I really need to get a grip on the work I do for Hornby, as, whilst their projects are only 4 times a year, they tend to become absolute monsters. This month is no exception. Having fallen in love again with clockwork tinplate trains, and wanting something a bit bigger than the little circular layout I built a few years ago, I embraced the bigger space available in the new house, and thought I'd go large.
Some scrap desktops from work and a bit of testing (alright, play) on the living room floor showed a larger layout was sort-of do-able. It was mostly a copy of a trackplan from an old model railway book of appropriate vintage, but even so, there were bits I had to omit, and worse still, the curves would still need to be super-tight. My Edwardian ancestors might have been happy to fill the front parlour with trains, but I wasn't going to be able to!
(Actually, my Edwardian Ancestors weren't of the class to have access to large train sets, and would I suspect be turning in their graves if they saw what their distant relative, me, was doing rather than earning a hard crust farming or sallying-forth for King and Country, but heyho).
So, using the scrap desktops from work... yeah that was a poor idea. The exposed chipboard edging needed framing-in to stop it crumbling. Then hinges needed fitting so this mammoth board could fold up for storage. And it weighed a TON. I'd have given myself a hernia just trying to carry it out of the workshop.
A rebuild with ply followed, the original desktops being upcycled for smaller-scale projects. Another issue reared its head here; the layout was so large it couldn't actually be unfolded properly in the workshop with its low ceiling. This meant the layout needed to be left either in this state, or the hinges unscrewed and the boards separated, lest nobody be able to access the washing machine.
Cork placemats for the ballast.
Track laying; rather more brutal and industrial in tinplate.
Properly gauge-testing this time. The original plan had been to have a tunnel here, but it didn't quite work with the height available, so a cutting and removable bridge would have to suffice.
Normally I'd use packing foam for the landscaping, but with such a monster of a layout to cover, I ended up using spray foam (of which we had some in stock). The carved-off bits were saved for re-use in later projects.
Papier-mache and painting followed.
There wasn't room (or time) for much in the way of detail work, beyond some bits of fencing and some bushes.
I was quite happy with the removable bridge though.
The layout folded up...
...and unfolded. Easily the biggest layout build I've ever done.
So... here it is. And do you know what? I'm really, really unhappy with it.
It might be in the style of the sort of layouts built a century ago, but I find myself really disliking it. Too many rough bits, too many bland areas. Too much that looks (and is) unfinished.
There are odd areas; I like the vaguely moorland atmosphere of the far end...
...and I'm quite happy with the level crossing and bridge.
The station is a bit too bland though, just huge expanses of nothing.
I think the issue is that there's simply too much of it. And at the same time, the trackplan is a bit chaotic. There's too much of having to throw points and lean over it to avoid derailments.
The layout in print. Or rather, not print, as the Collectors Club has effectively gone over to digital-only, because The Future.
So what now? I really liked the mini tinplate layout, but it was too operationally bland. This one, whilst more operational, is just too much of a monster. I think a third and final layout for my collection might be in order, somewhere between the two, size-wise. I suspect chopping this one down will be the solution, But that's a project for next year I think. Maybe I'll learn my lesson for the next Hornby project, but probably not!
