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coombe junction - moorswater + 1?...

bcnPete

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Update - Thanks for all the comments of yesterday - really fired up to continue but unfortunately will have to hold off until early next week as a 'self invited' friend of my wife arrives to stay with us for the next 4 days :angry:

 

Been thinking again...which is always dangerous...and it's a possible 'future' extension for the layout, mainly arising from the discussions re the dries. When I originally conceived the layout on three boards, I had to make some compromises but as a minimum I wanted to include Coombe Junction halt, Moorswater viaduct and Moorswater dries to give an extract of the line. Various options were drawn and most included the actual 'Coombe Junction' where the line divides to Liskeard /Looe and features the steep incline, however I finally decided to drop this as I felt it didn't really add much to the operating potential of the layout and both lines would need to disappear into a clump of trees. It was always felt that this would be the logical future extension to the layout one day.

 

The extensions I have considered to date have never concentrated on the opposite end of the layout, namely the run-a-round loop in between Moorswater Viaduct and the dries. Here the wagons are run-a-round and propelled back into the dries by the loco which normally returned to Liskeard inbetween loading/unloading. Subsequent shuffling of the wagons in the dries was done by the EE shunter Sharon and more recently a modified county tractor. With space at a premium, I dropped this loop, hence my mini traverser concealed in the covered loading bay area to act as a loco release.

 

With this in mind, I sketched out a possible 'future' extension...which after all, is another IKEA shelf (I have a lot of spare ones in our cellar) and considered to add in the loop which would mean repositioning Moorswater viaduct (shown dotted on the sketch)

 

Here's the idea...

 

blogentry-3290-031781900 1289462610_thumb.jpg

Extra board (shelf) inserted as thus...

 

And here's a few pros and cons that I can think of so far:

 

:) Enhances operations as trains will be able to run around and propel wagons back into dries / more interesting train movements

:) Overall layout increases to 4.4M

:) Easy to add in another board as its just another IKEA shelf

:) One rake of loaded wagons can be in the dries whilst another rake of empties arrives in the loop, is propelled back and the loaded ones removed

:) Shunting in the dries can be undertaken by a scratchbuilt version of Sharon

 

:( The loop cannot be on a gentle curve as the prototype as it will need to follow the profile of the boards

:( Will increase the display frontage but will it be boring as it is amongst trees?

 

It's not something I will do now as I want to keep the focus of the layout on the three boards and I do not want any further distractions ;) but Moorswater Viaduct is already being made to be removable due to its height so it would be no problem to relocate that on the other board.

 

I would welcome any comments on this as usual - thanks for staying with me :D

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Kris
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You know that it makes sense don't you. If you were to put this in you could also add that outrageously sharp catch point that is present as well - Then wait to see who tells you that it's too sharp.

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bcnPete
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Kiwinewt - Many thanks...I have no relation to IKEA other than satisfied (LACK shelf) customer :lol:

 

Kris - The fact that I can only manage 5 :) and 2 :( must be a clue...that sharp point/siding you refer to was added after my time though...and I can't cheat on the 80's... ;)

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SteveBedding

Well it looks like a done deal then - I'm guessing that there were probably a few more :( when you first considered the extension but they appeared to have mitigated/ignored! (and frankly your second negative is no excuse - surely you can justify the odd Cornish pixie in the forest...).

 

As Kris said "You know that it makes sense don't you"

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bcnPete
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Steve - noted - Negative :( No 2 is a general concern though that if exhibited, this could be a bit of a dead spot (you know when you are at an exhibition, when you suddenly see a free pocket of space to stand in front of a layout...then you realise why no-one was standing there :rolleyes:)

 

I am no salesman but must admit am rather good at talking myself into something when required. TBH, if it weren't for the fact that I have to knock out 2 new turnouts (instantly doubling the amount of turnouts already on the layout) I would probably have already threaded the required 1100mm of easitrac by now!

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TomJ

Go on, you know you want too! I think the run round will add much more operating interest that the actual junction. I also particularly like the images of large locos squeezing through the trees. I'm a little concerned how many Ikea shelves you have, will we see the complete run to Liskard one day!

 

BTW can I ask how you join the Lack Shelves? Thinking about pinching your idea for a small layout. Do you run the electrics on top or underneath the board?

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bcnPete
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Hi Tom,

 

The more I keep thinking about it, the more I want to build it...but I do have to concentrate on the other 3 boards first...otherwise it will become the perfect distraction to completing the initial phases...a bit like the third board (Moorswater) is for me now...a way to avoid doing about 50 trees :D

 

In terms of the LACK shelves (we have about 20 bought as an initial quick fix shelving solution for our first apartment in the UK...they are now in their third property :O) I still haven't got around to joining them together yet! The sparks are all run beneath and I have just placed rubber grommets on the bottom to protect our dining room table (aka my workbench) and align them together by eye...so far no problems but I will design a frame structure for them to slot into for display purposes.

 

TBH, they are probably not well suited for good model railway baseboard construction, but they are cheap, lightweight, they haven't twisted, and have a discrete cantilevered fixing from the wall allowing me to slide them on/off in seconds - it's just I like the idea of having a layout on a series of pre made shelves...so much so I have 3 different layouts on them now in 2FS, 4mm and 7mm... :rolleyes:

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