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small shunting layout


muddy water
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I have dug up an old layout I started many years. It is made of three 1000x 300mm boards . So in total 10' x 1'

It could have a fiddle yard fitted at both ends and used as a through station  or one end and the layout run as a truncated line.

It has scenery on the left hand end, but bare boards on the right hand one.

it is intended to use it with small diesels (class 25) for freight and 2 car DMUs (class 101). roughly set in the 1970s.

It will be wired for DC operation.

 

Any problems with the platform road being effectively a loop off the straight through main line?

Also any other problems with shunting? Any comments gratefully received!

486507075_smallstationone.obj

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It's hugely unlikely to have a platform on a loop, every station I know of with a loop and a single platform  has the platform on the straight.  Passenger trains usually stop very briefly at small stations, sometimes slowing to see if any one is waiting and then not stopping at all unless the guard indicates someone has informed him they wish to get off.

The carriage siding off the end of the platform loop is even more unlikely.

The level crossing would probably be closer to the platform and the loop continued over the crossing, likewise road bridges are often just at the platform end, stations were built near to roads, (Normally, admittedly the Cambrian and Midland managed to have stations without road access)

I see the advantages in having the centre road straight and the loop and platform off of it but prototypical wise its hugely unlikely.  My only suggestion is bend the main line and have the straight road of the points through the platform.   This loses the carriage siding but small throuh stations are very unlikely to have carriage sidings anyway.

Screenshot (267).png

Screenshot (267)a.png

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Your boards are quite narrow, but is it possible to not have lines running parallel with the front/rear edges? David has shown subtle curves in his drawing above, for example.

 

Another suggestion - rather than a goods shed, which will be bulky especially on a baseboard only a total of one foot wide, why not make the sidings exchange loops and then have a second line exit to either the left or right fiddle yard? This could be an off scene factory, or egs a quarry/coalmine/cement manufacturing plant, served perhaps by its own loco. 

 

For my own micro exchange sidings, I am going to experiment with the industrial line exiting on a gradient - that way, I can justify limiting the number of wagons moved at once, meaning that a train has to be broken down into smaller consists for the industrial line, and marshalled into longer trains for main line running.

 

Will be interested to see how you develop this.

 

Steve S

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Do we take it the track is laid already?  The intro makes it seem so .....

 

The station on the loop does look a bit odd.  An island platform would make more sense, allowing passenger trains to cross.   

 

If a through station, the yard would most likely be served by trip freights running from right to left; the "flat unloading area" is going to be a pig to shunt in any case.

 

If a terminus, operating with FY A would be simpler, with the level crossing gates presumably closed permanently against trains; so using FY B might be more interesting!

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12 hours ago, muddy water said:

It could have a fiddle yard fitted at both ends and used as a through station  or one end and the layout run as a truncated line.

 

i agree with much of what others have said about the track layout.  Fortunately, however, by the 1970s rationalisation had produced layouts that would have previously been highly unlikely, so assuming you don't want to move the track, my suggestion is as below.

 

The route was formerly double track and has been singled (my wobbly red lines represent the old trackbed).   Passenger trains from A terminate, but the line is still open to fiddle yard B for freight and there is still some traffic to the old goods yard. The original passenger platforms were to the right of the level crossing but were closed and replaced by a new structure opposite the goods yard.

 

You will need to indicate the lifted line.  If there isn't room in front of the raised field on the left, then you could just cover the bank in bushes to suggest the trackbed has become overgrown.  On the right you will need to expand the level crossing to include the disused line - the rails might still be present or could have been removed and the road relaid by now.

 

As indicated on the sketch, I would move the platform up to the road onto what is marked as the carriage siding.  As the trains would probably be pay trains, no facilities would be required beyond a typical 70s bus shelter. The house to the right of the crossing could be the old station house, sold into residential use.

 

Note that in its original form the track layout is mostly quite conventional with a trailing crossover opposite a trailing goods yard, although the three way point is very unlikely.  The facing crossover by the goods shed is the only query as it has no function.  With the rebuilt layout, we really have to close our eyes to the three-way as running passenger trains over it in the facing direction is really pretty eeek! and the crossover still isn't a lot of use, as the loop that it forms is really too short even for a 1970s freight trip.

 

Studio_20210408_104923.png.be8724724d8dc5d7a169b0dc8af32705.png

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