stivesnick

I very much support the original question - I usually attend one exhibition a month as a way of having a day out and perhaps an opportunity to visit a new place. So yes I would like some idea on what to expect. A variety of layouts is what I am looking for. I have helped plan a number of exhibitions in the past, so I am slightly surprised that some exhibition managers would consider this extra work. I would hope that most managers would do this as a matter of course as a way of checking that they are attempting to get a variety of layouts. Therefore, producing and then seeing a list where each layout says "00 steam engine shed " should raise the alarm bells. Regards Nick

Hi Steve Yes the Metcalfe kit would work as a station building as you describe. You could add extra kits either side to represent retail units to indicate that the new station building replaced a much larger original building and the opportunity was taken to include some more retail as part of the development. Walsall station is a good example of a station entrance within a shopping complex (although a much bigger building). The original station served the central island platform. More recently with expanded rail services, the original platform 1 was re-opened and there is a separate ramp down the outside of the station. It appears that passengers would have to enter the station, buy a ticket, then go back outside into the street to reach platform 1. A good example from the prototype for everything department. Nick

Hi As mentioned in the previous post, here is a sketch showing a possible station building layout at street level with the station in the middle of the town square. This would be unusual but not impossible. I have included a station entrance on both sides of the building although this is not essential. You will need to line up the lifts and stairs to the platform with the dimensions on your layout. Hope this is helpful Nick

Hi Like the progress on the layout so far especially what you have done with the JIA wagons. Some thoughts that may help you decide what to do with the station building and possible shops. If the station building has direct access to all the platforms then the width of the station building will need to be a wide as all the platforms, perhaps a bit more. At street level there would be the entrance and space for the ticket office and staff accommodation, then a passageway (say 3m wide at least) leading to steps and a lift to the platforms. The rest of the street level can be taken up by shop units with perhaps office space above. Looking at what you have built so far, its not clear if there would be space for a mezzanine level between the the street level and the platforms. You would need say 35-40mm headroom in N Gauge to fit this in. If that is possible, then there is less space needed at street level and the passageway and steps to each platform are at the mezzanine level. In most cases the station building would be at the edge of the town so there would be direct access by stairs to the platform. Hope that makes sense and helps you decide what you want. I will try to sketch something up for you over the weekend that shows the station in the middle of the town square. Regards Nick

Thanks Cameron My thoughts exactly. With the intent to base the model in Minnesota, there was not a lot of heavy industry within a typical town. It may have to be a totally imaginary factory whose purpose is unclear. There could be scope for incoming materials plus coal or oil for power. Outgoing product in box cars plus some waste material to return somewhere. A brewery perhaps? Nick

Thanks for the feedback. Depending on the final space available, the depot may end up on a bend so a right ended factory connection may make sense. The plan is still very much work in progress. Nick

One of the differences between railway station platforms and most bus stops is the much larger drop off the platform edge. Suitable lighting is one of the basic safety requirements for stations. In contrast one of the stops on the Cambridge Busway is at Fen Drayton RSPB reserve has no lighting at all. Although there are few visitors to the reserve after dark, people do use it to get to the village along an unlit track. The busway is also subject to ROGS (railway and other guided systems) so it should have lighting. Nick

Just spotted I didn't load up track plan Option 3 with the double ended siding behind the depot. Here it is. Is this a realistic track plan? Any comments welcome. Nick

I have been playing around with possible track plans for the GN depot part of the layout and several options have emerged. Inspiration has come from " Prairie Depots in color" by Morning Sun books. Unlike many books that tends to focus on the locomotives, this one has many photos of depots taken in the 1950s and 1960s from passing trains or during stops on passenger trains - lots of scenes that demand to be modelled. What the layout design options have in common is: A main track and passing siding An industry siding with perhaps 2 or 3 industries along it A second siding with more industries A larger factory (suggestions welcome) that has at least 2 tracks with multiple spots for cars The interchange track with the interurban line The differences between them relate to the previous post and what to do with the baggage car that gets detached early morning and spends the day at the depot before being picked up again with the reverse mail train working in the evening. Option 1 has a double ended siding in front of the depot. The second industry spur is connected to this track. The baggage car is parked outside the depot but leaving room to switch the industries. Operationally it works but not sure how realistic the plan is. Option 2 has a simple spur for the baggage car. The most realistic option perhaps. Option 3 has the double ended siding behind the depot. This is a common at many stations. However it may require moving the baggage car during switching which doesn't sound right. I could combine options 2 and 3. I have also drawn up option 1 in Anyrail to see how it might fit in a room. The interurban track is shown as well with the depot being common to both systems. Sketches enclosed and all comments welcome. Regards Nick

Dave Thank you for the information - most helpful. Regards Nick

One of the reasons for basing a layout on the Willmar to Sioux City route is that it still had a daily passenger train until 1960. The train comprised 3 baggage/mail cars and a passenger coach that were through coaches from St Paul/Minneapolis. A much easier train to model than the 12-15 coach trains that ran on the main line. The train (#9) left the twin cities at 9.00pm each evening arriving at Willmar around midnight. Train #51 departed Willmar at 1.30am. It dropped off 2 baggage cars on route and I can follow this practice on the layout. A question on possible operation: If I provide a spur to keep the baggage car during the day, when the car is picked up in the evening. Do I... a) simply add it to the back of the train (the passenger coach is normally at the back of the train but would not normally be shunted with people on it) b) include a run around move to put the coach on the front of the train c) Have a double ended siding to make it easier to add to the front of the train. Any thoughts on what would normally happen in practice welcome. Based on the rolling stock I have at present - here is my train #51 with every car different. Regards Nick

