CD Box Harbour station

[Saddletank]

Hi all, I've not yet quite finished the cement siding layout in this sub-forum, but I'm starting to think about the next project. I'm quite taken with the theme of micro layouts and want to explore the concept further, by pushing N gauge into something smaller than the accepted standard boxfile. If you dispense with the notion of runaround loops and modelling all the facilities commonly associated with a terminus station, its certainly possible, and quite fun trying to arrange the various elements together. I usually carry a spare notebook with me at work and scribble layout ideas in quiet moments.

 

So, I've got some Kassett CD boxes in card from Ikea that have been sat unused for months. The internal measurements are about 24x15cm, by 16cm tall. This is pretty much 2/3 the dimensions of the boxfile, so cheap its almost obscene, therefore perfect for a bit of attempted modelling.

 

 

In mind I have a small dock layout (don't worry Jobs Modelling, I've had a thing for harbour railways for ages, I'm not trying to copycat your far superior Northall dock layout!) which has a small station platform with station building and small parcels shed; a track into a factory/warehouse which will probably be engineering or fish processing. In front of that there's a longer (around 11cm) track which runs along the jetty and could be used for unloading from boats, and also acts as a headshunt to a small siding for an oil tank to supply fuel to the fishing boats using the harbour.

 

A road overbridge hides the exit to the fiddle stick, and the end of one point might have to stick out the side of the box in order to fit everything into the scene, but I feel this is an acceptable compromise given the small working area and amount of track present. Also, some bodgery of pair of facing points will have to be done to close the gap slightly to allow the headshunt to accommodate a loco and oil tank. The layout should be able to hold 2 wagons in the warehouse, 2 in the jetty track, 1 in the oil siding and a single coach at the platform. The tracks around the jetty will be inset, hopefully into cobbles if I can get hold of some DAS and get the hang of the technique.

 

I expect this would be set in the late steam era, in a busy but cramped small harbour which existed long before a rail line was forced through to it. It might be a cliche to position it within the GWR area, but it really does need something the size of a pannier tank and the autocoach to get the most out of the trackwork. It does mean I have some more stock to buy but I'm quite looking forward to it.

 

I'll have to work on scratch building to construct a suitable jetty wall (the height allowance in the box is quite generous, so I can get a reasonably deep wall and a warehouse at the back of the layout). And most of the other structures will have to be at least heavily modified kits to be able to fit.

 

Anyway, on with the photos!

 

 

Given the timescale of the simple boxfile I'm finishing up now, I wouldn't expect this to be completed anytime soon!

[Job's Modelling]

Thanks for the compliment.

I don't want to be critical in a negative way on your design. Like the idea of creating a working layout in such a small space. By this size you can use background photo print A4 skies. Have a look for beautiful skies at CG textures.com   

Personally I think you want to much is such a small place. I personally would go for a fork layout. Just the fishing plant. 

Do some research about what kind of wagons were used for in coming and out going freight. Were did it go to? in what frequency? In this way you can create a layout with great operational possibilities. Invest in some great high quality goods wagons.

I saw I nice class 03 or class 04 on the picture, but read also something about a GWR pannier. In this case it is important to chose an era before you start your research.

I think end era 3 / early era 4 would give a lot of options.

Just giving you what I have learned in the past in FREMO, were freight traffic was core business with wagon cards and way bills.

 

Regards,

Job

[Saddletank]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

 

Yep, it is quite a lot going on in such a small space, but that's what's interesting me about the concept of micro layouts: having to consider how I can fit in an extra siding or compress down the physical footprint of the layout. I know it might not be an entirely prototypical use of space, but its the niche area of modelling I want to concentrate on.

 

I'm fully aware my modelling skills are pretty basic so can't see any sense in tackling large layouts just yet, thus by focussing on a small but feature-filled (and interesting to operate) ideas I get more chances to improve my skills set. Also, I don't have much room for model railways yet so micros suit my lifestyle much better.

