My Modular Layout
 

Together with other members of my Model Railway Club I am building a module for the club's new moduler layout. As always things moved slowly at first so although I started gathering materials together in July, my idea for a Brewery Layout has already appeared in Model Rail and Model Rail Live produced by Chris Nevard. At least I was able to pinch one or two of his ideas including the wagon turntable! (represented on the last photo by a square of white paper.)

Progress was also slowed down while we reached a decision on the size of each module and how the modules had to meet. One main line is on the centreline and the other offset by 50 mm. The boards are 1100mm by 400mm.

I like to plan full size starting with a sheet of wallpaper backing paper and then progressing to the base boards once they were built. I have decided to have a second board behind the main board to give more depth. The layout can also be self contined with two short fiddle yards.

I wanted the loop to be capable of handling a four wagon train plus brakevan pulled by an 0-6-0T. Brewery shunters are a Hornby L&Y Pug and a Model Rail Sentinel, which allows wagons to be shunted into the brewery two at a time.

The first 3 photos show planning at the paper stage and the last two on the boards. The final photo after I can given the boards a coat of brown emusion paint. I decided to lay one sheet of cork on the front board covering the whole area where track is to be laid. The last photo shows planning to find where the cork will be trimed, hence the masking tape to prevent the cork sticking to the baseboard where it is not required.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Interesting

Wish I had some spare cash would love to build an exhibition layout got some ideas but not the cash
Think Industrial sidings with mainline and loop with cripple siding as Clay Cross about 40 years ago

Looks very interesting John and I am very much looking froward to watching progress. I am not a modeler myself but I do enjoy looking at them. Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Phil

Another interesting project John.
How's the "Will Valley Railway" and your On30 logging layout progressing?

Both the Will Valley Railway and the 0N30 layouts have suffered because of commitments at the EVR and the later is very much on the back burner. The Modular layout is getting me going again as it is part of club activities and I hope that the Will Valley Layout will benifit.

Here is an update on progress on the Modular Layout:

Track laying is complete on the front board and all that is left to do is the siding into the Brewery itself, which requires a wagon turntable. I have the kit.

The next job is to wire up the point motors and put in track feeds. The layout is going to be DCC.

The small unpainted board is the jig to ensure that baseboards line up.

I am looking at the possibility of a road over bridge at the right hand end hence the "structure". It would act as as scenic break between the neighboughing module.

Photo of my new NRM Compound to finish.

Happy New Year.

John H-T.

Looking really keen now and I love the shot of the Compound. Good stuff
Regards
Phil

Interesting little stup you have John.....

A quick up update on progress. I have finished the basic wiring so it should be possible to run trains through to neighbouring modules. Will find out at Club on Wednesday!

All the droppers have been wired up to the bus which is copper tape round 3 sides of the board and also to the sockets for connecting to the next module.

I am trying a system used by another club member: wiring the droppers to copper clad sleepers stuck to the underside of the board and then from there to the bus. Should make trouble shooting easier.

Two photos: one of the wiring on the underside and one of the front board without stock so that the track layout is more obvious. Track still needs to be laid onto the back board, but I need to make the wagon turntable before I can do that.

The groups of three copper clad sleepers are for wiring the seep point motors, which will be the next task once the current wiring has been proved!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Looks very good John.:) I can't build for toffee.
mickey
:mad:

The big advantage of this project is that the module is very portable so I can take it to the club and get help from other members, so I get help and learn.

I have now tested the whole layout and it is all live. Two joints had to be resoldered and two extra droppers fitted. I used a Pullman Coach with lights for initial testing before putting a loco on the track. I have now had a loco run on all the tracks.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I took my module to the club last night and linked it up with two other. They worked on DCC, no shorts, locos with sound worked fine and we had locos running over all the track, so a successful evening! Photo attached.

Today I have done a bit more work on the layout of the brewery buildings. The rule to give scale.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Looking very nice now John and all the pieces comming together. Should be a cracker when completed. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Cheers and thanks for sharing a very intersting project.
Regards
Phil

Phil,

You will be able to see progress soon at The Belper Model Railway Group's Exhibition at Strutt Center on the A6 in Belper on Saturday 31st March. We hope to have at least 5 Modules together to show work in progress as an advert for the Club.

Hope to see you there and any other Forum Members.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Hope to make it John. I have it penciled in!
Regards
Phil

I have decided to add another module to one end for my own use, instead of just having a fiddle yard at both ends. I am planning a small branch terminus. I have used the 2nd board I already have to try out some ideas. Photos of two attached I am leaning towards the simpler of the two with perhaps a cattle dock on the short siding and a goods shed on the longer. The other end of the run round is already on the other board. The coaches are positioned to check the fouling point.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Coming along great i see!!

