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Blackford Wharf (was Castlebrook Sidings)


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Using place names local to me has enabled me to differentiate between my micro layout builds, as so far the same baseboards have been used for different schemes! The genesis of this micro started out as Woodhey Quay. This went through a number of changes - some quite radical - before I decided that to do justice to my concept for that micro I needed a bigger baseboard. Woodhey Quay will therefore not see progress until I have built suitable structures, so that the boards and trackage are planned around them rather than the other way around!

 

Meanwhile, the baseboard was narrowed to make it a simple rectangle, and a plan worked up using small radius points to serve a Railway Works, inspired by the free Scalescenes kit in the Hornby magazine. This was to take the title DRS Engineering, and was intended to be a simpler version of the four foot long micro I had previously started! However, I got carried away planning it as a small dockside layout (again) before returning to the Works concept. I started thinking about including an engine shed (well, the gable end and doors!) and some fueling/coaling/watering facilities, but running Pacific locos through the set track points looked ridiculous, and so DRS Engineering has also been put on temporary hold; I intended the new version to accommodate a turntable (already purchased second hand), running sheds/fueling stations for steam and diesel locos as well as the aforementioned Engineering/Railway Works. To paraphrase "Jaws", again "We're gonna need a bigger baseboard!" HOWEVER, it instead morphed into a less than four foot micro on a foamboard baseboard, Bb set

 

Which has left me with a small, not quite three feet long board, set track points and a simple plan. Inspired by various builds of Scalescenes boxfile layouts featured on RMWeb, I intend to (mainly) use those two kits as the basis for the scenic treatment of this micro, hereby named Castlebrook Sidings.

 

UPDATE 18/11/2021

 

For anyone reading this "fresh", you may wonder what on earth happened? Well, the design evolved to a slightly longer baseboard and the theme settled upon "C&HPR-inspired, thematically linked to the White Peak Limit estone & Tarmacadam layout" with elements inspired by Cromford Wharf (both prototype and model) and so the name was changed to Blackford Wharf, which happened to be the name I had already used for a dock layout! Confused? I am, too! Anyway, the following pages describe the piecemeal evolution, or you could just jump to page 4 - which is where the latest (and hopefully final) design is settled upon!

 

UPDATE 30/07/2022

 

Unfortunately, after checking through the many images stored on my computer etc, I have discovered that I did not separately save a lot of the images I used in this thread. As a result, some of my ideas are a little less clear. Where appropriate, I have edited my entries to try to make things clearer, but this means entries from others in response to my original posts may not always appear to make sense any more - apologies, but I feel this may be the best way forward for my thread following the RMWeb crash earlier this year.

 

Original thread resumes ...

 

The following wiring diagram explains my original thoughts ...

 

1364356006_Wiring01.jpg.c70c225156928a691274a9bbbe4f98f1.jpg

 

Wharf at front, served by kick back siding. Siding at rear to warehouse. Line emerges between houses as per Great Yarmouth from left.

 

 

Edited by SteveyDee68
Name change to reflect C&HPR inspiration
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  • 5 weeks later...

@Ighten's new thread (Tunstead Moor Sidings) has made me take another quick look at the layout and wonder if I might purloin his track plan and turn it into an exchange yard rather than (yet another) dockside layout (I do seem to be obsessed with them!)

 

Here's his rather neat trackplan (so I don't misplace it) for which I suggested he ran the front left siding back into the fiddle yard, so one line is the main line and the other goes to industry/docks/whatever...

 

328943397_IGHTENSPLAN.JPG.81d9045bb1e1aa783e3b518155511eba.JPG

Taking the rear line as the main line connection, and the front line as the line to the industry/docks etc...

 

Mainline loco brings train in via top line; runs around train and shunts into siding/s; exits with brake van.

Works loco enters front left with wagons, swaps around into sidings, exits with wagons, returns and repeats until exits final time.

Mainline loco brings in brake van and parks at end of loop before assembling train; departs.

