The greatest layouts you never built (and perhaps now never will!)

[PaulRhB]

29 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

@PaulRhB I have to say you draw a lovely plan!  Ever thought of a book?

Ta, thought yes but I never get around to writing them up so I just dumped the various ones on my Flickr account here.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/salisburyasc/62wwd0C4K3
 

Fortunately James Hilton has taken on the mantle of Mr Rice, and is way more artistic than me illustrating them, and providing thoughtful ideas in print 😉

[New Haven Neil]

3 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Ta, thought yes but I never get around to writing them up so I just dumped the various ones on my Flickr account here.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/salisburyasc/62wwd0C4K3
 

Fortunately James Hilton has taken on the mantle of Mr Rice, and is way more artistic than me illustrating them, and providing thoughtful ideas in print 😉

 

Welllll, you do yourself a disservice with the artwork, it's better than Ricey's, and James sticks to the rather smaller end of dreaming planning layouts.  There's definitely potential there I'd say.  I do like the Isle of Not Man one - as you may expect - but a lot of your schemes really are full of innovation and up to date thinking.

 

That's a tenner, BTW.....🤣

[Rivercider]

I love maps, and track plans, and have been fascinated by them since the early 1970s. I used to

sketch out track diagrams in the margins of school exercise books,  and backs of envelopes. So over the years must have doodled hundreds of plans, and for the recurring half a dozen worked them up in some detail. Most included more freight than passenger facilities.

 

Since retirement from full-time work I have built one layout, ( a glorified shunting plank with added freight sidings), but now realise I much prefer to visit exhibitions to see other layouts than build and operate my own.

 

On my list of unbuilt layouts are a few that kept re-appearing in the doodles:-

 

1) A former LSWR/SR single track seaside branch terminus, with bay platform, and a small loco shed, at the end of steam, or early green diesel era.  Freight facilities are minimal, but a goods branch leads off scene to the docks/quay ( like Exmouth or Bude) so adds some freight shunting at the station to sort things out. Summer Saturdays are busy.

 

2) A fictional location on the single track section of the North Devon line, set in the blue diesel era. Possibly a short single passenger platform with a goods only passing loop and a small yard that gives access to a freight only branch heading west into ball clay country.

 

3) Assuming the GWR Chagford branch got built from the Teign Valley Line at or near Leigh Cross. I envisage a small yard at Bridford Mills, a 57XX spends time here each day, making forays out to a couple of nearby quarries to collect stone traffic to marshall up to go to Exeter  or Newton Abbot. Meanwhile a 14XX or 45XX calls occasionally at the short platform on branch passenger workings.

 

4) An urban freight only branch in Bristol inspired by Ashton Meadows sidings in the blue diesel/early TOPS era. The local sorting sidings are the base for a couple of trip workings to the nearby CCD, docks, and ship yard, all off scene.

 

I seriously doubt any will get built.

cheers

Edited December 29, 2022 by Rivercider
tidying up.

[PaulRhB]

29 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Welllll, you do yourself a disservice with the artwork, it's better than Ricey's, and James sticks to the rather smaller end of dreaming planning layouts.  There's definitely potential there I'd say.  I do like the Isle of Not Man one - as you may expect - but a lot of your schemes really are full of innovation and up to date thinking.

 

That's a tenner, BTW.....🤣

I think James plans are more realistic for most people plus I enjoy the interaction of threads when I post some of them here. We’ve got a great thread over on NGRM ‘Serial Doodlers’, maybe this thread can become that here 😉

[Clive Mortimore]

On 25/12/2022 at 16:58, johndon said:

My current project may well take me the rest of time but the 'great project' would be Newcastle Central Station in the mid 70s with the bridges across the room to Gateshead shed on the other side, all in P4...

One of the ideal model railway layouts, big station and loco depot on a roundy roundy layout. As Neil pointed out a few post ago the Tyne would be the operating well. Downside would be having to put the waders on every time one wanted to operate the layout.  🙃

[PaulRhB]

Here’s another NG plan for a mate to run his O16.5 collection and kits he makes on. 
 

The left hand corner is based on a photo of the Glyn Valley tramway loco on a low retaining wall next to a road, the centre is based on Corris with a Leek & Manifold transporter siding and then it passed over a Welshpool & Llanfair bridge into the Aberglaslyn type pass! 

 

Still not built that either 😆

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by PaulRhB

[Michael Edge]

Two layouts I didn't build were alternatives for the space available in the shed where I've built Wentworth Junction, two other locations on the MSW.

