Alpaca Hill is a 120cm x 90cm OO9 and OO gauge layout based some time in the early 2000s. It is a fictional GWR heritage line with a standard gauge branch line terminating at Alpaca hill to deliver passengers that have come to enjoy a trip to the lake and for a ride on a narrow gauge train, inspired by my trips to Audley End. If all goes well, I'd love for it to attend exhibitions and to be featured in a magazine.
A bit about me:
I'm 22, currently living in Southampton, but originally from the Cambridgeshire/Hertfordshire border. I've had OO trains for most of my life, often spending a year or two heavily invested in the hobby, then falling out of love with it for one reason or another.
At a very young age, my dad bought me the Hornby Track Packs every month, and I can remember sitting in our living room, connecting all the new bits of track, and watching Kneller Hall run round, with 2 centenary coaches. For Christmas one year, my dad built up a layout, using the Hornby Track Mat, and all of the Track Packs we had collected. It was a very impressive layout, and before this current venture, probably the best. I used to put Jelly Babies in wagons, drive them round the track, through the level crossing, and bring them back again to eat them. We never decorated the track, just placed the Hornby buildings down, and got some trains to run. For one reason or another, the layout eventually got tidied away into the garage, not to be seen again until I was 11 or 12.
At this age, I dismantled the track and layout as I wanted something new and better. One summer me and my Dad took a trip to Wickes and bought lots of wood to build up a new layout, with the idea of taking it to the school fete. The legs were very wobbly, made of 50x50, and not secured very well. The top of the layout was extremely heavy, and too large to fit in your average car, luckily we had a 4x4 though. Lessons to be learnt from. I didn't even nail the track down on this project, but it did make it to the school fete, so it wasn't a complete failure. I think the wood probably got recycled for our family shed, and the trains and track got put into a box for a few years. You can read more about that here:
https://www.modelrailforum.com/threads/bailey-manor.24618/#post-280557
After that, I did have some micro layouts on shelves, a multi-storey engine shed idea, a canal, among other things which you can see here:
https://www.modelrailforum.com/threads/a-compact-shelf-layout-in-need-of-a-name.27350/#post-316594
At the age of 15, I still craved a large luxurious layout, where I could have 3 or 4 loops of track to see plenty of trains running. The garden was the only place big enough, so we built a baseboard, a thinner frame, learning from our previous mistakes, and in more than 1 section. But this time, the top was too thin. Being placed outside it warped, even with us coating it in fence paint. I did get a little further with the track this time though, having nailed it down, and taken my first foray into ballasting. You can read more about this project here:
https://www.modelrailforum.com/threads/new-oo-gauge-outdoors-model-railway.32570/
Over the COVID lockdown, we completely re-organised our loft. There was a shortage of loft boards at the beginning of the lockdown, but we did manage to get some eventually. We put all of our stuff on these new loft boards which left a sizeable space in the center, for a model railway. This had been the first time I'd managed to get multiple loops of track running well. At the age of 19, I had a lot more money to spend, so bought up a lot of rolling stock, locomotives, and track. My aim was to get every different class of GWR locomotive out there. It was fun for a while, but I got a job that autumn, and moved out of my family home, so could only really play trains over the Christmas break.
The beginnings of Alpaca Hill:
That brings us to today, I'm in a small flat in Southampton, with my Fiancée, and we have a small dining table that we rarely use. I knew I wanted a loop of track, some people get their enjoyment from shunting trains back and forth, but I like to leave mine to run whilst I get on with another aspect of modelling. That meant OO was out of the question but I didn't particularly want to invest in a totally different scale, I wanted to do this layout on a budget. I'd re-subscribed to Railway Modeller a year prior and saw a lot of interest in OO9, with Peco, Bachmann, and some others producing RTR models and track. This would mean I could keep the same scale as OO, so could use a lot of the scenery, buildings, and stock that I had, but I could build a loop in OO9.
I, very luckily, got the Peco OO9 starter kit for Christmas, then visited every model shop within the area the week following buying things up for our new project. Special thanks to Ron Lines, Hampshire Models, and Church Street Models.
My Fiancée is very kindly working on this with me and it's proving to be a great hobby for us to do together. She much prefers the artistic side of it, which I struggle with, so it works nicely.
Here's our haul from visiting the shops:
(https://i.ibb.co/5sCCsDY/326214484-475367691452759-1860051778403832338-n.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/NVMGy1y/326258041-483117797119416-9040205771354680136-n.jpg)
We then put down a lot of pieces of paper and began to draw a track plan. I have used AnyRail 6 in the past, but using paper was much more enjoyable, it meant we got to see what it would look like in real life, and plan scenic areas, which is something I struggle with in AnyRail.
(https://i.ibb.co/XS74GSH/321848035-1614926312310919-8289567546558404830-n.jpg)
A OO branch line at the rear of the layout, with a OO9 loop. A siding for goods and for an engine shed. The hill would be in the rear right of the layout, merging into the platform. A road bridge would cross over the loop in the rear left of the layout to hide the fiddle yard entrance of the branch line, and to provide access to the lake in the centre of the loop. I wanted to convert 2 coaches into permanent static homes, and also have a field for tents for those that wanted to visit the lake over more than 1 day.
