Riddings Junction

[Blobrick]

Good afternoon chaps

 

 

I ve been playing around with an idea I ve had for a while now, namely trying to fit Riddings Junction station into a very limited space of 11ft 3inches by 5ft 6 inches!! I have attached a VERY basic sketch, where I ve tried to squeeze the essence of the layout into the above space. Admittedly the curves are train set tight, starting at the fiddle yard at around 24 inch radius opening out to about 48 inches at the platform ramps. I m hoping that will the operating well on the inside of the curves, they will not look to bad?. The biggest diversion from the prototype is at the Carlisle end where my layout bends the wrong way,but as in most things, models tend to be compromises, so I ll have to live with this.

Platform length is the next victim, in this case the length is going to be a little under 5ft. I m hoping that as the main line services did not stop, these will be long enough not to appear to crowded with the two coach Langholm services etc.

I seek your thoughts gentlemen, as to whether this is a feasible design, or is there a fatal flaw in there somewhere?

Riddings Jct.pdf

[Blobrick]

Firstly my apologies to the moderator, I think this should has been in the layout design thread. With regard to my concerns over the amount of compromise needed to fit this model in to the available space, I m reminded of how the late David Jenkinson came to name his Garsdale Road S&C layout he built in the late 60s. David was increasingly bothered by the amount of both compression and compromise he was having to make. It was during a discussion with Arthur Whitehead that the subject of station names was raised. Since the "new station" on David's Marthwaite branch to the west would have taken the name of the nearest village eg Dent, David was struggling to come up with a name, so Arthur suggested that a station in Dent's location would probably take the name of the nearest Road, therefore Garsdale Road was born.

In a similar vain the amount of compression need to fit Riddings jct in to the available space has got me thinking. It transpires that up until shortly before Riddings station was opened is was going to be called Canonbie Jct. So I think this is the stance I am going to adopt. l feel a lot more comfortable in this approach as it not Riddings, but still has the flavour needed to make the layout feel right!

['CHARD]

Canonbie Jct sits well on your concept. If you wished, you could even revert to the earlier spelling, of 'Canobie.' Don't forget, there's another option, to adopt the name of the nearest village to Riddings (which was basically a farm AFAIK), and call it Moat Junction.

[Blobrick]

Hi Chard,

thanks for the reply. I think I ve settled on the Canobie concept now, although I ve yet to see if the layout as drawn will work using Peco Finescale point work. I ve guestimated approximately 5 ft radius for the outer curve and about 2ft 6 for the inner radius for the curved points, which seems to fit, but I d love to hear other peoples opinion?

['CHARD]

I did open the sketch last evening, but the printer was switched off! I'm going to have a butchers later on (after work!) and rotate it about so I can take a better judgement. Certainly track plan-wise it works according to the prototype, I need to get my head around the geometry and radii.

 

Excited by this, Riddings is among my favourite locations on the route. The split level building on the up platform is a signature feature, and well tended platform flower beds, a J39 or Mogul simmering on the Langholm road....

[Blobrick]

Spot on Chard, I feel this layout has just the right balance, between track work and available space. I m looking forward to getting home the end of next week and making a start on the baseboards!. Looking forward to hearing what you think re track plan. I have made on or two minor adjustment to point positions relative to each other on my track diagram, but l don't think it would alter the over all appearance. Cant wait to see an A" swinging around the embankment above the goods yard en route to Carlisle!

[62440]

http://www.phiweb.net/main/model_railway/canonbie_progress/

 

This may be of interest.

 

Bruce

[Blobrick]

Many Thanks Bruce, I ll take a peek

[Blobrick]

Its been some time since l last updated this thread. However at long last l ve managed to get some time to test the water. During last week I found time to fabricate a template out of old used a4 paper giving me a rough 4ft radius out line, this being the outer limits of my proposed circular base boards. Once done l laid a selection of Peco point templates out to the basic track diagram. By using a mixture of large straight and large curved points l formed the junction layout at the southern end of Riddings Jct Station. To my delight it all seems to fit quiet well. In addition to fitting within the 4 ft radius, I ve also managed to get 72 inch platforms as well, which was better than l d thought possible. My main concern had been just how the yard at the back of the platforms would fair in such a compressed,curved layout, but once again it seems to fit nicely too.

So next step is to source suitable 8 x 4 ply board sheets to form an open frame base board. I ve tried this approach once before, having the advantage of having no cross braces to interfere with points/motors etc, however it does have the draw back of being very expensive and wasteful, but a very light ridged base board results.

I am attempting (When I can work out how to do it!) to attach a couple of quick snaps l took with my phone, so they are not the best quality but hopefully it will give the reader the general idea of what I am trying to accomplish