Stations ... why?

[Dunsignalling]

I reckon Post #56 by Satan's Goldfish pretty much nails the principles.

 

A similar arrangement, where the last couple of feet of the platforms is modelled but the rest is merely presumed to exist has been successfully used a number of times, often on layouts large enough to accommodate long platforms in order to release space for something more interesting.

 

I have personally been involved with one, Tamerig Central, by the Taunton Model Railway Group, which has used this subterfuge since the 1960s. Rather than an overbridge, that layout uses an overall roof which continues at the angle the tracks enter, to draw the eye whilst the tracks actually curve round to the fiddle yard.

 

In most stations, trains stop, start and occasionally change engines, the platforms just contain it all. The latter can be done on the bit that really does exist in one direction with the odd parcels van added/detached in the other. Places where there were really interesting movements like joining and splitting of trains a la Exeter Central occupy too much room to offer a realistic prospect of modelling them (in 4mm scale) for all but a very fortunate few. Over 2 feet of scissors crossover would just look silly in the middle of 7-foot platforms.

 

On Tamerig, the space that would otherwise be occupied by platforms is taken up by a decent sized MPD, a couple of goods lay-by sidings, several carriage sidings and a parcels depot, the last in the front corner whilst the running lines curve away.

 

Admittedly, the layout is about twice the length you have to play with but you should be able to fit in more than one of those scaled down to the proportions you can accommodate.

 

John

[BG John]

That was the approach Peter Denny took and the platform lengths on Buckingham were surprisingly short. I wish I could take that path but just can't seem to raise much enthusiasm for earlier railway than late steam era. The other option, which the original Minories was based on,  was suburban operation and that too allows for shorter trains but I do like the idea of the drama of a station handling expresses with dining cars, sleepers and postal vans. 

 

I like the sound of your Victorian Minories. I've operated Giles Barnabe's O-16.5 Puerto Paseo at a few shows which is a three plaform urban NG terminus with a small goods yard to one side and a docks branch and it is extremely satisfying. It is also only 9ft 6ins long by 18ins including the fiddle yard. 

 

I found this drawing for 00 in a very old book by Edward Beal and it does illustrate the point rather well. I assume the main line train with its Pacific was based on 60 ft coaches.but the train of six wheelers is little more than half its length with the same number of carriages.

 

Beal Train Lengths.jpg

 

It also shows that a credibly long goods train (12 wagons and a brake van) is a lot shorter than a train of bogie passenger stock. 

My big plan, which I'm trying to develop my skills to be able to build, as it will need a lot of scratchbuilding to be affordable, and may never happen, includes a terminus rather like Plymouth Millbay, using the Minories plan to make it an interesting model railway to operate. The full plan would be either a continuous run round the room, or go round the room with a reverse loop at each end. At one end of the room, there would be a triangle junction off to the terminus that runs down the middle of the room. I prefer the reverse loop idea, as the terminus can be the end of two formerly separate companies, as Millbay was, with the South Devon Railway from the east, and the Cornwall Railway to the west. Local trains arriving from each direction would terminate there, while through trains would arrive from one direction, change engines, and leave in the other direction. Either on or off stage, I can have a loco shed and carriage sidings, as well as a goods yard and a line to the docks. So lots of model railway type operation, but hopefully not too unrealistic. To make the station look different, I can add in some wagon turntables to short sidings, and other features that disappeared in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.

 

On the main lines, I'd thought of just having the ends of stations where the line runs into the reverse loops or fiddle yards, as it would be a lot to operate on my own, and I'd like some open countryside.

 

This would, of course, all be broad gauge, with maybe the line in one direction being mixed gauge, and to P4 standards. I've actually got the space for it at the moment, but whether I still will have by the time I'm ready to start on it is a big question I don't know the answer to yet.

 

So short trains, through stations with just one end modelled, a Minories terminus with goods facilities, and a continuous run when want one. I just need to develop my computer designs skills so I can produce most of the components I need for the locos and rolling stock on my Silhouette Portrait, or whatever is available at the time.

[coachmann]

A few months ago a friend of mine came up with a solution to my reluctance to building Oswestry Station buildings. Just build the platform end and presume the remainder is off stage outside the scenic area. It would have a lot going for it if it was just about through workings, but I would miss out on the terminating trains. Like the Gobowen auto train shuttle arriving in the bay. The branch train from Llanfyllyn arriving, loco running round and moving stock from Up to Down platform or toddling off to shed for a change-over (excellent excuse for owning two identical engines!).  Roundies with no reason to stop trains and do something else must be terminally boring. 

