Langstead

The original Calling All Stations blog cataloguing the development of a 00 gauge model railway from scratch

Langstead – Episode 2: Design

Andy Carter 4 Comments
Design:
 
After hours on the internet researching Model Railways I decided my layout needs to have certain criteria:
  1. Probably the most important of all: The Layout should be easily dismantlable/storable. I live in a smallish flat in London now and with other people so there really is no room for a permanent fixture.
  2. Despite this limitation the Layout should be as big as is logically possible to make the most out of all the existing track (Hornby) I have and so that I can run at least 2 trains with more in sidings. This presented two further limitations:
    a) The board(s) need to fit in my car. This is mainly to aid in moving it when I move house, but also just in case it’s good enough to take to an exhibition!

     

    b) It needs to fit somewhere in the flat, and it will be sitting on our extended dining table when out. Soit  can’t exceed certain sensible dimensions.
  3. It should be easy for me (a relative novice at DIY) to build. However, it should still look as good as possible whilst maintaining a modest budget. 
  4. It should be easy to set up and set down.
With these in mind it was back to the world wide web. 
 
If I’d have google’d ‘Model Railway Base Board’ when I was younger then maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess. Well it turns out there are plenty of companies out there that will professionally build you a base board, which could fold in half or split for your convenience and in some cases lay down scenic felt. 
 
This would certainly fulfil the ‘Look good’ rule, and all could be made to measure which fulfilled ‘Fit in car,’ ‘Fit in flat,’ and ‘Have lots of track.’ However these certainly were expensive and did take away a little of the ‘Make myself’ element to the project.
 
I therefore elected to go to B&Q and buy some wood myself. This would be cheap, and I also knew from previously purchasing some MDF to cover up my window to help me sleep during the day after working nights, the exact dimension that my car will accommodate. This lead to the parameter, 3.5ft by 2.5ft. This is big, but not big enough for a layout. I would therefore buy two of these, seperating the board in half when storing the layout which gives me 5ft by 3.5fto work with. Perfect. Now we just need to work out the layout itself!
 
A very useful website I found was http://www.freetrackplans.com. Name sort of does what it says on the tin. It gives ideas on Hornby track layouts on certain pre-given sizes. If you go to the geometry section of the website it also gives advice on curve diameters – which played a part in helping me confirm the size of my layout. If this wasn’t enough help FreeTrackPlans also links you over to a program called ‘AnyRail4.’ Which is a free* track planner tool you can download.
*Free up to 50 pieces in layout.
 
So I set to work , setting my project to be no more than 5ft by 3.5ft and this is what I came up with.
 
Layout
The dotted line denotes where the board splits in two. I plan at this point to nail down anything that doesn’t cross this dotted line and keep the middle straights lose for easy dismantling. This setup also allows for a great deal of future proofing. In theory another piece of wood can be added in the middle when/if more space becomes available to me.
 
The layout features two ovals (Hornby 1st Radius & 2nd Radius) so two trains can run simultaneously. It also features 2 outer loops meaning at least one (preferably two) other train can be held here and alternated with the running one. The right hand side of the inner oval can be isolated by points, meaning a train can be held here whilst the siding in the middle of the board is accessible from the outer oval. All these options add for lots of flexibility, lots of trains and without complicated powering scenarios.
The long term goal will be to have a town scene in the centre of the board with a modest village style station occupying the straight section of the track towards the bottom of the oval. The siding will act as a wagon yard for the station. The sidings at the bottom of the board will allow for further stock storage and possibly some depot style buildings. At this point I will mention that I do need a liiiitle bit more track (for the 3rd radius curve) which is slightly depressing as I have ALOT of other spare track left over. However, this layout looks like it will really work so I’m going to run with it. Off to B&Q Leah and I go. 
 
Ply Wood
I opt for 12mm ply wood. To make it seem like I made an educated man-decision this was because I felt MDF would probably put up a fight against a measly track pin. However it will still be durable and strong. Sundeala and Chipboard were also options however I’m told by google and model railway forums that these are prone to warping in heat fluctuations if not built on a frame. I’m not going to build a frame, mainly because this means more money on tools – but more it’s a case that I can’t be bothered. It’s useful to note that my flat has recently been fitted with a new boiler freeing up some storage space. and providing a location to store the boards at a constant temperature. 
 
Thankfully B&Q will helpfully cut your wood to size. Although the annoying bloke at Beckton Park will be confused as to why you don’t want the offcuts. Why do I need them?! 
 
On return to the flat I set up as much of the layout as possible (minus the missing extra track at this point) to gauge an idea of how it was going to look.
   
Track Rubber
Top Rail: Clean
Bottom Rail: Dirty
First of all though, the track needed a damn good clean. It had amounted 6 or so years of premium grade dust and was hindering the running of trains to a mere stutter (much like the central line if you lean on the doors). To clean them I used Hornby’s track cleaning rubber. Luckily I already had one, and despite me thinking it might have disintegrated over the years it still performed the job perfectly. (I’m also surprised that the changing temperature in the previously mentioned parents loft hadn’t damaged the track. The day I collected it was sweltering!). 

Track Laying
BR Sprinter
Track was laid and trains were run. The BR Sprinter smoked a little on start up. (Yet more dust) But once run it was fine. All the other trains now worked very well on the freshly cleaned track!
  
Leah jumps in and decides that Model Railways are definitely fun and sits there for a good 5-10 minutes making DLR announcements. Bless. 
 
