Roll up...Roll up... Show us all your track plans!

[Lacathedrale]

Here's a bitsa that Rice did in his 'How to build a Cameo Layout' book - a junction between the Cambrian and LNWR, with a Quarry branch off to one side in 5' x 18":

 

 

There's certainly alot more going on (and would definitely benefit from a little rejigging- Rice has the Goods Shed blocking the switchback to his cattle pens completely, for example). I particularly like the fact there's not vast areas dedicated to fanning out sidings (see Stanmore above, where just under half the length is the throat!).

 

The pedant in me is screaming however: but how do you operate the thing?!

[imt]

.....................

 

There's certainly alot more going on (and would definitely benefit from a little rejigging- Rice has the Goods Shed blocking the switchback to his cattle pens completely, for example). I particularly like the fact there's not vast areas dedicated to fanning out sidings (see Stanmore above, where just under half the length is the throat!).

 

The pedant in me is screaming however: but how do you operate the thing?!

 

The way round Rice has it is probably the "right" way.  You cannot take a loco into a goods shed - so you will be restricted if the line is covered (which your's isn't I agree).  Cattle pens are infrequently used and can easily be reversed past giving plenty of room for kickback shunting into the goods shed.

[Karhedron]

Here is my "when I retire" plan which is based on Birkenhead Woodside without the centre roads. It is pretty close to a 5-platform version of Minories.

 

 

Here are a few shots of the real thing showing how hemmed-in it was. Those retaining walls would frame the layout nicely. I would westernise it if I were building it since GWR locos did visit.

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2018 by Karhedron

[Lacathedrale]

Sorry, imt, Rice's plan has the goods shed right up against the switchback which leads into the cattle pens, I just shuffled it further up. I guess your solution of swapping the pens and sheds would make more sense even if it requires another reverse.

 

Infact, there's alot here which in some way justifies itself within the context of a dreamlike, ethereal impression - rather than a scale model of a particular place. On those lines, I think I would happily drop the single slip for a Diamond as well if tracklaying abilities didn't come up to par. (Stanmore as an example with a similar formation).

 

It's strange, because the Rice plan is 6' x 18" in OO and this is 2FS - yet we seem to have got the same 'stuff' ! I wonder if putting the PW huts on the river-side of the exchange sidings so that loop could be at a standard 6' way might make the plan look a little less stubby and more serpentine.

 

In terms of stock and operation, the original plan calls for a pre-grouping scene set before the Great War. I imagine that we'd see a mixture of superannuated six wheeled coaches and new 40' bogie coaches. This particular design revolves around the wooded exits on one side, and a road on the other - so while set in North Wales,  I imagine it'd work equally well in the Downs or the Mendips. SDJR and GWR at Cole? LBSCR and LSWR at Whyteleaf? Some far flung scottish branch confluence?

Edited October 8, 2018 by Lacathedrale

[Brassey]

Here is my "when I retire" plan which is based on Birkenhead Woodside without the centre roads. It is pretty close to a 5-platform version of Minories.

 

Birkenhead - Copy.jpg

 

Here are a few shots of the real thing showing how hemmed-in it was. Those retaining walls would frame the layout nicely. I would westernise it if I were building it since GWR locos did visit.

 

 

 

 

Birkenhead Woodside was on the Birkenhead Railway which was joint GWR/LNWR so it was run by GWR motive power. Until fairly late on it retained Expresses direct to Paddington

[Joseph_Pestell]

Birkenhead Woodside was on the Birkenhead Railway which was joint GWR/LNWR so it was run by GWR motive power. Until fairly late on it retained Expresses direct to Paddington

 

Yes, in many ways an ideal modeller's layout apart from the lack of freight traffic.

 

The GW expresses reversed at Chester. So normal GW motive power was a 51xx tank that far. A little less interesting than the King or Castle that would take over there. But from a modeller's viewpoint, quite short trains and tank engines is a useful combination.

