Sticking with my plan

Finally the track for my small OO9 Christmas layout has been laid. The day after Christmas! Still, I was thankful for the few spare hours on Boxing Day to glue the final sections of track in place that had been teasing me over the course of the past two weeks. I was supposed to have this layout ready for Christmas. But in sticking with my plan, I now have a 12 month head start on completing this layout in ready in time for Christmas 2024.

The track was glued into position using some extra strength Tarzan's Grip wood glue, I simply ran two thin beads along the outline of my track plan I had drawn onto the plywood layout top.

The set track curve and two small turnouts were clicked together to form one piece, and the the glue was spread evenly with an old flat artists paint brush, not left as you can see in the accompanying picture.

Over the Christmas holiday period I worked on one section at a time. The first curved section to be glued into place included the two turnouts, and I pressed these down firmly to ensure they were embedded in the glue and sitting flush and level on the layout surface.

While waiting for it to dry, I tore a sheet of baking paper to lay across the section...

...and weighed it down using my trusty Michael Portillo Great British Railway Journeys hardcover books. [Insert free, not-paid-for Michael Portillo plug here. You're welcome and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!]

The books kept the section in place while the glue dried overnight, and once the section was dry and firm, I could repeat the process with the opposite end curve.

Once both of the end curves were anchored firmly in place, I could then join the two curves using some PECO OO-9 flextrack, and follow the wiggly outline of my track plan to create a gentle, winding transition from one end of the layout to the other.

The gently winding flextrack section between each curve will add a lot of visual interest.

The outer passing loop curve shows the difference between the PECO flextrack (outside) and set track.

So with another Christmas in Australia now come and gone, my thoughts now turn to having this layout ready for next year. With a few busy weekends infront of me, I'm not sure exactly when I will be able to wire up the layout and get a train trundling around Bryn Nadolig. Especially given that I am frantically trying to complete the final Philden Model Railway book before I commence full-time study in January. Whether I do or not will determine whether the book's release will be in February, or August 2024.

Too late for Christmas 2023... but I now have a 12 month head start on having this layout ready for next year!

So, if you like what you read, please leave a comment below, or better still... show your support for this blog through any of the suggestions to the right. Come 2024, this blog (and my writer's life), is going to powered solely by your generosity. So, shout me a cup of coffee...

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Till next time...

The Violalakenslip layout frame

In keeping with my IKEA themed model railway layout that occupies one wall of our loungeroom, I colour matched the small layout frame that I built for Bryn Nadolig with the IKEA Eket display cases that this little OO9 layout will sit upon. When I sent a pic of my finished 1150 mm x 550 mm white and clear pine effort by phone to my friend AV with the single word viola beneath it, Anthony's reply came back that it looks like a Violalakenslip. Aisle 25, section B12 at IKEA....

I love it! But the truth is, this is one of the easiest little layout projects I've done to date. It started with a 596 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm single sheet of plywood that I first cut down to a size of 550 mm x 1150 mm as outlined in my previous post sacrificing length for functionality.

To build the frame, I bought 2 lengths of 30 mm x 18 mm x 2.7 metre long FJ primed pine from my local Bunnings Warehouse, and cut the sections to fit.

There are no fancy corner joins, simply 2 sections cut to a length of 1150 mm for the long sides of the layout, and 4 lengths cut to 514 mm (550 mm minus 2 times the 18 mm width of the timber), to use as the short side ends and additional supports.

I glued one section at a time to the underside of my plywood board using extra strength Tarzan's Grip wood glue.

As this glue grabs hold very quickly, just make sure you have test fitted each section before stringing a line of glue along the plywood. A clamp placed at each end will hold it in place as you work, and to ensure there wasn't going to be any warping or risk of a stray section of timber slipping out of alignment, I drilled and countersunk some holes through the plywood to anchor the framework in place with some 25 mm wood screws.

The plywood sheet was glued then anchored down with a few countersunk 25 mm long wood screws.

The screw holes and any gaps between each join were then puttied and left to dry overnight before sanding.

Any good finish is only as good as the preparation you put into it. So I sanded the entire frame edge using an orbital sander until it was nice and smooth. Although I could have just painted the frame edge and underside in the one colour, I thought 'why not make the edge strip of the plywood stand out by finishing it with some clear wood varnish?' The only extra work it involved was a 2 step process using some masking tape as outlined below...

I clear varnished the edge strip of the plywood by masking off the primed white timber beneath it.

The masking tape could then peel off easily leaving a sharp line of clear varnished plywood.

