DCB

I turn the knob to the left and expect the loco to go to the left and turn it to the right and expect it to go to the right. I have never found a controller with a reversing switch that was any good, except a Minic Hand throttle which is brilliant for shunting with my very low geared Wrenn Gronk.. However if the operating position is a well inside the baseboard to the left is anticlockwise and if outside then to the left is clockwise.

Sounds good, not too sure about paralleling dis similar Capacitors, but it does sound that the CDUs capacitor is not large enough. Maybe simply substitute a larger capacitor but heed the advice about having a sufficiently high voltage rating, electrolytic capacitors go "bang" impressively if overcharged..

You definitely need a proper 12 volt supply as 12 volt LEDs will either be 12 volt for computer PSUs or 14.5 volt for Automotive 12 Volt and not suitable for your typical 21volt "12 volt" model railway supplies. Personally if its a shed I would just use ordinary florescent tubes. Lighting an indoor layout is pretty hopeless as inevitably operators throw shadows if you try to get anything but a "Noon" effect . One of the beauties of outdoor railways is the realistic shadows, especially when they pass under bridges or through short tunnels.

You could try pressing the brass brush holder back into the plastic housing. Usually the brush holders clamp the little tags in place and if the brush holder comes loose they don't make contact. It looks a bit like the commutator, the bit the brushes run on is blackened, possibly oil contamination which will insulate it and stop the motor.. The brushes will fly out when you pull the brush holders out so beware, but removing brush holders and poking wires connected to a controller down the holes to press on the commutator will show if the armature is ok or not. If all else fails put the motor in your scrap box because you are sure to need a spare brush holder, spring worm or bearing for a similar motor if you chuck it away. The worm looks especially handy!

I My uncoupling system worked really well and was just a dropper arm on a solenoid, the end engaged with a standard coupling and simply lifted to release. It could equally twist laterally to release which is my plan to use the S scale car motor and R/C equipment, powered by button cells as used. Using R/C instead of track power will decrease the rolling resistance of the coach compared to my old system, but I believe a Hornby Hawksworth brake compo which is as near as I know to a RTR slip coach will run away on a 1 in 100. I would suggest testing a coach by taking the couplings off your Thomas the Tank engine and propelling the coach at test speed and stopping the loco dead. In my case it coasts right through the station and disappears into the hidden siding. Going the other way you can propell it out of the hidden sidings into the station with your hand after a train has passed but it then rolls back into the sidings down the gradient, hence the need for brakes.... the slight gradient.

These motors are designed for 12 volts, but actual 12 volts not nominal model railway 12 volts which can be 21 volts off load and these motors don't draw many milliamps. I have used them for years in Lima diesels on 6 and 3 volts batteries, Scalextric drive pinions fit the shafts and mesh with Lima gears. They run much more smoothly than Lima motors on smoothed DC or battery power but run rough as the originals on PWM which is as far as I know the waveform the decoders deliver.

There are several threads on here about track spacing I use the least clearance I can get away with as my double line curves range from 15" to 60" radius. The crucial dimensions are the width of your stock, GWR Centenaries at 9ft 7" or 38.5 mm is the widest I know of but the Airfix models don't look anywhere near that while some ex Triang stock is seriously over width. Given 1/2 X 38.5 X 2 is the space between the centre lines of two tracks taken up by trains plus 18" or 6 mm minimum clearance between trains then a spacing of around 44.5mm sounds about right. This means carving moderate size lumps off Peco streamline points for crossovers and massive chunks off Set Track. Given that I get down to 42mm in sidings, However if you want to stick at 52mm streamline spacing why not put some junk between tracks, Bridge girders are a handy subterfuge as under bridges, especially river bridges are greatly under represented on models, Prototype tracks don't keep to a set 6 foot way slavishly, they tend to weave around obstacles so I aim to narrow them down between platforms, but remember set track spacing is there to allow pudgy little fingers to slip between tracks to rerail coaches and if you go 42 or 44mm a derailment will drag the adjacent train along or off the rails. In most cases tracks are paired and a larger gap, the "10 foot" provided between tracks adjoining the pairs, sometimes you get 4 track lines paired 1+2 and 3+4 but equally it can be 1 - 2+3 -4, likewise a 10 foot was a good minimum between sidings and running lines. Its about what looks right. Don't stick to a set figure widen it on curves and narrow it between straight platforms. I hope a few pics are attached showing what the prototype looks like .

