South West Scotland Terminus (Inspired by Stranraer)

[SHerr]

Welcome to (another) new start, little has happened for the last couple of years and I had a bit of loss of interest, in part after the great photo crash where lots of the layouts that inspired me lost their content but moreso some disasters with my last attempt Foyers which had been progressing well.

 

This layout used Peco Bullhead and was housed in my loft, unfortunately over the summers of 2021 ad 2022 I had 2 major track buckle events which ripped apart in total 3 sets of points and a straight. Mainly my fault, whilst I installed foil insulation it was nowhere near enough for the 2 extreme summers, also oddly, the finer scale of bullhead track made me seek a finer alignment/tighter gaps and inadvertently I ended up with no expansion capabilities.

 

After much deliberation I decided to move the layout to the garage but with some insulation to walls and floors etc. I am fortunate to have a near double length garage - 28 feet long and have spent probably a year playing with different plans and different locations. 

 

Eventually after much deliberation I settled on SW Scotland/Galloway set around 1985 but really covering 1984 to 1986 - I may also have an alternative 1970 arrangement as I've a fair bit of suitable stock. The layout is heavily inspired by Stranraer both a significantly compressed track plan and operations but with some notable differences. The location is much further East, probably about halfway to Dumfries and the Port Road route is assumed to have remained open. The assumption is the port was built closer to the boarder to better serve the North of England to Northern Ireland as well as Glasgow area. 

 

Operationally lots of similarities to Stranraer but more things running in from Carlisle (in part due to an impulse purchase of the SLW 25/9 twin pack. Usual array of passenger trains to Glasgow, London plus Carlisle and charters, troop trains and summer reliefs from the North of England. Freight is very similar to Stranraer in the 80's with an additional short branch back towards the fiddle yard that serves an MoD facility and small Chemical plant for some extra interest. A steel distribution depot similar to Stockton haulage and goods yard will look familiar, plus a cement siding within the goods yard. Finally as per Stranraer there are some freight facilities through the station serving a fuel facility for ferries and access for cars to be loaded onto ferries (no ferries on the layout though!

 

The layout will be Peco Bullhead again - once you've seen it laid vs code 75 streamline I can't see past the benefits, points will be manually operated (I hate electronics/wiring) and would rather spend the money on DCC Sound, also I find manual operation quite therapeutic for some odd reason! Baseboards are a little different to the norm (purist please look away) but as the boards need only limited access for wiring I've sat the layout on old kitchen units (previously bought for a layout in the garage at a previous house) with full length runners 3x1" then 18mm tongue and grooved chipboard flooring, this will hopefully mean no joint issues and should remain solid.

 

Trackplan drawn on Empire Express:

 

 

Boards are now almost complete and this weekend I've started loosely laying out som track to test the computer drawn track plan, all seems good from a first pass. I'm sure things will develop but I'm happy with the start.

[SHerr]

Some photos uploaded showing initial laying  out to validate the track plan.

 

General view from fiddle yard, station on right, steel terminal on left.

Station to front, goods yard behind and reception/run round at the rear.

Goods Yard, 2 sidings normally used by Engineers Dept.

 

Steel terminal/Stockton Haulage depot

 

Stabling/Re-fuelling point

 

Fiddle Yard, maximum length allows for 7 coach IC (Euston) train. Slightly odd arrangement of tracks as I have a boat load of code 75 Y points from previous layouts that will be used in fiddle yard.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 19 by SHerr

[SHerr]

Some slow but steady progress, the fiddle yard area now has cork sheeting layed and track partly pinned in place. Also I have power to the fiddle yard through and some main line loosely laid into the station area to test/play around.

 

Some loco’s haven’t turned a wheel for probably 3 years so some gentle persuasion was required in places.

 

I’ve now found the rest of the cork roll so can get the rest laid.

 

 

 

 

Also I’ve got a temporary decoder into my Accurascale Loch Lomond so it’s done more than a foot on a DC hash up. Now just need to wait for A/S to get some more sound decoders in stock.