 

The 03 is only there to give an idea of scale, I will use steam era stock in the actual layout but have absolutely none yet. The pannier and the autocoach seem to be very difficult to obtain from normal online retailers, which might hold things up slightly.

[Job's Modelling]

I will follow the building of your layout with interest. 

Have a look at Wordsworth models (card building) for a railway halt or station. Free downloads. Just for inspiration.

 

Regards,

Job

[DanielB]

Sweet concept, definitely something I shall be following.

 

Cannot believe I only just found this section of RMWeb!

[switcher 1]

Could be in the green diesel era, 03 & wagons, S.U.D. railcar for passengers (?!).

[Saddletank]

Could be mate, would mean less stock to buy for one thing. Pardon my ignorance, what is a S.U.D. railcar exactly?

 

I was aiming for 50s anyway, so a slight ambiguity to the era wouldn't be too noticeable, and would allow steam to run occasionally. Thanks for the tip!

[Saddletank]

No further movement to report on this annoyingly, I work away and get lots of time off but have had a full diary for the last couple of months and onward for at least the next few weeks. I can't wait to get back into this, but patience is a virtue! Still scribbling ideas for micros into my little notebook, the basic footprints I'm allowing myself are:

 

15x24cm - CD storage box

24x36cm - A4 Boxfile

65x30cm - APA box

 

In N gauge I'm quite spoilt for space (maybe not so much in the CD box!) and have quite a few of each design on paper, including a few I should really share on here sometime. As far as this particular box layout goes, I'm leaning back towards using just a 03 with selection of fish vans, oil tankers and a scabrous passenger coach, the idea being that only light traffic can use the branch to the harbour, therefore the 03 is on permanent freight and passenger duties for the mile long journey to the main station in town. Might be implausible to some, but I like it and am sticking with it, at least until I change my mind.

 

I've messed around with MS paint while bored at work and have arrived at a handy space saving idea, its probably been done loads before but I haven't seen any examples and wanted to know if it would work in principle to allow the placement of two separate points in a short length of track. I can foresee that the double insulfrogs might cause poor running on shunters and other short wheelbase locos, other than that I'm quite happy and might have a go of designing one into a layout sometime.

 

[shortliner]

Yup - it is called an "interlaced point" and you'll find mine on Carls Scrapbook - done with a pair of setrak turnouts- I have a left and a right - both work fine but the trsackmobile wheelbase is too short for it because of the frogs. See Tony Maudes Candy Mill (see Scrapbooks #33 and #39).

[CourthsVeil]

Saddletank: look THERE ! Scroll down to Nov. 23 ff.

[shortliner]

Well done, Armin! - I knew there was a photo on RMweb somewhere - but couldn't find it!

[Saddletank]

Now that's just a brazen amount of hacking to make that shape! I thought about it initially, but it doesn't look too forgiving to do, especially in N! Might have to consider though, its such a useful length reduction for a micro.

 

I knew someone had to have done it before but couldn't find it. So something like a shunter doesn't have much of a hope of getting over? That's annoying, I wouldn't mind Peco producing an electrofrog setrack radius point!

 

Out of curiosity, how long do you reckon that interlaced point of yours is? I reckon my version to be around 105mm in N, yours appear to be shorter yet there's a larger distance from the point blade tips to the end of the rails than on mine. I can't work it out, its a proper wee picture puzzle!

[shortliner]

Hi Saddletank - the shortest one in OO/HO is the lefthand in the photo @ 175mm - the righthand is less severely shortened beyond the frogs, and is 225mm -  both from setrack OO/HO turnouts - they are useful spacesavers,  but if I was planning to use it for REALLY short locos ( I model HO American so the frogs cause less problem at slow spead with twin bogies), I would probably simply use the Peco Turnout plans overlaid to make the formation, and build live frog versions on copperclad sleepers

[Saddletank]

Ah right, I was struggling to make sense of where one point started and another finished. I reckon both assemblies would work out to a fairly similar length in the same scale, the choice of which was used would depend on which point you needed an extra couple of cm behind, for example when trading off the length of a siding accessed from one point, against the length of a loop or something similar. I know what I mean, I just don't have the tools with me to portray it on here.

