Aylestone Depot

[shanks522]

Hello and welcome to my latest layout,

Aylestone West.

I have been planning this for a little while and finally started construction this weekend,
I wanted something a little larger than my previous layout (Halstow-on-sea) where i could run longer and more varied trains and also have more storage space as my 00 stock is increasing, again!
The basic idea has come from Maidstone East because i like the fact it has a centre through road plus bay etc, its a station that i would like to model properly in due course but i'l wait till i have more room and increased skills.
The new layout is going to take up the whole room (8x8) and be on three levels with a central operating well, I don't like making things to easy so a trackplan is quite difficult to display, basically the top level which i'l call level 1. will have a curved station with two through platforms, a freight centre road and a bay, to the right of the station will be a yard of some sort for engineers stock and any other freight workings i can incorporate,
Level 2. will house a mainline which will loop inside of the level 1. to form a figure of eight style layout.
Level 3. is where the storage sidings will be housed on one side of the room, the opposite side will have a return loop which will increase operational capacity.
I have drawn up a full scale plan of this but because of the varying levels its difficult to draw something thats easily read here.

I dismantled the old layout last week and also removed the N gauge one that was housed above it, Progress hasn't been very quick as the room is like a chinese puzzle, i have to spend an hour or so moving equipment/boxes etc from one side to the other just to put in framework/baseboards, today the lowest level baseboard was fitted and i've started on the incline to level 2, I need to get all the track laid and tested as this area is going to be fairly inaccessible when complete, to make operating easier the whole storage sidings will be lit and have cameras to keep an eye on whats going on. Feeling rather pleased with todays progress i made a start on laying some track at the entrance to the sidings and set about testing it with an 08 plus a few container wagons.
More progress to follow soon.

First photo of the new layout.



Cheers

Graham.

Edited December 9, 2018 by shanks522

[shreives]

Looking really good graham can't wait to see your progress on the layout

Stuart

Edited September 7, 2013 by shreives

[Guest bri.s]

Can't wait to see this progress fan of your n gauge layout looking forward to updates

Always fancied 00 my self but went with n because I wanted good length trains

Brian

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

 Cheers for the comments gents, Brian i am going to try for good length trains on this to.

 

Productive day today, My Dad popped over and we had a few hours of father son modelling which i thoroughly enjoyed, first off we cut and dry fitted the remaining part of the incline from the fiddle yard to the next level, once this was in situ it would have been rude not to test it so half the fiddle yard was laid and then a pleasant hour or so was spent running different combinations of stock up and down the newly laid track. 

 

The other thing that came from today was the name ( i originally chose Medstone ),  i don't like it, It sort of came from Medway, Maidstone but i'm just not happy with it. The rough area i would like to portray is Maidstone/Tonbridge and i quite like East or West on the end of the name so any suggestions would be gratefully received as i'm struggling.

 

couple of pics of the days work.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

Edited September 14, 2013 by shanks522

[Oldddudders]

The River Medway does dominate the area, with its meandering progression down towards Rochester, so the line through Maidstone West has traditionally been called the Medway Valley line, and south of Maidstone the stations can be quite close to it. It is interesting to note that both Maidstone East (LCDR) and Maidstone West (SER) had a centre road. I feel your layout is more in tune with the former, not least because the West station had a rather backwater feel about it in BR days. I did a couple of weeks there as relief SM in 1978, and it did seem to be a "nice little number" by comparison with some stations I covered! So perhaps locations on the East line might bring some ideas. Aylesford, which is on the West line, is not far from the East line, so Aylesford East/West is one idea. On the other side, Bearsted might support a West suffix. There are a couple of tunnels to the east of Maidstone East called Week Street and Wheeler Street, I think, so Maidstone Week Street is also a sort of local connection possibility.

 

If all else fails, just consult an online map!

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

Another good day, my apprentice (sorry i mean dad) popped over today and we cracked on and completed the storage yard, I now have 9 sidings with the longest being able to hold 2x Ceps plus an MLV and the shortest a three car thumper. All the track is laid and pinned so we spent a couple hours running various trains/formations through all the pointwork to make sure all is smooth, everything was fine except the container train which consists of Bachmann intermodals and Hornby KFA's, hauling is fine but propelling them through the points just made them derail so we changed the couplings to the continental / close coupled ones supplied and that made things even worse! Then we tried the brake pipe style couplings supplied with Bachmann coaches and problem solved, now i've got a nice fixed rake of wagons that i can propel into every storage road at top speed with no derailments.

Trackwork wise i'm now up to the next level, Its all fitted on the incline but only temporary as the baseboard will need to be removed for more cutting.

 

Next job now is soldering all the track feeds and fitting point motors.

 

The Name!

 

Thanks for the previous post Ian, i've been having another think today i'm liking Aylestone West at the moment.

 

Completed incline to next level.

 

 

Nice simple couplings.

 

 

The beautiful C class came out its box for the first time today and made the inaugural trip down the completed incline.

 

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

Edited September 21, 2013 by shanks522

[Calnefoxile]

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought to myself "Hang on I don't remember a railway anywhere near where I was bought up!!!"

 

You see I lived in Aylestone in Leicester for a long time, and the nearest railway was the old Great Central, which was ripped up a few years after I was born.

 

Regards

 

Neal.

 

P.S. Good luck with this latest venture.

[shanks522]

Thanks Neal,

 

 That'l teach me to research names before making them up!  Maybe i should add Kent to the title.

 

Graham.

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

 Another weekend of progress, i set about building and fitting the return loop that sits on the lowest level of the layout on the opposite side to the fiddle yard.