Once dry, the reverse was done. The plywood edge was masked off and the timber painted gloss white.

The masking tape pulls away leaving a sharp line between the gloss white and clear varnish.

I applied a total of 2 coats of clear varnish to the plywood edge and underside of the layout board. While for the primed FJ pine I applied 4 coats of water based gloss white, the same colour that I used when building my Philden Beach layout frame. The finished result is a uniform appearance once the OO9 layout is sat atop my IKEA furniture as can be seen below...

Viola! Bryn Nadolig's finished framework is finally ready to have some track laid.

As this layout is a small table top affair, there is going to be no backdrop added to it. I know, I know, you're probably thinking why given that I wrote a book on Model Railway Backdrop Basics. However, given that the layout will come out from its display position beneath Philden Beach at Christmas time, I want the layout to be able to be viewed from all sides whenever the family is gathered around the table. Including a backdrop will make that impossible. My next task is to build the hill in the centre of the layout using some insulation foam board. It will slope up gently from behind the slate station building, ending in a rock cutting against the railway line at the far left side of the layout. Rather than incorporating a backdrop, the hill is going to act as a visual divider.

A layout is meant to be fun, and this one will be no exception. Given that this is both a small table sized layout, and a Christmas themed model railway, I'm unsure if there will be enough material, or interest for that matter, to start planning another book around it. So, instead I'll use these blog posts to gauge people's interest and preserve the step-by-step process just in case I ever change my mind. Modelling in another scale compared to my decade long HO Australian efforts, is proving to be a welcome escape as I write my next Philden Model Railway book. Now that my Violalakenslip layout frame is complete, over this Australian summer I'm planning to flit between working on my next book and this little layout. Depending on how I feel each day.

My time writing model railway books is drawing to an end. So please, if you like what you've read, then feel free to leave a comment below. Or better still, show your support by buying me a coffee. Simply click on the blue coffee cup to the right and send a struggling writer a small tip... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/phildenmodelrailway

Sacrificing length for functionality

For a small and simple layout such as this, it wasn't really necessary to draw a track plan on paper before I started constructing the layout. All I needed to do was draw the track plan directly onto the sheet of 596 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm plywood, and mark where I was going to cut the board down to size.

As you can see above, the board will now be cut down to a size of 550 mm x 1150 mm.

After already writing about the reasons for my needing to keep this layout within the confines of 1st Radius curves, (see previous post here), I still had to decide how much of my twin IKEA Eket cabinets' length could be taken up by my small model railway. Although I had a total length of 1400 mm to play with, as it is going to sit beneath the staging shelf of my Philden Beach layout, there were a few key issues which led me to sacrifice the layout's length for some added functionality.

1. I'd already promised my wife there would be room for a Grandbuby photo to go on display beside the layout.
2. As you can see in the above photo, the throttle cable from the layout above it dangles down at around the 1150 mm mark, and I didn't want it getting in the way or damaging the corner scenery.
3. Without leaving 250 mm of space clear, there would be nowhere to put anything down when operating either layouts without placing it directly across the staging tracks above it. Think of the 2nd DCC throttle whenever a friend calls around to run some trains, that cup of coffee or glass of wine your wife hands you when you've got the control throttle in your hand, or a set of operating cards.
4. See point one again, because life's just so much better when you keep your spouse happy.

Once again, I marked a 40 mm buffer from the edge of the layout board to the outside sleepers of the track, and as promised, I traced around each sleeper profile so that you could see the track outline better in the photos.

As I'm using flextrack for the long straights at the front and back of the layout, I incorporated a slight wiggle over the 500 mm length before the line met with the next 1st Radius curve. It will provide some interesting modelling opportunities with things such as slate retaining walls and lineside fences, compared to simply leaving it as a straight line.

The compact layout leaves me with a final size of 550 mm x 1150 mm. It's the layout's width rather than length that is going to limit what I can do scenery wise, but it does leave me enough space to model a few village buildings to create my Christmas scene, which is the sole purpose of this layout build. I'll just work within the space I have available and be confident in the knowledge that the extra 250 mm of length I had just sacrificed wasn't going to make that much of a difference anyway.

The layout board will now get 50 mm trimmed from both the front and end closest to the decor plant.

As you can see, this isn't a layout for those dreaming of a room size empire! Also, this Christmas layout definitely won't be ready in time for Christmas this year! However, if time does permit between now and the end of the year, I can get to building the framework for the layout board now that I have the dimensions locked in place.

