Seanem44

I mapped out the bottom layout on anyrail. Thoughts and suggestions welcome!

So I think I goofed last week and posted this in the workbench layout topic section, which i realize now really isn't geared towards design contruction but more for layouts already in place. So I am reposting here for more and better visibility. I have two plans drawn up. They are for GWR Branch lines. The time period will be around 1940-1945. The top is based on Minehead. It is condensed and operates under the story that war weary Britons need to get to the seaside for Holiday. It will take place in the final months of WWII, or just after ending. I like this layout as it allows me an excuse to run my Castle and Hall in addition to my GWR tanks. Train lengths will be no more than four coach lengths. The bottom layout is during the same time period and is (somewhat heavily) based off of the lovely layout Ruxley (which is 50 years old!). This one is more of the classic GWR branch design. However, it will be harder to justify running the Castle on it. To get around that, I am going with the "It's War" mantra, and that troops need to get from point A to B and citizens need evacuating. For both layouts I want to attempt to add a wartime atmosphere. Maybe a pillbox or bofors near the station or in the countryside. Gun powder vans will likely be present. If I can work in some tank/vehicle transports (just to add to the atmosphere whether prototypical or not) I might do so as well. Who knows. My current loco stock includes the normal variety of GWR tanks (pannier, 14xx, 5600) and then the Castle and a Hall. Of course the Hall is to appease my wife as it is dressed in Hogwarts Red and gives her something to be interested in. I'm thinking baseboards will need to be three feet wide so I don't suffocate the layout. I have 14 feet of wall length. I have another six on another wall for a fiddle yard to make the layout L-shaped. What do you all think? Constructive Criticism is welcomed, and if you feel tweaks are necessary, let me know. Which should I go with? Thanks!

Can anyone knowledgeable of this class advise if they were also ever used for light goods movements or shunting of goods? Thanks!

Well... this is the one I ordered and I am quite excited after seeing your photos. I need to hurry up and paint my crew then! And I am glad to hear she is a good runner as well! It will look lovely sitting in a box waiting for a layout that might take a few years to build

Ugh. Hate seeing reviews of poor performance. My wartime black weathered is on its way. It's not so easy for me if I have issues with an item, living over in the U.S. Finger crossed I have no issues with mine.

So I would assume a Creamery would not be close to a station, or at least close enough to model on a 14x2 slab of scenery? Would the likeliest scenario be to have a track that heads towards a creamery, and then just use the station to stage the tanks for delivery to the main line, etc.?

In planning my GWR Branch line (40s era) I want to incorporate some form of Dairy and a reason to run 6 wheel Dairy Tanks. I have tried researching the topic, but have not turned up much on the subject. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm trying to figure out what kind of building I will need size wise, etc. I am familiar with the haulage of the Tanks, and that one weighed as much as a fully loaded coach. I am also aware that one tank could provide a day's milk to 35,000 people. So I would imagine smaller towns might have Dairies that produced maybe 1 or 2 tanks a day on branch lines? Anyhow, any help on this subject would be appreciated.

Yep... we all have our favorites. I will run the Castle, prototypical or not. However, if I can have a legitimate excuse, it will make me feel slightly better

Fortunately the Castle was not the cart before the horse. While waiting to move in June into a house with a basement I've been slowly gathering up stock. 64XX, 56xx, a 14xx on order as well as a collett 0-6-0. Very much branchline-centric items. The castle was more of a want than a need. Same goes for the Olton Hall I picked up for 50 pounds. That was more or less because my wife loves Harry Potter and while vacationing in England in 2012 we saw her at the NRM. Gives my wife a reason to enjoy it. The Castle is just an icon I felt I had to have. Just a beautiful engine.

Yep... back to the Terminus. Maybe the best approach is what I thought earlier. Make a fun and engaging branch line layout based on prototypical branch line operations with an occasional war related plausible but not probable movement, i.e. Castle Pulling three coaches of Soldiers/Airmen in while leaving with a Fruit-D or Milk Wagon back for London. I suppose there's a balance somewhere.

Hmmm.... So then maybe a terminus is not the way to go, if I want to keep it true prototypical. Maybe a single or double mainline going past a small station with a fiddle yard on each end would be the way to go, in order to justify having the Castle I just purchased. This might also be interesting for two other reasons. As I plan on adding a milk facility, it adds operational interest in that a shunter could take the milk wagon out an attach it to the end of the 2 or 3 coach Castle (and maybe even a fruit D) to get it back to London expeditiously. The second thing this might do is help me avoid the clichéd GWR terminus. I had already planned to help solve that by having a WWII era layout, but this would further solve it. Thoughts?

Looks like it's screaming to be Modelled. The station that is, not the poultry and egg coach.

Well, here's a hypothetical then... if a branch was dotted red or red, would it be feasible for a large engine such as a Catsle, Hall, etc. to pick up good such as milk or fish so long as the branch wasn't to far off the mainline? Or would a shunter take those good wagons out to the mainline and couple there?

Wow... I can't even trust what I read in magazines What am I to do?

In this month's Railway Modeller, Kingsnewton is based on the Kingswear branchline. The author states that large engines such as Halls and Castles could be frequently found on this single track branch line.

I have found a highly detailed route map that might shed some light on this, or at least theoretically what might have been possible in actual "real life" operations. http://www.michaelclemensrailways.co.uk/article/gwr-route-availability-map-worcester/634 That being said, for the purpose of my layout it might be best that I incorporate creative license rather than base it off of prototype. As its during the WWII era, I will just say that the branch line had a 10 kmph restriction imposed (for red) to raise the line up to a red route in support of the war effort.... or something to that effect. Really I just want an excuse to run a Castle with it not being too incredibly far-fetched.

Thanks guys. So bottom line is with a little creative reasoning, while not at all common, it would not be unheard of to have such a train run on the Terminus I plan on building. I plan on making it war/post war period, so in my little background I imagine them possibly being used as evacuation trains, or bringing soldiers home. With that, I think under the circumstances, it would work and I could use a "for the war effort" attitude. I had just purchased a Hornby Wellington Castle, so with its livery it puts in right around 1945ish. I'll just say it got its running in taking Soldiers home or something to that affect.

A while back I read something and I don't know where I saw it. I read that Castles would sometime run short trains on branch lines after they had been shopped or built. Can anyone confirm this or point me in the direction of an article regarding this? I'm about to start work on a GWR branch line around the 1945 time frame. Three coaches will be the max for any formation, and as such I have preordered 2 Collet brake thirds and a composite for when they are released in summer. I would very much like to have an excuse to run a Castle, because who wouldn't want a castle that models GWR? Anyhow, thanks for the help!