Chasing tails - 60" x 40" in 'N'

[talisman56]

Having exhausted all the options on the Terminus/Fiddle yard in the garage and the winter nights drawing in with the accompanying reduction in ambient temperatures, I have plan for a new layout which needs to fit into the area of a table in the spare room - 60" x 40".

 

After a few years of stop/start and short running, I want to see my trains running continuously

 

I've decided on a double track secondary main line in an urban setting, with a freight relief line along part of the visible length. The goods yard is more of an exchange siding rather than a fully fledged goods yard, the freight line goes to a harbour/industrial area 'off camera'. I run two specific periods, mainly late-60s/mid-70s green/blue transition period, and 80's corporate blue/sectorisation (NSE in my case).

 

Plan is below. The blue line is the backscene and the black lines the main road across the layout - the station building/road bridge covers the disappearance of the track on the left side of the layout, the ubiquitous tunnels do the trick on the rhs. The bay platform is to serve a 'stopping' service which comes down the outer main line, terminates in the platform and the reverses via the crossover to the freight line and thence to the bay platform for the return service on the inner main line.

 

Freight services would arrive from either direction, and either the train engine will take directly down the freight line or will end up in the siding next to the bay platform to be shunted into the exchange sidings by an on-site shunter. The shunter will occasionally take trips down the freight line to exchange wagons from the sidings with ones in the 'off-camera' area.

 

Anyone any comments on this plan before I get down and dirty with the cork sheet and trackpins?

 

 

 

[rodshaw]

Looks good.

If I were going to do another continuous run, I'd probably try and incorporate a hidden dog-bone formation so trains could go one way then re-appear from the same end going the other way, it would just make it a bit more realistic.

You probably have the room but may not like the idea, or want to re-design to that extent.

[Flying Pig]

I don't blame you wanting a roundy - there's something very satisfying about watching a train go by, so why not do it again? One thing I noticed about your plan is that trains departing from the bay have to run over track used for shunting, so I've had a play to segregate the two. My version also allows facing access to the relief line.

 

You might be able to retain some traffic to the goods yard. It would be tailing off even in the earlier period but specific traffic might cling on into the Speedlink era.

 

[Katier]

Slightly different in size but the principle is exactly the same is the plan I did for a n-gauge roundy roundy :-

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/34006-park-street/