Building an Abandoned Siding

Abandoned railway sidings are an unfortunate part of real-life railroading, but for model railroaders they can make for an interesting model in their own right. So long as they look believable and can convey a story of what they were once intended for. Best of all, adding an abandoned siding to your model railway won't cost more than a piece of scrap track that you have lying around.

I decided to add an abandoned siding embedded within the concrete apron beside my cement plant.

I decided to add an abandoned siding beside the cement plant on my layout. I started out by stripping a 450 mm (or 16 inch) piece of HO code 100 PECO flextrack back so that only a 75 mm section of sleepers, (or 3 inch strip of ties as our American friends call them), remained at one end. The remainder of the rails were to be set in a concreted area that I would build from 3 mm balsa wood. After hand painting the PECO track (see my separate post on hand painting PECO track here) to resemble a well-aged grey timber relic, I followed by rusting the rails and rail plates with Rustall and set the track aside while I cut the strips of balsa wood that would make up my concrete apron.

I used strips of 3 mm balsa wood to get create the height of the concrete around the rails.

Everything about this next step is a little ad hoc. It is meant to be. Concrete loading yards are usually poured section by section, and are full of cracks and ugly joint lines. I simply cut some 400 mm long x 25 mm wide strips of balsa, and drew deep joint lines every 100 mm with a heavy lead pencil, making sure to alternate them 50 mm apart on each adjoining strip. I cut the strip between the rails to a width of 15 mm. The rails end 30 mm from the end of the concrete pad, so the adjoining strips of balsa wood were trimmed back roughly the width of the rail on each side of where the track would fit as shown above.

Using a hodge-podge of grey colours, I painted the concrete as though it had been poured in sections.

The next step was to paint the concrete. I've never been a big fan of using an all over one shade of grey for painting concrete. I prefer to use a random assortment of 'hodge-podge' grey colours that I mix up as I go on an artists palette, and keep layering the paint on within the confines of each square until I'm happy with the varying shades as shown above. The deep lead pencil lines made an easy point to end each brush stroke, and ensuring that the pencil lines are still slightly visible further highlights the joint lines.

I glued it in place with the rusted rails protruding just beyond the concrete apron.

Once the paint has dried, I glued the first strip of painted balsa wood into place beside the siding that leads to my cement plant using some balsa cement. Next I glued the bare rails into position with some contact plastic cement, and followed quickly with the strip of balsa that was to go between the rails before the glue set. There is enough time to position the pieces correctly and press down firmly on them while they dry before continuing with the remaining strips.

Then I added a few well-aged timber sleepers beyond where the rails ended for extra effect.

Not content to have a small strip of exposed rail jutting out from the confines of the concrete loading pad, I added an extra 50 mm strip of plastic sleepers that I had removed earlier from the rails and glued these in place. I then simply repeated the same weathering process as before. Most obsolete railway sidings when placed out of order usually had the points or switches removed and the rails lifted up and often reused elsewhere. However, in the case of my abandoned siding the rails are set in concrete and were simply removed to the nearest rail joint, resulting in the short section of track that is still visible.

I then sealed the entire surface with a clear coat of spray lacquer to smooth the finished surface.

With the track and concrete loading pad in place, I then painted the adjoining area where the model of my cement plant fits in matching shades of grey, and sealed the entire area with Testors clear coat spray lacquer. Covering the surrounding areas with damp strips of Chux cloth is an easy way to avoid any over spray.

The ballast around the abandoned siding should always blend into the accompanying yard or railway line.

Next I turned my attention to ballasting the surrounding area, following the same method I used in my previous post on ballasting track. It is important to remember that any abandoned siding is still supposed to look like it once belonged to the adjoining railway line or yard. So keeping to the same shade for the base colour is important. Adding too much cinders, grass flocks and ground scatter is only going to look like an overkill.

The finished result looks effective, but I wanted to add a few extra effects as seen below.

