cromptonnut Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Just wanted to start a thread for my new project. It's N gauge, 8ft x 26" at present (although may go to 30 inches depending on whether I can reuse old boards or have to build new ones) Inspired by such fantastic layouts as Cross Street, Ring Road and Hedges Hill cutting the final push came from Elwood East, from which you can see the trackplan has been shamelessly lifted, although I've made mine a double track and the engineers sidings will become a Royal Mail depot. I was tempted to reproduce Llanbourne in N as I've just about got the space... but felt that it was too complex for me to operate on my own. The black box bottom left is the platform. The blue line outlines the visible lower scenic section. Between the blue line and the black line will be a townscape/street scene, utilising some Tomy tram track, and two Japanese trams I picked up several years ago. The track plan for the upper bit is likely to be fairly simple, consisting of a twin oval of sorts with street running, not that dissimilar to that around the Fairfield Halls at Croydon. Nominally it will be South London ish, early 1990's ish but not based on any real location although I'm sure as time goes on there will be familiar looking scenes appearing. I've found a lovely kit for an Aldi Supermarket which I think will look great on the upper level. The station building will be low relief, 90 degrees to the track, across the backscene with a road and bus stop/taxi rank outside. At present I have no track laid so everything will potentially change but I just wanted to throw my idea 'out there' to anyone who cares to look, without taking over the Elwood East thread. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1977joey Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 I'll look forward to seeing this develope, sounds great & love the era you've chosen too..... Cheers, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted November 23, 2011 Author Share Posted November 23, 2011 Having discovered that the boards are not quite up to the standard I'd like, I'll be making the layout a bit wider for my own convenience by a couple of inches so as to not be constrained by a 4ft x 2ft board. I'm reworking the royal mail depot at the bottom right slightly to make the trackplan a little less contrived, by shortening the freight loop bottom left a couple of inches to make the track look as if it flows more naturally. I'm also looking at adding a small urban "river in a concrete channel" to make the scenery a little more interesting, and an opportunity for some 'urban grot' inside it such as a couple of dumped shopping trolleys. This will add another level which makes it slightly more complicated in board design but I believe within my limited capabilities. A successful 'proving run' of the Tomy tram track obtained for the upper level in-street tram run will result in due course in a further order, once I have laid the track for the lower level and have a better idea of how it is all going to flow, and I've worked out what key buildings I need to fit in and what gaps are left. An order to Scalescenes will no doubt follow soon for the flats which I think will fit nicely along the back of the layout. I hope to have an updated track plan to share in the next few days - there's still a few little tweaks I have in mind that may or may not fit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Hi Cromptonnut, I was just looking at your plan, (very nice it is to) and i noticed that on the right hand side of the fiddle yard you drop down to a single line, I would be inclined to get rid of those two points and keep double track so you can have two trains running at any one time. Graham. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 I know what you mean but it would then cause me problems with the tightness of the curves - I'm using radius 1 setrack on the inner curve as it is. I will have a look though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold pirouets Posted November 30, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 30, 2011 Also, might be worth thinking about the new 3 way points for the fiddle yard as that will help it fan out in less space. Not sure if xtracad (or however you spell it) has that add yet though. My other thought is to flip the plan so the sidings or on the inside of the layout as that will ease the curves for you. Question is whether that impacts on how you picture the layout with the townscape above it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJ Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Good to see the plans on here. Looking forward to watching it take shape. I've found that just extending the boards to 27inches has made all the difference to the curves. Mind you all my diesels (and most steam stuff) copes quite happily on 9inch curves. Doesn't look too good but seems fine for hidden sidings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 The 3 way point certainly isn't available in the version of XTrackCAD that I am using - I haven't seen whether it has been done by someone yet though. I'll have a dig. Nice idea though. I've tried all sorts of combinations for places to put the Royal Mail depot, and I can't seem to quite get everything in where I want it without having a point across the join or extending the layout on one direction - both of which would mean I need to build new boards rather than reusing something I already have available. It's not an insurmountable problem but if I'm building new boards I might well go for a different arrangement altogether - part of the hassle of 'recycling' I guess! My other option which is one I haven't yet drawn out is to have three levels; the 'lower level' being the station and loop as drawn, the mail depot being on a slightly higher level with a line going off to the right through the bridge (a bit like Chelmsford, only upside down) and as it's literally just a selection of GUVs/BGs with 2 or 3 locos to have that on a separate fiddle siding not connected to the main layout at all, and then the third level being the tram/townscape option. This would then mean it would be slightly easier to connect the depot to the 'rest of the world' via a road, as being on the inside of the loop I was concerned about how lorries would get in and out, and turn as there wasn't the space - at least on the outside a road could come off the front of the layout and then disappear into the unmodelled bit. Does that last paragraph make sense or is a drawing required? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 Good to see the plans on here. Looking forward to watching it take shape.I've found that just extending the boards to 27inches has made all the difference to the curves. Mind you all my diesels (and most steam stuff) copes quite happily on 9inch curves. Doesn't look too good but seems fine for hidden sidings. I don't like setrack stuff for 'scenic area' either personally but it's fine for 'behind the scenes' stuff. I do agree with possibly changing the board dimensions as it's funny how that inch makes all the difference isn't it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted December 1, 2011 Author Share Posted December 1, 2011 Still fiddling about with the track, trying to get 'the flow' I'm wanting, but without handbuilding pointwork - making do with code 55. Just struggling to get it exactly where I want it at the moment but I've still got the 3 station lines (although I've put a second platform in rather than having it as just a freight loop) and come to the conclusion that I'm not going to have room for the mail depot so I've substituted it for a little branchline going off somewhere instead which will have a diesel shuttle service (if I can find my 101) and some freight usage. I've had a chat with the guy at the model shop to get an idea of his 'formula' for the value of second hand items and have an approximate idea of how much OO stock I need to part with to cover the cost of the three 4-CEP units I want to buy as the staple motive power for this layout - hopefully that will spur me on to get my butt in gear and get on with it. I know that the CEP is pre-refurbishment (1975ish) like the OO version, but it's a discrepancy I can live with as like 99% of the population I wouldn't have known if I hadn't read it on here - it looks like a slam door EMU and it'll help massively to set the layout in south London. I know that then causes a little problem with the end of blue grey v the more modern tram but again it's a compromise I will be happy to live with, and I hope that anyone who sees the layout once it's finished (in about 5 years.... lol) can live with too. Slightly toying with the idea of the railway on a viaduct a bit like my local station (Brixton) which would require assembly of about 6ft of viaduct. I wonder whether the long lost East Brixton might be an interesting alternative although that's possibly going to look a bit too much like the well known and better made Southwark Junction. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
porkie Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Love the plan, And a good size too for this scale. look forward to seeing your progress Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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