Another MPD. Critique please!

[Memphis32]

Not sure about this update - I've been debating whether to have coal wagon storage on-scene or off, and keep thinking that on-scene would be more fun, but didn't think I could fit them in. Here's an attempt.

 

 

 

[Memphis32]

I seem to be mainly talking to myself, but here's a better one - it will mean running around each batch of wagons heading to the coaling stage.

 

[TonyMay]

Regarding the shed, the best thing is probably to leave off the roof of the shed.  This happened to many sheds due to various reasons including poor quality construction and lack of maintenance (especially during the war and after the modernisation plan), subsidence due to mining, and even German bombs.

 

The other thing to consider is modelling the shed in low-relief, so that the MPD appears bigger than it is.  Sheds rarely were big enough to hold all engines anyway, so often used additional outside storage.  So an idea might be to swap the shed and the turntable around.

 

Coal wagons would normally have been stored by the coaling shed.  What type of coaling shed are you going to use?  There were examples where the shed had a ramp to push the wagon road up higher, but there were also ones where they were level.  Some sheds later received big cenotaph type mechanised coaling apparatus.  Which do you want?

 

Meanwhile, what is the background company?  Like everything else, different companies had different in-house styles as regards shed design, the Midland for example tended to use square roundhouses.

 

What is the siding at the top doing?  (My guess is it hasn't anything to do with the MPD, just a random siding off the mainline).  Are you actually going to use this?  Secondly what about the sidings under the mainline?  Would the railway company have sited loco sidings under a main line?  And why would they pay for an expensive bridge over some sidings that they could just site elsewhere?  You could even go further and say that for the other three lines that lead to the turntable as well...

 

Basics (worth mentioning); there should be two grades, from the join of they yellow/purple board the main line should go up and the MPD line go down.  The MPD line should be steeper, but putting one up and one down reduces the length it needs to get one over t'other.  The main line then needs to go back to datum level (obviously).

 

Finally (for a complete rearrangement) have you consider arranging the fiddle yard/staging under the MPD scene, with the main lines through them underneath?  Access might probe difficult, but you can increase the height difference by making the spur to the MPD longer.  There might be creative solutions for access.

 

What's IMHO hampering this to an extent is that you want both an MPD and a round-roundy layout.  Both are compromised by having to fit in around each other.  There is always going to be compromise somewhere; most obviously sharp curves (unless you hide them and use close couplers).  But in OO or N you've also got issues with the 4 foot not being as big as it should be as well...

[TonyMay]

PS - leave the roof off the shed and you can see the models better (obviously), which is supposed to be the point I think.

 

PS - there'd normally be two sidings by (often behind) the high-level coaling stage.  Why 2? Deductive reasoning is that they had a coal train delivered weekly, and would have two sidings one for loaded wagons, one for empties.  As the week went on the number of wagons in the empty siding would increase while the number in the loaded siding would decrease.  You don't have enough space at the moment, yet the space is there.

 

Further thoughts on the house style of particular railways.  This extends from house track layouts, building architecture, to such mundane things as water column design,  and of course what's in the shed.  Depart from the prototype as much as you're comfortable with, but as you go on you will learn more in the future and come to recognise the bits are not quite right.

 

My thoughts on the track plan itself is to recommend a fairly major redraw as follows (1) have the main line go under the baseboard rather than over the top.  Have the tunnel portal about level with where the corner of the upper shed is at the moment.  In fiction the line goes off in a north-easterly direction (assuming for the sake of argument up on the plan is north).   In reality it doubles back under the shed.  With a bit of creative baseboard design to allow access to the points, you can get up and down loops in under here.

 

Put the turntable where the shed is now, allowing the curve of the turntable to fill in the space left by the curve of the access track and mainline.  The coaling stage stays roughly where it is now but now has two sidings behind it and a slightly longer siding.  Get rid of the siding to the left of the coaling stage.  Move the first point as you come into the shed yard to the left so it's on the curve, as this gives you a little more room.  Then also move the shed to where the turntable is now, using one of the options previously explained - either a low relief shed or one with a missing roof.  (If it's low relief take a hacksaw to a Dapol kit or some spares and model a smokebox or tender sticking out of the gloom).  Be careful to ensure that the road for the coaling stage has a loop around it that allows engines to access all shed roads without having to go past the coaling stage where there may engines in the way receiving (or queuing) for coal.  Put a few extra sidings here and there.  Remember to add shed offices and a bike shed (these are missing from your plan above).

 

That's my thoughts but the end is up to you.

[Memphis32]

Many thanks for that wealth of observation and advice, TonyMay! I've had a slightly newer version than the last one posted here which dealt with one of those points, so I'll put it here.

 

 

I'll respond to what you've said (I don't mean it to sound like I don't want advice, but it probably will, so skip to the end for the bit where I take on board and act on the advice given!)

 

Low-relief shed - good plan. I had been intending a compressed-length shed (obviously!), but low-relief would probably be better.

Coal wagons - the sidings lower left (of the MPD area) were for coal, full and empties. One question that I havent found the answer to yet (I haven't looked very hard!), is whether coal empties were then filled with ash from the ash pits to be taken away?

Company is BR(NER), but I like ramped coaling stages (not too common on this side of the country, but there was one at St Margarets).

Siding at the top is for a breakdown train. Sidings under the bridge - It's urban, so there may not be anywhere else to put them (I know I'm clutching at straws there, but I was trying to maximise use of the space!).

The gradients do go both ways. Having staging under the board was tried, but there is fitted shelving in the shed which needs to stay, so the lowest level I can build at is already decided, and putting the MPD level any higher will make reaching over very difficult!

The sharp curve top left was intended to be hidden behind the shed buildings and other urban/industrial stuff.

The siding to the left of the coaling stage was for ash wagons (ash pits being on the line in front of the coaler).

 

 

 

I like the idea of putting a low-relief shed building top right and the turntable lower left - it will make lining up the turntable a whole load easier for one! I want to keep the mainline over the top though, as I'd like expresses and freight going by periodically while "playing" with the MPD (I may put in some automation on the mainline at some point to add some variety to that). Annan Road (East Kilbride MRC) has a road bridge across the shed area which works well. Hiding the nasty curve upper left will be trickier with only the turntable there. I may have to bring the backscene forwards there, with a low-relief factory building against it, with the mainline and access road coming out from behind, with maybe a factory building to building footbridge over the lines to disguise the hole a bit.