Offerston Quay - 7mm Inglenook Plus

[Fastdax]

While pointmaking is ongoing, I laid down some underlay on the baseboards.

 

This is laminate floor underlay and is some sort of foam sheet 5mm thick. It feels like polystyrene but has a granular texture instead of 'beads'. It cuts easily with a sharp knife and weighs practically nothing.

 

 

It was fixed down with ordinary PVA as I suspect it doesn't take too well to glues containing solvents.

 

 

 

Lots of textbooks weighted it down until the glue dried. If you look closely, you can probably work out what I do for a living.

 

 

My plan is to put it everywhere that I may need it and hope that I can remove it if I need to get down to the plywood later.

 

Duncan

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

My first O Gauge point is complete!

 

 

 

I used a simplified stretcher bar as explained by Jim Snowdon in a Gauge O Guild gazette article, available through the web-based search engine to GOG members. This has two pads of copperclad soldered to the underside of the switch rails and riding under the stock rails, to prevent the switch rails from lifting. A nickel-silver 0.7mm wire is soldered to the underside of the pads, keeping the switch rails in gauge while providing electrical isolation. I bent a 1mm loop in the centre of the stretcher to take the operating wire from the point motor later. I also added a second cosmetic wire stretcher bar with the middle bit cut and encased in plastic sleeving to preserve the electrical isolation.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[shandy]

Really interesting thread Duncan, I like the idea of the track on two levels.

 

The Jinty looks great 

 

Steve

[Fastdax]

Thanks Steve. I can't take credit for the split level idea and I don't think it was original to Ruston Quays either. But it does allow a greater operating potential with added scenic interest.

[Fastdax]

Now that I have a bit of trackwork to lay, I've started with the sole turnout and the bits either side of it.

 

One of these bits crosses the board joint, so I attacked this in the following way.

 

I plotted where the track would sit and marked through to the underlay:

 

 

 

 

Then I screwed brass screws (solid brass for rust resistance and ease of soldering, not brass plated) into the edges of he board in line with the rails.

 

I cropped the sides off the screw heads so that they don't protrude too much from under the rails, dressed them flat with a fine file and cut the sleepers to fit round them. The underlay takes a bit of a hammering during this procedure, but it should all be hidden underneath the ballast:

 

 

Then I soldered the rails to the screws and glued the sleepers in place:

 

 

 

And finally cut through the rails with an Xacto razor saw:

 

 

 

Hopefully this will accurately locate the rail ends if the baseboards are disassembled. This is a cruel close-up but certainly a wagon rolls across the joint with hardly a click.

 

I can always slide shortened fishplates over the rail ends to help align them if necessary.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

More trackwork.

 

I've glued down the two "hidden" sidings which make up the Inglenook headshunt.

 

 

 

This is how I've done it. First, the track has a thin bead of PVA glue applied to the underside of the sleeper webbing and then it's dropped into place with the correct insulated and metal fishplates in place. Since this will be a DCC-controlled layout, only the common crossing (frog) area of the turnout is isolated from the rest of the trackwork. All other running rails will be permanently wired to one of the DCC outputs.

 

 

I made sure that the two ends of the sidings come right up to the edge of the board and are at right-angles to it. This will (hopefully) allow me to add a cassette-based fiddle yard in the future, but obviously not with Offerston Quay in its usual location (unless I want to punch through the wall and end up in the bathroom). Somehow I don't think that would get approval from .

 

 

Plenty of PVA glue is squeezing out here, but it dries almost clear as you can see from the upper track and will be hidden by ballast. The plastic fishplates are Exactoscale as they mechanically locate the rail ends as well as isolating them. Bolt heads to the inside, nuts to the outside (as it were).

 

I think I'll solder the metal fishplates and add cosmetic etched brass fishplates to the rail webbing. I don't like the look of frequent dropper wires soldered to the sides of the rail so this will help reduce their number without relying on the conductivity of slide-on fishplate joints. If I ever want to remove the track or turnouts, a quick dab with the soldering iron should free them up without damage.

 

I used a heavy, flat weight, appropriately the "AA book of Steam Railways", to hold the track in position and stop any tendency to lift until the glue has dried.

 

 

After waiting overnight, the first wagon movement (digitally powered) could take place.