The finished ballasted area should blend in to the surrounding tracks that are still in use. At this point I also completed ballasting the remaining section of my layout surrounding the cement plant, just to ensure that everything blended in nicely. I waited until the area was dried thoroughly before adding all the cool stuff that will make my abandoned siding come to life.

To simulate a decade or more of being placed out of service, place some weeds between the rail gaps, sleepers and cracks.

Fortunately I had enough left-over grass tufts to add the final detail to my abandoned siding. Using the same shades of wild grass and dry grass that I used in my post adding some ground cover, I picked up the tweezers once more and applied the self-adhesive Leadbear's Tufts wherever I thought that wild grass would grow more than a decade after the siding had been taken out of service. The concrete pad still parallels the cement plant siding, and as such would have had trucks and forklifts loading and unloading long after the rails to this siding were taken out of service. So I mainly concentrated on the gaps between the rails and the concrete, along with the water run-off area at the end of the concrete pad.

And finally an abandoned siding that I am happy with. Not too noticeable or obtrusive.

The finished results are very subtle. When viewing the layout, the abandoned siding isn't too obtrusive. The rails line up perfectly with the siding besides the goods shed that once would have doubled as the lead track for what is now an abandoned siding. What I like is that it tells a story. One that maybe isn't noticed by the viewer on their first look, but is still there regardless, waiting for them to discover on a second viewing. All up, this project was made entirely from left-overs. Personally, this project was special because it also filled in the last blank patch on my canvas. My scenery is now in place from end-to-end. With only a few minor details waiting to be completed on my building kits, I can now start thinking of having this small layout completed within 12 months from the date I first started working on it.

A simple scene that now tells a story in its own right, and all made from leftover pieces.

Adding an abandoned siding was a neat little project that didn't take up too much time, space or money. Three things that are often the bane of my model railway endeavours. More importantly, it helped set the tone for how I am going to complete the final details surrounding my cement plant, and indeed the final details for my layout itself. With the end now clearly in sight, it seems I have to hold myself back a little from rushing to complete it. But as usual, that is a story for another day.

See also; Using different ballast colours, Adding some ground cover and Hand painting Peco track

Using different ballast colours

Using different ballast colours when ballasting our model railway track is perhaps the easiest way to convey the setting and era of our model railway layout. Sadly, it is often the most overlooked aspect in our rush to see trains running on our rails. I've seen many fine model railway layouts let down by a rushed, she'll be right mate, all-over one-colour ballast application that only makes our trains look like they are passing over toy train track.

Ballasting your track is the final step when completing your model railway setting, so choose wisely and don't rush it.

After 30 plus years of getting my ballasting techniques honed in N scale, working in HO scale for the first time since I was a 9 year-old lad has only made me further realize that tracks are models too. After already explaining how I hand painted Peco track in 50 shades of grey, detailed my concrete sleepers so they didn't appear all white and the importance of adding some ground cover to give my layout a sense of time and place, it all came down to the final selection of what colour ballast I should use on my model railway.

My modern mainline has been relaid with concrete sleepers, which also meant it needed much newer ballast.

Philden may only be a fictional railway station, but its roots are firmly set in New South Wales. Whatever era or location you are modelling, by now you should have spent countless hours flicking through colour train magazines or watching DVD's of your favourite railroad. Did you make a note of what colour ballast was used between the sleepers or railroad ties? Or were you too distracted by all the trains? My model railway has historical roots, but is also set in the modern era. It's meant to represent a station approaching it's 100 year anniversary, yet have a mainline that is well maintained and has been extensively upgraded. I had already used Chuck's Ballast Supplies Marulan fine for the goods shed siding, but to complement the concrete sleepers I had used for my mainline track, whatever ballast I applied would also have to appear freshly laid compared to my goods siding that has probably received very little maintenance since the last steam locos were phased out in the 1960's. My choice was Woodlands Scenics B88 coarse light grey ballast. Not only a different colour, but also a different size to force the perspective even further.

I use a teaspoon to measure out the amount that needs to be applied, and work my way along the track by lightly tapping the rails to get the right amount to spill off in-between the sleepers. Then using a fine haired artists brush, I lightly dust to stones into position, being careful not to have any stones stuck between turnout blades or frogs on my points.

