This article is an addendum to the YouTube channel hosting several films which were made on the layout and serves to inform those who continually ask questions about its origins.
The layout has two levels, one with a passenger bias including a station
with the same capacity as Darlington, the other level off to the Durham
coalfields which fed the steelworks in the area.
Based on what you would see around the Middlesbrough area in the 1960's
and as witnessed by me as a kid, the layout is all about re-creating the
atmosphere of the time.
The layout is 57' * 13' inside a purpose built building. There is around
800 yds of track. Scale is OO gauge. Control is DCC.
There are five stations in all, four are sophisticated junctions. Two
major Marshalling Yards capable of storing hundreds of wagons are included.
There is a Pit, Gas Works, Factory, Fruit Warehouse Wood Yard, Goods Shed - all
rail served.
A feature of the layout is the large junctions which are rarely modelled
because of the vast amounts of space these take up. On the lower level note
there is a four into two at the bottom of the long incline which represents the
junction at Bowesfield Lane (adjacent to the original Stockton Station) where
the lines diverge north to the coalfields and south to Eaglescliffe.
Introduction
Trenholme Junction is not the first layout I have
built. Something as ambitious as this can’t be built at a first attempt. The
layout embodies all the good things which were in the previous five or six
layouts and none of the irritations or disasters.
What
went wrong in the past
Control
In the past I have tried all manner of combinations
of controllers, switch banks and wiring that would easily put the Junction
boxes of BT in the shade, even a cut down version of the holy grail of control,
‘Cab Control’. The latter requires around 300 metres of cable for a 6’ * 4’
layout and no matter how many hundreds of hours you spend meticulously planning
every possibly train movement and further hundreds wiring it, five minutes
after you’ve finished the thing, you discover at least two things you never
thought of and it’s impossible to change it at that stage.
To add insult to injury, whichever system you choose
to adopt, when you run your first train, the thing stutters and stumbles round
the layout, losing power on some sections and only running well when it’s very
near the controller.
Locomotives & Rolling Stock
The demise of Hornby Dublo in the sixties saw the
end of the quality end of the market, the poor locomotives in both realism and
performance which followed probably put more people off the hobby than any
other factor. Who wants to buy a locomotive that can’t pull three coaches up an
incline? And to add to this the prices were ridiculous.
The same general comments applied to rolling stock
as to locomotives.
Buildings and Trackside
In the recent past, almost every layout you could
see at every exhibition you could spot at least half a dozen Superquick
buildings. Look through any magazine of the time and I bet there isn’t one
edition of all the magazines ever produced were there wasn’t at least one of
these card kits.
Not everybody can produce good models, even from
kits. If you couldn’t scratch build,
there wasn’t any choice. All layouts had an air of looking the same.
All previous layouts I have built have been very
sparse on buildings.
Operation
One of the most dispiriting things that can happen
after you’ve invested lots of money and vast amounts of time planning and
building your layout is to run it and find that its doesn’t have any
entertainment value. By entertainment value I mean that the amount of
combinations of operation are so restricted that every situation can created
and executed in a very short space of time and apart from repeating them again
and again, no further combinations are possible. Boredom and monotony soon sets
in.
Many layouts are abandoned at this point and some of
mine have suffered this fate.
Accommodation
Housing the layout in a reasonably comfortable and
very secure place is as important as the layout itself. Many hours shivering in
sheds and garages have probably been the demise of as many ventures as the
failure described in the paragraph above.
Specifying
the layout
General Considerations
I wanted to
make sure, that if I was to invest a large amount of time and money, the layout
could entertain me for more of the time than it took to build. To get the ratio
of build to entertain to at least 50 : 50. It took ten years to build and
therefore I would aim to get ten years entertainment.
I also wanted to try to try to recover some of the
cost of the build by commercial exploitation.
I am a software writer and have been involved in the
technology since before the birth of the internet and so wanted to exploit the
possibility of using the internet to entertain others. I was in the software
business and my original plan was to mount cameras in the trains and allow
users on the internet to drive the trains in real time looking out from the cab.
Layout Specific Considerations
The layout is a re-creation of the railway I knew as
a child. The idea to build a replica of the place is not practical, the sheer
complexity of the trackage would be almost impossible to build in a lifetime.
