During our holiday in the UK we managed a number of rest days where we enjoyed the English Country side from the window of a railway carriage, usually behind steam. On our visit to the Severn Valley Railway we decided that the museum at Highly would make an ideal lunch stop, as well as an interesting break. My first OO gauge train was a Trix Twin Midland Compound loco, so a visit to Highly was very memorable, to see the real locomotive as well as enjoy lunch on the balcony and watch the trains.

Our train down from Bridnorth to Highly was hauled by a Sulzer powered diesel. After alighting at Highley, we watched and listened to the departing diesel. While I enjoy the sight and smell of steam, this diesel leaving Highly sounded terrific. A visit to one of the larger hobby shops and a demonstration of a Bachmann Class 25 with sound was all I needed to decide what I would take home to remind me of our holiday.

I have always enjoyed the articles on micro layouts and have read the book on building micro layouts. For the plane trip home I picked up a book on Modelling the BR Era which has proved very interesting and helpful. Armed with some reference material I set about designing a micro or maybe mini British layout. I have many back issues of Railway Modeller and many of these smaller layouts have proved very interesting. It is always good to be able to pull out a few older issues you haven’t looked at for a while and find a few ideas you can use. By chance our holidays have co-incided with the Aylsbury Exhibition which I really enjoyed, and this proved to be an ideal venue to see some smaller British layouts. Both years there have been some very good layouts to view. Bawdsey, which had featured in Railway Modeller, was one layout on display, and was well worth stopping to view.

This is probably where the purists should grab a strong Twinnings or a large glass of Lancaster Bomber. My mini layout is set in the early diesel era, but there is a possibility that not all the loco and DMU types operated in the same area, and some of the goods wagons are not in the correct era. I decided to run diesels mainly in the British Railways green livery era, in preference to the BR blue. I have picked diesels I have seen or I like the look of. Over the years I had accumulated a good selection of wagons over many years, so this was a good chance to see them moving.

I am not sure what region or county the layout should be placed in. I wanted something where there was a basic passenger service, some goods sidings, a diesel depot and an industry. The layout represents the end of a small branch line, where the passenger and freight services are hanging in.

The British modelers have such a wide assortment of steam, diesel and DMUs to choose from, from the four pre nationalization religions to the modern era. It is interesting to see all the new models being announced each month in the model press. Modellers of most Australian State railways do not have a very large selection of RTR models to choose from. When the state systems have track gauges ranging from 3’6” to standard gauge, and then 5’3’’ broad gauge it is easy to see why many state systems do not have many RTR models.

The British modeler is fortunate to have so many preserved lines running steam and the early diesels all over the Country. In Australia we have only a handful of preserved lines in each state, so I hope the English modeler visits and rides a couple of the preserved lines each year to ensure they are there in the future.

Once I decided how much space I could allocate to the baseboard, I cut the caneite (softboard) base to size and started playing around with Peco track templates and points. I settled on a baseboard 5 foot long by 1 foot 6 inches wide. I wanted something that was easy to move, and easy to store. As this is an indulgence, and not the main operating layout, it had to be of a size that would provide some operating opportunities, but could easily be stored. It was important to that it was self contained, so it could easily be setup and running with the minimum of effort. After a few hours of pushing points and templates around I had a workable track plan. I find this an easy way to visualize where things can go, how trains will fit into the space and how easy it will be to operate the layout. When you see the track layout full size it is easy to see operational problems before you lay track.

After watching a few too many episodes of Inspector Barnaby, Midsomer was rejected as a station name and I settled on the name “Haines” for the layout; named after my grand father, a steam locomotive driver on the New South Wales Government Railways from about 1900 to 1955. During that time he would have driven many locomotive built in England by Beyer Peacock and Dubs and Company.

The fiddleyard and staging yard has 3 fixed tracks and 2 tracks built into a cassette that can be lifted out and turned to make train operation easier. It also allows a few extra locos to be on the layout and changed around to add a little variety to the operating.

The Baseboard.

The baseboard consisted of a base of 6mm MDF, framed up with timber, and the canite glued on top. After the track was laid, it was then possible to add fascia and backboards. I like the canite because it is east to spike into, muffles the sound, and can be carved to suit the scenery.

Electrics

A transformer to supply AC and DC power is built into the baseboard, as well as a four outlet power point to plug a DCC transformer into. A power lead is connected into the electrics so that all that is required to power the layout is to plug this lead into the mains. The transformer then supplies power for the point motors and any other accessories requiring power.

Track.

