Scale/gauge 4mm to the foot on 9mm track, depiting 2'3" gauge. Aka '009'

Footprint: 3'00" x 2'00"

Concept

Arne means dwelling, it being derived from the Anglo-Saxon' word, 'aern'. Arne is situated on the peninsular hugging the south-western extremity of Poole Harbour, the largest natural inland harbour in the world. This piece of land has been inhabited for thousands of years, visiting it now you may be forgiven for imagining that it has ever been inhabited.

There were several narrow gauge lines in this part of Dorset, known as the Isle of Purbeck. The numerous lines served the rich mineral deposits in this beautiful and quite unique part of southern Britain. In the 19th century there were probably more narrow gauge railways per square mile than in any part of north Wales. None of the lines officially transported passengers other than the men that worked the mines and quarries (though I believe one the lines did carry school children for a while before the war).

My interpretation; Arne Wharf is based on a fictitious line running from Arne to Wareham via Ridge & Stoborough. The line was built to transport ball clay, lime stone, salt and oysters in addition to general merchandise. The time frame? Well a little vague here, lets just say that it is pre satellite TV and a world controlled by accountants. A rose tinted world more akin to the Titfield Thunderbolt and the Darling Buds of May will do.

The Model

Arne Wharf is modelled in 009 (representing 2'3" gauge) and totally contained on 3' x 2'. I wanted to see what could be achieved in a matter of just a few months. It is very easy to be over ambitious and get bored. Building layout to such a conservative size would also allow it to be worked on almost anywhere in the house.

Wooden bits

The baseboard is of traditional construction recycled from Bettycloff, a previous 009 layout. The only modification was the widening of the original board by 6 inches or so to accommodate a wharf in the foreground. The layout is quite heavy, but rock solid sitting on detachable legs that fold flat when not in use. Despite its weight the layout is still quite manageable for one person to carry.

The back-scene curves from one corner to the other in a long arc, something I have wanted to try for many years. Its creation is simply a sheet of hardboard. Corners in a back-scene from my experience always jar and create a useless negative voids that simply collect dust, spiders and loose bits of scenic debris.

Trackwork

Well nothing new here; Peco 009 'Crazy Track' with their own point motors performing the switching. Before ballasting the track was sprayed with red oxide primer, once dry the sleepers were picked out in darker tones by dry brushing, the rail sides being left red oxide. Ballast is fine sand from the banks of the Solent, fixed with diluted PVA in the time honoured way. The areas between the tracks were built up with modelling clay of the type that doesn't need kilning. Clay is much easier to use than plaster - one simply pushes it into place with ones fingers, texturing it by stabbing with a stiff brush whilst still soft. Modelling clay does tends to crack a little when it dries, so a little touching up might be needed. Some cracks were left in place to typify the effect of cracked ground of a hot summers day.

The final result was then coloured with light earthy tones, both ballast and sleepers. Pale tones were to characterise an area that has a high sand and clay content. The lighter shade also suggests more space than there actually is. I am a great fan of matt emulsion match pots from the local DIY store, they are great value, come in various muted colours and don't stink the house out.

Scenery

The raised area between the backdrop and the foreground, is expanded foam in an aerosol. I discovered this useful product whilst fixing a hole in the garage roof a few years ago. You simply spray it into the required area, watch it grow 4 times original size! 24 hours later you can carve it into required shape with a bread knife. Once happy with the shape, I finished it off with a layer of plaster and PVA. Whilst setting, the plaster was shaped with a knife to create the effect of sedimentary layers. Once solid, it was coloured with matt emulsion washes.

Silfor grass matting from International Models creates the effect of long grass. Silfor is an incredible product from Germany, in my opinion nothing comes close, it even has that slight sheen that real grass has in sunlight. Colouring is tweaked with matt emulsion and acrylic with an almost dry brush.

Bushes are mainly wire wool teased out very finely, sprayed with British Racing Green coloured aerosol paint (Halfords) and covered in fine foam. BEWARE! It is important to use a waterproof paint here. Failing to do so might open up the wire wool to corrosion, the effects of decay shedding fine magnetic particles all over the trackwork and then into the electric motors. The foam coated foliage is then further coloured and fixed with more aerosol paint and finally finished off with a layer of diluted PVA once stuck in place. I have been using this technique for a few years now without any adverse results. Just to be on the safe side, wire wool technique is not used right next to track areas and the layout is vacuumed frequently.

Other small bushes and trees are created from everybody's favourite, 'sea foam'. Before the fine stems are coated in foam foliage they are spray painted with a dark paint. The finished trees are treated as above with further coatings of paint and glue to keep everything in its place.

The backscene as already mentioned forms an arc from one corner to the other, this has a landscape (mainly clouds) painted directly onto it with acrylic and matt emulsion.