There are of course tents available off the shelf, but we wanted to scratch-build them, so we got some match sticks and cloth from Hobbycraft and made up a frame, then laid the cloth over them. I got the measurements from the off-the-shelf models, but they may still be a little big, we'll have to see once they're on the layout.
(https://i.ibb.co/qWnPg6w/321777383-1905911126411980-7168169725406632837-n.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/rwBsHqJ/321611035-1677310752684397-8151945541625638105-n.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/TmyW58x/321498671-536407098508836-58499552494534506-n.jpg)
I got a loco from Narrow Minded Railworks and a Kato 109 chassis from eBay. I've built plenty of Airfix kits in the past, and it's quite exciting to do a lot more modelling for this OO9 layout, compared to just buying things off the shelf as I had done with OO in the past. I bought some Railmatch spray cans of GWR loco green and I think it's looking okay so far.
(https://i.ibb.co/ggR6kYH/326238864-892338915291706-597438956152793801-n.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/XzcqJnR/326236570-704205371210466-2190408253612999084-n.jpg)
The platform is made from Dapol kits, but the station building spans more than 2 platforms wide, so I'm hoping such a wide station doesn't look out of place. I'm also wary of the narrow gauge stock doors being much lower than OO, so I may need to do some modifications there.
(https://i.ibb.co/yyH30Ff/326251128-486828553600794-8788925571986061902-n.jpg)
I wanted my Dad's help building the baseboard, and after reading up on which wood to use, and learning from all of my previous layouts, I'm pretty confident this design will last for a while. 6mm plywood with cork on top, and a nice frame.
(https://i.ibb.co/K6qGx8k/323705541-588320713123555-1252052029530360732-n.jpg)
After I brought the baseboard back to Southampton, I realised I probably wanted a way for the OO9 trains to get to the fiddle yard too, so I added an extra point which should be hidden by the forest in the front left corner.
We painted the entire baseboard so that if there were any small gaps in the ballast, they'd be masked.
(https://i.ibb.co/1sJjh3z/324493313-693235208921256-8793447112827005652-n.jpg)
Whilst laying the track, I must have done some pieces at jaunty angles, so I had to fabricate a bit of curve on the left of the layout to get everything to join up. I'm pretty impressed with my track cutting and soldering skills, as this is not a skill I have done much of.
(https://i.ibb.co/ncSqw0V/326262635-733215738156639-708936258556409831-n.jpg)
After ballasting the layout, I realised that the points in the forest would be hard to change manually, so point motors would be needed. I've never used point motors before, but found a supplement with one of my old copies of Railway Modeller that explained all about their operation. Doh! I should have drilled holes in the baseboard before laying and ballasting the track, but I don't think it will be too much of an issue. I considered going analogue with the points and buying all Peco, but in the end, I opted for DCC Solenoid Point Motors, the Gaugemaster PM10Ds as these worked out about 50p more than the analogue equivalent. I have a Hornby Select controller, and I just bought E-Link at the Southampton Model Railway Exhibition for £40. The idea of controlling a whole layout from a laptop is rather exciting to me. Unfortunately, The Gaugemaster PM10Ds did not work with either of my Hornby controllers. The solenoid motors worked fine, but the DCC chips didn't seem to do anything, so I've returned them to Amazon and bought a Hornby DCC Accessory Unit and some Peco PL11Es which works out at about £5 more expensive.
Whilst waiting for the points to arrive I wired up the track and added a bus for accessories. I used some DCC Concepts Wire tags to ease with connecting droppers to the bus. Again, this is not something I've done or even thought about before, so was quite enjoyable to learn a new skill, which wires to use, etc.
(https://i.ibb.co/yQ9bR6m/Whats-App-Image-2023-01-26-at-11-58-11-PM.jpg)
Southampton Model Railway Exhibition was the first that my partner had ever been to. We managed to pick up 4 alpacas from Dart Castings. I got a Hornby Sapphire decoder for £13, which I think is a bargain. And some realistic water for a fiver. Our favourite layout was called Westcliff in EM Gauge. It modelled a seaside GWR station, and had the sound of waves and seagulls. The locomotives were excellently made. The scenery was just exceptional.
(https://i.ibb.co/Sth0YS6/cb9b706a-16a1-4786-ba83-cace0b16a675.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/0tt6jyY/328604150-918001595881278-4823501033420353777-n.jpg)
We're slowing building wagons and buildings, and I plan on doing a little post on this thread each time we hit a milestone.
Here's the layout as it looks today:
(https://i.ibb.co/9WHVGYx/326396844-536200505241057-8924257583113378020-n.jpg)
Looks interesting!
Please keep us updated on your progress, Joe. You're off to a nice start.
Jeff
Hi, Joe, and welcome to the forum. I hope you'll find plenty of help, inspiration and encouragement here, and we'll follow your progress with interest. (I'm afraid I can't see your pictures but I'm not sure whether that's just me or whether you need to post them differently.)
If you live in Southampton (as I used to) you'll be well placed for the big Narrow Gauge South exhibition at Barton Peveril next year. I'd also encourage you to link up with the Wessex Narrow Gauge Modellers (search for their website online), a number of whom are not far away from you. Many are also members of the 009 Society but others work in other scales, though still with narrow gauge.
Finally, don't forget the Society online shop for bargains when you're looking for more items for the layout!
David.
P.S. I'm wondering where the alpacas will come in - will there be a South American connection or did they have them at Audley End House?!