viaduct.
b. The Industrial Site
This facet of the layout is still very much being planned, with either a location around the back of Waterloo or perhaps to base it upon the small industrial area near Redhill. The backscenes are to be double-sided so that the face now showing has factory/industrial buildings. The brickwork colour, etc has to be right for the area.
Option 1: Waterloo
Around the back of the station, there used to be an enormous network of industrial lines between the station and the river. So the layout could comprise of an industrial site, wharfage traffic, coal and parcels. Small four and possibly six coupled locos such as a B4, Manning Wardles, and ex-WD types. There could still be an electric service over the viaduct. Gated access to the yard area off the 'main-line' would ‘restrict’ access, with the gates left in the open position. An occasional pick-up goods service would collect and return wagons.
Option 2: Redhill
Brickworks or a papermill: - with the last option fireless locos would prevail with perhaps a diesel shunter and a sentinel type. Otherwise the environment would be very similar to the first option.
….to be continued
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