packetlos Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Hi All, Background I got to the running stage with a similar modern scene layout which I have dismantled and recovered the track and point work, this was due to me being disappointed with the length of the reception sidings and problems with the original baseboards. I had tried to build upon two 1.5m long 75cm wide Ikea table tops with screw in legs with the track raised up on wooden blocks supporting a plywood top. A potential house move scuppered further construction as I hadn't provided enough forward planning on making the layout even transportable rather than portable. The Prototype The inspiration comes from the now much run down Tyne Yard in Gateshead on the ECML, it is currently operated by DB Schenker. The prototype has 4 lane shed operated by LNWR plus a fueling point. The reception sidings were electrified along with the ECML. XC voyagers are serviced here overnight for journeys starting from Newcastle Central and you can often see four or five units in attendance alongside the resident 09. It is also possible to back date to just before priviatisation when RES 47's 90's and Royal Mail 325's were a common sight stabled here on GUV rakes as Tyneside mail centre is about half a mile away, even the resident shunter used to get a short trip working down the ECML to drag stock back. Birds eye view of the prototype here The Plan I have ordered three 5ftx3ft baseboard kits from MRS and the longer length and width will give a more realistic plan for today's modern block trains (with a price to match if you wish to assemble such a train!) and portability designed in advance which will allow breaking down so the room can be used for other purposes. The curves which the tightest of which is 12.4" will be hidden behind the back scene with curved corners using 'bendy' mdf, some depth will be provided by some bridges on a skew on the left hand side, in practice these bridge a road however as I am going to use a road either end as a scenic break I have turned this in to a small river. The third main running line is the relief and is bi directional. I hope to give the impression that the road for the yard splits off gradually from the main off scene and does the same at the other end. Any problems you foresee in the track plan? I am aware that you would have to plan in advance if you wish to run a Down train on the Up due to the fiddle yard design. Any comments gratefully received! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Searle Posted October 21, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hi, This looks to be an interesting project, a good size, modern N gauge layout. Some thoughts (which you may have already considered): - At 5'x3' the boards will need two people to move them safely once they have scenery on them. Will you be planning to exhibit the layout or is it semi-permanent at home? - Will this layout be operated alone or with a team? - Some advice that was given to me, was to have as much fiddle yard capacity and flexibility as you can. Will you want to run trains round the main lines while you are shunting around the yard? At each end of the fiddle yard there are only two tracks, so this will limit the number of trains that can be left to run at the same time. - Have you allowed room between the tracks in the fiddle yard for your fingers to pick up stock. - Will you have easy access to the fiddle yard at the back to change stock around? - What are your thoughts on couplers. I presume you will be needing to re-marshal the trains out the front I look forward to seeing this layout develop. Cheers, Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hi Dave, It is planned to be portable within the home environment, if it is good enough I would exhibit it. It us currently a one man band at the moment unfortunately, I use a dcc so i wont have to worry about creating electrical sections. The fiddle yard roads are long but not many wide, I should be able to store more than one train on each fiddle yard track at the expense of some flexibility. Where possible I will leave a through track free if I feel like just watching the trains go by. I had to reduce the number of fiddle yard entrance/exit tracks as the number of cross overs to permit most moves were taking up most of the length. With some much yard space I hope to have some block trains on display waiting for the next move rather than taking up limited fiddle yard space. I didn't think about leaving some finger space, good point! The new Dapol knuckle couplers look promising, if I can position some electromagnets in strategic positions hopefully this will hopefully allow some shunting moves. Your club layout Hinksey had passed me by, I see you guys have had a similar idea so I will be watching with great interest! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 First baseboard kit under construction. The kit is straight and level but unfortunately my kitchen floor is not so I have moved in to the living room. Brio bike not included Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Ben Posted October 21, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hi there packetlos The outer line into the fiddle yard is pretty near the edge of the board. I'd put up a length of hardboard to stop models accidentally being knocked or dragged onto the floor by your clothing when you reach across the layout from behind. cheers Ben A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hi there packetlos The outer line into the fiddle yard is pretty near the edge of the board. I'd put up a length of hardboard to stop models accidentally being knocked or dragged onto the floor by your clothing when you reach across the layout from behind. cheers Ben A. Good idea Ben, perhaps a two inch high strip of perspex running along the length of the fiddle yard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 The baseboards (minus back-scene) are now all complete. The MRS 5ftx3ft baseboards have been topped with 9mm WBP ply from the timber merchants, each board is supported with Ikea vika curry desk legs (£2.25 each) which screw in to a supplied steel base plate. These are okay for home use but I would probably want to get some trestles if the layout was ever to be taken out to play. The boards are aligned with some metal dowels from flea bay and brought together with some case latches. I am pretty pleased with how the gap and good leveling across the baseboard joins turned out. The longest reception siding on the plan is 2.5m long so this should allow nearly realistic length block trains. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted November 6, 2011 Author Share Posted November 6, 2011 Storage roads laying has commenced although the engineer on site has stopped the job as the south end is short of a small left point.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren chpamn Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 i look forward to more developments on you layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueeighties Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Me too, Tyne Yard always been a local favourite Regards, Lee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
