Roger’s been in touch with his OO scale double track bridge.
Well, there’s quite a few bridges on his layout, and one cleverly carries the power for his layout:
“Hi Al.
I have been into modelling all my life, in fact since my dad bought himself a Triang train set for my Christmas present back in the 50s.
For the past 25 years I have been building live steam models including four 5″ gauge locos, a 7.1/4″ Adams 415 class, three traction engines, two of which are half size and am now starting a 7.1/4″ gauge Black Five.
In between the muck, grime and steam oil I have picked up again on my 00 gauge railway which I gave up some seven years ago so all my stuff is quite old in fact going back some 25 years I suppose.
I laid all the track but had problems with steam locos and inclines whereas the diesels did not flinch. As I prefer steam I decided to put everything on the flat and make things go either under or over the baseboard so as time goes on there will be canals and locks.
As my partner is from North Wales, I thought a slate quarry may spark some interest in the direction of 00 gauge. Anyway it is early days yet having only been working on the track when I felt like it over the past year.
The blue bridge is to carry the electricity power cable from the only wall socket in the vicinity and so avoiding trailing extension leads to trip up on. It is scratch built out of aluminium angle and the bottom of plastic trays that you buy plants in here in Brittany, I believe they call them godetts. I need to put on some cross members to keep it in shape.
The station building is made out of parts of a French made roundhouse. I cut the window frames out and built plywood walls to support them. The roof is thin ply covered in corrugated paper that I found in a local craft shop.
There are lights inside which I made with grain of wheat bulbs, there will be a restaurant at one side and a dance hall at the other.
The wall lights came from Ebay China as did the bulbs and loads of other stuff like the transformers Dangerous Dave demonstrated recently except mine were only £3.44. I bought a few to power the various lighting circuits that will be in the layout eventually.
I even bought a multimeter to measure things electrical from Ebay China. I think the post girl suspects that I am drug running with all the little Chinese plastic bags she keeps delivering.
The OO scale double track bridge by the station is scratch built. The DIY shops over here sell quite a good range of aluminium and plastic extrusions to make such things quite easily. The girder work is aluminium tile trim, the stuff you put on corners of walls when you tile the bathroom under duress with the little lady stood behind with a 12 bore.
The embankment I got from this site when I first got back into 00 gauge. I still have the coping’s to put on but the lights and belisha beacons are working, also more drug running from Ebay China. I have a wood burning fire and get loads of bark from the logs which I am going to use for rock faces etc.
I will send more info as time goes on but as I said we had a rather large house fire last November and the artisans are due to start work soon so I will be following them about to make sure they do what I want not what they want. The roofer came this morning with a ladder which he put against the wall outside. He then came inside the house and went upstairs to measure up. He then came down, went outside, took his ladder back to his van then left. Not too sure why he needed the ladder.
Thanks for putting me in touch with Bern Robins at Trans Le Forest. We chat on the phone regularly and we have been to each others houses. He enjoyed the 6″ Little Samson steam up and I let him drive it.
Regards.
Roger”
OO scale double track bridge:
A huge thanks to Roger for sharing his OO scale double track bridge.
As you all know, I love seeing a layout take shape – and it just goes to show how a little planning can go a long way. Can’t wait until Roger’s next installment.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if you want to bring a layout to life, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
Any chance of roger posting a plan of his layout it looks really cwl
Nice layout
Very nice layout Roger, your preparation and planning really shows. The scratch built structures are excellent and interesting to look at. Lots of potential here, look forward to seeing it come along. Cary in Kentucky
Roger , nice work , like the bridges .
Would you send in pictures of the Live Steam Engines that you’ve built , would love to see them .
Steve , Sarver Pa
Constructive idea. Why is the electrical cord going across the foot bridge?
Why not make it look better by drilling a hole in the table top near the electrical outlet and putting the cord up that way? Then you can detail the foot bridge.
A “bird’s eye view” of this layout would be fantastic. I can’t get an idea of what the whole would look like.
I love it. I save all of thesee mails for refrence. I will be starting my new layout in a month or so. Table is built and now I have put all trains under and on top of the table so I can paint the room, yes it will be in its own bedroom all by itself. Thanks to all who show their layouts and thanks to Alister for having this wonderful e mails program.
Thank you. Al.
The lay out looks like you will have fun making the scenery and have it come to life. I would like to see more pictures as you progress. Good luck and have fun. Fun and imagination is what model rail roading is all about. Could you please post some pictures of the steam engines you built. I’m sure others would love to see them as well.
PS. I live in the U.S.A and I have seen a few hand made locomotives and they’re amazing. The people who make and build them have a great talent!. I could never build anything like that. I don’t have the understanding of how they work or the knowledge it takes to construct one.
Looking great
Your first comment stuck a chord with me and made me laugh. My brother gave me a Triang train set for my 12th Christmas. My dad almost immediately took it over, I hardly got a look in.
If you have the cable over the bridge then paint it silver to look like water/gas piping, add a few more lengths to give the bridge a purpose.Looks like you have a few years work ahead with all that space to fill.
Eric (Leeds)UK
It nice to see how the world does model railroading! Seeing how other layouts come together, great learning tool!
I,m starting a layout in my basement about 14ft x 8ft, it’s a small basement, it is going to be mostly industries with an oil refinery as the main industrie.
I live were two cities border each other with a harbor in between. The saying goes “Were Sail Meets Rail”
I’m sort of a beginner but my dad was a railroader for 40 years and I feel in love with trains. I’m on disability now and have lots of time on my hands and have a mechanical drafting background. So keep the layouts in progress coming in so I can keep on learning.
