O Gauge Layout Progress Kimington Quay

Last weekend I managed to set up the model railway in the lounge and make a start on a number of tasks on the layout. By far the biggest one was replacing a section of track, which was the curve into the platform area. I originally laid this area using flexitrack and the curve transition was far too tight, causing all sorts of horrible buffer locking. So on the Friday evening, armed with a trusty penknife I proceeded to cut and then rip out the ballasted section of track and replace it with a new piece of curved Peco settrack. Progress to remove the track was quite quick. The following morning I glued down the new section of track and wired it up to the power bus. Fortunately it all worked fine and it has made a big difference to the running of the layout. The track now needs repainting and ballasting, with the small crossing needing to be re-instated.

The original track layout heading into the platform.

And 24 hours later the replaced track! A relief to have finally got around to replacing this section of track.

The second task at the weekend was to glue down the recently finished low relief warehouse building to the backscene in the area of the diary. This was a relatively painless task and has started to give a sense of the developing backscene in this area. I now need to finish a second low relief warehouse, which is partly done and then add in a series of smaller buildings in the area behind the platform.

The low relief warehouse provides some good perspective for the track at the front of the layout.

Now this building is glued in, I have a second warehouse to add to the backscene, once I get the rooftiles added....

The area around the Quaymasters cottage was looking a little barren so I added in a small concrete wall with a gate, to separate the quay front and cottage from the railway. I had finished these pieces of walling some time ago, so it was great to finally see them added to the layout. With the zoomed in photographs, the print lines on the wall are visible, so some clutter will be added to around this wall in due course.

The small fence in the area of the Quaymasters cottage.

Another area of the layout that saw a little progress was the platform. I finally got around to gluing down the Platform shelter and adding in the platform name. The layout is now known as Kimmington Quay! I need to add some weeds and grass, to provide that sense of railway decay that was visible across the rural rail network in the 1970s.

The station nameboard is now glued in place, alongside the platform shelter.

The DMU ready for the return trip to Torrington, via Barnstaple junction. The impact of the low relief buildings is clear in this photograph, behind the DMU.

Whilst I had the layout set up, I placed a couple of figures around the layout to see how things would look. More painting is required to finish these figures but a few of the layout characters are nearly done and ready to be glued in place.

This is Reg Brown, he is the Quay Master at Kimington Quay. Reg loves the railways and the good old days. He considers himself a naval expert, having served in WWII on board an armed trawler. He was not a fan of the Beeching cuts but is relieved to find the branch line still operating in the 1970s.

This is Derek White. He works as a supervisor at the diary and oversees the loading of the milk tankers. He takes his job very seriously, with his arms constantly folded...

Finally it was really great just to be able to run some trains. Below are a sample of shots from running the layout over the weekend. I was really pleased with how the layout was running and it was great to finally have the DMU running into the station.

Class 03 shunting some freight wagons, ready for a return working to Exeter.

The Quay master Reg has just purchased a fancy new Datsun, which is proudly parked close to his cottage.

The DMU heading further down the line from Kimington Quay towards Ilfracombe.

I quite like this shot of the DMU in the station, it has a definite air of rural Devon!

My aim is to now the finish the layout by April next year, in order to be able to take the layout to some exhibitions. In reality there is are a set of low relief buildings to add, the quay front water colour to sort out, some hedges and trees to make and then a lot of small details to add. I am going to try to make a lot of the low relief buildings by Xmas this year, leaving the early part of next year for a big push in layout detailing....lets see how that pans out. Anyhow, it was all good fun having the layout set up, I just need a little more time in life to get it all finished....