The glue should saturate the ballast as shown above, but cleaning up as you go will save a heck of a lot of work later.

Once I am happy with the overall appearance, I then turn to a tried and true recipe for gluing the ballast into position. The simple equation is; I mix 50% white PVA wood glue (in my case I use Selleys Aquadhere), 50% warm water (as it speeds up the drying time), and finally a few drops of dish washing liquid which helps the solution penetrate through the dry ballast. A near empty plastic bottle of PVA wood glue makes an excellent mixer and applicator in one. I always give the solution a good shake before getting to work, and simply control the flow of solution to a drop at a time applied to every sleeper. Not only does this reduce the disturbance to the ballast, but it also provides a protective coating to the hand painted sleepers I put so many hours into. Finally, make sure you clean up as you go. I use a damp, throw-away Chux cloth to absorb any excess glue that has pooled up on my sleepers, or railroad ties if you prefer, and also dab away any loose stones that may have splashed up onto the rail sides or tops of the sleepers.

Three tracks and three different ballast shades and sizes. Now to clean the track and get some trains running.

Once the glue has saturated the entire ballasted area, use a paper tissue held over your finger to wipe the surface of the rails dry, and check that your expensive points move freely without any glue having come into contact with the turnout blades. If it has, poke the Chux cloth or tissue between the blades to absorb it away. I then wait 2 days to be sure the entire area has dried and hardened before giving the track a rub back with a track cleaning block and vacuuming up the dust along with any loose stones. Finally, I go over the entire rail surface including the turnout blades with a cotton earbud dipped in methylated spirits to ensure the electrical continuity of the rail is spotless.

As you can see by the photo above, the 3 tracks in my station yard not only have 3 different shades of ballast, but 3 different sizes of ballast stones. The siding on the left is a mixture of Chucks Ballast Supplies Marulan fine, Karuah crusher dust, Woodlands Scenics T44 burnt grass and B74 fine light grey ballast. The No 2 road in the middle is Chucks Ballast Supplies Marulan fine, while the mainline and platform road to the right is Woodlands Scenics B88 coarse light grey. Together, I think they tell a story of a modern railway line that has been around for almost a century. But maybe that's just the writer in me. What do you think?

See also; Adding some ground cover or Hand painting PECO track and Detailing concrete PECO track

Detailing concrete Peco track

After individually hand painting each sleeper on my goods shed siding in my previous post, I quickly turned my attention to the rest of my layout, and most importantly the concrete sleepers on my main line. That was 2 weeks ago, at around the same time that I began to appreciate why most modellers just dust their model railway track with an airbrush and be done with it. But press on I did, and the code 100 concrete PECO track on my layout no longer looks like off-the-shelf model train track.

Start by painting the sides of the rails in a grimy, rust-brown using a No 2 artists brush.

Turning my attention to the concrete sleepers, or concrete ties once more for the sake of my US readers, I mixed up a concoction of black, white and burnt umber as shown in the upper photo, and applied it to both sides of the rail using a No 2 artists brush as shown above. The secret is to get the paint all over the moulded plates that hold the rail in place to the sleeper, as in real life these are also steel and will have weathered or rusted at the same rate as the rails.

Carefully wipe away any excess paint from the concrete sleeper base using a damp Chux cloth.

Next up, I grabbed a damp Chux cloth and wiped away the excess paint from the concrete sleepers, using my thumb nail to glide along the edge of the moulded rail plates. The damp cloth will make it easier to remove any paint that you have accidentally brushed onto the concrete sleepers or ties, and also smears the concrete surface with a light dirty coating, providing an instant weathering technique for concrete track. If you want your concrete track to look newly laid like I do however, simply rinse the cloth in the sink and repeat the process once more.

A close-up look before applying a second, more watered down coat to conceal the sections of rail still showing through.

