Risborough & District Area Group
The Risborough Area Group are a few members of the Risborough and District Model Railway Club who model in P4 or EM. We meet on Friday nights at the Carrington Room at the Community Centre, Princes Risborough as well as on a Saturday on a monthly basis.
After some months of planning, work has now started on a new layout with baseboards now being constructed. This new layout is called "Festive Road" and is a replacement for "Saffron Street". The layout follows the same geographical location and time period i.e. North London circa 1964, allowing for a mixture of steam and diesel traction from most regions although the time period could be stretched a decade each way if required.
Following experience gained in both exhibiting and watching other layouts, the concept is for a layout that not only allows plenty of interest in the detail contained in the model itself, but also plenty of movement; therefore we have developed two separate layouts in one scene!
Located on a high level and running on viaducts, bridges and embankments, is a double track continuous run, offering plenty of movement at exhibitions with long trains. Below at ground level is an end-to-end line with yards, giving plenty of shunting and industrial interest. The lower line passes through a street scene over a level crossing and into a yard and industrial sidings.
Neither of the lines are parallel to the front of the layout, each line being some 20-30 degrees off set and 70 degrees to each other. The whole layout is contained in a space of 25 feet long by 6 feet in depth, with a sweeping backscene; the scenic depth of the layout at the centre being some 6 feet. The ground line also rises front to back offering the observer a view into the layout.
In effect the layout will hopefully appeal to both those who enjoy roundy-roundy layouts and also those who like shunting planks, as it contains both! To account for one of the members of the club who models EM and to make use of his stock, the top continuous run section uses cassettes and has no points, allowing us to run both P4 and EM!
For those who require technical information, baseboards are constructed from 9mm Finnish birch plywood: each baseboard is located to its neighbours with pattern makers dowels and over centre clips hidden inside so they are not visible on the edge of the baseboards. Trackwork has been designed using "Templot" and control will be with DCC.
Anyone who wishes to become involved in the new project please come along. We tend to work from 8pm till 10pm and then head for a drink at a local pub, although this option is not compulsory!
Contact David Lane by email at risboro at scalefour.org further details on the Blue Sheet.
Blue Sheet