Model Railway Forum

I am offering my layout "Bayview Halt" F.O.C. as I want it to go to a good home as it would break my heart to dismantle it after years of hard work and time as well as cost. All details are in the members Layout Section. I have given details on size and how it could be dismantled in 2 sections without destroying too much. I would help with the disassembly and it would require a large van for collection. It includes the control box I made for it and I may be persuaded to also give the Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2 controller F.O.C. with it to complete the setup for a good home.

Including in the layout is a Heljan Turntable + 2x SL8300 code 83 Peco track that cost over £200 when I purchased it, that currently sells for over £240 now as well as 32 Peco Electofrog Code 100 points all converted to live frog as PECO instructions with 2 double slips.

It DOES NOT include any rolling stock as that would be available a later date at low prices.

I am located on the Isle of Sheppey at Leysdown On Sea, Kent.

You could try East Kent Model Railway Society, Unit 65 Joseph Wilson Industrial Est, Whitstable CT5 3PS - Open at 6pm on Monday.

Thanks for the info, I have emailed them and just awaiting a reply.

As I have had no interest whatsoever, I have decided to dismantle my layout shortly in the next few weeks or so and will be offering all the Peco points with point motors that I can salvage at a later date ( have already destroyed one point in the dismantling) along with this list of rolling stock if anyone is interested otherwise I will sell on eBay.

All rolling stock items, Heljan turntable and Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2 are boxed (apart from the 2 Teak Hornby LNER coaches which were S/H and I fitted new metal wheels), are virtually as new with very little use. I can do photos for anyone interested in certain items and I will list them with photos when they are available for sale.

Bachmann Class 3F Jinty + DCC (very small) decoder
Bachmann Class B1 Loco & decoder (DCC fitted)
Bachmann set of 3 wagons
Hornby R2325 LNER J83 Loco (DCC fitted)
Hornby R2970X Class J83 9805 (DCC fitted)
Hornby R2998 LNER Class BI (Roedeer) (DCC fitted)
Hornby R3073 LNER Class A1 (Royal Lancer) Limited edition (DCC fitted)
Hornby Railroad LNER Mallard Loco with TTS Sound
Hornby R4170E LNER Brake
Hornby R4173D Buffet Car (x2)
Hornby R4332 LNER Teak Composite Coach 22357
Hornby R4333 LNER Teak Brake Coach 4237
Hornby R4515 LNER 3rd Class Brake
Hornby R4518 LNER 1st Class
Hornby R4530 LNER Full Brake
2 Teak Hornby LNER Coaches
4 model vehicles
Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2
Heljan HO Turntable
H.D. CDU

Is sad to dismantle, but the issue is that most people who may have been interested live too far away or don't have the space etc.

It tends to be small portable exhibition layouts that are more likely to find new homes. Ones that fit in the boot of a car.

Hope you find happy buyers for everything. There are some nice things there. Do you have other exciting railway plans in mind instead?

Thanks for your comments, I do not have any other railway plans in mind, as all my enthusiasm was in the the designing and construction of the layout rather than just using it. But it also sparked my interest back in model railways from a previous loft layout I had many many years ago in the days of Hornby Zero One which I never actually completed as computers changed my life and also my early childhood days of the Hornby 3-rail table top system.

I kinda re-invented things when I decided to take the narrow gauge "Freelance" route as I can use my mind to find ways design and build things to a budget. It has really brought a new dimension to my modelling as I have tried things I have never tried before.

When I started my current layout it was like starting all over again trying to remember how to replicate my diode matrix route selection I had previously done before when I had all the diodes fitted the wrong way round, which I had to then correct. Also back in the 80's I made my own CDU and the capacitors where huge in those days nothing like the modern ones of today, but his time I purchased one but I had to add a further capacitor in parallel as the standard one was not sufficient enough to operate the number of points I needed to throw for some routes.
That is what gave me satisfaction in designing the system which was initially from a much larger layout in a book of PECO layouts which I had to shrink in size keeping the basics the same but to fit the space available with help from the AnyRail software.

Satisfying building things yourself.

Part of what I found very useful in 7mm narrow gauge using 00 track gauge is that I wanted to meet to locos and stock which could turn on a 2ft wide board. Narrow gauge train lengths are shorter than I initially expected in this scale. Example is when by keeping to smaller prototypes (If prototype is the correct word for freelance models), I can model a loco and a train of around 10 small 4 wheel waggons, or a loco and a train of five 4 wheel coaches in the same track length as a 00 gauge Flying Scotsman and two LNER bogie coaches, so space saving layouts become a reality if one is sensible with what one makes or buys.