 

 

If the wagon didn't derail at a scale 100mph, it's probably going to be OK at normal shunting speeds!

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[jimhurst]

Looking Good so Far !

[Fastdax]

Looking Good so Far !

 

Thanks Jim!

[Fastdax]

The three turnouts that feed the 4 sidings are sort of a linked unit, but I'm building the two that face the same way as one unit. This is because the third "backwards" turnout which feeds the headshunt will be isolated by two plastic fishplates and doesn't share many sleepers with its partner. I thought this would be a weak arrangement if all built together, so a double and a single it will be.

 

First job is to print out (twice) the Templot excerpt and stick one copy to my building board (an old kitchen cupboard side which is long enough for the 700mm double turnout). I find it useful to have a second printout to hand, which I can use to place bits of rail onto, to get the bends and curves exactly right.

 

The long stock rail was slightly bent at the toe end of the switch blades and curved in between as per the plan. Here it has its chairs threaded on, ready to be glued down.

 

 

I cut bits of 1mm copperclad to support the common crossing ...

 

 

... and superglued them in place.

 

 

I made up the 1 in 4 vee using my jig and tried to make it look like the blunt nose should by filling the web with solder at the tip.

 

 

The toe end of the turnout can be gauged to 32mm as it joins to standard Peco track. By the time the switch rails get to the crossing, they will be 31.5mm.

 

 

I'm trying something a bit different this time with the slide chairs. On my previous turnout, some of the sleepers were loose (and fell off!) when I removed it from the backing paper. This time I superglued (Roket Rapid) the slide chairs to the side of the stock rail first and clamped them until dry. The bottle says 5-10s but I like to clamp it for a few minutes. When dry, I will glue the slide chairs down to the timbers.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Work on the double turnout continues with fitting the blades and closure/wing rails. Apart from the toe of the first turnout and the two rightmost heel-end lines, which are all gauged to 32mm, the rest of the double turnout is 31.5mm everywhere.

 

 

 

The scribbled arrows on the Templot plan are to remind me to face the chair blocks away from adjacent fishplates.

 

 

Here's the almost-complete pair of turnouts, only needing the tiebars and cosmetic chairs adding.

 

 

 

To fit the cosmetic chairs, first I trimmed off the excess copperclad using a small circular saw blade in a Dremel.

 

 

Then I prepared the chairs by cutting off only the portion outside the rail.

 

 

These could then be glued to the timbers to hide the ends of the copperclad.

 

 

Duncan

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

In between building turnouts, I gave the front of the baseboards a coat of primer ...

 

 

.. followed by some acrylic satin black that I found in my box of assorted paints. I painted the canal basin black as a base coat for the mucky brown that will follow.

 

 

I also completed the final (low-level) A4 "Y" turnout. Same procedure as before so no in-progress pictures. You can see the two "loose" chairs on the right, waiting to be glued to the timbers that form part of the previous double unit.

 

 

That's all the turnouts made for the goods yard and I will start laying them tomorrow, then adding the plain track for the sidings. Soon I'll have somewhere to run my sole loco!

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

I have been fixing down the turnouts and sidings. Here are the 3 turnouts feeding the 3-way Inglenook sidings, plus the kick-back to hold a brake van. Before each turnout was finally glued in place, I drilled a 6mm hole under the tiebar to take the operating rod, plus a 1.5mm hole just behind the frog to take its polarity-switching wire.

 

 

Then it was on to the straightforward task of laying the sidings. All the track work is glued to the underlay using ordinary PVA glue and weighted down until it dries, which isn't long in a warm house.

 

 

I find that a small mirror is an invaluable tool for judging whether bits of track are aligned properly. It allows you to look along the rails from a real track-level point of view without having to lay your head on the board. I also use a straight-edge where possible, not that there's much straight track on Offerston Quay!

 

 

To lay plain track I just smear two lines of PVA under the Peco track webbing, then lay and weigh down the track for a couple of hours or so.

 

 

The middle siding once again exits the board at right-angles. That gives me the option to connect it to a fiddle-yard one day.

 

The trackwork for the lower level is nearly complete! It needs the kick-back siding fixing down and electrical stuff doing to the trackwork, to add dropper wires and bond fishplates with solder etc. Some cosmetic (etched brass) fishplates will be added to draw attention away from the Peco metal fishplates below them. These can be superglued in place once soldering is complete. Soldering (i.e. heat) and superglue don't mix. The combination gives off Cyanide gas.

