Planning, Designing and Making Railway Layouts in a Small Space E-Book

Richard Bardsley

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

If you want to build a model railway but feel constricted and frustrated because you only have a very limited amount of space available, then this is the book for you. The author demonstrates that a railway modeller need never be 'stuck for space', and shows the reader how to design and construct a rewarding layout in even the smallest of spaces. He emphasizes that once you have found a home for your layout, be it in a garden shed, a spare room, a bookcase or even the top of an ironing board, the same guiding principles apply. These are all fully explained in a very practical way and include the basic layout shapes, the importance of scale, standard and narrow gauges, fiddle yards, train length, curves and turnouts as well as track design elements such as head shunts, kickback sidings and run-round loops. There are individual chapters on: potential spaces; design principles; basic layout shapes; the art of compromise; levels, layers and shelves; planning your layout; baseboards; classic designs and micro-layouts. This fascinating book shows the reader that no matter how small the space, there is always a model railway layout that can be built in it. Aimed at all railway modellers of all levels of ability. Covers how to design, plan and construct a rewarding layout in the smallest of spaces i.e. garden shed, bookcase and even a micro-layout in a box file. Superbly illustrated with 131 colour photographs. Richard Bardsley is an experienced small-layout builder in N gauge and 00 gauge and exhibits widely at numerous shows.

Leseprobe

PLANNING, DESIGNING AND MAKING RAILWAY LAYOUTS IN SMALL SPACES

Richard Bardsley

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2012 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book edition first published in 2012

© Richard Bardsley 2012

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

ISBN 978 1 84797 494 5

Acknowledgements

Writing a book such as this is more fun than hard work but you can’t do it without the help of family and friends. I’d like to thank: my wife Sharon Bardsley for encouragement; my father Stuart Bardsley for proofing; Colin Whalley for letting me play in OO gauge rather than my usual N gauge; everyone at Railway Modeller magazine and in particular Steve Flint for allowing me to use their top quality photographs; everyone at the Warrington Model Railway Club and in particular Chris Tungate for letting me photograph their layouts; Bob Rowlands, Peter Johnson, Steve Farmer, Trevor Webster and Kevin Player for letting me photograph their layouts; Alex Crawford for photographing his layout for me.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: POTENTIAL SPACES

CHAPTER TWO: DESIGN PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER THREE: BASIC LAYOUT SHAPES

CHAPTER FOUR: THE ART OF COMPROMISE

CHAPTER FIVE: LEVELS, LAYERS AND SHELVES

CHAPTER SIX: PLANNING YOUR LAYOUT

CHAPTER SEVEN: BASEBOARDS

CHAPTER EIGHT: CLASSIC DESIGNS

CHAPTER NINE: MICRO-LAYOUT

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

Is space the final frontier for the railway modeller? Certainly not! The space available for your model railway is just one of many parameters that define your layout design. This book will show you how to design and plan the rewarding layout that you want, no matter how tightly defined that space parameter might be.

Real railways are big things. Just take a look at a modern railway and see how much room even a country station occupies. Most railways were built when land was cheap and plentiful. There are real examples of restricted railway sites, although they are mostly located in urban environments. Therefore, even modellers with a large loft or basement face compromises over the space available and this will determine their chosen prototype, train lengths and the amount of scenery. Unless you have a lottery win and move to an aircraft hangar, you will always have to make some concessions on space. But having less space than an aircraft hangar is not a problem – it is an opportunity. There is as much reward to be had in the challenge of working within the space available.

It only requires a surprisingly small amount of space to build a realistic and interesting model railway.

Real railways need big spaces. This five-car Voyager set looks lost at Winwick Junction near Warrington as it progresses from four lines to three amidst the infrastructure of overhead wires and masts. Surrounding fields and a genuinely cloudless sky contribute to a feeling of spaciousness.

You may have to find a little more ingenuity to get the maximum out of the space you have, yet the extra challenge makes it all the more fun.

Most of us have to share our living space with other people and other things and these can reduce a promising-sized space into a smaller one. This is not an insurmountable obstacle; you just have to design into the space and work around it, or even complement everything that surrounds you. Consider a layout that can be ‘hidden’ in a bookcase, or be the focal point of a room inside a coffee table, or live on a shelf above the furniture of a guest room. You may be able to find space outside the house by using a garden shed or a garage. If all else fails, you can make a layout that is portable – a small layout can be supported on readily available furniture, such as a dining table or kitchen table, or even, believe it or not, an ironing board.

Designing a layout in a small space is still a relevant discipline for modellers with plenty of space, or those who already have a larger layout. It is especially useful if you are a newcomer to the rewarding hobby of model railways. These modellers may want to build a smaller layout for a number of reasons. Firstly, its relative simplicity means that you will not be overwhelmed by taking on a project that is too big, which may have the worst possible outcome, that you become disheartened and lose interest. A ‘quick’ layout will bring quick results. Secondly, in the unlikely event that one aspect does not quite go according to plan, you will not have wasted too much money, time and effort. In such a case, you can consider scrapping the layout and starting again in the sure knowledge that the next one will be better, as you will have learnt so much from the first one.

If you believe that you have not got room for a model railway, then think again. Do not think of space as an obstacle – it’s only a boundary. You will only ever be limited by the boundaries of ingenuity and imagination, never by space. The aim of this book is to show that you can achieve more with less space. It contains design theory and practical advice, but the main themes are ideas and inspiration. So no matter what area is available to you, there is always a way to design, plan and then make a model railway that you will find challenging, satisfying and, above all, fun.

CHAPTER ONE

POTENTIAL SPACES

No matter how much time you spend thinking about your dream layout, the first practical task of turning that dream into reality is to find a place in which to put it. Planning a model railway involves lots of decisions. What prototype trains will you model? What scale will you choose? Is the scenery going to be urban or rural? You can think about these questions; in fact, you need to think about them because you need to have a clear direction before you set off on construction. Yet the one thing that will literally define the boundaries of your project is the space that it will occupy.

Many houses have a spare room, yet even if you cannot have exclusive rights to all of the room, there are lots of ways to allow your layout to share the space. There are many ways to integrate a layout into the space in a room by using furniture or shelves. Alternatively, you may have more room outside the house than inside – check out the garage or a garden shed. If none of these avenues is possible for a permanent site, there will still be somewhere in the house that can offer a temporary home for your layout, even if you have to make it portable to pack away at the end of the day.

The bigger the space available, the more opportunity there will be for developing your model railway. Yet for many reasons, and in reality for most of us, a large space is not available. Fear not, for there is always somewhere that you can put a model railway layout. If your only previous experience of a model railway was the train set of your youth that was nailed to a piece of chipboard in the corner of your bedroom, be assured that ideas and thinking have come a long way indeed.