New N gauge layout.

[Guest CLARENCE]

This is my plan for a small (6'6" X 2'0") layout in N gauge. I need a new layout because we're moving house, I hope soon as we've been waiting a long time for the new house to be finished. I did have a OO layout in the shed, but it never worked properly, being built rather piecemeal.

   6'6" x 2.0" is the maximum I'm allowed in the spare room. I've been playing with various possibilities for ages, using Scarm.

   Anyway, this is what I've finally come up with after seeing the Grassington Moor layout in Railway Modeller.

 A double track branch line with a small station and goods yard, leaving lots of room for scenery and buildings, etc.

The actual trackwork is to be about 30mm above the actual baseboard to allow scenery to be lower as well as higher than the actual tracks. Scenery is rather my "thing"!

The end curves are to be Setrack radii 1 and 2, together with Setrack turnouts; hopefully this will be OK as I don't expect to be running anything other than tank locos and short trains.

  I'm open to suggestions and criticisms. Would this actually work? 

 

Cheers, David

 

[DCB]

It looks good, bit short on storage but should be good to operate except for the short headshunt by the signal box which would usually be a trailing rather than facing and the short headshunt would make shunting the yard almost impossible.

I would put a further connection from inner main to the headshunt and connect the headshunt to the outer with a diamond or single slip (A)  and move the  crossover to the right  (B)  

If you use the single slip A there is no real need for B but it would restrict the length of train which could be run round.  

 

Elevating the track is  great idea but I would slope the scenery up to cover the hidden tracks and the ends as well.

A river under the station would be good

Edited September 3, 2017 by DavidCBroad

[The Johnster]

I like David's improvements but have further suggestions.  As there is now a single slip at A, there is no need for the trailing crossover at B and it can be dispensed with, paying for the single slip.  I'd bring the backscene as far forward as you can to make room for more fiddle yard, as I agree with David that your storage is very limited and you will need as much as you can manage, and bring the higher level scenery forward at the ends of the board to hide the trainset curves.  Ideally the scenic breaks need to be close to or on the front straight, which in my view will look better if you very gently curve it.

 

This suggests a station built in hilly country across a valley, emerging from the hillsides either side and crossing the valley on an embankment, which is a very typical sort of arrangement.

 

I'd be very tempted to have a kickback siding off the coal road serving a dairy or some small industry if only to complicate the shunting, but even as it is the layout has a lot of operating potential; you can run through, terminate passenger trains from either direction and run around, and shunt pickups from either direction as well, or any combination of those.  It'll certainly work; good basic plan!

 

Not sure about the weighbridge; what sort of mineral traffic do you envisage having to be loaded here that needs weighing?  Perhaps this is the answer to the kickback siding, an aggregates supplier loading into hoppers from a chute, but the weighbridge then moves to the kickback siding.  Have a look at Helston (Helstonish on the 'Layout Topics' thread) and it's serpentine siding for the sort of thing I mean.

Edited September 3, 2017 by The Johnster

[Guest CLARENCE]

Thanks for input, folks, I've adapted the original plan, and done a little more fiddling (always fiddling, me, can't leave things alone!)

 

 

 

     I'm not entirely happy about either method, especially the single-slip; it is Peco Code 55, while the rest of the layout is Code 80 with Setrack turnouts, needing a bit of fiddling to make the slip fit with Code 80 Setrack spacing, not least a Code 55 turnout to make a smooth fit. Both suggestions will need several short lengths of flexitrack here and there. One question; if I simply lengthen the back shunt would it help with making simple shunting possible? I'm no expert on real railway operations, and I do know that trailing points were frowned on, but still!

    What I'm after is to be able to run short trains "round and round" with the odd bit of shunting when I get bored. My main building enjoyment is to be making the scenery and buildings, with the scenery sloping up to the back and quite a lot of the space on the right being left for scenery.

    I do like the idea of some small industrial building, though, I'll give it some thought. Oh, and the weighbridge is intended for coal traffic.

    Off to do some more fiddling with the plan, as its all I have to play with just yet!

   Cheers, David.

 

    

[Karhedron]

I'd be very tempted to have a kickback siding off the coal road serving a dairy or some small industry if only to complicate the shunting, but even as it is the layout has a lot of operating potential; you can run through, terminate passenger trains from either direction and run around, and shunt pickups from either direction as well, or any combination of those.  It'll certainly work; good basic plan!

I agree, a dairy is an excellent source of freight for a branchline. Most dairies were located in rural parts so would fit perfectly with the proposed setting. Milk trains were quite short and the colourful pre-nationalisation liveries of the tankers would liven up things a lot. The dairy buildings themselves could be quite compact. While some rail-served dairies were large, sprawling affairs, this was usually only if they also made other products like butter, cheese or powdered milk.

 

Here are some small rail-served dairies that might spark some inspiration.

 

Moreton-in-the-Marsh

 

Pont Llanio

 

Wallingford

 

Chard

[Flying Pig]

Given the space you have, particularly the rather limited width, would you be better off modelling a single track branch? A single platform on the outside of the circuit with a goods loop inside would still allow you to shunt while a train circulated and you wouldn't be trying to fit a platform and goods loop end to end. You might be able to use streamline points on the scenic section for better appearance and possibly a mixture of 2nd and 3rd radius at the ends.

