Blog- 'Heyside', 7mm Scale Layout, BR Late 50s/Early 60s - Heyside Trackwork

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One of the areas I had to address was the trackwork in general, and pointwork in particular. Since the rebuild was to be so extensive, I was faced with building a good few points. I didn't realise just how many until I got stuck in, but suffice to say that none of the original ones remain, apart from 4 Vs and 9 stock rails! In many ways that is a good thing in that there is going to be a consistency of construction, and it will be nobody's fault but mine if it doesn't run well.

 

At the outset, Clive and I spent nearly all of one day positioning just one key board, from which everything else had to follow, and although it's taken a great deal of time since, we pretty much got it right. The available space was measured, and the ideas were sent off to Flubrush (Flubrush and Dikitriki eh! God help us!)who very kindly played around with Templot to see if our ideas could be turned into reality. They could, and they were, but it was all horribly tight with little room for manoeuvre.

 

I had to start with the crossover approach to the yard...

 

 

and the exit from the goods loop...

 

 

 

as these were at the start of the curve to the fiddle yard, and were very close to the limit of the layout.

 

Here the crossover is in place in front of the huge warehouse modelled on that at Royton.

 

 

 

Some detailed shots of construction - stretcher bars, switch anchors and fishplates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the other end of the layout, the 3 existing points were found to be under a 4'6" radius in places, so they had to go. That of course caused considerable problems with alignment as they were replaced with 5'6" radius points, so space suddenly became much tighter. In fact I was able to get away with a reduced radius on the inner main loop of 5' 9 1/2" instead of 6' so it's not worked out too badly. It was Clive who worked out that we could put a yard run round in, so I had to build 2 further points, but it will much enhance operational interest. Here are the new points at the branch throat showing the run round, and the board in place in front of the factory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also wanted to expand the minerals yard in front of the factory, so a new board was built, but I also needed a very compact layout. Alan MacMillan and Martin Wynne came to my rescue by Templotting a 3-throw point. Very unusual in model form (not that common in real life either) because they are tricky to build as there are 2 pairs of blades occupying the same space. However, it all worked first time, and I enjoyed building the rather unusual turnout.

 

This illustrates the difficulty with a lot of rail in a small area.

 

 

 

The next 3 photographs show the blade settings for the different routes.

 

 

 

 

and here are 2 pics of the finished item...

 

 

 

 

The railway room is in a mess currently, as we are all working on different areas. The last of the boards should have the droppers and bus finished tomorrow, which means the whole thing can be put back together and we can have a massive tidy. At that stage, I shall take some more photos so you can see where we are now.

 

Richard

 

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