Sevenacre Central.

[Stevethomas6444]

Hello! 

 

I am at the early stages of construction of Sevenacre Central, a small space OO gauge model railway. The scenic area is 4ft x 2ft and involves a small terminus station, a fairly large bus station (once it is built), a small bus depot and a town scene. It will be freelance and I feel that is the best way compared to stressing out finding the correct stock as I am on a tight budget. So far the rolling stock list is a Bachmann Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 with a Hornby NSE class 466 on the way. I guess you couldn't be more freelance than that!

 

The station as it was a few weeks back. The only changes since has been that ballasting commenced. The station building is a Metcalfe kit nearing completion and was built by my ever patient fiancee. 

 

Looking the other way shows the basic trackwork (mostly Hornby, Bachmann & Peco). The short bay platform can cater for 2 car DMU/EMU's whilst the longer platform can cater for a 3, possibly 4 car. The siding will be used for stabling stock and maybe for short freight trains. 

 

Opinions are welcome. 

[Jack00]

Hi steve. Looking good so far. Nice long platform

The 466 will be interesting. Nice EMU's.

 

Good luck

Look forward to progress.

Thanks.

 

Jack.

[Stubby47]

I might have been tempted to slightly skew the track across the board, rather than keeping it parallel to the front edge.

I also think it's a very nice station building, but rather large for such a simple, passenger only station.

[Stevethomas6444]

Hi steve. Looking good so far. Nice long platform

The 466 will be interesting. Nice EMU's.

 

Good luck

Look forward to progress.

Thanks.

 

Jack.

 

Thank you for the kind comments Jack, I am considering installing 3rd rail to make the 466 look at home  

 

I might have been tempted to slightly skew the track across the board, rather than keeping it parallel to the front edge.

I also think it's a very nice station building, but rather large for such a simple, passenger only station.

 

I've been considering that but it would compromise the bus station area and the high street in the background. Would it be plausible to say the station was bigger in the past and the building is the only sign of what it used to be? 

[Stubby47]

You could 'board up' the whole building as if it was no-longer in use, then have a small port-a-cabin for local sales, but if you can put the newer buildings on what used to be the goods yard (maybe leaving some old fencing / walls / gateposts as relics) then yes, the station building would represent a former larger station.

 

Will the town area be on the same flat level, or will you introduce a slighly raised ground to help display the buildings ?  This might help with showing the site of the original goods, yard as that would have been on a flat area, maybe cut into the natural rising ground.

[Stevethomas6444]

Boarding up the station building seems to be a good idea although the booking hall could also be used as a travel centre for the bus station. 

 

The bus station and depot could be the former goods yard and some old relics is a very good suggestion As for the high street being on a higher level, it is worth considering and my aim of Sevenacre Central is to learn about model scenery and testing out methods. It could end up being either a very good or a catastrophically terrible model railway. 

[Rivercider]

..... Would it be plausible to say the station was bigger in the past and the building is the only sign of what it used to be? 

That would be my thinking, the way the station building is arranged suggests the line may have extended further.

Perhaps the line has been cut back, or this is the terminus of a line once planned to continue to somewhere else.

Chessington South and Shepperton are both examples of the latter.

 

Good luck with it

 

cheers 

[Stevethomas6444]

That would be my thinking, the way the station building is arranged suggests the line may have extended further.

Perhaps the line has been cut back, or this is the terminus of a line once planned to continue to somewhere else.

Chessington South and Shepperton are both examples of the latter.

 

Ahh yes! I could alter the terminus end to make it look more like it was once a through station. 

 

Thank you all for the suggestions  

[Stevethomas6444]

Here is the plan I drafted up quickly last night on Microsoft Paint. Hopefully it would show what it should look like in the near future. Please excuse the quality and opinions are welcome. 

 

[Stubby47]

You'll need a safe footpath from the bus waiting area to the shops, and probably a zebra or pelican crossing.

 

Depending on the era, the end of the bus bays might have a zigzag pavement.

 

Do you have room for a bus refueling point - might be a good option for alternative rail traffic !!

