Holcombe - an SDJR branch line terminus

[RobAllen]

50 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

(You could seriously think about changing scale. TT:120 was designed for you! 😉)

I feel like it's at least 5 years too early in TT:120's life for that!

 

50 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Have the goods handling on the far side, splay some of the goods yard into the corner, where there's space and keep the buffer end of the station tightly packed to fit your long thin main board (three tracks in parallel, from the back: goods siding, run round loop, platform line).

This had never crossed my mind. Going to have a play… 

Edited December 14, 2023 by RobAllen

[halsey]

On 14/12/2023 at 16:31, Chimer said:

Perhaps work on the principle that the town is your side of the baseboard, access the station yard via a level crossing on the curve, then just set a stone wall in front of an open countryside backscene, maybe with a few trees between the two to disguise the lack of depth?  Low relief would have to be the backs of buildings as there's no room for a road in front, and there's always an issue where a  low relief building meets the backscene.  I think the 3-D to 2-D transition is one of the hardest things to get right, and really applaud those who do it well.

 

Hi Rob,

 

As I haven't visited for a while not sure how much of my layout planning stuff and photos still survive - EDIT - I've just had a look and not much of the early stuff exists but later shots will give you an idea of the back scenes mentioned below

 

Glad to see you have @Chimer, @DCB and @Harlequin in your corner (amongst others) as I couldn't have succeeded without their help - I cant believe I'm now giving advice to others!! 🙃.

 

For back scenes I can't "big up" ID back scenes enough, with Hawkesbury I went for the ones pre-mounted on card, more expensive but MUCH better than the SA option I used on my first layout

 

The bad news, now I have found you, is I will be watching - I loved the Jinty's new home pulling 12 wagons - great stuff it always was a great little loco. 

 

J

Edited December 15, 2023 by halsey

[RobAllen]

I've been working from the starting point suggested by @Chimer in that there are fields on the far side of the baseboard  with the town on my side. I also took @Harlequin idea to put three tracks in parallel as the along the main board: platform, run-around and goods. 

I've struggled with putting sidings into the top left due to logistics of people moving around it. Logically, the goods yard would have one entrance for the weigh bridge, so all the goods yard paraphernalia ends up clustered as it makes more sense. At least, I couldn't work out how to do a long thin yard with sidings to the left and right :)

 

As a result, I've come up with this:

This is just my first thoughts and the most obvious problem is that there's nowhere for coal, which might mean that the goods shed is in the wrong place?

In terms of land height, I decided that the land would be higher towards my side of the baseboard as the station forecourt needs to be platform height as steps up outside the station from door is a little bit of a pain for luggage. Similarly, the carriage loading and cattle dock could also do with the land being higher, but the goods shed entrance needs to be a rail height so that that the waggon floor is roughly the height of the platform in the shed which is roughly the height of the bottom of a waggon. Hence we need to fall away from my side to the top, if you see what I mean.

The top left gets a private siding - brewery here, but could be anything. In theory, it could be engine shed. I'll think about that.

I picked a level crossing for the road to the brewery, but maybe a bridge works better as it becomes a scenic break and possibly there's a cutting behind it into the fiddle yard?

 Regardless, I think that planning road access has helped with my thinking, but this plan needs more work and of course, thoughts on what's good and what can be improved is very much appreciated.
 

[phil_sutters]

A couple of thoughts - if you stay with the level crossing, it might be more appropriate for the signal box to be nearer it, so that it can control the gates. If you are talking about Holcombe growing into a large market town you might want a larger cattle dock. Highbridge S&D's was 80ft long and the GWR had one as well. 

Is your coal traffic just for local consumption? I imagine that your area's main colliery and quarry output joins the branch further down, off-scene. So small merchant's office and some bins could be along the back of the goods yard alongside the store.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Rob, I like the way you're using the diagonal, to get maximum length for the trackwork.

To increase operating potential, maybe the (off-stage) colliery/quarry has to work their traffic into Holcombe to run-round.

[halsey]

46 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Rob, I like the way you're using the diagonal, to get maximum length for the trackwork.

To increase operating potential, maybe the (off-stage) colliery/quarry has to work their traffic into Holcombe to run-round.

 

Agreed - I was persuaded by the same advisors to adopt a "diagonal" philosophy to maximise the length of station platforms and it works and I'm very glad I did it.

 

"Hawkesbury" has evolved considerably since the plan below but the stations and the loops have remained a constant and the more I look at it possibly the only one!

 

"Home goods" is still there but everything else has either gone or been changed.

 

The 3 carriage sidings have only just gone for reasons of access due to advancing age and difficulty in keeping the tracks operationally clean enough. 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by halsey

[Peter Kazmierczak]

That's why I used the diagonals on Shardlow.

[RobAllen]

7 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

To increase operating potential, maybe the (off-stage) colliery/quarry has to work their traffic into Holcombe to run-round.

 

There's a prototypical example from the Bridgwater branch that I learned about recently in A Pictorial Atlas of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway by Harman & Parkhouse (page 396).

Due to the way the connection faced at Board's Siding at Cossington, the siding was served from Edington with the train shunting empties for loading by pushing them. After shunting, the fulls were then pulled back to Edington. They would then be taken on the next Up goods back up the branch, past the siding they came from for delivery to the private siding for Board's cement works at Bridgwater. 

I will have a Holcombe working like this.
 

Edited December 16, 2023 by RobAllen

[RobAllen]

On 15/12/2023 at 20:22, phil_sutters said:

f you stay with the level crossing, it might be more appropriate for the signal box to be nearer it, so that it can control the gates

If the signal box was by the gates, would that be too far away from the "action" of the station?

[RobAllen]

Finetrax point has arrived! Will try and assemble it over the holidays.

