10) Onwards and upwards

Seven months may seem plenty of time for layout tweaking, but it passes all too quickly. Nine weeks to go, and although much has been done, plenty more remains. The additions include street lamps, building lights, a cafe, more seats, more people, more shed clutter, speed limit signs, new fences, point rodding and duckboards.

I considered adding overhead lighting for the layout, but have decided against it, for the time being at least. Whilst it reduces dependence on whatever the exhibition might provide, it is fiddly to install securely without restricting viewing angles.

9) The Corris exhibition

Next up was the Corris exhibition, in August 2017. Held in Machynlleth's Leisure Centre, it raises funds for the Corris Railway. A friendly and enjoyable show, made more so by my posting a photo on social media, resulting in an invitation to the 16mm Association's National Exhibition in Peterborough the following year! The rest of the show was spent in devising a list of upgrades to the layout, of which more later.

8) Woodvale Rally - a first outing

June 2016 saw a first trip out for the new layout, to the Woodvale Rally in Southport's Victoria Park. The railway tent is a good place for a trial run, as the audience is mostly family-based rather than from the possibly more demanding railway modelling fraternity. Fortunately everything went well, with few operational problems and some (reasonably) well-behaved operators.

The skirting is a set of Kent flags rather than the usual plain fabric, which adds a splash of colour.

7) The little people

Most of the figures are from Motley Miniatures, now with added heads, you may be relieved to hear. The proprietor has a devious habit of including extra heads with each order, to encourage further purchases. I have yet to find an effective counter to this sales ploy.

The assorted packages are from various small suppliers. Some are laser-cut wood, others 3D-printed plastic.

6) Coming together

The scenery gradually advanced across the boards, preceded by a scattering of scale ballast from Swift Sixteen. Most of the points needed their operating levers cut down to avoid fouling the steam locos. 

The main boards are supported on metal trestles, with the turntable ends resting on wooden ones. Toggle catches and clamps hold everything together.

5) Starting the scenery

Next came a start on the most enjoyable part, the scenery. After a general grey wash, the boards were coated with wood glue and sand, to give some initial texture to what would become a mainly industrial/commercial setting. The cottage garden than had detailing added, including some small flowerpots, Lego flowers and a greenhouse.

The adjacent turntable was equipped with a coal staithe and coal office, with a path leading to a Permanent Way hut at the end of the garden. The paving was made using DIY filler in a Jigstones mould.

4) Adding the buildings

Choice of buildings was not a problem, as I already had a good number, kindly supplied by Carnforth Models for use on Layout No.2, The Middleforth Light Railway. Some extras were necessary for the new layout, notably an engine shed and a goods shed. The large and heavy nature of these kits required some care in the construction and handling, but they look the part and so far have stood up fairly well to the rough-and-tumble of exhibitions. However I have decided to transport their boxes in the car rather than in the trailer, as the latter's tendency to bounce over bumps can be disconcerting, notwithstanding a thick wodge of foam plastic cushioning.

3) First look at the whole

This photo shows the layout of the layout, three boards in a row and a turntable at each end. The objective was to encourage shunting, with trains not going straight through on the main line being manouvered either into one of three sidings or towards an engine shed. This would make good use of my Slomo-equipped locos, and promote slow-running amongst operators used to speeding round sweeping curves on any number of local garden railways.

The track is Mamod, as I already had a fair stash of it, and because it allowed for the sharpish curves I needed in the limited space available.

2) Tabbing and slotting

Assembly was relatively straightforward once I had found the instructions and, more importantly, read them. Laser cutting makes for accurate dimensions and facilitates use of tabs and slots to ease construction. Lots of clamps were needed, also weights to hold everything down on a slightly under-sized assembly bench. The X-shaped stiffeners (not shown in the photo) were a bit fiddly to glue securely, and still have a tendency to come loose if a board is flexed during transport.

1) The start of it all

As if two layouts in the garage weren't enough, there had to be a third. Well there was a second garage only partially full of old clutter, so it really needed something to fill it right up. Also I felt a desire for something a least a little easier to handle than Walmer Bridge and Middleforth, without large numbers of layout slaves coming to my aid.

Easier meant lighter, so that meant plywood frames and tops. Fortunately Messrs Grainge and Hodder produced laser-cut boards that looked just the part, and spotting them at the Warley exhibition offering free delivery meant I had no excuse not to order. So I did.

A few weeks later two large parcels were delivered. Now occasionally I have felt that the packing element of a delivery charge was quite a bit for not very much, but not this time. A lot of time, effort and masking tape had gone into producing two masterpieces of packaging, that took almost as much effort to disassemble.

More photos are here.