Barry Ten's Blog

Always good to have more shunting options.

This looks to be a very useful modification.  It also brings out the importance of painting the sides of the rails - a key step that some modellers tend to miss.  I look forward to seeing the finished version.

I should add that I removed the existing trailing connection from the up line (the pair of points under the road bridge) and am reinstating the trailing connection further back, so that a complete train can be set back into the yard from the down line. It can there either be shunted by the down goods engine (after a run-round move) or left to be attended by the next up goods.

 

The up starter signal (near the barrow crossing) was removed as part of the works. I was initially under the assumption it ought to be relocated to the end of the up platform, protecting the crossing from the down line - indeed, that seems to be a common arrangement. But looking at some track and signalling diagrams in the four volumes of RH Clarke, I see that Aldermaston (for instance) still has its starter signal in the same location as mine would have been. Presumably if the crossing had to be protected, it would be done so with the home signal in advance of the platform, so that no train could enter the block if a shunting move was necessary.

 

It would be academic, but the up platform is quite short, so if a train engine is required to stop in advance of the single-slip, with anything more than four coaches, the rear part of the train will still be straddling the level crossing. Perhaps that sort of thing wasn't uncommon, especially if the station stop would be timetabled to be relatively brief and the road traffic not particularly heavy.