South Oak Road

Returning to the source

It certainly hasn’t been the most productive couple of months for South Oak Road, between house renovations, an overseas trip and an always heavy Scalescenes and freelance illustration workload, the layout has regrettably taken a backseat. Though I must confess that I have also been finding it hard to push on with the scenic work as I’ve been busy planning twenty steps ahead and worrying about small elements, such as lighting and figures, that are realistically way down the track! I even started down the dangerous path of doodling plans for a small 009 pizza layout! Put simply I was procrastinating and I desperately needed something to rekindle my enthusiasm for South Oak Road.

What better way to get things rolling again than to spend a couple of days wandering around the area that inspired the layout, namely the Camden, Kentish Town, Gospel Oak and Tufnell Park areas of North London. Rather disappointingly the weekend I made it to London, the normal selection of freight and passenger workings were no were to be seen as several sections of track were in the process of being relayed! The trip was still a huge shot in the arm for South Oak Road as it confirmed that I was on the right track with my depiction of the retaining walls and tunnels, though my version could certainly benefit from a lot more weathering, particularly lime on the walls (see image below).

Looking over the Highgate Road bridge.

The visit also allowed me to collect as many source shots as I could of those elusive small details that make or break a layout and determine if you properly capture the flavour of a particular scene. One of my primary areas of focus on this trip were the many arches and viaducts of the area. It was really important that I got these arches right as they dominate the front of the layout. Arches, like so many other structures that feature on model railways are very prone to cliches and assumptions. I was therefore keen to put aside ‘what I thought a set of London arches looked like’ and really record as many of the wide structural and colour variations that occur in even a small area.

A small selection of the images.

As illustrated by the shots above, my arches were certainly going to have to go beyond the neat line of uniform red brick arches that I had originally assumed would suit the scene if I was going to correctly capture the feel of the area. Each shot clearly illustrates not just that each arch is a patchwork of different brick colours, but also that it is layered with numerous small details such as ducting, pipes, brackets and railings, not mention the odd outbreak of vegetation.

Before I could even think about adding all this exciting detail I really needed to mock up in plain card several options to ensure that the arches sat well with the rest of the layout. A few versions later and I had settled on the basic structure; three arches, two with workshops and one just simply infilled and a plate girder bridge over a narrow road that disappears towards the ground floor of the low relief warehouse at the back of layout. To the left of the girder bridge would be a small subway entry to the main station.

Platform construction

I was really looking forward to this part of the construction and have especially wanted to build a bay platform for sometime. Bay platforms have always appealed to me, a great spot to display my collection of parcel related rolling stock and a few well stacked BRUTE trolleys awaiting the next train. The two outside tracks are designed to represent the ends of two much long platforms, a fairly common design feature of many smaller layouts but one which really allows you to show off your locomotives as they await departure.

The basic platform structure is formed using Scalescenes.com’s Platform kit. This is a fairly easy ‘box’ build though care needs to be taken at all stages to ensure that the longest coaches happily clear the platform edges (as detailed in the kit instructions). I decided to double the thickness of the platform side wall for addition strength. I also trimmed 2mm off the bottom of the platform sides to allow for the thickness of card ‘footprints’ that I had laid prior to ballasting.

Instead of using the supplied ‘cover strips’ to conceal the joins in the platform side I thought it might be nice to include a small bricked up arch, perhaps part of a long abandoned subway or ventilation shaft. All the platform needs now are a few cables running just under the platform edge and some weeds poking up here and there.

Retaining wall and tunnel construction

I used Scalescenes.com’s R013 Retaining wall and a kit bashed version of the R014 Tunnel kit. Both kits are quite straightforward with clearly illustrated instructions, so I won’t go into too much actual construction detail here. The Retaining wall kit is a versatile design that was easily adapted to suit the ramped wall I had planned, the Dark blue brick (TX27) is a good match to the distinctive engineers blue brick that is common for large structural features such as these. At this stage I have left off the parapet wall as it will hamper construction of the low relief warehouse that will run along the back of the layout.

With the retaining wall complete it was into the tunnel. Building twin skewed tunnel portals into the same wall was certainly a lot harder than it looked on the plans! Using my longest item of rolling stock (a Mk1) as a guide, it took three plain card mock-ups to get the arches and tunnel shaft clearances just right. I used the matching Dark blue brick (TX27) texture sheet to create the longer tunnel face required to accommodate both portals and to add a couple of refuges inside the tunnel shafts.

To finish, I used a soft brush to lightly work some dark brown weathering powder over the most of the wall and tunnel surfaces especially working it into the corners. It’s a quick and easy way to ‘tone down’ the richness of the print surface. Inside the tunnel and on some spots on the retaining wall I also smudged white chalk pastel to simulate lime scaling. Once again a simple technique that really adds extra realism to the scene.

Retaining wall and tunnel foundations

Having completed the main track work (excluding finer details that will be added later such as cable troughing, relay cabinets and point motors) it was into the scenery. Referring back to my original scale plan and 1/10 prototype model I began by marking out the features on to the baseboard. This is a crucial point in the process for me, it’s usually when I begin to move things around a bit and before you know it I’m on the slippery slope to scrapping the whole lot. Come what may I’m sticking to this plan and pushing on into the scenery stage, “amazing!” I hear my friends saying.

The back of the layout will consist of an imposing engineers blue brick retaining wall that leads into a single and double tunnel at one end. The above image of Kentish Town captures the feel of the retaining wall and tunnel that I want for South Oak Road. My first task was to cut out rough card tunnel portals and check all heights and clearances. With the height of the wall at one end established I was able to quickly begin shaping various insulation foam off-cuts to form the main topographic features. Leaving the top section of the hill as removable for track maintenance, all another elements were glued in place with PVA woodworking glue.

Track laying 2

The track detailing of course begins with the most boring task in railway modeling – ballasting. Using some scrap track I tested a couple of different ballast colours and then settled on Woodland Scenics Light Gray Fine, the plan being to start with a lighter shade and then add colour to the track once the ballasting was complete.Once the ballast had been carefully worked into position an eyedropper was used to flow matt varnish into the ballast. Having tried the water, washing up liquid and PVA method a couple of times in the past I found the matt varnish far easier to use and the end result is rock hard! With ballast fully set I used an old brush to apply a wash of diluted Tamiya Flat Earth (XF-52). Using photo references I then washed an even more diluted flat black and dark brown here and there to simulate general track muck. The next step was to use an old brush to wash and ‘scrub’ the ballast with pure thinner. This really helps to soften and blend the various colours and ensure that the paint has thoroughly worked its way down into ballast.

Using a fine brush I then very carefully picked out the rail chairs and other track detail as well as touching up any of the rail sides that were scratched in the ballasting process. The final touch was to paint the sleepers flat black and lightly dry-brush the rail details with a lighter rust colour. The rail tops were then wiped clean using a small piece of cloth soaked in thinner.

Building the baseboard

The baseboard structure is basically a three sided box fabricated from 7mm plywood, glued and pinned. Additional rigidity is supplied by a central I-beam also created from the same ply. The whole structure is about half the weight of my first baseboard attempt and a lot stronger.

The ledge along the front will accommodate the various
under arch workshops and businesses.

To allow cabling to be fed through, two holes have
been cut to in the central I-beam.

Track laying 1

My initial plans were to lay the entire layout in code 75 finescale, but with most of the track work obscured by platforms and parapet walls when viewed side on and the fact that I already had two code 100 Y points from a previous project, code 100 seemed to be the simplest option. As a compromise I decided to lay the two foreground tracks with code 75 with the ugly Peco ‘Herman Munster boot’ 75 to 100 joiner hidden beneath a barrow crossing.

My thoughts then turned to improving the appearance of the track. The current long over due debate in most of the UK model railway magazines (except Railway Modeller/Peco – surprise, surprise!) about the unrealistic appearance of commercially available track work provided some good pointers for getting most out of a range of pretty average products.

Central to most of the comments seems to be adjusting the sleeper spacing to somewhere between 7 and 9mm. I have tended towards the closer spacing on South Oak Road mainly to avoid the ‘narrow gauge look’ that a number of articles mention.

A fairly simple process of increasing the
spacing in between the sleepers really improves
the look of the track even before ballasting.

Though it takes a bit of extra time to remove all the
plastic between the sleepers, the process ensures
that you end up with prototypical ‘daylight’ beneath
the base of the rail.

Having drilled holes for the point motors, the track was glued into position and temporarily held in place with drawing pins. The sleepers at the traverser end were replaced with a 10mm wide strip of circuit board, (with a notch cut in between each rail to prevent a short). This well used method greatly reduces the potential for track movement, the scourge of any traverser! With the wiring and track all soldered and tested it was on to the fun part…

One of the great advantages of building a micro layout is being able to lavish a level of detail on to the track that would be very time consuming on a larger layout. One of the first tasks is to replace any missing sleepers. I used 2mm balsa cut into thin sleeper width strips and then painted flat black. Where the two points joined I also cut away (very cautiously!) the ‘non-structural’ sleepers and replaced them with two more prototypical full length strips that run the full width under both points. Additionally I cut off the unrealistic side lugs, puttied up the Peco point motor mount holes and extended the sleepers to one side of the mechanism in readiness for various detailing parts.

The next stage was to cut out the footprint of all the platforms, retaining walls, barrow crossings, signal and relay box foundations and cable troughing from 2mm card and glue to the baseboard. As illustrated from the image above taken on a recent trip Kentish Town station, all these items are visually bedded into the ballast.

The card footprints give the ballast something to flow up to and a flat surface to build on. Lastly the point blades and concrete sleepers are masked off ready to be spray painted…

All the track and adjoining foundations were spray painted matt red brown.

Baseboard construction 1

With most of the key features of the layout pinned down I was keen to begin construction. I have to confess that my first attempt at building the baseboards for South Oak Road ended in complete failure! Mark I was a rather ad-hoc affair formed from a framework of 19mm x 90 pine and a very heavy MDF back scene.

Despite being aware that it was far from perfect I was generally happy with the basic structure until it suffered a ‘catastrophic’ structural failure that could be in part due to me drilling one to many lightening holes in the framework! The structure had also been severely weakened by my attempts to retro fit several ‘after-thoughts’. After a strong cup of coffee there was little more that could be done other than carefully remove what track and take the whole sorry mess to the dump! News of my latest layout becoming landfill only seemed to confirm to my wife and skeptical friends that I have a psychological disorder that prevents me from ever adding scenery to a layout.

Partly motivated by embarrassment, I was keen get to straight into building Mark II but my enthusiasm was tempered by the knowledge that I really needed to plan this new version out properly before I fired up the drop saw.

I previously viewed modellers who built ‘mini’ scale versions of their intended layout as having just a little bit too much time on their hands. Very conscious of the first failure, I was unsure were to begin. Though fully committed to the same track plan and basic dimensions as Mark I, I had to concede that creating a 1:10 cardboard prototype was the only way forward. Though roughly constructed, almost from the word go the 1:10 model pointed the way forward on a whole host of design and construction issues.

The invaluable 1:10 version cobbled together from card and foam.

Confident that I had worked out how the structure was going to come together, I began by cutting out a 950×280mm piece of 7mm plywood for the main baseboard. Having glued a sheet of 3mm cork over the entire baseboard I was ready for the track work!

Background

My passion for railways was partly inherited from my father who worked as a blacksmith for many years at both Ashford and Eastleigh railway works and my grandfather who worked as a guard on the Southern Railway and on into the Blue diesel era. Despite the influence of my father’s large Southern inspired steam era layout and spending many enjoyable weekends volunteering on the Mid Hants Watercress line, growing up in the Seventies and early Eighties in the UK means the BR corporate blue era is etched into my imagination. I have many fond memories of travelling and trainspotting in and around London and southern England during this period. My aim is to distil just a tiny slice of this wonderfully grimy and run down BR blue era that I remember from my childhood.

A fictitious station, just west of Kentish Town station, South Oak Road is situated somewhere in this area of North West London where numerous lines duck in and out of cuttings, tunnels and over viaducts. The layout focuses on two outer platforms of a slightly larger station complex that is also fed by the nearby Post Office mail and parcel distribution centre.

Google Maps image of the approximate location

“Where’s all the scenery?”

I’m not sure how many layouts I’ve started over the years but I suspect this may well be my seventh serious attempt at getting a layout beyond the ‘Plywood Central’ stage. For my increasingly skeptical wife and friends I’m sure they have all merged into a single project ‘that looks the same as the last time we were over’. Given that scenery and architecture are the aspects of the hobby that really interest me it does seem odd that I’ve never got to that stage.

The last layout to bite the dust was an ambitious double track oval. Aware that the writing was on the wall for the current railway room with the pending arrival of our first son I began the familiar process of demolishing yet another layout. Afterwards I indulged in a bit of art therapy with some guidance from my friend, artist Sam Creyton, aware that this may well have been my last layout for quite sometime.

An assemblage formed from various fragments
of my previous layouts and plans.

A starting point

After the dust had settled from the birth of our son, it wasn’t long before I started daydreaming about a new modelling project. The new railway room was and is literally “the smallest room in the house”. Having removed the old ‘fixtures’ (mainly plumbing) I was left with a rather challenging 1550×1250mm (5ftx4ft) space.

The new railway “room”.

With a considerable investment in OO rolling stock I resisted the temptation to switch to N gauge and started exploring options for a small shelf layout. A whole world of potential opened up for me when I came across two fantastic websites. Carl Arendt’s Micro layout design website and Adrian Wymann’s Shunting puzzles website.

Both website’s highlight the huge operational and scenic potential that can be achieved in an extremely small space! After spending many enjoyable hours browsing the many track plans and operational options available on on these sites I settled on a layout based on Carl Arendt’s Smithfield Street Yard.

Essentially a distilled version of the popular Timesaver style shunting puzzle, the traverser, partially concealed beneath the terraced houses, doubles as a very useful run around loop. Despite its small size, with the aid of simple shunting puzzle style rules, it delivers plenty of operational capacity. This was confirmed over several enjoyable evenings, when I constructed a 1:10 scale card version of the track plan with similarly scaled representations of my locos and rolling stock.

View the track plan here.