Stand back and take note of any sections of track that still have the nickel silver rail showing through while you wait for the paint to dry. I found a watered-down second coat made from the same mess I had mixed up on my artists palette was enough to conceal any section of rail still showing through. Make sure you apply it lightly, or the tip of the brush will wipe away the first coat if it hasn't yet hardened. I allowed about 20 minutes for the acrylic paint to dry, which was just enough time to make a cup of tea, before thinly applying the second coat. Finally, use the same damp Chux cloth to wipe away all the paint from the rail surface. I also wiped the paint from the inside raised section of the rail head, once more using my thumbnail as a guide, as I don't want a thick coat of paint causing a build-up of 'gunk' on my locomotives and rolling stock at a later date.

The before shot of the 'mouse-hole' end of my layout.

Once I finished detailing the concrete Peco track, I followed up with the sidings and No 2 road on my layout using the same method of hand painting Peco track that I explained in a previous post. Comparing the before shot above, with the after photo below, you can see how much of a difference hand painting my track has made. Even before ballasting.

And after I had completed hand painting PECO's code 100 track.

While this project took much longer than I'd anticipated, like all things, the effort you put into preparation pays off when you see the completed job. There is no way you could do a project like this after you have ballasted your track. No matter how big your model railroad is, it is important to remember that even the track beneath the expensive locomotive we are running deserves to be presented as a model in it's own right. Even before I turn my attention to ballasting my layout, there are other things to consider such as weeds on little used sidings, former service areas that may have a lasting deposit of cinder ash and oil spills and finally loading/unloading areas that may have had past spills from fertilizer, stock feed or in my case concrete. But as usual, that is a story for another day.

See also; Using different ballast colours and Hand painting Peco track

Hand painting Peco track

A lot of people tried to talk me out of using PECO code 100 rail on my HO scale layout. But whether you choose HO code 100, 83 or 70 rail, plastic model track will still look like plastic model track if you fail to pay any attention to it. Not being a master model railroader who is capable of hand-laying my own track, I chose PECO simply because of its affordability and the reliability it has given me over the years while working on my past N scale layouts. But the tricks I learned working in 160:1 scale, when transferred over to 87:1 scale are even more impressive.

After mixing up some acrylic paint, start by painting the sides of the shiny nickel rails.

Using the same piece of scrap MDF board that has become my model railway artists palette, I add a few blobs of black, white and burnt umber (brown) acrylic artists paint, dip my No 2 brush into some water, and then play around until I get a few different streaks of dirty brown-black paint on the palette. I then paint the sides of the rails to get rid of the shiny nickel appearance in something that resembles years of built up rust and grime, making sure I also cover the moulded plastic rail plates that hold the rail to the sleepers or ties.

After painting the sleepers a mixture of 50 shades of grey, wipe the rail surface clean with a tissue before the paint dries.

I next turn my attention to the railway sleepers, or railroad ties as they are known in North American lingo. Apart from the concrete sleeper flextrack I have used on the No 1 road, the rest of my track has that dull black, plastic toy train set look about it. In Australia, most railway sleepers I've seen, either weather into a light ash-grey look on seldom used branch lines, or a grimy brown-black from years of built up brake dust on main lines. But on most sidings and long established branch lines, sleepers often weather in different shades depending on when the railway sleepers are replaced during their regular maintenance cycle. A period of track-work can result in 1 in every 4, 5, 6 or whatever sleepers being replaced. Often, railway sleepers appear as 50 shades of grey. So I hand paint each individual sleeper in an assortment of grey, grime and brown, making sure I capture the look of no two sleepers appearing the same. A No 2 artists brush works best in painting the surface and sides of each sleeper, and be careful no to paint over the moulded plate holders for the rails that we just painted a dirty brown-black. The end contrast will look magic. Work on a small section at a time, and then use a facial tissue held over your finger to simply wipe the paint from the surface and inside edge of the rails before the paint dries.

My hand painted siding on the left, compared with the original PECO track on the right.

