Down on Beaverbrook: Layout update…

The last proper 'layout update' for Beaverbrook was in June and I can't believe it. It's my own personal project, something different to the largely British outline models I work on in 'the day job' and one that I'm really enjoying taking my time with...

Dartmouth Terminal SW1500 on today's Franklin spur turn, switching out a car at the Co-op.

I am enjoying the fact that it develops quietly, in the background, hidden from view, shared with close friends and hinted at in creative blog posts. I feel no pressure to work on it just to create content. Whilst that does mean there is plenty of time for playing, it also gives plenty of time for thinking which tends to help formulate ideas. Although not intended to push me in any particular way, I do want to make sure I make quality decisions about things like road construction, this slow approach doesn't feel it, it feels more involved, more mindful than automatic. However that being said, I feel now is the time to bring you all in on the story so far so in a more traditional 'this is what I've been working on' style I'm going to talk about three important aspects: track, structures and roads...

Trackwork

I blame YouTube, specifically 'Boomer's' channel - he showed some awesome looking track in early episodes of the new 'Immersive Diarama' series, and this got under my skin. I removed the front track from the layout and cut all the webbing from between the sleepers to allow this to be re-spaced a little more haphazardly, typical of older spurs and sidings. I also studied lots of photos of the real Beaverbrook and began adding fishplates to the sides of the rail - these low profile plastic parts were sourced many years ago when I contemplated building a P4 layout - they were sold by Exacto-scale, I've got plenty left, I cut them in half and just glue them on the visible side of the rail so each pack goes twice as far! On a shelf layout there is no need to add these details to the invisible side, it won't even be seen in photos...

The front spur now features un-even ties and fishplates, I can't wait to get some ballast and dirt layers on this stretch.

Structures

This layout is all about the roadside experience, and the quantity of scratchbuilt structures has a real appeal to me - very early in the build I mocked everything up in cardboard to begin to get a feel for the compression required, and the scene I was working to create, and essentially check this tallied with what I had in mind when I began... working from photos from Chris, from Caleb and some great videos by 'Containerman' on YouTube...

Initial build below, revised above. Just because plastic is cut doesn't mean things are set in stone.

The Co-op mill has some kit elements, the silos seemed like a reasonable short cut, and I'm happy with the general composition of structures. If you compare the photo above with the initial model you'll notice I started by copying this in white styrene (lower image) but this just didn't feel right. The compression was so severe that it made the structure feel too tall... slightly disheartened I dismantled this carefully, saving the material for reuse and started again - adding an inch to the overall width. This fairly small change has made a big difference and with renewed enthusiasm I pushed forward. A casual conversation with Chris about texture led me to decide to use some embossed styrene to suggest the overlapping shingles of the prototype, accentuating the horizontal courses of this, and I will use painting to suggest the vertical element - as well as working in new and replaced sections. This structure is 'good enough' to now let me knove on to a few others whilst I absorb it - leaving it in place and 'playing trains' allows me to decide if this revised structure footprint works in the scene as I hope...

Roads

Beaverbrook itself is a straight road, and you'd be forgiven to think that is fairly boring - however it is not flat, in fact it undulates along the length, and has a hill near the Co-op. I wanted to represent this in my road... I was also pretty certain I wanted to avoid plaster if at all possible. Every time I use it it's always a mess, and often frustrating... it can work, but with the amount of road required here, it wasn't the right solution. Instead, I went back to Gordon Gravett's book, and thoughts on what I did on Kinross, and decided to use a sheet material. I picked up some Daler board from a local art shop in Llangollen, a nice smooth surface and relatively easy to cut with a new blade. However, this alone wouldn't be enough to capture the undulating surface - so I used some cork, various thicknesses, to build up a 'sub road' that varied in height along the length, rising to meet the rail crossings, and dropping away again - as well as featuring a subtle camber. The card has been cut to fit this, carefully using traced paper templates for the road crossing, and secured with PVA. A section by the Co-op has been sealed with 'sanding sealer' to check it's safe to use, before I apply it more widely. This will provide a good surface to work from. I will use plastic putty to fill the gaps, sanding this smooth before applying the road surface later with gloss grey paint dusted in talc. However, for now, as the roads grow along the layout, I'm beginning to get a warm feeling about the layout and the view's it is allowing.

Ignoring the lighting pelmet, this view down Beaverbrook evokes the same feelings of intimate rail roading that is evidenced in the YouTube videos.

Most of the cork is in place now, but not all the sub structure is ready... at this end of the layout I'm playing about with structures, I want to include a small railroad office behind the fuel depot, but this doesn't have enough visual presence yet, so need to think what else will work here... however, this photo shows the base later of cork down or the road crossing. A second thinner level will take up the tie depth, the card then resting on this and the plastic spikes to be just shy of the rail surface.

The corrugated hut here is being used for nostalgic reasons - my Dad built if for the great 'Canadian project' layout in the 1990s and I will re-purpose it here. In reality the real fuel depot does have something similar, albeit rotated 90 degrees - that would eat into the space I want to use to display a tank car...

A view down the layout shows I've introduced some subtle unplanned curves and wiggles in the track. I usually aim for precision with this, however watching the trains run it has a natural variation which is pleasing to the eye - I get lost operating this, it's eye level really puts you track side - as I sketch in more permanent structures and begin on more ground surface it's going to come to life and I'm so excited.

A model railway doesn't have to be a lifetime project, however in comparison to my smaller cameo and box layouts of more recent years there is a steadiness to Beaverbrook that is proving to me immensely enjoyable. I have a suspicion this is a combination of many factors to difficult to simplify here, however by following basic principles on layout design and being confident on what you want to achieve, building 'your' model railway is a wonderful pastime. I hope those who read the blog recognise that even if you don't have a lot of space you needn't give up on building one of your own... Find the space you have, match a prototype and scale to that and work steadily from there - and enjoy yourself. Until next time, more soon...