British Railway Modelling (BRM)
WISTERIA COLLOP (OO9)
When owning a model shop, Dave Simpson’s route to familiarity of an increasingly popular scale was a layout build, soon to become an addiction.
When owning a model shop, Dave Simpson's route to familiarity of an increasingly popular scale was a layout build, soon to become an addiction.
Wisteria Collop' fits into my fictitious South West county of Somershire, my home shed layout, 1970s era but with lots of leeway. Somershire is situated in a 22ft x 10ft shed and the current version was started in August 2008. Initially, it was planned to be OO gauge, but OO9 scale came a bit later in the project.
At the time, I owned a model shop, Gas Cupboard Models, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and I could see the new announcements coming for OO9 scale products, initially from Peco, then Bachmann. As a shop owner with virtually no experience of narrow gauge railways, I decided that I ought to expand my knowledge. I attended the Small and Delightful Narrow Gauge show at Shepton Mallet in 2009 and was instantly hooked, though I still don’t know exactly why. Perhaps it was the lack of snobbery that I feel some shows still have, or a mixture of prototypes, fabulous imagination and just a little sprinkle of magic, or maybe all the benefits of N gauge without the small buildings and scenics of the 2mm:1ft scale hobby, with acceptably tight curves in 4mm:1ft scale? A long chat with show organiser, Howard Martin, and damn fine cakes, all combined to make a fantastic day. Walking around the show that day, I had already planned the route of the new narrow-gauge line through Somershire, and Howard had promoted the idea of an OO9 scale exhibition layout, too.
The home OO9 scale project grew quicker than the exhibition layout idea, which was put on hold. I wanted to work with the new gauge at home first, to get used to it and how it fitted within its surroundings and of course, most mistakes could be made behind closed doors. Once I knew what I was doing, 'Wisteria Collop' was born.
The concept
Owning the model shop, I decided to build something in OO9 scale that could:
1. Promote and make the best use of the products available on my shop shelves.
2. Be used as a small display/example layout in the shop.
3. Be operated by one person if needed or could be left to run unsupervised in the shop.
4. Be easily transported if invited to shows.
I like anagrams and acronyms so I wanted an anagram for a layout name. Its working title was ‘Pasteboard Chug’ an anagram of ‘The Gas Cupboard’, but that didn’t feel right. I eventually settled on a different anagram for the layout name. ‘Wisteria Collop’, which is an anagram of…? See if you can work it out before the end of the article. A clue: three model railway manufacturing companies.
I’m a terrible hoarder; I don’t like getting rid of stuff that may be useful one day in the distant future. On this occasion, it worked in my favour. A baseboard that I had acquired a few years previously and had been moved from shop to home, and back to shop again, was the perfect length and build, but it wasn’t quite wide enough for what I needed. A quick chat to my old school friend, 2mmFS modeller and woodworker, Jerry Clifford, and a small width extension, also built with leftovers at the shop, was attached. The other amendment to the board was to lighten it by cutting away as much of the chipboard surface as I could get away with. None of the trackbed is on the original board level; it is all raised above on polystyrene risers and balsa wood supports.
The trackplan became a single-track oval with a two-platform through station and small goods siding with goods shed/store.
Behind the backscene, a simple four-loop fiddle yard with a siding/test area was arranged. A road goes under the railway at one end and over the railway at the other. Three pairs of cottages make up the back of the scenic part of the layout. Memorial, Twerton and Eastville Cottages are from another hobby, football. They are the names of three of the home grounds of Bristol Rovers. A station waiting room/ticket office and goods shed/store completes the line-up.
Trackwork
On the viewing side is Peco OO9 (ST-400) flexi track. Points are Peco (SL-E491) right hand small, (SL-E492) left hand small and (SL-E497) 'Y'. All three are electricallyoperated by Peco (PL-10E) motors and (PL-15) polarity switches. The track was laid on Woodland Scenics (WST1475) N gauge trackbed roll. Fiddle yard track is Peco N gauge, including manually-operated N gauge 'Setrack' points.
