Fotherham :: Fotopic.Net

Fotherham

27th October 2008

Another picture of "Llew" in the loco service siding.	"Llew" again, now about to receive water in the service siding.	This is a view of the fiddle-yard situated behind the coal yard.	"Llew" again shunting the goods siding.
Modified Decauville No. 14 "Llew" hauling two Eggerbahn coaches.	Loco No.4 and goods train ready to leave the goods siding. The old buildings of Fotherham can be seen in the background.	Sharp Stewart tram engine "Linette" and coach No12 seen in the loop.	Sharp Stewart "Linette" waiting to leave.
"Llew" at the station with passenger train.	Converted Egger Western coaches make nice little railcars. This is railcar and trailer twin "Loyalty".	No.4 shunting coal wagon under the viaduct.	No.4 shunting the coal wagon into its small stub siding.
A picture from the extreme left of the layout with the coal yard gates and office. It is only 120mm deep here.	Up the other end of the Fotherham station, there is a bit of action in the coal-yard.	"Llew" waits to leave, while outside ths station a youg lady is chatting to a motor-cyclist. The station cat looks bored!	Decauville loco "Llew" has run round its coaches and gets ready to leave with the next train.
"Lloyd" shunts the goods siding with a couple of open wagons.	Small 0-4-0 Hunslet "Lloyd" emerges from beneath the viaduct to enter Fotherham station.	A set of coal scales made for the Fotherham coal yard.	The bare baseboards for the as yet un-named "Fotherham". Each board was 25 inches by 7.5 inches (635 x 195mm) and they were joined end to end.
A view of the baseboards after the track had been laid with the viaduct in place.	0-6-0 tank "Lynton" shunting a van on the part-built layout.	A train emerges from the fiddle-yard from under the viaduct, (scenics still to be completed).	A wider view of the station end of the layout, much scenic work still to be done.

This layout was inspired by the “Starter Layout” called “Hylton (Town)” shown in the Micro Layout Design Gallery on Carl’s Arendt’s website. It was mainly because I had been given a couple of baseboards by a dear (now deceased) friend, each was 640mm x 195mm (just 71/2” x 25” approx) and they had back and end scene boards attached. The starter layout plan seemed to fit these boards (with a little bit of adaption!). I liked the “complete” nature of the plan depicting the whole station area, the curved platform and goods siding especially appealed to me.
On the Starter Layout plan it had a parade of shops on the over-bridge and was quite wide, hiding some of the scenic area, and the fiddle yard was just a single track. I wanted a bit more versatility in the fiddle-yard and more of the scenic part of the layout visible, this I did by slimming down the over-bridge. I also added a short coal siding at the head shunt end of the layout where I modelled a small coal yard.
The back scene on the left-hand board was moved forward 70mm to allow for the fiddle-yard tracks, and after several checks with various train lengths both in the fiddle-yard and at the platform road, also allowing for the turnouts, a small piece of board was made for the fiddle-yard “scenic break” at about 470mm away from the end. All this planning with train lengths is vital on a small layout like this, otherwise the trains will simply not fit the sidings, and embarrassing problems will appear later when it is operated. The fiddle yard contains two sidings and a kick back siding to store the trains.
All the internal corners of the back scenes boards were then rounded off with plastic card and filler so no corner joints are visible in the back scene. My wife painted the sky and I added various pictures of buildings cut out of old calendars to give the impression of the village lying close by. Where the fiddle yard joined the scenic section, part of an N gauge Kibri Viaduct was used across the layout to disguise the entrance to the fiddle-yard. Adjoining this is a small rock face modelled to give the viaduct a "geological" reason for being where it is - a high bridge spanning a valley. All the buildings, the viaduct and most of the track and even the walls have been re-used from previous layouts so this little layout hardly cost me anything.
The scenic part of the layout in the coal yard is only 120mm deep (about 5”) due to the fiddle yard behind this area. I had to slim down several things in this area to fit things in, ie: the coal office is only half of a Ratio Weighbridge hut. The coal scales were scratch built out of plastic rod and sections from the bits box.

There are four electrical sections on the scenic section and the turnouts are operated by wire-in-tube beneath the baseboard. I used “Brush-it-On” for the ballasting on this layout. It dries a bit thin and it requires quite a lot of work cleaning up the rails afterwards. Perhaps with a little more skill the second time around I could get it to perform and look better.
Langley and Dapol figures, Skaledale Lamps and a couple of “Classix” vehicles finish off the layout.

Fotherham station lies at the end of a four mile branch line from the town of “Whitemoor” and is used for general goods, coal and passengers. Its future is constantly under review, but it has survived with public support right into the 1950’s, with a little help from a local dignitary called Lord Lennor.
The timetable for trains is a bit hit-and-miss, mainly due to its operator not having the time to sit down and run the layout for any length of time!

Basically, this little layout will be used at home to run anything on it, and as I now have many old loco kits and even Egger items that never get a run these days I’ll have a bit of fun with these when the mood suits me. As I had most of the buildings and scenery to hand I have enjoyed devising and building it very much.