Wagon repair depot - yet to be named! 2015-2017 with plenty of engineers stock!

[Departmental203]

Hi all,

 

For those who are in the know, I've been working on a home based layout, Torness Yard for a couple of years now (7 if you really want to count 😬) which was going to feature a small terminating station for Scotrail DMUs and a small engineers yard to keep my engineering wagon needs satisfied! Regarding this, I made the decision last month to halt progress on this and dismantle it.

 

The reasons for this decisions are a bit of a list but basically, I had too many frustrations with it which made me lose my mojo for it. A combination of tight trainset curves, short sidings which meant I could only run 4 wagon trains (at a stretch) and 2 car DMUs, point motor gremlins, lack of operational flexibility and the fact it took half of my room. The last straw came when I found that there was a big dip in one of the baseboards which meant that when I tried to use Kadee couplings, the wagons would pull on the couplings, meaning that no uncoupling took place due to unwanted tensioning! I figured to fix that, I would have to rip up the track on that baseboard anyway. Additionally, regarding my future as an undergrad engineering student, the next 3 years or so could go anywhere with potential of moving out from home thus I figured something small and portable would be best, which would also allow me to exhibit as well. 

 

Bit of a rant there but I'll stop there and move on to the interesting stuff!

 

Anyway, I'm in a small group called the Scottish Modellers and two years ago, we started a "layout in a box" challenge where we would have to make complete, working layouts to fit in boxfiles made by the Really Useful Box Company. I talked to the member who did the baseboard cutting for this (he has a laser cutter) and he was happy to cut out a few basebaords for me so I could, become a late entrant to the challenge. However, to avoid the pressure of having to meet deadlines with other commitments, I'm not in the competition but I'll still be able to have baseboards done by someone other than me, which I'm relieved about!

 

To be able to reuse the now extensive list of engineers stock I've got, right for the start, I settled on some sort of wagon repair depot as I realised I didn't have the space to represent an engineers yard or even part of one. This would also allow me to model wagons I've never done before, and at Model Rail Scotland, I already diversified with my wagon purchases! After a bit of research, I was attracted to the WRD at Tees Yard but someone on here did a nice version of it himself many moons ago so I wanted something a bit more unique to avoid duplication.

 

I remembered that on the south west end of Millerhill has some sort of shed with sidings going through and next to it, which I realised was a wagon repair depot. Although it's no longer used for this purpose, I liked this concept and the basic trackplan for this quiet corner of a busy yard was ideal for what I was looking for, shunting interest without cramming lots of track on a small baseboard.

 

 

Basically, my idea is crippled wagons would be shunted on the line beyond the first row of trees behind the blue building, stop at a kickback (out of shot to the right) and reverse into either the shed or one of the adjacent sidings for the wagon to get patched up and get rolling again!

 

 

I don't have space for three sidings so I'll settle for one, which still should allow some interesting shunting movements to occur. Additionally, I'll shorten the trackwork so it can all fit in about 6ft of space. In other words, the trackplan is based on Millerhill with the compactness of Tees WRD. I've attached one of Tees for comparison (credits to the owner).

 

 

Much more modellable than the expansiveness of the one at Millerhill! Although I plan to have the scenery based off the one at Millerhill, this could change as the layout design evolves.

 

Although I have a good idea of what the track layout will be like, I decided to put it on a piece of paper to have it as a record. I have two slight variations in the track layout, although I'm leaning on the top one, the other one is included for completeness.

 

 

Of course, there's still a lot of final details to sort out but I feel this one could work out well, provided I plan carefully and remain open minded. 

 

Dismantling of Torness Yard has been paused for a moment to allow for studies but with a two week Easter break around the corner, hopefully by late May/early June I'll be ready to start this new project.

 

Hopefully, more updates to follow as I refine the design and make some major decisions (basebaord size, fiddle yard type being the main ones so far) and I'll likely be active with the workbench, which as stated, will have something other than engineers wagons for maximum entertainment!

 

Thanks for reading and happy modelling all.

 

Jules

 

[ess1uk]

Sounds interesting 

[Alcanman]

This looks like an interesting project although 6ft is not a lot of space to work with.

 

I built Tees Yard WRD back 2015 which I enjoyed building and operating. Surprising how simply shunting a few wagons can be an immersive experience.

 

Good luck with your layout. I'll be following your progress.

[treggyman]

Hi

Great idea.....

Lot's of potential for scenics/shunting/wagon variety etc......

 

I'd been thinking about something similar based on St Blazey but as the real track layout is much more extensive I couldn't quite get my head around how to get it to work & keep it relatively simple track wise.....

 

Will follow with interest...

 

Cheers Bill 

[treggyman]

Hi again

 

Just a couple of thoughts on your plan......

I was wondering whether the 6ft included the fiddle yard or if that was an extension to the 6ft length.....

