sjrixon

Not sure I've got this quite right, there is a viaduct on the right side, not sure the loco shed will actually fit. But, reverse curves gone, facing points sorted and the good yard has a long head shunt. The good can pass on the down, backing into the yard. If I really want to shunt from the up, you can run around, but more likely would come back down the line from the 'rest of the world' and shunt when coming 'down. The back line is now a lot longer and I think I've a lot more space for that back platform. So tempted to push some industry of the other end of the back line, but I think it would look silly with a mirror of the dairy..

Curved point on each of the curves.. I'll continue to practice my rubbish anyrail skills in the morning..

Facing points, argh, shouldn't do track plans while in tedious meetings. How would you tackle the reverse curve into the top platform?

With the fiddle yard coming together I thought it time to plan he station area. The back road is planned to be a bay, I've an auto coach, rail car etc, so needs somewhere to go. Then also have a dairy siding to fill the back corner. The goods needs some expansion, I've got a nice long headshunt, but 2 sidings is simply not enough. The loco area at the side is more to fill the space, an engine shed always looks nice though :)

Certainly does.. We went to see pendennis castle in steam and she is impressive. Not sure I can drag the family to Didcot again so soon though..

Anything written by Tony is always worth a good read. I'm not sure I personally understand TT:120, but I bet people said the same when N first appeared. A great little review of what does appear to be a nice set. If I was starting out, maybe it would be interesting? I was also shocked by the 50-100 locos.. There must be a lot of very large layouts out there, or a huge amount of stock in boxes!!

Quick picture after a tidy. You can see the long road on the down line, with Mallard on the up. From the other side, I've set the points after the curve as there is a viaduct just behind me in the picture.

It's got the flangeless wheels as the trailing wheels, as it doesn't move. Runs fine on everything apart from the settrack curved, so I'll stop using them. I've also looked at adding the crossover just out of shot, then the inside loop can feed the outside. There is room to cram a couple of sidings into inside for goods traffic and short branch trains that could run end to end. Need to plan the station now :)

Yes, they would probably have sat there all day to be unloaded, and maybe reloaded. So you wouldn't want to trap the loco, it would have other things to do.

It's a new Mallard, engine driven, it's been fine on other points .. That's some nice ideas.. Might need to look again. But with some playing tonight, I've created a bit of a ladder with streamline points, gives a decent length for 2 long on the outside and I think 1 long one on the inside.

Yes.. and no.... Maybe in the future. For now I don't want to make a huge commitment until I know what works and doesn't work the kids. I did some further 'Mallard' testing, it's a Hornby railroad model. But, it doesn't like the smaller radius curves, So R2 are proving a challenge. Which could/would be fine, but you try explaining to a 7 year old that you can't run that loco into that siding/loop.

I tested the settrack curved points... :( I placed two on the outside loop, even using the 'outside' line, Mallard wacked the frog going in and derailed.

Spectacular space.. Very impressed..

I love that ladder, but with my reduced space compared with that 'amazing' plan I don't think they quite work.. But, with a cross over in the right place, I think I can make it work..

I'll plan the zoo siding ;) But yes, coal, I had a brewery before, diary (I've got the building from the old layout) and of course a coal yard. Progress on the up main loops..

Let's not even talk about the class 37 ;) You are right on the mark, they don't need to be full length a mix and match is fine. I've started to really get my head around anyrail now, so I've made some more progress on what I can do with a couple of the curved points to open the siding up, not looking too bad. I love shunting, so there will be lots of freight traffic, more than there should be. Once I get to the station side I want to create a yard that can be shunted without using the main line (so the kids can be running trains). That might mean I also create a short branch or bay to give some space.

Michael - all fair! It's 4mm and yes, duck under.. I still like to think I'm young. It's also trying to be family friendly. My stock is generally GWR, mid 30s. But again, kids, so yes, Mallard is now running on the GWR ;) The station is going to be short, I expect. But if I can get a couple of non-stop express into the fiddle yard, with the rest more short branch then I think that can be a fair compromise. So getting an up and down long siding into the fiddle yard would work, the rest being 3/4 coach trains.

Very nice, and very long!! Which model/version are the curved points?

Tedious meeting... ;) I love the station layout there, and to be honest the fiddle yard, I'd played with something similar, but again I ended up with a fiddle yard of about 1m tracks. But, your ladders gave me an idea..

I've built my baseboards in the available space, so I've a 3m run, by approx 2.2m. I wanted to have a decent fiddle yard along one 3m side, viaduct along one short side, through station on the other long side, goods yard and then along the other short side to the fiddle yard. It's been a long time since I've played with track design and to be honest I'm low on inspiration. I created 2 ladder tracks in the space for the fiddle yard, but as always with building a layout, there isn't quite enough space! I wanted to get a 5 coach express train in, but I don't think I can. I then tried to play with the peco curved points, but they really didn't help me much. I tried to upload the anyrail file, but I couldn't.. If anyone likes track planning, I'm happy to take on any clever ideas. :)

Ok, that's pretty cool. Almost hear the birds at the same time..

We progressed a little yesterday, adding the board which is going to have the Viaduct on. I've bought some fibre board to top the ply, plan to give a quieter base for under the track. Once we have completed the loop, added the fibre board, we can start laying track!!

All good ideas.. But I think rule 1 applies, my railway I'll run what I want ;)

Hope he's not got lost in a pile of ballast..

Guess I'm going to need a new layout thread and a new name.. Great Western Randomness, with a lot of interlopers from other eras and regions. We already have a Mallard and Flying Scotsman, my son also wants a class 37.. Certainly going to be a mixed bag this new layout..