 

 

 

[Legend]

Oooh I spy a 120 . Nice 

[SHerr]

5 hours ago, Legend said:

Oooh I spy a 120 . Nice 

Yes, DC Kits one that I’ve had for quite a while (from when they were about £50!) It’s on a Hornby 121 chassis, running with 101 centre car, mainly as I ran out of patience trying to line the Blue/Grey, but actually by 1985/6 that set up is probably more common than its real centre car.

 

I’ll get a few more piccies when in the garage next.

[SHerr]

I’ve decided to make some changes! After assessing areas of the layout with track laid out loosely, I realised that the goods yard, reception area and sidings that would require the most shunting and reaching over would mean I had to continually reach over the station area. Also the area behind the station building area was looking tight.

 

Whilst the next section of cork sheet was being glued and some of the track was back up I had a play around with making the layout a mirror image so the station went to the back wall. All seems well and has somehow created more space and also saved a couple of turnouts, the track plan is basically the same apart from the loco stabling point has been repositioned off the station throat headshunt. 
 

This all seems to work well/better and the added benefit I will be able to have a large ferry as part of the backscene. The station area should need less leaning over as most locos will release at similar places and as I’m using Kadee couplings I should be able to place magnets in the station at set points where as shunting areas are different for every piece of stock/formation.

 

some photos and outline plan:

 

 

 

 

 

[SHerr]

A received 3 packs of transfers from the always excellent Railtec models last week, this will allow some re-numbering of stock to make them more appropriate for era/location.

 

40122/D200 - only back to how I had it! Originally an all green version this had full yellow ends sprayed and axelbox covers painted yellow, I’d had this as D200 before changing to standard D number for previous layout but it’s now back as intended.

 

 

 

 

47460 - Heljan unnumbered model albeit now with headcode box painted yellow which I really now wish I hadn’t done, but found 460 on the same number pack as I needed for 640 and the real one has yellow panels, one end should be flush front but I’m ignoring that. IS loco’s we’re not uncommon that far south south a good variety.

 

 

 

47640 University of Strathclyde - replacement body bought recently off eBay - again I’d have preferred the more common black headcode box but Baccy have never done one which I always found odd.

 

 

 

[SHerr]

I promised a photo of the 120 so here goes. Running with Limby 101 center coach but I do need to get its proper one finished as the 101 needs it back.

 

 

Also some general views with more track connected loosely for testing, most stock removed before I prepare to get remaining cork down so a good uncluttered view.

 

I’m definitely happier with plan reversed and station to the back, certainly playing around it’s easier for shunting in the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SHerr]

Steady progress over the last month. I've got a majority of the cork sheet down and good progress laying track with most of station area and yard completed, I'm quite pleased with the balance of number of tracks but keeping a feeling of some space as well.

 

After taking all the stock up for cork laying I decided to unbox my fleet of circa 1970 loco's/stock. I'd toyed with selling it off but over the last few years I've developed a real soft spot for that era, particularly inspired by EM gauge 70's site and the wonderful Crinan on here, so I've decided to run that as an alternative era with the layout being either circa 1969/70 or circa 1985/6.

 

I've made a few temporary re-numbers that are not fully correct but will plug a gap and also to my amazement a very speculative last minute bid on a Heljan TTG class 25 was successful - lets just say I paid under £90! I actually think its a pretty reasonable model, just not at SLW levels but way better than the old Baccy one and for that price I'm not complaining.

 

The will be a bit of licence around services, passenger trains from Glasgow will be a mix of loco hauled and DMU, the peak service that connects with the ferry will be loco hauled with additional brake or van capacity for luggage and the off peak will be a 3 car 126 for which I'll be going with the Silver Fox kit, I just need to decide whether I think I can make a good enough job of the conversion myself. Due to additional loco hauled traffic I'm assuming that occasionally class 29's were also used from Glasgow as well as 27's.

 

Passenger trains will also run to Carlisle (short loco hauled peak and 2 car DMU off peak) plus service to London Midland (Nottingham) or North West (Manchester/Blackpool), normally a class 40 will take these to Carlisle but a Peak can also make the detour off the GSW route on the Nottingham.

 

There will be the usual array of good traffic, steel plate and sections from Clydeside/Motherwell area and also assuming that some Cattle traffic remains from Northern Ireland (i think the real stuff into Stranraer stopped around 1967/8.