60091 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Hi packetlos. I've been following this topic as Tyne Yard was a well known location for me for many years. I was interested when you posted photos of your storage roads under construction. Their design is exactly the same as on my current layout (also N) - 7 through storage roads- although I don't have the crossovers at each end. Like me you probably quickly realised how much space is lost for train storage as the point work builds up. At some time in the next few months I'm planning to expand the storage capacity and I was wondering if you had considered one of the ideas I have in mind. I'm planning to turn the 7th (shortest) storage track into a through running line with "kick back" points at either end. From these points a small fan of 2 or 3 dead end sidings can be incorporated, running towards/ into the inside of the curves. There are added complications with loco hauled services but these dead end sidings would be ideal for your Voyagers, other MUs, Top'n'Tail trains, as well as light engines. Hope I've explained this ok without illustrations.... I'm also wiring (no DCC) my 2 longest storage roads to hold 2 trains, although this probably isn't an option for you given the length of many services using Tyne Yard. Haven't been back to Tyne recently but did spent many hours there over 20+ years. Looking forward to seeing how your layout develops. I don't think there's been a better time to model a location like this, given the variety and quality of the "modern image" stock now available in N. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Hi 60091, Indeed I did consider it and have already chosen that path! The originaly posted plan is a bit out of date I am afraid; I have attached the updated plan which I hope is more in the TY style. Originally I had storage tracks at the space either end on a curve but I have rationalized it to one end due to the mounting cost, I can expand them when time/money allows. I am using DCC so some of the shorter sets can share storage tracks, some of the DBS/ network rail rakes can sit on scene however its not prototypical for any Freightliner or GBRf trains to do anything but whizz past on the relief or the main line so I will have to try and accommodate them in the storage area. The yard in real life is looking a bit worse for wear but there is a surprising amount of variety still to be found, last weekend there was a rake of JGA's for repair which are rarely seen in the north east, and not so long ago two A4's for servicing in at the same time and even a visit from a class 92! Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
packetlos Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 After a long hiatus due to loss of layout building mojo I am back working on Tyne Yard again. I took two days off two blitz the wiring but only managed to get around 70 percent of board one complete! A while ago I decided I needed route setting to stop me from going mad setting routes manually in the complex yard throats. I built a diode matrix to control the seep solenoids but was never very happy with this method of control and felt that it was old fashioned, I researched a lot of possible solutions and decided I wanted some kind of dcc control and possibly a computer interface (being a computer programmer the answer to most problems is a computer!). I started looking in to the prices and for48 points and the cost of both the accessory decoders and the point motors you could have a reasonable second hand car... I managed to find 'third way' however and have set-up a 'stand alone loconet', this means that I can control points and routes without a digitrax command station by sending messages over the feedback bus (in this case loconet), I use the Digitrax PR3 as the computer interface and a RR-Cirkits TC-64 which is a 64 line input/output device which responds and generates the messages on the loconet bus, this in turn drives a range of daughter cards; in my case 'H' bridge drivers which control 8 Conrad point motors per card. And what did it all come to per point (including the computer interface)? £11.04.. pretty good. The green wiring goes to the daughter card, I will need 6 of these all together. General shot of my wiring progress, the point motors are from Conrad and are £4 each. The TC-64, the dense amount of general purpose IO saves money on accessory decoders that at most tend to drive only 4 points per unit. My control panel in RRauto, a free rr&co like program for digitrax controlled layouts. Its very easy to use and actively developed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueeighties Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Good to see you back into it. I have temporary losses of mojo too! Have you had anything running yet? I find that helps a lot. Lee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Nice work Andrew, I know the place very well as I drive past every day along the Lamesley road where your fiddle yard is... You mentioned A4's in the yard - here's a pic of Bittern parked there earlier this year: My money no object dream layout would feature Tyne Yard down one wall as it was in the late 70's early 80's when the hump was still in use... John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ArthurK Posted September 8, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 8, 2012 A photo from the sixties. Sir Hugo on with a very short train! ArthurK Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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