GRC

The cement works next to the Aggregates yards provides the other key buildings for the layout consisting of the conveyor system for the hopper discharge feeding into the cement mixing, storage and what I think is a control unit. These are very close to the running lines and will have to be scratch built. The first picture taken from the entrance shows a general view of the site including what I assume is an old platform from a now totally cleared siding. The Control Building dominates this view but will be largely unseen from the viewing side/mainline side of the layout. The next two pictures show the siding and buffers, grey ballast here but brown on the mainlines so going to have to find the transition point. At the distant end of the siding you can see the gates and the control building for the hoppers to discharge into. This next shot shows a slightly wider view and with the overhead shots I have from Google earth whilst I cant see all of the detail I can size and place the various structures into position on the layout. The final shots here show the offices and administration buildings along the boundaries and on the layout will butt up to the back-scene. There are more photo's if anyone is interested some of which are on Flickr, Please message me for more.

Wiring and Electrics - The Plan My S&DJR layouts have all been DCC to date and see no reason now to build using DC. I've had some mixed success with Hornby Railmaster software on Sturminster Halt but that's more to do with the running of the Loco's and the track work than the software. DCC Cobalt motors have worked well but not been happy using the Gaugemaster DCC30 Controllers, Will use here Integrated Cobalt motors/controllers on this layout but also include manual switching to a mimic panel. The mimic panel potentially mounted over the fiddle yard or at the back, Needs to moveable though as this wouldn't work at home where the layout is operated from the front. Some complexity around the isolation, WSNG line 3 could be DC or DCC but needs to be switch-able if I want to bring a train on or off the scenic part of the module. Line 4 isn't used by WSNG but other modular layouts do so this will be configured the same way. Assume at this point a 2 way switch of some type (No Isolation, From WSNG Module, Isolated with DCC power. Key Points DCC control using either Hornby Elite/Trackmaster or Gaugemaster Prodigy Points using DCC cobalt motors Running tracks (WSNG) Linked at each end via 12 way blocks to other modules Mimic Panel, Indicator Lights ? Not sure, Manual Point control, Isolating switches Isolation on tracks 4 (Not used by WSNG but I could park a train here ? ) Isolation on track 3 (WSNG 3) to isolate this module from WSNG Wiring I use the same conventions on all my layouts for ease of remembering so the same here Main Track DCC Power Red and Black Point Motor Wiring Yellow and Orange Switched power from Points to Frogs Purple AC power Blue and Grey Test Track Pink and Green The Execution Some of the work went to plan and some not. I Soldered the dropper wire for all the feeds to the bottom of the track on the workbench once I have some idea of the size of the track or for the smaller pieces once they have been cut to size and not fitted. I typically cut away the end of the sleeper on each side a few away from each other and where possible prepare the tracks so the droppers go through the rail reasonably close to the other rails. This helps to keep the underneath reasonably tidy. I tin both ends of the dropper before joining to the rail. I may trim the dropper once fitted but this makes it easier to fir through the holes. Once the track is fitted with droppers it is fitted on the layout. For the scenic sections on the points I use the switched feeds from the point motors to feed the frog and then cut the rails a few sleepers into the point and then solder the final fixed piece to the stock rails so the actual moving parts of the point are not dependant on making electrical contact with the stock Rails ( Anyone not sure on this please ask but plenty of articles on this about) One mistake I made was not checking I had made the cuts deep enough with the Dremmel, took me ages to work out what I had done wrong. Next time I'll test all the points for continuity before fixing. I made the decision after writing the plan to not use a Mimic panel but rely on the Hornby Railmaster for the panel and to have Individual point controllers on each point reducing the amount of wiring considerably. Will have to see how this works in practice but up to now it seems to be ok. I've used the individual Cobalt controllers on each point or one between pairs where feasible. The picture below shows one of the boards and you can just see the connectors tucked up in clips out of the way The actual layout wiring was very simple, Red and Black droppers on each section of track all fed into Chocolate blocks and star wired back to the controller distribution on. I haven't done the cross board connector yet for the main boards but may add the AC feeds (Blue and Grey for me) onto that when I'm ready. I''ve retained the orange and Yellow here for the Point Motors to Point Controllers but have compromised and used the same colour for the WNSG Board wiring as I had it. The more complex areas were the West Sussex boards and particularly Tracks 3 and 4. What I've done in words is to isolate the ends of tracks 3 and 4 so they are fed by the next door modules track or connectors and connect these ends back to a DPDT switch on the south board next to the controllers. The Centre position of the 6 pin DPDT feeds back to the tracks for the length of the layout and then the other pair are connected to the main DCC supply. Therefore tracks 3 and 4 can be fed from the other modules, or fed by the DCC on the layout. I may introduce another switch in the DCC supply to have an alternative DC supply in the future. In this picture you can see both boards and how the wiring and point motors endup in big clusters for the fiddle yards. Next time I do a fiddle yard I may spread the points out a little more as I ended up having to cut down a couple of the point motors to get them to fit correctly. For the Board connectors I've used the WSNG standard 12 way RS components Plugs and sockets, Not cheap but very robust and significantly easier to solder up that a D type of any size. I've shown below the Connector overview and the detailed wiring in the connectors below Yet to do the wiring diagam in a soft version the isolating sections but may get to that in due course Couple of taster shots for you all, One of the RailMaster screen showing the Crawley Yard Mimic diagram and how the layout looks in the railway room. At home its operated from the end but for exhibiting from the rear so the PC and controller can be realigned to face the correct way for the operator.

