Prototype locations with good scenic breaks

[Nick C]

And in Brighton - Kemp town:

Holland Road Goods:

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Carrington, on the old GC mainline in Nottm, is perfect...

 

Approx 460 ft between the tunnel mouths; around 6ft in 4mm scale.

[scottystitch]

How about Priestfield, particularly for a small layout...

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

And if you're really pushed for room, there's about a 30ft gap between the two High Tor Tunnels near Matlock, on the old MR mainline between Derby and Manchester. Comes out at around 3 inches in 00... Ideal to run your Midland Pullman.

[Kris]

Plymouth had a couple.

Friary had a great bridge to create a scenic break.

Devonport Kings road had a tunnel at one end and a bridge at the other. Paradise road forms a nice back scene break point for the whole layout as well. 

[peanuts]

Mossley Lancashire scout tunnel at one end steep valley location couple of small road bridges at the other end long and narrow 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

South Hampstead - everything in/out of Euston, plus Marylebone too...

[cornelius]

West St Leonards. Already on a sharp curve for your continuous run. Extend to the left later to include St Leonards West Marina.

 

 

 

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

... plus Marylebone too...

Many of the London termini have overbridges or tunnels adjacent ....... but they'd all tend to take up quite a bit of space !

[KingEdwardII]

10 hours ago, cornelius said:

West St Leonards.

Looks like that layout would demand a few sheep to go with "Bopeep Junction"...

[Wickham Green too]

Nah - it's all seagulls round there ! ( the Bo-Peep public house is not far off the bottom of the map )

 

[Steven B]

Tywyn on the Talyllyn railway fits the bill if you're narrow gauge minded.

 

Steven B.

[pirouets]

How about Lawrence Hill in Bristol. Its 900 ft roughly between the railway bridge crossing the line and the street at the station end. Been mulling this over as that length would fit in a 12*6 shed nicely if put on a curve with the question being how much of the yard could I include. The yard in the late 70s and 80s seemed fairly busy.

 

This seems to be a useful site as well - http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/Lawrence_Hill

 

[Wickham Green too]

5 hours ago, Steven B said:

Tywyn on the Talyllyn railway fits the bill if you're narrow gauge minded. ...

Well, I suppose a train on the Cambrian would make a change from a bus on the usual scenic break ! 🤭

[Michael Crofts]

OK, so this topic seems to be of interest 👍

Tunnels are the ideal scenic break and bridges are almost as good, buses or no buses.

How about a different approach, by adjusting the point of view?

 

Bodmin & Wenford branch - track curving out of sight behind trees.

Photo by Sid Sponheimer

Probably wouldn't work looking straight down from above. And it certainly wouldn't look right with a Pacific and 13 on.

[SZ]

Would work with an end on layout though...

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

 

Hard to beat good old Walsall with nearly half of the station 'conveniently' buried under a shopping centre from late 1978 onwards.  I seem to be the victim of the dreaded RMWeb red mist on these greyscale image files, but you get the idea.

 

 

Beyond the station trains emerge from under an equally modellogenic multi-storey car park scenic break!

[woodenhead]

11 hours ago, Michael Crofts said:

OK, so this topic seems to be of interest 👍

Tunnels are the ideal scenic break and bridges are almost as good, buses or no buses.

How about a different approach, by adjusting the point of view?

 

Bodmin & Wenford branch - track curving out of sight behind trees.

Photo by Sid Sponheimer

Probably wouldn't work looking straight down from above. And it certainly wouldn't look right with a Pacific and 13 on.

Would work side on, if you have a thick set of trees to act as the scenic break - train of of the trees, windy windy, train back into more trees.  The scenic part could have less or no trees to the foreground so you see the wood trains for the trees.

[Wickham Green too]

And for ( added ) interest you could model the Pencarrow Woods water tank for the Well Tank / 1366 to fill up at.

[Mike_Walker]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

Would work side on, if you have a thick set of trees to act as the scenic break - train of of the trees, windy windy, train back into more trees.  The scenic part could have less or no trees to the foreground so you see the wood trains for the trees.

That's what I'm planning to do with my upcoming micro-layout based on Helland.  There will be thick stands of trees at both ends to hide the disappearance through the backscene.

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

One hell of a scenic break at the old Birmingham New Street, not that anyone would believe it on a layout!

(Photo from John Turner's collection on Flickr)

[Michael Hodgson]

Welwyn North Tunnel to Welwyn South Tunnel on the ECML.

[Nearholmer]

I’m surprised nobody mentioned The Circle Line, which had oodles of these before many were built over.

 

Of them all, I’ll nominate Kings Cross original station, which spanned the Met and Widened Lines, and I think was at its best either just before or just after electrification of the Met. The goods train service was impressively intense, let alone a mix of Met, GWR, Midland, GNR, SER and goodness knows what else in terms of passenger trains.

 

Here it is when it was dual gauge.

 

 

Here we can see a train on the York Way Curve f from the GNR sneaking into view on the RHS.

 

 

Stairways designed by Mister Escher, I think.

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Nearholmer

[luckymucklebackit]

Glasgow Buchanan Street.  Would take a lot of space if it was done in its heyday, as the goods facilities were extensive.  To do it as it was in the year before closure is very feasible, I drew it out and toyed with the idea of building it once.

 

Jim

[highpeakman]

I would suggest Wirksworth as a possibility. A terminating branch line off the main Midland line it has bridges at each end. Station, Goods shed and engine shed. The lines continue through the station to exchange sidings with several quarries, some had private small locos. A couple of quarry feeder lines connected directly at the station yard including one through a tunnel. One quarry feeder later used an overhead conveyor to a loading dock. A theoretical link (never finally implemented) to the Cromford and High Peak Railway further up the hill. It could be operated with LMS stock, BR  steam and BR diesels. As a test track for Derby Works it saw a whole range of stock including the Blue Pullmans and continues to do so as a heritage railway of course. Endless interpretations if you are liberal and want flexibility of operation.