Charobyn Model Railway

[Rob]

Very impressive- looks well worth the hard work

[David Holman]

Some impressive carpentry there!

[DJ Dangerous]

Where does the sofa for spectators go?

[Flying Snail]

NIce job - very impressive!!!

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Mighty work lad, it's looking very professional 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Gabhal Luimnigh
Hopeless spelling

[Adrian]

Thanks all

On 23/10/2023 at 9:04 AM, DJ Dangerous said:

Where does the sofa for spectators go?

Yeah...I'm afraid they'll have to stand It'll just be me 99.99% of the time so built with that in mind - the internet is my sofa

[DJ Dangerous]

Just saw the latest advert for Heineken Blue. Well worth a watch:

 

 

[DJ Dangerous]

Spotted another of @Adrian's updates on YouTube!

Enjoy:

 

 

And, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe, and smash that Bell icon to be notified about all future updates!

[LNERW1]

How does this not have more people interacting? This is shaping up to be a brilliant layout.

[DJ Dangerous]

23 minutes ago, LNERW1 said:

How does this not have more people interacting? This is shaping up to be a brilliant layout.

 

384 views, 29 likes and 424 subscribers, I'd say it's getting a fair amount of attention, relatively speaking.

[LNERW1]

Ah, fair. I was looking at purely the number of posts in the topic. Either way, this is a brilliant project everyone deserves to see.

Edited July 28 by LNERW1

[DJ Dangerous]

7 minutes ago, LNERW1 said:

Ah, fair. I was looking at purely the number of posts in the topic. Either way, this is a brilliant project everyone deserves to see.

Defo. That's why I try to share his videos with friends, and on here.

[Adrian]

Thank you very much for posting the videos @DJ Dangerous and for all the kind words folks! My apologies for not updating the thread, I can't believe it's almost a year since I posted, shame on me! There's a big update coming with lots of pics (even more in depth than the videos). I sometimes get lost in the modelling and forget to post updates, which is probably a good thing  Chat soon
 

[John-r]

 

1 hour ago, Adrian said:

Thank you very much for posting the videos @DJ Dangerous and for all the kind words folks! My apologies for not updating the thread, I can't believe it's almost a year since I posted, shame on me! There's a big update coming with lots of pics (even more in depth than the videos). I sometimes get lost in the modelling and forget to post updates, which is probably a good thing  Chat soon
 

Really Looking forward to this update.

[DJ Dangerous]

5 hours ago, Adrian said:

Thank you very much for posting the videos @DJ Dangerous and for all the kind words folks! My apologies for not updating the thread, I can't believe it's almost a year since I posted, shame on me! There's a big update coming with lots of pics (even more in depth than the videos). I sometimes get lost in the modelling and forget to post updates, which is probably a good thing  Chat soon
 

 

The layout deserves all of the praise, and more!

Two video updates on YT here:

https://m.youtube.com/@riverbankrailways/videos

[Adrian]

Hello all! Thank you for all the kind comments above and I'm delighted to share the progress from the last year. As you can see, the videos are posted above but I'll be able to show more detail in some of the photos below. Hope you enjoy!

1. Baseboards

With the frame built, it was time to start adding baseboards. Although I had bought MDF for this and the cabin is insulated, I decided to go with 9mm plywood to reduce the risk of warping due to moisture absorption. With my trusty jigsaw and circular saw in hand I was off!

 

The layout will be open plan, meaning once the track is laid, I will cut the baseboards around the track, instead of covering the entire frame. I'm doing it this was for 2 reasons: 

1. It will make it easier to vary the height of the scenery both above and below the track level

2. There are multiple levels, with large sections of the lower level covered, so I need to be able to access the underside of upper levels for wiring, point motors and accessing derailed locos etc.

 

This quick mock up shows where the main terminus station will sit over the fiddle yard. At this point I'm just mocking up the boards to get a rough idea of how it will all fit together.

 

Thirsty work this, you can also see my sunglasses which were my "safety glasses". After seeing some YouTube videos with broken circular saw blades embedded in proper, toughened construction safety glasses about half an inch from eyes, I quickly replaced these with a proper pair of DeWalt safety goggles...

