A long overdue update and settling on a scale

Having not posted anything here in more than a year, I ought to explain myself.

It's a simple explanation - I was posting somewhere else. Namely the Hornby Hobbies forums and RMWeb. I also started uploading some short videos to YouTube to document my progress.

It started as a way to get others opinions and ask questions about things I didn't know the answers to, but then I started posting more and more on all sorts of topics. Recently though, I decided to reign this in for a couple of main reasons - 

• To avoid getting annoyed - by others mainly (a mix of newbies asking the same questions over and over again without doing the minimum amount of research themselves, but also those who clearly spend far too much time on these forums - often just waiting for an opportunity to be right)
• To avoid wasting my time - not even posting things, but just checking threads and seeing if there was anything new

Model railways are probably one of the last hobbies where forums still have such a strong foothold, although social media (mostly Facebook and YouTube) are making inroads, but they have all the same problems that forums had 20 years ago when they made up a much larger footprint on the internet. It's a shame that they're still so equally parts good and bad. On a personal note I find myself engaging less and less with the internet so this is just a natural progression of that. I'll be back on a landline before too long... 

So that brings me back here - where I can just document to myself and whoever reads these posts and build up my own little corner of the internet without the annoyances that arise elsewhere.

In which case I should give a brief overview of what I've been doing since September 2024... in no particular order.

• After deciding to abandon TT:120 and settle on OO, I ended up keeping some TT:120, building (or statrting to build) layouts in both TT:120 and OO gauge and selling most of my TT:120 and OO Gauge rolling stock
• I also built and promptly abandoned a layout in N gauge too
• Finally I started to learn more about DCC

Which brings me up to date really - I still have some OO rolling stock up for sale and I've made quite  a lot of purchases recently in another scale, but probably not the one you're thinking of.

My next activity will be to sell my TT:120 rolling stock and layout. Why?

The main reason is space, and my lack of it. Unfortunately for my present circumstances, TT:120 is still too big for any kind of layout to be achievable. Add in all the factors that are still present with the scale 3 years on from launch (lack of availability namely) and it's still a no go for me.

There's also another factor that's offputting and partly the reason why I left the Hornby Hobbies forum - the almost evangelical nature of others modelling in the scale. Seriously, some of them spend more time playing the victim of modellers in other scales than they do actual railway modelling, and the rest are just building oval after pointless oval whilst repeatedly failing to learn the basics of the hobby. Add in the remainder who seem to be trying to build a social media career more than anything else and it's all just a bit tiresome. Not to mention Hornby's repeated missteps in new releases.

So if not TT:120 and if not OO Gauge, then which scale? Obviously it's N gauge.

It's the right size for me, it has the availability of rolling stock (new and used), it's proven in multiple settings and it can do what I need it to do... I think. Looking back I should've stuck with it back in 2016/17 when I had a Japanese based layout in rented acommodation rather than taking a break from the hobby until 2022. 

I'll be posting more regularly from now on - but initially quite a bit more to document what I did over the last year, as it's hopefully been a worthwhile journey that others might find interesting. 

 

Minories in TT:120 - Part 1

Initial Ideas and Planning 

Back in December 2024, after initially thinking I was going to abandon TT:120 and build a layout in OO gauge, I started a new project with what little TT:120 I had left after selling most of it.

It was based on a well-known plan by Cyril J. Freezer - Minories.

For those that don't know, this was a plan that debuted in 1957 to coincide with the original launch of the Triang TT range (later becoming known as TT3, or 3mm scale). CJF had come up with the deceptively simple design using inspiration from the Liverpool Street Metropolitan station, resulting in an urban terminus station with 3 platforms, a pilot siding - and an arrangement of points which results in any movement only involving one reverse curve; or in practise, a very satisfying snaking of the coaches through the points when arriving or departing the station.  

Initially I tried to create the plan using the Peco TT:120 medium points, but this resulted in a board length that I didn't have space for. Limiting it to just small points helped but then I thought it may be a better homage to the original plan and the Triang TT launch to use just Hornby TT:120 track pieces. Whilst there are downsides to this, namely the insulfrog nature of the set track points, it would be a simpler proposition and result in a working layout more quickly. The initial plan is shown below:

6 sections, 6 points and a total scenic length of 147cm - with an initial plan to have it live on my shelf where the previous shelf layout fitted. A fiddleyard would be kept separate and attached during operating sessions. Unlike the original plan, it wouldn't be folding, but the layout would still be portable with the baseboards again making use of the excellent Scale Model Scenery kits. 

The setting would be based around The Easterner Set - an eastern region terminus during era 4/5.  