Sequence repeats ad infinitum...

 

Hmmm...

Edited by SteveyDee68
Images lost - rewritten post reflects this
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  • 1 month later...

Looking for scenic inspiration for this, I came across the following which I am leaving here because I tend to mislay stuff otherwise!

 

Image 1 - Lancon's Brewery, Great Yarmouth

 

IMG_2420.JPG.b00c0ca198dff767a4bb58a7b6344e7e.JPG

 

Image 2 - Snape Maltings

 

IMG_2427.JPG.6bd1227f7b883c4e9b497f244aada973.JPG

 

Image 3 - St Cuthbert's Paper Works

IMG_2429.JPG.5ee91ed96a2fa9584d09df548935c060.JPG

 

Image 4 - Welshpool - Church St level crossing (Welshpool & Llanfair Railway)

 

IMG_2430.JPG.fe3b36fa885d90141e649b0e0b3fd051.JPG

 

Image 5 - Dowlais Cae Harris (photo courtesy of Andy Kirkham)

 

IMG_2418.JPG.a4101820c25e9e94a9062453750ae4e1.JPG

 

The following uncredited, older photo is from the same source alangeorge.co.uk and shows the same location - note the tall lattice post signal on the left

 

IMG_2419.JPG.4004ce45e5aefbfc8fb1c1c9244fe484.JPG

 

Edited by SteveyDee68
Restoring images and added extra photo
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 30/03/2021 at 18:16, 6990WitherslackHall said:

This is looking like it will be a great layout. I'll be watching with great interest.

 

I want this to feel far more "rural" than anything else I've planned so far. In fact, the "canal boxfile" and "industrial boxfile" ideas have been kicked into touch ... I really, really like the lines running between the houses in the photos, the question is whether there is enough room on what is a ridiculously small baseboard to do that. Mock ups will follow...

 

 

Edited by SteveyDee68
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21 minutes ago, Bungus the Fogeyman said:

Steve

 

I believe the bottom one is Dowlais Cae Harris, The one above is Welshpool (Welshpool and Llanfair), the one above THAT I believe is Hele & Bradnich, the one above that is definitely Snape Maltings (I should know that one!) and the top one I haven't a clue!!

HTH

Disgusting of Market Harborough

 

Ta Dave, that is most helpful. Hope all's good with you. 

 

 

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Hi all

 

I believe the middle photo is of St Cuthbert's Paper Works on the GW Cheddar Valley branch. I'm sure I've seen it before here on RMWeb, and the photo matches pretty well  the trackplan on the OS map Somerset XL.4 on the NLS site.

 

Hoping I'm not putting anyone wrong, E.

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Steve as an Inglenook fan i would go for the upper one of those two trackplans,you said you wanted to have a "rural" look,this should give you more scenic area to create that rural look.

Use the left hand end to satisy your desire to have track appear from between buildings but keep to the simpler open "feel" of the  sidings,add a simple stick type bolt on fiddle yard.

My four pennyworth!!

I look forward with interest to see the outcome. 

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On 31/03/2021 at 21:05, Bungus the Fogeyman said:

Steve

 

I believe the bottom one is Dowlais Cae Harris, The one above is Welshpool (Welshpool and Llanfair), the one above THAT I believe is Hele & Bradnich, the one above that is definitely Snape Maltings (I should know that one!) and the top one I haven't a clue!!

HTH

Disgusting of Market Harborough

 

Top photo is Lancon's Brewery in Great Yarmouth! Snape Maltings I also knew, the rural factory was somewhere on RMWeb and I simply saved the image, and the last two photos resulted from a Google search for "railway between houses"! Thanks for identifying them (with @enz)

 

Steve S

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On 06/04/2021 at 22:36, don said:

Steve as an Inglenook fan i would go for the upper one of those two trackplans,you said you wanted to have a "rural" look,this should give you more scenic area to create that rural look.

Use the left hand end to satisy your desire to have track appear from between buildings but keep to the simpler open "feel" of the  sidings,add a simple stick type bolt on fiddle yard.