The end result, though a little tedious, can turn commercially produced track into a hand painted masterpiece. While you may not choose to use this method in a large room-size or club layout, even singling out a short siding or passing loop for this type of treatment may provide an interesting contrast to the rest of your track. But for a small layout like mine that is going to be scrutinized at close range, I'm very happy with the results above. I can now give my siding a very shallow coverage of ballast and have the sleepers really stand out.

See also; Using different ballast colours and Detailing concrete PECO track

Let's wire this up

I have to be honest, I hate wiring. It is the one area of building a model railroad that I always dread. Fortunately, after more than 30 years of working in N scale, I found soldering wires to HO scale track a breeze. Not only are the wires easier to conceal on a larger scale track, but the bigger sized rail made my 'bodgy' soldering skills even look half decent. When wiring a simple layout like this using PECO insulfrog turnouts, you only have to remember one thing, you need to position a positive and negative feeder wire at the throat of each series of turnouts (as shown above). As it turned out, I only needed to add two feeder points. One at each end of the layout.

I always solder my rail joins and find that I get years of trouble-free running.

I remember building my first layout back when I was 16. There were more dead spots on my track than dead phone reception areas in the outback. Along the way, someone suggested soldering each and every rail join to have perfect electrical continuity. It worked, and beginning with my C&NW exhibition layout back in the year 2000, I've done so ever since. Not being an expert on the subject however, I simply buy the general purpose flux core solder and use a do-it-yourself 'el-cheapo' soldering iron to get the job done. Holding an outstretched piece of the solder against the outside edge of each rail join, I simply place the hot tip of the soldering iron against it until a small dab melts between the tiny gap and the rail joiner.

I never said I was the world's best solderer, but using a file will soon conceal the mess.

My soldering skills usually fall somewhere in the vicinity of "well, that's not too bad", to "bloody hell!". So I need to take a little more care than most to file each join back until it resembles something more presentable. But, with no sleepers melted into a mess from holding the soldering iron in place against the rail for too long, I'd say I gave myself a pass mark on this project.

File each rail join smooth so that it will provide a flawless join for your locomotive to pass over.

A good rail join should always allow you to run your fingernail along the inside edge of the rail without it catching. If your fingernail jumps out from a poor rail join, then chances are, so will your locomotive each and every time it passes over the track. After a little filing, my soldered rail joins passed the test.

Power supply wires should be discreetly soldered to the rail. The wire to the left will be hidden once the track is ballasted.

I never like my power supply wires to be visible on a layout, but it isn't always easy when working in small scales. My example in the bottom left of the photo however will be fine once the sides of the rails are painted and the track is ballasted.

A blast from the past! The same power pack that ran my first train set back in 1979, powers the first train on Philden.

Getting Philden operational was a simple affair. Two sets of wires, both marked on the underneath of the layout with a band of red and yellow electrical tape, run beneath the layout and are soldered together in a loop that then attaches to the back of a power pack with a screw attachment. Later I will upgrade the layout to basic DCC operation when I'm ready to sound equip my locomotives, but for now it will do. As for that Hammant & Morgan Duette power pack? It was bought for me along with my first Hornby Railway OO train set back in 1979 by my late Grandmother. At the time I was just 9 years old, so there was a touch of sentimentality in letting it take control of the first train to run on my new HO layout some 36 years later. I'm sure my late Grandmother would approve.

The proof is in the locomotive headlights. Philden is now wired for action!

With the power connected, I placed my new 82 class locomotive on the track and fired her up, making sure I ventured over every piece of track-work on my layout to detect any trouble spots. Despite my own error in setting the road wrong the first time I crossed the double slip, it ran flawless, without so much as a headlight flicker. Now I can get to work on marking the clearances for the station, goods shed siding and cement works. So long as I can pull myself away from playing trains for the next couple of days. Oh well, whatever the case, that's a story for another day.

See also; Adding theatre stage effects and Let's lay some track

Let's lay some track

Laying track can really be as simple or as complicated as you'd like to make it. There's the choice of raised road base, cork underlay, super elevation, insulated joiners for cab controlled block wiring, electrofrog and insulfrog turnouts and finally whether your layout will be wired for DC or DCC operation. All of these however will still look 'bodgy' it not done right. Fortunately this post is about none of the above. Instead, I'm going to show you my favourite method of track laying, the KISS method. Short for keep it simple stupid.

