Dinadan

I went for the 4 foot square option and below is my latest version. Hope you like the 'Where the Rainbow Ends' cafe. Any comments would be gratefully received. I've bought all of the track and various other bits and I'm currently making the baseboard. I found an online OS map with ALR track still in place: https://maps.nls.uk/view/189227376 which was published in 1955. I'm presuming this is due to the OS not updating regularly rather than there still being track at that point. Interestingly, at the Butts Quarry end there are two lengths of track crossing the Amber and going into the quarry, the second of which isn't on any track plan in the standard books. Whilst being sceptical about the second length, I have just came back from a long weekend in Derbyshire where I went to visit site of the Ashover Butts station and the quarry. About where the second track would have crossed (upstream from the bridge), there is a large concrete block in the Amber, with a hole in the top surface with a sapling growing out of it. I've got several pictures of various features and various general views which I will upload some of when I get chance. Very picturesque area, albeit with a lot more trees than in the ALR's time. Chris

Thanks for passing on your comments. I agree with you, it does need a bit more length particularly for the right hand (station) siding. I am probably only going to be using a single carriage along with a locomotive, hence I don't need to lengthen it much (the locomotive normally went in first, so I do need to). The other siding was for a coal wagon, which would be pushed in (all the way from Fallgate I think), so the length would work. I am working on a modified design, where the 'quarry' is compressed a bit more to the north, the triangle is moved a bit to the left, a curve is added between the point at the end of the triangle, and the station siding is lengthened a bit and goes more into the top corner. Alternatively, I could use a 4x4ft baseboard Also, I was planning to put a fiddle yard in the bottom right, probably using a large enough turntable to turn a train round. Currently, I'm dithering, as I want to swop the polarity of the points' frogs, on whether to use point motors and, if so, which ones to use. Again, any advice would be welcome. Chris

Thanks very much for that. I had previously failed to notice the dustbin Chris

Apologies, I do not seem to be able to delete the extra image Chris

A while ago I said I would like to build a layout based on the Ashover Light Railway and asked questions about Peco crazy track points. After much faffingI have come up with the following layout. It is supposed to be Ashover Butts, albeit distorted to fit onto the size of plywood sheet I have. I haven't included the fiddle yard which would fit on the bottom right. The brown trapezoid is supposed to be Ashover Butts station, the red octagon is the 'Where the Rainbow Ends' cafe, the grey rectangle the cast concrete works, the thick light blue line possibly a double sided back scene and the light grey in the top right the Butts quarry. The darker blue is the river Amber and Marsh Brook and the brown lines road and paths. The track for the quarry is not yet finalized. All the track has greater than 9" radius and all the points are the crazy track ones. Does anyone have any comments please? It would be my first layout since I was a child Chris

Thank you very much for your advice. Yes, the availability of the Bachmann Baldwins gave me the idea to go down this route. I regret not having bought a Peggy a couple of years ago. I really like the 'Midland' style livery, but then I am biased.

Hi, Before committing myself to anything larger I was thinking of making a small 009 layout as a 'practice' to see if I do enjoy railway modelling and to test various techniques on a small scale. I also really like the Ashover Light Railway. I was planning to use a board 0f probably about 2'6"x 4', hence I was thinking of using approximate 12" radius curves along with the 12" radius Peco turnouts which I believe is 'crazy track'. However I came across this article: http://www.009.cd2.com/members/how_to/working_009.htm In this the author is very disparaging of the Peco 'crazy track' turnouts, but happy with the 'mainline' type. Do people agree with him please? Also, How does the 'mainline track' compare with the 'crazy track'? Are the sleeper widths and spacing the same, i.e. could I get away with laying both together? Chris

There's drawings of Shottle station building (the next station south) in 'The Wirksworth Branch' by Howard Sprenger (The Oakwood Press) P.22. Also in 'Modelling Branch Lines A guide for Railway Modellers' by David Wright (The Crowood Press) page 167. He measured up the building as it is today. I suspect that would be closer to Idridgehay than Wirksworth. Both books have plans of all four stations on the Wirksworth Branch, with the former having several drawings of Wirksworth station's major structures. The latter has an artists impression of Hazlewood Station. I would argue that 'A single-platform wayside station on a single-track branch' isn't untypical of the Midland. Even with my little knowledge of the system, sticking to Derbyshire, off the top of my head I can think of several stations on the Doe Lea branch and the Crosshill and Codnor station. Chris