 

2. Mockups

With the baseboards in place, I wanted to loosely place the track to get a sense of where it will go and confirm that I had enough track. And also to mock up the upper levels to make sure everything would flow correctly. Technically it didn't need to be done, but I really wanted to get some idea of the final picture in my head as inspiration for the long slog it will take to get back to this point 

 

The fiddle yard, 15 tracks with the longest sidings approx. 4 metres long.

 

Here you can get an idea of the amount of free space that will be opened up when I cut away baseboard that is not supporting track.

 

I was trying to figure out how to support the terminus station baseboard, without needing to place pillars on the lower level, which would take away storage space. The answer? 12mm rebar rods. It's strong and straight enough to support the baseboard and I can attach it to the wall on the inside, to some supports on the outer edge of the baseboard and clip it to the underside of the baseboard with steel U-shaped clips to prevent movement

(You should have seen the look on the guys face in the hardware when I told him the steel rebar rods were for a model railway )

 

Starting to mock up the terminus station and the upper level main line that will run around the outside of the layout.

 

The middle level here is the beginning of the entrance to the station.

 

Where the laptop is will become the depot area on the approach to the station. You can see why I will need that access from underneath.

 

This will be the upper scenic level curving into a viaduct / bridge across the corner of the layout.

 

A view of the ramps leading from the lower fiddle yard, all the way up to the upper level about 5 metres away.

 

This is why the door section will be complex. All of these tracks and baseboard will need to be cut, and then realigned perfectly when the gate is closed...

 

A good 3D view of the multiple levels and ramps needed.

 

This is to give an idea of scale for the terminus station - it's making me very happy!

 

The central section will contain two long sweeping curves through a town through station.

 

This corner section will hold a viaduct connecting the scenery across the right and left of the photo.

 

A seven carriage loco at the town station.

 

This top down view gives a better idea of how many tracks will run around this corner at various levels and on the ascending / descending ramps.

 

3. Track Laying

At this point I know I have all the required track, so regretfully I started taking apart everything I had just done. The goal now is to fix the lower level track in place, exactly where it will go, including cutting the track to size where needed. I needed to do this now to get the track fixed in place, which would then tell me where I needed to cut the baseboards to create the open plan layout. 

 

If you don't have rail setter guides and you're laying track, do go out and buy them. They're fantastic, accurate and sill save you a huge amount of time and error

 

You can buy a track spacing guide but I decided to make my own, very handy to have.

 

Although I took the mock baseboards up, I numbered and labelled them all and left some track pieces in place to avoid having to figure it all out a second time.

 

The fiddle yard being fixed in place.

 

Love this long sweeping curve coming across the countryside. One of the videos on the Riverbank Railways YouTube channel shows this in action. 

 

8 carriage train stopped at the town station. There's also room for a loco.

 

4. Baseboard Cutting

At this point all the lower level track has been cut and screwed (loosely) to it's final location. I now have to take it all up, in preparation for cutting, priming and painting the baseboards. So I numbered every individual piece of track and took photos for when it needs to be relaid.

 

In this photo you can see the guidelines drawn on the baseboards which will tell me where to cut. I also carved grooves into the baseboards alongside the edge of every piece of track. This was done so that when primed and painted, the grooves will remain and I can replace the track exactly where it was located, so I don't need to try and figure it out all over again. There will be cork under the track, which I will cut into strips to allow it to be placed alongside the grooves in the correct location.

 

In the garage, each baseboard piece is primed and sealed with white sealer. And then given 2 coats of dark brown paint to provide a base colour for the layout. 

 

My nifty little baseboard holders

 

Two sections of baseboard, ready to go.

 

Now you can see the open plan coming together and the amount of space gained by cutting away excess baseboard. Because the support parts of the baseboard are thinner and the horizontal frame supports are about 75cm apart, there is a little give in the thin baseboard supports. This will be solved by adding 1 x 2 supports where needed.

 

5. The Gate

The moment I was dreading for 2 years. How will I cut the baseboard and frame at the gate in such a way that the track will realign perfectly when closed with no vertical or horiztonal movement, especially given the gate rotates into place?

 

Solution 1: For the section that is closed by the gate rotating I couldn't use a dowel or other form of baseboard connector which relies on straight movement, because of the rotation. However I figured a slot system would work. I used a router to create a tongue and groove connection. All the parts were clamped and screwed in place before the cuts were made, to ensure everything slotted back in perfectly. Which it almost did The right side of the "tongue" was a tiny bit too slim, resulting in about 1mm vertical movement. I added some Gorilla Glue to the "tongue" which bubbled up when dry. I then sanded it down to the perfect height and it made the slot connection nice and snug, with absolutely no vertical movement.

