Huckwood Mk2

[sean Half-pint works]

OK as by request of one, this is my OO layout, I will keep it brief but if you want to see more of her, I am happy to oblidge!

as always a little blurb about the layout, then piccies (I promise!)

this build is well documented on another forum, so I shall not be going into quite so much detail on hear, after all its slightly out of gauge! but non the less,you can never get to much feed back!

The idea of Huckwood is based on my Great Grandfather, who was a safety deputy at Hucknall and Bestwood collieries in Nottingham, there was not enough good information to form a layout on one or the other, so for the past 9 months, I have been colaborating between both mines, and piecing together a layout that captures the feel of a Midlands 'pit!

frames are very very light, 1X1 timbers, with an 8MM MDF top, and a 3MM cork layer on that, with a little creativity on my part, the board units are both strong and light, each is 3ft by 18in, 4 scenic boards and 2 4 foot fiddle yards will give an overall length of 20 feet DCC controll, set in the early part of the winter of 1964, so a little snow and rough weather, some nice begrimed freight steamers and a good selection of diesel traction as well! 98% of the buildings, secnary and so on is scratch built, as I didnt like what was on offer from Hornby or Bachmann for colliery buildings!

Photo time

The beginning



(yes I draw in my baseboards!)

a few hours and alot of cork and my patented 'concrete' mix later also showing the only RTR Building of the layout!



very early on I decided all my buildings would have as much detail as I could pack into them, lights, intiriors and so forth, so i warmed up with the lights for the forges in the workshop!




a big jump later and buildings, and scenary are starting to emerge! the stores house in the foreground, the loco shed (simple single road one at that point) and the viaduct all used scrap MDF I had scrounced from a local wood yard! 



and the interior of the stores house!



I really wanted to get an ex Midland feel to this layout, so a Midland 2B type signal box is being built! guess the material?



the very nearly finished stores house!



and a mock up of the point rodding I intend to build



the loco shed now has a fuel store and that raised area is for a veg garden



on the second board things are moving apace to, with the workshop lean too completed, a small platform installed, boiler house well underway, and a modified kit of a water tower forming the water tank and the Narrow Gauge track well underway by now!



finally an over view of the second board, giving an idea of how the NG fits in with the Standard gauge track! still on hell of alot of refining, building, finishing and so on to do!



Oh one last thing im quite proud of, is the boilers themselves, based on 38MM PVC tubes anmd lots of fiddling with plastic sections and microstrip! they even have lights fitted to simulate fires!



if you want to see more, ask, any feed back would be welcomed to!

Sean.

P.S.

almost forgot, the Narrow gauge engine! based on on old Lima 0-4-0 shunter that is horrifically out of gauge for normal N gauge uses, but looks rather at home on the 009 part of the layout!