Firstly, let me say this isn't really an advanced layout I'm showing you how to build. But simple methods, when done well, will still yield amazing results. First up, you need to get some colour down beneath the sleepers, or railroad ties if you prefer. Now I've seen large layouts use a airbrush to cover the rails, ties, base or underlay in various shades of grey, but this isn't a large layout, and no, I don't possess an airbrush. So, remember the lead pencil outlines I drew around my track-work in my last post? Well, start by mixing up a 'hodge-podge' batch of black-brown acrylic paint on an easel, and apply just 1 coat between each of the lines. I simply moved the track aside as shown above to do it.

I used PVA tacky glue to secure my track-work to the layout base, being careful to avoid the movable turnout arms.

When dry, move the track back into place, or a little further aside if you still have more black-brown paint to apply, until you have no bare layout base showing between the sleepers or ties. Now from here, you could go and drill some holes in the sleepers and bang some track pins in to complete the process. But after seeing how well the PVA tacky glue worked on securing the wood trim to my layout's fascia, I decided to use it to secure my track in place. With my wife's help, Denise and I carefully lifted a section of track at a time and applied a liberal coat of the white tacky glue beneath the track-work, being careful to avoid going anywhere near the movable arms of the turnouts, and placed it back down into position. The glue has a drying time of about 25 minutes, making it easy to maneuver the track back into the correct position while checking that there are no gaps showing in the rail joins. I also used a steel ruler to check that the distance from the track to the layout edge was uniform along the entire length of the layout.

Fill those unsightly gaps where the tracks join by splicing and inserting some leftover sleepers.

Next up, I took those leftover pieces of track I cut free when fitting the rail joiners, and cut the spacers away so that I was left with a single sleeper, or railroad tie.

Cut away the spacer and metal plate outline from a scrap off-cut of track, and it can easily be slid under the gap in the rails.

By also cutting away the outline of the metal plates that hold the rail in place, the clean sleeper as shown on the left, can then be slipped under the gap in the rails while the glue is still wet.

The blank spaces between the rail joins look so much better once filled with the leftover sleepers.

Once the gaps at each of the track joins were filled, I did a final check that all the rail joins were sitting flush and that the distances between my tracks and sidings were all uniform. By the time I took the above photo, the track would no longer move and only the pooled up areas of excess tacky glue were still showing as white. Using glue on a perfectly flat layout surface such as mine, proved easier than my past experiences of nailing track to a baseboard, and I managed a uniform bond across every section of track. I imagine however, that if you were using glue to secure track to a gradient or rise, that you may have to position some kind of weight onto different areas of the track to keep the track pressed to the surface while the glue dried. By gluing my track in place instead of using track pins, not only did I avoid having unsightly pin heads appear in my track-work, I also avoided having any nail heads protrude beneath my layout base. Remember, I only used 9 mm plywood for my layout base.

I'll now leave the glue to fully dry and strengthen overnight, and tomorrow I'll be able to pull out the soldering iron and wire this baby up for some action! But as usual, that's a story for another day.

See also; Let's wire this up and The final track fit

The final track fit

Seeing plans on paper is one thing, knowing it will all fit into place is another. Once your layout reaches the point where you can finally put some track down, it is also your final chance to make any last minute changes. Taking turnouts out of packets and positioning flextrack on your layout board for a last minute visual is often the best way to make sure you are happy with how everything will look and operate. As you will see in the photo above, I made the last minute call to flip the double slip in the centre of my plan, and remove the locomotive lead track for the goods shed siding. The subsequent shuffle of left and right-hand points then enabled me to position an opposite facing siding on the right side of the photo, making operating a small layout that little bit more challenging.

Transferring my paper plans to the layout base was as simple as tracing around the track outline with a lead pencil.

