Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

That's going to be quite a steep incline to get to those tracks....

I'm inclined to agree.

[Barry O]

G Roan!

Wot.. no cup holders

[St Enodoc]

G Roan!

Wot.. no cup holders

Nope. No food or drink in the railway room, as you know! However, at some stage cup hooks may appear to hang the timetable clipboards on...

[Martin S-C]

This means that the solebars on goods wagons will be visible, which will be important when I introduce the wagon routing system later.

Are you able to give us some info on how the wagon routing system will work? I have embryonic plans for one on my layout but like most people I'm curious how others approach this.

[Chamby]

Not sure that I am brave enough to put shelves above my own layout. I’m sure that I’d end up dropping something onto the rails and stock below... that’s a lot of storage you’ve got there, though!

[Mallard60022]

I like the emergency bed (folding) dans le railway room. Always a good idea when one has exceeded the SWMBO's limit of parcel arrival tolerance

P 

Edited December 17, 2018 by Mallard60022

[Barry O]

I like the emergency bed (folding) dans le railway room. Always a good idea when one has exceeded the SWMBO's limit ofparcel arrival tolerance

P 

As I know the lady concerned...a hospital ward would probably be required not just a zed bed!

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Are you able to give us some info on how the wagon routing system will work? I have embryonic plans for one on my layout but like most people I'm curious how others approach this.

Still working it out Martin but the principle is that each wagon will have coloured dots on the solebars. At the start of each run through the sequence we will allocate each combination of dots to a destination. The number of combinations and the relative proportions of destinations are still not finalised, hence none of the wagons actually have any dots yet...

 

More in due course.

[St Enodoc]

Not sure that I am brave enough to put shelves above my own layout. I’m sure that I’d end up dropping something onto the rails and stock below... that’s a lot of storage you’ve got there, though!

I hope I don't Phil!

 

The idea is that longer sets of coaches (3+) will stay on the layout but sets of 1 or 2 will be moved on and off the shelves as necessary. Spare wagons will also live there, hence the low front fence so that we can see the coloured dots on the solebars (see above).

 

I'm not sure about locos, for the reasons you mention. Although it will be pricey, I'm thinking about Peco Loco Lifts stacked in the spare spaces at each end of the loops. Anybody got any experience with these? If I go ahead I am thinking of replacing the foam sides with something a little more substantial.

[St Enodoc]

I like the emergency bed (folding) dans le railway room. Always a good idea when one has exceeded the SWMBO's limit ofparcel arrival tolerance

P 

As I've mentioned before, because all Western locos look the same Veronica can't tell when I get another one...

 

As an aside, one of my old (in both senses) friends in Melbourne has air conditioning in his basement railway room but not in the rest of the house. When the temperature gets too high he sleeps in a folding bed next to the layout.

 

He is, of course, a bachelor.

Edited December 16, 2018 by St Enodoc

[Barry O]

Tried a peco loco lift. A bit flimsy for my liking.

 

Baz

[Martin S-C]

How about cassettes for holding locos? You'd need to either design in a stub end siding at each staging yard or cut out a traverser-like pit to drop the casette into on a through road but it will save handling the model's paintwork.

[St Enodoc]

Tried a peco loco lift. A bit flimsy for my liking.

 

Baz

That was my thinking behind reinforcing them with some MDF instead of the foam.

How about cassettes for holding locos? You'd need to either design in a stub end siding at each staging yard or cut out a traverser-like pit to drop the casette into on a through road but it will save handling the model's paintwork.

I don't want to disturb/extend the track so the idea of the Loco Lift just sitting on the rails is appealing.

[Barry O]

By the time you strengthen a loco lift it might be easier with "putter oners" and or some rerailing plastic inserts in the track. Your operating team are good at not damaging locomotives.

Depends on how many "spare" locomotives you want to store on the shelves.

 

Baz

[Stubby47]

You could use some square U channel guttering. Stick a couple of pieces of rail (only rail, no chairs or sleepers) to the bottom, place on the track and use a Peco loco lift (or part of one) to drive the loco on. Wood strips across the top will help with lifting and stacking.

[Chamby]

DCC concepts do A system called MPD - looks good but bl** dy expensive. Again, if money is no object have you seen the nelevator? It’s an intriguing vertical storage yard introduced a couple of years ago. Needs rather more space than a loco lift though.

