First Layout - A Classic GWR BLT - Needs refining

[Zomboid]

On 06/05/2020 at 14:54, DannyPhunk said:

The hope is to create a busy suburban seaside branch

OK, so now for something completely different to a BLT, I've gone more for the "busy suburban", that could well be at the seaside...

 

The idea is something along the lines of Plymouth Millbay in terms of location (Operationally I have no idea what they did at Millbay, so I've made this up myself), where there's another, larger station a mile or two away where the long distance trains divide. The train engine and the front 3 carriages carry on to the Terminus (so you can have a Castle on a short train). The rest of the train gets a fresh engine and heads off to wherever it's going. Something akin to that can happen in reverse, with 3 or so carriages for Paddington starting here and the rest of the train coming up from wherever to join at the junction station. It's also the terminus for the city's suburban traffic, and you can run 2 or 3 coaches with a tank engine quite happily in and out of either platform whilst the long distance portion isn't in town.

 

The goods yard I haven't really designed, there's space for some stuff though. I even managed to get the over-sized turntable in, and I think at a station like this it's not a completely ridiculous provision. You could use a 3-way and get a run round on both platforms, but I deliberately didn't because shunt release is more fun. The headshunt in the lower platform for the run-round is only 8" long too, so tank engines only.

 

No idea how Great Westerny this is, but you can tell I've been thinking in terms of Minories lately

 

 

The light blue triangle is a little fillet to help with that corner of the board, and the brown is the off-scene, and is mostly set track (R2 and R3 curves). It could just as easily head to a traverser or sector plate if you so wished.

 

A single track approach would simplfy things, but at the cost of some character.

 

Edit: I've messed around with the throat, and improved things I think:

 

Edit 2: I thought it was quite easy to fit it all in, so I double checked the board size, and I'd got it wrong.

 

This is the second plan, shortened to fit into the size you actually stated, and not what I mistyped:

 

It all still works as described, it's just a bit smaller...

Edited June 15, 2020 by Zomboid

[DannyPhunk]

The moment I ditch the idea of turntable on scene you go ahead and plonk it right back in

 

I've had some more fiddling and really liked the idea of Helston and it being a through that became a terminus! In terms of size I dont think i want more than one entry to the scene, but i do like the bigger is better mentality

 

I've reworked my track on board and come up with this:

Now the uppermost line serves local traffic and can take Bsets which adds a bit more operational interest than exclusively autos! The next line down is obviously our main platform with a run around, need to figure out how to make these lines imply that they were part of a longer branch... and finally the bottom line which is for goods, a small siding allows a few trailers to be kept out of the way. I think my favourite part of this configuration is the fact that both platforms are served by a single island which is a bit more branchy, marked in yellow. Goods shed would end up somewhere in the red zone depending on how much space I needed for the yard behind it.

 

EDIT: on second thoughts the goods section should be the other way round really so the yard doesnt back directly onto track, it would also make veiwing better as you could see the workers in the yard that way! Also Helston has a roadbridge right about where mine is, so we'll call it a loose interpretation on it

 

Once again super grateful for all the help, you guys know way too much about trains !

Edited June 15, 2020 by DannyPhunk
Realised I'm an idiot!

[Zomboid]

17 minutes ago, DannyPhunk said:

The moment I ditch the idea of turntable on scene you go ahead and plonk it right back in

You wouldn't have to use it

 

Obviously that's a completely different character to what you're going for, but it's fun to see how the space can be filled, and how much of a city station will fit if you're ok with short trains.

 

With your longer second platform you can operate the station like Hayling Island, where a train would arrive at the main platform, run round and shunt to the bay, wait for the next arrival, then head back to Havant. The train which had just arrives runs round and shunts to the bay to wait for the next arrival... And so it would go on. I think it was something insane like a 20 minute interval service, so I doubt they had much time for a chat... (And I believe it's was turnover engines at Havant, so that's where they'd get a break).

Edited June 15, 2020 by Zomboid

[Zomboid]

I'll leave you to get on with Helston after this, but for the record I also went "Full Minories" and modified it to this:

Not remotely quite or branch like, but the throat being on the corner eliminates all reverse curves for trains arriving and departing.

[DannyPhunk]

I do like the idea of giving it a bit of a timetable and running it like clockwork, I think that would be really fun to shunt too!

 

You guys have a really unhealthy obsession with minories lately...

 

Thanks again for all the help, I really appreciate it!