Platform alteration
Entry posted by Barry Ten
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Something that's been brewing for a little while is a plan to add a bay platform and/or loading dock to the down platform, partly to add a little operational interest, but also to enable me to run my 14xx and autocoach and various railcars, which rarely get a spin on the current layout. It seems a waste of a whole storage loop just for a small train or unit, so they only occasionally get put on and given a run, but whenever I do, I find myself wishing I had a way to keep them on a layout. A bay siding, where the short train could tuck itself out of the way most of the time, but come out as needed, seemed an obvious solution. As to where that train then heads, whether it remains on the main line or heads off on a branch, is a story for another day, but in the meantime I thought I'd tackle the bay!
Owing to the curvature of the mainline at the south end of the down platform, a Peco long-radius point was very easily spliced into the formation with no need to adjust the curvature of the existing trackwork. Fortuitous! Sighting low with a mirror confirmed that the track was still maintaining a smooth curve through the point, with no nasty kinks at either end.
This provides the trailing connection to the bay, but what of the bay itself? There isn't room for a long bay platform, so there's no possibility of a 45xx and B-set fitting in, but there'll be ample room for a 14xx and autocoach, and/or a single-unit railcar with perhaps some tail-traffic. I also envisage parcels and milk vehicles using this bay when there isn't a passenger train present. In essence, all that's now required is for the existing platform to be cut back in width and modified/extended in length to accommodate the new bay. Luckily, most of the messy work of hacking and bodging can be done off the layout itself. Here's the space left after the down platform has been removed in its entirety, a two minute job involving only the disconnecting of some plugs under the baseboard, and the removal of the bridge and other loose items:
And here's the freshy-extracted platform, nervously waiting surgery:
The bay will go in on the right side of this platform, extending back to just before the small square hole which is where one of the platform lamps goes. The signal box will have to be re-sited, but that's no great problem especially as it's tucked away at a slightly awkward spot now. It might even migrate to the up platform.
Hope these changes-in-progress are of interest.
cheers.
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