Starting Fiddle Yard and Loops 22nd December 2011

By the end of the open weekend we had the track layed on the front boards.  Now we needed to get the loops and fiddle yard done.

Here in glorious blurryvision you can see Ian and Jem starting on the fiddle yard while Peter and Richard start work on the outer loop of the main line.

Having positioned the first set of points at the left hand side of the fiddleyard it was decided to start laying the outer most loop from both end and let them meet in the middle. 

Here you can see again how Peter's blowup of my plans aided in speeding up track laying.

Outer curve was set at 24 inch radius, which was about the biggest curve we could fit on the board. The next curve was designed to run parallel to it, which would have made it a smaller radius but as the curves are going to be covered by the upper boards we started the inner mainline curve a little earlier and made it a 24 inch radius curve as well.

Here's Peter working on the the first curve of the outer loop

Open Weekend 10th -11th December 2011

After a furious rush to finish the layout boards on the last club meeting before the open weekend we managed to get all the boards built and assembled and ready for track laying. Peter Chatt one of our new members managed to get my layout plans blown up to full size which could be layed on the board and make laying the track a lot quicker.

Here we see Jem and Ian taking abreak from studying the plans to pose cheesely for the camera.

Back to work guys

Above you can see the full size plans allow us to  position the track immediatly.  Drill and pin it through the paper then cut and remove parts of the paper from underneath the track.

It might look as if they are doing a bit of welding on the layout but the lighting in the often means you are working in your own shadow so extra lighting is often needed for close work.

The complicated point arrangement at the station entrance is coming together.

By the Sunday most of the front of the layout had track laid.  In the photos below you can see where the paper plans have been cut away from where the track has been laid leaving parts where track is still be fitted.

Ian chats with another club member while he lays track

So by the end of the weekend the front two boards had most of the track down and we even managed to get a train two running.

I know it looks like they are playing with trains but they are doing essential track testing.  Honest!

I know there hasn't been much sign of me in these photos and that's not just because I was behind the camera but because I was doing modelling demonstration at the other side of the hall.

There I am discussing my model buildings with a visitor while my beloved wife Tracy demolishes her lunch behind me. (Photo by Irene Taylor)

Board Construction

We started construction of the layout boards in early November 2011. The boards were constructed of rigid MDF with a softwood frame.

Myself, Jem and Ian working on the baseboards (Photo by Peter Chatt)

Several new club members joined us, which speeded up construction. The layout is made up of twelve individual boards. Ten for the lower level and two for an upper level at one end of the layout.  below you can see the lower level boards layed out on the floor showing the full 22' x 8' size of the layout. For use at the railway club the two middle 6' boards are removed making the layout 16' x 8'. The layout will only be assembled in its full size for exhibitions.

Here the boards layed out on the floor show the size of the layout

By early December all the boards were constructed and we had started to fit legs to them. The surface of the boards were then painted with black emulsion paint.

Here you can see the front and side boards bolted together with legs attached.

It was then a mad dash to get all the legs attached and the board bolted to together in time for the club open weekend on the 10th - 11th December 2011 when we would be hoping to get started laying track.

Introduction

The layout was originally conceived over several months in the summer and autumn of 2011 by myself, Jem Soady and Ian Carty. The layout would built for the Blyth and Tyne Model Railway Society and sponsored by my own company Smart Models who will be providing all the building models for the layout.

This project started out as refurbishment of an old 8' x 4' layout. This rapidly changed to building a new layout that was first 16' long and then 22' long.  After many weeks of planning we came up with the plan below.

We decided to use DCC control rather than the traditional DC control. This would be the first club owned layout to be controlled using DCC. We decided to use the Bachmann Dynamis DCC Control system as this is a system that all three of us use and are familiar with.  Also it proved to be considerably cheaper than comparable systems. This plan was agreed with the Blyth and Tyne Model Railway Society and construction began in early November 2011.

Above you can see left to right Jem Soady, Ian Carty and Myself working

on the assembly of the baseboards on 3rd November 2011. (Photo by Peter Chatt)