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Holmthorpe Bridge - Planned 00 Gauge BR (London Midland Region)


Luke123
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Hi all,

 

I have been following various threads for some time and in the new year I will finally be in a position to build my own layout.

 

The rough idea is to have a continuous run so that I can watch trains going by, but with a station and good yard so that I can shunt about in the yard as and when the mood takes me.

As the plan is set in the steam era, I have added some carriage sidings and a turntable/ coaling facility too, although I am not precious about these and if they have to go for space reasons then so be it.

 

I am about to move house, so have only been able to knock up a crude plan via PowerPoint while on my lunch break rather than using actual track planning software, but once I have access to my laptop again I will try and draw it on AnyRail, so some items my move around or depending on space.

 

Attached here is the crude mock up, if anyone could cast an eye and offer any advice/ feedback then it would be greatly appreciated

 

 

Thank you in advance

Luke

 

post-26436-0-43468500-1543836125_thumb.jpg

Edited by Luke123
I have decided on a new name for the layout
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  • 2 weeks later...
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You might want to look at having some form of head shunt for the goods yard. At the moment the only way to shunt the yard is by using the locomotive release road in the terminal station sidings.

 

Baz

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You might want to look at having some form of head shunt for the goods yard. At the moment the only way to shunt the yard is by using the locomotive release road in the terminal station sidings.

 

Baz

 

Thanks, that's a good point. I hadn't really thought too much about actual operations, I was more focused on trying to get a rough plan finally drawn!

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  • 4 months later...

So, its been almost 6 months and sadly there has been no real progress.

The house move went well and we have spent the first half of the year focusing on decorating, which is now complete(ish!)

 

That means that the next big project will be the garage, which will be the home of the layout, but first we'll have to save a little bit to pay for the building work needed.

I wont go into details, but the main points of the work are; extending the garage and the roof need fixing.

 

In the interim, I plan on making an N gauge inglenook layout on an Ikea shelf I picked up while we were shopping for bit to furnish the upstairs. When I get started on the shelf layout (name pending!) I will open a new thread on here to document it.

 

Fingers crossed I can start on the big layout in a few months time 

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  • 1 month later...

I still don't have a usable garage, so I still don't have a railway room yet, however I have been keeping a eye out at shows and online for various locos.

As i'm setting the layout in West Yorkshire, I have been using http://www.railuk.info/index.php to try and get an idea of what sorts of engines were running in the region at the start of BR, I have working on assumptions  like; if a loco was based in say Leeds, then it could potentially work a trans pennine service to Manchester or Liverpool.

So on that basis, i have starting building my loco fleet. At present it consists of:

  • Fowler 4P Compound, BR lined Black with an early crest
  • Stanier Jubilee, BR Lined green with a late crest
  • Fowler 4F, BR plain black with a late crest
  • 2x LYR tanks, BR lined Black, one with early crest, one with 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' on the tank sides.

So the plan is to start doing some modelling to get these into an appropriate livery and renumbered to an appropriate shed for the period and region.

 

While making the list I also looked for reference pictures online (which I'm not going to share here because I haven't reached out to the owners for permission) so that i can try to get the models close to the real thing. 

 

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The easy projects are:

  • The compound will become 40910, working from 20A (Leeds Holbeck) and will have the crest swapped for 'BRITISH RAILWAYS'
  • The 4F will become 44337 working from 20D (Normanton) and have the crest swapped for an early crest
  • The LYR tanks will become 50647 and 50650, both working form (25A (Wakefield), they will retain their respective crest and 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' branding

The Jubilee will be a slightly more in depth project, as opposed to changing the decals on the locos above.

One of the reasons why I chose this period (1948 - 1951) was the mix of stock, styles and branding (engines carrying a mix of BR and Big Four branding for instance).

As a part of this, i would like to try and produce one of the experimental liveries used by BR, so for the Jubilee I would like to try and paint it in Apple Green with the appropriate lining and branding.

 

I have found some  of these locos were based in shed 20A (Leeds Holbeck), so I plan on turning the Jube into 45565 'Victoria'.

 

While looking for reference photos I have been able to find photos of (very!) old models of 45565 in this livery, so I feel relatively confident, but if anyone has any good reference pics or information and are will to share these then please feel free!

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I am also waiting for a Hornby streamlined Duchess to be delivered (the previous version before last years retooling). The model is the NRM version of Duchess of Hamilton. The fact that this is a preserved loco may cause a few issues if it has been fitted with any modern safety equipment, but I have also recently purchased a new Duchess, 6221 'Queen Elizabeth' (this will not be getting a repaint!) so hopefully I can keep an anachronisms to a minimum!

 

I plan on turning this into 46243 'City of Lancaster' so that it can retain its bath tub casing. The plan is that it will be working a larger service passing through to either Leeds or Manchester while on route to London or Scotland.

