BITTON

[mason]

I have just seen Neil, (Mason) post above, cheers Neil, and playing on your little layout at Mansfield made me realise just what's possible in 4ft.

Dont Blame me hahahaha

Check out Neptune street Yard ( which im sure you have ) thats even smaller than eddingtion, 1 point and the scenic sector just works so well and i have been sat ages just shunting stuff about.

 

I am currently building a N gauge 10 x 6 shed layout for a local customer and it is huge with long trains etc and as much as im loving building it, i only run it to test it.

 

I think i am very much like you, a loco and wagon shuffler

[georgeT]

Hello Andy.

 

When l had my loft layout about 20 years ago l had always wanted a large roundy round as you know, so l built one with two trains running round willy nilly, great to watch them go over my workbench as l got on with whatever modelling project l was doing at the time, but it got really boring after a while and l was always looking for something different, more challenging ? then we saw the chaps from the New forest club who had built a depot layout with a nice engineers yard to shunt wagon etc etc and we were hooked, so off we went, full of inspiration, when l got home l ripped all the track up and started a nice big yard and depot as you did too, so it looks like we have gone a complete circle over the years hahaha deja vu or what, so you get on and build the layout of your dream a nice big u-shaped nice big fiddle yard on the window side and a nice big terminus station with a nice big yard to shunt, even use that huge stock of Peco that you have if you want, BUT BE HAPPY good luck mate.....

[P.C.M]

Hi Andy, 

You can't beat a nice terminus layout. lol

 

Cheers Peter.

[P.C.M]

Hello Andy.

 

When l had my loft layout about 20 years ago l had always wanted a large roundy round as you know, so l built one with two trains running round willy nilly, great to watch them go over my workbench as l got on with whatever modelling project l was doing at the time, but it got really boring after a while and l was always looking for something different, more challenging ? then we saw the chaps from the New forest club who had built a depot layout with a nice engineers yard to shunt wagon etc etc and we were hooked, so off we went, full of inspiration, when l got home l ripped all the track up and started a nice big yard and depot as you did too, so it looks like we have gone a complete circle over the years hahaha deja vu or what, so you get on and build the layout of your dream a nice big u-shaped nice big fiddle yard on the window side and a nice big terminus station with a nice big yard to shunt, even use that huge stock of Peco that you have if you want, BUT BE HAPPY good luck mate.....

Hi George,

It's a small world. I was a member of the New Forest club and was involved in building Mossbank Yard which was the clubs. The engineers yard and depot were built by other club members and all could be joined together. It was great fun to operate.

The Mossbank Yard layout was on show last May at the clubs exhibition, I had timed my Holiday so I could spend the day there and had a few hours operating.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Andrew P]

Hi Andy, 

You can't beat a nice terminus layout. lol

 

Cheers Peter.

I agree Peter, Many years ago now, George and I would visit shows in the South, and one of our favourite layouts was Silchester, a Southern Terminus, and really nice. We then got hooked on Hollybank Depot and Mossbank Yard by John Dedman, they were both really good.

 

Borchester Market was always one of my favourites and I was lucky enough to see it for the first time a couple of years ago at the Nottingham Show, unfortunately on the day the guys were running to a timetable and I think it must have been a Sunday Service or Christmas Day as very little was moving.

 

I was then fortunate enough to be invited to see Jason T's Bacup and I spent ALL DAY in the hot seat, just shunting wagons with just a little break for a cuppa. I should really have listened to my heart back then as Jason did say that a Terminus is far more interesting to operate.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Andrew P

[Jason T]

Funnily enough, my future plans are for a roundy roundy of sorts, branch line with no passenger service (but three through passenger trains - one a ten coach ECS and another a rake of ropey old GNR and Gresleys), through freights aplenty behind 4F's and dilapidated ex FR 0-6-0's, pickup goods that terminate from one direction only and stone trains that terminate from both directions and always depart in the direction from which they originated. There will be a station with no platform edges but a really ornate building.

 

If it is operated at home, it will be as a terminus only with no passenger services and pretty much stone traffic only, hauled by Black Fives, Standard 4's, Type 2's and if I am not mistaken, the odd CoBo and even maybe a Clayton. Anyone want to guess the location?

 

This is a long time off and will most definitely be in EM; I may have already started to accumulate stock

[Joseph_Pestell]

In a building the size of Andy's potting shed perfectly possible to build a terminus to reverse loop layout which includes a continuous run.

