Simple OO Gauge Test Layout

[petejones]

I don't want to extend too much into the center, so how about this?

 

[petejones]

More fiddling, but I don't think veering off into the centre of the board is all that great. I haven't seen sidings angled off like that on the plans I've looked at. Diss does have a couple of parallel tracks that veer off at an approx. 10° angle, but the sidings still end up parallel to the other sidings and the main lines.

 

 

[Anotheran]

6 hours ago, petejones said:

More fiddling, but I don't think veering off into the centre of the board is all that great. I haven't seen sidings angled off like that on the plans I've looked at. Diss does have a couple of parallel tracks that veer off at an approx. 10° angle, but the sidings still end up parallel to the other sidings and the main lines.

 

You mentioned Newcastle Emlyn earlier in the thread at which the mileage roads do end up parallel to the main lines. However, one station further along the branch is Henllan...

 

I've tipped the map upside down but ignoring the curve going the other way it's oddly familiar and does show the mileage sidings going off away from the main line very similar to the way Harlequin has them. In fact with the access to the yard (over the bridge and opposite the Railway Inn and the yard crane and cattle dock positions you'd think he'd actually looked at Henllan

 

Kind regards, Neil

[petejones]

39 minutes ago, Anotheran said:

In fact with the access to the yard (over the bridge and opposite the Railway Inn and the yard crane and cattle dock positions you'd think he'd actually looked at Henllan

 

Thanks Neil, that's good to know. I think I need to throw some track down and see how all this looks on a board as it can be difficult gauging distance and scale on a 2D plan.

 

I have all the wood I need now to make my baseboard, so will start on that later today (have to start tiling the kitchen first, though ).

[petejones]

4 hours ago, Anotheran said:

You mentioned Newcastle Emlyn earlier in the thread at which the mileage roads do end up parallel to the main lines. However, one station further along the branch is Henllan...

 

This is a good picture of the station:

[Harlequin]

There's lovely!

 

Short curving platforms. Small goods shed doesn't need so much space around it. Piles of coal on the ground. Board crossings only. Ground disc just in rear of a simple trap.

 

 

[The Johnster]

And a Wills crane!

[petejones]

Looks like the one then! If I build that and Neil finishes Newcastle Emlyn, we can exhibit together!

[petejones]

More or less going with Phil's suggestion, apart from keeping the cattle dock on the goods yard side. I also like the idea of the goods shed road being right up against the back of the station platform, so have moved the goods shed right a bit and the crane is now on the left. Not sure if adding two storage sidings is going too far, but I think it looks OK.

 

[Anotheran]

16 hours ago, petejones said:

Looks like the one then! If I build that and Neil finishes Newcastle Emlyn, we can exhibit together!

I like that idea! I have a desire to follow NE with Pencader and the junction which would give the other end of the branch as well... but given my progress on NE that would be sometime next century!

Edited August 7, 2019 by Anotheran

[Anotheran]

I'd be more inclined to move the sidings closer to the back of the shed (if you look at the picture of Henllan you posted above there's only just enough room for a vehicle to get through there) and then splay out the topmost siding a little so that there's room for vehicles between them (again like Henllan). Like this:

 

 

Please excuse the quick cut and shut style. I think it would fit fairly well, particularly if you used a curved point in place of the first straight one in the yard roads. That way you have extra really usable mileage space rather than just storage without extending more into the middle of the board. If people say the yard looks cramped just show them the picture of Henllan!

 

Kind regards, Neil

[Anotheran]

Another quick thought... sorry to clog up your thread!

A few years back I built the Ratio cattle dock but modified it to fit in a narrow space, instead of the square space it normally consumes, on my Doxey End layout. I documented what I did over a few posts on my DE thread. If you've not already built the dock it may be worth considering as you could then place it against the top of the three roads without taking a whole load of central space and still opening up the yard a little around where the weighbridge is, or adding a couple of extra wagon lengths on the bottom road.

