4ft x 6ft 00 Designs

[Harlequin]

I got my Maldon templates sorted out. Not much use to anyone else since they are already in AnyRail but at least I'll be able to draw things accurately in my favourite program now!

 

 

And just for fun I've used them to draw a CJF folded figure of eight plan from "60 plans for small railways":

 

It's very different in character to the designs being discussed so far and not meeting the requirements but it might spark some new ideas.

 

On the plus side, because the track work is so simple there's easily room for 3 coach trains to stop and pass in the loop.

 

With the station level through the entire passing loop I reckon 1 in 35 gradients would achieve about a 100mm railtop to railtop elevation at the bridge.

 

There's a "Milk Depot" half way up the hill.

 

We now return to your normal programming.

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Harlequin

[Nearholmer]

Brilliant. Not my cup of tea, but brilliant.

 

I hope you didn’t spend too long on all this, because the community of Maldon-users who might seek track planning advice is very small.

[RJS1977]

Just to check - I assume the electric trains to be run will be 3-rail?

 

One option would be to have a double-track line, with clockwork running the outer loop (from a set of storage loops at the rear), with the inner loop (in the opposite direction of course) being electrified for more intricate working.

[Flying Pig]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Its just struck me that by removing the loco shed, and replacing it with a goods shed, the problem is largely solved, so the thing to do is have one of each, and swap them at will.

 

Likewise the island station could be removed and the single platform wayside station that I have, and some more ‘goods ’ set-dressing substituted.

 

Things don’t have to be screwed or glued in place on Coarse-0.

 

I like this a lot and will now spend the evening thinking up scenarios that could be covered by the track plan on a convertible basis.

[Nearholmer]

2 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

assume the electric trains to be run will be 3-rail?

Assume away.

 

I’ve thought about a clockwork loop, mainly because some of the old stagers will only run on tinplate track, but decided against it, because it turns into more of a test track than a layout. The postwar clockers are OK on Maldon track set for the postwar electrics.

[Harlequin]

Here's @Zomboid's plan tweaked, taking some of the discussion into account and with suggested baseboard formation:

 

• Extended run round at main station.
• Offset loop at passing station so that small industry (Dairy?) can slot into the bottom left corner.
• The "Main line" circuit heads diagonally across the face of the main station to avoid a wiggle.
• R1 curves (red centre line) have larger radius R4 pieces (blue centre line) before straights for smoother running. (It also helps make the design more flexible because they can be replaced by R4 turnouts.
• I have used some R3 pieces. (Yellowy centre line.)
• The kickback sidings at the main station (goods yard?) could be loose laid and changed to suit operations on the day.
• Some rail joints across baseboards could be tricky. Needs some thought but the track crossing the difficult joints could also perhaps be loose laid???
• The largest baseboard is 2ft4in by 4ft2in.

No lifting flap yet but I think one could be arranged on the left. Hmmm...

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Harlequin

[Nearholmer]

That is definitely a good ‘in, containing several useful ideas - I especially like the diagonal, rather than wiggle.

 

I snuck a quick measure of my existing layout before coming out to football this morning, and that has reminded me how space-efficient ‘Paltry Circus’ is, so I’m drifting back towards using that configuration again (I know, I said yesterday I wouldn’t!), which when combined with some of these ideas might be a winner.

 

Right, KO shortly, and I think I’m about to be handed a linesman’s flag!

[St Enodoc]

16 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Right, KO shortly, and I think I’m about to be handed a linesman’s flag!

Don't wear your Sunny South Sam hat or you might get given the whistle!

[Harlequin]

To make the track joints for the lifting section more perpendicular without making the main boards bigger, and without giving them fancy angled corners, you could add a small fillet with the angles needed.

 

And that fillet could also help set the track in the right direction for a reversing loop which you temporarily lay across the centre of the well when you need it.

 

The reversing loop allows trains to depart from the terminus and arrive back loco-hauled all the way. And it allows locos to be turned.

 

The cost is loss of operating well space but that could be clawed back a bit at the bottom. Maybe there's a better solution. It would all need to be rationalised to make it work in the real world.

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Harlequin

[Zomboid]

I don't think there's any section of baseboard which you could feasibly add any more track to. 

 

CJF would be proud (and it was him who I ripped off to begin with).

[RJS1977]

3 hours ago, Harlequin said:

To make the track joints for the lifting section more perpendicular without making the main boards bigger, and without giving them fancy angled corners, you could add a small fillet with the angles needed.

 

And that fillet could also help set the track in the right direction for a reversing loop which you temporarily lay across the centre of the well when you need it.

 

The reversing loop allows trains to depart from the terminus and arrive back loco-hauled all the way. And it allows locos to be turned.

 

The cost is loss of operating well space but that could be clawed back a bit at the bottom. Maybe there's a better solution. It would all need to be rationalised to make it work in the real world.

 

 

And of course clockwork and 3-rail electrics makes reversing loops much simpler!

