Preservation on a truncated branch line

[47137]

I have an idea for a compact model of a preserved railway to show off my small collection of '00' gauge locomotives, this will fit into a 65 inch alcove in my sitting room. The plan below is a development of the 'piano line' devised by the Reverend P H Heath in the 1960s (see: http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page61a/index.html#piano) where the main line enters the run-round loop at the middle rather than one end. This is an excellent arrangement to save space on a model, but uncommon (at least on standard gage railways) in Great Britain.

 

 

I have taken ideas from a French HO layout 'La Planche Port' by Tim Hills, which adds sidings to the original design (see: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65497-the-london-festival-of-railway-modelling/?p=997096), and then exploited the reverse curve in the exit to the fiddle yard to make a model based on the bay platform of a former through station. There is a length of track for a static display on the truncated former 'main line'.

 

The plan is based on Peco code 100 Streamline and Setrack and it seems to just about fit the space 64 x 16 inches - although there is next to no free space to play with. I envisage an extra twelve-inch headshunt at 'B' on the plan, and provision for a fiddle track which I will probably never build at 'A'.

 

But before I take this much further ... could anyone suggest a prototype location which I could adopt (with a lot of modeller's license if necessary!), my only real constraint is I would like third rail electrification on the truncated section of the network 'main line'.

[47137]

Undaunted by the lack of responses (tho' thank you for so many people looking at the post) I have asked locally and someone suggested 'Alton' as a location. I am sure the model will look nothing like Alton, so I will call it 'New Alton' as a working title. Here is a refined plan, redrawn with mostly medium radius Peco points. If the model is against a wall, only two of the three roads on the sector plate are usable. Trains will be one Mk1 BSK or similar, plus engine, but I suspect a lot of movements will be light engines. I have tried a 1:1 cardboard mockup, it seems to fit ... but comments and advice are still welcome, especially if you can see me building myself into a major limitation ;-)

 

[Flying Pig]

An alternative rendering in which the preservation society have used the former up line for their runround and the yard is a simple fan of sidings.   I'm not sure how you'll hide the traverser - perhaps a building with no back to allow it to slide forward?

 

 

 

Edit: perhaps this way round makes more sense.   The fiddle yard is screened by a backless dummy loco shed: I'm thinking of the kind of flat-roofed brick and wiggly tin affair that springs up on preserved lines and handily provides a good space for the traverser to work.

 

[47137]

Hmmm. Now I am spoilt for choice, I like all of these. I like my original because it is workable without moving the traverser. Scheme 'FP1' has a lot of 'relaid by preservation society' feel about it, and 'FP2' is more optimised for showing off locos than the other two.

I had envisaged the location being on a single track branch line. The Network Rail part was on the original through platform, and the preservation society trains used the bay road. This was inspired by the cross-platform arrangement of the Strathspey Railway at Aviemore, but thinking about it now there is something of an anachronism in having a bay road facing the down direction. I could imagine the location was actually a former junction of a long-gone branch off the now truncated branch line to allow myself to get away with this.

In 'FP2', the long shed might be better as a carriage shed, because (like my scheme) the headshunt is rather short for a loco to move a 64' coach into the lower two sidings, but there is room to shunt coaches one at a time into the shed. This could make for some shunting conundrums rearranging what will be a choice of one-coach trains. It also makes me think of an ash pit and cleaning / fuelling area to the front of the shed.

I see my plan showing the 'public' end of a preservation scheme, where the locos and stock are stored somewhere further up the line; but 'FP2' brings much more of the railway into the layout. To me, 'FP1' would make for the least attractive model, but there is a big shift in the character of a possible layout from my scheme to 'FP2' ... I need to put this down for a while. The layout would be primarily for home use, so I am not too troubled about hiding the fiddle yard; I would be happy to build it reasonably neatly and paint it grey.

 

[47137]

The design has gone through umpteen iterations but now looks like this:

 

 

This is a cross-platform interchange between Network Rail and a preserved branch line, overall dimensions are 64 x 16 inches.

The model has one end of a through station. The Network line terminates at the former down platform, and the preserved line uses the former up platform. The station building crosses the platform at the left hand end and is modelled in quarter relief (not drawn). This building has been preserved, and so Network passengers reach the station by the footpath and crossing at the end of the platform.