 

see how it could prove problematic for short locos, I've not built track before so might have to work up to the kind of skill needed for this! Thanks!

[Twright]

I'm looking at doing somethins similar (in a different scale so I shall follow this with interest.

[Saddletank]

I've reworked the layout of this... layout :/ ... to be a bit more usable.

 

Shortened the factory siding to take 1 wagon instead of 2, and pushed the whole station in towards the centre of the box. Using the interlaced point method discussed above I can get the oil siding pointwork down to about 11-12cm, so increasing the length of the headshunt a couple of cm. it all helps at this size!

 

Also realigned the first point entering the station to a right hand point, so track hooks right into the platform or straight on for the headshunt, and it also makes the track in the fiddle a less severe angle to straighten out. The platform still has straight track for around 15cm so the coach will not sit awkwardly on a tight bend.

 

I've also messed about with the layout of the buildings which form the backscene, effectively I'm trying to make the entire scene appear as if its being viewed from 45deg offset, with benefits in space for the layout and depth of the backscene.

 

Annoyingly I'm at work for another couple of days, so haven't got access to the same track planning software I used in the first post. I draw 1:10 doodles when sketching out ideas, its easier to measure when figuring out distances and gets to be a mess of lines which only I can decipher. At 2.4x1.5cm though, my sketch of this layout is not great for photographing and showing off to the world!

 

I'll have to break out the crayons to produce a larger scale updated layout plan.

[Saddletank]

So here it is, really for a sacrifice of one factory wagon space (which wouldn't have been seen anyway) I've got a bit more room to work with. Of course this is just a line drawing and the proper software version will look fuller with the correct track sizes. If its not possible to place the oil siding on a kickback due to the possible siding length constraint, it might be easier to face it the other way and place it between the fish siding (headshunt) and factory siding. I think it would be more balanced though to keep it the current way round.

 

I'm aiming to make those projected wall corners off the box look a bit more realistic, I thought about placing the box light source slightly off centre and toning down the walls not facing it to a darker shade to force a 3d perspective. Any ideas for forcing perspective would be very welcome!

 

The platform can take a 57ft coach without encroaching too much onto the setrack radius. The headshunt also works out to about 13cm, and both factory and oil sidings can take a 10ft wagon each. Thanks to the reconfiguration, the only track which should need to be inset will be the headshunt track along the harbour wall, all else will be set in ash ballast or similar.

 

A little more back story:

 

An odd little corner of a run-down little town, this pocket of a harbour branch seems almost squeezed out of its own station. In a way, it is - the station was built way back when the wharf was first constructed, initially to bring in building materials and then opened to fare paying fish workers, with a siding for vans to be loaded up with the daily catch from scores of trawlers jostling for space along the wall. As the harbour grew, a small fish processing warehouse was built next to the station, with covered rail access to load the product. As revenues grew, so too did the warehouse, gradually encroaching the station from almost all sides. A road bridge over the station throat was built to allow motor vans to deliver loads from other, more remote wharfs in the harbour.

 

Then it all started to go wrong. The processors was caught out trying to dodge taxes and the company went bankrupt trying to pay them back. Technology was catching up anyway, and soon fish could be processed at sea while the trawler was heading for port. Technology also saw the widespread acceptance of oil fired engines in the fleet and a small siding was eked out of the little space available in order to park an oil tank wagon to refuel boats by gravity as they unloaded their catch direct to the fish vans once again.

 

The warehouse meanwhile was beginning to look somewhat unloved, until it was taken over by a secretive company which makes all its employees sign confidentiality agreements. Nobody really knows what it produces, but its certainly producing something that's in demand, dispatching a couple of locked wagonloads a day and keeping a decent number of locals in work, which also keeps the passenger service viable in the last years before Beeching swings his axe. They also take care of their building, and it looks as good as the day it was built, which is more than can be said for the rest of the harbour.

