4ft x 6ft 00 Designs

[Harlequin]

3 hours ago, Zomboid said:

@Harlequin that does look good. It looks like it's a gnats whisker from having a second platform at the bottom station. I suppose it's questionable how much of an improvement that would be as it would probably further reduce the not exactly extensive freight capability. But I'd be tempted to go all in with passenger operation in that case anyway.

 

2 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

I was going to suggest having a long bay platform at the bottom of the second station to act as an opposing terminus. As there isn't room for a run-round loop, another loco would need to take the train out (possibly based in the spur in the TR corner).

 

Of course, expanding the station in this way could lose the 'country' feel.

 

It would be nice to improve the freight capability and a small goods yard (siding?) could probably fit in the space on the right without overwhelming it. At the main station goods handling would largely be imaginary, I guess - remove the wagons from the track put some new ones on for a new outward goods trip.

 

I think I prefer the single platform at the country station, on balance, without a bay. Trains can already terminate at the country station. Tank engines can run round and head off in the opposite direction. Bigger locos might leave their train in the loop and let another one come down from the big station to reverse the service.

 

@Nearholmer What do you do about trees in coarse O gauge (especially on a portable layout)?

Edited November 6, 2021 by Harlequin

[Nearholmer]

9 hours ago, Harlequin said:

@Nearholmer What do you do about trees in coarse O gauge (especially on a portable layout)?

 

Interesting question.

 

Most "proper" layouts built in the period that I try to emulate stopped at the railway boundary fence, bar the odd bridge passing over or under, and didn't concern themselves with greenery, except on back-scenes. I'm scratching my head thinking whether I've ever seen a model tree in any photos of 1930-50s classic 0 gauge layouts.

 

For the slightly more toy-oriented market, Hornby made scenic tiles, pieces of board painted green, with hedges and the odd tree in the hedgerow, but I'm not sure what the greenery was made from - it looks a bit like rubberised horsehair, but I'm not certain. People who display "loose lay" tinplate layouts use either original or replica Hornby tiles, plus lots of those very fragile cast lead or mazac hedges and trees made by firms like Britains. 

 

As a boy, I used to like those plastic, plug-together trees that Britains made, and I've noticed that Playmobil now make something pretty similar.

 

Why do you ask?

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Harlequin]

I asked because I realised that the trees I had drawn before were probably wrong - trying to be clumps of foliage rather than stand alone toy trees.

 

So I've changed the trees to be just individual specimens. They indicate "countryside".

 

 

I've dressed up the scenery a bit and added the country goods "yard".

 

Still looking for inspiration for a good name...

 

BTW: I know that the main station looks a bit bare but I imagine the two lines near the operating well being used to exchange stock and turn locos - almost as a "fiddle yard", in as much as this style of layout ever has such a thing. So too much scenery there would get in the way. Does that make sense?

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Harlequin

[ITG]

How about, after the initiator of this thread….. Nearholme, or a derivative.. Byholme.

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Still looking for inspiration for a good name...

Zomboid is good at names, but how about ‘Derngate’ for the more urban-looking station, in tribute to WJBL? The more rural one could be ‘Neston Road’, which was Greenly’s address, but also sort-of references Merseyside and thereby Hornby. I tend to steal names from Sherlock Holmes stories.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Zomboid]

I'm not sure I'd say I'm "good at names", I only came up with "Circus"... Though for a layout like this which looks like something from the pen of CJF, I'd be looking to him for inspiration.

 

Aside from that though, Neston is good though. Neston (Derngate) for the main station, and go all in on the WJBL thing for the other station and portmanteau his name - Wenlowke Bassett or something...

[Harlequin]

Thanks,

 

I see that "Neston" is a real place with a real station so that wouldn't work but "Derngate" seems to be OK for the urban station.

 

I like the portmanteau name but to make it slightly less obvious and easier to pronounce, how about "Wenlock Bassett" for the rural station? I've searched and that does seem to be a new placename, never before coined.

 

One other thing, @Nearholmer: Is the loco release spur long enough for a tender loco? It's just over 17 inches long.

 

BTW: I know that the goods siding at Wenlock Bassett would have to be almost empty to shunt into the kickback dairy siding but none of the other arrangements I tried worked any better so that was the best I could come up with.

 

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, Harlequin said:

long enough for a tender loco? It's just over 17 inches long.