 

Solution 2: The section of baseboard that swings freely out posed a different kind of problem. I couldn't use the slot method above, because anything which sticks out past the cut would prevent the frame from opening. I had to figure out how to align the cut baseboards vertically and horizontally after the gate was closed. 

The solution was to use a sliding 12mm dowel. With one socket fixed in place and the end of the dowel glued into a "handle", it can freely slide through a second socket which is fixed to the free part of the baseboard. When slid back, there is nothing protruding to prevent the gate from rotating. And when the gate is closed, the support of the baseboards is very strong. Although as I suspected there would be, there is a tiny 1-2 mm vertical movement on the unsupported side of the connecting baseboard (the near part on the left of the cut in the photo below). 

 

However once the dowel is slid into place, it fits perfectly into the hole and locks everything in place, with no movement at all. The end of the dowel is tapered and sanded to allow easy movement. and it's a snug fit

My single concern at this point is that wood expansion may cause the joints to misalign - however: 

1. The wood has rested in this cabin for a year

2. The cabin is insulated and the heat comes on nightly for 30 mins to prevent damp

3. The layout frame and gate has been in place for over a year and hasn't encountered a problem

So, finger's crossed  And if something does cause a problem, I'll figure it out.

 

See that mitre saw on the table? Why, oh why didn't I buy that before building the frame and hand sawing almost every piece of wood and 45 degree support block  Lesson learned!!

 

Thanks for reading all, hope you enjoyed it! With the gate complete, it's now time to start adding cork, relaying track and running wires - exciting

[jhb171achill]

That is some MIGHTY joinery work!

[derek]

Looking great @Adrian. You have some time put into that, but well worth it. Maybe you should stay away from the ol Heineken when operating power tools, and you might never end up with broken saw blades ha ha .  Only kidding. Perhaps you will tell  me it is non alcoholic. I am a Joiner by trade for 43 years and the thought of beer and power tools mixing is  absolutely alien to me. Anyway, you are doing a cracking job, keep it up That was some amount of cutting you got through without a chop saw..... Looking forward to more updates

[Adrian]

13 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

That is some MIGHTY joinery work!

Thank you - I've found myself really enjoying the woodwork, it helps when you buy the right tools for the job of course...
 

1 hour ago, derek said:

Looking great @Adrian. You have some time put into that, but well worth it. Maybe you should stay away from the ol Heineken when operating power tools, and you might never end up with broken saw blades ha ha .  Only kidding. Perhaps you will tell  me it is non alcoholic. I am a Joiner by trade for 43 years and the thought of beer and power tools mixing is  absolutely alien to me. Anyway, you are doing a cracking job, keep it up That was some amount of cutting you got through without a chop saw..... Looking forward to more updates

Thank you Derek  It is indeed 0% so I'm ok there  I suppose all the hand cutting makes me appreciate the chop saw that much more

And for those that prefer to watch a video, the latest update for October just dropped on YouTube
 

 

[derek]

@Adrian, I have just realised that you are the genius behind Depot #8 as well as this. Mother of God man!. Where do you find the time for it all? (or the motivation). I haven't had the drive to go near my layout in a while....

Edited October 28 by derek

[Adrian]

Aw, thanks Derek, really appreciate that  

Honestly, I get inspiration mainly from other modellers and watching YouTube. At the moment, with all the woodwork on this layout, I'm addicted to watching woodwork tutorials and videos on YouTube and want to build everything!

Motivation-wise, I try to do at least a tiny bit every day, even if it's only 15 mins or putting some bushes or grass on the layout somewhere. Of course I love getting a block of 3 or 4 hours but to me it's more important to get something done every day and that's what keeps me going  Hope that helps!

 

[Patrick Davey]

Magnificent!! That woodwork is exceptional!!!

[Adrian]

Thank you Patrick!

[Georgeconna]

That is impressive set up. Some work to get all those points up and running!

[Adrian]

It will be George! There's about 70 of them...

[Georgeconna]

15 hours ago, Adrian said:

It will be George! There's about 70 of them...

If I known you were building this big I would of bought shares in Peco and Gaugemaster!