Bydemill – trial 1 presentation

Posted byTrevorPosted inAchievable Layouts, Benchwork, Great Western Railway in 7mm scale, GWR Bydemill (Highworth), Layouts I have designed or built, Lighting and Presentation, Operations
An overview of Bydemill, which is mounted above low bookcases on a 24-foot long wall. A valance keeps layout lighting from stabbing people in the eyes. The fascia protects the foamboard terrain base from elbows. The whole thing looks clean and – I hope – professional, welcoming guests to the layout.

Before I invited over friends for the first formal operating session on Bydemill, I made sure the layout was ready to host visitors.

Much of this involved focus on the presentation. I wanted the layout to look good – to convey to my guests where I was headed with it.

But I also wanted it to be functional – so good lighting was essential, as were labels. And I wanted the layout and equipment to be protected from inadvertent mishaps.

As previously noted, I was determined that any derailments would stay on the layout, so the first order of business was to fill the gaps around the subroadbed with foam board.

As I prepared the layout for its first ops session, I realized the front edge of the foam – which was unsupported – would suffer if hit by an errant elbow. To prevent this, I added a fascia. I cut rectangles of Masonite and secured them to the wood benchwork with No More Nails. I left the fascia pieces deliberately oversized: I’ll trim them to the contour of the terrain once I’ve carved the foam board into its final shape.

I also added Masonite wings and – to keep the weight down – a valance cut from 0.060″ thick styrene sheet to hide the LED tapes that provide such strong, even lighting.

A friend has offered to build an interlocked ground frame to control track switches and signals on this layout. That’s not finished yet, but we settled on having the ground frame act upon slide switches, which would then control switch and signal motors electrically. I have a bank of six slide switches set up and while I know what they do, I also knew they’d be a mystery to my guests. So, I printed out a copy of the ground frame schematic (drawn by my friend Simon Dunkley) and taped it to the fascia below an opening that allows access to the switches.

The finished ground frame will go here. In the meantime, this schematic helps visitors understand how it will work.

Finally, I used strips of scrap plywood and tent cards to establish the various spotting locations around the layout:

Bydemill Station and its platform.
The station platform includes a ramp for end loading/unloading of wagons.
The Goods Shed, to the right of the ramp.
The cattle dock is located right across from the points on the track switch that completes the run-around loop.
Not a specific spotting location but the loading gauge and yard scale (for weighing horse-drawn road wagons) identify the start of the Goods Yard track.
Coal wagons are spotted at the far end of the Goods Yard, near the staiths.

These were quick and easy enhancements that made a huge difference.

Published by Trevor

Lifelong model railway enthusiast and retired amateur shepherd who trained a border collie to work sheep. Professional writer and editor, with some podcasting and Internet TV presenting work thrown in for good measure.