When I started out on this thread I planned to report progress as it happened.

Since the most recent post I had a look at other people's modules and realised that everyone has put trailing crossovers betwen the two running lines which means that my plan for the branch line terminus would not work as passenger trains could not run into the platform see first photo. I have therefore moved the platform to the down line and extended the lay by siding from the other board plus a cross over. I will probably curve the end of the siding towards the edge of the board with a goods shed/cattle dock. See other two photos for new idea. Cat included for scale. Actually she was supervising!

This will in fact make the layout more flexible and allow for holding another train, which will be quite useful when running with the other modules.

Anyway should finish the third base board at Club next Wednesday, but will need another left hand point for the new track layout.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Realy looks great john,wil look forward to see in more..........

nice little set up :)

Very impressive stuff. I will start when i have some retirement time! 5 years to go. Like Compound.

Thanks everyone.

I now have all the track down on the third base board and the basic wiring is complete. Had my three boards linked up with three other modules at Club last Wednesday and all working using DCC. We are planing to have seven modules linked up for the Exhibition on March 31st at The Strutt Centre, Belper.

I am now wiring up the point motors on the first board, quite a long task!

Best wishes,

John.

Haven't posted in here for some time so there are quite a few updates. Try to do them over the next few days.

Best wishes,

John H-T

The question from PeterJohn re: Foam Board prompted me to look at this thread again.

In spite of having to move there has been some progress which I will photograph and post.

As I mentioned in my response to PeterJohn I am now working on corner modules. All my modules are at club at the moment as I am trying to get sorted at home.

However the wiring of one module is now complete and seems to work OK.

Sadly the Will Valley Railway has to be committed to the list of "Never built layouts," although I have some part built baseboards but not the space to erect them. The On30 layout remains an idea for the future.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I have made quite a bit of progress recently including two corner modules and wiring up points with decoders on two more baseboards. Need to take some photos to show progress.

The problem is that The Unknown warrior and the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway take too much of my time!

Time is never on our side. I fully appreciate your predicament. Since I have gone semi-retired and just two days a week, one would think I have loads of time. It seldom works that way as I have found. In reality all the happen's is; we do more of all the things we could never do whilst working full time! However, on a brighter note i am enjoying immensely all that i am doing!!
Cheers
Phil

In my opinion, time spent on the Unknown Warrior LMS Patriot Project is time very well spent - and that's from a part owner of a GWR locomotive!

Again quite a bit more progress, wiring more or less complete on all five boards. Need to get it all set up at home so that I can get some photos.

Two weekends of Steal, Steam and Stars 4 with the Patriot Project, followed by Nottingham Show with a stand for the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway and the Patriot Project. Then Belper Show on March 28th to finish organizing could slow things down a bit!

John H-T.

Very impressive John.
Stuart

Hi John,
Do you get much time to eat and sleep? I have found that photographs of the latest venture tends to show up the flaws in what you thought was a perfect model. My layout (6' x 1') took about four months to construct and will take many more moons to iron out the wrinkles ! The other problems are the things that are forgotten in the rush of enthusiasm that needed to be incorporated at the planning stage such as remote uncoupling and signalling. Anyway, best of luck with your project.
Regards, Tony

Hi Tony
Is that an N gauge layout you are building? I would love to see your progress and the way it fits on a 6' x 1' board. I would like to do something like that size board and hopefully will one day in the not to distant future.
Good stuff
Cheers
Phil

Hi Phil,
My layout is actually 5' x 1', the extra foot is the length of the cassette deck ! Yes it is N gauge and I used 2 x 3 way points to save space. Basically a country terminus somewhere in GW territory (I still haven't decided on a name); single platform, runround line, two road yard with a kickback to the goods shed. The headshunt is 12" long which makes for interesting shunting when assembling trains to and from the yard, the kickback makes it even more interesting. If your moves aren't planned properly things like locos and brake vans tend to get trapped ! I will take it out into the sunshine one day soon and take some new photos to post.
Regards, Tony.

Hi again Phil,
I did originally start a thread in the railway modelling section called "A Winters Tale". You will find it on Page 5 of the RM index. This will show you the layout. (as it was then). It has grown buildings and trees since then.
Regards, Tony.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Tony. I remember it now as I was initially impressed with its compact nature.
Have you any new photos since then?
Cheers
All the best
Phil