On The Move

It occured to me while we were packing up the layout at Railex a few weeks ago that you might be vaguely interested in seeing how we transport the layout.

I've heard stories about a number of modellers who have built lovingly built their layouts but left it until the eve of their exhibition debut to give any consideration to the best way of transporting it about.

In a way I suppose it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. The public doesn't generally get to see exhibtion layouts being set up or knocked down, so unless you've actually attended with your own or someone else's layout how are you to know how other modellers do it?

We transport Bron Hebog (or as much of it as there is at the moment) with the boards in pairs.

As you can see they are mated front to front and fixed with wooded transport panels at either end. The profile of the scenery and any structures or trees etc dicate how close they can be mounted.  As you can see in these shots, some are closer together than others.

In a neat piece of design Himself has arranged it so the metal dowels and clips which locate and the lock the boards to each other when the layout is assembled double up to locate and hold these transport panels on either end.

Being a 'belt and braces' man there is also a small bolt at the top and bottom just incase the panels should unclip in transit.

And here is a snap showing the tressels we use to support the layout at shows.  The larger one on the right goes under the widest section of the layout.  As you can see, they fit together quite neatly and are held in place with bungee straps for the journey.