Help with compact steam MPD track plan please

[dna]

Hi all,

 

I'm planning to build a small MPD layout to encourage myself to finish building the various locos that I have on my to do list. Just somewhere that they can potter about on with the odd wagon or brake van. I also have plenty of unfinished brake vans and loco coal wagons too! I'm really thinking something like Ian Futers 'Cold Harbour Lane'. I'm posting my current thoughts up here for advice/criticism and to see if anyone has any improvemnts!

 

My main area of interest is 1920's Great Western in the South Wales valleys, particularly ex Rhymney lines so most of my stock is this period/region, but I also have various other GWR locos so the layout should look convincing as a valleys theme but look ok with other stock too. I also have a pair of baseboards from another project that are ready to go so keen to use them for ease of time and money. I model in 00.

 

After playing around a bit I realised that these are the things I want to fit in:

 

A two road engine shed.

A coaling stage, probably just a simple platform due to size (see below).

Must have a small offstage area to swap stock.

Space for locos to stand in the open.

It would also be nice to have space for loco coal wagons and brake vans to loiter.

 

Overall though it must be a convincing scheme, ie have a believable trackplan and realistic off stage exit.

 

The baseboards I have are 46" x 8" and 16.5" x 8.5" Currently they are fixed end to end to give 62.5" x 8" but could be swapped to any orientation without too much hassle. Eg:

 

 

Pics are roughly to scale but I've shown both boards the same width for simplicity. In no 5 the small board could be attached at any point along the length. Any mirrors of these are ok too or any other arrangments. Open to suggestions here.

 

My current scheme is this, using arrangement no 4 above:

 

 

Probably with a retaining wall along the back of the long board and the track exiting under a girder bridge or similar. In this plan the two points close together are the monstrosity below:

 

 

This is something I cobbled together from a peco long Y and curved point. I have it in the box so it would be good to use it but not a necessity. Not sure how it fits with my realism requirement! I think this plan ticks all of my boxes but I'm just not very satisfied with it and can't see it being that interesting to operate, but then what will be at this size? It's worth mentioning that your average GWR 0-6-2T (of which there will be lots) is 5.5 to 6 inches long in 4mm so that needs to be taken into account.

 

So that's it so far. Am totally open to ideas so please feel free to let rip! Suggestions that don't have all my requirements above are also welcome too. Basically looking for something that will allow me to show off a few models and be fun to knock around with for an hour or so.

 

Cheers,

Nick

[The Stationmaster]

Abercynon is was reasonably compact, Rhymney was positively shoehorned into its site and these two are probably about the best of the Valleys sheds as the others were either a lot bigger (e.g Aberbeeg) or a lot smaller (Ferndale).