Probably just about OK up to a mogul, accounting for the fact that the switch tips aren’t right at the end of the turnout, certainly good for an 0-6-0 or 4-4-0.

 

I happen to have a 4F on the shelf at the moment, and that is a gnat’s over 14” from the face of the front buffers to clear of the rear wheels on the tender.

[Nearholmer]

BTW, I still think that the other station ought to reference Hornby, so how about 'Quarry Brook', which was the part of Maghull where FH's final home was?

[Zomboid]

According to Wikipedia, the road where FH was born is (77) Copperas Hill, which sounds like it could be a settlement of some sort. I like Wenlock Bassett as a WJBL reference, but I can imagine an urban station called Copperas Hill.

 

If I ever build a layout I might even use it myself.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

I like the plans this thread has produced, but I’m afraid I have no imagination when it comes to layout names so have just been reading this section with interest (“Nearholm and Maldon” was all I could think of).  
 

I’d been imagining a Home Counties setting (although Maldon is in Essex, I think).  If we’re looking at Merseyside however…

 

On 07/11/2021 at 21:17, Zomboid said:

According to Wikipedia, the road where FH was born is (77) Copperas Hill, which sounds like it could be a settlement of some sort. I like Wenlock Bassett as a WJBL reference, but I can imagine an urban station called Copperas Hill.

 

If I ever build a layout I might even use it myself.

The Copperas Hill I know runs from the Adelphi Hotel in the centre of Liverpool up to and over the station throat at Lime Street as it enters the tunnels, so is laden with hidden meaning (incl. the idea of a Station over the tracks, although it’s beyond the other end of the platforms to the actual concourse).

 

On 07/11/2021 at 21:02, Nearholmer said:

BTW, I still think that the other station ought to reference Hornby, so how about 'Quarry Brook', which was the part of Maghull where FH's final home was?

Just two things missing from the plan for a station to be called Quarry Brook though…?

 

On 07/11/2021 at 15:02, Nearholmer said:

Zomboid is good at names, but how about ‘Derngate’ for the more urban-looking station, in tribute to WJBL? The more rural one could be ‘Neston Road’, which was Greenly’s address, but also sort-of references Merseyside and thereby Hornby. I tend to steal names from Sherlock Holmes stories.

 

 

Neston isn’t quite Merseyside in my book.  Although it is on the Wirral, it isn’t in Wirral, but in Cheshire West and Chester (CWAC, as in duck), so not now counted as part of the modern Mersey City Region as such - rather part of the historic county of Cheshire.  While there are places big enough to imagine extra stations (Buckingham being the obvious example) Neston wouldn’t fall into that category, I’m afraid.

 

Derngate sounds a bit Manchester to me (“Deansgate”) but I suppose it depends on what ye olde English ‘dern’ was…?

 

For a small continuous run layout idea I once built a small halt named “Station Road” :- a circular argument station name for a circle layout.

 

The other alternative would be to adopt the once popular approach of applying famous place names to totally unrealistic layouts (presumably to justify running express train locomotives), such as  Kings Cross and York…perhaps not.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
(Photo replaced with text - I hadn’t kept a copy of the original image)

[ITG]

3 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Derngate sounds a bit Manchester to me (“Deansgate”) but I suppose it depends on what ye olde English ‘dern’ was…?

For those who don’t live anywhere near Northampton, Derngate is the name of the town theatre and main thoroughfare (IIRC) , if that has any relevance.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

If it’s Ok to share an aside, I was on holiday in Oxfordshire over half-term.  Driving past Witney and heading into East Gloucestershire, I explained to the good Mrs, A that, while I’d never driven that route before, all the place names were very familiar - the result of researching the Fairford Branch last summer!  (I think we were in @Zomboidcountry too).

 

No relevance to this thread, except that everywhere is local to somewhere, as @ITG has just shown too.

[Nearholmer]

13 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Neston isn’t quite Merseyside in my book

 

I knew someone would pick-up on the fact that its on the other side of the Wirral, which is why I said "sort of". The real point of Neston Road, though, is that Greenly lived in Neston Road, Watford.

