Middlefork Dockyard (OO)

[brynnydd]

I recently got my first OO locomotive and figured it would be a good start a layout so it can have somewhere to work. Space, as with my last layout, was the main limitation so I got a 48"x12" (actually 47.70"x11.7" for some reason...) board as that was the maximum size it could be. The layout will be on the top of a metal shelving rack, with my old layout on the shelf below. I really wanted a layout I could puzzle around with, and really enjoy the inglenook layout, and while I could fit a full sized one in OO on this board, I'd seen a different setup that involved a reversing loop that I thought looked very fun:

 

But sadly no matter how much I fiddled around with my second-hand atlas track, I couldn't get the pass-around loop to fit on the board, while also fitting a full capacity inglenook. So somewhat sadly, I returned to a normal inglenook. I did briefly consider just making the layout just a pass-around loop, but I don't think that would fit with my dockyard theme, nor fill my desire for shunting puzzles. (My full stock of wagons and my one coach are in photo too):

 

For the look of the layout I wanted a way-side dockyard that had seen better days. A typical concrete dock. I chose the name 'Middlefork" as it sounded nautical, while also like an out of the way place. Next was putting some foam to cover the wood to have a better surface to work from. I initially tried foam-core board, but it warped itself it uselessness and wasn't thick enough. Instead, I had some insulation foam and began to cut it into pieces to cover the board, but every so slightly not enough for full coverage. I then mixed up a bunch of different greys and brushed over the top of the board for the concrete surface. Following that I used track nails to pin the track in place. (One section of the main siding is missing in this photo, it is now on the layout though):

 

And this is where I've been able to get to with it this week. I am thinking of putting up a divider on the right side of the board as a fiddleyard area so I don't have to try to hide the wiring, and also to hide the lack of insulation foam in that one corner. Otherwise right now I have a small storage building I need to paint up, I need to make some buffers for the ends of the track, and from there ponder what next I can do to make it more dockyard-ish. There's plenty of work to be done, and quite a bit of thinking and pondering to do too. I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone may have!

 

Here's the layout up on it's shelf and my 08 happily shunting away:

Edited January 14 by brynnydd

[SteveyDee68]

The traditional Inglenook uses a 5-3-3 pattern of sidings with a headshunt capable of taking 3 wagons plus a loco but for an absolute minumum Inglenook you can reduce that to a 3-2-2 pattern, with a shorter headshunt of two wagons plus loco.

 

Reducing the “main train” length to 3 wagons might let you fit your loop in. Adding a second siding at the top off the left hand loop would allow a siding to complete the Inglenook design, negating using the lead line into the loop at the right hand side as a “siding”’ for the puzzle).

 

Shunting using a “minimum Inglenook” according to Wymann.info (the home of “The Model Railway’s Shunting Puzzles Website” by Adrian Wymann) gives 120 different arrangements of wagons to create 60 different 3 wagons trains; okay, that’s down (a lot) on the 40,320 arrangement possibilities and 6,720 different 5 wagon trains of the original, but that’s the trade off for minimum space!

 

That fourth siding - running parallel to the layout edge - could be serving the dock itself; finish the front edge of the board as a dock wall; rear sidings could serve industries or warehouses.

 

When I’m not so sleepy I’ll be drawing it for you!

 

Steve S

 

 

Edited January 14 by SteveyDee68

[SteveyDee68]

A picture paints a thousand words…

 

 

 

Here’s an Apple Pencil created drawing showing the layout I described in my previous post. However, I’ve added a kickback siding to the left of the top siding to serve a dock area (to fit your dock theme) and to justify the loop’s existence, and added a warehouse serving the end of the top right siding to justify leaving two wagons there. Engine shown in green with two wagons (dashed outlines) to show necessary headshunts - the top kickback siding could have all of its wagons removed in one move if the top right siding was empty, but wagons shown in white are not part of the Inglenook puzzle so you could (if you wish) have a short top right siding in order to introduce further shunting complications.

 

It’s an Inglenook but avoids using the entrance line as part of the puzzle track work - somewhere to leave a brake van? The arrow suggests a possible exit to a fiddlestick to allow trains to exit - which would allow new stock to be introduced.

 

Nothing groundbreaking here - in fact, I think the track plan has more or less copied most of the micro layouts you will find under The Sheep Chronicles … which shows you what fun can be had with a small loop and a couple of sidings!

 

You do what you want to do, it’s your layout - but hopefully I’ve shown that a loop might be included if you use the reduced Inglenook puzzle setting.

