Hampton Field Railway, Wiltshire. Potted history

[ba14eagle]

Hello. My name is Iain and my railway is "The Hampton Field Railway".

The railway was originally built during 1999/2000 and was "the Hampton Field Military Railway" - inspired by the internal railway systems at Bicester, Kineton and Long Marston etc. It was basically an O gauge, single track oval with various loops & spurs that served warehouses and depots on the military site. Rolling stock was a large collection of the Lima O gauge range, powered by on-board batteries and radio controlled.

In 2007 the O gauge was lifted (for various reasons) and the "Hampton Field Railway version 2" came into being. A simple G scale oval that allowed Bachmann Big Hauler trains (still battery powered, radio controlled) to meander around the garden, requiring little attention on my part - just running in the background whilst I pottered about the garden or entertained guests. (Why is it that when you tell people you have a railway in your garden, they assume its one that you can ride on ).

However, I recently bumped into an old spotting days friend from my youth and we started talking about model railways (he has always been a OO man), particularly the advances in OO with DCC operation and sound. We were in my garden at the time and he's trying to tempt me with ideas of OO gauge mainlines in the garden. I start to look at the internet and find this website. I am now convinced that OO DCC could be the way forward. Sure enough, the Hampton Field Railway trackbed now looks like the Somerset and Dorset post 1966! When funds & the British weather permit, a new double track mainline is to be developed and I will be on HFR version 3! If people are interested I will add some more posts explaining how it was all built, possibly including photos of versions 1 & 2, if my very basic IT skills allow it.

[mick]

Hi Iain and welcome to the forum.

I'm delighted that you have decided to introduce the Hampton Field Railway and I certainly look forward to hearing more about it.

I've never considered any of the larger scales because I've always been keen to operate trains that I know well in the way that I always remember them. That means diesel traction from the period 1980-2005 and with a prototypical number of wagons in tow. As an ex freight guard working primarily with the transportation of coal traffic I've got a fondness for recreating that in model form so I like to sit back with the sound of a diesel loco hauling upwards of 30-40 coal wagons around the garden. OO gauge gives me the opportunity to do just that. The garden allows me the appropriate space and the RTR manufacturers in OO gauge provide me with almost all the stock I could ever need.

I'm sure you won't regret a switch to OO gauge. It's obviously going to be smaller than what you have been accustomed to but it's certainly possible to operate successfully outdoors. I've had some remedial work to carry out on my layout because I hadn't done the work correctly in the first place but ongoing maintenance just adds to the enjoyment. I really have been surprised at how reliable OO can be outdoors but it's worth remembering that it's easier to get the initial construction correct than have to change something later.

So, keep us informed of the development of HFR v3 and provide a look back at versions 1 & 2. Even if you're not doing any construction just yet you can always drop in for a chat.

Mick

[Dave]

Welcome to the Forum, Iain

The Hampton Field Railway certainly sounds like it has had an interesting history and I know I'd be interested in reading about how it has been or your ideas for its future!

Dave.

[ba14eagle]

A few photos showing HFMR1, with Lima O gauge rolling stock. The Warflat type wagon was a cut and shut job on a container wagon, with added decking.

[mick]

Where's the helicopter

It's a shame that this is no more because it looks a whole lot of fun. It also looks very well done with track laying that puts my own efforts to shame I had hoped that I would be able to blend my OO gauge into the garden scenery as well as you've managed to do here but I think I need to go back and look at mine again. I suppose the larger scale and the fact that you can operate at ground level makes landscaping somewhat easier. The scenic area behind the 4F where the helipad is located looks amazing.

I did look at Lima O gauge myself some years ago having been drawn by the sheer size of some Lima MK1 coaches I had seen for sale at a very reasonable price. I daren't even begin to think about that again.

Have you kept hold of the O gauge stock during subsequent change of scales?

[ba14eagle]

I hunted high and low for helicopters - nothing readily available in the scale for sensible money! The actual helipad is very small for the scale, so anything near O scale would have been huge. The helipad is still there and so I am going to incorporate it in as part of the scenery of HFR3. Hornby did a Control Tower as part of their Skaledale range, which I am on the look out for. I am also confident there will be a helicopter available from someone like Corgi in the smaller scale.

As far as the Lima rolling stock was concerned, some was sold through a contact at work and the rest sold via a well known internet auction site - most of this went to a collector in Italy!

Presently got my fingers crossed for some fair weather next week, so as to make some progress with re-fettling the trackbed.

[mick]

What's the current position with the trackbed? Have you got some OO gauge track already installed or are you starting from scratch? Will you be laying track on top of the original O gauge track bed or branching off in other directions? Is it to be at ground level again as previous versions?

Sorry for all the questions (sometimes feels like I'm prying) - just trying to get a clearer picture of what's involved and how you're going to tackle it. I enjoy reading about how people have constructed their layout and how the layout has evolved over time.

[mick]

HamptonFieldRailway said:

... Hornby did a Control Tower as part of their Skaledale range, which I am on the look out for.