Site survey completed, Aerial views analysed, Couple of train trips past the location to verify some of the details and I was ready to start the track planning piece. I'd already selected the location based on the alignment with the Main London Brighton line. The aerial views gave a good view of the current and probably historic layout so I just had to deal with the returns into the Fiddle Yard. The overall size was constrained by 2 main factors, firstly the length of a module for the WSNG standard and secondly what I could fit in on my existing frame in the railway room. Both 8 feet long by 2 ft wide. With the fiddle yard this was going to be tight so opted to increase the depth to 30 inches but make it removable for use at home if the extra 6 inches became a problem in the room. I normally do all my drawing by hand on graph paper but as that doesn't work very well for blogging have transposed this to excel which doesn't do the curves very well but gets all the track aligned. All the points are numbered ready for the point motors and wiring, The points at the front of the board are a mixture on short(for the sidings) and medium length for the line transitions. Peco 3 way points in the FiddleYard. Attached base board drawings Once the trackplan was completed then moved on with the position and think method of placing the points and sidings on the baseboards and starting the build on the aggregates facility as this was going to be the key building to fit into the area.

Visited the site on 26th January, Very cold but dry but still snow on the ground in places. Wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't able to get any views from the main line side. I figured that these pictures would be enough to get me started and a feel for the size and positioning on the layout. This post covers the main features of the Aggregate recycling facility. Off to a good start though as the Internet searching found this great aerial view of the Burdens Yard, Just what every modeller needs. This shows the position of the aggregate facility in the background to the right of Burdens. It looks awfully far back in the picture and this may be a challenge to fit it all in on the board. It may be that they have used a special lens though to enhance the Burdens yard view. The road /Hedge at the side of Burdens was I assume another siding and I have heard that it fed the large warehouse at the end (now a indoor Go Kart Track). Anyone able to confirm this? (not sure it makes a difference to the model but would be nice to know. The picture above taken from the road side or front shows the main aggregate building, the rail head to the left and the storage tanks on the side. The front building appears to be a lorry loading area and you can see all the way through to the other side. The chap working at the front in the orange boiler suit gives a good indication of the buildings size. Slightly different angle (across the airport car park ) Here you get to sense the scale. Ideal as a feature building on the layout. The view above shows the storage tanks in more detail and a key feature for the build even if the fine detailing on the pipes, ladders and walkways comes towards the end of the build of the build. Not sure what occurred with the camera, the green of the building looks different and not sure if I changed settings or its the light. Long way from worrying about colour at this point The view above is taken from just outside Burdens Yard on the south side. here you get a better sense of size and the relative shape of the building overall and the lorries are useful for getting some size perspective. The Conveyor loader here joins a shed on the right which I couldn't photograph with the main building. One of the more complicated pieces to model and almost certainly one of the last items to address. All the photo's and more are available on FlickR if you want to see more:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/94738636@N05/sets/72157635722119264/

The great thing and perhaps the worst is the ability to order up your own aerial photographs from in this case Google Earth to look at the location you have chosen and make sure it meets your requirements. Having identified the potential from train Simulator and confirmed with a couple of trips on the train the next thing was the aerial views. I've actually managed to do some screenshots from the google earth site using paint and included them below You can see the main London-Brighton line on the right had side of the picture with London towards the top. Gatwick is the next station northbound and Three Bridges southbound. At this level of zoom you can just see the main sidings and also where the old sidings ran but which are now roads. My original planning was to use the units running along Gatwick road with the larget warehouses as the backscene. Once the sizings and look of the layout started to come together this became impractical and so I have had to bring some of the larger warehouses forward and adjust some of the positions slightly to create the scene. Just south of here is a road bridge and I'm going to use this as the southen exit . There is a bridge futher north but too far away to be effective. The buildings in the North are part of a Bus depot and I'll hide the return curve behind one of the warehouses. Summersvere woods in the south and the Hedge line after the cement works to the north are then set to frame the cement works and Agggregate yard. The other main section is Burdens years which borders summesvere woods to the south. The picture above zooms in on the northern part of the site, The Cement works are in the north and the site of what looks like an old loading platform just below the hedge line. You can see a lot of cars parked in the north, unbelieveably this appears to be overflow parking from Gatwick, Not sure the owners would have know there car was going to be parked between an aggregate yard and cement Facility for a few weeks. In the Middle of the shot you can see the main aggregate building, Light green and this will form the main part of the Layout and will be subject of its own blog post when its made, The Railheads are interesting as the one which goes up the north side of the aggregates building is heavily obscured by aggregates and right at the entrance totally obscured by the vehcle track. At the bottom of the picture you can see the northern end of Burdens Yard. In the view above I've shown the potential line of the backscene with the buildings I'm going to drag forward to make as very low relief for the backscene. I'm still not sure at this point how the main Aggregates building will look or what to do about the backscene to the north of it. Next post the site visit and some photos. Managed to get a few from the train over the period, never great pictures but here's one from the Main line

