From when my Parents gave me my first train set for a Christmas present as a child, I have had an interest in model railways. I originally started in "OO" gauge, but have also built in "N" and "O" gauge. The last layout I built was my exhibition layout "Holmehurst" which was in "O" gauge, and I exhibited it around the country. Photos of it can be seen by following this link.

I inherited some "OO9" rolling stock from my late father, including a loco I built from a white metal kit for him, and ever since living on our working narrowboat Hadar I have been thinking about building a "OO9" layout.

For those who do not know, "OO9" is "OO" scale, which is 4mm to 1ft, but the track and rolling stock are narrow gauge, equivalent to 2ft gauge in real life. Modelling-wise this means that I can used standard "OO" scale buildings, people, scenery etc. of which there is a far greater range of ready built items and kits to choose from, but it has the advantage that the reduced size of the track and rolling stock means that curves can be tighter than for standard gauge, without losing a realistic look within a restricted layout size.

I had thought about building a layout in our garden alongside our mooring at the Saltisford Canal Centre, but after much thought decided that this would not be practical. However I built a small layout (now dismantled) which sat on the shelf above the display cabinet, in our saloon, which houses my "O" gauge rolling stock. Having finished it, my wife Jo suggested that when we stop selling coal I could build a layout in the hold. As we stopped selling coal at the end of 2016.

This is a full record of the building of the original layout, and having moved into a flat in Warwick and sold our narrowboat, this will now cover the building of the New Hadarford in our flat.

Please feel free to leave comments, I am always interested in suggestions or questions.

Tuesday, 18 November 2025

Baseboards Part 7

 I had a play today whilst I still had the baseboards up on the legs, and by moving the 2 left-hand points onto the left-hand baseboard I can now get longer trains in the station, up to 5 long bogie coaches plus a small baggage, royal mail, parcel, milk, horsebox. I had previously designed to have all 4 points on the central baseboard to avoid cabling across the board joints, but having looked at the kit of parts for motorizing the points the ribbon cables have plugs on each end so easy to undo if I need to and the cables supplied are long enough to do the job. I have produced a new layout plan with this change in mind.

I then cut 4 of the strengthening pieces supplied with the baseboards in half to create 8, and glued 4 to the centre baseboard, and 2 to each to the outer baseboards. As the sides of the baseboards are only 6mm wide I needed to add these strengtheners for the alignment dowels which are quite deep at 15mm, mainly designed to fit into timber usually 50mm wide, and I just feel they would put too much strain on 6mm wide plywood, 12mm will be a lot better.

4 of the 8 strengthening pieces glued in place

One pair of alignment dowels, I am awaiting some more in the post to complete the job

Keith

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