[petejones]

16 minutes ago, Anotheran said:

I'd be more inclined to move the sidings closer to the back of the shed (if you look at the picture of Henllan you posted above there's only just enough room for a vehicle to get through there) and then splay out the topmost siding a little so that there's room for vehicles between them (again like Henllan).

 

Thanks, I will try this later to see how it looks.

 

7 minutes ago, Anotheran said:

A few years back I built the Ratio cattle dock but modified it to fit in a narrow space, instead of the square space it normally consumes, on my Doxey End layout. I documented what I did over a few posts on my DE thread. If you've not already built the dock it may be worth considering as you could then place it against the top of the three roads without taking a whole load of central space and still opening up the yard a little around where the weighbridge is, or adding a couple of extra wagon lengths on the bottom road.

 

That's a really good idea. I've not built the kit yet (I was going to build it last night but fortunately didn't get round to it).

[petejones]

I'm probably going to stick with this (subject to seeing the track laid out on the baseboard) - I just made the sidings a tad longer:

 

[The Johnster]

Not sure about the storage sidings; my view FWIW is that Neil Anotheran's yard is the best yet.  Rural goods yards, especially in remoter areas like Darkest Dyfed (it's blacker than the inside of a cow down there some nights), are typically long on mileage and short on storage.  A mileage road can always double as storage if the traffic demands, but not vice verse if road vehicles cannot get at it.  In an area like Henllan, the local farmers, Cardis with a short arms and long pockets, will use mileage in preference to anything that's going to cost them money, and both incoming traffic (feed, lime, fertiliser) and what little they send out by rail will be unloaded and loaded by their own people.  The roads in the area were hopeless, and still are except for the A40, and rail was the only practical method of supplying these products for many years.

 

Cattle will come in and occasionally go out via the cattle dock, and again local stockmen will handle the beasts,  Come market day, the branch might generate a cattle special, for which empties must be provided the day before.  Local builders merchants and similar businesses will mostly be using mileage as well to keep costs down.  The goods shed road will be used for everything else, including of course anything needing a crane, such as containers.  The pickup will be marshalled with the traffic for this station in a block, and this block will be further submarshalled into mileage, goods shed, end loading, and livestock sections for ease of shunting at the location.  The complicated shunting is better done in a marshalling yard.  There is unlikely to be a shunter here, and the guard will do all the work, perhaps unofficially assisted on the points by the fireman if they all want an early finish...

 

Shunting will be hampered by the moves having to foul the running line, meaning that the signalman cannot accept a train into the section from the next box, when you are transferring between the goods shed road and the mileage area, and you may want to consider moving that point further towards the station, just before (or after, depending on your viewpoint) the first storage road point.  The goods shed road is then slewed to run at the back of the platform into the goods shed.

 

This has 2 advantages; firstly, you will have room to shunt a few wagons without fouling the running line, so other traffic can pass through the station while the pickup is 'locked in' inside the yard, and secondly you'll save the poor old guard a bit of shoe leather and speed the job up a bit by keeping the points all close together.  Alternatively, or additionally, you can put in a short headshunt spur at the ground frame; the real Henllan plan shows this.

[petejones]

That's really useful info, thanks.

[petejones]

I spent a bit of time looking at other track layouts on the Cadi Bach and Crymmych Arms (http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/crymmych_arms/index.shtml) had curved mileage sidings with a headshunt, so I've taken inspiration from this. It also looks quite similar to Phil's idea. I moved the weighbridge to the other side of the level crossing where it can be at the entrance to the goods yard, which frees up some space to keep the mileage sidings in the bottom half of the board. The slightly skewed track just adds interest.

 

I will copy Neil's idea about building the cattle dock longer and narrower, which is roughly the size of the area indicated below.

 

 

[Harlequin]

Hi Pete,

 

I'm going to throw you a curve ball...

 

Here is Henllan 1906 from old-maps.co.uk:

 

It is very modellable in the more traditional way of a foreground scene, a backscene divider and a fiddle yard behind that because it is in a curvy cutting, framed by two overbridges, and oozes character.