One of the constraints mentioned in the last blog was the alignmenet with the Modular system used by the West Sussex Area Group (WSNG) of the N Gauge Society. Link Below http://www.wsng.co.uk/ The Modular system has some basic principles which I think are broadly aligned across the N Gauge Society but I'll just highlight the WSNG features. The first one is the the front 6 inches of the layout belongs to the club when connected. Tracks are laid at 2 inches, 3 and 5 from the front of the board. Tracks 1 and 2 from the front are only connected to the modules to the left and right, When the Modualr system is deployed either as a square or ene to end these connect through other modules to the club fiddleyards. The 3rd track can be connected to the owners module but has to be electrically isolated and switchable to prevent electrical challenges with the main supply. When running, the normal operation is to have a non stopping up and down service on tracks 1 and 2 and a stopping service on track 3 where the trains on this line can be swapped out with tracks from the owners module. The key benefits of a modular approach are that the different modules can be joined as required for each exhibition and the size of the layout can be modified for the venue. Each module is 4 Feet long but many people and this will include Crawley Yard exhibit as a pair creating an 8 foot long module. With the Modules all owned by individuals this can create an interesting effect with Japanese modules next to Swiss and then the UK and the scenary moving from summer to Winter and City to Countryside. This seems to work well for many visitors with lots of different scenes to look at and none so short that it becomes too overwhelming. What this does mean for Crawley Yard is that when being exhibited the trains running on the main London to Brighton line at the front (Tracks 1 and 2 ) will be an eclectic mix. For Crawley Yard I wanted something that I could use at home, as a standalone and also something to exhibit with the club so I have made some compromises, The design is based on 2 4Feet Boards which are 24 Inches wide plus two additional front boards of 6 Inches giving a total size of 8ft by 30 inches I wanted a fiddle yard and a continuous run so that meant that each end of the board needed a return and have managed 11inch or so diameter curves on the main board. The fiddle yard has 6 roads built using the new 3 way points from Peco. The main line on the board takes feeds from Track 3 and also feeds an inner line which services the Aggregate sidings. I'll post a track plan in a later posting to make this clearer Anyone interested in the module design or finding out about the club please ask

I wanted to build a layout as part of the WSNG modular system that was based on a real location and was relatively close to where I live in West Sussex. My previous modelling has been focused on the Somerset and Dorset based on my ramblings over the old line as a teenager and familiarity with the Poole area from growing up. Neither the S&D or the Dorset area really dealt with the fundamental problem with the Modular solution of requiring 3 running tracks at the front for the Module and what to have in the background. I had a list of wants from this:- The layout had to fit in my railway room frame (8 feet by 2) I could and expected to attach the modular lines on the front giving a depth of 2” 6 continuous circuit so something could always be running for exhibitions 6 track fiddle yard to provide a variety of running stock move from Steam to Modern but with the capability of running BR Blue It needed to be close to home to make photo Reconnaissance easier The challenges, Finding somewhere prototypical I could model that had 4 + Running lines There needed to be enough ready to run stock to get going (great expectations for the future) didn’t really want to do a station due to the nature of the N Modular system I settled down at Xmas still not clear what I wanted to do and spotted that there was a sale on for the Railworks Train Simulator Module for the London to Brighton line. So purchased and started driving some trains up and down. Leaving Three bridges going north I spotted the Aggregates yard on the left and had that burst of inspiration needed to get going. Now I go past the yard at least 3 days most weeks so a bit disappointing that I hadn’t seen it before but these things happen. So why this location 4 Tracks at the front for the Modular component 2 tracks behind parallel with the main lines so no need for any artistic alignment Simple track plan for the yard Fairly straightforward year with a couple of interesting buildings and activity (ideal for the module) In Sussex so local Wood at one end and Factory units at other to create break around for creating loop Flat so no need for major earthworks and track laying complexity And the screenshot from Train Simulator that inspired this location

Hi everyone, Firstly I'm new to Blogging so going to take me a while to get used to the tools and process and make sure that the pictures in FlickR align with the content here so please bear with me on this. I actually started this project at Xmas so will quickly bring the blog upto the current status and then probably the hardest thing of all carry on with blogging whilst Building. Like many of you I've come back to Railway modelling after a number of years break with work and Family. Crawley Yard is my 3rd layout since returining to the hobby in 2008 I think. The first two have been based around where I grew up in Poole Dorset and early recollections of walking the old lines, Unfortunatly I wasnt around when the services were pulled from the S&D but managed to walk over much of the Line between Poole and north of Blandford before much of the section was lost. Unfortunatly no photo's. My first layout was based on Broadstone and is now in the loft and my second based in Surminster Newton. I wanted a change from the S&D and now live in West Sussex so Crawley Yard is my response to that and the story to follow. Planning on using FlickR for the Photo's, Hopefully link below works but you can find me their as grcoll222 - Gavin Collins http://www.flickr.com/photos/94738636@N05/