In my plans foe St Blazeyish I had thought of doing it in 8ft over all.......

So if you move the repair shed to the edge of the board & make it longer you could hide the fiddle yard behind it which would mean the whole of the layout would be scenic......

You could even have a large shed/industrial building at the other end & then have 153 or similar shuttling to & fro in the background while you shunt in the foreground......

That was my idea of what I was going to do anyway .

It would mean that you would have to use cassettes rather than a traverser......

I must admit that my pet hate at exhibitions is where there is a superbly modelled small layout spoilt by the sometimes larger length of blanks at either end of invisible fiddle yard.....

 

Feel free to ignore.....

 

Cheers again

Bill

[Departmental203]

On 16/03/2024 at 11:00, Alcanman said:

This looks like an interesting project although 6ft is not a lot of space to work with.

 

I built Tees Yard WRD back 2015 which I enjoyed building and operating. Surprising how simply shunting a few wagons can be an immersive experience.

 

Good luck with your layout. I'll be following your progress.

 

Hi Alcanman, this looks like the Tees Yard model I was talking about!

 

This is the kind of thing I'm aiming for,  not a "as much track as possible squeezed in the basebaord width" approach but with enough to play trains with, it seems to be a hard balance to get right given 6ft of scenic space. I recon I have 2ft for the fiddle yard which should be enough for my longest loco (Class 60) plus my longest wagon (JNA Falcon) so we can have some serious "super shunting" to happen!

 

Hope you don't mind if I nick some of your elements from your Tees Yard layout 😉 as for example the real location at Millerhill is surrounded by trees and has a rough dirt road for DB staff vehicles and there's no way they would keep grass from growing absolutely everywhere!

 

Thanks for posting this and the kind remarks, hope to provide some entertainment good sir

 

Jules

 

[Departmental203]

On 16/03/2024 at 16:32, treggyman said:

Hi again

 

Just a couple of thoughts on your plan......

I was wondering whether the 6ft included the fiddle yard or if that was an extension to the 6ft length.....

In my plans foe St Blazeyish I had thought of doing it in 8ft over all.......

So if you move the repair shed to the edge of the board & make it longer you could hide the fiddle yard behind it which would mean the whole of the layout would be scenic......

You could even have a large shed/industrial building at the other end & then have 153 or similar shuttling to & fro in the background while you shunt in the foreground......

That was my idea of what I was going to do anyway .

It would mean that you would have to use cassettes rather than a traverser......

I must admit that my pet hate at exhibitions is where there is a superbly modelled small layout spoilt by the sometimes larger length of blanks at either end of invisible fiddle yard.....

 

Feel free to ignore.....

 

Cheers again

Bill

 

Hi Bill, thanks for providing some insight.

 

It's not an idea I've considered before, and with some clever design, it could work. What would be very helpful is if you had a diagram or a worked example of the concept so I could get a good idea of how this would work. What I'm imagining is one end of the layout will have the repair shed and the wall facing the operator would be removed so you could access the rolling stock from there? So you have three walls of the building visible but an access hole to swap rolling stock within the confines of the repair shed?

 

From memory I don't really recall any layouts that don't have fiddleyards but I have seen sketches of some and I have to say, very clever! 

 

As I say, although I have a fairly clear idea of what the layout could look like based of Alcanman's design, I wish to keep my options open and explore different possibilities in the name of creativity!

 

Thanks, Jules

[treggyman]

Hi Jules

 

If you look at my layout Hendra (click on the link in my signature ) on the last page the last post is a front on picture of the complete layout.....

The layout is longer than your proposed dimension at 12ft long but the principal is the same....

The large building on the right houses a 5 road traverser which is 6ins longer than the actual building......So extends to the right by 6ins but isn't obvious when being viewed from the front.

I did a similar thing with Penhallick Junction (which was also 12ft long) but used cassettes at either end & inset the main layout so that the through line disappeared through a bridge at one end & behind a building at the other so that I could have an illusion of a mainline with DMU's shuttling to & fro in the background & the China Clay yard in front.

Sadly the pics are no longer on here due to the 'crash' but the topic is & I can post some either on here or by PM if you want.

I'll try & dig out the track plans & post them......Sadly they are on my old computer ,which is playing up so might take a bit to cajole into action.

 

Cheers Bill

[treggyman]

Hi again

 

Put some coal on the old computer & fired it up so here goes.......

Sadly can't find the track plans for either Penhallick junction or Hendra but here are a couple of pics of what I mean.....

First an overall pic of Penhallick Junction.....

To the right was about 4ft of cassette behind the buildings & to the left was about 2ft of cassette through the bridge which allowed a DMU to shuttle to & fro whilst the yard was shunted......

As I said the overall layout was 12ft long....

 

 

The first pic of Hendra shows the traverser before the Linhay (large building) was built & the second how the entry was 'disguised by the entry through the bridge to the left of the Linhay....

