Newport Maesglas - N Gauge Wagon Repair Depot (Formerly Stuarts Lane)

[Steadfast]

Hi all,

Last night I collect Stuarts Lane from Stuart with the help of Jack (Rods_of_Revolution), getting home about 1.30 this morning with my new toy after a trip to Kent and back.

I've spent most of the day getting to grips with the switches and track layout and enjoying sitting back and just watching stuff run on the lower level.

Here's a few photos of today's activity, with some "helping hands"...

 

A class 67 is followed into the tunnel by a big furry paw...

...before he calms down and gets a better view.

An overall view, working out what fits where, locations of isolators etc

There's plenty of angles allowing interesting photos to be taken

A quick gauging trial to see what I've got room for on the road. The narrow bridge looks like a good excuse for traffic lights or give way marks and vehicles posed in 'waiting' positions

The boss watches quietly as the 150 loops the lower level. He did enjoy the yellow 37 going round, waiting by the tunnel exits!

 

That's all for the photos, I'll quickly explain my vision for where I'm wanting to go with the layout. The top layer will become a wagon repair depot. Plenty of shunting and its a scenario I've wanted to model for a while now, allowing a variety of rolling stock to appear and some interesting cameos to be modelled. Whether it'll be DB Schenker or a private company, like Arlington at Eastleigh, I've yet to decide.

The lower level will be what sets the location, with the passenger train liveries. Currently the layout has 3rd rail fitted, but Stuart said he thinks this will be easy to remove if needed.

So, my options:

1) retain 3rd rail, build some kind of unit to run on it, most likely a 456 based on a Farish 150, set somewhere London and South East.

2) fit overhead and run a London Midland Desiro, maybe a 150 too, setting the layout in the Birmingham area.

3) no electrification, run my existing FGW units and class 67 loco hauled stock, setting the layout around Bristol.

 

Number 2 was my favourite as it gives me an excuse to buy a Desiro, wide variety of wagons to visit the wagon works due to the central location and I could have a go at modelling OHLE in a small controllable space.

After today's play though, number 3 has come on strong, no need to spend money on new rolling stock as the layout can be run with what stock I already have, and I do like the loco hauled stand ins that FGW ran. The downside to this is a narrower range of rolling stock that would potentially visit, with Westbury and Barton Hill both handling wagon work, as well as various sites in South Wales. But then, there's always rule number one, it's my trainset and I'll run what I like...

I suppose I could always keep it local for now and if a cheap Desiro appears in the future, use that as a catalyst for a location change. Hmmm, now that's an idea.

Anyway, I'm wittering now, anyone have any thoughts on pros/cons of each scenario?

Before I go, I must say thanks to Jack for the company and entertainment on the journey, and to Stuart (and your parents!) for the warm welcome yesterday when we arrived.

 

jo

Edited November 5, 2014 by ewsjo

[shanks522]

Hi Jo,

 

 Glad to see the layout in its new home, your plans sound really good for the future and i shall be following with great interest.

 

You have taken some really good photo's to, i especially like the low level shot of the 150 with the freightliner 66 above, very realistic.

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

[Steadfast]

Hi Graham, me too! I think we'll be seeing more of that angle.

I'll keep you posted on developments

 

jo

[d winpenny]

Looking good, david

[Rods_of_Revolution]

I second Graham's opinion on the 150/FL66 shot, it's a nice angle!

 

If you retain the 3rd rail, you could still run a LM Desiro on it as don't the 350/1s have 3rd rail shoes too?

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Supaned]

or respray a 350/1 as a 450? Apart from the pantograph , I think they're near enough the same,

[Steadfast]

Yes a 450 is very similar to a 350/1, just a case of removing the panto and the boxes on the underframe that deal with the AC stuff. They're still a bit expensive to buy for respraying at the moment, but definitely an option to keep an eye on for the future. I'm still making my mind up on what route to follow with this, nothing is set in stone yet. I have wanted to model OHLE for a while, and the lower level does give a nice, self contained area to play with. Oh I don't know, no doubt I'll come up with another idea tomorrow...

 

jo

[Steadfast]

A quick update of progress from last week. The layout is no longer floor mounted! Neither myself or dad are particularly gifted in woodwork, but between us we got a set of legs built. Seemed appropriate we finished on father's day!

The two uprights are designed to slot together for transport, hence the different height of the horizontal beams. They'll be fitted with a catch to enable them to clip together next time I take them apart. 

First test with it clamped together to size it all up, so far so good, if a little higher than I intended, due to reuse of wood from a previous project.

At 4feet in height, at this stage it did rather resemble the frame for a cot! The fantastically neat wiring under the board does remind me of the Underground map!

Proof it fits in the intended space for it at home. The chest of drawers just in view to the right provide a handy seat for working on the layout. Whilst at home it does seem rather tall, but standing next to it, it is a good height for exhibitions, especially as N gauge layouts can often get walked straight past because they're "too small and far away". Its easy to lose up to about a foot from the legs if I do decide it's too tall after all anyway.

Final shot is of load testing the support...with a total weight of around 10kgs, the layout has survived the combined cat and laptop test. A couple of mugs of tea and the controller should be nothing in comparison. It seems I have provided a perfect viewpoint for him to watch the street from the comfort of the house!

Speaking of tea, I plan to add a shelf below the layout, mounted on the cross members of the legs which should add further to the rigidity of the structure.

Work has slowly begun too on scenic stuff, more on that soon!

 

jo

Edited June 20, 2013 by ewsjo

[sammyboy]

A nice little N gauge layout you have there. But one question, just where do the tracks go to from the high level depot once leaving the layout under the road bridge? Do they connect with the low level main line circuit?

[D1059]

WP_20130616_008.jpg

jo

 

Nice shot taken at Wolfhall there - one of yours ?

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Jo,

 

Nice layout.  In terms of future progress, and taking inspiration from the layout's own wiring, how about option (4):  Upper level wagon repair depot somewhere in N London, lower level LUL lines using 3D printed stock.... you could add the distinctive 4th rail and lineside cable runs to give a sense of place....

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Bumpkin]

Hi Jo,

 

Nice layout.  In terms of future progress, and taking inspiration from the layout's own wiring, how about option (4):  Upper level wagon repair depot somewhere in N London, lower level LUL lines using 3D printed stock.... you could add the distinctive 4th rail and lineside cable runs to give a sense of place....

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

Yeah, I know of some 3D printed Northern Line 1995 stock on Shapeways. Quite expensive but worth it! http://www.shapeways.com/shops/amr

Or if going pre '95 this may be more helpful. http://www.shapeways.com/model/1081437/n-gauge-1959-tube-train-4car.html?li=productBox-search

Edited June 20, 2013 by Bumpkin

[Steadfast]

Hi all, thanks for the comments and suggestions. London had completely slipped my mind! The tube stuff is nice, but very expensive! I've been looking at OHLE stuff, probably via N Brass Locos, with a view to a Desiro to partner the cheap London Midland 170 I picked up last week. A nice 378 from Farish or Dapol could see the location easily moved south, throw in a bit of 4th rail and it becomes a fictional loop off the WCML perhaps, with 350s and 378s rattling by...  As for the FGW Adelante I want to model, well...

 

A nice little N gauge layout you have there. But one question, just where do the tracks go to from the high level depot once leaving the layout under the road bridge? Do they connect with the low level main line circuit?

Hiya, the two levels aren't connected. At present, the spur leads from the depot onto a block of wood above the lower fiddle yard. With the layout designed as a loco depot, this gives room to shunt on and off the depot, but converting to a wagon repair depot will mean I'll need to extend it a bit some how. These two photos hopefully help to explain it, the red line is a possible extra loop to be added to increase storage on the lower level.

 

Nice shot taken at Wolfhall there - one of yours ?

Indeed it is, 59202 on 6L21 Whatley - Dagenham, 6/6/13 in that nice weather we had a few weeks back. Not got it on Smugmug yet, but here it is

I'll finish with a couple of shots I took earlier of 66101 and 66170 posed with some JJA autoballlasters, built from the NGS kit. It's only one set of 5, but the tunnel sections allow it to look like two. Despite the abundance of bare wood in these angles, already I think the layout gives some great photo opportunities.

 

jo

[andypops]

Hi Jo,

 

Just wanted to say that even though I don't usually like N gauge, I really like your plans (so long as the scenery is safe with big furry monsters around!) and think that the basic layout is pretty sound. My only comment is that I would be wary of supports which aren't cross-braced (as I found out from previous bad experience), because if the layout is the only thing stopping them from twisting, it can put strain on the boards and cause things to warp, scenery to come away or worse, which might be even more obvious at smaller scales. Just a thought...

 

It always amazes me just how good N gauge stock looks at such a small scale, and yours really does look fantastic!

 

All the best,

 

 

Andy

[Steadfast]

Hi Andy,

Cheers for the comments, I do a double take with current N stuff too, especially after seeing an older "Poole era" model!

With cross bracing for the legs, are you meaning like a saltire shape, looking down from above? It was something I considered, but lack of wood at the time limited me to what I could do. I've designed it in such a way though that additions and modifications over time should be simple to implement.

