Model Railways On-Line - Littlehempston - Part 2
Littlehempston Part 2 - Building the Model Railway Room Photographed and described by Paul Plowman Above: Photo 1. Work in progress extending the garage forward. The first article in this series about the construction of my new model railway ended in an upbeat note with work on the baseboards well under way. Unfortunately I soon ran into difficulty. Let me rewind to 1998. Shortly after arriving in Australia we purchased a rural property located some 19 miles north west of Sydney. It did not have a garage and the thought going through my mind was to build one suitable as a future home for a model railway. We needed two cars at the time but when I retired we could dispose of one and use half the garage for a layout. With this in mind the garage was built a little larger than necessary, measuring 7m x 7m internally. I purchased a load of second hand Dexion and Handy Angle for A$100 (about £40) and began construction of a supporting frame for the baseboards in the space then available. I wanted to make a start on building a layout and constructed two of the proposed 12 baseboards. I began a third but by then it was becoming obvious that the idea of sharing a garage with a car was not going to work. Problem number one was our location on a ridge and the garage was built facing west. Westerly is the direction of prevailing winds in the summer here. Whenever the roller doors were opened dust blew in. Even when the doors were shut the dust blew in through the gap between the top of the doors and the lintel. Secondly the heat! Summer temperatures can reach 45 deg C and the roof was just Colorbond (pre-coloured sheet steel). And thirdly, as time passed it was becoming apparent that it would not be practicable to dispose of one of the cars when I retired. Photo 2: The roller doors have yet to be moved to their new location. I sought advice from members of the BRMA. The consensus of opinion was ‘insulation’, ‘insulation’ and then more ‘insulation’. It was suggested I should construct a separate building to house the model railway but my immediate thought was the cost! I started to look at my original idea again of using the garage. If we didn’t keep the cars in the garage I wouldn’t have a problem. The plan I came up with was to extend the garage forward by 6m in the same style of construction and use the original section for my model railway. Photo 3: Insulated ceiling and walls to the model railway room. A development application was lodged with the local council. Approval was duly received and construction commenced. Photo 1 shows the forward extension of the garage under construction while photo 2 shows the inside of the building. The roller doors had not yet been moved forward at this time and the old openings had still to be in filled. As part of the job the builders stripped the colorbond from the roof of the existing garage and lined the whole roof with glass fibre insulation. A second layer of insulation went in above the ceiling of the model railway room (See photo 3). The walls were also insulated but only between buttresses. In addition to wiring the building the electricians installed a power supply for a possible future air-conditioning system but after nearly two years I have not found a need for it. The model railway room is cool in summer and warm in winter. I have used an electric fire just to take the chill off the room on a few evening during this last winter (July 2007). Photo 4 shows the completed room in May 2006. Photo 4: The completed model railway room. With the model railway room finished it was now time to make a second start on my layout. The first task before making myself too much at home was to erect the Dexion and Handy Angle to form the support for the baseboards. As the layout was to extend from one end of the room to the other I avoided drilling holes in the walls by building the frame to be a tight fit. The walls are protected by off-cuts of carpet glued to the frame with the soft side against the walls. Photo 5: Completed frame ready to support the model railway baseboards. Two baseboards had been completed as part of my abortive start and were duly installed on the frame. Now that I no longer had to consider sharing space with a car I took the opportunity to increase the depth of the main baseboard from 3’- 0” to 3’- 6”. The viewing area has also changed from inside the layout to outside and this has necessitated a complete rethink on the concept of the model. Before building any more baseboards I now needed to decide where I was going to have cuttings and embankments. But before I could make these decisions I needed to undertake research into my chosen subject and plan my layout in detail. In Part 3 I propose to describe my research into the South Devon Railway and look at the “might have beens” to develop a concept for my model railway.
The first article in this series about the construction of my new model railway ended in an upbeat note with work on the baseboards well under way. Unfortunately I soon ran into difficulty.
Let me rewind to 1998. Shortly after arriving in Australia we purchased a rural property located some 19 miles north west of Sydney. It did not have a garage and the thought going through my mind was to build one suitable as a future home for a model railway. We needed two cars at the time but when I retired we could dispose of one and use half the garage for a layout. With this in mind the garage was built a little larger than necessary, measuring 7m x 7m internally.
I purchased a load of second hand Dexion and Handy Angle for A$100 (about £40) and began construction of a supporting frame for the baseboards in the space then available. I wanted to make a start on building a layout and constructed two of the proposed 12 baseboards. I began a third but by then it was becoming obvious that the idea of sharing a garage with a car was not going to work.
Problem number one was our location on a ridge and the garage was built facing west. Westerly is the direction of prevailing winds in the summer here. Whenever the roller doors were opened dust blew in. Even when the doors were shut the dust blew in through the gap between the top of the doors and the lintel. Secondly the heat! Summer temperatures can reach 45 deg C and the roof was just Colorbond (pre-coloured sheet steel). And thirdly, as time passed it was becoming apparent that it would not be practicable to dispose of one of the cars when I retired.
Photo 2: The roller doors have yet to be moved to their new location.
I sought advice from members of the BRMA. The consensus of opinion was ‘insulation’, ‘insulation’ and then more ‘insulation’. It was suggested I should construct a separate building to house the model railway but my immediate thought was the cost! I started to look at my original idea again of using the garage. If we didn’t keep the cars in the garage I wouldn’t have a problem. The plan I came up with was to extend the garage forward by 6m in the same style of construction and use the original section for my model railway.
Photo 3: Insulated ceiling and walls to the model railway room.
A development application was lodged with the local council. Approval was duly received and construction commenced. Photo 1 shows the forward extension of the garage under construction while photo 2 shows the inside of the building. The roller doors had not yet been moved forward at this time and the old openings had still to be in filled. As part of the job the builders stripped the colorbond from the roof of the existing garage and lined the whole roof with glass fibre insulation. A second layer of insulation went in above the ceiling of the model railway room (See photo 3). The walls were also insulated but only between buttresses. In addition to wiring the building the electricians installed a power supply for a possible future air-conditioning system but after nearly two years I have not found a need for it. The model railway room is cool in summer and warm in winter. I have used an electric fire just to take the chill off the room on a few evening during this last winter (July 2007). Photo 4 shows the completed room in May 2006.
Photo 4: The completed model railway room.
With the model railway room finished it was now time to make a second start on my layout. The first task before making myself too much at home was to erect the Dexion and Handy Angle to form the support for the baseboards. As the layout was to extend from one end of the room to the other I avoided drilling holes in the walls by building the frame to be a tight fit. The walls are protected by off-cuts of carpet glued to the frame with the soft side against the walls.
Photo 5: Completed frame ready to support the model railway baseboards.
Two baseboards had been completed as part of my abortive start and were duly installed on the frame. Now that I no longer had to consider sharing space with a car I took the opportunity to increase the depth of the main baseboard from 3’- 0” to 3’- 6”. The viewing area has also changed from inside the layout to outside and this has necessitated a complete rethink on the concept of the model. Before building any more baseboards I now needed to decide where I was going to have cuttings and embankments. But before I could make these decisions I needed to undertake research into my chosen subject and plan my layout in detail.
In Part 3 I propose to describe my research into the South Devon Railway and look at the “might have beens” to develop a concept for my model railway.