Scale: N gauge (2mm:1ft)
Layout size: 4ft 4ins x 8ins
Era: 10 Rebuilding of the railways (2005-2015)
Draxbridge is a freight yard/TMD in the modern era. The layout's look is inspired by Plan 24 in the PECO setrack gauge planbook.
The name Draxbridge came from two things on the layout:
Drax - the power station backscene. It is a Gaugemaster product.
Bridge - the bridge dividing the scenic section and the fiddle yard.
Some of the brick wall that runs along the back of the layout in the planbook has been replaced by security fencing on Draxbridge. Security fencing is a must for any modern day yard, depot or TMD so it definitely needed some.
I decided to put the security fencing at the back of the layout rather than the front as on the plan as people could catch it on their sleeves and damage the fencing. Also because it's very delicate and likely to break so this is the reason why there's security fencing and then a brick wall that runs along the back of the layout.
There are two portacabins in the plan in the book: one near the entrance of the yard and one next to some kind of shed. I decided to keep the first portacabin in the same position as in the planbook while I worked out what to do with the second (more of that one later).
In the middle of where the lorries turn round after delivering their goods is a bit of greenery. This wasn't originally in the plan. I decided to have this here as I wanted to break up all the grey road surface on the layout. I then put single tree and a few telegraph poles on there and it's blended in with the rest of the layout.
The road bridge was my idea. I wanted some sort of scenics break between the scenic section and the fiddle yard. I didn't want a tunnel or a visible rectangular hole cut in the backscene so a bridge was a must. Sure, it may be a bit too tall and bridges normally don't have tunnels running through them but it works.
You'll notice that on the layout. there is a missing building: the one next to the TMD which has the portacabin next to it (remember that one?).
I figured that the shed would fit on the layout perfectly fine. The portacabin? Not so much. You had to somehow find space for both the shed AND the portacabin on the same spot of the layout (This was where the 2nd portacabin was going to go) I first thought of just having the one portacabin on the layout (the one near the entrance) but the pack I brought came with two. I definitely wasn't going to build another N gauge layout just to house the other portacabin so I had to use both. My second thought was moving the portacabin to a different place on the layout but in the same area. Then I realized it would look too crowded.
In the end the second portacabin won the "fight" and I decided to ignore the plan completely and abandoned the shed idea. There simply wasn't enough room for the both of them. The portacabin was then situated in between the TMD and one of the entrances/exits to the fiddle yard.
Rolling stock
Locomotives:
Diesel:
Class 08 08585 - Freightliner livery
Class 31 31602 Driver Dave Green - Network Rail livery
Class 66 66503 - Freightliner 'powerhaul' livery
Class 66 66783 The Flying Dustman - GBRf/Biffa livery
Class 73 73121 - Network Rail livery
Wagons and coaches:
HIA wagons (Freightliner Heavy Haul)
MJA wagons (Freightliner Heavy Haul)
IOA wagons (Network Rail)
FEAB Spine wagons (Freightliner)
ISP Snowplough (Network Rail)
BR Mk1 Ex-BG Network Rail generator coach
BR Mk1 BCK Network Rail
Pictures:
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