This is Hadfield, considerably compressed and curved at the Eastern end (right in this diagram) where it should be straight. 1ft square grid on this one.

Bullhouse on the main line between Dunford Bridge and Penistone, shown west to east again.

The fiddle yard is the same for both and more or less as built.

I was undecided between these three for a long time before settling for Wentworth Junction, Hadfield is much more like my usual style of "urban grot" and has plenty of operational interest. The goods yard is split between up and down sides and there are goods loops going both ways, in addition the local service EMUs terminated here, as indeed they still do. It's all very straight and the curve at the eastern end doesn't look right at all - there's no convenient scenic break either, the road crossing the line at this end is on an underbridge.

It was a close run thing between Bullhouse and WJ though, the big plus with Bullhouse was that the sweeping curves are actually there - although a lot gentler and longer of course. The big downside was lack of operational interest, Bullhouse colliery was very small (and I couldn't find much in the way of photos of it either) and wouldn't realistically generate much traffic. I did add in the narrow gauge line whcih ran to a quarry but I don't really know anything about this, it's on the OS map but I've never seen any photos. The only other interest is the down goods loop and mostly it would have been a procession of main line trains - scenically it would have been just as green as WJ.

Both these plans were drawn out properly with track drawn in Templot, they aren't just concept sketches.

[Pete the Elaner]

There are lots of places I would like to model but too impractical to actually do so.

Crewe would be top of my list but would need to include the NW, NE, SW & SE junctions as well as the yards. It would be huge, take up more room than I could ever afford & also take forever.

Another is Colchester. I was born near there but the layout of the station has a few unusual features. A layout of it would need to feature the EMU storage sidings to the west & also the dive under from platform 1 to the Clacton line. This would also make it too enormous to even consider & building enough EMUs would be a long project.

 

So I'm happy with what I am working on.

[scottystitch]

 

Not sure it qualifies as a "greatest layout...", but this is one I designed for a friend of a friend to fit within his integral garage converted, like mine, to a "hobbies room".  Dumbarton East at the top and Dumbarton Central at the bottom.  The idea was to have passenger trains running computer controlled between the upper and lower fiddle yards (initially Standard tanks and LHCS later upgraded to "Blue Trains" when he'd gotten 'round to 3D designing them - with associated Overhead wiring) whilst he shunted the centrepiece Dumbarton East Goods.  Alas mortality had other ideas and it remains simply an idea.  Which is a shame.  Both stations and the goods yard are drawn to scale.

 

N gauge, code 55.

 

Best

 

Scott.

[scottystitch]

This probably does qualify, however.  Riccarton Junction, in it's pomp, to scale.

 

N gauge, Code 40.

 

Best

 

Scott.

[scottystitch]

Now just imagine if you could embark on a project rather like Hills of the North and incorporate Riccarton Junction with Galashiels (above)…

…and Hawick.

 

N Gauge, code 40.  Both to drawn to scale.

 

Best

 

Scott.

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by scottystitch

[tomparryharry]

Common Branch Junction; all of it, in 4mm. Set out as a figure 8, so it can include the branches to Treferig, Cross Inn, Creigau, and Treforest/Pontypridd. All set in the period 1911- 1951-ish. The original plans were to include Llantrisant Loco, but the next-door neighbours took exception to me bulldozing their house..... 

[TomJ]

I’ve got loads of plans of the go - now I’ve ‘finished’ my existing layout. So it’s really prevarication that stops me choosing one. That and the fact it has to fit in a 9x6 box bedroom along with my desk!

 

All in N gauge - because that’s what I have!

 

1) Oxford Riverside. The university forced the GWR station to be even further out. By the turn on the century it was getting crowded - and the Met were planning on their own line much closer to the city centre. So to kill two birds with one stone the GWR built a new station on a short branch closer into the city by the river to take the local and London traffic. A cramped Minories style terminus, inspired by Birmingham Moor Street

 

2) Highley and Alverley colliery in the 50s - pre the SVR. Prob not enough space!

 

3) Indian Queens Junction. Ad part of the North Cornwall competition the LSWR extended and rebuilt the Ruthinbridge line to meet the GWR near Indian Queens. An agreement gave the GWR access to Wadebridge and the LSWR to Newquay. A junction station purely for interchange like Bala Junction with a few sidings for the marshalling of clay traffic

 

4) Inverlui. Something completely different but inspired by this years holiday! To try and stop the CR the West Highland/North British built a branch from Arrochar over the Rest And Be Thankful down to Inveraray and along Loch Fyne. Built by the same contractors as the Mallaig extension. Somehow it’s survived into the 80s - maybe it’s the appalling local roads or perhaps the secret naval base on the Loch??

