Thinking is dangerous ....
Entry posted by Steve Stubbs
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Having run up against the Law of Sod, I powered up Templot to see what could be done with the under floor clashes caused by moving to sub-board turnout operating units instead of wire in a tube on the surface.. Clearly moving a couple of turnouts either left or right a few inches would cure the immediate problem, so I did that and then printed up a full size version to check out the clearances etc. This was done by populating the stuck together full size sheets (13 in all) with rolling stock. A number of things became apparent. Firstly the siding space available for freight rolling stock still allows 65 four-wheelers to be on the layout, if all available siding space is used. This is down from the 70 on the previous version but not significantly so. What did surprise me was that I actually had 65 4-wheelers with 2mm wheels on them! Secondly the run around loop also had to be lengthened by an inch or so as previously I had used 57' and 50' passenger stock, now I wanted to be able to use 5 of the 63'6" Mk 1's in the main platform, without having to use the station pilot to release main line locos. This was achieved by moving the crossover slightly towards the buffers, but still allowing for 'Western' sized train locos to push back, uncouple and run-around. Fiddling around with stock on the revised entry to the goods shed showed a slightly smaller cut of wagons could be on that road / in-shed/ but still enough to overhang the shed on both sides. The revision to the run around loop means that the maximum arrival / departure length for freights will be 25 4-wheelers or the equivalent.
Then an idle thought passed through (there being nothing between the ears to stop it). Previously having used road adjacent to the entry road turnout as the loco siding meant that space was always going to be tight for loco support facilities such as a coaling stage and diesel refuelling point (if I ever got around to adding the scenery to the layout). The revision to the goods shed entry direction and conversion of the kick-back road into an ordinary siding had freed up space there. Hmmmm. If I was to reassign that new siding as the loco holding road then that problem was solved, and the previous loco holding road could be better used. In fact it could make up the missing piece of the jigsaw, a carriage siding. That only needed to be long enough to hold a local passenger, say 4 suburbans or a three car DMU. That in turn meant the yard siding nearest the arrival road could be 's' - curved and allow room for a ramp down from the over bridge road that masks the cassette joining point, thereby allowing vehicle access into the goods yard, a weighbridge and associated huts.
So back to Templot and another couple of hours shuffling track. The resultant amended (and final) trackplan is shown below.
Photos 1 to 3 show the three boards, photo 4 shows the whole scenic layout bit (with cassettes on one end). The width will be circa 4 inches deeper as the bolt-on low relief townscape goes on the operating (signal box) side.
The full three track boards are 2.8 metres by 28 cms. Now to complete the turnout timbering and start building....... Nurse! The Screens!.................
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