Buildings

The dominating structure is a limestone crushing plant, the bases is a Cornerstone kit from Walthers. This kit has been narrowed down to fit the plot. The supplied roofs have been replaced with rustic corrugated ones from plastic sheet. Additional scratch-built structures have expanded the plant hopefully disguising its roots a little.

The delightful wooden warehouse is an American Model Builders laser cut wood kit, this has been enhanced with the addition of a winch and an upper level floor. Both the American kits were ordered direct for the USA via the web.

The engine shed is scratch-built from plastic, it is sort of Colonel Stevensesque (I think?). The little electricity power hut was a freebee from Artitec, the Dutch company who supplied the kit for the fishing boat seen in some of the shots.

Painting & Weathering

To convey the look of better days, salty air and the ravages of time, weathering plays a major part with the look of the corrugated iron structures. The look here has been achieved in a few stages, all quite simple.

The finished structures are firstly sprayed red oxide (Halfords again) primer. Next the colour the building would have been when new (in this case pale green) is brushed on (matt emulsion). Whilst the paint is still wet a large dry paint brush (decorating brush) is brushed over following the direction of grooves in the corrugated iron randomly to create variations of tone. This tends to remove some of the paint revealing the red oxide coloured paint below. Further dry-brushing and washes can be used for localised effects in addition to Carr's Modelling powders. There are several ways these can be applied, in this case I literally dipped wetted fingers into the powders and rubbed the filthy goo onto the required areas.

The wooden structures were painted in dark colours (using black washes or black matt aerosol). The lighter sun-bleached wood effect was then dry-brushed on with matt enamels. All roof tops were given pale washes of the same colour used for the ground cover so as to suggest stone dust from the crushing plant.

A limited palette of pale creams, faded greens and rusty shades are common throughout the layout from track and buildings right through to the back-scene. Hopefully the limited selection of colours creates a level of uniformity a little like a faded painting or old colour photograph.
Wharf

The sides of the wharf were vacuum formed stone effect plastic sheet glued with a hot glue gun onto mounting card curved into place. The plastic is then coloured using techniques similar to above. Balsa was used for the jetty and vertical supports, distressed accordingly. The water in the harbour is simply 3 or 4 thick layers of PVA (dries clear, also great for gluing in glazing!) stippled thickly over greeny/grey matt emulsion as per Alan Downes. PVA looks so much better than varnish, additionally lack of a pungent aroma will do wonders for brownie points with your nearest and dearest.

Reeds are plumber's hemp coloured with acrylic. The fishing boat is an Artitec kit ordered direct from Holland via the web. Artitec produce some wonderful nautical kits. I intend to explore their range further before Arne Wharf's next outing, I have my eye on some barges for transporting the limestone.

Lighting and Presentation

The layout has its own built in lighting in the form of two 100 watt bulbs behind the name board. The name board was made up professionally at the local sign writers for around £15 onto black foam-board. The whole layout gives the impression of being housed in a box.

When at shows, the layout sits at a height of 4'3". I feel that most layouts are far too low at exhibitions. Model railways should be viewed from 'ground level' rather than the view seen from a high rise flat. I admit 4'3" is too high for small children with sticky adventurous fingers to see unaided. For these little folk, to see the layout they have to be lifted up (thus under their parent's control).

Stock

This is the next area to tackle, apart from a few excellent Parkside kits and some Roco tippers, all wagons have been built from scratch on N gauge chassis to various prototypical and freelance designs. Locomotives so far include a Roxey Kerr Stuart Hampton Waterworks engine, sitting on the excellent Fleischmann chassis. A Chivers Avonside 0-4-0 on a Bachmann Dock Tank chassis (now amaiting a new motor!) and a repainted and glazed Roco diesel (owning one of these is obligatory!). A freelance rail-bus sitting on the useful Kato 'Shortie' chassis, this can be seen below right.

I aim for hands free operation so Greenwich etched couplings have been used. Uncoupling is achieved by hidden magnets. The 'Greenwich Coupling' is available from Parkside Dundas.

Conclusions

As a 'quickie', this layout has certainly achieved its goal. To reach its current state is has taken about 8 months with most of the work being done in the last 3.

The layout's first outing to the Egham & Staines MRS Show in January highlighted the advantages of having a small layout to cart around to shows. I was up an running in under 10 minutes from parking up. At the end of the show packing up took under 5 minutes! The layout and stand fits nicely into the back of the saloon car.

Apart from portability, another one of the goals I wanted to achieve was to create an industrial narrow gauge railway scene a little like a stage set or painting, a diorama with movement. The eye had to be drawn into the scene, the eye not being tempted to wonder off set. Has it worked? Only you can decide that.