My four pennyworth!!

I look forward with interest to see the outcome. 

 

Thanks for your thoughts. The original plan could - I think - have the line emerge between houses (especially if made low relief), and hopefully enough room for a road in front of them, too, before the point to the loop. The long kickback siding could be left out or shortened to provide loco facilities - depending upon room, of course!

 

The second plan was to try to get a second line back out to the fiddle yard as per my suggestion re: Ighten's own proposed plan for his micro, so that the sidings act as exchange sidings. If that could be achieved and still have the first line appear between houses...

 

If I do go for a second line exiting, I am going to experiment with it leaving on a slight gradient so that eg quarry workings are smaller trains due to that slope.

 

A lot to accomplish in a tiny baseboard!

 

Of course, mocking up large structures for Blackford Wharf Burnstow Dock has been my recent focus, with a massive rearrangement of track thrown in tonight too, just for added fun!

 

Steve S

Edited by SteveyDee68
Corrected layout name reference
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So, yesterday I got all fired up with @ManofKent 's micro layout design, and in the process also finalised* my track plan for Blackford Wharf Burnstow Dock and being in that kind of mood shuffled track about on Castlebrook Sidings Blackford Wharf to see if I might get a workable plan...

 

2085245473_CastlebrookSidingsOperation01.jpg.b5b9958b7b6574b077880bc46e4ccafc.jpg

 

Keeping the railway line appearing between buildings as per my earlier photos, I have the following:

 

1) "Main line" appears between two houses rear right, rising on a slight gradient (so wagons cannot be parked there!)

2) Top siding takes four wagons plus a short wheelbase brake van (oooh!)**

3) "Industrial line" exits bottom right, and has a slight gradient

4) Both lower sidings top left take 3 wagons each ***

5) Headshunt left side takes loco and two wagons only before point blades up to main line

6) Loop takes three wagons

7) That's not a house between the tracks! I forgot to label that as a yard office (single storey)!  ****

 

I think I have a workable exchange sidings!!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

 

*       Turned out to not be the final track plan, after all

**     The original text here refers to five wagons plus a brake van - the photo shows an earlier version with a shorter rear siding, later extended when the loop was extended.

***   Additional siding was squeezed in at bottom parallel with siding shown

**** Originally there was an annotated photo showing scenic treatment - sadly lost

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by SteveyDee68
Missed (7) off my list! Updated layout names
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Good stuff Steve. I like the exchange siding idea. 

All this is giving me ideas too, even though I havent finished my current layout and I want a layout to run my blue diesels on! 

Edited by sb67
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On 11/04/2021 at 13:46, sb67 said:

All this is giving me ideas too, even though I havent finished my current layout and I want a layout to run my blue diesels on! 

 

I know exactly what you mean! I was happily progressing with Blackford Wharf Burnstow Dock, two steps forward and one back, and then reading @ManofKent's thread I responded and that started off another train (groan) of thought, and then I looked at Castlebrook Sidings Blackford Wharf afresh and...

 

Can there be such a thing as too much modelling mojo?!

 

LOL!

Edited by SteveyDee68
Updated layout name references
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Pushed some stock around by hand for fun last night to see how workable the plan actually is. Discovered a few interesting things in the process (using a J72 as "mainline" power):

 

1) A slight gradient on the rear track immediately after the point means you cannot "park" wagons there whilst shunting! A built in puzzle complexity!

2) Bottom siding takes four wagons plus brakevan to clear the points, and not five as previously stated. This makes a difference!

3) The upper (curved) part of the loop takes three wagons as stated, but blocks the point to the upper sidings in the process.

4) The lower (straight) part of the loop takes one wagon only if access to lower siding is required!

5) A maximum of two wagons can enter/exit the industrial line at a time from the headshunt and not three as originally thought!