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

The last bit of lower-level trackwork. This is where the kickback siding crosses the board joint. As before, the rails will be soldered to brass screws driven into the board edges.

 

 

The screws are dressed back a bit ...

 

 

... and the sleepers are glued down and the rails are soldered to the screws. I whittled a sleeper to fit between the screws to make them a bit less obvious.

 

 

Finally, the rails are cut with a razor saw.

 

 

Here's an example of the etched brass C&L cosmetic fishplate superglued in place. Like the plastic Exactoscale ones, these have an inside and an outside face. This is an inside face. I have cheated and stuck them only on the visible sides of the rails.

 

 

So the kickback is complete, all metal fishplates are soldered for electrical continuity and cosmetic fishplates have been added. I know I should make provision for expansion of the rails but

 a ) this layout lives in a house at pretty well constant temperature and

 b ) any expansion will just push the rails towards the open ends of the sidings a bit.

 

 

I have even soldered green dropper wires to all four crossing vees because, y'know, frogs are green.

 

 

This is my last post for week or so. Skiing in Italy awaits, tomorrow!

 

Duncan

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Back from skiing with no broken bones (although there were 2 hospitalisations in my group of 24 - perhaps I'm getting too old for this "bounce down an Alp" malarky).

 

Anyway, on with some wiring. This is mainly to get the turnouts moving prior to being able to run some stock. The first step was to tip the baseboards on their back and fix a 4-way mains block plus power supply for the points controller underneath.

 

 

The white plastic corner block stops the mains adapter sliding off the screws in its "keyhole" mounting points.

 

 

 

 

The points controller I'm going to use is a Megapoints Servo Controller from Loolee.org. It will control up to 12 turnouts/signals via cheapo servos like this, so should run Offerston Quay's 5 turnouts and 2 (planned) signals just fine. There will be a few outputs left over for any other moving bits as well. I saw it in operation at last year's Warley show and I like the design and features.

 

 

The outlet for the NCE Powercab controller is also mounted centrally underneath. The Powercab can be in front of, or behind, the layout as the occasion demands.

 

 

The long "tail" attached to the Megapoints contains switch wires. These will go to the turnout/signal switches and are long enough that I can position the switch block either at the front or the rear of the layout. They may need shortening a bit though.

 

 

The Megapoints controller needs calibrating for each turnout (left throw, right throw) and I thought it best to mount it on a small hinged slab of ply so that its pushbuttons are visible and accessible with the layout lying flat. Here it is in the normal, stowed, position.

 

 

And here it is hinged down and ready for programming.

 

 

More about turnout operating units and servos next time.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

I'm using cheap analogue servos to drive the turnouts, using the Megapoints method of mounting them under the baseboards. These servos just need one of the mounting lugs snipping and filing off, as on the one on the right. They are made from a soft plastic so this only takes seconds.

 

If you're buying these from HobbyKing directly, one tip is to navigate to the servos' page, then just wait for a few minutes. I got a pop-up box offering me a servo for £1.58 instead of £1.71 (if I recall correctly). I added this cheap servo to the shopping basket, then edited the basket to change the quantity from 1 to 10. Result: 10 cheap servos for under £20 delivered.

 

 

These things are tiny! They come with mounting screws and a choice of 3 operating arms for well under £2.

 

 

The mounting method calls for 15mm x 15mm aluminium channel. I got a metre of it from B&Q for a few quid. It's cut into 50mm lengths.

 

 

Then two 2mm screw holes and a 1mm fulcrum hole are drilled. You can even use the small mounting screws supplied with the servo.

 

 

The servo is a push-fit into the ali channel and a length of 1mm rod (I used some nickel-silver rod that was lying around, but piano wire will do) is bent into a Z at one end and slipped through the operating arm and fulcrum hole.

 

 

 

 

The units were attached under the baseboards with a layer of sticky foam tape to help cut down on transmitted noise, then screwed into position. I was careful to line up the turnout operating unit perpendicular to the turnout tie-bar to minimise any strain. The operating rod goes through the loop in the tie-bar, of course.