I'll be posting the construction of this layout over a series of posts. Next will be further revisions to the plan and trying to enhance operations with goods facilities. 

Latest acquisitions

 I don't do anything by halves!

So it's two weeks later and look what I've acquired...

Just now waiting on an R.504 engine shed as the original one I ordered got lost in the post.

In summary, it consists of the following:

• R8000 Country Station Set
• R590 Station Halt
• R8002 Goods Shed
• R539 Railway Cottage
• R8005 Signal Box
• R076 Footbridge (this had missing parts but I picked up another cheaply to donate parts from to complete it)
• Several R460 and R462s to complete my station plans

I've also picked up another loco this week - a Bachmann LMS 3F from the Midland Marvel set. It's missing the accessory pack but I can source another quite cheaply. I did take delivery of an Airfix LMS 4F as well but it arrived with couplers that won't stay on, parts broken off, and doesn't run very nicely due to an unquartered wheelset. I could've fixed it all up but decided it wasn't worth the effort when the seller was offering free returns through eBay. 

So instead this weekend I've just managed to secure a newer Hornby LMS 4F (with loco drive), as well as a super detailed LMS 8F, a Fowler LMS 2-6-4T, and an LMS 2P - the latter has tender drive but looks to be in good condition. I think I'll keep my eye out for one of the newer loco drive versions (in either BR or SDJR) to try and do a transplant... unless Hornby release an LMS version at some point.

That leaves me with the following still to collect for my LMS collection:

• Crab
• G2A
• Fairburn 2-6-4T
• 4P Compound (Bachmann)
• Jubilee
• And if I'm ever lucky enough, the ex-CR 812 class and Midland 0-4-4T 1P

Along with whatever else gets released in future of course!

In addition to the above I also picked up this quite cheaply:

Just for a bit of a fun and to get some useful extras - I figured I can add a bit of operational fun to the layout plan by using the mailbag system occasionally! The extra Stanier coach is useful to have as well to bulk out my passenger stock.

I've spent some time this week thinking about wiring as well and wondering if I even need to do any isolation for my DC layout plan.

The fiddleyard is entirely Setrack points so no isolation should be required there as they will route power as needed. It's in the scenic area where I'm using the unifrog and electrofrog points that I may have issues and I'm wondering if I should just use insulfrog points (not setrack geometry) there instead to make life easier. If I add a high frequency track cleaner to the circuit that should help with slow speed running over them. They'd also be cheaper in the long run with no need for frog polarity switching.

I think I'm ready to order the plywood to build the baseboards too but trying to decide if incorporating the backscene support is a useful way to go. It'd limit the scenic space to exactly where the boards join in the middle which means losing about 5cm of scenic space from the plan above. Finding another way of supporting the backscene would make baseboard construction simpler (as they'd all be identical then) as well as allowing a bit more scenic depth so I'm leaning towards that at the moment.

An overdue update and abandoning TT:120

It's been eight long months... and the shelf layout is gone, and the roundy roundy is gone. Both were dismantled due to frustration and lack of progress. The shelf layout didn't make much sense and the roundy roundy wasn't wide enough.

Over the past eight months I rebuilt both to more sensible track plans but ultimately they faced the same fate.

The shelf layout got rebuilt using a 3 point track plan inspired by Paul Marshall-Potter's shelfie3 layout and the timelapse shown here - https://albionyard.com/2024/06/22/time-after-time-shelfie-3/

The Peco track and points got relaid like so:

A simple back and forth for mostly wagons using the 08.

Which is fine - I even got to the point of fitting seep point motors, making use of the electrofrog capability of the unifrog points, new DCC system - the whole shebang.

Similarly the roundy roundy got dismantled too and rebuilt as this - 

 

Inspired by the famous OO Bredon layout, it worked really well and would've no doubt made an excellent first layout if it ever got completed. But we had a reshuffle at home which meant the 5ft x 2.5ft baseboard got moved into my home office/spare bedroom but the only way it could fit was such that the 2.5ft end was accessible without clambering onto the bed. This obviously was never going to work. I tried reworking the trackplan but no. So that got ripped up too and the Hornby track sold.

So now what am I left with - well, the shelf layout needs to be dismantled and I can no doubt sell the Peco points and bits of flex track. The seep motors are reusable as is most of the wiring, switches and DCC system.

But I've got a lot a TT:120 rolling stock sat in boxes and I started to accumulate cheap OO items too which is leaving me in a pickle.

My main interest in railways is the LMS as well as the Midland and LNWR railways. It appears it's going to be a long old time before any rolling stock for those railways is available in TT:120. So far all we've got for LMS is the massive Princess Coronation and Stanier 57ft coaches.

