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New to serious modelling - Kent ideas


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Hi, 

 

I am new to serious modelling as I now have a new space that I can create a proper model. 
 

I am based in Kent and originally wanted to create the Ramsgate maintenance depot however I just don’t have the space.

 

Any tips on a Kent location that I could model in a l shape loft layout 15 ft x 3 ft roughly. The L will be about 6ft. I am modelling with 00 gauge.
 

I am thinking Sevenoaks could work.


Looking forward to any tips.

 

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  • RMweb Gold

15' x 3' with 6' l shape is pretty good in OO. Many people have built models of much bigger locations in smaller spaces. Serious modelling (in fact, virtually all railway modelling) requires compromise. Are you really sure you can't fit a maintenance depot into that space?

Otherwise, what sort of prototype are you looking for? Another TMD, a station, a junction or just a section  of plain  track?

What era are you interested in?

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7 hours ago, Newmodeller96 said:

I am thinking Sevenoaks could work.

Yes. Perhaps lose the reverse curves towards the tunnel, so you have plenty of space for the junction round to The Bat. Be prepared to run much shorter trains, too, or your storage sidings will consume all your space. The road bridge between station and junction will break up the scene a bit, too, which may or may not be a visual issue. 

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If you fancy a goods location, with passing passenger, the latter disappearing helpfully into a tunnel, Tunbridge Wells Central Goods would fit the bill, and it remained largely unaltered, if gradually tattier, from the 1930s to the 1970s, which might allow era-swapping. https://www.kentrail.org.uk/tunbridge_wells_central_goods.htm

 

When I was a small boy, my father worked for a while in a shop a few hundred yards up Camden Road from the yard, and I used to find the gates into it from the street utterly fascinating, like doorways to another, more interesting world, full of wagons and shunting.

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Modelling today's modern era is what i chose because getting high res images of rolling stock and track work etc. to work from is easy and in general i love all the modern stuff, i'm doing 2010 to present day. A present day TMD would be a great place to start.

 

Here's a picture of Newton Heath TMD

 

 

Newton Heath TMD.jpg

Edited by Graham Radish
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Real or alternate history? Something that might fit an L shape is imagine Ramsgate Town is still open. It could operate something like Littlehampton.

 

Or a completely fictional dead end station just off the main line. Maybe a new station serving an upgraded Manston Airport? Something a bit like Stansted.

 

Cheers

David

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3 hours ago, Newmodeller96 said:

Thank you all. I really need to do more research before making a decision.

 

I think my biggest problem is I don’t know if I want to model a station or goods yard, and what era I want.

 

Any more tips still welcome

This is certainly a matter that is better settled before you lay any track and arguably before you build boards or make track plans.  You’ve answered one question already; location, Kent. 
 

The next question should, I suggest, be ‘what do I want my layout to do’?  This will depend on whether you like shunting, or want to watch trains passing through the scene, or enjoy complicated junctions and signalling.  Do you want a rural, urban, or industrial scenario?  What sort of trains do you like?  From what period or era?

 

Once this is settled, it will help with the planning, track layout, and concentrate your purchases to suitable stock in suitable liveries.  It will also probably help with the question of station, goods yard, or both/neither.  It will prevent you spending money on stock and equipment you find you don’t need or want, and make your involvement in the hobby more enjoyable. 

Edited by The Johnster
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok so I have come up with this. It is a fictional industrial harbour scene with a small terminus station. I’m hoping that it will take a 4car EMU unit into the station if I have planned the sizes correct.

 

there is a large sorting yard next to a container ship. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. 
 

Loft harbour yardlayout.pdf

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A 4-Car EMU (i'm assuming a Bachmann 4-Cep here) is about 44" or 112cm in length. I generally allow 12" or 30cm per coach when planning, as that gives a bit more room for things like buffer stops, run-round room, stuff like that.

 

A couple of questions about your plan. Do you have access to both sides of the main 3' baseboard? If not, 3' is going to be quite a reach across to the back, and I would in that case, be tempted to put the harbour / boat scene at the back of the layout. I also notice you don't appear to have planned in any sort of fiddle yard as far as I can see. You don't have to have one of course, but it can sometimes be useful to have one to hide any trains not in use "off scene".

 

I'd be tempted, with this sort of space, to put a fiddle yard on the 6ft L length, and then have a station by the harbour with the boat, similar to what used to be at Folkstone Harbour or Weymouth Harbour, with the TMD in front, like Ramsgate.

 

I think you'll need to decide on your period first, as this can affect what track layout there is likely to be. For example, during the 1950's / 1960's there would most likely to have been a small turntable for steam locomotives hauling the freight trains.

 

Hope this is of help.

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@Geep7 thank you for your tips.

 

I can’t get to the back of the layout unfortunately as I am in a loft space. I was thinking of somehow having a fiddle yard under the layout? Is this possible?

 

I like your idea to switch the harbour to the back and mix Folkestone and rampage together, this is something I hadn’t thought about but is exactly what I want.

 

in terms of era I think I’m going to be looking at more modern/present as I have a class 66 freight train that I want to use and am looking to buy a 4 class modern EMU. 

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In the post-electrication era, I think that platforms should be 8-car length (7'). Given a 15' length plus the 6' L that is quite achievable.

 

The more difficult question is how to integrate suitable freight and what that freight should be. Sheerness might give some inspiration.

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Newhaven now has two aggregate terminals - one at North Quay beside the line to Lewes and a new one at East Quay, served by a line running through the former Marine station. Both have 66-hauled rail services. I have seen but not photographed the East Quay train. Newhaven has a ferry service with roll-on-roll-off lorry traffic. There is no general goods traffic carried by rail. Unfortunately its EMUs are mainly 3-coach 313s, with 4 or 8-coach 377s only used when when the Seagulls have a home match (with spectators!) at Falmer.

I know Newhaven is in East Sussex, but it's not far from Kent.

Here are photos of the North Quay operation.

EWS 66069 Days siding Newhaven 21 5 2014.jpg

EWS 66069 leaving Days siding Newhaven 21 5 2014.jpg

EWS 66069 leaving Newhaven 21 5 2014 collage.jpg

SR 313201 EWS 66069 Days siding Newhaven 21 5 2014.jpg

Edited by phil_sutters
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13 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

Newhaven now has two aggregate terminals - one at North Quay beside the line to Lewes and a new one at East Quay, served by a line running through the former Marine station. Both have 66-hauled rail services. I have seen but not photographed the East Quay train. Newhaven has a ferry service with roll-on-roll-off lorry traffic. There is no general goods traffic carried by rail. Unfortunately its EMUs are mainly 313s, with 377s only used when when the Seagulls have a home match (with spectators!) at Falmer.

Here are photos of the North Quay operation.

EWS 66069 Days siding Newhaven 21 5 2014.jpg

EWS 66069 leaving Days siding Newhaven 21 5 2014.jpg

EWS 66069 leaving Newhaven 21 5 2014 collage.jpg

SR 313201 EWS 66069 Days siding Newhaven 21 5 2014.jpg

Thank you so much Paul, tad much as I don’t think I will be replicating a specific place now as I want too much in a space this is soo close to that I want to be modelling. 
 

thankks

h

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So, I have spent a bit of time on the plan for this over the afternoon and have come up with this and wanted to get some opinions. I have take a bit of Folkestone harbour, ramsgate TMD and the aggregate terminal at Newhaven!


This is rough and by no means final just I have so many ideas that it’s hard to bring what I can together!

 

just wondering what people thought! 

layout plan.png

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