Victory works

[neilkirby]

Hi,

 I am thinking about building a small freelance industrial layout  as a prelude to my longtime planned retirement project. I have sketched out a track plan and a back story, and am interested in opinions as to whether this is a viable plan. Note that I used various track makes in Anyrail just to show roughly what I was thinking:

 

Back Story

 

C. A. Kirby Engineering is a small old industrial complex very vaguely related to military equipment or munitions work.

The main building was originally fronted  to a canal basin, at some point this basin gained railway access, but during WWI is was part filled to allow direct railway access to the factory instead.

A short time later the 'New' works was built and a second hand Peckett bought to handle the traffic.

During WWII a new Andrew Barclay was bought due to increased demands.

Peckett to be named 'Cambrai', and Barclay to be 'El Alamein'

Layout to be set between 1945-1955

The mainline is offstage to the top right, behind the main building.

 

It will be 5' x 1' and the idea behind this is to be used to practice skills on something small enough to finished and that the tight fit between buildings will give some interesting run-around options

 

 

All comments and observations welcome.

 

Neil

Edited November 8, 2018 by neilkirby

[imt]

Welcome - good luck with your endeavours.

 

Have you seen http://www.carendt.com/ much decayed recently and fallen on hard times since Carl Arendt died.  The content has been taken over and "modernised" - loosing much in the process.  Look to the early pages where there are layout plans.  You might find inspiration.

 

I am not sure why the sidings into the main factory are at the back - nobody will see them?  What do you mean "The mainline is offstage to the top right, behind the main building."  Are you intending to have some kind of fiddle yard there to make up incoming trains?

 

I note that you are using Hornby Settrack - is that because you have it or just for you to play with while thinking?  Peco Streamline is compatible with it and has more types of "turnouts" including single and double slips so may give you more freedom.  For example a slip at the point top right of your canal basin might allow a siding into the main factory at the front.

 

I'd make the main factory building just an shell and have it as a place to have cassettes to hold "trains" and move into the factory areas to receive trains and substitute the stock "out of sight".  The "main line" behind your main factory would also be a cassette area so you could easily substitute stock during operations.

 

Is this the kind of thing you were thinking of?

[Flying Pig]

It looks like the sidings hidden by the main factory are intended to be a fiddle yard. However, they're probably too short to be useful. A single simple cassette would be a better idea for exchanging stock - perhaps a Peco loco lift used on a plain length of track that otherwise functions as the headshunt and needn't even be hidden.

 

I'm also wondering how the front right siding will be worked. The direction of other sidings implies that the loco will normally be on the right and running round using the scissors will be time consuming, to say the least.

 

Edit: it's good to see the start of another pure industrial layout for the new generation of pugs.

Edited November 8, 2018 by Flying Pig

[neilkirby]

Hi,

 

Thank you both for your interest.  Yes the area behind the main building is meant  where the mainline comes from, and is also the fiddle yard area so is un-seen, I put points & short sidings in there on the drawing, but was also thinking a cassette type system would work. IMT,  I  also thought  about using a Peco double-slip in there somewhere as I have one in the spares box, but was unsure how much they were used in an industrial setting?

 

Flying Pig, Working inbound trains to the main building will be easy, but I hadn't thought too much about how they would be worked back out. (but then neither did the works engineer in 1917! I believe he was finally persuaded to retire in 1919 when his previous young assistant returned to Blighty from the Royal Engineers!  I was thinking that layout be intentionally awkward. with the run around in front of the new works only holding 2 or 3 wagons. I think full wagons from the main building siding could be worked two at a time to the runaround outside the new works, then formed into a train in the basin siding to be worked back to the mainline (hope that makes sense!)

 

Neil

Edited November 9, 2018 by neilkirby

[The Johnster]

Awkward prototypical track layouts often resulted from the original plan being adapted as easily and cheaply as possible for new requirements unforeseen at the time the original plan was laid out, and your 'new works' back story sounds ideal for this.  Time consuming run arounds are less of an operational hinderance on an industrial set up where there is not a timetable with other trains to get out of the way of, and it is probably that they are conceived by a works engineer without a railway background.