 

Steve S

 

PS

Just realised you might just be able to fit two complete sets of 7 wagons on the board itself so you could introduce more variety of stock! Another thought - an overtrack crane over the kickback siding at top left would look appropriate!

 

PPS

Flipping the whole thing around so the dock is at the front and it could be extended all along the front edge so that the baseboard edge is the dock wall (as Graham Muspratt’s Canute Road Quay).

 

 

Edited January 14 by SteveyDee68
Changed image type and added PPS!

[SteveyDee68]

Apologies to @brynnydd - when I read this at silly o’clock this morning, it didn’t register with me that you had said you had fixed your track down! I thought you were still in the planning stages and wanted that loop if possible. Ignore my above posts (although I’ll leave them there for anyone else contemplating creating a small loop-based Inglenook micro layout).

 

Big suggestion - as this is an Inglenook and stock doesn’t actually need to leave the board, how about recreating the ‘hole in the wall’ to disguise the ‘exit’ between two buildings as per Great Yarmouth? That would definitely give you a dockside setting feel. Fair Price Models (on eBay) have some appropriate laser cut buildings!

 

 

 

 

Steve S

[brynnydd]

12 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

The traditional Inglenook uses a 5-3-3 pattern of sidings with a headshunt capable of taking 3 wagons plus a loco but for an absolute minumum Inglenook you can reduce that to a 3-2-2 pattern, with a shorter headshunt of two wagons plus loco.

 

Reducing the “main train” length to 3 wagons might let you fit your loop in. Adding a second siding at the top off the left hand loop would allow a siding to complete the Inglenook design, negating using the lead line into the loop at the right hand side as a “siding”’ for the puzzle).

 

Shunting using a “minimum Inglenook” according to Wymann.info (the home of “The Model Railway’s Shunting Puzzles Website” by Adrian Wymann) gives 120 different arrangements of wagons to create 60 different 3 wagons trains; okay, that’s down (a lot) on the 40,320 arrangement possibilities and 6,720 different 5 wagon trains of the original, but that’s the trade off for minimum space!

 

That fourth siding - running parallel to the layout edge - could be serving the dock itself; finish the front edge of the board as a dock wall; rear sidings could serve industries or warehouses.

 

When I’m not so sleepy I’ll be drawing it for you!

 

Steve S

 

 

3 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

A picture paints a thousand words…

 

Inglenook extended.pdf 22.17 kB · 8 downloads

 

Now, that didn’t work quite the way I imagined (still getting to grips with this Apple pen produced drawings malarkey) - clicking the above asks you to download a perfectly harmless pdf with the track plan.

 

Hopefully that opens a pdf in a new window showing the layout I described in my previous post. However, I’ve added a kickback siding to the left of the top siding to serve a dock area (to fit your dock theme) and to justify the loop’s existence, and added a warehouse serving the end of the top right siding to justify leaving two wagons there. Engine shown in green with two wagons (dashed outlines) to show necessary headshunts - the top kickback siding could have all of its wagons removed in one move if the top right siding was empty, but wagons shown in white are not part of the Inglenook puzzle so you could (if you wish) have a short top right siding in order to introduce further shunting complications.

 

It’s an Inglenook but avoids using the entrance line as part of the puzzle track work - somewhere to leave a brake van? The arrow suggests a possible exit to a fiddlestick to allow trains to exit - which would allow new stock to be introduced.

 

Nothing groundbreaking here - in fact, I think the track plan has more or less copied most of the micro layouts you will find under The Sheep Chronicles … which shows you what fun can be had with a small loop and a couple of sidings!

 

You do what you want to do, it’s your layout - but hopefully I’ve shown that a loop might be included if you use the reduced Inglenook puzzle setting.

 

Steve S

 

PS

Just realised you might just be able to fit two complete sets of 7 wagons on the board itself so you could introduce more variety of stock! Another thought - an overtrack crane over the kickback siding at top left would look appropriate!

3 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Apologies to @brynnydd - when I read this at silly o’clock this morning, it didn’t register with me that you had said you had fixed your track down! I thought you were still in the planning stages and wanted that loop if possible. Ignore my above posts (although I’ll leave them there for anyone else contemplating creating a small loop-based Inglenook micro layout).

 

Big suggestion - as this is an Inglenook and stock doesn’t actually need to leave the board, how about recreating the ‘hole in the wall’ to disguise the ‘exit’ between two buildings as per Great Yarmouth? That would definitely give you a dockside setting feel. Fair Price Models (on eBay) have some appropriate laser cut buildings!