There are a couple of Hornby R8989 Skaledale Control Towers listed on eBay, both new and priced around the £15-£16 mark plus postage. Just do a search for 'Hornby R8989' if these are any use to you.

[ba14eagle]

Mick.

I have recently finished clearing the trackbed of the last of the g scale ballasting and have done a little work with a surform, but still have much to do. It is very frustrating that it seems to be really wet on my rest days and dry when Im at work! There are a couple of places around the trackbed where I need to widen it a bit, so as to accommodate double track and where I want to put in a station platform - as this involves mixing concrete / rubbercrete it obviously needs to be dry and not too cold. I also have 2 or 3 places where the trackbed needs humps ironing out (ok with large scale track but I think it will be troublesome to OO track & stock) and a length of about a foot, where the surface has suffered a little degradation. These will be sorted out by the addition of a little more rubbercrete (refer to construction technique forum for description).

When I am in a position to start laying track (I have been distracted from the track buying by spending money on really cheap Skaledale buildings and ltd edition S&T wagons......) I am planning on the line being basically a double track mainline with a loop in each line. I aim to complete the inner line first so as to get it up and running relatively quickly, before laying the outer line. There is also an option that I am currently considering, which would utilise a very wide part of trackbed (In the days of the HFMR, there was a large warehouse building that the trains disappeared into) as a loco depot/stabling point. The trackbed is fairly wide over the backside of the layout and could accommodate more lines / loops, but I want to keep all the pointwork at the front of the layout, where it can be changed by hand. As with the G scale set up, I dont want it to be too complicated or requiring too much intervention by me when running. Sit in a chair, cool beverage in hand, whilst watching my favourite 1980's diesels make music around the garden

Thanks to those who found the Airfield Control Tower on EBay - I managed to pick one up at my local Hobbycraft store.

[mick]

I echo your thoughts and think it's wise to keep things as simple as possible for outdoor running. The more track and points you incorporate, the longer it's going to take to clean and prepare before you can have a successful running session. It was always my desire to simply sit and watch trains passing by so I intentionally kept mine as simple as I could.

Do you remember the OO gauge Daventry Garden Railway from the 1980s(?) It featured a number of times in the model railway magazines at the time and was a multi-tracked layout that seemed to have several trains in operation at any one time. Must have been quite a task in those days to keep it all operational which was perhaps one of the reasons behind the owners decision to later change to the larger scales. That's the layout that initiated my interest in outdoor OO gauge railways more than any other and I still remember it with great affection to this day.

[ba14eagle]

Video footage of the Hampton Field Railway can now be found on my YouTube channel, ba14eagle.

[ba14eagle]

There hasnt been much to report from Wiltshire for a while, but now there is!

Thanks to the cracking weather we have enjoyed over the last month I have been able to start tracklaying around the garden, after some remedial work was carried out on the trackbed (see other thread in trackbase construction section). I finally joined up the first circuit yesterday and ran some trains. This soon showed up that despite me thinking I had done sufficient work on the trackbed to get a good surface to run on, I was far from that point. There was a section of about 4 foot that resembled a "runaway mine train" type ride and at the end of it, my bachmann mk1' s kept parting, although this could be a problem with the couplings.

Anyway, in an attempt to avoid annoying problems, I have lifted 3 yards of track, removed some large rocks, shifted some plants and put down a bit more rubbercrete! I now look forward to the end of the week when I can spare the time to get back out in the garden and rub this down a bit, so as to relay the track. The work should give me something more level to work on, but also removes a tight reverse curve and replaces it with a smooth, shallow curve. Once this has been done I will post a few pictures and get some video footage on my YouTube channel. My Heljan 33 with Howes sound is absolutely awesome with its train of Mk1's

Something else my test running has bought to light is that my Dynamasis controller does not work brilliantly outside, so that might need a rethink...

[cleanerg6e]

Have you found that the sunlight interferes with the infra red beam of your Dynamis. I think that outside you either have plug into mains DCC or Radio DCC such as Gaugemaster Prodigy. If you can plug your Dynamis directly into your command station that may solve the problem, but you'll have to have the command station outside on an extension cord.

[mick]

Good to hear of some progress and looking forward to seeing it just as soon as you can get some video sorted. I'm also looking forward to hearing the class 33 as it's a class of loco that I don't have in my collection and I'm a fan of the Howes sounds.

Regarding the MK1's, although I've had my own share of problems with the couplings it's usually been derailments rather than any instance of them uncoupling. If you're still using the standard couplings then I'd say it's the track rather than the couplings that's causing them to come apart. I've found on some other stock that even the slightest dip in track level, even if only for a couple of inches or so, is sufficient to cause wagons and coaches to uncouple.

I've seen it stated on other online forums that the Dynamis can be troublesome outdoors, especially in bright sunlight. I'm not familiar with the Dynamis but from reading Roy's response I assume the handset communicates with the control box wirelessly and that it's that signal which causes problems outdoors. Does it have the option of a wire connection as Roy suggests? I can see that a wireless connection would be the preferred choice as from my own experience it would make things so much easier. I'm looking at incorporating some extension sockets into my Prodigy controller so that I have a choice of operating position.

