After all that assembly yesterday, today was a research day. And I stumbled on something which may be relevant to designing the track layout. There is an excelklent website on Nuneaton's history which includes this:

http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/on-london--north-western-railway-lines.html

Lots of photos to view, including many of the LNWR, later LMS, shed. The latest turntable to be constructed was a 60ft Ransom and Rapier and this was used by the various locos on shed, ranging up to Stanier 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s. But not the Stanier Pacifics or Standard 9Fs, which were banned as they were just too long to fit. I am not sure how often a Stanier pacific visited Nuneaton, though cosmetically restored 46235 City of Birmingham was stored there for several months on its way to the old Museum of Science and Industry in Newhall Street, Birmingham.

This begs the question as to whether I really need a 70ft turntable. All my reference books on the subject are in England at the moment, but looking at various web sites it would appear that any of the Stanier 4-6-0s would fit the 60ft turntable. Although the difference in size may not seem much, there is the possibility that with a 60t diameter I could fit in four roads each side of the turntable instead of three.

However, there is something to be said for not cramming in too much into the already relatively small space. Having the buildings and tracks spread out will give a better impression of size and allow more room for all the small details that are intended.

Another observation is that most model engine sheds are simply that - a shed for engines. In real life there were offices, stores and so on and these are rarely catered for in the RTR models. Or if they are, they are too small. So I expect to scratchbuild all the buildings, eventually.