Once happy that my sidings would each handle a couple of wagons, and with the realisation that I now had an overnight storage siding for my Xplorer passenger train instead of just parking it in the platform road, I transferred my final track arrangement to the layout base. Doing so was as simple as tracing the outline of each track piece with a lead pencil.

I test fitted each section of track, and found I had to trim back some of the sleepers/ties where the PECO turnouts joined.

After trimming back some of the railroad sleepers as we call them here in Australia, (or railroad ties for my US readers), I added rail joiners to my block of PECO turnouts, and ensured each piece fitted together perfectly. As the body of turnouts are positioned in the centre of my layout, the pieces of PECO flextrack were each long enough to run to the layout end without the need to join another section of track. I then made sure I scribbled marker points where each of the turnouts joined together as shown above. This will help keep everything aligned when I next fix the track in place.

The track-work all cut and positioned into place in Philden yard.

As it turned out, I had exactly enough rail joiners in the one packet to complete the track-work for this section of my layout. Although I still need to add some removable staging through the mouse hole door, I will concentrate at this stage on completing this section of my layout and getting some trains up and running. Next up I need to fix the track in place, but as usual, that is a story for another day.

See also; Setting plans in concrete and Let's lay some track

Setting plans in concrete

There comes a time as a model railroader that you have to stop dreaming of one day building a layout, and actually start planning. And by planning, I don't mean drawing doodles on a notepad and dreaming that it will somehow magically all fit into the space provided. I mean setting your plans into concrete.

1:1 scale track planning using printed turnouts available from PECO's website.

When faced with the idea of limited space to construct my new HO scale layout, I could have done one of two things; 1, stuck with N scale, (which had already given me 30 years of enjoyment), or 2, start planning something that I could actually build. If a 180 cm x 30 cm shelf layout, (that's a mere 6 x 1 foot in old school measurements) sounds like a complete waste of time, think again. With another 60 cm (that's 2 foot) available for a removable shelf to act as hidden staging when the layout will be exhibited, I had a total of roughly 240 cm to play with, and scope to extend this even further if space presented itself somewhere in the future. After seeing Keith Jordan's The Patch layout featured in the 2012 edition of Great Model Railroads, I was left thinking there was no reason why an Aussie modeller such as myself couldn't adapt his plan to suit a New South Wales Railways country station and small yard.

A life-sized track plan allows you to look at your design from all angles before building.

When it came to designing a plan for Philden, I had one prerequisite; the layout would have to be completely enclosed and dust-free. As you will see as I blog my way through the layout's construction, a fold-back perspex lid and removable perspex front will not only make this possible, but also keep the layout visible and on display when it is stored at home on my cabinet and keep the layout safe from prying fingers when the layout goes on the road to model train shows here in Australia.

Two NPRY cement hoppers sit on my life-sized plan to test clearances in the yard.

When it came to designing a track plan, you have to start somewhere. I started by visiting PECO's website to download their 1:1 scale track plans for their turnouts, printed them out at home and spent an evening on the floor playing cut and paste to see what I could actually incorporate into a small station scene. I found that a double slip positioned smack-bang in the centre of the layout proved to be the key, as it reduced the need for a space-sapping run around loop. I then made an actual 1:1 scale plan by carefully sticky-taping the printed turnouts into place and drawing the rest of the track onto the reel of paper as seen above. It not only allowed me to test how the layout would handle shunting operations in the yard, but also gave me clear measurements for what space I had available for the railway station, goods shed and my concrete plant that would become home to my Southern Rail Models NSW NPRY cement hoppers. I now had a plan that, pardon the pun, was set in concrete. As PECO's double slip only came in code 100 rail, I simply adopted code 100 streamline track as standard and made myself a shopping list for when I attended the Brisbane Model Train Show in May 2015.

The layout surprisingly has enough room to operate an 82 class locomotive, 4 wagons and a 2 car Xplorer Set. Now that I have a clear plan to work to and locomotives and rolling stock that are suitably sized for my layout, I can get to work on buying the timber and plywood I need to start construction.

See also; The final track fit