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Keeping within 1st Radius

For some modellers the sight of a 600 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm sheet of plywood isn't going to do much to excite the senses or go too far towards completing the benchwork in your walk around model railway plans. So when the sheet measured only 596 mm wide x 1208 mm long and I was already wondering how much I could trim the board down to and still keep within 1st Radius curves on my new OO9 layout, its fair to say that this series of posts isn't going to be about building a large model railway...

While my idea isn't to build the smallest layout possible, the space I have available to keep my little model railway on permanent display, is sitting atop a pair of IKEA 700 mm long x 350 mm deep x 800 mm tall EKET display cabinets. These inturn stand beneath the staging shelf portion of my HO Scale shelf layout. And the reason for me to construct this layout using OO9 Scale HOe 9 mm track, is to simply enjoy watching some trains running continual laps of the layout.

The success of any small layout utilizing a loop of track comes down to one thing... being able to accommodate the curvature within the width available. As you can see in the image to the right, to keep the OO9 layout sitting flush with the front of my HO Scale shelf layout, it would need to overhang from the rear of the IKEA display cabinets. With the framework of my shelf layout free-standing 10 mm off the wall behind it, that gave me an availble width of 550 mm to play with.

So, how much room do you really need for a 1st Radius, 228 mm curve in OO9 Scale?

Here is a 1st Radius curve centred between the minimum recommended layout width of 500 mm. (See pencil lines). This doesn't leave any room to accommodate the overhang from your longest carriage and would leave your models running right along the edge of the layout board.

Here is the same 1st Radius curve, only this time centred between a layout width of 550 mm, (see pencil lines). Note how this does accommodate the overhang from the longest carriage while still leaving a 30 mm buffer to the edge of the layout.

I outlined in my book Model Railway Trackside Tips the reasons why it is important to include a minimum 40 mm buffer from the outside of the track to edge of the layout. So being my first time modelling in OO9 Scale, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the 9 mm HOe gauge track could actually yield a tighter radius (228 mm or 9" inch), than what I would recommend for today's N Scale 9 mm counterpart, (249 mm or 9 3/4" inch).

I find that incredible, given that I am able to model scenery and structures in OO 1:76 Scale, within the confines of what has traditionally been considered N 1:160 Scale track curvature.

The longest carriage that will see action on my OO9 layout, is a PECO 160 mm long Ffestiniog passenger coach. It is actually longer than my largest Double Fairlie steam locomotive. So a 40 mm buffer from the edge of the sleepers on the track to the edge of the layout, still provides a 30 mm gap as the passenger coach swings around the curve. I can live with that.

The next step was to draw the station scene and passing loop on a curve at one end of the layout.

While for this project I could have been happy to have just modelled a small oval of track running around a Christmas Village scene, I went as far as including a short passing loop as part of the station scene at one end of the layout. There are plenty of examples of these rail height island platforms on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, and it simply allows me to park a short train running in a clockwise direction and release a second train running in an anti-clockwise direction. The simple track plan calls only for a 1 x right hand PST405 set track turnout, 1 x left hand PST406 set track turnout, 2 x PST402 1st Radius Double Curve packs, (enough to make a full circle so that I can trace the track plan), while the missing sections will be modelled using 3 lengths of PSL400 Code 80 irregular flextrack.

The station building is the Bachmann Scenecraft Harbour Station Office and Gents building, which is one of three sections they released based on the Ffestiniog's Harbour Station at Porthmadog in Wales. I purchased the ready-made station building, the Ffestiniog passenger coach and both of my sound equipped locomotives along with a book directly online from the Festrail Shop at Harbour Station. It is my way of supporting a Welsh heritage railway from the other side of the world. All profits go towards the operation of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, and their service saw my parcel arrive in Australia within two weeks!

Once again, using the longest carriage I was able to pencil draw the platform clearances from both the centre of the passenger coach (for the inside clearance), and the end of the same coach (for the outside clearance).

With the curved platform, passing loop and station building positioned so that I had optimum viewing angles of the scene, I could then trace around the pencil lines with a fine tipped felt pen, and move onto playing with pencil sketches for the locations of houses, village lanes and rising hills. Not only will this make it easier to see the track plan in future blog posts, but I can use an eraser a thousand times for all my other sketchy ideas, without erasing any of my track plan.

There's no need to trace each sleeper with a felt-tip pen! I'm just doing this so that you can see the track outline better in my future blog posts.

And there you have it. You'll now be able to see my track configuration better across my next updates.