 

It has lots of great features:

• Notice how skinny the goods shed is.
• The goods shed is on a loop with stub sidings at either end, trapping it properly.
• The loop in the main line starts beyond one of the bridges, which could be very helpful in compressing a model.
• Goods yard at the front, passenger building at the back - perfect staging.
• The weighing machine is actually up on the public road, opposite the pub, the Railway Inn!
• Trees behind.

(Notice no private sidings, no level crossing.)

 

Are you dead-set on your current 120*160 solid board plan as a starting point? 

 

[petejones]

55 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Are you dead-set on your current 120*160 solid board plan as a starting point?

 

The baseboard is coming out at 130*200 at the moment. I do need the layout to sit on top of a 6x4 table, which I already have in my room. The alternative would be a 14' * 18" shelf that I could fit on some racking, but I didn't want to commit to an end-to-end layout at the present time.

[petejones]

59 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Here is Henllan 1906

 

It's remarkably similar to Crymmych Arms.

[Harlequin]

3 minutes ago, petejones said:

 

The baseboard is coming out at 130*200 at the moment. I do need the layout to sit on top of a 6x4 table, which I already have in my room. The alternative would be a 14' * 18" shelf that I could fit on some racking, but I didn't want to commit to an end-to-end layout at the present time.

OK... Can I poke a bit further?

 

Would you build the 1300*2000mm as one piece or in sections? (If one piece then it might be be very difficult to move.)

 

If you're going to build it in sections then maybe you could connect the sections in a different way: Could you remove the table and build the layout in the same space with an operating well in the middle? E.g. 450mm wide boards in a space 1500mm by 2000mm up against the wall leaving a 600mm by 1100mm operating well???

 

[petejones]

1 minute ago, Harlequin said:

Would you build the 1300*2000mm as one piece or in sections? (If one piece then it might be be very difficult to move.)

 

It will be a single board, but quite lightweight due to using craftfoam (https://www.panelsystems.co.uk/product/craftfoam-blue) with a pine frame.

 

4 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

If you're going to build it in sections then maybe you could connect the sections in a different way: Could you remove the table and build the layout in the same space with an operating well in the middle? E.g. 450mm wide boards in a space 1500mm by 2000mm up against the wall leaving a 600mm by 1100mm operating well???

 

Unfortunately not as the table doubles up as a wargames table and has lots of stuff stored underneath.

[petejones]

On 08/08/2019 at 13:02, The Johnster said:

Shunting will be hampered by the moves having to foul the running line, meaning that the signalman cannot accept a train into the section from the next box, when you are transferring between the goods shed road and the mileage area, and you may want to consider moving that point further towards the station, just before (or after, depending on your viewpoint) the first storage road point.

 

Managed to fit this in as well.

 

[The Johnster]

This is heading in the right direction, but I still have some concerns.  You've put a headshunt in and traffic can now be shunted between the mileage and cattle roads without fouling other operations, but not between those roads and the Goods Shed road, which sort of negates half of it's purpose.  The ground frame needs to be back in it's original position out by no.9, and the headshunt accessed in that vicinity by a curved point so that all the goods roads can be shunted by a loco 'locked in' to the yard.  You've used a lot of curved points and the long dead frogs might cause some running issues with 0-6-0s, so you'll need to take great care to lay smooth and level.

 

The weighbridge doesn't serve any purpose in the bottom right corner, not any railway connected purpose anyway; perhaps there's a quarry road outlet there.  For railway purposes, it needs to be close to the goods yard road exit, but inside the goods yard on railway property.  The coal office seems a bit lost as well, something else that needs to be near the road entrance but also near where the coal is unloaded.  You've taken it's position from the coal wagon and pile of coal in the Henllan photo I suspect, but your station is a bit different at this end.  

 

Slewing the mileage road towards the bottom of the drawing from a point approximately level with the up end of the goods shed so that it is parallel to the cattle road will give road vehicles a bit more room to 'shunt', and to my mind improve the 'flow' of the yard.  Suggest a pub in the place you've got your weighbridge; this will be where the real goods yard business of the day takes place...

[petejones]

Simplified somewhat, but hopefully all the bits are in the right places now: