East Cheltwell

[Eastern]

Farewell to Cheltwell Revisited and welcome to East Cheltwell. Not an exactly original name, but something to work with. The plan is to have a West Country feel with a mainline through a country station and a small goods yard. The track plan is loosely based on Chalford, but not the locale or station itself. As with probably most of us, I will use some modelling licence!



Baseboards will be of an open box design on trestles enabling some portability. Track will most likely be Pecocode 75 steamline and electrofrog points. The layout will be DCC - most probably a Digitrax Zephyr. I'd like to have a circular layout with a hidden fiddle yard and trains appearing under a road bridge and exiting on the far side either into a tunnel or another bridge. Hopefully with some embankments and/or cuttings as well. This really for more for operational fun - love watching the trains go by!
Lots of new things to work on and explore - first time with DCC for a start, lots of wiring and really trying to produce something with more detail.
This will be from the very beginning - due to time constraints and $$$$ - updates will happen, but not on a daily basis. Here we go!

[Eastern]

Researched and looked at various box base board designs - I've eperimented and have built two boxes so far, the second much sturdier with holes drilled through to carry wiring etc.They are constructed from beech ply 5.2mm and pine 20mm x 90mm(approx) These will eventually be joined up and placed on trestles. Just have to make sure the finished layout actually fits in the basement

The first needs beefing up -


The second is much stronger -





Two areas to work on -my woodworking skills and using the imperial system (USA) but thinking in metric.

[Michael Thornberry]

Hello Charles,
Nice Lay-out and plan. Looking forward to more. Keep-up the good work. I'm missing the Klamath River, Yuba River and the gold-dredging. Take Care,
Kind Regards,
Michael Thornberry.

[Eastern]

Thanks Michael - saw a gold dredger over in Bonanza Idaho.
Quite an amazing sight to see this massive structure in the middle of nowhere. It had made a real mess of the river as well, but apparently this will recover over time.

Anyhow - back to progress or lack therof since I need to buy more wood - I'm still deciding on whether to have 10ft or 12 ft of boards really depending on space - I am also thinking about testles as well. The local "B&Q" type shop has some plasticky ones which may not be high enough. Nothing worse than backache as you work on your layout
Using that favourite phrase - "Will post some pictures soon!"

[Eastern]

I've been busy building open plan modules. Each are 2' x 4' which once joined together will make a rectangle of 12' x 8' once assembled. I have used two coach type bolts with butterfly nuts as well as two dowels to ensure they connect and align together.


With the new plan, I also wanted to have some mobility and decided on trestles rather than permanent legs. I first saw these heavy-duty saw horse brackets; unfortunately, with the lumber involved. made these very cumbersome and extremely heavy - though very sturdy!




and not very practical



Back to the drawing board - or rather to Brian Lambert's excellent website - http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/ where I saw his design for much lighter and simpler trestles - and the end result:




This gives the general idea ofwhat I envision -


What next? well since it was Valentines Day on Sunday, I cooked Roast Turkey


to convince SWMBO that we really needed a Dremel



Being on sale, plus a couple of coupons, it turned out to be $42 or about £26.50p -bargain!

Next to do... Fully dismantle the remmants of old Cheltwell, tidy up and finish construction of another 4 (maybe 6 for stability) trestles and 3 more modules. The final one will test the squareness of the entire layout. Most probably there will have to be some adjustments to compensate. Once completed, I can really concentrate on the final trackplan - how much it will be raised, embankments and cuttings.

[DonB]

Hi Charles,

Your baseboard construction is much the same as mine, and I can vouch for its strength. What are you using as a top?

Nice simple trackplan, with what looks like good operational interest. I shall be following progress!

Don

[Eastern]

What are you using as a top?Don

Thanks Don - I'll be using jig-saw sections of ply following the track plan, perhaps with a cork tile underlay.Scenery will be built up on a 'chicken wire' base and ply formers - really to save on weight. The fiddle yard will most likely be a sheet of ply. I may have to add some extra bracing here and there for ridgity.

[Eastern]

Been sawing and hammering and have finally got the boards from this building site

to some sort semblence of a baseboard. Eventually, the whole caboodle will be pushed back to corner of the room to make more room to work around the layout.


I just have to construct the final module at the bottom left of the picture and the major baseboard work is done. I am certain the entire baseboard isn't 100% square, but pretty close - having a unlevel floor did,'t help. The boards also appear to be pretty sturdy, but lightweight as well. The coach-syle bolts and dowels seem to be working well in keeping everything together. The trestles still need braces so they don't collapse and I am not sure if I need another two to add more ridgity. One part I am looking forward to is taking one to two modules and working on them independently. Even taking them upstairs to the dining room table Hopefully, the design will allow the track radius to be smoother than the Hornby R609s I used previously. This time will be flexitrack which should help with more free-flowing and realistic curves - I hope or I'll have to look at the design a bit. That's it for now!

[Eastern]

I finally completed the open plan bases and found some good webbing to ensure the trestles don't do the splits. They seem quite sturdy now.



I also moved everything over a bit to the corner and got out some of the old sacking/burlap I had to see the effect (and to see if I could reuse it as well)

The final module came together pretty well and this pic gives the general idea now of the space I have to work in. I have dismantled and assembled the 8 modules a couple of times now, and it seems to work well going together, but preserving the structural integrity.


Next up was to order some track - A box of Peco Code75 for £66 - that Christmas money is going fast!

and of course, I couldn't resist laying some out to see how it looks! Having used Hornby set-track, there is a much more realistic profile to Code 75; however, the track feels somewhat more fragile.



I think I will probably have to look at some modification of the original trackplan, but I think I will still be using the original idea.



I also wanted to try and incorporate part of Kinchley Lane(Great Central Railway), but probably not feasible -I love the pictures of the simple sweeping curve with lots of trees!
So next - points, lookig at gradients, deciding (or trying to)on the final trackplan, more adjustments, measurements - then thinking about the DCC bus and and a trip to the local model shop to buy a Digitrax Zephyr!

[Dad-1]

Major construction job there Eastern,
I can just follow this and dream of having that much space .......
Keep the photo's coming.

Geoff T.

[Michael Thornberry]

Hello Charles,
Excellent work and I'm intrigued by the versatility of the Dremel. Hadn't realised that it had a built-in Rotissiary chicken-cooking facility (the chicken and roasties look "almost" good-enough to eat) I'll keep an eye on this Lay-out,
Kind Regards,
Michael Thornberry.

[Eastern]

Slow progress, but here is an update of sorts - nothing spectacular - been having a go with the soldering iron as this will be a major operation in the weeks/months to come. Had a go practicing with droppers on the sides and underneath of the tracks. For pure asthetics, I think underneath looks pretty good and hides the botched job I tried to do on the sides!




Finally getting all the track together, although I still need another box of flextrack. Recieved the single slip today - really am pleased with the appearance of the Peco streamline code 75 electrofrog points. Looks a bu88er to wire up though - still that's why we enjoy the hobby - don't we!
I've also been arranging the track plan which is starting to take more shape and come together.



Next on the list - firm up the track plan and lay the ply base. Once done start the task of droppers and the main bus - have to have a think about which connectors to use as each module of the the layout should separate as an individual entity. Also point motors as well. Unfortunately, I don't have the financial resources to go out and buy everything at once - so it will be spread out over the next couple of months. Do miss running trains though.

[SouthernBoy]

Hello Eastern, just caught up with your thread and it looks like you're off to a good, solid start. Nice work

I like the original plan you're using as inspiration - plenty of cuttings/embankments to lend a full three-dimensional feel to proceedings. Will you be basing the layout around any particular era?

I don't know if it's the same in 00, but with N gauge flexitrack you're supposed to curve it in one direction only (indicated by small arrows on the underside of some sleepers). When laying my track I had some head-scratching as to why it didn't seem happy on some curves, until someone pointed out this fact.

In general though flexitrack is as robust as any other type and definitely allows for lovely flowing curves

[BR125]

Great amount of space you have and a very interesting loking layout,I look forward to further updates.

Regards
Daz

[Michael Thornberry]

Hello Eastern,
Well done on your progress to-date. You are well ahead of me on Lay-out build so I will just "sit-back" and watch you make ALL the mistakes and I will only Copy the correct bits. Does this reasoning seem reasonable with you? The OO gauge portion(out-side area), of my Lay-out, I will be using the same track as you, and on the N gauge(central sections) I will be using Peco 55(flexi-track) and Electro-frog points. Looking forward to watching your Lay-out grow, Eastern, Good Luck, mate,
Kind Regards,
Michael Thornberry.