The Model Layout
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My main goal for a modelling project on the BA consists in a modular layout. This is really a long-term medium-sized project.

In the short term and for experiment purposes, I have begun designing a diorama to model a BA station, now abandoned in favour of the two module project.

A snapshot on the modular layout project:

  • Scale: H0 & H0m (1/87)

  • Compliant with FFMF norms

  • Era: alternatively 1910 and 1950s to 1970s

The modular layout I’m currently designing actually comprises two networks, one is standard gauge (bridge line from Lyons to Nantes), the other is metre-gauge (the Blanc-Argent) and they intersect in Gièvres in the Loir et Cher department.

This will allow me to integrate my modules to standard gauge layouts as well as to narrow gauge layouts (metre-gauge H0m standard), by adopting the French Federation for Railway Modelling (FFMF) H0 and H0m norms for interfaces.

The integration of the two networks will also give me rich operation possibities in little space, given by the necessity to load and unload goods required by the different track gauges and connection between BA railcars and local and express trains on the Lyons-Nantes line.

I plan to adapt H0 modules at the ends of the layout with interfaces compliant to both French (FFMF) and Italian (FIMF) Federation for Railway Modelling norms.

The layout is still a project in the track plan phase; this is a long-term project that requires, despite its design, more room than I have now. Thus I needed to find a solution to allow me « run some trains » from time to time. The idea of a diorama came naturally to my mind, and I’ll also be able to have a concrete result before the eyes which will be very useful for the final project. This will be a sort of test.

A snapshot on the first diorama project:

  • Scale: H0m (1/87 metric gauge)

  • 1.20m x 0.60m

  • Era: 1910

The diorama will have standard dimensions (1.20m per 0.60m) and will model a BA station in 1910, thus only a few years after inauguration. Instead of choosing a particular station, my intention is to make a synthesis of several stations on the line: Solognot style (eg. Pruniers – 68KB), track plan inspired from the Valençay station (which has a loco shed and a few turntables), goods traffic representative of the whole line (cereals, timber etc.).

The diorama will be designed as a portable base, 1.20x0.60x0.21m. The cover, set in the vertical position, will serve as backdrop. The left and right sides will be removed during operation, the front side will have handles. See the specific page for more details.