Track is Peco code 100, with small radius points, to conserve space. For a small shunting layout with smaller diesels they are fine. I had a number of code 100 points and sections of flexible track from previous layouts so this was a good chance to use these up. Track is laid on a strip of 3mm cork. Most of the points are operated by a wire in tube connected to a slide switch at the edge of the baseboard, while the three points in the industrial area are powered by Peco solenoids. The main track areas have been ballasted with a rock ballast and most sidings with the Woodlands Scenics cinder ballast. This has been fixed in place with a mixture of PVA glue, detergent and warm water, gently applied from an eye dropper. The rail sides were then painted with a Humbrol rust colour, and the rail tops cleaned after this had been done. The mainline ballast looked a bit too bright, so it was toned down with a diluted mix of grey acrylic paint applied gently with an eye dropper.

Scenery.

The canite was painted in an earth colour before any track or other work started. Once the track was laid, the scenery could be started. In some areas the baseboard was painted with PVA white glue, and onto this was spread a mixture of sifted soil, sawdust and Woodlands Scenics ground cover. This was then wet down with an eyedropper, using a mixture of PVA glue, warm water and wash up detergent to fix everything in place. Where landforms were required a plaster mix was spread over a base of packing foam, suitably shaped. The plaster had a few teaspoons of cement colour added to take away the base white shade. After the plaster was dry a similar treatment as used on the open areas was applied to the formed scenery.

The roads were formed with a base of 2mm balsa wood, cut to shape and then glued into place. The sealed road areas in the goods sidings were also formed with sheet balsa, glued into place and then painted with a flat acrylic paint.

Our local hobby shops have more American scenic supplies than British, so I have been using many Woodlands Scenics products of different shades. After all this was what I use on my South Australian Railways layout. Some ready made trees have been used as well as some on the Woodlands Scenics tree frames.

Buildings.

As there are not many buildings and the layout was intended as a diversion from my regular South Australian Railway layout, kit buildings have been used. The diesel depot was constructed from a American Pikestuff kit that looked similar to a building in one of the British books I had purchased. Unfortunately the picture was only black and white, so a web search produced a colour photo of a diesel depot, but knowing my luck it is probably the only one in that colour scheme. The factory buildings are built up from the Walthers modular building wall kits. We often joked about the New South Wales Government Railways; that if a station or stations on a branchline were freshly painted, then it was about to be closed, so I have to decide whether to leave the Peco station building clean or weather it. The platform has a good covering of grass and weeds as the station master is only rostered on duty for a short time each day. The coal staithes are Peco products. In our travels around the UK we were surprised at the number of double decker buses careering down the rural roads. In Australia the last double deck buses disappeared in the late 1960s from city streets with a few now used for late night pub crawl buses. I had to have a double decker bus for the layout, so one is parked at the station.

Locomotives.

Most of the diesels are Bachmann products that run very well. The class 25 with sound was purchased when we were on holidays in 2010 and was the start of the project. When we rode on the Severn Valley Railway there was a green class 20 standing at Kidderminster, so this was the next addition for the layout.This was followed by a class 20 with sound. Later additions have been a class 24 and 33 without sound. For the shunting a class 03 and 08 fill in. To shunt the industrial sidings I bought a small Sentinal Steam loco, which I could not resist. Passenger services are handled by a Hornby class 101 railcar with sound. The sound in the railcar is from a sound chip from Keytes, and really sounds good. It is good that in most cases the tension lock couplers plug into the NEM sockets, which makes it easy to plug in replacement Kadee couplers.

There are many new models that are very tempting which makes it very easy to have a very varied collection of models that do not fit together. When I first started in the hobby my first set was a Trix Midland Compound. When the new Midland Compound from the National Rail Museum was announced I had to add one to the collection.

Rolling Stock.

After fifty years of modeling Australian prototype, and using Kadee couplings, they were the choice on this layout. All the rolling stock has been fitted with Kadees, and while the old Mainline wagons took a little time, the end result is worth it. Once the Tension lock couplers were unscrewed, the mounting block was removed using a cutting disk on the Dremel. Once this area was cleaned up the Kadee coupler box screwed on at the correct height. The Mainline plastic wheel sets were replaced with Bachmann metal wheels and axles, which improved the running. Many of the newer wagons had their couplers popped out of the NEM socket, and Kadees pushed in. Magnets have been placed under the track where required to allow wagons to be easily shunted on the layout.

Shopping.

It has not been easy sometimes to get some specific models I have wanted locally, and I have found that The Hereford Model Centre has offered a very good mail order service. Heather from the Railway Modeller has been a very helpful guide to exhibitions to visit when we are visiting.