 

 

To operate the Megapoints unit, you need a simple on/off (SPST) switch. I already had a Brassmasters 5-way lever unit from my previous layout, so I'm using this.

 

It has 5 microswitches on the back, which will do the job nicely.

 

 

I mounted it to a bit of plywood and then wired the microswitches to the monkey-tail lead.

 

 

In front of the lever frame is a length of 25mm x 25mm ali angle. This will hold any extra switches, such as those to control lighting etc. For now, this angle is just screwed in place, although I did take the trouble to mark out the positions for any future switches. I have a second Brassmasters lever frame kit, unmade yet, so this will fit alongside the first and control signals.

 

For now, the ply base will sit under the layout out of the way, screwed to something solid like my turnout-building board. I plan to make a bracket to hold it just in front of (or behind) the baseboards to give me some flexibility in the future.

 

So we have a lever frame connected to a Megapoints unit, driving turnouts via servos. Each turnout needed calibrating but that's a ten second exercise, performed once only per turnout.

 

Here's what the result looks and sounds like. It's a bit "growly" when operating but perhaps no louder than a Tortoise motor and certainly much quieter than a Fulgurex unit.

 

 

I'm pleased with how easy the Megapoints unit has been to set up and use. I look forwards to connecting it to some upper-quadrant semaphore signals and watching the random bounce as the signals drop to danger.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

More wiring.

 

I soldered droppers to each electrically-independent bit of rail. Red to the front of the layout, black to the rear. The big white cable in the pictures below is 2.5mm sq. household mains wire. This will be the main DCC bus.

 

For now, the droppers make a bit of a rats' nest.

 

 

 

 

The next picture shows two things.

 

First, the neatness of servo wiring. I bought a few bags of 10 servo extension cables in 150mm, 500mm and 1m lengths from somewhere in China via eBay. Each bag was 99p delivered, although you have to be patient and wait for 2-4 weeks for the things to arrive. How they do it for the price, I don't know. But simply plugging the servos into extension cables makes for a very neat job. I'm using these plugs to bridge the baseboard joints for the servo wiring.

 

Second, I made sure to run a red wire and a black wire to the vicinity of each servo, along with the existing green frog wire. These will be used for frog switching.

 

 

Here's how I join the droppers to the DCC bus. I carefully remove a portion of the insulation, snip out the central earth wire, and wrap then solder the droppers to the solid copper core using a 50W iron and huge amounts of resin-cored electrical solder. The copper cores are solid enough that there's no danger of them touching, although I may wrap them in tape once it's all been checked out.

 

 

In the hole you can see a blurry shot of a 4-way connector in the main bus, to bridge the baseboards. I used 2 contacts for each bus wire, to ensure a good connection. Here's a similar 5-way connector, again from Ebay for 99p. I got a couple of 8-ways as well, for future use.

 

 

These are really nice, well-made plugs and sockets with a locking screw collar.

 

 

You may have noticed that I'm a fan of neat wiring. Comes from 30 years in the computer industry I guess, where messy wiring is a nightmare to debug.

 

 

The servo cables are small enough that any excess can just be looped up and held by a self-adhesive (Peco) cable clip.

 

 

 

These droppers feed the two sidings on the right-hand board.

 

 

So we got to the point where all the turnouts and plain track was wired to the main bus, except for the frogs. This meant that I could power the bus temporarily from a DC benchtop power supply and run my Jinty (which is still DC only). Its wheelbase is just about long enough to bridge the dead frogs, so it ran successfully end to end!

 

 

 

 

I love the prototypical clunks and squeal as the 3F negotiates the turnouts and curves.

 

In the pipeline now is frog switching via microswitches, to remove the dead spots.

 

I must also convert the Jinty to DCC, but I'll document that in a separate thread in a more appropriate area of RMweb.

 

Duncan

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

OK - frog switching.

 

Again using the Megapoints recommended method, I cut some softwood blocks to 28mm and sourced some really micro switches.

 

 

If you thought the servos were small ...

 

 

The wood blocks are epoxied to the underside of the baseboards, close to the servos but not so close that the operating arm would touch them.

 

 

Then some strong contact adhesive stuck the microswitches in place, so that the operating arm just clicks them over when at full travel. I may add some pins to hold the switches securely in place, but so far the glue is doing a fine job.