So this got me thinking, and being the skinflint that I am, I realised that for the price of a single Stanier coach, I can get 3 decent albeit old OO coaches. There's the Airfix corridor and non-corridor stock, Mainline's period 1 and 2 coaches, Hornby's non-prototype Period III stock and others. That's without even looking at the recent releases.

Similar for the price of the Princess Coronation, I could get 3 or 4 OO locomotives in LMS livery if I'm lucky - everything from small tank engines to Black 5's and bigger. Sure they might not be DCC ready but that's easily sorted if I need.

Which makes me think about the value proposition of OO as a beginner's scale. This is no doubt helped by the demographic certainty that nobody wants to talk about that results in lots of OO stock being available time and time again.

So now here I am planning a 6ft x 4ft beginner OO layout on 4 portable boards that can be put either on top of a bed, or in the living room, whenever I want to play trains.

It's inspired by a CJ Freezer plan I found in one of his old trackplan books - 

And by the excellent layout created by YouTuber KV12543 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfUz6pv9-_A - this series of videos really shows how even a 6ft x 4ft layout can achieve realism and I love the names!

However instead of a terminus as in the original plan I've gone for a passing loop station located close to a mainline junction, with a small goods yard and engine shed to justify running some of the bigger locos and longer trains. Yes it's a trainset layout, and yes it's compressed beyond reality but there is a charm to that which I think some of the more prototypical layouts lack. To begin with I'll stick to DC control since it'll be relatively simple using a one/two engine in steam approach and the setrack points will control power in the fiddleyard as required. There's even space in the future to add a turntable on the upper left hand board to make operations more realistic. There will be a suitable backscene with tunnels/bridges to disguise the scenic break of course.

My plan is to use the Hornby buildings that I remember from my childhood (although I'm aware the current ones use stickers for the textures so I'll try to obtain the original versions if I can). The country station set (R8000) will fit in the left bottom corner, with a bridge over to a station halt set (R590) lengthened with an extra platform or two. I'll make use of the trackmat accessory sets 4+5 to round out the buildings. The upper half of the layout will be for storage/fiddling with enough space for most of the locos I've acquired and a couple of sets of coaches/wagons. In the scenic bottom half the track will be a mixture of streamline and setrack using the newer unifrog curved points and small radius electrofrog points to improve slow running. I'll stick with setrack points in the fiddleyard.

I think this will be a more productive project than trying to continue with TT:120. The total projected cost of this layout is roughly half that compared to the equivalent sized TT layout with a similar amount of rolling stock. Although as mentioned in OO I've acquired a good selection of LMS tank and tender engines that reflect the reality of the LMS in the late 1930s/early 40s much better - and at a much lower cost. They also aren't aflicted by the teething issues of TT:120 locomotives such as the issues with motors, bogies catching and causing shorts and coaches scraping around even wide radius curves.

So I plan to offload my TT:120 stock onto eBay and continue picking up OO bargains whilst I continue to plan this layout. Hopefully I'll keep this more up to date with my progress.

A tale of track and ballasting...

 I've been experimenting with track painting and ballast this week.

I don't want a uniform look to my layout, as like the real thing, track colour and ballast varies over time as bits get replaced. To that end my approach is to take my time and complete the track painting and ballast in stages.

I purchased three types of ballast from Hornby - grey, grey basaltic, and limestone. I also purchased 3 railmatch paints - sleeper grime, dark rust and light rust.

These are the results:

The limestone and grey basaltic on their own are clearly overscale for TT 120. The grey on it's own looks... odd? I'm not sure why it looks so rounded.

I then decided to mix all all three:

Hmm, not sure! 

Moving onto a stretch of Hornby track (since that's what my roundy round layout uses) and I tried a mix of just the grey and grey basaltic rock. I also tried two different mixes for the rail sides; starting with a few drops of water I added all three paints for one half and then just the two rust colours for the other half.

Much better I think! I intend to use the mix of just rust colours for the sidings and less used sections of track. I'll also use the three types of ballasts in different areas of my layout, perhaps with some chinchilla sand or finer grey ballast added to improve the overscale look. The limestone for example can be used nearer the tunnel mouths with a transition to the grey/basaltic mix, and in areas like the engine shed I can just use the basaltic rock which dries darker. A black/grey wash with some coal deposits should help set the scene.

But first, I need to paint all of the track!

Update on the roundy roundy

 It's taking shape.

The baseboard arrived a few weeks ago and was promptly set up, drilled, drawn all over and painted.

The final track plan is as follows:

And so far it has proven to provide sufficient operational potential to keep my occupied during my running sessions.