 

Too many ideas….

[Jol Wilkinson]

Tring, LNWR 1907.

 

A four track station where some suburban passenger trains from Euston terminated. Crossovers from the fast to slow lines and vice versa. Goods loops on the up side to hold goods and coal trains which had just reached Tring summit and were  held to make way for passenger trains. A small engine loco facility with turntable, goods yard and carriage sidings.

 

Exactly what I wanted but I didn't have the space or time to build it. Now I have the time  but still don't have the space (or the energy).

[younGGuns7]

Severn Tunnel Junction circa 1972, it had it all, a marshalling yard (hump) a shed, a multiple of through roads. You could see so many classes there and such a variety of freight plus all the Wales to London/Midlands and north, south coast. This would be my ultimate (millionaire) model

[DavidB-AU]

The one I wish I'd been able to pursue, but after moving house don't have anywhere near enough space, is the planned terminus of the Bristol and London and South Western Junction Railway. This was the proposed second route from London to Bristol to compete with the Great Western. It was the brainchild of Sir George White (the one behind the Bristol Tramways, Corris Railway and later the Bristol Aeroplane Company) and had the financial backing of LSWR. The station would have been quite compact, possibly only 4 platforms fronting onto what became the Tramways Centre. Imagine something like Plymouth Friary approximately here.

 

[RJS1977]

I think a number of my colleagues (based in Horizon House, just below College Green) would be quite happy if that station actually existed!

[Neil]

Hola amigos, my latest, greatest, which will probably never see the light of day would be the Ferrocarril Central Andino of Peru.

 

 

Big diesels going where narrow gauge would normally fear to tread, what's not to like. 

[HonestTom]

My problem is not that the layouts are too large or impractical, but too numerous. If I had the space, I'd build...

 

- A Pre-Grouping layout set in Victorian London centred on the GER.

- A Minories layout based on the City Widened Lines c. 1965-1980, inc. parcels depot and Underground through lines

- Something based on the Wisbech and Upwell, perhaps using the Ffarquar Branch as a template

- An 009 layout based on the Metropolitan Water Board Railway

 

[SD85]

On 09/01/2023 at 10:26, HonestTom said:

My problem is not that the layouts are too large or impractical, but too numerous. If I had the space, I'd build...

 

 

- An 009 layout based on the Metropolitan Water Board Railway

 

 

Didn't Iain Rice plan something like this in one of his books - I think it was the Urban Layout Designs one.

[SD85]

These are my most often dreamt up large ideas that would require time, space and resources (and extra people to help build and operate):

 

1) A 4mm/ft model of the Settle-Carlisle Garsdale - Kirkby Stephen section, (i.e. the bit passing through Mallerstang), plus the Tebay - Stainmore Summit section of the NER line that also passed through the area. Oh, and also all the countryside around the railways would be modelled as well. This would be a super-Pendon style set up requiring an aircraft hanger to put it all in.

 

2) Similar to the above, a model of the Stainmore line based on the possibility that the junction for the Penrith branch had been located at Maiden Castle near the summit and not down in the valley at Kirkby Stephen East (apparently this was considered at one point). Island junction platform with screen on the branch side, building in style of KSE. Long coke and iron ore trains running across the landscape, doubleheaded holiday excursions to Blackpool from the NE, some diverted traffic (I'd also strengthen the Bouch lattice viaducts a little in this alternative scenario to take bigger engines), some holding sidings at the station with interesting traffic in them, Penrith branch workings, etc. Name of the layout 'South Stainmore Junction' and for it to be just that little bit more impressive, I'd do it in S scale (so everything scratchbuilt, basically).

 

3) Branksome shed (redux). This is based on a long held but never realised plan by the LSWR/SR that would have relocated Bournemouth engine shed to the Branksome triangle. In my mind this would be the perfect excuse to merge the SR and SDJR sheds at Bournemouth and Branksome and have a combined super shed, something akin to a southern equivalent of Bath Green Park but quite a bit bigger. Bulleid Pacifics, Arthurs, Schools and Nelsons alongside 7Fs, 2Ps, 4Fs and 9Fs. Perhaps opt for a Horsham/Guildford style roundhouse set up? 4mm scale would suit this idea but to get all the details, textures etc. then 7mm scale is the way to go.

