Advisory Note

Please Note: This blog contains poorly painted toy soldiers that may offend those of an aesthetically sensitive disposition.

Sunday, 22 February 2026

Do It YourShelf Toy Railway Layout: update 1

 Since discovering, via Bob Cordery's blogpost, the Budget Model Railways YouTube channel, I have been tinkering with ideas for my modest collection of OO Gauge track and rolling stock. Ideally, I would like a small oval with sidings, but as OO takes up quite a lot of space, I've started with a simple shunting layout and terminus station, to see if I have the aptitude for the job (my model making skills are not great!)

The shelf that's acting as baseboard was from B&Q (about 15Euro) and is approximately 1 metre by 30cm.

The shelf
To cut down the rumble I covered the shelf with some foam board sheets and painted it a pale grey.


Having decided on a track plan (after watching MANY Budget Model Railways (BMR) videos), I soon realised that I needed to widen the shelf a bit! In true BMR style I screwed some batton on to one edge before laying the track.

Batton attached to the top edge, pre-painting

The largest structure that I intend to build is the Station, so I started with that. 

Early work on platform design

The Platform was constructed from corrugated cardboard and foam board.


 The corrugated cardboard came with flatpack furniture from a popular Swedish outlet.

The Station building was designed as a walk-through affair with access to the Ticket Office being inside the tunnel. As I have mentioned before, I really like the design of the Hornby Dublo trackside buildings of the late 1950s, so my designs are a nod to them.

Station building during construction

View into the tunnel with Ticket Window visible.
On the opposite wall is a door into the Station Master's office.

The imposing clock is a printed shape stuck onto a 1" square mdf base. The windows and doors on this building were from a set made by Wills Kits. 

I've just started making a kiosk to go on the Platform; it's from the old Airfix trackside set, still being produced by Dapol.

Station building and platform on the layout.

The 20mm passenger is from the Airfix Station Accessories set (still produced by Dapol), now almost 70 years old!!

I intend to post more updates as parts of the layout (slowly) get completed.



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