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Moving to
Cheshire I had much less room and started to think about
Z gauge as being much smaller, as can be seen with the
comparison of 00 and Z, I could obviously have a great
‘scale’ layout than in 00. I was hooked!
 
So I started to
gather together some engines and rolling stock, still
sticking with mainly steam outline, some of which can be
seen in the photos. Most of my stuff was bought off
E-Bay, including the very neat Tiger 1s and Tiger IIs
seen on the flat-cars. One thing I did find was that I
seemed to be limited to Marklin and the expense was way
above what I had been paying for 00 stuff.
The layout
decided upon was a basic L shape with a very large loop
made possible by the crossover which is Point 1 on the
diagram. Large purple figures are points and small blue
figures are sections.
 
The single
baseboard was constructed from 5-ply with underboard
strengtheners and side strengtheners to gain the
rigidity. The top was then covered with cork floor tiles
and sprayed a matt grey. Note that these tiles were
stapled down, not glued. The reason for this will be
seen later.
As I was now
advancing in years, I had gone off the idea of crawling
around on my hands and knees and wiring baseboards up
from below. So I decided I would do it all surface
mounted. So channels were cut through the cork, (now you
see why no glue!), and the wiring was laid in these
channels and connected to tag blocks which were hidden
under the small balsa scratchbuilt trackside buildings.
The channels were then covered with brown paper which
would then disappear under the scenics.
The majority of
the buildings were purchased on E-bay, with the
occasional brand new item when I wanted something
specific, such as station platforms and canopies.
 
 
Track laying and
scenic construction went on hand-in-hand, until most of
the track was down.
 
The castle! I
just had to get this castle. As unlikely as it seems it
was actually built by a nutty king – King Ludwig of
Bavaria, I think, and it does make a wonderful addition
to the layout.
The refinery
area was built with a mixture of kits and scratch built.
The silver storage tanks were toilet roll tubes and
kitchen roll tubes etc.
 
These are the
last photos taken before I gave the layout and stock to
the Club. Again I had become bored when I reached the
stage of getting the stock to run. The layout languished
for nearly two years with no further work until I came
up with the idea of giving it to someone who would
appreciate it. I did a Google on the Web and came up
with Alsager, contacted Roy Yates who asked the
committee who gladly accepted the lay out.
Richard and Roy
have been working on the electric and have now mounted a
control panel along the front edge. All the points and
sections are fully functional and it only need the power
controller to be mounted and it will be all go.
 
 
 
 
These are
slightly more detailed shots of some of the areas. I
intend to finish and ‘spruce’ up some of the scenics
over the next few months as it is now intended to have
this on exhibition next year (2008) at Crewe.
Meanwhile I can
now work to my hearts content on the scenics and
buildings for the new Club 00 layout, with the
possibility of running some of my old LNER gear at a
later date. |