[Gilbert]

10 minutes ago, RobAllen said:

Finetrax point has arrived! Will try and assemble it over the holidays.

I shall follow with interest - I also have one to try..

Chris H

[RobAllen]

Have started building the point. Initial observations:

• I'm remarkably intimidated by this whole process as it feels that I could get it wrong so easily. Took me a while to open the packet 🤣
• My eyesight isn't great even with my monovision contact lenses and isn't really good enough for this level of detail. I'm using a magnifying lens which is helping, but I need much more practice.
• The bullhead rail has a top and a bottom. Working out which is which was really hard for me, even with the magnifier. The advice to mark the top with a pen is a good one.
• I think that my printer has printed the template to 100%, but my ruler/eyesight combination means that it could be out by a mm and I wouldn't be able to tell. I suspect that it doesn't really matter if it's that close anyway.
• The note about filling the cut rail before inserting into the chairs is on point. So much easier when you do this.

45 minutes in and I've managed to do the two closure rails. I guess experience helps a lot in these things! Making a cuppa before I continue.

[RobAllen]

About 2 hours after I started, I finished. The instructions are reasonably clear, which is nice.

I started by measuring my 100% template and called it close enough as my rule isn't good enough to measure to the 100th of a mm:

 

 

 

It's useful to get it right though as you measure the size of the closure, wing, check rails and switchblades from it:

 

Filing down after each cut is vital, but then the rails slide into the chairs easily and I started to believe that I could do this:

 

Fitting the point and splice rails for the crossing was easy enough, though I was surprised by how far "up" the point rail, the splice one was:

 

It seemed to match the template, so I imagine that it's correct.

The check rails were next and these required bending. I over-bent the first one and hand to back it off a bit. Hopefully, it's okay as getting the angles to match the template was beyond me:

 

I then assembled the tie-bar without taking a photo. The only thing that wasn't completely clear to me was which way up it went. In the end I decided that the pin heads went down and the pint shafts were on top. The stock rails are then inserted:

 

Next up is to cut the switch rails, insert them and solder them. I think that I cut them too short and it's not clear exactly how much overlap the switch rail should have over the tie bar. I didn't allow enough I think, but of course, I've cut them now, so have to live with what I've done. 

 

Soldering was easy enough though and I was by now adept and working out which way up the rail should be:

 

After checking all the positioning, a little superglue holds it all down and now we have a complete point!

 

I've added the joiner wires for the switch, check and wing rails, so all that's left to do is to add the dropper wires.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 16 by RobAllen

[RobAllen]

Unexpected £1500 repair bill to get my car through its MOT will curtail spending on Holcombe's infrastructure. New plan for this month is to get the baseboards painted and determine a way to fix them together such that I can remove a board easily as they are sitting on a cupboard.

[RobAllen]

Slow going, but have primed the baseboards now!

 

 

I want the sides to be white to match the rest of the room, but it would makes sense to paint the top a dark brown or similar colour.


 

[RobAllen]

Thanks to the wonderful RMweb Mods for moving my thread. Now that I'm starting the build, I think it makes more sense for Holcombe to be in Layout topics.

[RobAllen]

On 13/01/2024 at 11:20, RobAllen said:

I want the sides to be white to match the rest of the room, but it would makes sense to paint the top a dark brown or similar colour.

Didn't take long to change my mind!
 

 

[Flying Pig]

Just got around to browsing this thread, probably much too late, and I notice it seems to be yet another branch terminus made up from first principles (apologies if I've missed any prototype references).  If I were designing an S&D branch on a site this shape, I'd certainly have a look at Wells Friary (minus the GW routes).

 

http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/gwr/wells.html

[RobAllen]

14 minutes ago, Flying Pig said:

If I were designing an S&D branch on a site this shape, I'd certainly have a look at Wells Friary (minus the GW routes).

For both Wells and Bridgwater the loop is outside the platform. This gets tricky in space available (~8ft long including curve x 17 inches wide). I'll have another look though as at this point, I'm not committed to a particular plan. 

Edited January 14 by RobAllen

[RobAllen]

Baseboards painted!
 

As you can see, I intend for the two main boards to rest on cabinets. The next thing to work out is how to fasten them together so that I can easily separate them to work underneath any given board.

If there was room for me to get my hands underneath, I could simply use a bolt and wing nut, but that's not an option here.

I'm currently thinking of metal alignment dowels in the end, such as these from Railwayscenics. with some sort of clasp on each side. I can then undo the clasps and pull the board outwards and remove.

Does this sound plausible? Is there a better way?

Edited January 15 by RobAllen

[RobAllen]

I've been reading threads on here about joining baseboards, such as this one and this one, I have realised that I have another problem (or do I mean opportunity?!).

 

I have 20mm space between the back of the baseboards and the wall.

 

If I use dowels and toggle catches, then the catches at the back will need to be on the top of the baseboard and presumably I'll cover with buildings.

Another idea I had was to forget dowels and use detachable hinges along these lines:

 

I'm not sure that two of these will hold everything tight enough though.

 

 

[RobAllen]

Decided on latches. The baseboards are 1.2m above the floor (~4ft) and I wasn't confident that I could lift one up straight up comfortably with detachable hinges. 
 

 

The obvious downside is latches on the top, so will need to hide. It's a compromise that I'll live with.

Next up, I need to sort out brackets for the wall to hold up the other side of the "L".

Edited January 20 by RobAllen

[RobAllen]

Brackets sourced and fitted.
 

 

This is a dual-use room as it's also my office (I'm self-employed and work full time from here), with Melcombe Road Sidings sitting neatly under Holcombe.

[RobAllen]

Printed out full size to see how it feels and immediately spotted that I have a point over a baseboard joint. *sigh*

 

[Graham T]

At least you've spotted the problem now, rather than in the track-laying stage!  Ask me how I know about that...