 

Slightly off topic but I had only seen trains on the move for a good few years of my early life and I got to wondering what locos must be like when stopping, stationary and moving off. I was around 8yrs old when I found out. Since then it has been the most interesting part of railways for me and I cannot imagine what kick linesiders got from watching an endless succession of trains flying past.

[Pacific231G]

My big plan, which I'm trying to develop my skills to be able to build, as it will need a lot of scratchbuilding to be affordable, and may never happen, includes a terminus rather like Plymouth Millbay, using the Minories plan to make it an interesting model railway to operate. The full plan would be either a continuous run round the room, or go round the room with a reverse loop at each end. At one end of the room, there would be a triangle junction off to the terminus that runs down the middle of the room. I prefer the reverse loop idea, as the terminus can be the end of two formerly separate companies, as Millbay was, with the South Devon Railway from the east, and the Cornwall Railway to the west. Local trains arriving from each direction would terminate there, while through trains would arrive from one direction, change engines, and leave in the other direction. Either on or off stage, I can have a loco shed and carriage sidings, as well as a goods yard and a line to the docks. So lots of model railway type operation, but hopefully not too unrealistic. To make the station look different, I can add in some wagon turntables to short sidings, and other features that disappeared in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.

 

Plymouth Millbay is a fascinating location and of course you've got the line to Millbay docks behind the station. I'm guessing that it was much simpler in broad gauge days and that is a real advantage of early stations.

 

I agree with Coachman about seeing trains starting. It's not off topic as I think that's one of the real attractions of stations. As an early teenager during the last years of steam, I could easily cycle or even walk to the main line from my home to see passing trains but I far preferred buying a platform ticket at Oxford station after Saturday morning school just to stand on the platform end to watch, hear, smell and feel the first few beats of the Castles and Halls as they set off for Worcester or Birmingham as well as the first few dozen beats of the Bulleid Pacifics in the opposite direction as they slipped furiously while trying to get the Pines Express or one of the heavier Summer Saturday Only trains to start .

 

The idea of creating a suspension of belief with shortened trains really came from seeing the first train scene in Murder on the Orient Express. The doors shut, the headlights come on, the whistle blows, the loco roars past with steam everywhere and the camera swings round as the coaches of the great express slide pass on their way across Europe until we finally see the red tail lights disappearing. The actual departure is all in a single dramatic  shot and it's only when you look more closely that you realise that what you've actually seen is a modest mixed traffic 4-6-0 (SNCF's 230G353) a baggage car, a single Voiture Lit, a Wagon Restaurant and a Pullman car and that's all. The director Sidney Lumet was of course careful to ensure that this rather short train was never seen in its entirety on the open line as it would have looked a lot less grand*

 

The odd thing is that this may not apply only to trains. The great liners looked a lot more impressive placed against the surrounding docks and tugs than when they were dwarfed by the immensity of an ocean; large aircraft are usually at their most dramatic when landing and particularly when taking off tnot while they are cruisng at 40 000feet. Even the pre-railway stage coaches were at their most dramatic as they set out from the various inns from where they departed.

 

*The irony is that when it was only for CIWL passengers (couchettes and day coaches were included after the war), the real Orient Express leaving Istanbul could be even shorter than in the movie.  Between 1937-1939 it might have a baggage car at each end (one of them providing showers and one with a postal compartment) and two sleeping cars, one to Paris and the other to Boulogne. There was no restaurant car leaving Istanbul as that was only added when it was needed for meal services. By the time it reached Paris the train would have grown to at least seven vehicles with sleeping cars from Brigue, Bucarest and Trieste.

[BG John]

Plymouth Millbay is a fascinating location and of course you've got the line to Millbay docks behind the station. I'm guessing that it was much simpler in broad gauge days and that is a real advantage of early stations.

It wouldn't actually be Millbay, but would have similarities. The problem with stations with train sheds when they had shorter platforms is that not much of the platform was actually out in the daylight, and would be visible on a layout. For a through station, I think Teignmouth would be great to model, but from the sea side practically the whole platform was hidden by the station building, train shed and footbridge.