[gismorail]

Since picking up on this thread Andy I have been questioning my own plans for the railway that's going to 'inhabit'  my new shed when I have built it ........ I have a love of Cheshire Lines 'Chester Northgate' as well as  LNER minor routes especially in the Yorkshire area and living where I do 'Gods Wonderful Railway. To add to this mix I also have stock in both 'oo' and 0 gauge ....mmmmmmmm yes you know where I'm going with this ...... The original idea was to construct a model of Chester Northgate in 00 which would take up most of the space available and then build a small 0 gauge end to end to fulfil the desire for this excellent gauge. Shunting in 0 gauge is the ultimate for those of us who have been bitten by this particular bug.

 

The Chester Northgate layout would take me back to my early days of train spotting, something that all of us can relate too, the need to recreate our memories of younger days when the world was what our minds allowed it to be. Happy days watching the living steam locos and coaches coming and going to places we knew nothing about, and goods trains being marshalled in sidings where the loco's were continually up and down pushing and pulling wagons with that wonderful 'clatter ' as the buffer heads crashed into each other. Watching a scene before our eyes that we probably didn't really comprehend in those tender years.

 

I love the layouts the we can see in magazines and on here where the railway is worked within a 'run down' state in a rural setting where locos and rolling stock have  'seen better days' where buildings and railway infrustructure are 'just ' about fulfilling there function, where the railway men just get on with their day to day duties with a grim determination. I also have a liking for a countryside setting where life has a slower pace until the pickup goods arrives and the peace is shattered as the community renews its links with the wider world of the essentials of life, the local farmers and tradesmen collect the materials that are required on the day to day basis.

 

Whilst the plans for construction of the shed seem to fully occupy my mind at present somewhere in the back of the 'grey matter' there is this battle going on as to which way to go when I finally get to that moment where I have a big open space to build my 'layout of a lifetime'

As mentioned at the start, this thread has brought into question the direction in which I should go and has produced an  'acorn' of an idea that just perhaps I could  accommodate most of my wish lists of model railways. The idea would to build two sets of fiddle yards which could be used on different modules which could be interchangeable depending upon the layout I fancied at the time. these could be set up in such a way that I could have a through station or a fiddle yard to terminus Maybe even have a set up around the room where two modules could be operated at the same time therefore providing holding loops between the town area and the country modules where a time lapse could occur between trains. As long as the measurements of the tracks match up at the end of each module one could have any number of scenes that could be brought into play at any one time.

Thought I would share this idea / rambling to see what others might think  

[P.C.M]

I agree Peter, Many years ago now, George and I would visit shows in the South, and one of our favourite layouts was Silchester, a Southern Terminus, and really nice. We then got hooked on Hollybank Depot and Mossbank Yard by John Dedman, they were both really good.

 

Borchester Market was always one of my favourites and I was lucky enough to see it for the first time a couple of years ago at the Nottingham Show, unfortunately on the day the guys were running to a timetable and I think it must have been a Sunday Service or Christmas Day as very little was moving.

 

I was then fortunate enough to be invited to see Jason T's Bacup and I spent ALL DAY in the hot seat, just shunting wagons with just a little break for a cuppa. I should really have listed to my heart back then as Jason did say that a Terminus is far more interesting to operate.

I don't remember Silchester, but Walford Town was one of my favourites from back in the day.

I am still in touch with John, he's a top bloke and still goes to the club. I operated Hollybank a number of times once while still very hung over from a few beers the night before, luckily I wasn't the only one feeling average that day.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Since picking up on this thread Andy I have been questioning my own plans for the railway that's going to 'inhabit'  my new shed when I have built it ........ I have a love of Cheshire Lines 'Chester Northgate' as well as  LNER minor routes especially in the Yorkshire area and living where I do 'Gods Wonderful Railway. To add to this mix I also have stock in both 'oo' and 0 gauge ....mmmmmmmm yes you know where I'm going with this ...... The original idea was to construct a model of Chester Northgate in 00 which would take up most of the space available and then build a small 0 gauge end to end to fulfil the desire for this excellent gauge. Shunting in 0 gauge is the ultimate for those of us who have been bitten by this particular bug.