 

4) And related to the above, the classic 'S&D on a summer Saturday' layout. Not that complex, just a circuit on which to run endless doubleheaded expresses and long freights. Iain Rice sketched out a plan for modelling Binegar in one of his books which was appealing.

 

5) Something different here, but an extensive home/garden based railway based around the principles of operating, like the Sherwood Section. Just fill the space with stations, main lines, branch lines, sidings, etc., and run it all to full timetable and bell codes. I'm actually a member of a club which operates such a system so this dream is at least somewhat realised.

 

6) Modern image - I'm not into modelling the modern scene much, but I've always thought Reading (as it is now post rebuild) would be a seriously impressive layout to pull off and pretty interesting operationally. Done in N scale it would really work IMO.

 

7) Dovey Junction - Quite a simple layout operationally but I'd want a large area to capture the open feeling and space of the prototype.

 

8) The Brighton Line, in another time and place - This is possibly the most full on 'alternate reality' one. The LBSCR was convinced of the merits of their overhead electrification system to start planning to wire down to the coast by 1920, but WW1 intervened. In an alternate timeline, they actually did it, and built main line locos/units to work it as well. This would be a model based in either the Brighton or Croydon areas featuring real and imagined Brighton electric stock but also with plenty of the steam motive power retained to work to places like Eastbourne, Horsham etc., as well as to haul freight. Could be done in 4mm, but in 7mm scale this would be a really impressive project, though it would require large amounts of scratchbuilding. It would be interesting to combine this idea with the 'Sherwood Section' approach outlined above and make a whole system based on the 'alternative' LBSCR, which could also provide excuses for through passenger and freight workings from the LSWR and SECR, plus the LNWR as well.

Edited January 11, 2023 by SD85

[burgundy]

2 hours ago, SD85 said:

8) The Brighton Line, in another time and place - This is possibly the most full on 'alternate reality' one. The LBSCR was convinced of the merits of their overhead electrification system to start planning to wire down to the coast by 1920, but WW1 intervened. In an alternate timeline, they actually did it, and built main line locos/units to work it as well. This would be a model based in either the Brighton or Croydon areas featuring real and imagined Brighton electric stock but also with plenty of the steam motive power retained to work to places like Eastbourne, Horsham etc., as well as to haul freight. Could be done in 4mm, but in 7mm scale this would be a really impressive project, though it would require large amounts of scratchbuilding. It would be interesting to combine this idea with the 'Sherwood Section' approach outlined above and make a whole system based on the 'alternative' LBSCR, which could also provide excuses for through passenger and freight workings from the LSWR and SECR, plus the LNWR as well.

I shall look forward to reading about that in a future LB&SCR Modelers' Digest. Probably after you have won the lottery. Twice.

Best wishes

Eric

Edited January 10, 2023 by burgundy

[SD85]

I've just remembered another couple....

 

Network SouthEast, Central division, circa 1993-1997. My formative years. This is why I keep urging manufacturers to make a 4-CIG (you cannot model the Brighton line between 1965 and 2005 without them). Trains in toothpaste livery and underframes and bogies caked with brake dust and track dirt in general. Would probably model Lewes station, with the big island platform and tunnel entrance to the fiddle yard for the 'London' direction.

 

Exeter Central, about 1960, when the Z Class tanks were employed on banking duties. This is inspired by Ken Webb's 00 layout of the station which appeared in RM in 1997. Full scale model of the station and the gradient up from St Davids, perhaps in between the station and the eastern fiddle yard a model of Exmouth Junction shed could be put in too. Trains arriving, being banked up the gradient. ACE workings joining one way and broken down into portions the other. Ballast workings from Meldon, local freight trips, maybe some WR diversions? Not really doable in 4mm without a very long room but should Hornby put out some Bulleid locos and stock in TT:120 then this might become an option.

Edited January 10, 2023 by SD85

[RJS1977]

1 hour ago, SD85 said:

Not really doable in 4mm without a very long room 

 

Not impossible - CJF drew up a plan (P18 in "Track Plans") for a simplified Exeter Central in 15' x 8' (i.e. a standard garage, although the car would have to remain outside).

[Michael Edge]

2 hours ago, SD85 said:

 

 

 

 

7) Dovey Junction - Quite a simple layout operationally but I'd want a large area to capture the open feeling and space of the prototype.

 

 

Geoff Taylor has built a layout based on the very similar Barmouth Junction.