Goods Yard Micro Layout

[Przemekk]

Hello, My name is Przemek (a traditional slavic name that most people can't pronounce), I am 36, I live in Poland and I want to built a micro layout in OO scale.

 

I have around 5 years of experience  in railway modelling. So far I have finished some dioramas in H0 scale, mostly depicting german railways. Recently I joined a local railway club so hopefully my colleagues will help me when I will encounter some difficulties.

 

Why OO scale layout?

 

The answer is easy:

1. I want to build a micro layout because I live in a small flat.

2. I found a lot of information about british railways online.

3. Modelling era 2 or 3 gives me a chance to built something super small and quite realistic.

 

So far I bought a Hornby Highland Rambler starter set (My budget is limited). It contains a Pug locomotive and I want to use it for my layout. It will be a goods yard set probably in 1920's as Highland Railway was operating roughly then. I have prepared a few versions of my layout. I would like to know your opinion about them as I would like to lay tracks propably next month. Tell me if I made some mistakes, which version do you like the most and why?

 

 

     

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Hi there, welcome aboard!  Micro-layouts are a great way to have fun, trains can be up and running quickly and it’s a chance to try out some ideas and practise some practical skills.  

 

The key thing with your four designs will be to make sure the traverser fiddle yard works well - sliding neatly and connecting both track and electric power in the different positions.  Once you’ve got that sorted you’ll have a fiddle yard you can use here and again in the future (if you want to), so it will be worth taking time to make sure you’re happy with your solution.

 

As for the four ideas, all will work well.  My personal favourite is the first one, as I like the row of buildings along the back.

 

Most of all - Have fun,  Keith

[kev]

First one would get my vote but have fun and keep us informed and pick the brains on here of you need any help

[Ian Holmes]

Some good initial concepts there.

You do state that your chosen prototype is Highland Railway 1920's. It might be worth googling some images of the period to see what it really looks like. It might give you some more, even better ideas.

 

Ian

[Przemekk]

First of All I would like to thank you for such a warm welcome in this community! 

This journey may be a long one (I planned it for 2 years) but I did the first step already, so keep fingers crossed.

 

After long phase of planning I arrived with a final layout design. It will be a country layout (My wife appreciated this idea to my amazement). I am thinking about 1920's, but shifiting it 20 years ahead shouldn't be a big problem. I want a cattle dock, a crane, goods shed and loading bay. It seems I will have to build most of those from scratch, because of size constraints. I also wanted 3 tracks and one point. I think it looks reasonable.

 

Today I have made initial attempt at traverser. I came up with idea for it long time ago and I wanted to try it out. I am a bit affraid about holding it in place after choosing a position, but that is a problem for another time.

 

Below is my final plan and a picture of traverser in progress. I spend around an hour running a loco back and forth and it was quite pleasing experience.

 

 

[Przemekk]

I am starting to feel tired and this means I will have to take a longer break from building my layout. It is a good time to rest though, because I finished a serious milestone: Traverser is ready.

 

It was quite some job (at least for me), I assembled a stiff box for traverser to sit on and glued the flex rails to the box. After a lot of back and forth work I have around 1,5 mm difference between box and the track (The track is leaning over the box) and right now it stays like this. Maybe I will sand it down, maybe not, we'll see how it goes.

 

The Traverser has some problems with staying in place, but I think it serves it's purpose. I will test it in the following weeks. I also need to make a second box for the scenic part.

 

I discovered I will need some help with OO scale in general. I found this modelling dimensions: https://www.elginmodelrailwayclub.co.uk/2010/articles/advice/standard-railway-modelling-dimmensions.html But I still don't fully understand them.

 

My first question is :

what is the length of ebankment, when the rails are laying flat and we must take into condiseration I model roughly 1930's?

 

 

 

 

 

[MAP66]

Hi Przemek,

Well done for the work you have achieved so far, I really like the design of your layout – keep up the good work. Ratio make a nice cattle dock kit if you can get hold of one in Poland and also fairly straight forward enough to build from scratch as parts like railings, gates etc are also available separately.

In answer to your question which I believe is distance from outermost rail to embankment edge, from the table within the link the dimension ‘L’ which states 5.3 feet which is about 64 inches, so roughly 1.63M. This would equate to 21.25mm in 00 scale as shown on the table as 00 scale is modelled as 4mm to the foot. However, as you are modelling a goods yard you might be referring to the distance from the outer rail to the ballast edge (shoulder) which you wouldn't normally have in a goods yard as in a lot of yards the ground level came up to the edge of the rails where often the sleepers were barely visible. Best idea would be to undertake some research for era and region you are modelling for typical examples.

Apologies if I have introduced more confusion but others on the forum are now more than likely to offer their advice.

 

Mark

[The Bandit]

Keep up the good work. The world needs more micro layouts!