londonbus Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 My return to posting on this site after quite a while, new house, dedicated railway room 6m x 3m. Fortunately access to the room is via a circular staircase which deposits you in the centre of the room! This plan has been a long time in the making and it now has everything except the Steam depot, but because of the size of the room there have been quite a few compromises. A Turntable appearing from a hidden area is absolutely not prototypical, but is my token gesture at Leicester Shed. I set out to achieve the following: Main Line station based on Leicester Central on the GCR, can accomodate a rake of 10 coaches. Track plan should be recognisable to anybody familiar with the real thing. Bays can accomodate a 4 car DMU, the south end bay four coaches + loco. Leicester South Goods area loosely based on the real thing The plan allows for access from the storage sidings to approach Leicester Central from the north or the south and then continue back to storage. Gradients are not steeper than 1:90 except the spur from the hidden sidings to the northern end of Leicester Central which is 1:80. Down trains will be going down the gradient, so steam locos shouldn't have a problem, if they can't make it up the gradient (going up to London) they will be diesel hauled, double headed or shorter! 28 storage lanes from 80cm to over 4 metres. Clearance between levels ranges from 72mm to 80mm. There is a built in cupboard in the bottom left hand corner, so I will keep this in place (wife has spoken) but what she doesn't know it that I shall model the goods shed in low relief and then run lines into the cupboard! Hopefully she won't look. Leicester has always fascinated me due to the variety of stock from different regions on cross country expresses, the changing of locos and the overall design. The layout will be DCC, automated (or partially), run with Railroad & Co. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bri.s Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 It looks an impressive plan ,I'll look forward to your progress Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNER4479 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Ooh - looks great. An impressive plan for a very interesting location (as you have alluded to). Only one inevitable question (before someone else asks) - access to those hidden tracks for cleaning, derailments (etc). I get the feeling you might have already thought that one out... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Very good point. The clearance from the storage level to the station itself is 38cm, so as the platforms will be elevated let's say 30 cm. The depth to the back is 105cm - The curve which drops down under the station and then leads to the storage sidings has 27cm clearance on the right dropping to 23cm on the left, so it might be a bit fiddly, particularly on the far top left hand corner. The storage levels will be the first to be completed, so will be thoroughly tested - I had a test layout to experiment with automation and DCC which until then i'd never actually used. So we'll see how it goes, it will be a pain if it's the furthest track and the other tracks are full. But if I can persevere with Digitrax instructions manuals I have the patience of a saint and will manage. I shall mock up the upper levels prior to committing the track so I might compromise a few storage tracks to give me access, if I really must! Just found this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y93KQqboPA Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 20, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 20, 2015 1 in 90 on a curve sounds a bit hairy especially with steam outline locos - are you planning to go shopping with DCC Concepts? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Going up it's mainly on the outside curve, and as a result it should be 0.9%, which is 1:110, i'm worried about that though. It's third radius 56cm radius. Thoughts? I've seen the powerbase product, but I wasn't planning on using it due to the number of locos and the long length of the helix. I am planning to use a threaded rod and nuts, so if I can get the right baseboard material, thin and strong, and keep the clearances down I can adjust the heights and lose a bit more gradient. Clearance is 7.5 - 8cm which I think can be reduced. But until I try I won't know for sure. I will have sleepless nights over the helix. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCB Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I don't see the point of the visible track appearing from under the station when it could have come off the right hand end of the spiral and passed under the carriage shed instead. My abandoned loft layout had the same concept, hidden loops all of which can feed trains both clockwise and anticlockwise around the layout. The oval spiral is interesting and something I may yet copy but 10 coach trains around 2nd radius (?) curves is ambitious. It may not be obvious but it is not 20 wagon freights and 10 coach passengers which sort out the problems on gradients but the locals with small tanks, imperfections even out and two tanks which double headed will get 8 coaches my steep grade but individually they wont pull 4 each, so test everything thoroughly. My bed layout spiral never worked! nor did the return loop in the garden, curves were too sharp, Operating the hidden loops could be interesting. I use diode matrixes, with push buttons, however you have between two and six to throw at a time so balancing with dead loads will be needed if you use solenoid type motors. But the sheer time for trains to climb the hidden spiral would frustrate me, it looks like 1.5 scale miles so 3 minutes or so for a freight which is the length of a pop song. At Exhibition speeds this could be 10 minutes half an LP (Transacord maybe, something slogging up the Lickey?) but that time delay would wind me up. Maybe you could stack trains on the spiral? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Wow.......... To be honest, I'd just concentrate on modelling Leicester Central station, rather than try to include the goods yard and carriage sidings as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Thanks for all the comments. David, I looked at the idea of running underneath the carriage sidings etc, however the original idea of the longer route under the station was to lengthen the run and lose height, actually at the point where it would go under the carriage sidings there wouldn't be enough clearance especially as there will be Cobalt motors under the points too throughout the goods area. I will be using Digitrax BDL168 occupancy detectors and automated or semi automated control with Traincontroller, so I can have multiple trains wheelslipping up the helix at the same time. Or not. Depending on the length of song i'm listening to. Hmmmm. Researching the Powerbase. Can't increase the radius any more otherwise i'll have to become a size 0 supermodel. to move around the layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Peter, you may just be right. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Gradient concerns and also the access problem now gone. Added bonus is that i've added the turntable to Leicester Central station and have plenty of room to move around. Despite losing the main goods yard, I will still have plenty to keep me busy operationally with the movements in the station, and of course will have quicker progress. I'll have another look at the trackwork in the storage area tomorrow evening. Thanks for all the feedback. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyMay Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I think the level-(headed)-approach seems more likely to be be effective (i.e. not fail to work). However, your layout does suffer (if that's the right word) from a problem typical of such . That is, you've reduced the length of the station due to constraints but retained full-length platforms which consequentially dominate the relative proportions of the layout. In such a way, the classic approach of only modelling the station approaches would seem to fit better into the available space. Secondly, how are you going to cover the entrance/exit of the tracks into the staging/fiddle yard? AFAIK Leicester GC was on a sweeping emankbment across the city, with the first overbridge north not until after Belgrave & Birstall station. I don't know what's south of the station. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Wow! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 I spent an hour or so tidying up the storage yard etc. It will be non-scenic. I have also spent some time looking at old maps of Leicester and the many resources available online and books i've collected. The whole scenic section will feature the line elevated on the engineering brick viaduct and various bridges. There are a number of passable buildings or just representative workshops etc that I can model, as well as a representation of the streets to the south of the station. Both scenic ends will be partly obscured by buildings in front of bridges. Old aerial views show a lot of chimneys, a bath house, dye works, general workshops, terrace houses and roads. I would like to model the Great Central hotel too. Looking at Google Earth there are a number of brick structures in the vicinity of the old station site, these are 3-4 stories high and could be modelled. It won't be accurate. But that's not the point. The The following two images are linked to www.transportarchive.org.uk - Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Well I wasn't going to post any more as I guess I should actually make a start. I shall be starting building the baseboards on Friday so although there will no doubt be some changes, I don't think the whole world needs to know. However in my research (taking advantage of the wife being on a girl's holiday with some friends for 2 weeks) I discovered the gem of West Bridge station and sidings. Originally on the Swannington & Leicester Railway, 3rd oldest in the world and all that, closed to passenger service in 1928 and to goods in 1966. There are few photos and even less space, so trackplan is fictitious. It will be 10 cm or so lower than the elevated Great Central and seperate, just like the real thing. We'll assume that passenger services continued as well as the coal and oil. Some changes too to the hidden sidings. I wanted access to every road from all routes, so took quite some time and complicated trackwork to almost achieve this. Every time I simplified it back down to basics it got built back in in more or less the same way. The trackwork (Peco 100), as well as the hardware for DCC control, Digitrax, CML and Cobalt point motors were all bought for a larger project about 5 years ago. Roll on Friday and the ground breaking ceremony and look forward to continuing my browsing through the many very impressive layouts and posts on this forum. I shall start a new thread for my posts when I get building. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 This looks very interesting- I am looking forward to seeing it progress! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightbe Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I think you'll come to regret putting the goods area in front of the fiddle yard--it prevents access to what should really be the most accessible part of the layout. That and it also narrows the aisle between, which would make it very difficult to 'play trains' with friends. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 The fiddle yard seems overly-complex to me. Looks more interesting to operate than the actual layout itself...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Hi Peter, yes I had thought about making it scenic and doing just that for a bit of distraction. I have moved over to a blog now, so you can keep an eye on how the fiddle yard completely takes over the layout. In fact I was considering abandoning Leicester Central in favour of a second fiddle yard to service the fiddle yard. It does need looking at. You may have a marginal point there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonbus Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 I think you'll come to regret putting the goods area in front of the fiddle yard--it prevents access to what should really be the most accessible part of the layout. That and it also narrows the aisle between, which would make it very difficult to 'play trains' with friends. I have already made this decision actually. Progress now updated on my blog which is linked to here. West Bridge has gone and more fiddle yard has replaced it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Holliday Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That's an impressive amount of track! I wonder what you want to achieve - do you want to just run trains through the station, or do shunting or what? And how many operators are you expecting? I would be inclined to consider scenicking(?) the fiddle yard, with carriage sidings and goods yard, although I'm not sure about loco facilities, but that is up to you. I might also add hidden tracks running behind the station, so that trains can travel a bit before having to be dealt with. This would give you two layouts in one - a passenger station with limited shunting on one side and a fully equipped marshalling yard on the other, whichever suits your operating mod at the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.