As part of this conversion I will need to hack some of the casing from the tender. I have seen that comet sell a kit for the cut down version of the tender, so I am willing try and cut Hornby tender down myself and if it goes badly wrong I can look at replacing it with a comet kit.

 

In terms of details, I have seen pictures showing it still carried LMS lettering on the tender, but I have not seen any pictures of the cabside number, so to me that implies that it did not carry one at this point in time. Does anyone know if this is correct or did it carry a number but it was just to grubby to make out?

The clearest reference pics I could find were of a Hornby model rather than the real thing, so I don't want to take these as  gospel

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The loco fleet has expanded again! Whilst browsing the Hattons website last night i saw a Bachmann Patriot; 45538 'Giggleswick' in BR Green with early emblem on the bargains page.

This loco was shedded in Leeds in 1948, so fits nicely with the area and region I plan on modelling without doing anything other than adding a loco crew and some weathering :good_mini:

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I have decided to rename the layout. It was originally going to be Harrofield as i wanted to give a nod to my home town, but i was never fully satisfied that the name felt like an area of West Yorkshire.

It might have just been a case of me over thinking things, but at the end of the day it would have continued to bug me, so i thought it better to take action now rather than months or years into the build.

 

So now i present to you: Holmthorpe Bridge.

 

The line will serve the fictional town of Holmthorpe, a West Riding town that sits between Leeds and Manchester. The station will see trans-Pennine services and local services from the surrounding towns like Halifax and Huddersfield, etc.

 

image.png.6c7bc529629318bbd722f8240a2b3e4e.pngimage.png.a49ca8812b7af40ac2b319c2aca29a03.png

 

 

Edited by Luke123
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I have also been playing around with the track plan. My other half got me several track plan books for my birthday and i saw one called Nelson, the book is called PSL Book of Model Railway Track Plans and is by Cyril Freezer.

I have done a crude mock up here as i dont know if i can just add pictures of the plan from the book without seeking permission from the publisher first, so better safe than sorry!

 

I like the overall plan, it includes the features i wanted to add there is just one or two small things to tweak, like an addition of a turntable so that the Jubilee and Patriot can be turned if I want to, but this should be relatively easy to add.

I also might have the layout curve somewhat so that i can get some more scenery in to the left hand side before it runs to the fiddle yard, but again, this shouldn't pose too much of a problem to do.

 

 

 

Nelson Mock up.JPG

Edited by Luke123
The original mock up was not very clear
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  • 10 months later...

Not a lot to update you all on, I was finally in a position financially to start working on the garage/ railway room and then we go into lockdown, so i still cant play trains!

 

I have had a play with my station track plan though, and I have come up with this:15751776_HolmthorpeTrackPlan.JPG.9f7044e88ffda52a9f58ec00128df3b0.JPG

 

I dont really want a large layout filled with sidings or an MPD, i'd much rather have a layout where I get to watch trains going by, so I feel this will do that well, with a small goods handling area when i want to get a bit more hands on and shunt with a Jinty or two!

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I'm happy with the above track plan, so next i've turned my mind to the signalling and this is what i've come up with.

I have added the signals for right hand side (off scene) so that i can still add the appropriate point rodding along the station.568387460_HolmthorpeSignallingPlan.JPG.bc38323fd8a63ca175da4f2c689d6eda.JPG

The goods yard might need some ground signals, i need to have more of a think about which points will be controlled by the signalman and which will be controlled by a ground frame. 

 

I keep changing my mind about  the far right signal, i think it is needed to protect the down line if something is coming out of the goods yard onto the up line, but i dont know if this could be managed another way. 

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How accurate do you want the signalling to be?  If you want it to just look ok, then obviously it is down to what you want.  If you are looking for it to be prototypical however, the best way is to start by working out all the possible movements:

 

So for example:
Wakefield Down Line to Platform 1

Wakefield Down Line to Platform 3

Leeds Down Line to Platform 1. 

 

etc.

Then you can work out where the brackets etc are.  Also, don't forget if you are going for authenticity, and are doing run-round movements, then they need to be listed as well as shunt signals will be required.  How will trains access the sidings at the bottom of the plan?  Are they just shunt moves, if so will then arrive in Platform 3 (shown as the 10mph line)?

 

Your layout at the end of the day, so you can work with what works for you, but I am sure a few of us will happily offer help if you want it?

 

Rich

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On 15/05/2020 at 22:39, MarshLane said:

How accurate do you want the signalling to be?  If you want it to just look ok, then obviously it is down to what you want.  If you are looking for it to be prototypical however, the best way is to start by working out all the possible movements:

Thanks Rich. :)

I want a good representation of the signalling, but i am happy if it isn't 100% prototypical if it would cause issues.

 

I'll have a think about the movements i want to show and go from there.

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