The Development of Churnbury

It was the usual scenario.  Fed up with work I took early retirement and vowed to make my dream layout.  A house and area move together with a complete house refurbishment we fast forward 3 years – so much for early retirement!  In amongst this I upgraded the single garage to form my railway room.  I fitted a UPVC screen with door and windows instead of the garage door, insulated the roof, installed daylight quality lighting, more electric sockets and the block walls and ceiling were decorated.  I installed a radiator when the house heating was replaced and I was lucky enough to acquire numerous kitchen cupboards from a neighbour who was having a new kitchen fitted and she even gave me all the clip flooring.  It is really nice even if I do say so myself.  So back to my dream layout…….

My layout will eventually fill the railway room and I always intended to have a junction station with branch line.  However, no matter what design I came up with the branch line seemed to over power the layout with the junction, inclines, embankments and then a comparatively massive tunnel to sit the branch line station on.  Further to this I dreamed of a lazy line with a halt and a train winding its way along an actual branch line not a stubby unrealistic connection between stations!  The branch line station was to be removable and become an exhibition layout but even that felt overly complex.  I really felt the branch line was taking over!

During this period I helped out with a number of small layouts at exhibitions.  They were basically small branch line stations similar in concept to what I had envisaged for my layout albeit to different scales.  Don't get me wrong, as I loved all the layouts I helped with, but spending 2 full days shunting in a simple yard or running stunted operations into the station meant by the end of the exhibition I was more than happy to see the back of the layout (until the next exhibition that is).

I also helped with a large 32ft long N Gauge layout which allowed full length trains to show themselves off at their best.  Although it was hard work setting it up and taking it down it was much more relaxing to operate and this environment was really why I model in N Gauge - long trains with some good length of running line.

All this got me thinking that the branch line and junction was just getting in the way of what I really wanted.  If I spent weekends operating the branch at exhibitions it seems I would be more than happy to put it in storage until the next time.  So over night the branch separated from my home layout.  I still have a junction on the home layout but it now serves the fiddle yard.  I now also have continuous visible running with no tunnels.  I still wanted to have an exhibition layout as I got the bug for it but my home layout will be firmly planted at home.

The large exhibition layout I mentioned above requires a lot of work to assemble and disassemble, it is not easy to get helpers for and it also did not attend one day shows.  I wanted to exhibit locally with occasional trips farther afield, at a push on my own, and able to exhibit at one day shows so this really meant something small.

I had lots of part built buildings and other bits and pieces I had collected over the years and this small layout would become a 'scrap box challenge'.  I also intended making my own track on the main layout and try other things like static grass so this layout could become an experimental environment.

I developed some criteria for the layout:

• Fit the back of my car with the front passenger seat unoccupied and at a stretch the rear smaller section of the split back seat as well in case I wanted to take 2 people with me to shows.
• I must be able to easily store it
• Protection from rain when loading and unloading and to avoid atmospheric degradation.  I have helped with too many layouts that have swollen, warped, grown mold and/or taken on a moldy smell via the way they have been stored or by getting damp when loading and unloading in rain.
• I will not buy anything for the layout that is not available in my stash, adaptable from my stash or cannot be hand made.  I will attempt to raise everything to a higher level to show what can be done with proprietary items.
• Everything designed for quick setting up and dismantling.

I thought the car was going to be the deciding factor for size but it wasn't as storage in the Railway Room was much more restricted.  I considered the protection of the layout and could only come up with some kind of plastic box.  I checked the 'Really Useful Box' internet site for ideas and came across the Christmas Tree storage box.  One design had a raised lid that gave more height and after careful measurement it appeared to fit on my shelves.  Funny how things work out as only a week after this choice I found them half price in 'Dunhelm' houseware store (other stores are available) so I bit the bullet and bought one.  If it didn't work I could always use it for what it was intended.

I carefully measured the internal dimensions taking into account all the molded lumps and bumps.  I had to re-measure several times before I got an understanding of the maximum dimensions I could use.  I did however, during a eureka moment, use some of the space formed between molded ridges for bolt heads etc. to get the most out of the space and in some instances make the design work.  I now had my maximum dimensions of 1120mm long x 220mm wide x 330mm high.  So I could have 2 boards making a total area 2240 x 330mm but later you will see how this was adapted.

I always use an actual station as a basis for my layouts but won't slavishly reproduce them.  The aim is to use a realistic layout and land form which I find lacking in some freelance layouts.  This way I have the best of both worlds taking from the real world but having the freedom to build what I like.  I will base buildings and their arrangement on real situations but if buildings/arrangements are not suitable as they maybe too big or require skills beyond what I have to produce or even just be inconvenient because I already have a kit in my stash I will look for other examples.  This is probably better explained when I discuss the buildings etc. in a later article.  

Previously I had tried to keep the station layout compressed in order to fit it into my home layout but now it could expand to fit twice the length of of the storage box.  I disliked the stunted layouts I produced that gave a simple short station layout with the running line poking out of it.  After some long, entertaining, research I focused on Tetbury which had the station extending alongside the running line.  It is a station I am familiar with being brought up in Cirencester, visiting the town frequently and in effect the station being the opposite twin to Cirencester as they both connected at Kemble.  I had the book 'Great Western Branch Termini by Paul Karau' and bought the book 'The Tetbury Branch by Stephen Randolph' so was armed with a lot of information on the station.  I then did an internet search and found numerous references, photographs and plans.

I carefully drew up the plan on Templot (track design software) and found I only needed to reduce it's length by 1/4 to fit the box and at this time I was prepared for the fiddle yard to be a separate item.  I set to and reduced tracks by 1/4 in length and apart from some lengths which had to remain a certain length to practically work I was pleased with the result.  The engine shed siding, end loading bay and station head shunt had to be carefully measured to fit  the longest engine, minimum number of wagons etc. and in some instance were more than 3/4 in length but it did not seem to alter the effect of the layout.  The platform head shunt was not long enough to store stationary wagons, which was a big feature of the Tetbury Layout, so I added a siding parallel with this in order to add interest and operating variety.

I originally envisage 2 oblong boards connected end on end but I found the S curve of Tetbury lost all of it's character when 'flattened out' to fit the boards.  A friend then suggested I angle the ends of the boards to create a shallow V and this helped but still it did not work visually for me.  I design all my modelling work on CAD, having used it for work, and it is fairly easy to try some scenarios.  I started by overlaying the minimum board dimensions over the layout and then realised if I cranked each board and still angled the ends I could retain the S shape.  I did loose some of the S shape in compromising but I liked what I could achieve.  There were pinch points around the Goods Shed and the Engine shed but with CAD I moved the layout around on the boards until I had the ideal arrangement.

I actually reduced the board area by doing this and try as I might the running line exited the layout in the corner.