Documenting my journey into model railways.
Building a model railway layout in any scale is a challenge. If you are not an experienced railway modeller and are coming at this without the benefit of many layouts under your belt it can seem a bit daunting.
What are the challenges when building a model railway
- Buying Your Track - This is a key barrier to progress, as track layout and more importantly what track you need to purchase, is going to determine how quickly you can build your layout.
Fortunately, I had a few scraps of secondhand flexitrack which meant I could get a rough idea of how many loops of continuous running track I would need and how many points. This created a shopping list for eBay and Aliexpress and I could get on with some other critical elements of the build whilst I awaited delivery. - Track goes on top of some things - Where my particular layout is concerned I have two items which need to be built before I can lay any of the 2nd and 3rd loop track. This comes in the form of a viaduct whihc pulls double duty as a tunnel. Fortunately, I have access to a 3D printer and so after a few hours searching I was able to locate an STL file which met my needs... somewhat.
- Building to a Budget can delay a Project - Model railways are expensive things and if you are not made of money then assembling your critical items might need to be spread over many weeks depending on your budget. This can be a challenge when you are buying lots of points or turntables which can cost a fortune. This can introduce delays which slow the process down and can suck all the fun out of the room.
We can all fall into the trap of prevarication but keeping up the momentum is key and there are lots of smaller projects which you can bring forward at little to no risk to the project as a whole. Smaller scenic items which can be dropped into a layout at the right time are a godsend.
3D Printed Viaduct and Archway Shops - Cults 3D - £3
Whilst I waited for all my track components to arrive, I needed to build the elevated section of my layout (loop 3) and I had enough track to test the incline and build the up and down ramps. The layout is intended to be viewed from the front and I wanted something a bit more visually interesting than a grassy hill. This meant I needed to set the height of the tunnel so I could determine the height of my track and then put in place the loop 3 roadbed.
I found the perfect STL file on Cults 3D and shelled out the princely sum of £3. I then set about printing out a couple of these sections on my Photon Mono M5 to test on the layout. They are huge chunky models which benefitted from hollowing out and adding some drain holes. However, even after doing this I ended up with quite a lot of trapped resin which leaked out slowly... very slowly.
Without realising that the designer had created a Low Relief version of the viaduct, I sliced the fronts off in Meshmixer to create fascias for all my arches.
Over the course of a week or two I printed off several fascias and infills to create a curved section of viaduct which hides the tunnel.
Archway Shops and Real World Inspiration
Ottley's Coffee & Catan - Inspired by my colleague and fellow boardgame fan Stephen Ottley. Stephen is our resident coffee afficianado and also runs the tiktok channel TableTok Games.
Sam's Sounds - Sam Buckley is our resident muso and part time punk. He will of course now be referred to as the punk pickle.
Lejava Journeys - Tom Lejava is one of my longest serving colleagues and is never happier than when he is on holiday in some exotic destination. A travel agent was the obvious choice and Tom has the dubious honour of having a name which is super easy to cut out.
Just A Girl - Impeccably attired Elena is honoured on this layout with a fashion boutique specialising in the latest street fashions. "Just A Girl" is her catchphrase and fits this shop front like a glove.
Neale's Yard - Sales Director David Neale got a discount warehouse on this layout. If you look very closely through the open door you will see the man himself pushing the Ark of the Covenant into the back of the warehouse.
Anisha's Snack King - Anisha's snack drawer is legendary and so having an international snack store was a perfect addition. If you are the King you need your sign made out of gold... real gold. I knew I would find a use for that gold leaf I bought from Aliexpress all those months ago.
Loop 3
Determining the height of Loop 3 was a simple case of tracing between a couple of sections on all three sides of the baseboard scribing a horizontal datum to work to. On the left of the layout loop 3 climbs up to meet this datum, tracks level across the back of the layout and then falls down more steeply on the right. The road bed was superglued in place with some MDF supports.
I threw in some track and tested that my engine would fit and with a small amount of support trimming it did. I then tested that the same fully engine could climb the incline easily with a rake of wagons behind it. It passed the test sufficiently well for me to continue.
Using a wooden curve template I drew on the rough arc that the loop 2 tunnel track would take avoiding any of the vertical supports which will form the retaining walls for the loop 3 track.
Magnetised Scenery
This entire section of scenery needs to be removable yet tie into the layout at each end where the tunnel mouths (portals) are. This would seem like a perfect task for those tiny but incredibly strong neodymium magnets. The ones I have are about 10mm diameter by 1mm thick.
The magnets were glued onto small offcuts of MDF on the back of the viaduct facias and matched to magnets on the viaduct supports.
As you can imagine this was a fiddly exercise and I broke the viaduct several times. I used some car body plastic bumper filler to strengthen the combined fascia structure.