[Stevethomas6444]

You'll need a safe footpath from the bus waiting area to the shops, and probably a zebra or pelican crossing.

 

Depending on the era, the end of the bus bays might have a zigzag pavement.

 

Do you have room for a bus refueling point - might be a good option for alternative rail traffic !!

 

I was thinking of a path that goes next to the depot to the high street with a zebra crossing. As for the bus station, the layout is dated between 1994 - present day so zig-zag bays is the best choice? 

 

Should be able to fit in a refueling point for the bus depot with ease. Question is though, is there any way I could fit in an area where tank wagons could offload without adding more track? 

[Stubby47]

Zig-zag bays seem to be a more modern 'safety' invention, but will set a 'date' for the layout (i.e. you couldn't then run a set of blue dmus, or a 14xx & Autocoach )

 

I'm not an expert on bus fuel delivery (it's probably done by road anyway), but you could clog up the short bay with a tanker wagon ?

[Stevethomas6444]

Some bus stations have had the feature since the 1990's, iirc Canterbury is a good example of early zigzag bays. I could be wrong though. 

 

Bus fuel delivery has been by road transport for quite some time but I could do some research to see if it is possible  

[Stevethomas6444]

It has been a while and not much has been done on SC due to other commitments going at the moment.

 

I have also decided to do a little side project which will be on a slightly smaller and much lighter board (4x1). The decision came about because of the current situation of SC being too big and heavy to move all the time, the size of the flat is too small for it to have a permanent place. Also I thought it would be a good idea to create a smaller, more basic model railway to test out scenery and other things. Not to forget something that can be built and displayed easily while at the same time very portable. It will also be a good place to photograph rolling stock until SC is at a stage where it is near completion. 

 

The little side project will be named Chalk Lane, it will be based in North Kent (between Dartford - Higham) and will basically be a single track branch terminus. The recent arrival of the NSE 466 and having two model buses based on that area inspired me to set it in that region between 1994-5 just after privatisation but still having full NSE decor. The station will be very basic, single platform with a shelter and a small car park just off a main road nearby. 

 

I aim to make chalky embankments which is quite distinctive in that area by using polyfilla and weathering them. The single track will go into a tunnel and that is where the scenic break is.

 

Purchasing the first bits will begin next week, luckily the track & platform are spares from SC. 

 

Maybe I should make a new topic?   

[Stevethomas6444]

Been doing some work on Sevenacre Central with the weather preventing me from going out to buy things to get the little side project Chalk Lane off the drawing boards. 

 

Finishing off the ballasting and redesigned part of the station to make it more of a terminus. The booking hall will be situated at the end of the tracks and I have planned for the over-roof to be basically scratch-built and based on the one at Scarborough. 

 

Photo's will follow

[Stevethomas6444]

And the photo's showing the work done. 

 

General view of the slightly redesigned station. I had quite a few spare bits from the bulk order of Peco Platform Kits and yes I did use glass paperweights to hold the new section down 

 

 

 

About 90% of the ballasting is done and will be weathered in the future but already it looks much better 

 

And that is all for now. 

[Swifty11]

Nice pictures!

[Stevethomas6444]

A massive rethink and with new skills learnt from building the much smaller Chalk Lane has made me decide to take apart the current layout. I wasn't happy with the size, the board, track layout or even the station so I thought it was best to take it down and redo everything from scratch. 

 

The proposed idea is a small town terminus, 2 or 3 platforms long enough for a 3-4 car multiple unit. There will be space for a station approach with crossovers and potentially a small junction for a branch line. The scenic area is planned to be 5ft x 18in and be built on a proper baseboard. Construction will start once Chalk Lane is finished which will be later on this year, hopefully! 

[Stevethomas6444]

Well it seems after several attempts to get Sevenacre Central (or Sevenacre) going, the project ended up being mothballed. It was various reasons mostly being because I focused a lot of time on Chalk Lane and rediscovered my interests in small, basic layouts on a budget. Moving back to Bridlington put the project further back and recently I decided to give up on Sevenacre for the time being. Maybe in the future when I have more time, space and money it will rise again, who knows?