This board by itself is very sturdy, a testament to its standalone design, but added strength could help the reusability of the legs on future projects

 

jo

[andypops]

Hi Jo,

 

Saltire shape would be the easiest to do, but not the best solution (wasteful, not so useful if you want to rebuild in future, heavy),

 

A simple solution would be to do either of the two things I've sketched incredibly badly below, showing two options.

 

 

While the top one is probably strongest, I would personally favour the lower one, as it is very easy, sturdy and the mitred pieces can be re-used for any other frames you build if you decide to rebuild / remake the legs at a future date. Waste-not!

 

 

All the best,

 

 

Andy

 

[d winpenny]

Looking good

 

David

[Steadfast]

Thanks guys.

Ahhh I see what you mean there Andy, I'll keep an eye on the layout over the next few weeks and try to find a way to add them in if things start moving. The difficulty is that the front and side bracing are at different heights to each other, but I'm sure I can figure something out if needed

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Today I've been thinking about the overheads. I'm planning on using N Brass Locos cantilevers, and from reading Clive Mortimore's fantastic stuff on OLE, I've come up with this rough idea using low height bridge and tunnel approach masts approaching, rather appropriately, the tunnel mouths. The idea is that this is an urban area where the lines constantly run in and out of short tunnels. I'm a little unsure what to do with the centre mast, or whether to include it at all. Would 3 masts make it look overly cluttered, or conversely would they help create the cluttered look OLE can have?

I'm pondering whether having the wires raise up to the centre mast and then fall again would look a bit weird and contrived? I'm having trouble finding photos of OLE in a similar cutting, and whether it would stay at the lower height, with the tunnel approach masts used throughout.

From the measurements Clive mentions here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/71391-british-railways-ole-part-one-plain-track/ the minimum distance in N between masts would be 82mm, the maximum is 466mm.

I have 570mm to play with. Taking 50mm off each end for the gap from tunnel approach mast to the tunnel itself, this leaves me 470mm. So, in theory I could have more than 50mm between mast and tunnel, to reduce the span between the two masts to under 466mm, but I think this would look a bit sparse and make the wires more exposed and easier to rip up with my clumsiness. So, a single mast in between would leave a span of 235 mm. Introducing two intermediate masts would give spans of around 155mm, so still double the minimum and longer than most single vehicles.

So, any ideas or thoughts? I'm thinking if I can get away with low height masts throughout then using 3, if it needs higher masts for the intermediate spans then four, so it looks more natural with the gradient changes.

 

jo

[Gloucester Road]

And people said maths would never come in handy!

[Steadfast]

Well it looks like it's going to be low height masts all along. After a helpful text last night, I looked into the space needed to include changes in contact wire height.

From the figures quoted by Jim Smith-Wright here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22164&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=75#p630977 I'd need a length longer than the entire layout to drop the wire height! When I get chance I'll probably print some mast mock ups and look at spacings to see what looks right before committing to purchasing materials.

 

jo

[Rods_of_Revolution]

I think it'll look more pleasing to the eye with a consistent height, plus from a rail engineering point of view it sounds like it's prototypical.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Steadfast]

Over the last few days an hour here and an hour there has led to the depot gaining its road access. OLE research is still trickling by in the background, too.

The building I'm planning to use I scratchbuilt a few years ago and never had a use for it really. My reason for changing the building from the one on the layout as purchased is to give more siding space for wagons due to it being used as repair depot. If I was using it as a diesel depot I'd have been inclined to hang on to the original sheds. My thinking is rather like that at Tees Yard. It used to be a TMD, but the old buildings demolished and a new facility for wagon repair built in its place, hence the rather useful turntable is still in tact

The approach road for the depot is made from the box from Tuesday's lunch. Pizza boxes have nice sturdy card and aren't too hard to cut. I've also managed to split two PVA bottles all over my fingers and learnt a Pandrol clip is a really useful weight! The truck is posed to get the length needed to allow the truck to stop at the depot gate without fouling the road, so the pencil line across it represents where the gatehouse and barrier will go. The area behind the road will be a car park for depot staff.

 

jo

[Guest]

Looking good Jo anymore updates?

[Steadfast]

Hiya,

The approach road has been paper mâchéd and concrete area round the shed glued down. The contact adhesive melted the plastic sheet though, so that'll be a case of rip up and redo. Oh well, live and learn! It's got too hot to do much else on the layout and I've been a bit occupied with other stuff, but I'll try to sort some pictures soon. Priority is getting the other layout ready for the Plymouth show in August, making sure everything works and tracking down where I stashed the box of scenics, as well as some new scenery additions for the show.

 

jo