The two main baseboards have been built with the two end "fiddle yard" boards 80% complete, legs and backscenes are however required for all boards. The "fiddle yards" will be bare boards using cassettes for train handling, and together with the legs will form a box which will enclose the main layout boards for storage and transport. That is my intention anyway, and I have the ways that I am going to achieve this in my mind, it just needs drawing on paper to confirm that my ideas will work. The baseboards are constructed with 6mm plywood as those for Rhineside, only not executed quite so well as my carpentry skills are not as good as those of Dave Harris.
The pointwork is from SMP and is currently still in the packing in which it was purchased, I have however constructed one point laid with flexible track as a test track for both my skills and the rolling stock that I am building. The rest of the track is yet to be purchased but now that the boards are built I feel justified in buying the track now.
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The Signal box is under construction which is basically a modified Ratio kit and will have a detailed interior. The station building is on the planning department will be based on the station buildings at Medstead and Four Marks on the now preserved Watercress Line. This building will be scratch built using CD cases to produce a shell with plasticard layers for the windows door and external brickwork.
Other buildings are very much outline planning consent at the moment and I need to mock the layout up together with buildings before proceding much further. |
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Now the really interesting bit and the reason most of us "play trains", the trains themselves. Being a Southern based layout there will of course be the usual suspects, M7, G6, Q class, class 33 Crompton, Hampshire unit etc. I have acquired a number of kits and RTR stock, three boxes in total, a small percentage of which has already been converted and a whole host of others that require conversion or building. The stock will hopefully be representative of the Western division of the Southern Railway however there will be a number of interlopers, including a :-
> J94 - just because I like austerity tank locos. This is a converted Hornby model.
> P class from the SECR - again because I like them a Wills Finecast kit still untouched in its box.
> R1 class from the SECR - because I'm pleased with the effect that I achieved when detailing this old Wrenn model which was heavily damaged before I started to work on it, I now plan to convert it to EM gauge.
Over the coming months as this project develops I hope to report progress with updates reporting on not only the layout but also the stock.
Watch the episode 1 YouTube video.