At Cutty Sark – The first two sets
and last to sets of doors will not open…

You’ll notice at this point that I have very ‘modern’ trains, an exBR Sprinter, an East Coast Mainline 225 (in former GNER lively) and an EWS loco. Most modellers try and set a theme/locations or a period for their models. Whilst I have modern trains running here, I do have steam too. My cunning plan is to make the town scene as neutral as possible so I can run either if I want to have a theme.

 
So now we have a board. Lots of trains. And nearly enough track. The next stage is figuring out what material to use to cover the board and how to do it!
 
 

Langstead – Episode 1: A Lost Hobby & Brief

Andy Carter 1 Comment
Pre Amble:
 
I’ve always been into trains. I wouldn’t call myself an anorak by any measure and I couldn’t tell you the names of ‘important’ locomotives… (well apart from the Flying Scotsman, but everyone knows that one) but I love travelling by train, be it Intercity, Underground or International. I also like cars, and for that matter roads but I will always feel slightly bitter about how the automobile killed, or at least damaged, British Railways. Look out of your window on any odd rail journey and you’ll see empty spaces where branch lines diverged, where goods yards used to exist or abandoned platforms at your local station. This is sad. But this is what I like about railways, the sense of a romantic history which the M11 just can’t provide.
A Lost Hobby:
 
When I was younger, although maybe not as young as you might think, I had a model railway. It covered my floor space and no doubt p*ssed off my parents a fair amount with the constant addition of more track and the need to go to a model shop in Chelmsford every Saturday. It was pretty great, and it was also pretty big. I did leaf through model railway literature with the long term goal of nailing it to some wood and doing it all properly but that never came around. Instead, and rather tactically, my parents got a loft conversion of sorts in the form of laying down floor boards over roof beams. The promise was, clean up my floor space of track and trains, and replace it with a table in the newly floored loft. Once the job was complete I eagerly went to assemble my new layout (now with more fresh track as there was even more floor space to play with, in the loft). Whilst I thoroughly appreciated the efforts to relocate and encourage my hobby, unfortunately said parents forgot to factor in a number of variables:
  1. There was very little height in the loft, and what height there was, was further limited by the camber of the roof. Certainly no room for a table and definitely no room for me to stand up.
  2. As this was not a proper conversion of such the loft was still susceptible to weather. Namely too hot in summer and too cold in winter.
  3. Next was the unbelievable quantity of dust.
  4. And finally there was promise of folding ladders being attached to the loft hatch. This was scrapped due to the builder claiming ‘The hatch is at a funny angle and we can’t put folding ladders in.’ What I took from that was we had got a quote from an idiot who couldn’t suss out how to problem solve.
Even with these problems I merrily went about setting up my layout in the loft, now on the newly laid floor boards. I tried to make do and enjoy the extra space but the heat, dust and fact I had to move ladders about the house to get up there was making the hobby I used to enjoy hard work. The final nail in the coffin was when I went off to university and it eventually got boxed up, presumably so my Dad could fill up the space with old CD players, empty hi-fi boxes, and naturally – lots more dust.
 
Spin on 5 years and Leah and I (Leah is my girlfriend, who seems to be copping quite well with the fact that her boyfriend bloody loves trains) were a bit bored and elected to drive to my old house to relieve my loft of my other childhood hobby of Lego. When we got there we discovered there literally was FAR TOO MUCH lego which had been arranged into brick type (which Leah deemed ‘unfun’) and put in FAR TOO MANY boxes. This disappointed Leah so my attention turned to my trains now all nicely boxed (I’m actually pleased at the job my Dad did at dismantling it all – it’s probably because he loves boxes) in two large wooden crates. Eventually Leah allowed me to take home 1 small oval of track and 1 train + wagons. This was excellent fun. Naturally it wasn’t enough.
 
The next few days and work lunch breaks were spent planning and researching folding/splitting/portable model railway board solutions. Eventually I came up with a plan.
 
This blog is about that plan, picking off from where I left off and building my own model railway. 

Post Amble: (More on what I’m trying to achieve).
 
Apart from cataloguing the construction of my model railway the secondary aims of this blog are as follows:
 
  • You don’t have to own acres of attic space to build a layout. Kids, this is about showing your parents that there ARE alternatives to having your layout on your bedroom floor, and parents and adults this is about showing you there IS room for a model railway no matter what space you have available to you.
  • You don’t have to be a complete locomotive number collecting anorak to enjoy a model railway. Rather luckily I already have a large quantity of rolling stock left over from my childhood. If you’re literally starting from a blank canvas, and you want to build a rural village station set in the 1930’s – brilliant. You can look up what locomotives, and railway companies existed at this time and buy accordingly. But if you’re like me, and just love trains of all ages and eras – and want huge steam trains operating next to the Eurostar – by all means this is OK too. Remember the most important part of your layout is the trains themselves! So buy ones you like, and if they are not quite historically accurate to the rest of your model… So what.
  • You don’t have to be a DIY expert. I am merely armed with Google and my own logic. If you do your research you won’t have to have a degree in woodwork or engineering to build something that (hopefully) looks good. This project isn’t about creating a model that would appear in a magazine. Those kind of models take years to perfect, and whilst I am inspired by them and appreciate their art I want something fun and usable. It’s important to remember that the people who make these absolutely brilliant layouts often have been building them their entire life. I haven’t, and this blog is for the inexperienced first time modeller, like myself.