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. One 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.

Friday, 6 November 2026

Bird and Animal Painting Completion and Fitting

This morning I finished painting the animals and birds including spending an hour searching for 1 of the squirrels I dropped on the floor! I apologise for the poor quality of some of the photos, I couldn't get my phone to focus on what I was trying to photograph 😟

3 crows on top of the ruined castle keep

A further 2 crows, 1 on top of the ticket office and 1 on top of the wall

2 crows on top of this section of the castle ruins

The crow on top of the ticket office

A crow on the embankment left of the 2 badgers

A pheasant on top of the crossing keepers hut

A male and a female pheasant on the roadside hedge

Another pheasant

The pheasant on top of the crossing keepers hut

A pheasant on top of the straw bale and 3 rabbits

A 4th rabbit

A squirrel at the top of the rock face by the tree

Another squirrel on the rock face

Another squirrel on this hedge

A final squirrel on the rock face

Keith

Wednesday, 4 November 2026

Painting People, Birds & Animals Part 2

This afternoon I finished painting the new animals and birds, which are now ready to go on the layout and continued painting some seated people. 😊

Partly painted seated people

4 squirrels

10 Crows

4 Rabbits

4 Male pheasants and 1 female

0-4-0 'Melba' waits patiently in the siding with 3 Insulfish wagons whilst 0-4-0 'NESTA' double-heads with 0-4-0 'Charles' passing by with a set of closed vans. 😊

Keith

Tuesday, 3 November 2026

Painting People, Birds & Animals

Early stages of painting sitting people, rabbits, squirrels, crows and pheasants this afternoon 🎨

Keith

Monday, 2 November 2026

Curtains!

Yesterday and this morning my wife Jo made 3 curtains to hang underneath the layout to hide the stuff underneath to make our bedroom more presentable.

Before.

After fitting the new curtains

Some wild animal figures arrived in the post this morning, so I have primered them along with some seated people.

Keith

Saturday, 31 October 2026

Wallace & Gromit

Wallace and Gromit train leaving Hadarford. I wonder which one of the sheep in the field is Shaun? 😂

Keith

Wednesday, 28 October 2026

Preparations for Curtains

With my wife Jo intending to create a set of curtains, on Sunday, to hang underneath the layout to hide all the stuff underneath, this afternoon I have been doing some preparations by moving the 6-way mains distribution block to the back of the leg, adding a switch to the front of the baseboard for the belisha beacons and moving the hook to hang the handheld controller to the front of the leg.

Repositioned mains distribution block

Switch to operate the belisha beacons

Repositioned hook for the handheld controller

Keith

Tuesday, 27 October 2026

0-4-0 'Charles'

0-4-0 Charles on freight duty passing through Hadarford 😊

Now the bulk of the layout is finished, with just some details to be added, as and when, it is time to actually get some trains running, this train ran around the layout for half an hour without any problems, so now I can enjoy running trains on it.

Keith