At the behest of Rob (NHY 581), I'd like to introduce my cameo layout, Rye Sands.
Rye Sands is a creative re-interpretation of the Rye Harbour Tramway, a short branch built by the South Eastern Railway connecting Rye Harbour to their line from Ashford to Hastings. It was really inspired by a series of photos, which I stumbled across last summer. These images paint a picture of a desolate community full of quirky structures, and quite at odds with the beautiful Wealden scenery that the SER/SECR are most associated with.
The layout was really built around three structures:
1. Sea View Cottage, a house at Rye Harbour which still stands to this day. I was intrigued by the choice to paint the house's name in massive font on the side wall - I'm still not sure what the purpose of this was!
2. Watch House (the black building on the left of the below picture) - this building also still exists. The jaunty chimney and small watch tower were just begging to be modelled.
3. this nondescript wooden shed. This was actually the first structure that set me on the path to building this layout. The plan (before Rye) had been to make a similar layout set at Folkestone, then Port Victoria, and finally Dungeness. This shed was somewhere in the Folkestone Harbour complex. I've got a bit of a thing for wooden weather-boarded buildings, as they feel distinctly Kentish to me.
The layout is set at the end of the passing loop on the harbour tramway. The track plan (along with the pier) is inspired by reality, but I compressed it and added a small headshunt part way through the build. The original intention had been to show that you can make an engaging layout with just one point (and a traverser). I stand by this fact, but I felt the visual balance of the layout was off with the original track plan, as the yard area was a bit 'thin' in the middle of the layout. This left just a bit too much empty space at the front of the layout. Obviously, adding this point also made the layout infinitely more fun to operate, not that i'd like to admit it!
I used a cameo approach to the layout. It has an open frame baseboard (but with a sort of ply webbing on the bottom, which has holes cut in for access) with integral backscene and fascia. This makes it amazingly light (I can pick it up with one finger) but has proved an absolute nightmare when trying to work on scenics, due to the extremely small aperture which you have to reach through. This problem is even worse at the right hand end of the layout, where Sea View Cottage makes uncoupling three links unfathomably difficult... and in pictures you can't even see the tiny finial on the roof of the cottage, which snaps off about once a day!
The layout is almost complete now. I'm on to the final detailing jobs, and the only major outstanding task is to add the water in the harbour. I'm procrastinating this as 1) I don't want to do it whilst the weather is cold and 2) I've still not figured out what product to use.
I'm due to be taking Rye Sands to the Uckfield show in October this year. This will be both me and the layout's first shows, so I'm both excited and nervous.
I'll leave you with some photos of the layout's development, as well as the key stats.
Dimensions: 1200mm x 300mm scenic section, 600x200 traverser (with one road)
Power: DCC
Era: 1900-1930
Point motors: Cobalt Digital, controlled by push-to-make buttons on the front of the layout
Track: OO gauge Peco Bullhead Code 75
Will
Rye Sands is a creative re-interpretation of the Rye Harbour Tramway, a short branch built by the South Eastern Railway connecting Rye Harbour to their line from Ashford to Hastings. It was really inspired by a series of photos, which I stumbled across last summer. These images paint a picture of a desolate community full of quirky structures, and quite at odds with the beautiful Wealden scenery that the SER/SECR are most associated with.
The layout was really built around three structures:
1. Sea View Cottage, a house at Rye Harbour which still stands to this day. I was intrigued by the choice to paint the house's name in massive font on the side wall - I'm still not sure what the purpose of this was!
2. Watch House (the black building on the left of the below picture) - this building also still exists. The jaunty chimney and small watch tower were just begging to be modelled.
3. this nondescript wooden shed. This was actually the first structure that set me on the path to building this layout. The plan (before Rye) had been to make a similar layout set at Folkestone, then Port Victoria, and finally Dungeness. This shed was somewhere in the Folkestone Harbour complex. I've got a bit of a thing for wooden weather-boarded buildings, as they feel distinctly Kentish to me.
The layout is set at the end of the passing loop on the harbour tramway. The track plan (along with the pier) is inspired by reality, but I compressed it and added a small headshunt part way through the build. The original intention had been to show that you can make an engaging layout with just one point (and a traverser). I stand by this fact, but I felt the visual balance of the layout was off with the original track plan, as the yard area was a bit 'thin' in the middle of the layout. This left just a bit too much empty space at the front of the layout. Obviously, adding this point also made the layout infinitely more fun to operate, not that i'd like to admit it!
I used a cameo approach to the layout. It has an open frame baseboard (but with a sort of ply webbing on the bottom, which has holes cut in for access) with integral backscene and fascia. This makes it amazingly light (I can pick it up with one finger) but has proved an absolute nightmare when trying to work on scenics, due to the extremely small aperture which you have to reach through. This problem is even worse at the right hand end of the layout, where Sea View Cottage makes uncoupling three links unfathomably difficult... and in pictures you can't even see the tiny finial on the roof of the cottage, which snaps off about once a day!
The layout is almost complete now. I'm on to the final detailing jobs, and the only major outstanding task is to add the water in the harbour. I'm procrastinating this as 1) I don't want to do it whilst the weather is cold and 2) I've still not figured out what product to use.
I'm due to be taking Rye Sands to the Uckfield show in October this year. This will be both me and the layout's first shows, so I'm both excited and nervous.
I'll leave you with some photos of the layout's development, as well as the key stats.
Dimensions: 1200mm x 300mm scenic section, 600x200 traverser (with one road)
Power: DCC
Era: 1900-1930
Point motors: Cobalt Digital, controlled by push-to-make buttons on the front of the layout
Track: OO gauge Peco Bullhead Code 75
Will
