I have so many ideas I don't know were to start.

[Happy Hippo]

It's all very well rushing into track planning  but perhaps a step (or two) back is well worthwhile.

 

The late John Armstrong (in the USA) was a great track planner and had a set of rules he called Givens and Druthers.  This set out a number of factors (as you have started to do) and also set down planning parameters.

 

I suppose the way to do it is to list what you must have and what you'd like to have.  Sometimes you'll find that both are not possible, so you fall back to what you must have and then add, bit by bit what you'd like.

 

You've listed the following:

 

 Period - 1980s - modern south england 

- Mixture of small freight and passenger

- Medium Size TMD / Goods Yard

- Small station big enough for 2/3 car EMUs. 

 

Perhaps you ought to look at  the full Minories with it's MPD and goods depot and see if you would be better off adapting that.  A terminal to reverse loop (incorporating some forme of additional storage might be the way forward.

 

See:

 

 

There are certain aspects of your wants that might need reviewing:

 

By the 1980's the small freight business that BR had hoped for with Speedlink was declining and TMDs were not scattered around the south east like confetti.

 

As others have suggested split level and using either a long incline in a not so accessible place, or a helix to gain or loose height might, and I stress might, give you a bit more room to play with, but the constraints you have with the roof do make for careful planning.

 

If you can  then perhaps a single centre isle with a reasonable simple track plan, but at chest height, with storage roads below  might give you more pleasure than something that is overcrammed with trackwork.

[Newmodeller96]

So I have done a bit of work and have done some tweaking on minories to create a 4 platform station and am really happy with it. I want to move it further up the layout to make the platforms longer so am going to work out putting the TMD off the to right of the picture at right angles to the layout. Just thought I would get some comments

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Newmodeller96

[The Stationmaster]

One immediately noticeable problem - the EMUs can get into the shed ok but there's no way out for them unless they run wrong line.

[ITG]

Are they crossings or single/double slips in the station throat? If the former, an arriving train can only access a single platform and would then need to run wrong road to depart.

[Zomboid]

If it's set track, and I think it is, the station won't work because they can only be diamonds rather than slips.

[Newmodeller96]

19 minutes ago, ITG said:

Are they crossings or single/double slips in the station throat? If the former, an arriving train can only access a single platform and would then need to run wrong road to depart.

I am hoping they would be slips. i just couldn't find the correct symbol on the program I am using.

[Zomboid]

5 minutes ago, Newmodeller96 said:

I am hoping they would be slips. i just couldn't find the correct symbol on the program I am using.

Which track library are you using? Neither Peco nor Hornby sectional track includes a slip.

[Newmodeller96]

1 minute ago, Zomboid said:

Which track library are you using? Neither Peco nor Hornby sectional track includes a slip.

I am using a mix of Hornby and Peco and that will be why I couldn't find a slip

[DCB]

8 hours ago, Newmodeller96 said:

I am using a mix of Hornby and Peco and that will be why I couldn't find a slip

You just can't build this sort of layout with UK set track points, whether Peco or Hornby.  The diamonds are drawn with set track angles, and I though I have a couple of Double Slips of that angle I really have no idea what make they are.  If you use Peco streamline  for the Pointwork and set track curves for the U bend you might get a workable station area but the Non Station side doesn't work period.  

You should probably forget the planning software and get a pen and paper to work out where trains go to and from before refining it on the computer.  The train length needs a decision as the FY takes twice the train length of the station, the same train length plus one coach is a more satisfactory ratio.

At present the track fits the board but there is almost nowhere for trains to go, well the 5ingle FY road feeds platforms 1 (and 4 via the TMD) while 2.3.4 feed the other 5 with no connections between the two.   It could be sorted out so all platforms and all FY roads can be used for up and down trains, see pics but its never going to be a satisfactory layout

[Chimer]

I'm not actually recommending this, given the reservations I've expressed earlier, but it seems to include what you want and can be operated reasonably correctly ......

 

 

Pink is Set-track, blue is Streamline.  The curves top right and the helix are 3rd and 4th radius; the curve out of the station with the curved crossover is as per the Set-track geometry diagram in the Peco catalogue (my edition anyway).  The curve to the EMU garage is 2nd radius.  The "TMD" is very squashed but gives you somewhere to hold locos to work non-multiple unit trains, without which this could be deadly boring.

 

All platforms are connected to up and down lines and the EMU shed, so a unit can come off shed to any platform, depart (on the inner line), return later (on the outer line) to any platform, then do another working or go back on shed.

 

The main lines need to start to descend as soon as possible after clearing the station throat so they can pass under the garage tracks at the start of the helix.  I'm assuming the helix is going to end in some sort of fiddle yard below the station.  Depending how much elbow room you need, a simple 180 curve might get down low enough without the bother of the spiral.

 

All the best ..... 

[Newmodeller96]

I have managed to persuade my fiancé to let me use outside edge of the whole loft. So I have tweaked some of the layout to make it bigger in the top section between the 2 black lines I would like to add a TMD. Any tips or ideas how I could make it work would be much appreciated. Please not the track plan currently on the design is not final as I have just mocked it to fit the new space so I know it needs tweaking. I can make the baseboard a bit deeper at the top if needed to make it easier to fit a TMD!

[Newmodeller96]

This is an update after some work today! I would like any help with the TMD space I feel like I can do more with the space but I’m not 100% sure what! Possible could include the space in the top right of the space.

 

Also any tips on the rest of the layout more than welcome! 
there will be a helix off the bottom left of the layout which will go to a fiddle yard underneath the board but I haven’t planned that yet!

 

 

Edited December 28, 2020 by Newmodeller96