 

I did this for all four existing servos, so that now all frogs are switched when the turnouts throw.

 

 

I also knocked up this little bracket. It's basically a removable shelf to put the switch block on.

 

It's a bit crude at the moment but I may paint or varnish it at some point.

 

 

The upright portion is a bit of the softwood that spaces the ply beams apart, so it's a push fit into the gap in the beams. This means that it can be pushed in at a variety of places along the front panel and presumably along the rear of the baseboards too. Friction holds it in place quite well.

 

 

And here it is in use. there's space at the front for an uncoupling pen light and my NCE Powercab controller just fits behind the lever switches. This, by the way, is total coincidence. I'm not that good at foreseeing and planning!

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Just a quick post to add a link to my new Workbench thread at Duncan's 7mm Workbench.

 

There you will find some details about converting my 3F Jinty to DCC sound and how well it runs.

 

Duncan

[Fastdax]

Couplings.

 

As described on my rolling stock thread, I decided to use Dingham couplers to help the flow of shunting. These need electromagnets to activate the uncoupling action.

 

Like I did once on my previous EM Gauge layout, I made cheap electromagnets from eBay solenoids. These are sold as 12V 2A machinery solenoids and have a sprung, moving core. Their big advantage is that they are only a couple of quid each, plus the inevitable month shipment from China. I got three for the three Inglenook sidings.

 

 

When dismantled, these are the bits. I'll fix in a static core which will protrude above the baseboard.

 

 

First I tried cutting the forked end off the supplied core and gluing it back into the coil. A 6mm hole in the baseboard (where the woodwork is a double layer thick at 18mm) brought the top of the coil level with the sleeper tops. I rigged up a temporary wire and fired it up. The result - almost no effect on the Dingham's iron dropper wire. It twitched but certainly didn't raise the loop from the horizontal.

 

 

Next attempt - a longer bit of 6mm steel rod. For simplicity I cut down a long M6 bolt.

 

 

I found that the longer the core, the less the magnetic effect at its tip. To get the best effect, I recessed the solenoid body into the underside of the baseboard as much as I dared without breaking through to fresh air and cut the bolt end off a bit above sleeper level. Like this, the electromagnet operates the Dingham loops properly. There's enough force to lift the loop and the latch, as is necessary for successful uncoupling. I'll disguise the bolt end with some static grass eventually.

 

 

To operate the electromagnets, I added some simple pushbuttons to the switch block. They may not be man enough for the job of switching 2A long term, but I'll replace them if it becomes a problem. Under the layout is a 12V 2A power supply to provide the juice.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Upper level.

 

While my brother Jim was staying with us, I took the opportunity of the extra pair of hands to move the layout downstairs to the kitchen table. This made the woodwork planned for the upper track level easier as we were next to the workshop - er - garage.

 

I printed off a Templot of the upper level trackwork and we used it to plot the position of the upper level. The distance from the edge of the track to the nearest parapet edge was set by reference to the Gauge O Guild's diagram of track and structure clearances. Basically, it's 34mm (minimum) from inside rail face to the nearest lineside structure. I've also got one of these useful laser-cut wooden rulers from Poppy's, which can be used to mark this 34mm round corners and curves.

 

 

 

Then we cut and scraped away the green foam from under the upper boards. I had hoped this stuff would come off cleanly and, surprisingly, it did.

 

Now we could attach the upper level firmly to the main boards without a layer of green stuff in the way.

 

 

The upper level is more of the same 9mm plywood that the main boards are made of. No composite beam structure this time, as I wanted an open arrangement of supports to allow access from front or back for track cleaning.

 

Quite a lot of discussion and coffee went into the positioning of these legs. I'm going to use railway arches from LCUT Creative for the front of the high-level trackway. I got one of these at last year's Warley show and I like the detailing and crispness of the fibreboard pieces. So the legs supporting the upper level fall between the arches so that I can have decorative under-arch scenes without the woodwork getting in the way. Hopefully, the arches will be removable to allow track cleaning from the front.

 

The height of the legs are set by the size of the LCUT arches. They have a parapet wall on the rear side which is 148mm above the floor. Allowing 10mm for the 9mm ply deck, we cut the legs to 138mm. The spare 1mm makes sure the parapet wall does overlap the ply board top. The GOG minimum height above rail level of 105mm is no problem. There will be more like 120mm.

