Post-Exhibition Update - Sheffield MRS 2010

Last weekend I had the pleasure of operating "Wickersley" at the annual Sheffield Model Railway Society exhibition in Darnall, Sheffield. Since its exhibition debut at SMRS 2008 many things have been changed, added to and improved and this did not go unnoticed with several kind comments from those who had seen it two years ago. You can find more pictures of Wickersley and other layouts at the show by visiting the gallery.

It was a great day out, thanks in no small part to the SMRS team and I would like to thank Colin and Neil Lonley for their assistance in transporting and helping to operate the layout.

Picture Update

Here are some pictures of the layout that were taken a couple of months ago. Since these pictures were taken more posters have been added and the figures shown have been painted.

Building a traverser-type Fiddleyard

My existing fiddleyard consisted of wooden pse frame 3ft x 15in with a 9mm MDF top. Track was laid loose on top, connecting to the scenic section by means of fish plates. After much deliberation I decided to replace this with a traverser style fiddleyard.

Backscene

The layout now boasts a full length backscene, that runs from each end of the scenic area, following the retaining wall. It is constructed from 5mm plywood, which is screwed directly to outside of the frame after painting a suitable sky blue. When supplies are renewed at my local model shop Peco backscene papers will be aquired, the buildings cut out and layered and glued on the backscene to create an industrial townscape. A colliery will also be portrayed at the far right of the layout. The backscene stands 30cm tall above the baseboards.

The total cost so far of this simple yet effective addition was £2.58 for the wood and paint, as the plywood was sourced from (rather large) offcuts at a local hardware store.

Plans for the future

Structural

1. Add a full length backscene to the scenic area, to the height of the existing divide between scenic area and fiddleyard
2. Add canopy and lights to layout scenic area
3. Rebuild fiddleyard with either a traversor, 3 or 4-road fiddleyard or cassettes or a combination of any of the three. I shall have to build a model of this first and ask on forums/club for advice.
   

Cosmetic

1. Replace existing signalbox kit with either a better kit, resin or scratchbuilt model. (pref. GCR Type 5 or one based on Hotchley Hill LNER brick/concrete type)
2. Improve central platform - replace with one of wooden construction instead of card? Should be more durable certainly.
   
3. Install lighting in/on buildings
4. Add more "clutter" such as pallets and oil drums and weathering.
5. Add more signs to walls, posts and lamps
6. Various repairs to signals and other items
   

Electronic/Controls

1. I'm happy with the current control system for now, though long term goal is to aquire a NCE PowerCab with accessory decoder support.
2. Since ZTC Controls Ltd has ceased trading I won't be expanding the number of point motors in use.
3. The wiring underneath requires a little tidying up and I'll be adding new feeds to problem areas
   

Rolling Stock

1. Retire Hornby "Jinty" in favour of Bachmann version or a different class of loco.
2. Add lamps, irons and crews where apprpriate
3. Renumber and apply weathering to rollingstock and locomotives to reflect stock familiar to South Yorkshire.
   

Post-Exhibtion Update

Well the exhibition is long over and the layout is currently still disassembled in the spare room. I learnt a couple of lessons from it, the most obvious being the need for a bigger or more organised fiddle yard. While having the capacity it's a bit cumbersome to manually transfer engines and stock. I've decided that before the next exhibition (whenever that is) I'll rebuild the fiddleyard with either a sectorplate-type fiddleyard as in C J Freezer's original design or cassettes or a combination of the two, with a sector-plate for the two main lines and a cassette for the loco siding.

I'll be making a full post about the improvements that are going to be happening to Wickersley over the coming months later this week. However any development, purchases, etc. are on hold until after Christmas, giving my wallet and I a chance to catch up on other things. In the meantime here are some pictures of the layout just prior to completion and it's first appearance:

Exhibition Debut

This Saturday "Wickersley" makes it's debut on the exhibition circuit in a very much nearly completed form. Signals (non-working) have been installed, point motors wired in and tested and ballasting is done, apart from a couple of minor patches where it hasn't stuck. Ten minutes with a bit of PVA glue should see to that. The control panel has also been completed and extra power feeds have been soldered to the track for improved reliability.

Of course there are a few things that remain to be done post-exhibition namely:

• Rebuild fiddleyard with a proper cassette or sector plate arrangement
• Tidy up wiring underneath the layout
• Install a full-length backscene with integrated lighting
• Add more people, barrels, pallets and other things around the layout to bring it more to life.

That's all for now, I'll try to get some pictures of the layout, both before and during the show and post them here.