[St Enodoc]

By the time you strengthen a loco lift it might be easier with "putter oners" and or some rerailing plastic inserts in the track. Your operating team are good at not damaging locomotives.

Depends on how many "spare" locomotives you want to store on the shelves.

 

Baz

That's a possibility, although the idea of stacking loco lifts two or three high would save space. There could be up to 30 locos at Paddington either on trains or spare.

[St Enodoc]

You could use some square U channel guttering. Stick a couple of pieces of rail (only rail, no chairs or sleepers) to the bottom, place on the track and use a Peco loco lift (or part of one) to drive the loco on. Wood strips across the top will help with lifting and stacking.

That's also a possibility Stu but wouldn't have the simplicity of just driving directly on or off the Loco Lift.

[Barry O]

Wine rack type storage? As in a set of "letter rack" boxes/ draws on the shelf you can "slide" a loco in and out of?

 

Loco lifts are a bit flimsy for stacking.

Baz

Edited December 17, 2018 by Barry O

[St Enodoc]

DCC concepts do A system called MPD - looks good but bl** dy expensive. Again, if money is no object have you seen the nelevator? It’s an intriguing vertical storage yard introduced a couple of years ago. Needs rather more space than a loco lift though.

Phil, the DCC Concepts system does more than I need, being a servicing cradle and transport system as well. As you say, it's rather more expensive - as is the Nelevator, which I think is more suited to complete trains than individual locos. It would be hard to retrofit to the existing baseboards too.

[St Enodoc]

Wine rack type storage? As in a set of "letter rack" boxes/ draws on the shelf you can "slide" a loco in and out of?

 

Loco lifts are a bit flimsy for stacking.

Baz

Ah yes, I think Gilbert does that on Peterborough North. A "letter rack" or "wine rack" to slide the Loco Lifts into and out of might work.

[Stubby47]

That's also a possibility Stu but wouldn't have the simplicity of just driving directly on or off the Loco Lift.

 

When you examine a Loco Lift, the actual track is an inverted U thin brass channel, which fits over the track.

 

It should be possible to replicate this with your own, home made 'cassettes', with a short length of U channel to sit on the layout rail and up to the cassette rail. With extended sides to the cassette, these two pieces of brass would be protected, especially if spaced with thin plastic sleepers

 

Brown: layout rail

Blue - cassette rail

Red - U channel

 

[St Enodoc]

When you examine a Loco Lift, the actual track is an inverted U thin brass channel, which fits over the track.

 

It should be possible to replicate this with your own, home made 'cassettes', with a short length of U channel to sit on the layout rail and up to the cassette rail. With extended sides to the cassette, these two pieces of brass would be protected, especially if spaced with thin plastic sleepers

 

Brown: layout rail

Blue - cassette rail

Red - U channel

 

locolift.png

That will be worth a try Stu.

 

I actually popped into the model shop in Sydney at lunchtime today and bought their last Loco Lift, for evaluation purposes, although I hadn't opened it before the conversation above got going. I think that I can replace the foam by 4 mm ply or MDF.

 

If I can find some suitable brass channel I'll make one like your suggestion and compare them before making my final choice.

 

Either way, I think that they might go into a letter/wine rack but on the baseboard rather than on the shelf.

[Mallard60022]

I hope I don't Phil!

 

The idea is that longer sets of coaches (3+) will stay on the layout but sets of 1 or 2 will be moved on and off the shelves as necessary. Spare wagons will also live there, hence the low front fence so that we can see the coloured dots on the solebars (see above).

 

I'm not sure about locos, for the reasons you mention. Although it will be pricey, I'm thinking about Peco Loco Lifts stacked in the spare spaces at each end of the loops. Anybody got any experience with these? If I go ahead I am thinking of replacing the foam sides with something a little more substantial.

 

Have a look at Sir's Loco Shelves(actually just wide bridges over the FY) or Gilberts' Depots (cupboards or small cassettes and a couple of shelf bridges over the FY. They will take pics for you I'm sure. You could always work towards something more robust over the months following full ops?

Edited December 17, 2018 by Mallard60022

[The Fatadder]

I really like the other part of Gilbert’s approach, with a single siding at the front of the fiddleyard modified to run through / into a cassette which can be lifted straight off onto the storage rack