Tomkins Heath

[Del]

This is my challenge entry, which is now in it's third incarnation and which might finally get built!

It first looked like this:

and was originally planned for the 6sq.ft.Challenge but actually turned out to be too big. That got scrapped because the baseboards were not good enough and I had to move house!

 

Then, it was going to look like this:

but a rearranging of the boxes has enabled it to be made slightly longer.

 

The same trackplan will be used (based on Wantage Upper Yard from the Wantage Tramway) but now moved to an urban environment, similar to Chichester on the Selsey Tramway.

It's going to be using the cardboard baseboard idea that was used by Ken Gibbons on Port Pennan, braced underneath with a couple of thin laths.

Trains will be three Hornby four-wheelers (or possibly two Ratio ones, if I can find some) hauled by a Terrier or four four-wheel wagons and a Pug, so the 'five' theme will be five vehicles and probably five points too.

And hopefully, I won't actually have to buy anything to build it, there's a load of stuff I've collected over the years and never used properly!

 

So, to sum up:

Scale: 4mm

Gauge: 16.5mm

Motive power: Steam, but also possibly diesel railcar

Period: BR black

Size: 70 inches x 14 inches = 980 sq.in.

[Del]

Shuffled around a few bits of track and structures yesterday.

 

 

I was debating whether to use this set-up with the passenger platform on the right. I like it but it's awkward to run round the train, as the loco needs to push backwards into the fiddleyard (top right), pull into the loop, run round the coaches, then pull back into the fiddleyard again before running into the platform.

 

 

This is the other option, with the platform road in the middle. Easier to operate, but I'm not really happy with the separation of the two goods sidings. The factory at back left will mask the fiddleyard, which will actually be a two-road sector plate by the houses, and the engine shed will be where the Pug is, in front of the factory.

[Stubby47]

If you moved the platform to the front line of the layout, you could use a station pilot to pull the coaches out, into the engine shed line, to release the train loco.

 

Stu

[Del]

Thanks Stu, I could but the layout rationale is for a run-down, hanging-on-for-dear-life light railway, so a pilot wouldn't really be appropriate.

I'm going to reshuffle the track to use five Y-points and see if I can get a bit more clearance between the shed and the putative platform.

The Wantage Tramway did use the middle road as its platform, so it would be prototypical but I have to have a hunt around to look at the goods yard road entrance.

[Stubby47]

Del,

 

I just thought that if the station could boast an engine shed, there might be a local engine to go in it, other than those bringing trains in from along the line.

 

Hope you get your ideas sorted.

 

Stu