whart57

Michael Portillo is shooting past in his latest series of Great Coastal Railway Journeys, the episode from Birchington to Whitstable due to go out Thursday night (24th) but is already on i-Player.

Those 10xx railcars sound as if the engines aren't really powerful enough, high revs in low gear to get them moving. Might extract the horn sounds though to use as notification sounds on my phone 😁

This is interesting. http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_N_2HAP.htm I know Allen Doherty and I've built some of his stuff. I also know a lot of others that have. Basically the kit is an overlay over a commercial coach. So you get a suitable coach - probably a bit of battered second hand - cut out the window separators where they are in the wrong place, smooth down all surface detail and then stick on the new sides. Put the glazing back, and then fit a motor bogie, again that could be the works from a second hand job.

I think so.

That will be a Tonbridge to Reading service via Redhill, Dorking and Guildford. These days that is a First Great Western franchise so I suspect there have been times when it was operated by BR(W). According to Wikipedia Class 119 and 109 DMUs were introduced to the line in 1979 and NSE's DEMUs withdrawn in 1981. Redhill to Tonbridge was electrified in the 1990s and Reading line trains ran to Gatwick Airport instead.

This route is a possibility: https://www.shapeways.com/product/YGZJR29S9/class-207-dms?optionId=299296428&li=shops I've used this sort of stuff in 3mm scale and it's pretty good. In N gauge I guess you see what second hand you can pick up at swapmeets and the like and cannibalise them for the underframes and motorised chassis, no scratchbuilt mechs like I had to do in 3mm scale.

Try this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Classes_201,_202_and_203 Additionally I have the Middleton Press book on the Hastings to Ashford line. Most pictures are steam era but one picture shows that "Hampshire" and "Oxted Line" DEMUs were used as well. Presumably the singling of the track through the narrow London-Hastings line tunnels removed the need for restricted width stock there. According to this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_205 Class 205 2H units 1119-1122 were built for the Hastings-Ashford line. There was also Class 207, the Oxted line units: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_207

That would be the junction of the line to Sheerness.

I'm not an expert on double track junctions, but I'm guessing there are trade-offs in terms of signalling and track complexity. It may even be that empty stock doesn't run from the Ramsgate direction directly but either runs to Herne Bay and reverses there, possibly doing a revenue service run as a connecting service from a London train, or there is a refuge siding provided to reverse in. In manual signalling days there was a Reculvers signal box in real life breaking the section between Herne Bay and Birchington into two blocks.

Well not exactly like that, there would need to be crossovers to get trains running onto the correct lines. The reasoning for a spur to Ramsgate is that that is where the loco sheds - in steam days - and EMU stabling was. So for empty stock movement

I can't resist interfering 😁 In my scenario the non-electrified line to Canterbury via Grove Ferry is single track, so I've made that your simplest in and out from the top line of the fiddle yard to Platform 1. Platform 0 is for parcels and side loading freight and the factory siding is on a kick-back. Incoming freight though is from one of the Faversham lines in the fiddle yard and has to route over two points to reach its unloading point. Platforms 2 and 3 are your London services via Faversham. However the line is double track so outgoing trains should swap over to the right running line. But you could imagine some carriage stabling sidings a bit down the line which involve a short distance of wrong line running as well. Finally, if you have room it might be nice to have a disused platform 4 with the track lifted just as a scenic feature. A not unheard of feature of the 1980s if I recall. An extra touch might be to have retaining walls along part of the outside of platforms 1 and 4 to suggest an overall roof was once in place but has been removed for safety reasons.

I bow to others regarding actual type, but I'm presuming Thumpers or Tadpole units.

The real Ashford Hastings was a DMU

The London Victoria via Canterbury service is a long way over SR electrified lines for non-electrified stock. How about your day service being Reculver to Hastings? Linking the Canterbury West to Reculver and the Ashford to Hastings via Rye DMU services by the relatively short link over the electrified tracks between Canterbury and Ashford might be a better use of shift times and DMU running times than a short shuttle service. You could explain this away by suggesting it allows some Ramsgate to Charing Cross services to run non-stop between Canterbury and Ashford as the Reculver-Hastings service acts as the stopper for Chartham, Chilham and Wye.

Does this look a bit better?