[ba14eagle]

Mick

You and Roy have probably hit the nail on the head regarding my problems with the Dynamis. I tried putting the base station in shade and it worked better, though not as I want it to. This is something that I am going to have to do some more work on, whether I keep it or go for a different system. I think something like the Hornby Elite would do my simple needs, but I am not convinced by it somehow I am not entirely sure it will have enough functions for all the sounds in my locos or is that rubbish? I need to read all the info again...

The 33 really is good - when you start it up, there is definitely no way you could confuse it for anything else - if only it did that little "body roll" thing that the real ones do when the engine first turns over.........

Iain

[mick]

I'm not familiar with the number of available function buttons on the Hornby Elite. I believe the smaller Hornby Select digital controller is unable to use the full array of sound functions on some locos but perhaps the Elite is more capable?

Funnily enough I use very few of the available sound options on the majority of my sound-equipped locos. Obviously I turn the sound on and off and occasionally give the odd whistle or two but rarely do I use any of the other sounds so a controller with limited function buttons wouldn't be so much of a problem in use on my layout providing the more commonly used options are accessible with the lower function buttons.

I've heard others comment on the distictive wobble of a class 33 when it's started. I remember something along similar lines, but perhaps to a lesser degree, with the class 56s. The only thing missing is a thick cloud of choking exhaust!

[cleanerg6e]

I read on the DCC Concepts website a review of DCC systems and although it seemed to be fairly unbiased they did have a few words to say on the Hornby DCC systems. On the 'Select' they say they read a review in a German magazine and although the review was in German the last line was in English, "Return to the manufacturer". They found the "Elite hard to operate and found the Digitrax manual chock a block full of techno jargon as was the Lenz manual.

Of the Gaugemaster Prodigy Wireless, they said although very similar to the NCE wireless throttle, it CANNOT be used in one hand only as the NCE wireless throttle can. Zimo is the "Rolls Royce" of DCC systems but with a "Rolls Royce" price to go with it. With the Bachmann Dynamis system you have to buy extra hardware in order to get the full benefit of the Dynamis system which they said is wrong. You should get a full system to start with. They like the NCE Power car and Pro Cab system (the wireless 5 amp Pro cab is what I have and it cost me 500 pounds for 1 wireless throttle, command station and AC power transformer which puts 14.25 volts of power to the rails. Extra wireless throttles are 150 pounds each. The throttles take 4 AAA batteries each.)

ZTC was mentioned but due to the company having changed hands a couple of times no research and development into better products has taken place and it's system should be ( in their opinion) on your shopping list where the letter Z is in the alphabet.

I have found my NCE very easy to operate and as I read in an American Magazine a chap who wrote "Operating a DCC system should be like learning to drive a car, you should know where to put the petrol or diesel in, how to check the radiator and oil levels and change a flat tyre. But there's no need to know the inner workings of the internal combustion engine and it's effect on the wheels through a multi- geared transmission". It's the same with DCC and it seems that some manufactures seem to think you need to be a techno geek in order to operate their system. I have read on a website called "Marcus's DCC for Dummies" that you need to have multiple power boosters and a car tail light bulb wired into every section under the control of a booster to light up if there's a short circuit.

Well I only have the booster in by command station and that can run six locos in action at the same time. The shop where I bought the DCC system said " well yes but if you run more than 30 locos at once you'll need extra boosters. I said "what do you think I am , an octopus".

Roy.

[ba14eagle]

Roy

LOL My 12 yr old son was trying to impress me yesterday by running 2 trains at once on the single line The idea of running more than 2 trains on any one line at once fills me with fear..More to the point, fitting decoders to any more than about a dozen locos fills my bank manager with fear

[chris]

Running more than one train on a single line isn't too much of a problem for me, It's running more than one train on a single controller that gets me confused.

If a train is associated with a particular controller then I'm OK keeping an I eye on it's speed and direction, but If I have to switch between loco's on one controller then things invariably go wrong, and I end up looking at the run loco and wondering why it isn't responding to commands, usually while the one I'm actually controlling is heading for a crash.

[ba14eagle]

A quick update from down here in the West Country.

All track has now been laid, feeds attached and track joints bonded. I purchased a Hornby Elite controller, which is working well. It takes a bit of thinking about in operation, but not so much that I havent been able to get to the stage of running 2 trains on the same circuit, keeping pace with each other. (Ive not attempted this on both circuits at the same time though ) Fine weather permitting, ballasting at least some of the line is the next job.

My out-of-the-box Peco electrofrog points are working as they should (I have isolating fishplates on the frog ends and separate feeds to each siding / loop) and even my Bachmann coaches are staying together as they should. I have managed a number of decent length running sessions on the good weather days and am looking forward to some friends coming round for a running day, with their locos, at the end of August.

Thinking ahead, the dark winter evenings are starting to be mapped out for me - there is a lot of work to do detailing and weathering rolling stock - the amount of which is steadily growing.