Almost everything would require scratch building. Re-creation is the key word
here, to produce the flavour of the time using commercially made components
brought together.
To be able to take positions on the layout and see a
train approaching but because it was far enough away it was not possible to
recognise what it was until it got closer, as in real life.
A major requirement was the ability to sit and watch
the trains going by without intense controller activity and so a tail chaser
configuration was a foregone conclusion.
A second and equally important part of this requirement was to have the
capability of running point to point operating as well. A combination of both types of operation were
also a must have requirement as well.
To have more straight sections of track runs than
curved and the curves with reasonable radii.
Control requirements to be able to operate several
trains simultaneously from one control point. A computer interface path for
future use was essential.
Several stations of all sizes based on typical
stations in the area all able to take trains of at least six coaches, the
largest station to take mainline trains of up to eighteen.
Two levels, independent, from each other, but
interconnected, each level with the capability of fulfilling the overall
requirement of the layout in their own right.
The main reasons for the existence of the railway,
passengers already mentioned, together with Goods facilities to give a purpose
of the trains and to re-create prototypical operations including overlaps for
the handling of parcels and perishables also to be catered for.
The rolling stock and all buildings must all be
correct for the period.
Trains must be of prototypical length.
The entire model must be modelled in 3D. If you
intend to film the layout from the rolling stock, the fronts and backs of
everything has to be modelled.
Period
As a child, almost all outings involved a train
journey in one way or another. I lived close to the railway in South Bank near
Middlesbrough in the North East of England. The time was 1962 when I was nine
years old and this is the period. A little leeway in the date places the layout
in the period 1960 to the end of steam in 1968. This date range allows the mix
of Steam and Diesel locomotives.
Preparation
I spent a great deal of time reading many books and
magazines in order to try to get a good view of the features I wanted to
incorporate into the layout.
I am a great fan of the late, great Cyril Freezer
(former editor of Railway Modeller in the seventies and eighties). Cyril’s
track plan books are invaluable. Each track plan has been carefully worked out
to avoid the ‘boredom and monotony ‘ trap mentioned earlier and each of his
plans has an explanation to give an idea of the operational possibilities. If you
don’t use the plans as drawn, the principles of his thought process can be
applied to your own design, taking into account the points he draws to your
attention.
I also read hundreds of books, mainly looking at the
pictures, again to get the flavour of what the railway at the time.
The
Layout
The main layout is a four track main line on both
levels. North East practice was to have two sets of up and down lines for both
the passenger and goods traffic. From Bowesfield Junction to Warrenby four
track operation with goods tracks up and down adjacent to each other and the
same for passengers.
The two levels are joined together by an incline
which is over 40feet long visible on the layout. This double track incline has
a representation of Bowesfield Junction where the four track section split
north and south, a four track into two junction rarely modelled because of the
amount of space required. (Bowesfield Junction is less than half a mile from
the original Stockton Station which still exists). There are two further single
track inclines between the two levels hidden in tunnels to create operating
interest and flexibility.
The main station is of the size and layout similar
to Darlington Station, with an overall roof and two lots of Bay Platforms. Each
of the main platform faces can accommodate two trains.
The other stations are typical types of station
layout from around the area. The station near the pit is representative of
Battersby Junction on the line between Middlesbrough and Whitby. Trains
entering the bay have to reverse back out to continue their journeys.
There is also a Pit, Gas Works, Fruit Warehouse
Goods Shed & Private Siding to a Wood Yard, all rail served.
There are two goods Marshalling yards one on each
level. The lower yard is the bigger of the two, the upper is the secondary yard
to the lower to give the excuse to run inter yard transfers. Both yards have
reception and dispatch roads and have loco roads and headhunts’ although the
upper yard uses the station road for this purpose.
Track work is Peco Streamline Code 100 on Peco
underlay. This arrangement, with
baseboards made with insulating board produce silent running. Ballast is loose
filled in between the edges of the foam underlay.
Earlier in this article I mentioned about the poor
running qualities of some of the layouts I have built in the past. One thing I
was determined to do with this layout was to have super smooth running. As you
probably imagine, there is only one control system which could be considered
for a project this size. DCC. The perils of DCC failing are much greater than
with the traditional resistance controller.
