"Bashington" N gauge preservation layout

[Staners]

N gauge DC layout built in about 6 months. I wanted a small layout to operate on and be able to take places, able to operate under DC and DCC (future-proof!), be able to run as much of my stock as possible while being plausible to a prototype, have enough capability to me entertained without having an overly extravagant track plan and not to be too big thus making the project overly ambitious.

From this I created this:

 

A small branch line terminus in the south of England served by two lines, one from the east one from the west. The western a small heritage railway (giving me any excuse to run any locos in preservation and mainline services similar to what now has happened at Swanage) and to the east a branch to the mainline allowing short passenger DMU's (once a double track line, of course cut due to beaching, the viaduct was added after hence why the trackbed doesn't have a portal) (one day I might look into the possibility of running a short section of the Riviera Sleeper that has split off at Burton Drew (interesting traction situation would arise!)). A small spur peels or to the harbour where freight operations can occur, maybe the harbour is small and thus only short freight services run (giving me a reason to run freight services with lots of variety while able to run them round in a small loop at Bashington).

If you aren't already aware i'm extremely keen on having a realistic prototype that isn't stupid! While I'm all for the "its your layout do what you like" approach I prefer to make sure that its within the bounds of realism and that once it has happened or that one day it realistically might.

 

 

Location of layout and surrounding railways

 

 

 

[Staners]

Few shots of the layouts early days.....

 

Shot from the viaduct over the layout onto the engineers/private sidings

 

Beffore the bridge was replaced with a viaduct here is the view of the porter cabins

 

Network Rail Class 57 sits in the engineers/private sidings

 

Busy looking fiddle yard.....

 

Really old photo of the track just after being laid pre-ballasting

 

Overall veiw of the track plan... not much has changed since then.....

 

Before putting the layout into the box I checked the track plan to make sure of distances like headhunt length etc.

[Staners]

Few update shots of the layout

 

Overview of the layout

 

The main traction of the heritage railway consists of a N class, 4MT and 14xx

 

Southern Turbostar passes in front of the signal box on its way to Castlecliff

 

The N class pulls a train of 12 ton ventilated boxes into Bashington on the Goods Weekend

 

The 4MT taking brake van rides around Bashington is seen in the loop

 

N class n.o. 31811 sits in platfom 1&2 on a layover

 

14xx sits in the engineers/private siding on the Goods Weekend

 

Once again on the Goods Weekend we see the 4MT with a mixed SR set ready to depart Bashington

 

The alley at the top right of the layout running in front of the houses

 

The N class Brings a mixed passenger service into platform 3 - The service consists of a standard class MK1 and a MK1 Pullman on a private charter

 

On some occations services are Top and tailed (mainly when Bashington signal box is "Locked Out" and thus movement between network rail and the heritage railway is prohibited) in this case the service is hauled by a 4MT and N class

[Staners]

Few extra posts

 

3 landrovers sit in the corner of the engineers/private siding

 

view looking cross to the warehouses from the siding

 

Network rail Defender sits in the updated entrance to the siding next to the porter cabins

(sorry wouldn't except rotated image)

 

Network rail 57 sits in platform 3

 

57 Seen again with 4 Bluebell Railway grampus wagons