Design

My earlier thoughts was dusted off and reviewed. I set down what I wanted to achieve and condensed it down to the following:

• Individual boards must be easy to handle and carry, preferably by one person
• Boards must be protected for transport
• Layout must incorporate a display board, fascia and lighting
• It had to fit into my Ford Mondeo estate car (which was subsequently replaced by a Landrover Discovery)
• It had to be easy and quick to set up and take down

These were good guiding principles, but I have to admit that I didn’t fully achieved them. The fiddle-yard board folds down to a depth of about 200mm (8 inches) and incorporates folding legs and panels which provide a degree of privacy from the public’s gaze. This unit is self-supporting and is wider than the scenic boards to provide stability and allow the turntable to rotate. A separate lid is fitted to the top giving even more privacy and a handy shelf for rolling stock. The scenic boards are fully enclosed within their transport boxes, which open out to form the display boards and leg bracing in one operation. These boards each have one leg and ‘piggy-back’ off each other from the fiddle-yard end. One person can handle ‘Ashcross’ but it is much easier with two people and the addition of the lights and fascia extends the dismantling time to 30 minutes. Overall, though, I am more than satisfied with how it turned out.

How Ashcross fits into the Land Rover Discovery

Baseboards

Apart from the ‘origami’ type design, baseboard construction is fairly conventional using a mixture of plywood and softwood. The 3 scenic boards are each 1000 mm by 500 mm, I went metric to suit the size of the car! The fiddle-yard board is 1400mm by 800mm to allow suitable length trains and provide stability width-wise in case anyone leans on the display boards in front of the scenic sections. Particular attention was paid to board alignment, which is achieved with pattern-makers dowels (available from the 7mm NGA). The ends of each baseboard are firmly attached and braced to the sides, as the ends are the most stressed parts during transport and setting-up. Each folding leg is braced with a solid piece of 3mm plywood, which provides protection to the point motors and wiring when the leg is folded-up for transport. The boards are held together with 6mm bolts and wing nuts. Separate end panels are attached to enclose each board during transport. The scenic boards are topped off with 6mm plywood, which was cut to suit the inclined track up to the powerhouse. The whole assembly sounds more complicated that it looks and it only takes about 25 minutes to set up or dismantle. I designed and built all of this before thinking too much about the lights as I couldn’t conceive how it was all going to work out! The lights and fascia are, therefore, something of an after-thought and add a further 15 minutes to the setting up and dismantling times. The fascia is split into three sections supported from two end and two intermediate uprights. The lights were originally ‘clip-on’ spotlights and which attached to a wooden strip on the back of the fascia. These spotlights allowed the light to shine in the same direction giving convincing shadows. However, over time the plastic clamps became brittle and they have been replaced by low energy spot lamps.  These are generally okay in most locations but are not as bright as the original lights.

Ashcross at Doncaster Race Course

The story continues on the Track, Signals & Electrics page.

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