Love the capital ideas you have brought forth into your layout…keep up the great work!
What a fantastic lay-out and what a great size, can’t wait for the next load of photo
keep up the good work
Looks like a great railroad. Looks like 4 main lines and it is made to run long trains. Could you publish a track plan in the future? Thanks.
Roger, I see you use background scenery from Wordsworth Model Railway! I use quite a lot of his creations. The best part is they are free!!!! 🙂
Hi.
Thanks to everyone who replied, very nice comments. I will need a heck of a sheet of paper to draw a track plan but I will try. If the layout was in the fire damaged bit of the house I could use a helicopter to take photos as most of the roof is missing. French style air conditioning.
I will send photos of my two 6″ scale Little Samson Traction Engines, one of them was on the site a while ago. It is not rocket science building them. You need a decent lathe and a milling machine, I have a Bridgeport and of course half a brain is handy. I am a plumber and have no engineering background.
I notice a comment from Eric in Leeds, whereabouts in Leeds are you. I am a Bradford lad from Eccleshill but escaped to France 12 years ago and love it. (they speak a funny language though) Get Al to send my email.
I,m a Bradford lad as well. I used to live in Baildon on the edge of the moors. I am 85 this coming May and now live with Joan my new partner. We met through internet dating 5 years ago,both of us having lost our spouses ten years ago.
Many years ago I worked for a very large model shop and sports shop in Bradford looking after the model train and slot car racing department. I never built my own modelrailway but occasionally built layouts for customers in there homes.
When I retired I decided that I would build my own in the loft of my bungalow and started collecting locomotives, rolling stock and track. I had a new floor installed which gave me 18 ft by 26 ft of space and installed two Velux windows.
I almost finished building the base boards for a large layout when my wife died of cancer a week after being diagnosed with it.
I decided to sell the bungalow and buy a modern apartment and the base boards had to be dismantled and consigned to a skip. 5 years later I met Joan and last September we moved to Essex in the south of England.
The bungalow we purchased was fitted out with two large rooms in the loft. Fully insulated to a high standard and with velux windows.
With all the model railway stuff in boxes I decided to start again and have just completed the base boards. The layout planned measures 14ft 6 inches by 11 ft 6 inches. I have joined the Clacton on Sea modelrailway club and I have photographed the base board construction as it progressed. Hopefully the track laying will start next week and recording progress will continue.
The layout is not based on anywhere but will be set in the British Rail Blue period.
Control is by Roco DCC. At the moment I have around 14 locomotives converted to DCC and another 16 to do. I will send pictures of my progress and kep going as long as I can still climb the loft ladder.
Mike.
P.S. How do I post pictures . I am using an IPad
Keep up the great work Roger.
Roger…..it has the makings of a great looking layout.
Rodger I’ve been looking for a train station similar to yours. Where may I ask did you purchase such a great find ?
This would go great on my Hudson River Amtrak line.
Great start, Roger. Good luck as you proceed with your build. Please keep us posted.
Hi Roger. Thanks for the interesting photos and description. Sounds like you and Dangerous Dave have something in common besides trains. Just don’t fall through the ceiling. You don’t have to draw the layout to 1:1 scale; it might fit on a smaller bit of paper then. 🙂
Looking forward to following your progress.
Best wished from Whangarei, New Zealand (the bit that’s often missing off world maps).
Roger, That looks like a great start for a large layout. I have a question about British railways: do they not use raised and ballasted trackways like here in the US? It seems like a lot of the British layouts have the track laid directly on the plywood deck with no cork or other roadbed. I can understand that yard areas are often relatively flat, but even they need drainage methods. Also, it seems like laying the track directly on plywood would make running trains exceptionally noisy.
Mike, I enjoyed very much the story of your model railroad plans and how they are finally nearing fruition with your new partner Joan. I don’t have an iPad so I can’t tell you how to post your photos, but hopefully someone else can help with that. I think maybe you could just send them in an email to Alastair.
Roger, One more comment on your layout that I forgot to mention: it appears that your boards are fairly deep and some areas, especially in the corners, and they will be very hard to reach should you have a derailment there.
Also, there seem to be a lot of curves in the trackage that a real railroad would avoid. While I understand the desire to add curves to make the track more interesting, the curves should make sense in following a river course or avoiding some natural obstacle. All of which may make more sense when you start adding scenery.
I am not trying to put down your layout. Certainly, rule number one is that it is your layout and you can do whatever you like. These are just hopefully helpful observations on my part.
Looks great.!!!!! I hope mine turns out that good.
Very nice, looks like lots of operating potential. Can’t wait to see more posts as you progress.
To : Robert Brady “The Critic”
I would love to see some photos of the Hudson River Line.
Over 40 years ago I went down the Hudson River in a rubber raft in February with chunks of ice flowing beside us……wet suits of course……
Your mention of the Hudson jogged that comical memory…..
Back to the trains!
TJK
Attention: J.Michael Hoggard. (Mike) Be careful climbing ladders. A fall at your age can put an end to any model railroad dreams. I am going on 89 in a few days and walking is a problem for me. Falling is my main concern and previous falls have not been beneficial at all. My 11’x12′ model railroad is finished except for wiring and scenery. Getting around it is not easy, but at least I don’t have to climb any ladders. I have to get the assistance of my son and daughter who are in their late 40’s to make any changes on my layout. They have their own lives, so I can’t lean on them when I need help. They help me with my everyday needs and I am forever grateful. I don’t know how much longer I will be on this earth. From a health position, I am pretty good, though I can’t walk much. Anyway, take care and avoid falls.