Sevastopol Works

[Ruston]

I know that I have Harboro Stone to finish and also that I have posted previous micro layout plans that came to nothing, but I have a feeling that this one will be built, next year.

 

It's going to be in a similar style to River Don Works, which was a failure, as far as I'm concerned. It looked good but it lacked operating interest. Coupling and uncoupling would have been impossible inside the buildings, which would also require the operator to move to the other side of the layout to even attempt it. It was designed for tension-locks, which I had planned to use, but I soon ditched that idea as I realised that I can't stand the visual impact of the things on locomotives and stock. In the end, I sold it without ever having had a proper play with it.

 

Another thing about River Don was that the Fiddle Yard was literally an afterthought and not a very good one at that. The FY on Harboro Stone is far superior but it is still a separate piece that needs to be bolted on every time the layout is set up to be used and then taken off for storage or transport. This time there will be one board only, which means a smaller scenic section but that's the price to pay for ease and convenience. I could make the entire thing longer but I want ease of handling and am also thinking about the possibility of exhibiting, should anyone want it at their exhibition. A 4ft. board would fit on the back seat of my car.

 

The baseboard will be a proprietary laser-cut kit because the ultimate aim is for a friend to have what is more or less a mirror image track layout that we can bolt together for joint running sessions or even for exhibition. It's far more likely that the two will align if the parts are standardised and not hacked out by either of us.

 

Sevastapol Works produces castings, forgings, and steel fabrications.

 

Trains of no more than 2 wagons and locomotive enter stage left, on the mid track. This comes between low-relief buildings. All road crossings are ungated.

If and when the mirror image is built it will go on the RH end and all three tracks at that end will make connections with the other board.

 

The concreted area gives somewhere to rest my hand when using the shunting pole and also allows for parking road vehicles. It's also  somewhere flat to sit the camera and take photos.

 

The run-round loop allows for added operating interest; to allow trains to pass and to allow sidings facing both left and right to be accessed.

 

The other two tracks in the FY area enter through the doorways in the low-relief buildings.

 

Due to the restricted FY space and the short headshunts, motive power will be small 4-wheeled locomotives only.

 

Rolling stock will consist of Plates, Pipes, Pig Irons, 13-ton opens, 16-ton minerals, Vanfits and interal use wagons.

 

It's basically a play pen for Pecketts, full of rust, filth and big, dark industrial buildings.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Ruston
Name change

[Ruston]

The track plan has already changed. I didn't realise how narrow the board was until I changed the settings to inches. I also discovered a RTP pub that would be just the job. The dimensions of the pub would mean a very odd kink in the upper line that crosses the road, so the road is now crossed from a point within the run round loop and the track exiting the top RH building is now merely a short dead-end siding. The curve in the loop has been improved as a result of all of this.

The pub has been moved slightly away from the rear so that an very low-relief extension of the works can go behind it. I want the works to tower over the pub and dominate the scene.

[Barclay]

Looking forward to this. It would be good to see one of your Pecketts in all over wasp stripes, like the one at Steel, Peach, and Tozer in Rotherham, that was pictured on the front of model railway news in the early 60's!

 

Edit - It might not have been a Peckett to be fair - got a bit carried away there.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Barclay

[Mike 84C]

I like the pub idea. It seemed to be a given that foundrys in the Black Country had a pub next door. Dragged from memories of living in Wolverhampton in the 1960's. Goodonyu bostin!

[Ruston]

On 30/12/2022 at 16:41, Barclay said:

Looking forward to this. It would be good to see one of your Pecketts in all over wasp stripes, like the one at Steel, Peach, and Tozer in Rotherham, that was pictured on the front of model railway news in the early 60's!

 

Edit - It might not have been a Peckett to be fair - got a bit carried away there.

It was a Yorkshire. I painted my 7mm one in the same livery.

[Ruston]

This plan is not dead, but sleeping. I recently had another think about it and decided that the trackplan looked too cluttered and contrived.

This is the latest version.