 

 

 

 

Hopefully the above gives you an idea of how I did it....

If not....Ask again....

 

Cheers Bill

[treggyman]

HI

Had a bit of a search & found the original Hand drawn track plan for Penhallick Junction.......

Not where I thought it was but here it is.....

 

 

Hopefully it's self explanatory....If not please ask.....

 

Still not found Hendra's track plan but I did find a couple of pictures of the traverser which hopefully illustrate better how the fiddleyard is hidden & operated....

 

 

The above picture shows also one of the cross members which have drawer runners on them so that the fiddleyard base slides in & out smoothly....

The large building (Linhay ) will be to the left covering & hiding the fiddleyard.

 

 

And from the other end....

The brown & white tubes will be slurry tanks which which with associated control building will add to hiding the access to the fiddleyard......

 

Hope this helps....

 

Cheers Bill 

[Departmental203]

On 17/03/2024 at 22:46, treggyman said:

Hi again

 

Put some coal on the old computer & fired it up so here goes.......

Sadly can't find the track plans for either Penhallick junction or Hendra but here are a couple of pics of what I mean.....

First an overall pic of Penhallick Junction.....

To the right was about 4ft of cassette behind the buildings & to the left was about 2ft of cassette through the bridge which allowed a DMU to shuttle to & fro whilst the yard was shunted......

As I said the overall layout was 12ft long....

 

 

The first pic of Hendra shows the traverser before the Linhay (large building) was built & the second how the entry was 'disguised by the entry through the bridge to the left of the Linhay....

 

 

 

e

 

Hopefully the above gives you an idea of how I did it....

If not....Ask again....

 

Cheers Bill

 

Hi Bill, sorry for the late reply (life stuff getting in the way somewhat) but I do like this concept for a layout that has restricted length and I think it's quite clever, which allows you to get scenery on the whole length, but has one caveat....you do need a fair bit of girth which, sadly my room as it stands, doesn't offer. I only have 2ft of depth at best even with the layout right up against the wall and I also plan to operate it from the front in my house and from the back whilst exhibiting to allow a decent bit of flexibility for different situations. This also creates a question mark with the fiddle yard design as I would ideally would like a cassette to allow stock to be swapped with ease but how do I allow for both front and back operation with this? 

 

All of these questions I hope to answer soon as the opportunity to get really stuck in this project arises soon with uni work dying down for the summer!

 

Also ta for the pics, they were helpful to visualise the concept and it might be one I may pinch for a future layout (!)

 

Jules

[saxokid]

1 hour ago, Departmental203 said:

 

Hi Bill, sorry for the late reply (life stuff getting in the way somewhat) but I do like this concept for a layout that has restricted length and I think it's quite clever, which allows you to get scenery on the whole length, but has one caveat....you do need a fair bit of girth which, sadly my room as it stands, doesn't offer. I only have 2ft of depth at best even with the layout right up against the wall and I also plan to operate it from the front in my house and from the back whilst exhibiting to allow a decent bit of flexibility for different situations. This also creates a question mark with the fiddle yard design as I would ideally would like a cassette to allow stock to be swapped with ease but how do I allow for both front and back operation with this? 

 

All of these questions I hope to answer soon as the opportunity to get really stuck in this project arises soon with uni work dying down for the summer!

 

Also ta for the pics, they were helpful to visualise the concept and it might be one I may pinch for a future layout (!)

 

Jules

Sounds good Jules im now following your progress here 📝

[virginhst539]

Ah good old millerhill wagon works. Know that yard like the back of my hand. Still used for wagon work but not as much as the one at mossend these days.

 

Will be following this with intrest, i know wakefeild clubwjere doing oxwellmains but thats gone a bit quiet. Thats an intensive wagon works with 50 odd wagons serviced and repairs on that siding

[Departmental203]

17 hours ago, saxokid said:

Sounds good Jules im now following your progress here 📝

 

3 hours ago, virginhst539 said:

Ah good old millerhill wagon works. Know that yard like the back of my hand. Still used for wagon work but not as much as the one at mossend these days.

 

Will be following this with intrest, i know wakefeild clubwjere doing oxwellmains but thats gone a bit quiet. Thats an intensive wagon works with 50 odd wagons serviced and repairs on that siding

 

Hi guys, thanks for the comments and I didn't know that the wagon works at Millerhill was still used for its original purpose, thought it was just used to stable locos between engineers duties. I have a few pics from a Colas driver on my laptop seeing some locos stabled there, including an 88 that was less than 3 years old at the time peeking at the weeds! I plan to replicate the stabling somewhat by shuffling locos on and off for added interest and give my growing fleet of locos something to do as well ;)

 

And I wasn't aware of anyone having a crack at Oxwellmains, sure it would be quite an impressive beast once finished.....hope that gets underway

 

Jules