Point 'A' is hand built, geometry to match Tillig 85343 but with UK timbering
Other points are 6 x 85381 (flexible Y points).
Plain track is Tillig with sleepers gapped to 8.5 mm pitch (equivalent to 29 inches at 1:87 scale).
Track 'B' is a link for stock transfers, modelled as rarely used and slightly overgrown.

Model extends at both ends to connect into possible continuous run. On its own it has capacity for four tank engines, one tender engine, one bubble car and one Mk1 coach. The run round loop takes a loco with a wheelbase of nine inches (just).

Anyway, this is the most visually balanced design I have so far. There is scope for two decent sized buildings and a small signal box or ground frame, and it has got to the stage where I want to build it. It is however my first 00 layout except my Setrack since about 1982/3, so ideas welcome!

 

[ess1uk]

interesting concept

should be fun to operate

[47137]

It might be fun or it might be purgatory. If you imagine a loco hauling a fitted wagon into the station, and then the moves needed to get that wagon to the engine shed, it may be too long-winded to be fun, especially if the loco+wagon won't go into the headshunt by the mill race. Having a brake van on a train (two-wagon train) will be even harder. The plan works well enough for single-coach passenger trains coming and going, and putting different locos on them but this will get boring. I will get the baseboard top in the next few weeks, and lay it out full size. If it seems too limiting, I might build a modern copy of the original Piano Line, and run it as a rural branch, or as a former passenger branch now freight-only, or as a preserved line. This might be more flexible. I still like the cross-platform interchange idea and the middle access to the loop though.

[sparks]

Perhaps you could create a "what if" based on Horsted Keynes, where the Bluebell trains briefly met EMUs on the Ardingly branch:-

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsted_Keynes_railway_station

 

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/extend.html

 

Stuart

[sparks]

And here's the photo I couldn't find at the time!

 

EMU 2-BIL + GNR J52 + SECR P at Horsted Keynes, 1 Apr 1962 by Ian D Nolan, on Flickr

[Jack]

Track 'B' is a link for stock transfers, modelled as rarely used and slightly overgrown.

Don't forget the traps if you are linking the preserved and the network. Alton is very well protected in both directions. I know traps will take up valuable space, but they will give the model a prototypical feel.

 

My personal preference would be for your plan in post #2. I think with such a restricted space then an unlinked layout will look better.

[47137]

My personal preference would be for your plan in post #2. I think with such a restricted space then an unlinked layout will look better.

 

I like this plan best too, and there will be less clutter in an unlinked layout. The 'operating model' will then be the one I intended in the first place - an area to exercise a collection of 4 and 6-coupled locos, and a static display for a 2-EPB. I have got as far as buying the parts for the baseboard last July, these are birch ply ones from Model Railway Solutions of Poole and seem to be excellent. And then I got a new contract, and time for modelling vanished. I'd like to work up the design for the whole scenic treatment and all the buildings before starting construction; and then begin with the traverser.

 

- Richard.

[Pacific231G]

Undaunted by the lack of responses (tho' thank you for so many people looking at the post) I have asked locally and someone suggested 'Alton' as a location. I am sure the model will look nothing like Alton, so I will call it 'New Alton' as a working title. Here is a refined plan, redrawn with mostly medium radius Peco points. If the model is against a wall, only two of the three roads on the sector plate are usable. Trains will be one Mk1 BSK or similar, plus engine, but I suspect a lot of movements will be light engines. I have tried a 1:1 cardboard mockup, it seems to fit ... but comments and advice are still welcome, especially if you can see me building myself into a major limitation ;-)

 

new alton with oil siding.PNG

Didn't spot this one but I've always liked the Piano Line so, though it's a bit large for a microlayout, included it in my piece on Carl Arendt's site. Tim Hills used it for La Planche-Port and he's done an excellent job. With cassettes for the fiddle yard his layout is good fun to operate as the two main sidings and the quayside kickback make it quite challenging especially when you bring in a passenger train while a goods locos is still sorting out the yard.

I don't know any UK prototypes for the main line entry to centre of loop idea except perhaps for the Bristol Harbour line (which is preserved). There were several in France on metre gauge lines usually where a local "Secondaire"  had to shoe horn its terminus into a tight corner next to a main line station but in one case on a quayside. 

 

I think the original Piano Line plan still has potential for a very simple self contained layout but I slightly prefer a layout based on it that featured in an article "imitation is...." in RM three or four years later. This used a bridge rather than P.H. Heath's rather improbable tunnel to lose the main line.  I've got both articles but I'd add an extra goods siding.