 

If operated as a mineral line with empty and full wagons, arriving empty wagons behind the J72 have to be removed to free the loco from the headshunt, otherwise nothing else can happen! An arriving train can be five wagons long plus a brakevan (just to be awkward, as this blocks access to the front siding which means the brakevan cannot just be deposited in there out of the way whilst shunting!) Once free, the mainline loco departs and the empty wagons are moved up off to the quarry/loading plant etc up the gradient and off stage by the shunting loco. The top sidings hold a maximum of three (full) wagons each, but these can only be moved out two at a time! The departing train can be up to six wagons long plus the brakevan, blocking the points to the lower siding awaiting the arrival of the mainline loco to take them away.

 

The thought occured to me that the industrial line and top sidings could be switched to allow a second loco (under DC) to bring full wagons "down" the gradient whilst the shunter is busy making up trains. Potentially the industrial line operator could cause issues for the shunter by bringing down too many full wagons! All good fun!

 

Operating like this could be against a stopwatch or be on how many moves it takes to complete the turnaround of an empty to a full train. Something to work out in due course!

 

The layout could operate as an Inglenook if the upper sidings are ignored - five wagons bottom siding, three wagons lower loop+left headshunt, three wagons upper loop.

 

Operating as an unspecified industry, waybill cards could indicate where wagons should go (like a game of chance) with non-standard length wagons to snarl things up!

 

With only three structures to build (maybe four with a water tower), this should be a quicker layout to complete especially as track is ballasted and not inlaid (except for the road running front to back across both tracks). I feel I may need to invest in a static grass applicator to get the scenics looking right, though!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

 

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  • 1 month later...

First visit to a model shop since ... well... I don't know when (!) and I had some open wagons in my hand to purchase for the layout when my eye happened upon Hornby's B2 Peckett The Earl in blue livery and before you could say 'chip & pin' I was walking out of the shop with (yet) another shunting loco...*

 

So I really should press ahead and get this layout done!

 

I have a few older open wagons from 'back in the day' - Mainline and Airfix private owners. I shall repaint them into BR grey... maybe it's time to actually use the airbrush I purchased two years ago. I simply need to ignore the out of line brake shoes on the Mainline wagons (the Airfix ones are fine), exchange any plastic wheelsets for metal versions and convert all the couplings to narrow style tension locks...

 

I returned to the model shop to get the second hand wagons I'd selected to find someone else had spotted them (the Bachmann beauties amongst all the Lima, Mainline, Hornby, Triang and Dublo junk) and was annoyed with myself for having not got them when I had them. However, I then found a three-pack of Bachmann small hoppers in weathered BR grey at a very reasonable price which was made sweeter with a further reduction from Jim for being a regular customer! I haven't seen this set on eBay (other three-packs being tank wagons, presflo cement wagons and private owner wagons) and it appears they were a commissioned set by Modelzone. As the only small hopper wagons I've otherwise seen are the old Mainline wagons (with the dodgy underframe) I am rather pleased to have them! As they are marked for 'iron ore', the nature of the traffic has now been established, too.

 

IMG_1952.JPG.baec4915b7873ab09043d3fa2916ce70.JPG

 

There's not much room for scenery on the board, but I have some nice thin sheets of expanded polystyrene packing that came with some mirrors I put up at work, so I really need to fix the track down and press on with some scenic contours.

 

HOURS OF FUN! 

 

* I'm a card-carrying member of Shunterholics Anonymous 

Edited by SteveyDee68
Removed excess exclamation marks! Added photo
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The thought has occurred to me... Modelzone was a while ago... Bachmann originally used Replica Railways mouldings ... Replica Railways used old Mainline mouldings ... I know from elsewhere that one of the errors on the Mainline models was the baseplate between the hopper and the underframe .... the Bachmann wagons have that same baseplate ... the only similar wagons I have found on eBay are by Replica Railways ... are these wagons actually Mainline mouldings on an updated underframe?!

 

I require the services of a certain forensic investigator by the name of @Ruffnut Thorston to discover the truth behind this particular puzzle!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

Edited by SteveyDee68
typo
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