Need help with layout revision!

[spikey]

Thanks for that, Phil.  By coincidence, I've just knocked off for today having made a start laying out and temporarily fixing track in place, pretty much as you've drawn, and I think I can see a way of combining the exchange siding and the run-round loop hat will fit in the available space.   The main two problems so far have been the usual one of translating an Anyrail layout into a real world one and finding it doesn't quite line up as drawn, plus I've been persuaded by Mrs Spikey that while I'm at it I really should have a longer platform.

 

I could see the extra faffing about that was going to entail, so tried knocking it on the head by pointing out that  we only have sufficient coaching stock to run a two-coach train.  However, the good woman was then graciously pleased to authorise the eventual purchase of a third carriage, so we appear to have a win-win situation.

[Harlequin]

I admire Mrs Spikey's perspicacity! 

 

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Here's a revised suggestion, bringing together people's ideas:

 

Uses the extra 2 inches to get maximum length in the exchange siding.

The run round loop in the private sidings is much longer.

(Possibly a bit too "linear"?)

Anyway, there it is.

Only thing I would consider is to possibly move the goods shed a little towards the stop blocks - it all depends on how busy you think it will be and just how many wagons you think it is likely to received daily and what traffic comes in on the full loads side of things - room to stand no more than 3 wagons, perhaps compressed to =2 beyond the goods shed, would give room to create a bit more space in the adjacent full loads siding.  all depends really on how you see the goods traffic working in relation to local businesses etc.

 

Working traffic in that layout in the private siding area will need a bit of thought; a nice little shunting puzzle emerges there.!

[The Johnster]

3 hours ago, Harlequin said:

I admire Mrs Spikey's perspicacity! 

 

 

3 hours ago, spikey said:

Thanks for that, Phil.  By coincidence, I've just knocked off for today having made a start laying out and temporarily fixing track in place, pretty much as you've drawn, and I think I can see a way of combining the exchange siding and the run-round loop hat will fit in the available space.   The main two problems so far have been the usual one of translating an Anyrail layout into a real world one and finding it doesn't quite line up as drawn, plus I've been persuaded by Mrs Spikey that while I'm at it I really should have a longer platform.

 

I could see the extra faffing about that was going to entail, so tried knocking it on the head by pointing out that  we only have sufficient coaching stock to run a two-coach train.  However, the good woman was then graciously pleased to authorise the eventual purchase of a third carriage, so we appear to have a win-win situation.

She's a keeper, mate...

[spikey]

11 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Only thing I would consider is to possibly move the goods shed a little towards the stop blocks ... to create a bit more space in the adjacent full loads siding.

 

This is in hand, I think.  Whilst tucking into my porridge just now, it occurred to me how I can do just that and perhaps ease the problem of the private run-round loop.

 

I need to lay some track out and have a think about a bit of baseboard bodging modification ...

Edited March 10, 2019 by spikey

[spikey]

On 08/03/2019 at 15:34, The Stationmaster said:

In addition, coming back to Spikey and Mrs Spikey running their separate bits of railway the private sidings layout cannot be shunted within its own boundaries if the boundary is where you have put it as there is no headroom to move vehicles between sidings.

 

Tracklaying is now starting, but it's going to be a slow process as first off I have to modify and align exactly a small-radius point the heel of which abuts the front edge of the baseboard on the right-hand side, so that it lines up precisely with the start of both tracks of the passing loop on the detachable "bridge" which connects this baseboard to the one one the other side of the room.

 

Thinking ahead slightly though, when I get to the boundary 'twixt BR and private, and bearing in mind this is a single-track branch line 1950s-early 60s, do I really need to gate it?  I seem to recall a sugar refinery somewhere or other which just had a "No engines past this point" sign (or maybe it was "past this sign"), and if I can get away with that without invoking Rule One, it would make things a bit easier.

[The Stationmaster]

9 hours ago, spikey said:

 

Tracklaying is now starting, but it's going to be a slow process as first off I have to modify and align exactly a small-radius point the heel of which abuts the front edge of the baseboard on the right-hand side, so that it lines up precisely with the start of both tracks of the passing loop on the detachable "bridge" which connects this baseboard to the one one the other side of the room.

 

Thinking ahead slightly though, when I get to the boundary 'twixt BR and private, and bearing in mind this is a single-track branch line 1950s-early 60s, do I really need to gate it?  I seem to recall a sugar refinery somewhere or other which just had a "No engines past this point" sign (or maybe it was "past this sign"), and if I can get away with that without invoking Rule One, it would make things a bit easier.

The legal situation is that a gate is required and the only time that began to change was when the MGR fed power stations appeared on the scene although in later years two with which I have had some professional involvement did gain gates.  Older sidings should automatically have had them and should be fenced but in some locations (e.g. certain collieries I knew in the 1970s the 'gate' often consisted of the posts, sometimes not exactly vertical with the physical remains of the gate itself left wide open and rotting away in the undergrowth).   The fence need be nothing elaborate - most I knew in the past were standard BR post & wire fences, some times a bit short on the wire part of their construction.

