Danderhall

[Chris]

So Moving house as required the disassembly of the layout, And as a new layout wont happen instantly I thought I would make a little station scene that could be transported and this gives me an excuse to practice some scenic detail.

I've picked the name Danderhall as its the vague location of the new house but is in the area of Millerhill, which had a small goods and passenger station and Shawfair which has a modern station serving the borders line (also a search didn't turn up anyone else using it). That all said it is a totally fictional piece of work and is more to give something to fiddle with.


The track plan shows what will hopefully form a little station with engine shed and some ability to operate rather short trains. with a small fiddle yard built to the left hand side

Ideally if it works well it can then be dropped into a bigger layout without too much fuss.

[glencairn]

Well done Chris, A small layout to try things out. I remember having a layout on an old ironing board. Great fun.

Glencairn

[Chris]

So today saw framing out the section of baseboard and track laying with holes for point motors

Tested with an 040 and seems happy enough, just need some dry weather to cut the back board down

[Chris]

Finished the back boards and got the droppers on the track all wired up, pity I dont have any sky

[Mr Bones]

Looking good...

[Chris]

Just received Duchess of Hamilton, along with a tts decoder, not that its going to get much use on this little layout.

time to get back to experimenting with uncoupling arrangements

[Bandit Mick]

Great start Chris. In many way I wish I'd gone for a micro type layout to develop my skills and avoid the problems I've encountered. I've got so many ideas going round my head that I want to try out - a micro is also portable so if I fancied working inside I could do so. As an aside - what points have you used (I still get hung up about my choice!)?

[Chris]

Many thanks
I plunged in and built a reasonably large layout, this board is one of 8 that made up the sides (explains the random holes in it) It was good in a way as I was able to see what features I would like and the next one will be a more complex track plan with better operational features, however it was far to much to deal with scenery.

The points are Hornby short radius insulfrog, as I had them and they work ok, even with testing on an 0-4-0 shunter I will in future move to electro frog points especially for areas that I expect slow moving operations. This has to be operational but its focus is to try my hand at scenery. and therefore wasn't going to spend more on new track.

This is portable and if it moves house well, it may get built onto the end of a branch line etc if I like how it turns out. however it may also just have a short life.

[Chris]

some catching up with the photos, back scene with some hand painted sky, and an experiment with embedded magnets for uncoupling, now I just need to find where i put the glue for the ballast

[Chris]

A little further progress, most of the ballast has been fitted although needs hoovered after the glue has set and a start of the hill around the tunnel so this is starting to test my modelling skills