[Flying Pig]

This sort of thing.  Sorry I don't have software on this PC to annotate the plan but

 

- the end curves are 2nd radius for the rear half and 3rd in front; the short extra pieces at each end are flexi at 24" radius to provide a short transition as well as creating space for the platform;

 

- the platform obviously goes at the bottom; I imagine it accessed over a level crossing at the right hand side with fairly limited buildings

 

- the long siding at the right crosses the access road to an industry such as a dairy, feed mill or whatever

 

[Guest CLARENCE]

This sort of thing.  Sorry I don't have software on this PC to annotate the plan but

 

- the end curves are 2nd radius for the rear half and 3rd in front; the short extra pieces at each end are flexi at 24" radius to provide a short transition as well as creating space for the platform;

 

- the platform obviously goes at the bottom; I imagine it accessed over a level crossing at the right hand side with fairly limited buildings

 

- the long siding at the right crosses the access road to an industry such as a dairy, feed mill or whatever

 

nbranch.png

I have tried several times to produce something similar to this, but for some reason they seem unsatisfying! I do like the idea of a small industry of some sort, though.

Somehow, I've got fixed in my head the idea of a double-track branch with a small station/goods yard, set in the 1950's/1960's, when I were a lad living next to a double track branch, where my dad was a signalman in a box opposite.

Thanks for the pics, Karhedron, some food for thought!

Whatever, what I'm wanting as a layout is a railway running past the edge of a village somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales' operated mainly by small tank locos and maybe one of them new-fangled DMUs; a small station and goods facility with coal yard, cattle/sheep dock, small goods shed and a crane. Some small local light industry would be a bonus, but I want lots of space for buildings and fields. I certainly don't want the railway to dominate too much.

So there you go; any more suggestions?

 

David.

Edited September 13, 2017 by CLARENCE

[The Johnster]

A single track looks more dominated by it's surroundings than double, saves space, and introduces the operational interest of having trains passing at the loop, at the cost of not being able to pass on the move, which is visually exciting.  A Yorkshire Dales setup gives you the hill to hide the fiddle yard beneath, and a dairy is a suitable small industry for the area.  Alternatives might be a small brewery or some sort of textiles production; breweries are good because they need deliveries of hops and barley as well as empty casks, and of course the output goes by rail.  Breweries are also good because they make beer.  I like beer.

 

The unpleasant truth is you haven't got a lot of space for buildings and fields, so need an understated approach here.  The fields can be more suggested and relegated to the backscene than modelled, and I would go for a station road approach from the viewing side, suggesting that the village is a short distance away in that direction.  On the opposite end to the long siding, where less is happening, what about a road overbridge with the road bending away to the left offscene, drawing your eye away in that direction and enabling less clutter in the middle where you want to evoked the feel of open countryside.  For this reason, I'd suggest small station and goods buildings; you are going for a sparse and open look to it.  Loading dock and a lock up store rather than a goods shed, and perhaps coal drops in Yorkshire.   Worked with small tank engines and a new fangled dmu, it has a lot of potential, as you can shunt away to your heart's content while passenger traffic comes and goes, and occasionally passes.  

 

I can almost hear the bleating of sheep on the hillside.  Start sloping up to this at the goods yard fence, it will enhance the open feel of the location, and, with the steep slopes to the bigger hills on the backscene, again suggest space if the ground appears to drop away behind the fiddle yard; this is about lighting and sightline management, but suggests a valley between the viewer and the fells about half a mile away.  Dry stone walls and a general 'grim oop north' look, and you've cracked it!

Edited September 13, 2017 by The Johnster

[Guest CLARENCE]

Hi, everyone,

I'm back at last, after almost a year! At last I'm in a position to maybe start actually building the layout! Got a baseboard (actually an internal door, perfect for N gauge, 78" X 24"). I've been playing with lots of possibilities for months, and ended up with this;

 

Baseboard in the corner of the spare room;

 

My latest plan;

 

 

And some 3D renderings;

 

As you can see, I've simplified a lot, now a single-track roundy-roundy circuit, with a station at the "front" of the board, and a goods yard just behind. I envision using insulation board in several layers to help build up scenery, etc., also to allow for the wiring to be hidden, as I don't see passing wires right through the baseboard.

First layer 20mm for the main circuit, another 20mm for the goods yard (to be up a slope from  station, for visual effect as much as anything), and finally maybe 30mm higher to where the road passes right across.

I intend to have an undulating slope up from front to back. Can't make up my mind whether to have the backscene right at the back or just in front of the hidden tracks at the back.

Bearing in mind Rule One, specifically that I don't intend to necessarily run the layout in prototype fashion, I await comments/suggestions.

 

Cheers,

Edited August 21, 2018 by CLARENCE

[Ian Morgan]

You mentioned earlier that you would like to use small tank locomotives. If you are going for the Setrack 9inch radius points, then I think you will be disappointed by the running.

[Guest CLARENCE]

I was going to try the plan with larger radius points; I'll try it out and see if it will do what I want.

[TonyMay]

This sort of thing.  Sorry I don't have software on this PC to annotate the plan but

 

- the end curves are 2nd radius for the rear half and 3rd in front; the short extra pieces at each end are flexi at 24" radius to provide a short transition as well as creating space for the platform;

 

- the platform obviously goes at the bottom; I imagine it accessed over a level crossing at the right hand side with fairly limited buildings

 

- the long siding at the right crosses the access road to an industry such as a dairy, feed mill or whatever

 

nbranch.png

 

The main visiaul difference between the two is that Flying Pig's contain natural looking curves, whereas as drawn the straight track looks and then settrack curve-straight transitions look strange.