Tweedale - The Tour
Entry posted by awoodford
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This 2nd blog installment describes the Tweedale layout in a bit more detail, with a tour of each station in turn.
As might be guessed from the name, the railway supposedly serves an area known as Tweedale, but apart from that it has no particular history or geographical location, it just is. My interest is in shunting puzzles and the layout was designed with that in mind. A number of industrial supply chains have been set up as a foundation for the layout operation, best explained in a tour of the line.
Here's the track plan again for reference...
The rightmost scene (scene 4) represents the top end of the line and is called Dale End - an unimaginitive name but gives it a sense of place.
This section was added as an afterthought on a 9 inch extension to the original layout, and is the smallest of the scenes. It is also rather dark, being beyond the original extent of the flourescent lighting tubes. The scenic work has not yet commenced, and is likely to be quite a challenge in such a small space. The intention is that there will be a sawmill, with a forest of conifers rising up a hillside at the back to hide the corner in the sky. The sawmill is the main industry here but the area also generates some livestock traffic. An ethanol plant, utilising waste wood from the mill gives an excuse to bring a tank wagon up here occasionally.
Next down the line we come to The Pits, the rural area in scene 2.
A lane winds down into the scene from the front, which turned out to be a bad design decision - the higher ground at the front tends to block the rest of the scene beyond, unless you are standing very close. That will have to be dealt with in due course. The siding behind the station serves a mine, represented on the backscene. Due to the complicated geology hereabouts almost anything of a mineral nature could come out of that hole in the ground. A cattle dock and a store for the local farmers' cooperative are also provided here. The scene still needs some work - the miners' houses need constructing, and there will be more trees in the foreground to act as view-blockers to the adjacent scenes.
Those two stations provide Tweedale's source of raw materials - timber, minerals and agricultural produce.
Continuing on, we come to what will eventually be the heavy-industrial town of Slaghill, the upper level of scene 1.
Again scenic work has not started on this section. This is where minerals from the mine are processed. I envisage a complicated mishmash of chemical, steel, gas and cement works, mainly on the backscene, but with selected bits protruding into the 3D space.
The line next passes through the quaint old town of Poshington-Upon-Twee, in scene 3.
With its old houses and narrow streets, it is home to most of the consuming population of Tweedale. It was supposed to represent a 'superior' sort of place, like Harrogate or Beverley. Unfortunately the retaining walls and housebacks rather let down the image, so the minster was added to the backscene by way of compensation. This is the most complete scene so far, and just needs a few more details around the station area. Wagons for the town are parked on the main line, which adds a bit of spice to operations. I could probably have squeezed a goods siding in at the front, from the sector plate, but the lighting would have placed the rolling stock in deep shadow.
Lastly we come to Grimley, the lower level of scene 1. This is the manufacturing centre, turning the processed materials from Slaghill into the useless commodities demanded by the public of Poshington. Here I envisage a shanty town of artisans' workshops and factories. Slaghill and Grimley will likely merge into one industrial mess, but in my mind I'll treat them as completely seperate towns. Livestock from Upper Tweedale also makes its one way journey down here, to an abattoir and pie factory. The pies go on to Poshington. Offal gets sent to the chemical works at Slaghill to be turned into cosmetics. Toxic waste from the chemical works gets taken to The Pits to be dumped into disused mine shafts, where no doubt it gets into the local watertable to be absorbed by the next generation of livestock. So it goes round.
As can be seen, prototypical realism comes quite a way down the list of priorities. I guess its not to everyone's taste, but it suits me just fine, and provides plenty of operating potential despite its simple design.
Cheers, Alan.
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