A weekend wonder

‘O’ GAUGE LAYOUT WEEKEND YARD

Building a layout over two days is challenging enough, but to do so in an exhibition hall takes things to a whole new level, as the Gauge O Guild discovered.

Words: Chris Gadsby Photography: Chris Nevard Artwork: Andrew Mackintosh

What makes this layout great?

This layout isn’t about putting in thousands of hours of painstaking modelling to accurately render a location. Rather, it’s an exercise in showing what is possible in the larger scale in a short time, and it plays its role perfectly.

Question: is it possible to build a fully functioning layout over one weekend while at an exhibition with hundreds of people walking past you, wondering why your baseboards are bare when everything else is a completed layout with moving trains? Answer: yes, if you’re the Gauge O Guild. We’ve proven in the pages of Model Rail before that building a layout in a matter of days is possible, but building one over just a weekend takes speed building to a whole new level. Tasked with proving to the public that a space the size of Lake Victoria is not required for an enjoyable ‘O’ gauge layout, members Nigel Smith, Neil Podbery, Paul Bambrick, Kevin Wilson and Thomas Hoy set about planning how they could draw people into the scale and the Guild, with a bit of a different exhibition to the usual handing out of leaflets. We spoke to the now custodian of ‘Weekend Yard’ Kevin Cartwright and the Gauge O Guild’s Chairman of Events Jackie Kneeshaw about how the layout came to be, the build, and life after that first exhibition in 2023.

“The idea was first developed at Warley 2022 when I was talking with Peco Sales Manager Steve Haynes,” outlines Jackie. “He mentioned that people still believed ‘O’ gauge was only for wealthy people who have plenty of space and a wide range of engineering skills. I wondered if the Guild could help dispel this myth to show that a modest ‘O’ gauge layout could fit within the room of a family home, and be constructed from products offered off the shelf. Of course, for a challenge such as this, the Guild needed a superb team of modellers to pull it off, so I approached Nigel to lead the team, and he recruited others to join him. We then approached several companies to see if they would support the build.”

As well as the team, companies rose to the challenge. The baseboards were supplied by White Rose Model Works, the track by Peco, point motors from DCC Concepts, wiring and scenic materials by Squires Model & Craft Tools, a range of lineside items by Skytrex, figures from Northumbrian Painting Services, paint from Omen Modelling Paint and a warehouse, bridge, retaining wall and water tower from L-Cut creative. Dapol and Ellis Clark Trains both provided models for the exhibition from different eras, but these were being weathered at the time the photographs were taken, so Kevin used some stock of his own. One key aim of the build was to show that any aspiring ‘O’ gauge modellers could go out and buy the components themselves if they wanted to build the same sort of layout, so the Guild made that clear on the front of the layout while it was being built where all the parts had come from.

THE BUILD

“Each member was tasked with making sure elements were ready to go onto the boards on the weekend of the show. It wasn’t a case of pre-building most of the items, but ensuring they would fit on the baseboard and have enough time to sufficiently dry throughout the weekend. Although all the preparations went smoothly, the week leading up to the event threw a few challenges into the mix we hadn’t prepared ourselves for. Neil was caught up in an Air Traffic Control system failure and had to get home from Portugal via Switzerland, and Thomas had become unwell with Covid so was unable to attend. Fortunately, Kevin Wilson was able to jump in at the last minute to help out. The show went off without a hitch and the layout was well received by those who viewed it. We even had the idea of letting the public name the layout, and the name ‘Weekend Yard’ was pulled out of the hat towards the end of the weekend. A nice final touch was that Ron Connor of Totem Signs was able to create us a custom totem that we could place on the layout before the end of the show, when the layout went into Kevin Cartwright’s possession.”

3 things we like

AFTER THE SHOW

With the show complete, the layout needed a home, so Kevin took custody of it for some much-needed TLC.

“Because it was built with speed, some of the solder joints weren’t as good as they could have been and the layout got knocked about a bit as people moved around it quicker than they usually would have done. Gordon Humphries was a great help with the re-wiring and firming up the woodwork, while I’ve redone all of the greenery with products from Green Scene and have been working my way through the rest of the layout, touching it up where required and making general improvements. The backscene is a prime example. Paul Bambrick expertly painted it onto aluminium so that it could be bent around the corners, but some of the paint got chipped as we were packing it away after the show, so I’ve had to go back and blend the two areas together again. The focal point of the shed still needs to be mortared and weathered and I’m hoping to knock a hole through the right side of the board so that I can attach a cassette fiddleyard to that end, allowing trains to run right through the layout rather than stopping and going back into the hidden sector plate. I think this would make it much more fun to operate.”

Kevin has also been able to add additional small details to ‘Weekend Yard’ that would have been too time-consuming to do during the build, such as adding suitable road vehicles and additional figures.

“I find that road vehicles are often a neglected part of model railways, as people spend hours getting the locomotives and the rolling stock looking just right, and then shove a pristine, ready-to-run car or bus on there. All of the ones now on ‘Weekend Yard’ have been heavily weathered to match the locomotives and stock.”

Although the build is now done, ‘Weekend Yard’ is still popular on the exhibition circuit, with an increasing number of people remarking that they have switched to the larger gauge. The price of ‘O’ gauge is decreasing all of the time and often people are buying the models before making somewhere to run them. If you’re one of those people, then the Gauge O Guild offers plenty of tutorials and advice to its members, with membership costing from £30 a year. Why not join today and benefit from the knowledge and support the Guild provides?

FACTFILE: ‘WEEKEND YARD’

ABOUT THE GAUGE O GUILD

For further information about the Gauge O Guild, including details of membership and future events, visit the website: www.gaugeoguild.com