Portable Layout – Hatley St George

[Renoir]

Well, here goes...encouraged by what I have seen on this Forum and by many of its supportive contributors, I thought I’d share the progression of my layout, now named Hatley St George.

I wanted to create a layout trying to capture “the spirit of TT” as shown in some of those TT publicity images (father with children “playing trains”, etc..). In this vein, the layout needed to be small and portable, and, dare I say it, not too exacting. A post by Markus on this forum prompted my thinking and I hope that the photographs tell the story.

The layout comprises of two 1550 x 500mm boards that transport as a box, and fit into my car (just about !). The rear board acts as a fiddle area and the front board will be sceniked (not my strong point, I'm afraid). The layout is wired for DC operation at present. As an experiment, I have used Plastazote dense foam as a track underlay with both the foam and track fixed with Copydex. I have also used MP1 point motors for the first time. So far, so good.

I’ll post some photographs and hope that these may be of interest.

[South Coast Flyer]

Looking forward to pictures thumbsup

[Renoir]

In early April a colleague in the railway club kindly built and delivered the two boards

[Rallymatt]

There is only one person to please, that’s you. Try any things you want and share, I

think they will be just fine

[Renoir]

Great encouragement already ! Much appreciated, and this is why I like this forum.

Track laying and wiring progressed, and layout tested at a running meet...I work slowly and have great admiration for the colleagues on this forum who seem to produce more timely results grinning

[Renoir]

Finished the control panel and all works fine blush

Now onto the scenery...

[Moccasin]

Believe me you’ve made far more progress than some…

[Skelton Junction]

That’s confirmed the decision not to post pictures of my wiring.

[taunmarc88]

Blimey, you have done well! I’m still at the ‘what size loop?’ stage so you’re off to a great start. Please do keep posting it really helps those of us who haven’t started properly yet and it looks really promising.

[Renoir]

Talking of wiring, I make use of a lot of these Wago connectors in my wiring schemes...quick and easy to use.

[GMD]

That’s confirmed the decision not to post pictures of my wiring.

 

 

😂😂👍 me too!

[Steve-353799]

Finished the control panel and all works fine blush

Now onto the scenery...

 

 

Well Renoir you certainly seem to be talented. Amazing! Well done!

[Renoir]

Thank you S3 ☺️ To be honest I don't consider myself anything but an average modeller and am encouraged by all the comments on this forum.

The control panel lining is from Halfords and I think it smartens up the overall presentation of the panel. I won't show the rear of it as my soldering is rudimentary 😊

The scenery is my biggest challenge to date...I'm thinking of flying down @Rallymatt and @DaveTheBusker to help out 😄

[Rallymatt]

I’ll put the kettle on!

Scenery isn’t such a tough job, layers, take your time. I really recommend watching some of the tutorials by Marklin of Sweden and Kathy Millett, and do some test pieces. WW Scenics make really good stuff, scenic cement really is better than PVA, a good vacuum cleaner and most of all, look at nature and see what it does

[Renoir]

Thanks RM, sound advice, and I will look at the tutorials you mention. I think I just need to pluck up courage and get going 😊

I will keep the forum posted on progress 😀

[Rallymatt]

Looking forward to it, some great work coming out with TT:120 😁

[Renoir]

I have started the scenery but anything for a distractionlaughing The totems arrived today so have fitted one to the front of the layout.

[moawkwrd]

That looks great! Where did you get it from?

[Renoir]

The totem is from

tracksidesigns.co.uk

They do the BR region colours; the totem is printed on adhesive backed vinyl. Very prompt service and £6 for two 6" totems.

[moawkwrd]

The totem is from

tracksidesigns.co.uk

They do the BR region colours; the totem is printed on adhesive backed vinyl. Very prompt service and £6 for two 6" totems.

 

 

Perfect, thanks!

[Renoir]

I have started the scenery on the layout (finally) and am quite enjoying the experience, using WS Plaster Cloth for the first time; I was surprised at how straight forward a process it was in the end despite my reservations. The buildings and bridge elements are from InTheGreenwoodLaser and I can recommend these. Still much work to do 😊

The layout had its first public outing on Saturday at the Club's modest quarterly show. Please to report that there was a reasonable amount of interest in TT:120 and I met one university student who had started a layout in the scale. One or two comments elsewhere about Hornby but I chose to dodge these.

Anyway, here's a photo from the day showing some layout progress...onwards and upwards 😊

[Markus1707823000]

Looking good!!!

[John-L]

It’s making nice progress. Five coach trains are a decent length for such a small space. Definitely showcasing the advantage of the scale. Great work.

[Rallymatt]

Steve, great to see a TT:120 layout at a show and well done for flying the flag. Looking forward to your next instalment 😁

[Renoir]

I took the layout out today for its first real public outing at the Poole & District MRS exhibition. Despite being incomplete I'm pleased to report that it was well received with a lot of interest in TT:120. Quite a few people said that they'd read about TT:120 but had never seen it "in the flesh". A lot of compliments about the Hornby product; I must have waxed lyrical as one chap asked if I worked for Hornby sweat_smile. Anyway, my thanks to members of the Forum who have offered encouragement. This is the first time I have ever done any serious scenery work, and this is the first time I have taken a layout to an exhibition. I think TT:120 continues to interest and the arrival of the diesel locomotives next year should provide additional impetus to take up the scale.