 

 

Container train testing the loop.

 

 

New pointwork with the two left hand tracks rising to join the layout in the UP direction, the centre track a crossover with the return loop which will enable trains to join the layout in the DOWN direction and the two right hand tracks the return loop.

 

 

 

As with all my layouts the most exciting trackwork will mainly be hidden!

 

cheers

 

Graham.

[eastwestdivide]

Well I lived in both Leicester and Kent, and Aylestone East made me think of Kent first, Aylesford and Maidstone. Stick with it I'd say. 

Good luck.

[shanks522]

The railway surveyor turned up this evening to make sure all the work is up to scratch.

 

 

Apparently all is fine although we were not amused with the class 37 horn!

 

Cheers

 

Graham. 

[bescotbeast]

The railway surveyor turned up this evening to make sure all the work is up to scratch.

 

Archie inspecting the railway.jpg

 

Apparently all is fine although we were not amused with the class 37 horn!

 

Cheers

 

Graham. 

What is it with Cats and model railways? I've got my own cats that jump over my own layout and there are many other threads on here that feature cats.....nice looking layout by the way  .

                                          Simon

[shanks522]

Cheers Simon, 

 

 I've got two cats that enjoy the trains, They either ignore them and lay somewhere (usually where i'm working) or watch in amazement when they disappear into tunnels etc, add to the mix a huge German Shepard and the railway room can get rather cramped! I wouldn't have it any other way though. 

 

Graham.

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

 After nearly two months inactivity and a day off today I decided to actually do a bit of work on the layout, I cut and fitted the incline/decent that will connect to the mainline in a Down direction, With this in place it means trains will be able to depart the station or freight yard in a UP direction, run down to the lowest level where the return loop is then come back up in the Down direction, It will also be handy as now the fiddle yard can be accessed in both directions, this gives me the ability to bring two trains out at the same time.

 The timber is all fitted now and hopefully i'l get a little track laid this evening, I've plenty of wiring to do but i never feel a great sense of progress burning my fingers and smelling of flux so that can wait! 

 

New trackbed over the fiddle yard.

 

 

Current end of the line.

 

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

 

 

[shanks522]

Evening all, 

 

 Well the track laying train turned up and i fitted a few more yards of track up the incline, quite satisfying now i can fully test the return loop. I wanted to make sure all the track is as good as it can be so decide to propel various wagons at a fair speed round the loop.

 

Like this.

 

 

 

That is now all the lowest level trackwork done and i now need to start on the woodwork for the centre level, I also need to make a start on the lighting within the fiddle yard and installation of the mini cctv camera's so i can see whats going on. 

 

cheers  

 

Graham.

[relaxinghobby]

I watched the little video of the loco pushing a long train through the turnouts and down the grade and then back through the right hand point.

Pushing a train through points is about the hardest test of the track that can be done The video shows the train going smoothly through the points and around the curves. showing a good transition between levels, gradients and curves.

 

The video shows you have set it up to be trouble free.

 

Well done.

Edited December 14, 2013 by relaxinghobby

[shanks522]

Pushing a long train through point work is about the hardest test of the track, and it shows a good transition between levels, gradients and curves.

The video shows you have set it up to be trouble free.

10/10 for this work.

 

Thanks, 

 

 I have been testing the track over the last few evenings with various length/weight trains, so far so good, in fact i'm amazed a rake of ballast wagons being propelled at half pace hasn't come off yet. 

 

Graham.

[armleyroad]

Nice building work, will follow this thread.

[shanks522]

Hello all, 

 

 Lights! Camera! Action!

 

Today i made a start on the lighting and camera's that need fitting in the lower fiddle yard so i can continue construction onto the next level. 

First job was to finish soldering droppers in all the sidings and connect it all up and test, all ok! Next up was to finish the cross bracing for the second level and install some LED lighting so i can see what is going on down there, Once this was done i made a start on fitting the camera's, fairly easy to place then stick firmly with a glue gun. The camera's are going to be connected to a small 7 inch LCD screen designed for use in cars, all i need to do now is work out i'm going to put them.

 

 

 

 

cheers 

 

Graham.

 

 

[armleyroad]

Neat work, looks great.

[d winpenny]

Looking good

 

David

[David Todd]

Having, now caught up with your thread...........

 

 Lights! Camera! Action!

I have a few idea's for D.P. but not under b/board's........

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

 Another day of plodding along with electrics, mainly working on wiring the points up and creating a diode matrix, not my most favoured job but satisfying when complete.

 

Also having a rough work out for the next bit of the build, this is where trains will first come out into a scenic section on level two, hopefully i've got a few days off at the end of this week so will get the carpentry done and progress with more track laying.

 

 

cheers

 

Graham.

 

 

[shanks522]

Happy new year to all,

 

 Another productive few days, I built and fitted the next section of baseboard and then made a little progress with some trackwork, only about a yard further forward but every little helps. Next job now is to work on the incline going away from the tunnel, the mainlines will climb on the inside of the layout being partially scenic for 5 or 6 feet then will disappear along the back wall until re-appearing out of a tunnel on the top level.

 

Part of the pointwork laid, The 08 and dogfish wagons are on the Down line, the line to the left will become the bi-direction centre road.

 

 

current end of the line.

 

 

cheers

 

Graham.

 

 

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

 A nice little supply of electrical goodies turned up this morning so i set about working on a small control panel to work a junction that will be out of sight, Its only half way through building but the photo below shows what it will end up like when finished, basically LED's are fitted to show which route is set and this is done using SEEP point motors with a switch so whenever the points are thrown the route is easily displayed.

 

\

 

Cheers

 

Graham.