[Nearholmer]

For reference, I have a BMI of 24, am reasonably fit for my age, but am not actually a python.

 

PS: “clawed back a bit at the bottom” sound too like cosmetic surgery to me.

Edited October 23, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Well folks, despite the ingenuity and attractions of the terminus-based designs, I keep coming back to where I started, with a basic oval, because it doesn’t cramp a longer train, is simple to fit onto baseboard units of half-sensible dimensions, and because it permits all the typical things to be included - it’s like a through station and fiddle yard layout, short-circuited to have no fiddle yard!

 

It would certainly have appeal as an “old fashioned train set” at meetings/exhibitions.

 

Here’s a version using somewhat more generous curves, which I know looks better.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Zomboid]

You need more than just the one bus on the bridge. At least two there and one on the station forecourt.

[Compound2632]

9 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

You need more than just the one bus on the bridge. At least two there and one on the station forecourt.

 

More bridges!

[Nearholmer]

The only trouble is that tinplate buses in even fairly tatty condition sell for more than their weight in gold, so aspiring to have even one on the layout is A Big Thing.

[Zomboid]

I would imagine that a cardboard bus would do. At least until such time as a charity shop gets something they don't understand and sell it for 50p.

[Nearholmer]

Having previously said “no” to Dean FY versions, I went back to this idea late last night. 
 

I don’t think it quite works for what I’m trying to do, but it would work really well as a pre-grouping or light railway model in fine-scale 0. By using rigid-link couplings, even the 27” radius curves would work with 4W and 6W stock, and I reckon small locos would be fine on it too, probably best 0-4-2T or 2-4-0T, but probably 0-6-0T up to about Terriers, provided the centre wheel flanges were dispensed with, or lots of side-play designed-in.

 

 

 

I’m imagining it being themed around a line on the IoW, serving somewhere on the hilly, bottom LH bit of the coast, set in Edwardian times, with a gaggle of tourists watching the scene from a promenade above the station. All very breezy, and people wearing the sort of semi-formal, but bright and cheerful, clothes that the middle classes wore at the seaside.

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Ive not given-up on this, and have now committed to baseboards, so here is what I might call “a strictly practical” terminal version, which regrettably involves going down to “two coaches plus a 6W van”, and tank engines only, for the terminating trains.

 

I’ve tried to minimise non-perpendicular crossings of baseboard joints, and think it might be possible to squeeze more of them out.

 

It does give a terminal platform, a through platform, and my BL wayside station.

 

Of course, the important old BL tender engines can run, provided they don’t mind chasing their own tails.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

You could bring the connection to the terminus a bit further round and even curve the terminus end round to gain more length?

[Nearholmer]

You might be right - I’ll see if the geometry works using a single 18 degree curve of R41 and using some further R38, which I think it will, although it might push the outer track too near the baseboard edge (replacing an R27 plain curve with a point, which is of R38, pushes things over appreciably).
 

Having things very close to the baseboard edge at home is OK, but it courts disaster at meetings or exhibitions. The problem is usually tail-swing on 2-6-4T and 0-4-4T tank engines, which sweeps way outside the track on these tight curves. That combined with an enthusiastic arm wave, and the sleeve of a tweed jacket (still the older old-fashioned 0-gauger’s garb of choice), and “crash, bang, wallop”.

 

The ‘other side’ is just a sketch really, and I think could be fiddled about with to include a simple engine shed, by putting the passing station outside the curve, in the corner.

 

 

[Compound2632]

36 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

it might push the outer track too near the baseboard edge (replacing an R27 plain curve with a point, which is of R38, pushes things over appreciably).

 

Point taken, so to speak. I hadn't considered the different radii of the components

[Harlequin]

The terminus run round loop can be extended if you sacrifice the length of the passing station loop, something like this:

 

That's just to show that it basically slots together - I haven't paid any attention to baseboard joints!

 

Thinks: It might be possible to have a big sweeping circuit around the outside with a passing/junction station in it and the terminus on the inside.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Harlequin

[St Enodoc]

30 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

The terminus run round loop can be extended if you sacrifice the length of the passing station loop, something like this:

 

That's just to show that it basically slots together - I haven't paid any attention to baseboard joints!

 

Thinks: It might be possible to have a big sweeping circuit around the outside with a passing/junction station in it and the terminus on the inside.

 

We're getting close to the JHA and CJF plans I mentioned a few weeks ago again!

[Flying Pig]

21 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Ive not given-up on this, and have now committed to baseboards, so here is what I might call “a strictly practical” terminal version, which regrettably involves going down to “two coaches plus a 6W van”, and tank engines only, for the terminating trains.

 

I'm not keen on this.  I think if you were being strictly practical you'd go back to the 22nd October designs and give up the through platform at the terminus station for the sake of an easier runround and more sidings.

 

On the other hand, I do like your single station roundy of 26th October.