[imt]

I like the Johnster's comments, and I understand what you are saying about things being a bit awkward is in tune with what you were thinking about.  I think you also need to consider your operational enjoyment.  The fact that it might be a bit awkward to do some things maybe OK, but everything?  Depends what you want - rule 1 applies.  I have just watched a friend build a layout which was a beautiful presentation of an industrial scene - as a diorama.  It was a nightmare to try to do any operations on it, and has just been stripped down again.  Nine months in the making and all gone in one!

 

If that single slip allows you to move things from the old plant to the new - maybe it's a good idea?

[neilkirby]

I will be going ahead with this project, but since the initial track plan it has somehow grown to 6' x1'6" as below:

Also  will be adding a  Peckett B2 to the fleet Which will be named either Normandy or Amiens, which carries on with the tank battle theme.

Edited May 26, 2019 by neilkirby

[neilkirby]

Hi,

 

I thought I would give an update on this project. I took delivery, and built the baseboard, I then  designed my own version of a sliding fiddle yard, using drawer runners and a sprung ball door catch indexed to a piece of brass strip with holes spaced for the track. so far so  good. Having been too tight to buy the matching set of legs by the baseboard supplier, I then went to build some legs, I've got to say the first attempt was a bit of a disaster,  the idea was to have slots in the underside of the board to drop the legs into. This proved as about as stable as a jelly in a hurricane. The MK2 version meant adding a piece of ply to the leg, which took the weight of the baseboard along the bottom edge of the board. this is far better. but I suppose that is why I am building this layout, to make the mistakes now, before the big one.  After cutting the top surface for the canal basin I have laid out the track and buildings to check the design, after a few tweaks, I am fairly happy.  I may not use the short siding as a loco shed, I may use it to store the privately owned brake van that is needed to get trains up the off-scene incline to the mainline (well, when you are dealing in munitions, runaways can have explosive results!)

Please see the attached photos:

 

 

 

 

 

And last but by no means least the current motive power:

 

 The original plan for 2 locomotives somehow became 3 when Hornby announce the Peckett B2, then became 4 after I bought a Austerity.  I have since decided that the owners of the canal company who built the original line to the wharf retained their running rights and will on occasion run their own trains down to the wharf using a nice blue W4 named after the real Charles Kirby's newly arrived great great grandson Isaac.

Regards,

 

Neil

 

PS does anyone know if I can move this entire thread to the 'standard gauge industrial'  section under the Layouts heading?

 

Edited May 29, 2019 by neilkirby

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, neilkirby said:

does anyone know if I can move this entire thread to the 'standard gauge industrial'  section under the Layouts heading?

 

I've done that for you now.

 

An interesting use of RTL/RTP track and buildings; I quite like this!

[eastworld]

What is the source of the factory buildings - are they scratchbuilt?

 

Stu

[neilkirby]

3 hours ago, eastworld said:

What is the source of the factory buildings - are they scratchbuilt?

 

Stu

 

Hi Stu,

They are from Skytrex,  they are resin poured, and have solid windows, but I am thinking abut milling them out and may get some laser cut frames to fit. If you look at the end of the boiler house you will see one I did as a test, still waiting for a frame though!

Neil

Edited May 30, 2019 by neilkirby

[ELTEL]

Hi Neil

 

Interesting project.

 

Did you proceed and complete it ?
 

Terry 

[neilkirby]

Hi,

Thanks for the interest, I got as far as building a sliding fiddle yard,  but then realised it did not give me a run-around option. So I then changed the design to make the fiddle yard double sliding,  this had the disadvantage of making the entry to the layout from the fiddle yard  further towards the front of the board. I then stalled on this over getting the geometry of the track and buildings to work as I wanted.  It all got put away in the run up to Christmas. But by complete coinsidence, last Friday I put the boards up again, this time in my youngest daughters recently vacated room, and am looking at how I can modify the buildings and / or track layout to make it work as I would like. I cant believe I originally posted in 2018! I build so slowly, but also get distracted by other things!

 

Regards,

 

Neil

 

 

[ELTEL]

Hi Neil

 

Thanks for the update.

 

I will watch with interest, and wish you good luck with rescuing the project.

 

Terry