The Little Layout Company

For this article, we re-join ‘The Little Layout Company’ for an update on the progress of their latest layout. The Little Layout Company is owned & run by our good friends Neil & Lacey Mason. If you missed the previous article here’s a quick recap of what services The Little Layout Company offers:

They provide a complete layout design & build service which includes: Design and build any size layout to suit the customer’s needs and space they have available. So everything from just baseboards, to track and wiring, or even a simple layout for you to add your own personal touches. If you’ve dreamed of having a complete exhibition standard layout they will build it for you.

They will even come to you to build your fixed resident layout, or even help give your layout a new look with custom bespoke scratch built buildings.

Neil’s layouts have been featured in various model magazines the likes of Model Rail, BRM. One of my personal favorites of Neils layouts is ‘Masons Lane’. You can see more of their layouts here: http://thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk/projects/

On many of their projects you may see our own range of scalemodelscenery.co.uk kits appear. Neil & Lacey have put the kits to great use with a mix of scratch built items as well as other off the shelf items. The amount of details that Neil & Lacey fit in on a small layout is fantastic. It’s well worth spending some time carefully studying their layouts to spot all the little details. More details on the Little Layout Company can be found here:http://thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk/

A list of some of The Little Layout Company layouts are as follows:

Thornley TMD
Blue Gowt Junction
Eddington Yard
Cannon Dale
Georgetown
Werrington Yard
Deeping Lane
Millwood
Masons Lane
Normanton

New layout build progress

As promised in the last article we report on Neil & Lacey’s progress on their latest layout. With the track, all laid & wired up, display lighting fitted, attention has now turned to the backscene. For the backscene, Neil & Lacey have opted for a sky scene. As you can see in the image below, the track exits off stage through a hole in the backscene to a fiddleyard section (fiddle yard section not shown in this photo).

The exit/entrance hole area will be cleverly hidden by various scenic features, in which we’ll show in a future update on this layout. Also on the front of the layout is the plug sockets for plugging in a DCC handheld command station/controller. This will allow Neil & Lacey to stand & operate the layout from the front & engage with the public whilst exhibiting at model shows.

In the two images in the gallery below, shows more of the layout with the sky backscene in place. The raised area around part of the tracks is the hardstanding section, this is where the depot building will be located on the layout. Also seen on the layout Neil has fitted some shunting signals. The likes of Train-Tech, Absolute Aspects amongst others make & supply these shunting signals.

Having installed the backscene, attention turns painting the hardstanding area. The backscene & non-hardstanding area has been covered up to protect any paint overspray/overspill. The photo below shows the hardstanding during the painting process. A suitable concrete colour has been used, & will be weathered accordingly.

Once the paint has dried on the hardstanding area, the next piece in the scenics is installed this being a low relief retaining wall. Low relief retaining walls & buildings are a great way of adding interest to a layout, ideal for small layouts or those struggling with space on their layout. The low relief wall being used here is the brick arched type wall, as seen at many locations around the UK rail network & elsewhere.

Having installed the retaining wall, the rest of the layout around the retaining wall is again masked up. The wall is then painted in suitable brick/stone wall colours, & weathered. The photo below shows the retaining wall being painted up.

With the wall suitably painted & weathered up, the masking sheets are then removed from the layout. Details such as weeds, climbing vegetation are now added to the retaining wall. In the gallery below shows the completed retaining wall in place & the hardstanding area for the depot. The red coloured area on the hardstanding will be where the depot shed building will be going.