The main reason for control failure on any layout is
the method of applying the power to the track and its distribution to all parts
of the layout. The train set method of using a power clip wedged under the rail
and then relying on the fishplates (rail joiners) to conduct the power is great
on Christmas day but is no use at all for a permanent layout. Quite often, the
fishplates are different metal from the rails. A chemical reaction can take
place which is in effect a resistor to electrical current, the more joints the
more the locomotive slows down. The condition is usually made worse by damp
conditions.
The DCC system has two parts to the power the
locomotive receives. The power part is obvious but more importantly the power
part also carries the signal to instruct the locomotive chip which direction
and speed to travel. Poor connections may cause the locomotive to ignore
commands. Ignoring commands when stationary is annoying but worse is to ignore
commands whilst moving a speed. Imagine the calamity of a modern locomotive
fitted with sound pulling a train of say ten coaches, ramming the buffers and
landing on the floor, maybe £600 of damage.
I chose Nickel Silver rails throughout and although
Peco fishplates are steel base I don’t use them to conduct electricity.
Many modern DCC experts and manufacturers recommend
the use of copper tape stuck onto the base board top and wired to the track at
every 2 metres or so. I decided to bond every piece of track to the ‘bus’. I
did not use copper tape for the bus, instead I use 8mm copper cable sunk into
slots cut in to the baseboard with a router. Better, because there is more
copper in the cable than the tape, therefore better conductivity AND costs
about 10% of the copper tape cost. All track sections were then bonded to the
bus cables. The result is super smooth running.
The layout was originally controlled by ZTC system
controllers and power boosters which proved to be very unreliable on a large
layout. Recently I have replaced it with the brilliant ESU ECOS controller with
a Radio Control Remote Controller. I can walk round the layout controlling the
entire layout from whatever position I please, brilliant for shunting in the
remote corners of the layout. Suddenly, freed from the controller the whole of
the layout takes new interest. Also unexplored as yet, I haven’t had time to find
out the wonders of connecting the ESU up to my laptop and the internet.
The arrival of Airfix and Mainline brands emerging
in the eighties brought a new level of quality and realism to rolling stock not
previously seen. Following the demise of both the aforementioned brands
Bachmann carried on the good work. At last we have locomotives which can pull
50 wagons or ten coaches. Deep joy. This was a wake-up call and suddenly we
have super rolling stock from Hornby as well of lots of super models to stock
my layout. All the rolling stock is ready to run.
Almost the same thing can be said about track side
accessories and buildings the buildings which are all ‘ready to plant’ types.
The scenery is mainly from the Woodlands Scenery
range
What
is going on now
My original plan to mount cameras in the locomotives
and let others control the trains through the internet hasn’t come to fruition
and probably won’t for me as the layout is in a part of the world where
sufficient speed internet is unlikely to be available.
As a compromise I have recently mounted a mini
camera into locomotives and trains and filmed the layout, this perspective
shows the original purpose of the layout, to recreate the atmosphere of the
time has been fulfilled and this part of the operation gives me as much
pleasure as operating the layout in the traditional manner. Sharing with others
who appreciate the work is an unexpected bonus. Several films are available to
view on the layout’s Channel on YouTube.
The
future
This hobby has a real problem. The competition for
its continuance is fierce. A large number of distractions conspire to take
youngsters away from what was a big fish in a little pond.
The way we live is also playing a big part in what
could be the end of the hobby altogether when all the baby boomers have finally
died. Except for a few pockets in certain parts of the country most people
don’t come into contact with railways any more.
Trenholme Junction, although not originally
conceived to address this problem, hopefully has evolved to contribute to try
to reverse this position.
I am hoping to re-kindle young people’s interest in
the hobby, the videos can be viewed on mobile phones computers and tablets.
Feedback from those youngsters who have seen them is generally good.
My son has recently been telling me about the
‘raspberry pi’ which is a full blown computer, the size of a credit card, costs
twenty pounds and fits into a wagon, now I wonder what I could do with
that.........
To view the channel, follow the link below