Link to google maps for the Carrboro site - looks like an ideal location to model: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@35.9068744,-79.0611383,137m/data=!3m1!1e3 Nick

Yes indeed. Thanks for this - is this finished timber on flat or bulkhead cars? I have some bottom discharge gondolas, so thinking about sugar beet traffic and a suitable loading dock where farmers can load wagons directly. A couple of grain silos will be included - in the 1950s this would still be box cars. Layout will be based in the late 1950s so the original orange and green. The passenger service ended in 1960. Thanks again for your comments Regards Nick St Ives Cambridgeshire

Hi The Nov 1997 edition of Continental Modeller had an article about a NS branch line that delivered coal in short trains ( 8 cars) to the University of North Carolina in Carrboro. The article included a track plan of the branch which also served some other industries. Hope this helps. Regards Nick

Thanks for the information. I had seen some information on this line in various Interurban books. One of the many things I will need to decide is a backstory for the interurban line which will help determine what facilities will need to be provided. For example, if the line's HQ is here, then I will need to include a car barn, power station and more storage tracks. Nick

All Having enjoyed the thoughts and ideas for people's planned American layouts, I am starting this thread to share my ideas for a retirement layout. It all depends on my retirement (hopefully in April) and then sorting some things out and moving house to a place with a suitable spare room for a medium sized N Gauge layout. I am keeping with the Great Northern interchange with an Interurban Railway (SRTC) of previous layouts set in the 1950s but this time based on a through station for the GN and a terminus to fiddle yard concept for the SRTC. The layout will be very loosely based on the GN route between Willmar and Sioux City. This secondary route had 3 or 4 scheduled trains each way each day; a passenger/mail train, 1 or 2 through freights and a local freight. If space allows I can add some extra railway facilities, for example a quarry or a extra grain silo. Being a through route that connected to other railroads in Sioux City there is greater justification to run extra trains. To start with, here is a concept sketch to explain what I have in mind. Obviously until I move, I will not know the actual space available. The basic idea is to have something interesting to operate but without filling the boards with lots of complex track. Future posts will cover ideas for suitable industries to include and hopefully will prompt some comments from those who know far more about American railways that I do. Regards Nick

Hi Interesting track plan and some great woodwork so far. Looking forward to seeing updates. Nick

All The business case document can be found here: https://ontarionorthland.ca/sites/default/files/corporate-document-files/UIBCen.pdf The plan is for one train a day each way in the summer and a reduced service, 4 days a week during winter. The rail journey would be 10 hours 40 minutes to cover the 495 miles, a bit quicker than the bus but 2 hours longer than a typical car journey. The train would run overnight southbound - leaving just after midnight and arriving in Toronto around 11.00. The northbound service leaves early evening arriving in North Bay at midnight and Timmins early morning. The business case is rather weak at 0.2 ( >1 means benefits are greater than costs) and in the UK would be rejected by the Treasury. I visited the area on a Ffestiniog Travel trip several years ago - we took a coach from Toronto to Cochrane to travel during daylight and stayed at the hotel at Cochrane station. If I remember correctly the southbound Northlander woke everyone up when it departed in the early morning. We then took the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee. Regards Nick

Wow! Difficult to count accurately but perhaps 100 locos or more. Expensive to model. Would be worth being there at the end of the strike to see them all move off again. I wonder how many trains and how many light engine movements to pick up trains left elsewhere. Nick

There is some brief footage of the layout at the Spalding show here: Regards Nick

Hi Steve The pacers never ran in East Anglia, but the original prototype unit - LEV1 did run in the area especially on the East Suffolk Line. Regards Nick

All The layout will be at the Spalding show next weekend 5/6 Nov at Springfields. https://www.spaldingmodelrailwayclub.org.uk/exhibition/ Regards Nick

Hi Peter Like the layout, especially that you have some decent sized industries that look like they could generate some decent railway traffic. Am I right to think that you do not have a fiddle yard? Not that it is essential to have one. Regards Nick

One question that arose during the show was "what would the railway way be to shunt the goods yard?" In the model timetable the goods train arrives at the platform. Option 1 When the loco runs around, it collects the outgoing wagons from the yard and moves them to the platform. The whole lot then draws out of the station and moves the train to the loop and then drops in incoming wagons into the goods yard sidings. Option 2 The loco runs around, then collects the brake van and moves it to the far end of the loop by the road crossing. Outgoing wagons can be collected and added to the brake van. However there is only room for 3-4 wagons before the train fouls the crossing and the outgoing train needs to be pushed across the crossing. The incoming wagons are then collected and shunted into the sidings. At the show both options were used but is one more railway like than the other? At present there is no shunt limit along the main line, or restrictions on using the ungated road crossing to the docks. Any thoughts on this? Enclosed picture showing the long train when using option 1 and track plan to help explain things. Nick

Interesting time at the Warrington show this weekend. Lots of other N Gauge layouts there. The layout worked OK. As expected there was a lot of unplanned uncouplings. I brought some Du-luxe materials Liquid Gravity at the show, so hopefully more weight on the wagons will improve things. Other things: The timetable worked OK - but it is fiddly adding and removing the covers to the mineral wagons Need to redo the road crossing as too high for some stock The water tower got damaged when loading the car coming home The Dapol signals didn't move during the show - any thoughts? Thanks to Bob for helping me out during the show. Some show photos enclosed. Some different angles for photos given the extra space. Nick