Broomridding Wood

[gingerangles]

Hi Folks. 

 

New to the forum so I hope this is in the right place!  Looking for a bit of help and guidance whilst being able to share layout progress.  I've dabbled in railway modelling to no great extent in my teenage years and have always had a love of steam. Only really messed about with OO gauge sets and was a member of a modelling club for a while but not all that long.

I've decided to get back into the hobby and build myself a layout... I wanted to share my thoughts and get feedback to hopefully avoid some common mistakes, this looks like a great group with lots of very detailed discussions!

In terms of space, I'm looking at my garage loft, between the 'W' trusses on each side so I'll have 2 strips of 750mm x 5.4m ish available, about 1m apart, connected at each end.  As for the subject matter I've been chewing over this for what seems like forever.  Complicated by the choice of gauge.  I really think I have settled on OO Gauge - I literally have no experience of anything else (barring a brass flatbed GWR bogie wagon I made about 25 years ago in O gauge - never finished 😂).  I understand that you soon have to compromise on space and that N gauge might be a better choice but I think I'm set on OO.  So that leaves me with not much room.  I definitely want something main line station and roundy roundy with some 'goods' interest, ideally a engine shed and some scenic bits, bridge, viaduct etc.  I'm looking at era 4 / era 5 and would like to do something local to me or of interest.  The only actual memories of steam I have are from the preserved Great Central as a child/teenager so I've toyed with this idea.  Or something closer to home and Mansfield based - which @Andy_C has provided some great inspiration with his 'a slow burn' thread.  However I'm not going to have loads of space for scenic 'setting the scene' and there was quite a lot at Mansfield Town to squeeze in... so I think my OO Gauge decision put pay to that.  
So... that got me back to tracing old maps and looking for further inspiration, nothing quite fits the bill, but then I guess it never will if you aren't sure what you are looking for... so...
I have (for now 😂) settled on a made up station on the Derbyshire Lines GCR at a place called Broomridding Wood.  This sits on the GCR between Pilsley and Heath and my thoughts are to construct a station based on others locally.  I've attached an image of the location which I like given there is a parallel MR line which seems to most likely have been pit traffic that I like the idea of to provide a little more interest.

 

 

I've done a bit of messing around in CAD to see how things might fit and you'll see in the image below how a scale plan of the layout at Pilsley fits (or not) into the space I have available.  

The 2 orange boxes are the main areas I have available.  

 

 

The main focus on the 'top' side will be the station, I can hopefully slim out and curve off the sidings to the left round the end, down and over to the bottom board.  Possibly add a small shed into the space top left. With the rest TBC.

 

Here is the 'real' location:

 

A bit more research required but there was a quite interesting viaduct 'Locko Viaduct' in this area that I could incorporate next to my made up station.

 

I'd love to hear folk thoughts on the specifics as it were along with any more general guidance.  I've sat my way through most of the Little Bytham youtube vids and I am slowly doing the same with Chadwick but if there are any others folks recommend that would be great also.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far and thanks in advance for any help and advice 😁

[Andy_C]

Nice - glad you are getting there regarding what to model. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

 

 

[gingerangles]

3 hours ago, Andy_C said:

Nice - glad you are getting there regarding what to model. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

 

 

Thanks Andy 👍

[gingerangles]

Started on the area prep today. Floor boarded and some framing of the trusses to take baseboards. Going to board the ceiling and against the roof also to keep all the crap off the layout. Couple of led strip lights up to.

[gingerangles]

My word... layout planning really is a rabbit hole isn't it!