Cheshire Railway Modellers
On-line Model Railway Club
My Layouts by Bob Hughes
I have been described as a prolific layout builder by some people and I suppose this is true, I like building layouts as much as I do operating them. My interests include various eras, prototypes and scales, ranging from a Latin American railway in the 1950s to British main line trains in the 1980s, and from N scale (1:160) to O (1:43) and larger. The layouts, available for exhibitions unless highlighted otherwise, are listed below.
Pampas & Fernandez Consolidated Railway
Video of the layout available here.
The name comes from an episode of "Poirot" seen on television a while ago when Captain Hastings invested a large sum of money in a company by the same title which was neither consolidated nor had a railway, due to there being a rather considerable mountain range blocking its proposed route. The layout depicts Cuarto de Pulgada station, American O scale is 1:48 scale, you can do the maths (or translate from Spanish) to get the pun.
Foxbaile Light Railway
Foxbaile (OO gauge) is not a serious layout but a light hearted attempt at minimum space modelling. The photograph at the head of this page gives a deceptive impression of space, as revealed below! The layout's name is an anagram of "a boxfile".
The off stage arrangements are dealt with using a Peco loco-lift as a ready made cassette to shunt between the two tracks in the scenic area.
Lyddlow
Operationally Lyddlow is very simple with the sidings being served by an off-stage cassette beyond the overbridge, but the use of scale three-link couplings makes shunting take much longer than it would if autocouplers were in use. The layout is a showcase for my small collection of British O (1:43) scale locos and stock. It was built as a replacement for a slightly larger layout which had proved too heavy for exhibition use.
Please click here for more photos.
Why "Lyddlow"? Partly because it sounds like a real Pennine place name, such as Bleaklow, Mouselow, or Nunlow, but mainly because it is a little O scale layout, the scenic section is about 3x1 feet and the layout measures just under 5ft by 1ft overall.
N Scale Micro-Layouts
Tweedsmuir Street is inspired by several Scottish stations including Wick, Inverness and Glasgow Queen Street, the latter a very compact terminus, to get a selection of features which appeal to me.
The layout, including fiddleyard, measures just over a square foot yet features main line passenger operation with three platforms, two of which enter the trainshed while the third ends at a loading dock.
San Vince de Rey is an industrial area of a Californian city. The yard is served by the Union Pacific Railroad. This micro-layout, built on a small sandwich tray, has an on stage area of 90 square inches, with the fiddleyard making it up to a square foot. The trackplan is a reduced Inglenook shunting puzzle with siding lengths of 2, 2 & 3 giving a capacity of 6 freight cars in 7 spots. To operate the puzzle three cards, each representing one of the freight cars, are picked at random, these designate which cars have to be spotted on the long siding for loading.
Altgarten is a German branch line using elderly locomotives and stock as in the early 1970s. Only electric locos are used on this layout, only electric locos can be used, it is not wired for two-rail running... the overhead system is actually live and supplies the trains via their pantographs.
The overhead wires and some of the trees on Altgarten have suffered a little damage while in storage. The wires have been removed and will be renewed during 2009, replacement trees will be added as required and the layout will then be available for exhibitions once more.
Why Micro-layouts?
I
am often asked why I like such small layouts. In addition to the variety that
can be obtained without running out of space there is also the portability
aspect, as the photo on the right shows, San Vince de Rey's off stage storage
cassette fits in the box with the rolling stock and controller making the layout
extremely easy to carry when visiting exhibitions. Three or four of
these tiny layouts can be used to create a display of minimum space modelling.
In some cases though a single microlayout may be exhibited alone as several of
them have ample operational scope to keep both the audience and the exhibitor
interested.
Modules for the Club Layouts
Park Hall Halt near Gobowen was an ideal prototype for a small layout and I have wanted to model it since I first saw the photo (above left) several years ago. The Gobowen to Oswestry line closed to passengers in 1966, goods trains on the branch were withdrawn in 1971 and stone traffic from Blodwel Quarry ceased in 1988, yet the track was still in situ when I visited the site in 2008.
Park Hall Halt can be operated alone by plugging a short fiddleyard into each end but it is primarily designed for use as part of the club's modular layout. Details of the modular layouts can be found on this page.
The photo above shows Asilo, one of four modules that I am building for the club's new On30 layout "El Ferrocarril Internacional". This layout is due to make its exhibition debut at the CRM exhibition, 24th January 2010, but a short preview showing two of my modules during a test run can be seen here.
What's Next?
I have plans for another microlayout, though this one is in a large scale. I like old electric locos, regardless of their origins, and recently bought a 'restoration project' which consisted of a rusty steel body shell. I also have an old Timpo plastic toy coach which is about the same scale and some O gauge equipment suitable for conversion. The O scale track and wheelsets will be used to represent a three foot gauge shortline operating somewhere in the NE of the USA.
This will be a long term project but I have done some work on the locomotive. The body has been sanded down and given a protective coat of paint to stop it rusting further. The chassis from an O scale Atlas diesel shunter has been adapted to fit under the body.
Imagine the scene...
The Rebel Ridge Railroad was opened in 1901 and was electrified from the outset due to the heavy grades encountered on its route. In the early years the shortline prospered, as did the small towns served by the twisting line through the mountains where poor roads ensured that the railroad had a healthy share of local freight business and a virtual monopoly on passenger traffic along its route.
But it is 1933, the Great Depression era, and certainly not a good time in the Rebel Ridge area, what's more there's worse to come. In December prohibition will be repealed by the 21st amendment, this will wipe out most of the bootleg liquor industries in the area and with them much of the Rebel Ridge Railroad's remaining regular freight. Until then though the shortline will struggle on with its twice daily train catering for most of the traffic in a single combine car, and a freight extra can still be seen once in a while.
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