Intercity126
Western Thunderer
Paisley Canal is a small 7mm layout I started to build some years ago when I returned to the hobby and realised that my detailed and repainted early 1980's vintage Lima diesels were no longer state of the model railway art. I considered my options before deciding on a complete change in scale was in order and some of you may remember some early photos of the bare baseboards & track from the now defunct MIGO+1 forum.
Track is built from Exactoscale and C&L components. I started with the points at the top of the image (right hand side of the layout) and built these on templates, which restricted the geometry somewhat. The later build curved point closes to the camera is much more satisfactory.
My interests are very parochial and I wanted to model an ex Glasgow & South Western Railway line during the "Golden Age of Trains" - which to me was the period of transition from green to blue diesel liveries which I remembered so fondly from my childhood.
The Layout
The odd baseboard shape was dictated by the available space in my old apartment. Despite only having the space for a micro-layout, I wanted to have a double track, main line railway. I wanted to avoid straight lines and eventually came up with the idea of a plan based upon a sweeping S-bend. This also suggested to me a possible prototype: The Paisley Canal Line was opened by the G&SWR in 1885 and followed the course of the former Glasgow and Ardrossan Canal. The canal was purchased by the G&SWR, unceremoniously filled in and used as the trackbed for the railway. The line is very level but the fact that it was once a canal is evidenced by the many curves and earthworks to maintain the level.
Paisley Canal station was situated in a cutting, overlooked by the booking office (which I have partially modelled) with the platforms being to the right of the modelled area (these and the rest of the railway network were originally represented by a 3 road traverser).
Although my track plan is fictitious (designed purely for amusement in operation), I tried to fit the layout as far as possible within the actual topography of the area. The retaining walls and the booking office on the road overbridge being the distinctive features. I subsequently added the tenement end overlooking the tracks.
To control my fictitious track and signalling arrangements, I provided a signal box, based on (mirror image of) the box at Hawkhead on the same stretch of line.
I entered the layout into the RMWeb 2010 challenge which provided the spur to take the layout to a basic stage of completion as shown below. There was a summary thread and a building thread on RMWeb.
One line is under an engineers' possession, which gives the excuse to shunt trains on the mainline (and call a minuscule run round loop a double track mainline...
Due to a combination of family priorities and indolence, the layout lay operational (but unused) for some further years until I was asked by some local contacts here in Norway if I would be prepared to exhibit the layout in the local show. This provided the spur to do a bit more work and the layout was exhibited as a "work in progress" at the local show in Bergen in 2018 in the state as shown.
The layout proved surprisingly entertaining to operate for the 2 days of the show. Rather surprisingly both of my Wee Girls seemed to enjoy shuffling trains around.
I didn't bother using the traverser as anything more than short static roads, which caused a bit of a rethink. It had always bugged me that I hadn't built the backside of the building with the staircases down to the tracks - I originally intended a backscene to be built, but in the layout's new permanent place at home it is partially in front of a picture window and a full height backscene no longer makes sense so I built a short additional scenic board and plan to extend this building to its full size. I also curved the main tracks over a little to extend the curve through the points which hides the fact that these were laid when I was still suffering from the "PECO" mentality in tracklaying. A shot of work in progress below with some crude "rapid prototyping" to get a feel for the possible changes.
The track is now laid on this section and I have since started to put in the basic platform structure and some supporting steelwork for the extended road bridge. The near side of the station building will need extended as the actual footprint should be triangular. Photos to follow in due course. I am considering taking the layout back to the local show again this year in its rebuilt form, so need to step up progress quite a bit.
Track is built from Exactoscale and C&L components. I started with the points at the top of the image (right hand side of the layout) and built these on templates, which restricted the geometry somewhat. The later build curved point closes to the camera is much more satisfactory.
My interests are very parochial and I wanted to model an ex Glasgow & South Western Railway line during the "Golden Age of Trains" - which to me was the period of transition from green to blue diesel liveries which I remembered so fondly from my childhood.
The Layout
The odd baseboard shape was dictated by the available space in my old apartment. Despite only having the space for a micro-layout, I wanted to have a double track, main line railway. I wanted to avoid straight lines and eventually came up with the idea of a plan based upon a sweeping S-bend. This also suggested to me a possible prototype: The Paisley Canal Line was opened by the G&SWR in 1885 and followed the course of the former Glasgow and Ardrossan Canal. The canal was purchased by the G&SWR, unceremoniously filled in and used as the trackbed for the railway. The line is very level but the fact that it was once a canal is evidenced by the many curves and earthworks to maintain the level.
Paisley Canal station was situated in a cutting, overlooked by the booking office (which I have partially modelled) with the platforms being to the right of the modelled area (these and the rest of the railway network were originally represented by a 3 road traverser).
Although my track plan is fictitious (designed purely for amusement in operation), I tried to fit the layout as far as possible within the actual topography of the area. The retaining walls and the booking office on the road overbridge being the distinctive features. I subsequently added the tenement end overlooking the tracks.
To control my fictitious track and signalling arrangements, I provided a signal box, based on (mirror image of) the box at Hawkhead on the same stretch of line.
I entered the layout into the RMWeb 2010 challenge which provided the spur to take the layout to a basic stage of completion as shown below. There was a summary thread and a building thread on RMWeb.
One line is under an engineers' possession, which gives the excuse to shunt trains on the mainline (and call a minuscule run round loop a double track mainline...
Due to a combination of family priorities and indolence, the layout lay operational (but unused) for some further years until I was asked by some local contacts here in Norway if I would be prepared to exhibit the layout in the local show. This provided the spur to do a bit more work and the layout was exhibited as a "work in progress" at the local show in Bergen in 2018 in the state as shown.
The layout proved surprisingly entertaining to operate for the 2 days of the show. Rather surprisingly both of my Wee Girls seemed to enjoy shuffling trains around.
I didn't bother using the traverser as anything more than short static roads, which caused a bit of a rethink. It had always bugged me that I hadn't built the backside of the building with the staircases down to the tracks - I originally intended a backscene to be built, but in the layout's new permanent place at home it is partially in front of a picture window and a full height backscene no longer makes sense so I built a short additional scenic board and plan to extend this building to its full size. I also curved the main tracks over a little to extend the curve through the points which hides the fact that these were laid when I was still suffering from the "PECO" mentality in tracklaying. A shot of work in progress below with some crude "rapid prototyping" to get a feel for the possible changes.
The track is now laid on this section and I have since started to put in the basic platform structure and some supporting steelwork for the extended road bridge. The near side of the station building will need extended as the actual footprint should be triangular. Photos to follow in due course. I am considering taking the layout back to the local show again this year in its rebuilt form, so need to step up progress quite a bit.
