Carne Point-ish idea

[fender]

I've been to-ing and fro-ing on many layout ideas for some time now. I like the idea of this one:

 

 

it would be P4 and is just a rough sketch in XTrkCad, so don't take all the dimensions as given (apart from the layout size itself).

 

it's based on a segment of the China Clay loading area at Carne Point, with a jetty in the middle and a wagon turntable. the era would be mid-50s to early 60s, but I have have borrowed most of the elements of the track plan from an earlier era when the line A on to Fowey went through a cutting (which would form part of the scenic break on the left, along with some trees perhaps). the scenic break to the right would be more trees, or some old decrepit shed, neither of which I've seen much evidence for, so a bit of license there.

 

Line A would have various tank locos shuttling from Lostwithiel to Fowey with pax and some goods, while the line B serves the clay loading jetties. I have added a link from A to B to allow access to clay trains from St Blazey, while those from Lostwithiel come from the off-scene loop connection to the right.

 

the diagonals are rough sketches of the scenic breaks, and the idea is that the fiddle yards at each end are mostly or completely enclosed in the visible baseboard (perhaps another little bit hanging off each end). so the passenger trains would be ok, as they were usually autotrains on a 14XX or a B-Set on the 45XXs. the clay trains would be rather shorter than normal, but I've seen a few examples of fairly short trains of those on the line.

 

there's quite a bit of possible interest, especially with the shunting of the clay wagons and use of the turntable for the jetty, although I know that would be quite challenging to build and operate effectively. I could use quite a lot of locos on the line, 14XX, 45XX, 42XX, Panniers, green 08s, 22s and Warships, so there'd be no end of interest there, and perhaps I could source or build a small clay carrier to put on the river.

 

I'd be interested to hear your comments -thanks

 

edit: oops, forgot to mention that I would intend to put all of this on a gentle curve (with the viewer on the inside) so that the scenic breaks would be a little further in towards the centre (and the fiddle yards a little longer), but I found that beyond my XTrkCad abilities.

[The Stationmaster]

Ooh, I'll have to dig out the Instructions for working the capstans at Carne Point (and this could be good, nice idea).

[fender]

Ooh, I'll have to dig out the Instructions for working the capstans at Carne Point (and this could be good, nice idea).

 

yes, I've been thinking of how/if I could use capstans on the model.

[The Stationmaster]

yes, I've been thinking of how/if I could use capstans on the model.

There was a whole host of them at Carne Point apparently - the Instructions were published on a sort of poster, presumably exhibited at various places around the site.