Ballast is a mixture of Woodland Scenics Medium with a bit of Fine, five parts grey, one part brown, one part black. I hate the job of ballasting. Luckily, I had a willing volunteer in my shop, Rachael Field, who happily spent her time painting the rails and sleepers with Railmatch (2406) Sleeper Grime acrylic and then ballasting the front of the layout for me. The roadway was finished in Greenscenes' textured Paint, a mixture of thinned, light and dark tarmac mix.
Next steps
After the main board was complete, the first part I worked on was a small board, which would contain all the track for the station area and the goods siding. I worked on the trackwork first and then fitted the point motors. Once I was happy that it was
functioning as expected, I attached the track board to the main board, raised and resting on a few balsa wood blocks. I then ran Woodland Scenics Polystyrene Incline Sections in a downward direction from both sides of the station including a cut-out where the rail over road bridge would be sited.
The next job was to create the landscape. I remembered from numerous advice sessions we ran at the shop hosted by some very highly-respected modellers that the landscape came first, and the railway was built into it. With this in mind, I laid large A1 cardboard sheets to create the roadway and the flat areas for buildings/station. I adjusted the levels of the flat areas with the addition or subtraction of blocks of balsa wood for the various heights. Once those areas were decided on, they were glued to the balsa wood underneath. The roadway then naturally flowed up and down. I painted it with poster paint first, then topped it with Greenscenes' textured paint – the same mix of thinned light and dark tarmac colours, then matt varnished the lot to seal and protect.
Using Woodland Scenics (WC1178) Shaper Sheet, I then created the grass areas. This was the first time I used this product as it had just been released in the UK, so I decided to use it to do some product testing for the shop. It certainly wasn’t as straight
forward as the YouTube instructional video suggested, however with perseverance, a decent rendering of your vision can be achieved.
I have since used the product on other projects and I’d be happy to use it again. It’s basically a thick sheet of silver pliable foil with a cloth covering on one side. You mould the product into the desired shape with the silver side down and then paint over the fluffy side with a thin plaster mix. Again, Woodland Scenics provides a product especially for this (WC1180) but I have used a thinned generic plaster-of-Paris mix on some projects that have worked out fine on non-mobile layouts. I would definitely use the product again in the future.
Architecture
The two station buildings are a mash-up of three Wills kits; Wills (SS60) Station Country Halt Building, (SS63) Goods Yard Store and (SS67) Wayside Station Ticket Office. They combined to create a station waiting room/ticket office and a goods shed/ sales office.
I’m a big fan of Hornby and Bachmann resin building models, so decided to use a few examples here. Memorial Cottages are Bachmann Scenecraft (44-0021) Rural Workers' Cottages that have been weathered and enhanced. Twerton & Eastville Cottages are Hornby Skaledale (R8972) Miners' Cottages, all weathered and enhanced.
The left-hand bridge is a Modelscene (5045) Single Tunnel Mouth and the righthand bridge is a Peco N gauge (NB33) Single Road Bridge Sides.
Finishing touches
Trees are a mixture of Woodland Scenics, JTT and scratch-built. The purple wisteria tree – yes, there are trees, not all are bushes – was built and finished by Rachael, too.
The plastic tree trunks and branches of the WS & JTT trees were painted with matt grey paint and ‘moss’ thrown at it while still wet. Some of the WS trees had extra foliage added. I also used Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage Packs of various greens to create trees and bushes on the backscene and around the station area.
The static grass is from Greenscenes in summer and spring colours, with small and medium sizes mixed together, applied with a homemade static grass applicator and Noch/ Gaugemaster Puffer Bottle. I have since used the Peco, Greenscenes and Noch static grass applicators – I can highly recommend the first two.
Figures are all by Dart Castings/Monty's Models, painted with various acrylic paints and washes by Humbrol, Railmatch and Games Workshop. The animals and wildlife are from Noch, Prieser and Springside, and the road vehicles are all Oxford Diecast, weathered and enhanced.
Final thoughts
Future plans are to finish the home shed layout, which will be a dock scene with standard/narrow gauge interchange. I also have two built-up Tim Horn layout boxes that are awaiting inspiration and space to work.