Page 6 - NMRA Roundhouse July-August 2019

Cheffley – an OO Exhibition Layout
Mike Carter
photos by Mike Carter
his exhibition layout is a first for me inasmuch as I have crossed to the “dark side” and it is my first dabble into
modelling the “British” scene. Previously my exhibition layouts Red Hook Bay and Mill Falls; and my home layouts the Eastern & Great Lakes and the Sierra Nevada have been modelled on North America.
Model railroading has so many differ- ent facets but for me it is my love of architecture. Both Mill Falls and Red Hook Bay benefit from the laser kits and craftsmen kits offerings from several of the talented US manufacturers.
Looking at the British scene, it seemed to be dominated by the plastic kits of Ratio and Wills or the cardboard struc- tures from Metcalfe. However, there are some very fine laser cut kits of proto- type buildings from Timber Tracks.
I pondered a long time on attempting
to model Tetbury in Gloucestershire. I collected a series of Timber Tracks laser cut kits to accurately depict the sta- tion, goods shed, engine shed and cattle dock. I built the goods shed and noted it would dominate a small layout and the layout of Tetbury yard would be 22 feet. I decided that might be too ambitious for my first British layout.
So, what should I model? The British scene looked like a minefield and if I were to model it the layout would need to be fictious but plausible.
“Cheffley” is a sleepy town that may have been served by the Southern Rail- way in late 1939.The station buildings are still painted in the colours of the LSWR due to funding issues.The town is a branch line terminus for fast passenger services from Waterloo operated by the new electrified trains.
The Build
The first consideration was that the lay- out had to fit the car for ease of trans- portation. Mindful of keeping exhibition expenses to the bare minimum I try to use one car and 2-3 operators.This lim- its my exhibition layouts to a maximum of 15ft by 2ft.
Baseboards
I used Grainge & Hodder laser-cut boards 2 - 4ft by 2ft and 1 - 3ft x 16”. The boards are supported by the tres- tles that are used when I am exhibiting my American layout - Red Hook Bay. A lighting pelmet designed by my wife fit- ted with LED’s illuminates the layout.The boards were aligned together with brass cabinet makers dowels and then joined with bolts and wing nuts.
Track Plan
Next having formulated the track-plan I glued Woodland Scenics modelling sheet c1175 using PVA to the boards to form the track bed. I then used some Peco track plan turnout templates download- ed from their website to plan the placing of 5 Peco small radius turnouts.This cre- ated a run around, a head shunt, siding to the goods shed, siding to a bay platform and a two-track fiddle yard.
I made the turnouts DCC friendly using the usual method as follows: Turning
the turnout over you will notice four bare rails. Just in front of this, usually three ties nearer the frog, you will find two small wires that need to be snipped. Then wires are soldered to the outer and inner rails using in my case blue and red wires.These wires will be attached to the spring terminals 1 and 2 (marked DCC in and DCC out) of the switch motor - DCC Concepts Cobalt digital IP. The frog on the turnout has a thin wire already attached. I soldered a green wire to this (frogs are green) and this is con- nected to terminal 3 (S1-Frog) on the switch motor.The wires are just stripped and then inserted into the spring termi- nals. It is suggested they are not tinned.
The DCC Concepts Cobalt digital IP’s are similar to a Tortoise turnout motor. However, you do not need to solder
3 4 Cycle Track5 6 7 8 9 10 Station Road
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0
Cheffley
12
To
wn
Cottages Lock
FIDDLE YARD
Folly
Cemetary
School
Farm
Station
Cottages
SD
Market Sq.
6 ROUNDHOUSE - August 2019
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