 

Derngate is in Northampton, and WJBL famously turned No.78 Derngate into a miniature (claustraphobic TBH) fest of up-market interior design. The BL Society gets to set-up a layout and play trains there occassionally, and the curator writes biographical articles for the club magazine. Some of the BL rolling stock that ran on the famous Paddington to Seagood layout is displayed there too. https://www.78derngate.org.uk/

 

Actually, please don't call it Derngate, because I might use that myself.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Zomboid]

3 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Driving past Witney and heading into East Gloucestershire

Plenty of time to sit and stare at the road signs if you were trying to use the A40. "Eynsham" becomes familiar very quickly when you're looking at the same roundabout for 15 minutes.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

2 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

I knew someone would pick-up on the fact that its on the other side of the Wirral, which is why I said "sort of". 

 

Derngate is in Northampton, and WJBL famously turned No.78 Derngate into a miniature (claustraphobic TBH) fest of up-market interior design. The BL Society gets to set-up a layout and play trains there occassionally, and the curator writes biographical articles for the club magazine. Some of the BL rolling stock that ran on the famous Paddington to Seagood layout is displayed there too. https://www.78derngate.org.uk/

There’s a Hornby Road in Birkenhead, quite near the site of the old Woodside Terminus, which has always struck me as a slightly odd name for a quayside station.

 

I must admit Derngate is growing on me as a name / concept, but I can only claim interested bystander status of course.

[Zomboid]

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Greenly lived in Neston Road

Neston Green sounds like a place.

[Harlequin]

9 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

Neston Green sounds like a place.

A few miles east of Waterly Cross. You can see it from the top of Lakey Hill on a clear day, I'm sure...

 

[Harlequin]

I think Derngate and Neston Green sound good and hit both the WJBL and FH reference points. (Right?)

 

Can't immediately think of a way to shoehorn a CJF reference in as well - that's probably asking too much.

 

[Zomboid]

Neston Green is more Greenly, though Neston being near Liverpool adds a slight FH connection.

[Harlequin]

Argh! I'm losing track of this. Who is Greenly?

Maybe it will be clearer in the morning...

 

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Argh! I'm losing track of this. Who is Greenly?

 

Someone who has a lot to answer for, in this hobby of ours.

[Metropolitan H]

As Nearholmer is aware my "0" home layout "Gutter Lane" use Atlas O-54 (27 inch radius) curves and turnouts and at 7ft 6inch wide by 11ft 6inch (nearly) long is only just bigger than  the equivalent of the OO 6x4 - with a minimum track centre spacing of 4.5 inches, to ensure the GWR railcar doesnt side-swipe the front end of a pacific's footplate or the platform end copings (as it does when visiting Paltry Circus).

 

This is a fixed layout and part of my requirement is to include a double track circuit a in the plane below:

I was of course also influenced by CJF and Hornby Dublo as a youth.

 

 

I can cope with 3x 50ft (scale length) coaches plus van and a Metropolitan Railway Electric loco - or equivalent in all of the fiddle yard roads for when I want to operate a proper service. At other times I can enjoy just watching a couple of Pacifics and four coaches circulating with occasional interruptions for a local train to get from the terminal bay to the middle fiddle yard road or vice-versa.

 

Does the above prompt any further ideas?

 

I have also been considering the possibility of a form of sectional exhibition layout, but have almost concluded that we need to give ourselves a little bit more space - maybe about 14ft x 10ft (the equivalent of 8ft x just under 6ft in OO) for a double-track oval type layout. The alternatives are to consider further the tradional terminus to fiddle yard type layouts - I'm very tempted by three different ideas:

- A Minories based layout - which needs at least a couple of operators and could get quite tiring after a couple of hours at a show,

- A derivative of the original Ffarquhar Branch layout - which could fit the 6x4 equivalent size, but really needs to be solid and operated from the back as the original was,

- Final thought is to go for an adaptation of the CJF plans for shrunken Ashburton or St.Ives branch terminals.

 

But first I must make more progress with Gutter Lane, so it at least has some built environment for the trains to work in - and the three (3) overline bridges to park buses - probably diecast versions - trams, taxis etc.

 

I think I need to get Nearholmer engaged on some proper timetabling for Gutter Lane and then have a couple of sessions to see if we can make it work?

 

Regards

Chris H

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I tend to steal names from Sherlock Holmes stories.

A good source, as is Thomas Hardy for certain parts of the country. One of my station names came from Agatha Christie.

[Zomboid]

8 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Argh! I'm losing track of this. Who is Greenly?

Maybe it will be clearer in the morning...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Greenly?wprov=sfla1