2996 Victor
Western Thunderer
Hi everyone,
welcome to my first thread on WT! I've recently started a couple of micro layouts: this is the furthest advanced simply because I've got the track!
The overall size of the scenic area is 1.2m long x 0.4m wide, and there will be a 0.6m long fiddle yard board. The baseboards are laser-cut ply kits from Grainge & Hodder, and I find they go together very well and are both strong and lightweight.
Although the baseboard for Newton Lane is one of G&H's standard sizes, its actually a bespoke baseboard with a 0.1m wide x 0.05m deep step in the rear face. The reason for this is that I wanted to experiment with the landscape falling away into the distance. Whether it'll work is another thing entirely! The idea is that the station is benched into a hillside, so that one side is cutting and the other is embankment. The station building and platform are "perched" on shallow retaining walls. Have a look at Washford station on the West Somerset Railway for a better idea than my attempts at describing it!
Trackwork is EM Gauge Society ready-to-lay, After a good deal of thought and considering my options, I decided to change tack and go with PECO's OO gauge bullhead track. My main reason for this is that I work at a glacially slow pace, and to have to learn the skills required for building loco chassis before I can even test the trackwork seemed a bit daft. By going down the OO route, at least I can hope to have something running before I get too much older! Trackwork is laid onto 5mm thick foam board. At the moment, I'm constructing the basic scenery, and once that's done, the trackwork will be fixed in place and tested.
For locos, I'm looking at ex-GWR types, 14xx and 57xx for instance.I'll be building High Level chassis kits for them For locos, I'll be sticking with the RTR chassis to begin with and using RTR bodies with a bit of titivation: Airfix for the 14xx and Bachmann for the 57xx. There'll probably be others in due course. Most rolling stock will be kit built as I'm a serial wagon builder, although several Bachmann BR cattle wagons have found their way to Victor Towers recently.
So, a few pics.
Sketch of track plan:
1. Station building, 2. Goods shed, 3. Signal box, 4. Pub, 5. Station Master's house, 6. Cattle pens. There's been a slight change to the buildings at the right-hand end, but it gives the gist!
Some full-size planning
And a bit of a jump forward
Scenery construction well under way, all using 5mm foam board for lightness. This is actually the back of the layout.
There are three layers on the baseboard surface, that's because of the dual-use fiddle yard and the need to get the track levels the same on both layouts! The core of the platform is also built up from foam board. Its not fixed in place yet to make it easier to face the walls. The eggbox structure should hopefully support it all!
A bit later.....
The eggbox structure has been faced, and will be clad in due course with Wills stone or something of that ilk. The basic shape of the scenery at the left-hand of the pic is also taking shape.
And there I'll leave it for now.
Thanks for looking in!
Cheers,
Mark
welcome to my first thread on WT! I've recently started a couple of micro layouts: this is the furthest advanced simply because I've got the track!
The overall size of the scenic area is 1.2m long x 0.4m wide, and there will be a 0.6m long fiddle yard board. The baseboards are laser-cut ply kits from Grainge & Hodder, and I find they go together very well and are both strong and lightweight.
Although the baseboard for Newton Lane is one of G&H's standard sizes, its actually a bespoke baseboard with a 0.1m wide x 0.05m deep step in the rear face. The reason for this is that I wanted to experiment with the landscape falling away into the distance. Whether it'll work is another thing entirely! The idea is that the station is benched into a hillside, so that one side is cutting and the other is embankment. The station building and platform are "perched" on shallow retaining walls. Have a look at Washford station on the West Somerset Railway for a better idea than my attempts at describing it!
For locos, I'm looking at ex-GWR types, 14xx and 57xx for instance.
So, a few pics.
Sketch of track plan:
1. Station building, 2. Goods shed, 3. Signal box, 4. Pub, 5. Station Master's house, 6. Cattle pens. There's been a slight change to the buildings at the right-hand end, but it gives the gist!
Some full-size planning
And a bit of a jump forward
Scenery construction well under way, all using 5mm foam board for lightness. This is actually the back of the layout.
There are three layers on the baseboard surface, that's because of the dual-use fiddle yard and the need to get the track levels the same on both layouts! The core of the platform is also built up from foam board. Its not fixed in place yet to make it easier to face the walls. The eggbox structure should hopefully support it all!
A bit later.....
The eggbox structure has been faced, and will be clad in due course with Wills stone or something of that ilk. The basic shape of the scenery at the left-hand of the pic is also taking shape.
And there I'll leave it for now.
Thanks for looking in!
Cheers,
Mark
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