 

 

 

 

Steve S

 

Well thank you so very very much for all your posts, this has been very helpful and given me quite a bit to ponder about. My last layout was a minimum inglenook upgraded to a ginglenook (4-2-2), and while it turned out really well, having more rolling stock on the layout, and the added complexity and length of puzzling was something I wanted to do with this layout. However, after looking at your drawing and your explanations of different siding uses and such, i am now wondering if it might be worth it to make this one too a minimum inglenook with the passaround loop, it would certainly give me more things to model and work on, besides just a yard.

 

I will certainly check out the Sheep Chronicles to see their inspiration. I sadly don't have room for a fiddlestick (structurally or space-wise) where my layout lives, so that is also a limiting factor. It's definitely something to think about though! My track is "pinned down" but it's just track nails in insulation foam, they pop out easy enough with a slight tug. It's mostly to be able to test out the track plan without the torque and weight of the 08 pulling the fishplates of unsecured track apart as it trundled past. 

 

And wow, do I love that idea of the hole in the wall for my layout. That 04 in that first photo looks absolutely perfect, squeezing between those buildings. I most certainly will use that. :) I will also check out that ebay store for some buildings, I certainly need some.

 

Again thank you very very much for all your advice and help! I think I'll be spending the rest of this weekend messing about with trying to replicate something near what you've drawn me.

[SteveyDee68]

Thanks for the kind words - I’ve just changed and embedded the image into my second post instead of the daft pdf download, and added a PPS

 

Steve S

Edited January 14 by SteveyDee68

[brynnydd]

I find doing some shunting helps me think, so as I was doing so I noticed the decoupler I had made for my OO9 layout (A paperclip attached to an old pencil) was struggling with the tension lock couplers. So, I looked around and found some interesting "shovel" type decouplers people had 3d printed. Lacking a 3d printer, instead opted to carve one of of a stick which didn't take long at all:

 

Seems to work very well!

 

I'm currently debating on if I want a full-size inglenook or not, and am leaning towards the former as I do have some lovely wagons. I may change up the track plan some though to have a bit more space for scenery.

[brynnydd]

I made some small progress today. Last night before bed I was reading the LNER150 book and read that they carried sugar beets in coal wagons. I thought this would be a great idea to fill up some of my wagons while adding some variety. So I used some white glue to affix a mound of quinoa to some foam board. I then made a wash with some brown paint and put it all over. Once that had dried I did an over-brush of a khaki, and finally a dry brush of a light khaki. I think it turned out pretty well!

 

 

Also, the building behind the wagon in this shot I scratch built as a loco shed for my last layout, but felt very out of scale. So I'm hoping it can work as a dilapidated warehouse/shed/etc for this one.

[chesterfield]

Mention of Great Yarmouth suggests you look at White  Swan yard ( where the the loco between the White Swan and house ) seems to be going- 4 points only

[brynnydd]

It has been quite a while since my last update, life always seems to get in the way. Progress continues though! I built and painted a Dapol plastic railway buildings kit that seemed to have very old tooling that I got in my last package from Hattons. The loading gauge needed it's own anchor point and a bit of a lift up, but the water pump, coal office (I've pressed into service as a station office) and tool hut came out well enough. They go along rather well with my scratch built signal, the back of which is seen here.

 

The cutting at the board in front is to eventually make a border of the docks, and that forward section will have some water effects and maybe a boat or two. I'm still not sure on that. However

 

I also painted up my AHM warehouse kit finally, and I found a pricing sticker on one of my dog's treats from a local brand. I thought it would be fitting to trim off the barcode and price and use it as a little sign. I may make a black back for this warehouse, it was originally a "working pipe loader" model kit from who knows when found at a thrift store and play-ability seemed to be more of the focus than looks. I am waiting though to shuffle these buildings along into a place I like before making a backing for it however.

 

I have a lot of experience scratch building (trash bashing really) fantasy and scifi terrain for rpgs, but my my skills aren't in this scale, or really of this precision. However I am keeping an eye out for things that would work, and here's an attempted power or transformer building of some sort made out of a chessex dice box and some odds and ends. I think it looks alright for now, and certainly better at distance.

 

Finally, I have firmly decided on an industrial dock scene with the side the viewer looks in from being the coast, rather than the layout working as a peninsula. I've ordered two Metcalfe building kits to fill out the empty space and I hope they can come in soon. I'll probably get up to some other little odds and ends as well.