 

A diesel shunter is the only motive power light enough to safely traverse down the ageing, decrepit track from the main station in the middle of town, and it has a busy time pushing and pulling fish vans, factory goods, the occasional oil tanker, and a careworn passenger coach back and forth all day. As the only train ever to use the branch, the expense of signalling has been dispensed with - as has the runaround loop at the harbour end, just past the bridge - and the guard on the coach regularly wonders how they even pass safety inspections.

 

Maybe the it's just that no-one really cares about this run-down little branch in a run-down little town...

 

[CourthsVeil]

I like the idea to tilt the trackplan in order to obtain longer sidings – quite clever and rarely seen!

Will follow with interest the further development.

Armin

[Saddletank]

Its an idea borne out of necessity really, as it gives a valuable extra few mm to track length and therefore operability. There's still every chance it won't work in practice as I'm going to have to use setrack with insulfrogs and a shunter to make the layout work as intended. I'm not quite ready to handbuild track just yet, and streamline electrofrogs won't work - 2 unmolested turnouts would be around 24cm long - the same length as the entire box! Doesn't really leave much room for sidings!

 

If the layout doesn't work well in testing with the kickback siding I'll have to make it a facing siding as described above. I could then adjust my storyline a bit to allow a larger bogied loco such as a 22 to perform all the branch operations, which rather defies the intention to use only one item of motive power, but would at least allow smooth operation over the points.

[Saddletank]

I'm quite pleased with how this little box has developed in the conceptual phase, its come from 3 points jammed into a CD storage case with some implausible story to validate it, to a fully functioning harbour railway branch with purpose and function. The track design has been updated to improve operability and interest, and to improve the visual composition. All I have to do now is build it, though that may take a wee while to get underway.

 

So, which do you prefer?!

 

Early version:

 

 

Updated version:

 

 

Note the steps in the corner of the dock, the crane (fixed davit type seen in goods yards all over the country), the bridge piers picked out in black and a representation of the pavement on the bridge. Dropped one building from the station to provide the most basic facilities possible, it will be accessed on foot from under the bridge, maybe a set of steps down from the bridge as well.

 

The single suburban coach will sit comfortably at the platform with a couple of ft (scale!) to spare. The fish siding could take 3 10ft vans if they fouled the oil siding turnout, which isn't going to be an issue when the oil tanker can only be removed via the fish siding.

[Twright]

The updated version.

[Saddletank]

Couldn't help myself. Not sure if this counts as the start of the build?

 

Hacked up a couple of setrack points to create the interlaced unit, also removed about 10mm from the point leading onto the station so a little more length could be added to the factory siding, allowing a better curve into the building. It looks a little untidy but will be fettled and disguised once glued down.

 

I've still got to figure out how to attach it to some appropriate sub-board material in a way that the tight track curves on the factory siding and headshunt won't try to straighten themselves out before the adhesive dries. Need some G-clamps and thin ply I reckon.

 

[Saddletank]

As a vague idea of clearances, I measured up some similar items of stock to the pieces ill be running and placed them in their intended positions. Substitute the grey presflos for fish vans, the brown one for a goods van, the container wagon for a non-corridor brake composite, and you have the sum total of everything that will make an appearance.

 

Nice to know the oil tanker can fit into its siding without fouling the pointwork, and everything seems to fit comfortably. Ill be using dapols easi-shunt couplers for shunting, so its good there's a little space to uncouple over the embedded magnets on the factory and headshunt sidings (roughly where the missing sleepers are at the track joins to the points).

 

[mjcampbell]

This looks nice, an incredibly small layout with an interesting plan. However I'll be amazed if you get anything to run reliably over that double dead-frog! I used setrack points with dead frogs on a 009 layout once and I wouldn't do so again.

[Saddletank]

Yeah I'm not expecting a wee shunter to do exceptionally well over there. Its more a chance to develop modelling skills and scenic construction. If it were possible to do it with RTR electrofrog points then I would, unfortunately they don't exist in 1st radius form!