So there you have it. I'm up, up and away and now tasked with making this Christmas scene as interesting a story as possible, all while keeping within 1st Radius curves. 550 mm wide by.... umm, something long. I guess you'll have to tune in next time to find out.

If you like what you read, leave me a comment below. Or better still, click on the blue coffee cup to the right and buy me a coffee... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/phildenmodelrailway

Over the coming weeks I'm going to start transferring some premium model railway pictures over onto that platform as a way of helping put myself through full-time study next year, (it's either that or starting an OnlyFans channel...) So I sure appreciate any support, be it through purchasing one of my books or browsing my eBay fundraiser. Until next time...

See also; Narrowing my modelling projects

Narrowing my modelling projects

With so many half completed model railway projects either underway or accumulating in boxes in the wardrobe, last month I had one of those honesty sessions with myself where I asked; 'just where are you going to find the time to complete any of them?' As I'm now busy writing my final Philden Model Railway book, and preparing to return to full-time study next year, the solution turned out to be picking one project, and one project only to coexist beneath my Philden Beach HO shelf layout.

For the past 18 months, my tiny Queensland narrow gauge layout I'd dubbed Philden Creek had sat forlornly beneath my HO scale layout's staging yard gathering dust. Built in a rush early in 2022 prior to our relocating back to Brisbane, the 3 track Inglenook layout had contributed to my Model Railway Scenery Secrets book, but I'd just plain lost interest in finishing it.

It is now gone.

My newly cleared space for my next layout project, a OO9 Welsh Highlands layout.

That a small DC shunting layout based around some HO scale narrow gauge Australian rollingstock is gone, should come as no surprise given how much it's larger HO scale counterpart above it has evolved over the past 12 months. With Philden Beach accommodating a full staging yard, DCC sound operations, lighting and an interesting to operate goods yard, the 3 track Inglenook affair just couldn't compete for attention and interest. In fact, it was my wife who finally spoke up after counting a year pass by without any progress or interest from myself, asking if it could finally go downstairs in the garage or under the bed with a sheet put over it. The reason? She'd rather have the space to put some pictures of our Grandbaby on display in our loungeroom.

To her, the layout never made any sense. In her words... 'even when it's finished, it is just going to go up and back without being anywhere near as good as your Coffs Harbour one.' Fair point. Especially given that there was never likely to be an opportunity to expand it.

The compromise will see me construct a small oval shaped OO9 layout, and still leave room for a Grandbaby photo to stand alongside it.

The newly arrived items displayed in the recently cleared space give away what I am going to model, a OO9 scale layout based on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways in Wales. In a happy compromise, the two IKEA Eket cabinets that stand beneath my current HO shelf layout, are long enough to accommodate both a continous run, oval shaped OO9 layout using 1st radius curves, and a framed Grandbaby photo to stand alongside it. But change, like anything else these days, costs money.

Behind the scenes, over the past month I've been busy selling off all of my 12 mm gauge Queensland narrow gauge locomotives and rollingstock, as my little Philden Creek layout was consigned to the Philden Museum. Some of it, (along with the layout), went the way of a good friend who had been hinting at taking it off my hands for the past year. I then rounded up my American N Scale stuff, my Australian N Scale stuff and some British OO rollingstock I had been hoarding in case I would one day build this, that or the other, and listed them all on eBay. I even went as far as halving my HO Scale Australian roster on Philden Beach, knowing that I still had more than enough wagons to fill my staging shelf.

I love this little Harbour Station Gents & Office building based on the station at Porthmadog.

The sell-off was necessary not only to dive into my OO9 project, but also to cover the course outlay for myself to return to TAFE early next year, and still be able to finance and produce my final Philden Model Railway book which can now be expected sometime in 2024.

Not that there won't be a further book or two to follow, but at some point you financially have to direct your time and talent towards the areas that are most profitable. That for myself, now involves some further full-time study to broaden my creative ideas beyond the realm of model trains. Next year's study load will consume a lot of time. So I'm only planning to work on my Welsh Highlands layout at my own leisure as a welcome escape.

The station structure gives me a ready to place guide to model some slate walled scenery around.

As for the name, Bryn Nadolig? It's Welsh for Christmas Hill. In itself another indication of the setting for the layout; gripped in an early wintery dusting of snow. There will be another update to follow as soon as I have finished overhauling The Philden Model Railway Blog. Doing so will ensure it's future is happy and bright beyond the completion of the next book. So enjoy clicking around the blog to see everything that has changed. Until next week...