[scalerailmodelling]

Looks great! The sugar beat load came out really well, I am following with interest.
I’m still planning my layout in a similar concept to this so lots of food for thought 👍

[john new]

On 17/01/2024 at 02:45, brynnydd said:

I made some small progress today. Last night before bed I was reading the LNER150 book and read that they carried sugar beets in coal wagons. I thought this would be a great idea to fill up some of my wagons while adding some variety. So I used some white glue to affix a mound of quinoa to some foam board. I then made a wash with some brown paint and put it all over. Once that had dried I did an over-brush of a khaki, and finally a dry brush of a light khaki. I think it turned out pretty well!

 

 

Also, the building behind the wagon in this shot I scratch built as a loco shed for my last layout, but felt very out of scale. So I'm hoping it can work as a dilapidated warehouse/shed/etc for this one.

I will be interested in how well this lasts without showing signs of mould growth etc. I have always been wary of using organic matter after past problems.

[john new]

On 14/01/2024 at 04:10, SteveyDee68 said:

The traditional Inglenook uses a 5-3-3 pattern of sidings with a headshunt capable of taking 3 wagons plus a loco but for an absolute minumum Inglenook you can reduce that to a 3-2-2 pattern, with a shorter headshunt of two wagons plus loco.

 

Reducing the “main train” length to 3 wagons might let you fit your loop in. Adding a second siding at the top off the left hand loop would allow a siding to complete the Inglenook design, negating using the lead line into the loop at the right hand side as a “siding”’ for the puzzle).

 

Shunting using a “minimum Inglenook” according to Wymann.info (the home of “The Model Railway’s Shunting Puzzles Website” by Adrian Wymann) gives 120 different arrangements of wagons to create 60 different 3 wagons trains; okay, that’s down (a lot) on the 40,320 arrangement possibilities and 6,720 different 5 wagon trains of the original, but that’s the trade off for minimum space!

 

That fourth siding - running parallel to the layout edge - could be serving the dock itself; finish the front edge of the board as a dock wall; rear sidings could serve industries or warehouses.

 

When I’m not so sleepy I’ll be drawing it for you!

 

Steve S

 

 

Might copy your insulation foam layer but overtopped with cork to avoid any glues or paints dissolving the foam. My own inglenook started without any sound absorbent layer and it is noisy.

[brynnydd]

On 17/03/2024 at 10:57, john new said:

I will be interested in how well this lasts without showing signs of mould growth etc. I have always been wary of using organic matter after past problems.

I will let you know. I do live in a wet climate, but it is sealed in with a layer of pva glue, and then a layer of varnish. I will keep an eye on it regardless.

[Pacific231G]

On 14/01/2024 at 12:50, SteveyDee68 said:

A picture paints a thousand words…

 

 

 

Here’s an Apple Pencil created drawing showing the layout I described in my previous post. However, I’ve added a kickback siding to the left of the top siding to serve a dock area (to fit your dock theme) and to justify the loop’s existence, and added a warehouse serving the end of the top right siding to justify leaving two wagons there. Engine shown in green with two wagons (dashed outlines) to show necessary headshunts - the top kickback siding could have all of its wagons removed in one move if the top right siding was empty, but wagons shown in white are not part of the Inglenook puzzle so you could (if you wish) have a short top right siding in order to introduce further shunting complications.

 

It’s an Inglenook but avoids using the entrance line as part of the puzzle track work - somewhere to leave a brake van? The arrow suggests a possible exit to a fiddlestick to allow trains to exit - which would allow new stock to be introduced.

 

Nothing groundbreaking here - in fact, I think the track plan has more or less copied most of the micro layouts you will find under The Sheep Chronicles … which shows you what fun can be had with a small loop and a couple of sidings!

 

You do what you want to do, it’s your layout - but hopefully I’ve shown that a loop might be included if you use the reduced Inglenook puzzle setting.

 

Steve S

 

PS

Just realised you might just be able to fit two complete sets of 7 wagons on the board itself so you could introduce more variety of stock! Another thought - an overtrack crane over the kickback siding at top left would look appropriate!

 

PPS

Flipping the whole thing around so the dock is at the front and it could be extended all along the front edge so that the baseboard edge is the dock wall (as Graham Muspratt’s Canute Road Quay).

