Heworth Sidings - Update - 20/04/2013

Entry posted by Vonzack April 20, 2013

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Hi,

It's been a very long time (six months) since the last blog entry was posted, so what on earth has been going on!

Following the last entry we had just operated the layout at our Clubs annual Open Weekend and we were just trying to finalise our ideas for the Scenic portion of the layout. We had rough ideas of what we wanted to do, but it was time to sit down as a group and discuss in detail what we wanted to achieve.

Track

Our original decision to use Wooden Sleeper Track for Heworth was taken before we had a firm idea of the era's which we had intended to run and the more reference material we looked at to support what we were going to do scenically, the easier it became to see that it was the wrong choice. The problem was, the track was down, wired and working.

Replacing the Main Lines on the Scenic Boards with Concrete Sleeper track, was probably one of the most difficult decisions we have had to make as a group and it has meant that Scenic work has had to be put on hold. However, while we were discussing our signalling scheme for the layout, we discovered that some of our track blocks were not in the correct places and this did give us the opportunity to re-work things slightly, so that the layout could be worked more prototypically.

Signalling

Our intention is to eventually have working signals on the layout and our original thoughts had been to use 4 aspect signals. However, when we received some feedback on our signalling plans, it was clear that we were trying to cram too many signals / blocks onto the scenic section. We asked for advice on the signalling forum and with other's help came up with a revised signalling and block plan. Looking at this new plan, we discovered that the layout would probably be more prototypical with 3 aspect signals.

Scenics

Our plans for the layout are quite simple, the left hand side of the layout would have the main running lines at the front, further back the on-scene sidings and providing the break to the off-scene area would be an embankment which once used to be a branch line, now dis-used. The embankment would have earth banking on the far left and as it approaches the centre board, would transition into a brick retaining wall.

The centre board would have something like a plate bridge to provide the access to the off-scene sidings. This bridge when the embankment was still in use by the branch line, would have continued over the main lines. However, the bridge over the main lines has been removed to allow for electrification, but the embankment on the far side of the lines is still in place.

On the right hand side of the layout, there are a small number of industrial units towards the back of the layout and these may incorporate some low or half relief buildings attached to the back scene.

The back scene will run along the entire length of the layout and will be around 12" high.

I'll close the post with a few pics showing our current progress constructing the base structure of the embankment on the left hand side of the layout.