The dimensions are now 135cm x 40cm (get me using foreign measurements!) and the latest idea is that a second, almost a mirror image, board is to be built by a friend. The two layouts can join together occasionally to form a large layout that will use our separate loco fleets but all locos used will be in the same company livery. It will be DCC but won't use sound. This is to allow me to build some of my stash of kits that I know don't have enough space to get sound gear in.

We'll be cutting the first sod plywood next Spring.

[Lacathedrale]

You do you, of course - but wouldn't a less cluttered plan look something like this? I don't know where you entry/exit/fiddlesticks are so you could make one or both of those crossings into slips I guess.
 

 

I can't help but think all that extra track isn't really adding a huge amount of 'operational value' unless you consider operational value to be moving locomotives around each spot. It's like when people say 'I'm going to do X ... for a bit of added interest', without specifiying what that interest is.

 

Though you have a loop in your plan, neither it nor your runarounds look big enough to accomodate more than a single loco or wagon. Maybe it would be better to have one side of the loop off-layout as part of a cassette or sector plate, or have all the sidings facing the same way?

[Ruston]

7 hours ago, Lacathedrale said:

You do you, of course - but wouldn't a less cluttered plan look something like this? I don't know where you entry/exit/fiddlesticks are so you could make one or both of those crossings into slips I guess.
 

 

I can't help but think all that extra track isn't really adding a huge amount of 'operational value' unless you consider operational value to be moving locomotives around each spot. It's like when people say 'I'm going to do X ... for a bit of added interest', without specifiying what that interest is.

 

Though you have a loop in your plan, neither it nor your runarounds look big enough to accomodate more than a single loco or wagon. Maybe it would be better to have one side of the loop off-layout as part of a cassette or sector plate, or have all the sidings facing the same way?

The FY, such as it is, is to the left of the low-relief buildings. It's designed so that no separate boards are required. I've always found portable layouts to be a pain in the backside when they have bits that need to be bolted on, so extra fiddlesticks are out.

 

I'm using standard Peco Code 75 trackwork. The slips would be too long and look out of place in this compact industrial scene and the angle would mean making the entry to the upper RH building wider, which wouldn't look as good. How the thing looks is important. Slips are also very expensive.

 

The loop can take up to 4 short wheelbase wagons. The headshunt for the loop is only long enough to accommodate a locomotive because it doesn't need to be any longer. The lower LH track is the rest of the world; trains enter on this track, cross the road and enter the loop, depending on where the wagons need to go. If back across the road to the part of the works (upper LH track then the loco simply propels the train. If it needs to go to the lower RH building then it has to run round. The train can be no longer than 3 wagons, which will be picked at random by cards, and each has a specific destination:

 

Pig iron to the electric arc furnace (lower RH building).

Scrap metal as above.

13-ton High to the upper RH building RH side (to be loaded with finished products).

Vent van to a loading dock at the side of the upper RH building (van placed in the headshunt).

Tube wagon to the kick back siding from the upper RH building.

Sand to the foundry (upper LH FY track).

 

At some point they have to be rounded up to be made into a train to go back to the FY.

 

And then there are internal movements of hot metal from the furnace to the foundry across the road, plus others of castings from the foundry to the area in front of the furnace building, for transfer to road transport.

 

It all has a reason for being there and having to shuffle randomised wagons into specific positions is where the operational interest is. It's a sort of shunting puzzle but with purpose and without rigid rules.

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Ruston

[Covkid]

Quite an impressive way of stitching up rookie operators Dave !!!

Be watching this one

[Ruston]

A few pics, found on the interwebs, to get the mood, or whatever you want to call it, of how the layout is intended to be.

 

 

 

Maybe not that much dereliction, or a load of dead Thomas Hill locos though.

 

That's the kind of frontage I'm thinking of for the low-relief buildings, to the left of the road. I'll have a railway track running through the portal.

 

 

[Ruston]

It just became more than words on a screen.

That's both boards laid out on the living room floor and connected together so that the joining tracks can be fitted and we'll know that tracks will align when the boards are reunited. Mine is the one on the left.

[rsh7684]

For completeness here is the right hand board awaiting the next steps. 

[Ruston]

I do hope this thread is going to get more interesting than a couple of planks of wood. 😆

[Neilgue]

You’ve got a fair bit of the track work done…