I love the challenge of making rolling stock such as waggons as cheaply and as easily as I can. I have conquered the challenge of making budget friendly couplings. The next challenge is in making budget friendly wheels and I have made some in the past which did work, but I was not quite as satisfied with them as I wanted to be. I have since found another possibility which I will experiment with in the future so for now, the cheapest budget option which works well is to use plastic wheels that have come from other modellers if they change to metal wheels, but I when I do this I like to give them budget metal axles which I am yet to perfect, so I am almost there... But for most waggons I use up my remaining stock of previously purchased metal wheels which suit some waggon designs better for now. Is all fun in learning new ways on how to improve what I have.

Where I have spent out in the past was to explore the various tools to make work easier. However simple hand files remain the most used tools, which has surprised even me as I was not expecting this in the past. I use small modelling files far more often than I use a ruler or any other item with the exception of budget superglue which these days I use for most things!

About anything electrical. I have mixed feelings. One the one hand I love a really nice control system. I could never afford the Zero 1 in the days it was the ultimate thing. Actually, H&M 5000 had the edge on Zero 1 and fair play to Hornby in their day as they offered other manufacturers their Zero 1 decoder communication methods for free as even in those days they could see the achilles heel in command control systems if everyone used different signals to communicate with their decoders! But only the likes of H&M listened. H&M and Hornby developed a strong bond after that leading Hornby to eventually buy out the brand.
For me, I stayed with DC until the year 2000 when I had a good job and there was promise by Lenz (Which did happen) that as more people became interested in DCC the decoder prices would reduce. (Lenz also reduced prices via a German (EU) grant to help them make their products more attractive). I initially wanted the ZTC system but it was not available when I wanted it, and as in those days it was Marklin, Lenz, Digitrax or ZTC with the occasional Locomaus which communicated with Lenz and back then could only be purchased via a Geramn made H0 or H0e trainset), after being disappointed by not being able to get ZTC, I bought Lenz instead and found their system to be impressive. I kept buying decoders and other items to expand my Lenz system and then I left the well paid job, and also was becoming a little frustrated at the time spent in programming DCC. Didn't need programming, but me being autistically minded me, if there was an adjustment to be made I would make it or I would not be satisfied. Yet with DC, I was more than satisfied with it as it was! I loved to wire cab control panels in DC. I loved throwing clocks toggle switches as I loved the feel of them. The most complex thing I had in DC was a H&M 3000 which I liked, but made a mistake when I was young as I touched a wire from the track output onto the 16v AC and it fried all the internal chips. Cost me what I paid for it secondhand (£35 which to me was a lot in those days) to get it repaired, and I sold it for the price I had it repaired, as I had not realized back then why my lovely controller stopped working. (I was young. I realize now what I did!) Fast forward to today and I have H&M 3000's again. May need to check one of them but I am happy... Also have a few other DC controllers... (I still have my Lenz system but I decided not to go down the DCC route with my narrow gauge).
What I wanted was to try and stick to things I understand and I can make, so I started to make a simple resistance controller. I got about half way as various relocation etc have delayed things, so it is another future project which I will run from a 12v DC supply.

So I am still having fun! Also another thing I tried was building my own track just to see if I could do it. Have learned a lot. Made a few mistakes, some of which came to light after... Such as making a whole little portable layout on two boards without any real rail joints... Erm... When a rail got snagged while packing the layout into a box for storage an entire rail area now needs a repair. Had I divided them into various track sections tommake them into sectional track pieces,, only a small bit would have broke. Probably under far more stress as well as one piece, as soldered track is very rigid and there is no where for heat expansion to dissipate. So is all in the fun of learning... Experimenting to discover what to do the next time!

This is one of my old pics from my loft layout, but I cannot make out the controller manufacturer. This is what I had initially and had all the track done in sections all controlled by the 3 rows of buttons from an old print machine. You had to press one button on each row to power up the sections of track and when you pressed the next button back on the first row it cleared the first button.

Then Hornby Zero One arrived and I had to connect all the section wiring together to just 2 wires, it certainly made life a lot easier. But then I thought about automatic computer control and then was when computers took over my hobby and I sold the whole lot for about £200. The guy picked it all up in a Ford Anglia with all the baseboard sections stacked on its roof. I gave him everything including my swivel chair and all the boxes I kept for everything as I wanted nothing left in case my enthusiasm returned.