 

I made an executive decision to keep the back-right-hand corner as a solid board, rather than cut away a triangle for the lower level. Such a triangle would have no practical function and would just limit what scenic items I can put in that corner. So - one solid board it is.

 

The legs were glued and screwed to the underside of the upper boards.

 

 

 

 

The narrow board on the left-hand side was glued and screwed down. It should not have to move ever again as there's no track under it.

 

The bigger high-level board was just screwed down. It will be possible, with a bit of effort, to remove it if I ever need serious access to the lower track.

 

Each upper board has an end-piece which are screwed together to hold the joint in alignment.

 

Here are the upper boards in place.

 

 

And here they are once the layout had been returned to its normal home.

 

 

The LCUT arch is just propped roughly in place. I will need seven of them eventually. At least one must be just blank brickwork as it is next to the track going under the bridge. Jim has volunteered to make some "under-arch scenes" for the others which will be lit with LEDs and positioned behind whatever we decide to do for doors.

 

 

 

Thanks to Jim for all his help this weekend!

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

A couple of brief items to show you today.

 

I installed the two remaining uncoupling electromagnets in the rear two Inglenook sidings. As before, these use lengths of M6 bolt shank to bring the magnetism to just above sleeper level.

 

I really need something to hide these metal lumps. Lowering them is not really an option as the magnetism seems to fall away rapidly (inverse square law, I know) with a small decrease in height.

 

Perhaps a timber walkway? Clump of grass? Carelessly-discarded bucket? Your suggestions, ladies and gentlemen, will be welcomed.

 

By the way, the hole in the green underlay behind the track is what happens when a blob of contact adhesive falls onto it!

 

 

Putting in those two electromagnets made me realise that I had put the first one in the wrong place. I put it in the frontmost siding, but clear of the toe of the point. This means that I couldn't get the full 5 wagons beyond the uncoupler, as the Inglenook design calls for.

 

So I shifted it to the right by 300mm or so. This means that it's in the middle of the pointwork, unfortunately.

 

 

I ordered the remaining LCUT arches. Here they are, just propped in place.

 

 

Thinking about the bridge where the lower track dives under the station, I found some Wills Vari-Girder bits from my EM layout. Although 4mm scale, I think they will represent a 7mm girder bridge quite well, especially if "bulked up" with an additional cross-beam or two. I must see if there's any more vari-girder in my box of EM bits.

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Trackplans again.

 

I thought I'd fixed the upper-level track plan as a single island platform between two lines, like this (some lower track omitted for clarity):

 

 

This would call for a station building across the end of the tracks. A prototype for this is Hayes Station in Kent although I'd have to take account of the fact that the track ends are not level with each other.

 

Then I wondered about putting the two tracks together, with a platform either side like this:

 

 

On both plans, the diagonal red line shows the edge of the upper-level plywood base.

 

The inspiration for this was a picture I found of Beverley Station in Yorkshire. I like the look of the passenger footbridge just outside the main station building. An advantage of doing things this way is that it doesn't matter if the track ends are not level. The station building can overlap the end few inches of the tracks and the trains can still use the full length of the tracks. It also gives the illusion that the tracks may actually continue through the station, like at Beverley.

 

Both plans leave a triangle at the back for a signal box, which I do want to have.

 

So which should I go for (or a third alternative)? Your comments will be valued.

 

Duncan

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[ktundu99]

I'd be tempted to go with the first option with a slight modification - the shorter of the two roads could easily become a bay platform while some clever contrivance allows the illusion that the other track continues through?

[Fastdax]

I'd be tempted to go with the first option with a slight modification - the shorter of the two roads could easily become a bay platform while some clever contrivance allows the illusion that the other track continues through?

 

Interesting ...

[AireValley1962]

Just read through the whole topic here.  Excellent work.  And while I don't model in O, I was sorely tempted to having seen the wonderful Jinty a while ago.  Really looking forward to following the rest of the build.  

 

As for hiding the uncouplers, what about a discarded newspaper for some of them?

 

And as regards the upper level trackplan, I like the idea of a bay platform being in there somewhere.

 

Cheers,

William