Allegra

[madharry]

During the summer of 2025 my wife and I visited Lake Como in Italy. But the real purpose of the holiday was the desire to ride on the famed Rhatische Bahn Bernina Express. We travelled from Tirano, Italy to St. Moritz. It was a wonderful ride through beautiful scenery. I was intrigued by the way the train snaked around model train-like bends to gain height.

K.I.S.S.
Allegra was built in just six weeks whilst I took a break from my duties volunteering on the West Somerset Railway. I decided to keep things very simple. The layout could be replicated easily by anyone using off the shelf products.

Track
All track is Peco Setrack Code 80 with No. 1 and 2 radius curves. The turnouts are manually operated behind the backscene.
Baseboard
The layout uses a White Rose Modelworks baseboard kit. This is made of 9mm MDF. It measures 1500cm by 60 cm or 5ft by 2ft in old money.

[madharry]

Backscene
The backscene was formed with a spare sheet of Foamex to which I affixed an ID Backscenes mountain scene. I used a hot glue gun to attach the curved Foamex to the side walls. With the Foamex being 6ft wide to the boards 5ft, it forms a nice gentle curve which ensures there are no corners in the sky!

Whilst I travelled on the Bernina Express in the height of summer, I wanted to try a snow scene.

Firstly, the side walls were placed some 6 cm from the leading edge to allow for a water scene. I painted the water surface of the baseboard with an acrylic Cerulean Blue paint. Once this had dried, using a 2-inch brush I stippled several coats of Mod Podge Gloss-Lustre on to the surface. This goes on white but overnight the surface dries clear and leaves a convincing water surface.

Then I glued a sheet of 2.5 cm Celotex to the baseboard carving out a shoreline fronting the lake. A separate inlet was created for a small stream. I laid the track directly onto the foam and ballasted it with fine Chinchilla Dusting Powder. I then added some 5cm Celotex to form the hills merging into the backscene. I used a craft knife to create some interesting rockwork. All the foam apart from the track bed was then painted with some ready-mixed Artex. After this had dried I dry brushed the hills with chalks using a foam makeup sponge to accent the rock faces. The shoreline received some talus. The track disappears into the backscene via two Woodland Scenic tunnel portals. A small bridge from WWScenics carries the track over the stream.

[madharry]

Snow was added to the scene using a combination of snow products from Deluxe Materials and Woodland Scenics. The catenary poles are by Kato.

70+ trees were required for the layout. These were planted into the snowy foam without needing glue. I then applied a realistic snow effect on the branches using a Modelmates spray.

The scene was completed by adding two scratch-built wooden ski chalets together with children playing snowballs (Woodland Scenics).

[madharry]

A lighting pelmet completes the presentation equipped with a flexi LED light kit by Power Master. The pelmet itself is the product of never throwing anything away that could be useful one day! It was cut down from a plastic packing case and fixed to the layout sides using hot glue.

Rolling Stock
The stock is an all-Kato affair. This allows for three separate trains depicting the Bernina Express, Glacier Express and a Service train.
 
The roster includes:
Abe8/12 "Allegra" in charge of a rake of Bernina Express coaches
Ge4/4 -II 620 "RhB Club" with a rake of EW I coaches
Ge4/4 -III 643 with a rake of Glacier Express coaches

[elwoodblues]

This sounds like a very interested project.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.