BEETON HOUGH ( formerly YORKE ROAD), OUR NEW OO LAYOUT

BACKGROUND AND PROGRESS REPORT

9th August 2011 - STOP PRESS: 

Beeton Hough’ will be in action at Upton British Legion (click for location map) club, Chester on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th August, 10:00 – 16:00, along with an ‘O’ gauge layout. Donations of £2:00 will go the annual British Legion Poppy appeal.

Why not call in and see how we’re progressing?
 

Whilst Chapel Junction, our main club layout, serves a useful purpose as a running layout for club members, it was never designed to be particularly portable and is really too large to easily dismantle and reassemble for exhibitions. Nevertheless some of us were able to use this layout as a ‘test-bed’ to develop and learn new skills.

Some of the section members felt that we needed to raise our profile on the exhibition circuit, and we started to look for a new layout project that could meet the following criteria: -

§         Built to exhibition standard

§         Easily portable, requiring a team of no more than four or five to assemble and operate

§         Interesting to operate and to watch

§         Fully DCC

§         Fiddle yard to terminus configuration.

Researching through prototype station plans we came across New Brighton on the Wirral. This was a reasonably compact track plan, which we felt, given some modifications, could be a good representation of a country terminus. We have since modified the plan further, and the station throat now has more than a suggestion of ‘Minories’ about it.

The area is loosely set in the outlying region of Wrexham (MR Region), and supposedly links up with the main line near Crewe. The layout has been given a working title of ‘Yorke Road’

The period modeled, will be the early 1960s, giving us the scope to run late steam and early diesel.

Passenger services will connect to Crewe and beyond and will be either 2 - 4 coach loco hauled trains, or the newer 2 car Diesel Multiple Units.

The area modelled is mainly agricultural and outgoing goods traffic will consist of seasonal agricultural produce, livestock (mainly cattle) and milk (still in churns during this period) Incoming there will be some limited coal deliveries, and an occasional consignment of farm machinery.

The loco facilities will be limited to a small engine shed for the station pilot

Highlights to Date

Baseboards Built – Spring 2009

Above left; tracklaying begins during the winter of 2009 Above right; some of the team are wiring whilst others get on with the rather tedious job of painting the sides of the rail - early 2010

Track laid (Peco code 75) – Autumn /Winter 2009

DCC electrics and DC point controls installed and tested - Spring 2010

Fiddleyard constructed and tested –Spring/Summer 2010

Above left; Andy (in some pain) and Roy (did I tread on the mouse?) sort the electrics of the fiddle yard. Right; real progress has been made - the platforms have been fitted and clearance tested.

Track ballasted - Summer 2010

Draft plan of Beeton Hough Station

What's next?

We will shortly be moving on to the next stage of the project, creating the scenery and constructing the buildings. Watch this space for more photographs as we progress!

There is also further work to do, setting up supports for lighting, and possibly building some sort of proscenium, to frame the layout

Charles Wheatley

August 2010

Progress Report - April 2011

The layout, formerly known as ‘Yorke Road’ has now been renamed to ‘Beeton Hough’. The original name was chosen, as the layout was intended to be set in or close to Wrexham town. After further consideration, it was decided to make the location much less precise, to allow us to be more creative in the scenery, and more flexible in the operation of the layout. Why did we choose Beeton Hough as the new name? Well, it was suggested by one of our more imaginative members, Matthew Cross, on the basis that the layout now has a more rural location, and is ‘off the beaten track’ The fictitious location is now ‘on the Wrexham – Cheshire border’

We have made some minor design changes, to make the layout less cramped in appearance. This involved removing some sections of track, and extending other sections. We are no longer including a loco shed

As you can see from the photographs, work has started on the scenery and buildings. Several of our section members are now (I hope) constructing the buildings off site, prior to final placement.

Our lineside industries will include a scrapyard, a cattle dock, and the inevitable coal merchants.

A further update and more photographs will appear later in the year, when the layout should be nearing completion.

Charles Wheatley
April 2011

18th September 2011

Beeton Hough goes public
Beeton Hough’ had its first outing at a small charity exhibition in Upton by Chester over the bank Holiday weekend. As it was a local exhibition we were able to involve most members of the section, running a timetable that we designed a few days before the exhibition!

After a few hiccups with the DCC controller, things ran surprisingly smoothly. One lesson learned was that we need to devise an effective uncoupling system – we’re looking at a couple of options.



Photographs courtesy of Bernie Williams
 

This might be a useful link to those starting out in OO - New Railway Modellers

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