 

The Chester Northgate layout would take me back to my early days of train spotting, something that all of us can relate too, the need to recreate our memories of younger days when the world was what our minds allowed it to be. Happy days watching the living steam locos and coaches coming and going to places we knew nothing about, and goods trains being marshalled in sidings where the loco's were continually up and down pushing and pulling wagons with that wonderful 'clatter ' as the buffer heads crashed into each other. Watching a scene before our eyes that we probably didn't really comprehend in those tender years.

 

I love the layouts the we can see in magazines and on here where the railway is worked within a 'run down' state in a rural setting where locos and rolling stock have  'seen better days' where buildings and railway infrustructure are 'just ' about fulfilling there function, where the railway men just get on with their day to day duties with a grim determination. I also have a liking for a countryside setting where life has a slower pace until the pickup goods arrives and the peace is shattered as the community renews its links with the wider world of the essentials of life, the local farmers and tradesmen collect the materials that are required on the day to day basis.

 

Whilst the plans for construction of the shed seem to fully occupy my mind at present somewhere in the back of the 'grey matter' there is this battle going on as to which way to go when I finally get to that moment where I have a big open space to build my 'layout of a lifetime'

As mentioned at the start, this thread has brought into question the direction in which I should go and has produced an  'acorn' of an idea that just perhaps I could  accommodate most of my wish lists of model railways. The idea would to build two sets of fiddle yards which could be used on different modules which could be interchangeable depending upon the layout I fancied at the time. these could be set up in such a way that I could have a through station or a fiddle yard to terminus Maybe even have a set up around the room where two modules could be operated at the same time therefore providing holding loops between the town area and the country modules where a time lapse could occur between trains. As long as the measurements of the tracks match up at the end of each module one could have any number of scenes that could be brought into play at any one time.

Thought I would share this idea / rambling to see what others might think

 

As I recall, the GW ran at right angle below Northgate. So plenty of scope for you there even if it would make for an awkward shaped layout.

[Donw]

My choice is Dolgelley pre-grouping although a through station it was worked as two termini. The  GWR and the Cambrian both halted there trains but some things were passed across. A GWR passenger could arrive the loco would come off. Some coaches removed but any through coaches could be left. The Cambrian would attached any coaches it wanted plus a loco and  then depart. The GWR loco and coaches would form a return train. Later in the day the through coaches would be brought in the cambrian train and transferred to a GWR one there were about three trains eachway carrying through coaches.

Similarly the yard was shared some wagons were passed from one to the other others were unloading or collecting from the yard.

 

Quite busy I think. Mind you post 1922 it was much quieter.

 

Don

[Andrew P]

Funnily enough, my future plans are for a roundy roundy of sorts, branch line with no passenger service (but three through passenger trains - one a ten coach ECS and another a rake of ropey old GNR and Gresleys), through freights aplenty behind 4F's and dilapidated ex FR 0-6-0's, pickup goods that terminate from one direction only and stone trains that terminate from both directions and always depart in the direction from which they originated. There will be a station with no platform edges but a really ornate building.

 

If it is operated at home, it will be as a terminus only with no passenger services and pretty much stone traffic only, hauled by Black Fives, Standard 4's, Type 2's and if I am not mistaken, the odd CoBo and even maybe a Clayton. Anyone want to guess the location?

 

This is a long time off and will most definitely be in EM; I may have already started to accumulate stock

Well I recon its got to be Sandside.  .

[Jason T]

Yep. The more I find out and the more photos I see (I've got a fair collection now), the more it appeals. Barrow shed had an allocation of three ex-L&Y 2-4-2's for a while too and although they were for the Coniston branch, who's to say one didn't stray down the line once in a while (apart from anyone who knows, as I am sure, that they didn't) . I've seen shots of L&Y A classes in Cumbria too, albeit not in the Arnside to Hincaster branch.

 

What I do have though, are photos of tender first Jubilees hauling 10 coach ECS along the line whilst the passengers of said stock travel from Lakeside to Bowness on one of the lake's steamers. Just the sort of thing to raise am indignant eyebrow at exhibitions

[Jintyman]

I don't remember Silchester, but Walford Town was one of my favourites from back in the day.

 

Cheers Peter.

Walford Town eh?

 

Now if I'm correct, isn't that the one with a large retaining wall, and BR Blue in era?

I seem to remember reading an article in one of the magazines, it gave me such inspiration to start.