[Karhedron]

Birkenhead Woodside was on the Birkenhead Railway which was joint GWR/LNWR so it was run by GWR motive power. Until fairly late on it retained Expresses direct to Paddington

Yes indeed. There is a nice shot below of a Mogul simmering at the platform in pre-nationalisation days.

 

 

Another handy feature is the tunnel just beyond the station throat which would perfectly disguise the exit to the fiddle yard.

 

[KeithMacdonald]

I've been inspired by the GWR/SR joint stations topic to design this, to fill a side and corner of the attic.

 

With a terminus called Torringcombe, loosely based on Ilfracombe and Torrington.

And a junction station called Walhill, loosely based on Halwill Junction.

Plus a little East Wiltshire Railway Museum. Loosely based on the Didcot Railway Centre layout.

 

My main problem at the moment is : where to put the isolating sections for the reversing loops?

I've put some red dashes on the layout where I *think* they should go - what would people recommend?

 

[Lacathedrale]

I keep looking at the Hepton Wharf trackplan - I don't have the track plan handy, but the second shot in this post of a layout using the same plan is fairly illustrative: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122023-queensbridge-road-wharf/&do=findComment&comment=2692227

 

In the original, the nearside siding runs alongside a canal and into a goods shed, and the middle siding off the loop ends in a cobbled yard. The exit to the right is masked with closed crossing gates and some houses, and to the left by a girder bridge and steep cutting. The layout itself is super compressed but lovely and quaint.

 

On one hand, I think that something that's just touching the edge between curated and twee works well for cameo and micro layouts like this (the original was around 6' all in, and I happen to have 90% of the components and track for a 2mm equivalent in less than 4'). I don't know if it would have the same effect if it were twisted to an urban or industrial setting (my first thought was as a gasworks!), though I'm quite sure that the freight-only nature of the setting ensures the compression isn't too obvious - little docks, warehouses and cranes betray far less than station platforms 20' long...

[Lacathedrale]

Here's a templot rendering of the plan:

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by Lacathedrale

[sb67]

I keep looking at the Hepton Wharf trackplan - I don't have the track plan handy, but the second shot in this post of a layout using the same plan is fairly illustrative: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122023-queensbridge-road-wharf/&do=findComment&comment=2692227

 

In the original, the nearside siding runs alongside a canal and into a goods shed, and the middle siding off the loop ends in a cobbled yard. The exit to the right is masked with closed crossing gates and some houses, and to the left by a girder bridge and steep cutting. The layout itself is super compressed but lovely and quaint.

 

On one hand, I think that something that's just touching the edge between curated and twee works well for cameo and micro layouts like this (the original was around 6' all in, and I happen to have 90% of the components and track for a 2mm equivalent in less than 4'). I don't know if it would have the same effect if it were twisted to an urban or industrial setting (my first thought was as a gasworks!), though I'm quite sure that the freight-only nature of the setting ensures the compression isn't too obvious - little docks, warehouses and cranes betray far less than station platforms 20' long...

 

I like that plan a lot, have you seen Shelfie, a 4mm small layout with a similar plan, I belive the scenic side is 4' long,  but set in an Industrial/goods setting? It's a great layout and it's multi era as well.

Steve.

[Lacathedrale]

It's such a simple plan - the operator in me is screaming ' but there's nothing to do!' and the pragmatist in me replies 'yes, but you could actually finish it, couldn't you?'

 

I haven't seen Shelfie and google turns up nothing - do you have any links?

[Moxy]

I haven't seen Shelfie and google turns up nothing - do you have any links?

 

It doesn't seem to have it's own thread, but it's mentioned here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117630-chris-nevards-brew-st/&do=findComment&comment=2536818

 

with a link to a 'bare boards' trackplan shot https://albionyard.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_1188.jpg

 

HTH

 

Moxy

[Harlequin]

This thread was vague and redundant from the word go, in that it aims to display and discuss various layout designs - which is what the Layout & Track Design forum is for.

 

There is the danger that it will suck discussion about a large number of layouts out of the forum and hoard it here in a tangled mass so I suggest that we lock this thread and move on.

Edited November 20, 2018 by Harlequin