 

 

Stevey, I think you may have just re-invented John Allen's "Timesaver".   

https://gdlines.org/GDLines/Timesaver.html

Which is not altogether surpring as there are only so many ways to arrange five points (though as Timesaver was designed for 40ft American cars, you'd probablyy need to semi permanently couple wagons in pairs to make the puzzle work.  

I agree about making the front edge of the layout a quayside, possibly with an inch of "water" and just a couple of small  boats.  

You can fit a layout with a run round loop into four feett. as Paul Gittins did it with his Enigma Engineering layout (BRM Nowember 2006) and in P4 to boot using two foot radius points. The fiddle yard to the right is optional with  a level crossing gate closed during shunting . The sidings and headshunts will each take two wagons (limited in the case of the sidings by the wagon turntable and some rusting wagon wheels on the other siding .  The run round is limited to three wagons (it will take four but that makes the puzzle too easy) 

I've drawn it using Peco short Streamline points and it clearly fits. 

 

The layout has six wagons on its visible section (the fiddle yard allows them to be changed) . "Enigma Engineering" followed his H0 "Peforia Narrows" (Continental Modeller Oct 2003)  which had the same double crossover layout and was 5ft 6ins by 9ins with the same siding and loop capacities but for 40ft freight cars and no fiddle yard. With six cars on the layout the puzzle was set in much the same way as Inglenook Sidings by randomly dealing six "destination" cards (including the departure track and then the six freight car cards to be shunted into them. Enigma Engineering was opeated in much the same way but with the additional complicatiion of a brake van to be on the rear of trains arriving from the fiddle yard and departing to it. 

I think this arrangement, with two of the sidings facing in opposite directions, gives more interesting operation than Inglenook and it was used by Peter Denny for the first version of Leighton Buzzar (Linslade). With a little extra length it can also accomodate a passenger station. 

 

 

[SteveyDee68]

54 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

I think you may have just re-invented John Allen's "Timesaver".   

https://gdlines.org/GDLines/Timesaver.html

Whoops! 😆

 

Definitely guilty as charged, but done completely innocently! The crazy thing is, I am well aware of the Timesaver plan so it is a bit embarrassing to find I’ve unknowingly recreated it! 🤣

 

Steve S

[brynnydd]

Middlefork Dockyard has recieved some new rolling stock!

Firstly is Emily, her likeness is my favorite steam locomotive, and while she can't do the inglenook puzzle on the layout with her tender, she can run without and shunt wagons and vans just fine. With her is a purple moose brewery wagon. I sadly wasn't able to get a non-weathered one, but I'm very happy to have it regardless and may try de-weathering it some.

 

Emily went straight to work and delivered a flat wagon containing a tractor from the FLR (their forestry operations are giving way to conservation so this old tractor has been sent to the docks to help out).

It's a Trumpeter tractor kit I saw and thought it looked cute. I had a lot of fun assembling it and painting it up in FLR blue. Not my best paint jeb (I'm still learning how to paint machines) but I think it fits the layout.

Currently, I'm looking around for some stuff to make a load of coal for one of my plank wagons, and figuring out the cargo for the other. And of coruse, I'm waiting for a package from the UK with two metcalfe kits to fill out some of the empty space on the layout.

 

Thanks for looking!

[Pacific231G]

4 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Whoops! 😆

 

Definitely guilty as charged, but done completely innocently! The crazy thing is, I am well aware of the Timesaver plan so it is a bit embarrassing to find I’ve unknowingly recreated it! 🤣

 

Steve S

My tongue was firmly in my cheek but don't worry. the GWR (or possibly the South Devon Railway) used the plan a couple of generations before John Allen.  If you look at Ashburton's track plan it was,  apart from the locos shed road, a timesaver! 

In its American form, with just a coupler of freight cars in each siding, timesaver always seemed to me very contrived -which of course it was- it was a pure shunting puzzle and not intended to be in any way realsitic. Ingelnook Sidings, on the other hand could be a small rural goods yard. I have found though that if you add a run round loop and another siding facing the other way you get an awful lot of far less contrived shunting. 

 

This was what I came up with in five feet but I did some experiments and found that, with small radius points and a small tank loco, it could be crammed into 4ft 6ins which is only about three or four inches longer than a 5-3-3  Inglenook using the same European H0 wagons. 

 

[brynnydd]

My two metcalfe kits came in! Gosh are these lovely kits, they look so great and are really fun to build. I've almost finished the first one (just need to paint up the plastic staircase). Here it is on the layout with some added signage cut from a bag of flour.