 

Jinty ;-)

[sml1983]

That's also the great advantage of multiple layouts.  You can fulfil different criteria with each layout.  Below is another suggestion you could go with to utilize space but also allow easy access to the workbench and offers very different operational interest.  Of course they don't need to represent the same time periods or geography and some parts could utilize set-track whilst others could be hand built.  You can do as you please.  The carpentry doesn't have to be a headache.  You've got good solid walls you can attach to and what is a non-transportable layout if not a long wide shelf along one or more walls . Do not think of this as your last great project but as chapters in a book.  That noggin has far too much electrickery sparking to be happy with just one layout or project.

All the best,

Steve

Edited April 16, 2015 by sml1983

[gismorail]

I like that idea Steve bit of thinking out of the envelope me thinks. I other thing that comes to mind is that if you are building a layout on your own it doesn't do to produce something to big its then that it can just be too much.

Building a couple of smaller layouts with different themes makes for a more interesting modelling and therefore keeps the incentive alive.

[Andrew P]

That's also the great advantage of multiple layouts.  You can fulfil different criteria with each layout.  Below is another suggestion you could go with to utilize space but also allow easy access to the workbench and offers very different operational interest.  Of course they don't need to represent the same time periods or geography and some parts could utilize set-track whilst others could be hand built.  You can do as you please.  The carpentry doesn't have to be a headache.  You've got good solid walls you can attach to and what is a non-transportable layout if not a long wide shelf along one or more walls . Do not think of this as your last great project but as chapters in a book.  That noggin has far too much electrickery sparking to be happy with just one layout or project.

All the best,

Steve

Thanks Steve, Under Bitton is a solid frame built from 3 x 2 and the Bitton baseboards just rest on top. I will be using the old boards now and retrieving the Points, Track and Motors from Bitton for re use, I just need one 6ft x 2.5ft 9mm Ply top which I will get next week, then I can have a proper play around with clean clear tops to sort out my final plans.

 

Cheers again for your input.

[RBE]

Crikey 6ft x 2.5ft. I couldnt do an N gauge one in that space! Haha ok I could but unlike you it would be too small for me. A 4mm scale one? no chance for me. I could just about cope if it were 6ft plus another 6ft for a fiddle yard on the side!

[Jack374]

The name's changed, it must be sold!

 

Do let on Andy.....

[Andrew P]

Crikey 6ft x 2.5ft. I couldnt do an N gauge one in that space! Haha ok I could but unlike you it would be too small for me. A 4mm scale one? no chance for me. I could just about cope if it were 6ft plus another 6ft for a fiddle yard on the side!

Cav, that board is just to replace the cut away one at the door end and is part of the 17.5ft on one side.

[Andrew P]

The name's changed, it must be sold!

 

Do let on Andy.....

Not sold, but I will strip it now and use all the bits.

 

Cheers.

[kevinklein]

so it really has "bitton" the dust?

[RBE]

Cav, that board is just to replace the cut away one at the door end and is part of the 17.5ft on one side.

Ahh I got the wrong end of the stick there haha. I've been listening to Neil too much. That 6ft board would be massive for him haha.

Edited April 16, 2015 by RBE

[georgeT]

Morning Buddy,

 

'Bitton the dust'  l like it hahaha, at least you won't have to buy any new timber for the new project ? have you drawn up any track plans yet ?...

 

George

[Andrew P]

Morning Cav, I do have a SMALL Neil type project that I'm looking at to take up to our Clubs open Days, but the rest of the room, i.e. the two side will be for the layout / layouts once I know just what I want.
 
The only thing I do know is that I want to do a 70's /80's era Terminus or Yard, and also a Nick Wood, Much Murkle / John Flan, Hintock, BR/WR Transsision era BLT, but just how, I'm not totally sure yet, probably one either side of the Shed.
 
Morning George, Yes / No, I have a few plans, but not to detailed as yet, I still keep moving things like the fiddle yards around, for the best view as I walk into the Shed and also the most comfortable operating positions. As these will be primarily FIXED in the room, but on removable boards, I don't want to have to move anything when going from one Layout to the other.
 
I would still like room for building a Micro Layout or two at a later date, as I know now from the experience over the last 5 Months that just one or two Layouts will never be enough for me in the years to come.
 
So The Last Great Project will now be just some more projects.
 
I'm out all day today so I'll make a start over the weekend, and hopefully have some final ideas in the next few days.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Andrew P