Control is provided by my Hornby Select - currently connected by a digital power clip in a convenient place. A better permanent solution will be thought up in due course but this works for now.

Point motors are a Hatton's variety which I think were a bit of a bargain:

They're based on an old H&M design from what I can gather, which allows for both point control and associated accessories (signals, crossing gates, etc) using piano wire or otherwise. But, most importantly, these came with DCC decoders (and built in CDU) for the grand total of £9 each. So far reliability has been fine. Some of my points are located close to the edge of the board so some ingenuinty was required there (utilising the accessory arm and extended pin with the help of a glasses hinge screw and some soldering) to allow the motor to be orientated 90 degrees to the normal alignment.

Operation is relatively simple via the Select and the power seems to be enough to power everything so far whilst running sound locos.

I may look to build a control panel at a later stage as the method of operating them via the Select isn't the most intuitive but works for now.

Some buildings have started to appear too, sans painting, as they're quite enjoyable to construct. Big shoutout to 'In The Greenwood Laser' on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/inthegreenwoodlaser?_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l2563

So, next stages are to test some more (read: play with trains) before I start ballasting and creating scenery (tunnel at one end), make some backscenes from plywood to attach all around the layout (with a 10cm lip at the front) which will then allow for lighting etc to be added too.

It's nice to have a semi-permanent layout where I can just run trains without too much effort, especially in time for all the incoming models I have on pre order for next year (Class 50, Princess Coronation, HST, 57' coaches, etc).

That all said, my end to end Vulcan layout isn't abandoned - it will just be taking a more leisurely time to construct as it's more of a diorama than a layout.

As yet unnamed layout

So I got a bit tired of not being able to run trains. A semi-realistic diorama layout like Vulcan Halt was never going to be fun in the same way as a model train set in the eyes of a child is fun but I hadn't anticipated how demotivating it can be to spend an entire afternoon trying to get a point control system to work and never having the opportunity to just run trains. Also, with it it being an end to end layout, this limits the pleasure of just seeing trains going by.

So, a new plan emerged after I spotted ready built baseboards for sale on eBay for a relatively reasonable price, complete with folding legs. Total size was 5ft by 2ft 6in. Not too large and just enough space to get a double track loop onto with enough straights to accommodate 3-4 carriage trains.

Using the Hornby TT track extension packs as a starting point, I've devised this plan to fill the space:

 

Not too dissimilar to the Hornby TT track plan but with some changes to keep it within the 2ft 6in width. It's partly based on Plan No.4 from the Peco N Gauge Setrack Planbook too.

1. Station area - enough platform room to accommodate 3 carriage stopping express trains with a loco on the inside track but with 2 bay platforms for local passenger/parcels trains (not sure whether the engine shed will stay there yet or be adapted into a platform roof. This was necessary since there isn't enough space on the outside loop to fit a platform unless it was very low relief. The station area also includes a small siding for a pilot locomotive (when we get one - or my Class 08 for now) to wait complete with coal staithes etc.
2. Goods Shed area - linked to 4 - to accommodate local freight traffic with 2 sidings for storage of wagons. The immediate siding will be used to hold locomotives not in use (thinking a diesel pump etc can be placed here). The goods shed is accessible via a diamond crossing from the outside line as the inside line will be primarily used for passenger traffic to access the station area sidings above.
3. Road crossing onto the layout and signal box.
4. Factory/industry area of some kind served by the goods shed.
5. Residential/commercial area with a car park outside the station - the grey area obviously being a road to link all of these areas and leading off the layout.

And that's it in a nutshell. It should be a relatively straight forward build - I haven't added any inclines or hidden areas (tunnels etc) but perhaps a bridge and tunnel section could be incorporated in the top left so the layout has two exit/entry points.

Initially when I got the idea of buying this baseboard (which hasn't arrived yet) I had the thought that TT was the wrong scale for me and I'd be better off selling up and going to N gauge but then the fiddly-ness of TT has already been an issue (re: the point control fun referred to above) so no doubt N would be worse. I had a look at the locomotives on offer though and whilst there is more, a lot would have to be sourced second hand and is old enough to not be DCC ready, let alone able to accommodate sound easily and I've already been spoilt by the DCC Sound in TT scale (not to mention the cheaper cost with the HM7000 decoders). Track in N would be a challenge as well as by all accounts the newer rolling stock doesn't play well with Peco Setrack where as so far Hornby TT Setrack isn't causing major issues so it's far easier to get started.

Vulcan Halt isn't going away either - I intend to build both layouts on and off simultaneously so that when I'm fed up with not making progress on the more realistic one I can go to this and just enjoy running trains round and round.

Ta ta for now.