Paxton Road, a potted history...
Well the old stuff is still live and available on the old forum, CLICKY CLICKY, but I thought to start off the blog it would be good to recap a little, so here we are - the history and development of a small scenic shunting plank...
Paxton Road started life back in September 2007, my return to modelling spurred on by the arrival of my first child and a realisation that the track day car project was a non-starter! I should explain that Paxton Road is actually a childhood memory adaptation - and I'm not a Spurs fan!
With the realisation that I didn't have much space I shopped around for minimum space ideas - and a 6'x1' grew to 7' x 18" plus! I used brown wrapping paper and cardboard models plus some old track to work out if it would work and spent an enjoyable evening pushing stock around on the floor!
You may notice the distinct lack of a layout fiddleyard - at either end - the layout was originally conceived as a shunting plank to fit in with the rules of the 2007 challenge. The size increased but the fiddleyards were never added to the design. The layout can be operated by anything from an 08/09 up to a Class 58 and still be 'shuntable'.
The initial scribblings were based on a industrial estate railway - similar to Trafford Park, with the excuses of van traffic and short trains in a gritty location. However things quickly headed Southern with my new found love of the Heljan Class 33.
Research showed MOD workings also used short trains with small vans - perfect for a space starved modeller - so the layout concept was set as a small MOD establishment receiving explosives and general merchandise in largely van traffic but potentially the odd open.
Paxton Road had just been 'somewhere in the Southern region' until I was browsing a book on the Didcot Newbury and Southampton railway. I read about Worthy Down, just north of Winchester and it's part in WW2. I summised it's importance continued after the war and when the rest of the line was abandoned the chord built during the war for access from the GWR to the Southern, just north of Winchester, remained open as far as Sutton Scotney - although abandoned any further north than Worthy Down. Paxton Road is the ficticious name of the road that crosses the line on an overbridge (the centre of the layout).
The baseboards were built using some foam insulation board after reading about in Pugsley's 2007 challenge layout thread. This proved lightweight and fairly stiff, but does have drawbacks - being hard to fit wiring and point motors. This foamboard was framed with 9mm plywood - cheap stuff from a DIY place - I'd use decent marine ply next time. Underside was strengthened, and the sides cut deeper than the foam board to allow wiring to be tucked out of harms way.
Trackwork is Peco Code 75 (with short radius electrofrog points - another thing I'd not do next time - definitely worth medium or large radius if you can afford the space) which was laid on some grey foam I had from work - about 4mm deep deep this would give a realistic height for the road bed above the surrounding landscape and give a nice ballast shoulder - something missing on a lot of layouts which does impact the realism in my opinion.
I really wanted to do a good job on the scenics of this one - and although I'd inherited a large quantity of Woodscenics scatter I was drawn to static grass - which I'd see in Model Railway Journal and on layouts like Cement Quay and Chittle. Not wanting to splash out on a static applicator I took the plunge and ordered some ready made 'grass mat' and 'static grass tufts' from International Models (Silflor is the brand) - which led me to the Noch puffer bottle at a later date.
Which brings us bang up to date with my last update on the old RMWeb. A major milestone - 2 years on and first half, all 3' of it, is 'about' finished! It's been an interesting two years. In the same time I've churned out a fair number of models on my workbench, some of which have been moved on and others still prized possesions. I do enjoy the layout and scenics, but I find myself split between that and modifying ready to run stock and weathering - so one day I'll get there with Paxton Road - and probably with too much stock!
Thanks for reading!
Paxton Road started life back in September 2007, my return to modelling spurred on by the arrival of my first child and a realisation that the track day car project was a non-starter! I should explain that Paxton Road is actually a childhood memory adaptation - and I'm not a Spurs fan!
You may notice the distinct lack of a layout fiddleyard - at either end - the layout was originally conceived as a shunting plank to fit in with the rules of the 2007 challenge. The size increased but the fiddleyards were never added to the design. The layout can be operated by anything from an 08/09 up to a Class 58 and still be 'shuntable'.
The initial scribblings were based on a industrial estate railway - similar to Trafford Park, with the excuses of van traffic and short trains in a gritty location. However things quickly headed Southern with my new found love of the Heljan Class 33.
Research showed MOD workings also used short trains with small vans - perfect for a space starved modeller - so the layout concept was set as a small MOD establishment receiving explosives and general merchandise in largely van traffic but potentially the odd open.
Paxton Road had just been 'somewhere in the Southern region' until I was browsing a book on the Didcot Newbury and Southampton railway. I read about Worthy Down, just north of Winchester and it's part in WW2. I summised it's importance continued after the war and when the rest of the line was abandoned the chord built during the war for access from the GWR to the Southern, just north of Winchester, remained open as far as Sutton Scotney - although abandoned any further north than Worthy Down. Paxton Road is the ficticious name of the road that crosses the line on an overbridge (the centre of the layout).
Trackwork is Peco Code 75 (with short radius electrofrog points - another thing I'd not do next time - definitely worth medium or large radius if you can afford the space) which was laid on some grey foam I had from work - about 4mm deep deep this would give a realistic height for the road bed above the surrounding landscape and give a nice ballast shoulder - something missing on a lot of layouts which does impact the realism in my opinion.
I really wanted to do a good job on the scenics of this one - and although I'd inherited a large quantity of Woodscenics scatter I was drawn to static grass - which I'd see in Model Railway Journal and on layouts like Cement Quay and Chittle. Not wanting to splash out on a static applicator I took the plunge and ordered some ready made 'grass mat' and 'static grass tufts' from International Models (Silflor is the brand) - which led me to the Noch puffer bottle at a later date.
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James.