 

A board would sometimes be there, if it hadn't fallen down or rotted away, to set the limit of movement for BR engines within the siding itself - assuming BR engines were permitted to enter the siding(s) at all.

[spikey]

Thank you once again, sir. 

 

OK, so a gate it is then.  Maybe one that opens and shuts ...

[The Stationmaster]

5 hours ago, spikey said:

Thank you once again, sir. 

 

OK, so a gate it is then.  Maybe one that opens and shuts ...

But don't worry too much if it has been left open or has been 'knocked open'

[spikey]

On 12/03/2019 at 13:00, The Stationmaster said:

But don't worry too much if it has been left open or has been 'knocked open'

 

On thinking about it, in theory there'll be enough animation in and around the factory itself to keep me quiet, so odds on it'll have been left open.

 

Meanwhile, herewith the layout as it stands this afternoon: the short length of track exiting the goods shed to the left is on the lift-up flap across the doorway.  The cattle dock will be on an area of higher ground, which will continue round the end of the empties siding above the dock so as to form an end-loading dock    It actually all flows better than it looks on this rather hasty Anyrail plan, but I want to try and settle a couple more points

 

 

Where's the best location for the yard crane?  Should I have a weighbridge and if so, where?  And given that the coal merchant won't amount to much more than a brick office and three bins, where's the most sensible place for that?

Edited March 15, 2019 by spikey
clarity

[Harlequin]

AnyRail - doing awful things to good plans.

 

[The Stationmaster]

51 minutes ago, spikey said:

 

On thinking about it, in theory there'll be enough animation in and around the factory itself to keep me quiet, so odds on it'll have been left open.

 

Meanwhile, herewith the layout as it stands this afternoon: the short length of track exiting the goods shed to the left is on the lift-up flap across the doorway.  The cattle dock will be on an area of higher ground, which will continue round the end of the empties siding above the dock so as to form an end-loading dock    It actually all flows better than it looks on this rather hasty Anyrail plan, but I want to try and settle a couple more points

 

 

Where's the best location for the yard crane?  Should I have a weighbridge and if so, where?  And given that the coal merchant won't amount to much more than a brick office and three bins, where's the most sensible place for that?

I would be inclined to put the crane adjacent to the short road next to the goods shed and deal with coal traffic at one end of the road next to the dock siding.

 

The weighbridge would be somewhere to the left of scene so depending on how you depict the road entrance to the goods yard it might or might not be off-scene at that end of the yard.  There would not be a rail weighbridge unless there is some sort of weight critical traffic from the private sidings but you don't really have room for one anyway.  Don't forget you'll also need a loading gauge - far more important than a weighbridge.

[spikey]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I would be inclined to put the crane adjacent to the short road next to the goods shed and deal with coal traffic at one end of the road next to the dock siding.

 

The weighbridge would be somewhere to the left of scene so depending on how you depict the road entrance to the goods yard it might or might not be off-scene at that end of the yard.  There would not be a rail weighbridge unless there is some sort of weight critical traffic from the private sidings but you don't really have room for one anyway.  Don't forget you'll also need a loading gauge - far more important than a weighbridge.

 

Much obliged, sir, and point taken about the loading gauge.  OK, so the long siding adjacent to the loop is for cattle, end loading and empties, the next one down is for mileage/full loads and coal.  The yard crane goes where you said, and the (road) weighbridge will go just off the road into the yard, which will be on the lifting flap to the left.  All of which makes perfect sense to me, but, and I'm sorry to labour the point, what would determine which end of the shorter siding at the top is the coal merchant's patch?  Given that he'll have two or three wagons standing for 2-3 days while he unloads 'em, isn't he better off towards the stops?

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, spikey said:

 

Much obliged, sir, and point taken about the loading gauge.  OK, so the long siding adjacent to the loop is for cattle, end loading and empties, the next one down is for mileage/full loads and coal.  The yard crane goes where you said, and the (road) weighbridge will go just off the road into the yard, which will be on the lifting flap to the left.  All of which makes perfect sense to me, but, and I'm sorry to labour the point, what would determine which end of the shorter siding at the top is the coal merchant's patch?  Given that he'll have two or three wagons standing for 2-3 days while he unloads 'em, isn't he better off towards the stops?

Ideally the stop block end of the siding but in reality could well be less than ideal.  At my local station (a branch terminus) the cal merchants worked off wagons standing in the middle (frequently) of a very long full loads siding and usually loaded straight to lorry, bagging the coal as they went, and didn't waste time putting coal to ground,  But at the two intermediate station on the branch the coal merchant put coal to ground and at one of them built some very neat cells to stack the coal although by then both stations were closed to all other freight traffic.

[spikey]

Well I do believe that I'm now sorted on this revision of my railway - at least until I get to the private sidings!  But seeing as how the next step is point motors and wiring it all up, that's a fair way off!

 

Thank you once again to everybody who's helped me with this.