That's cheating, its a diesel electric, should have a seperate traction motor on each axle, that way you can spring the axles without drive train problems. Edit :Only joking?

I gave up on rail cleaning for pick up years ago reasoning life is too short and so are my arms where an 8 foot tunnel is involved and went on board battery power. Using LGB type pickups bearing directly on the track might be worth a try.

I just flipped the Ballachulish plan and curved the approach. I wonder of Mallaig would be a better starting point or even the very compact Fort William station. Ballachulish seems to have a massive fan of sidings but doesn't seem to have had a quay which is unusual and a nuisance as much scottish tourist traffic seemed to continue by steamer. The curved route on the facing facing point, point, which I made is based on 50 years experience, my mate's Triang M7 and B12 kept derailing taking the curved route on Super 4 track in the 1960s and our Hornby T9 does not like the 5ft radius facing point at the junction and often derails, as does our venerable M7 this one equipped with Romford wheels. A facing lead to a siding where the main line takes the curved road is something I avoid.

I can't get anyrail to work on this computer and it won't do screenshots but it did find a plan of Ballachulish and it is not all, that much like your plan. The engine shed and turntable don't seem to exist at Ballachulish, the sidings are on the other side and there is a kick back sidings to sort of protect against stray wagons running away. I think the Turntable lead needs moving, I would put it on the inside of the curve on a kick back from the goods sidings and the run round loop needs to be longer, right to your engine shed lead ideally. As drawn if you adapt a Hornby T9 to a Caley bogie and it holds the rails like ours it will derail on the engine shed point just about every time.... M7 derived Caley 0-4-4Ts are not too clever at staying on the rails either, quite prototypically as the M7s had to be taken off Plymouth expresses after a couple piled up spectacularly. Edit. My plan was a signal box diagram and obviously didn't show most of the sidings but the full track plan is not much like the proposed layout. The curves look too tight on the proposed layout, I don't think you can get all that pointwork at the left hand end in and still leave decent siding length, I think it would have to be more like my alteration of your drawing.

Did the Bristolian have a Buffet Coach, it seems to me a triplet dining set would be more appropriate?

Current practice would require a second loco to haul the stock off, this could arrive on the back of the train "Top and Tail" or be a shunting loco, but these are getting very rare. The only one I know of is at Inverness where an 08 pulls the sleeping car stock off the arriving loco and to the carriage maintenance depot as Inverness has no loco release crossovers. On departure the train loco gingerly backs the sleeper stock into the platform from the carriage maintenance depot, several hours before departure!

With modern free running stock in 00 the problem is more likely to be stopping the coach rather than keeping it running. I have a small S gauge radio control car which I have plans to use for a slip coach. With both steering and drive motors arranging one to lift the coupling hook and the other to apply a sort of brake "shoe" to one of the wheels or axles. My previous attempt had metal Hornby Dublo bogies with Lima wheels insulated one side and Romford pin point bearings which picked up power from the track. When it passed over a dead section the coupling hook raised and uncoupled it. It was powered by a capacitor which discharged through the lift solenoid when power was removed. It worked and stopped in a reasonable distance in a sort of LMS Coronation arriving at Crewe at 114 MPH sort of manner, but I never had a station to operate it at. 1 didn't have platforms on the through road, the other was on a down gradient and the damned coach picked up speed instead of slowing. The dead section had a switch which was thrown just after the loco passed, (hopefully) I can't see a flywheel helping the momentum, the losses in the gearing would be horrendous, but if a powered slip coach is required maybe a Micro scalextric drivetrain on one axle might produce a nice fairly free running coach which could be powered and braked to glide smoothly into the platform. Accelerating it out of a bay platform to catch and couple up to an express could be a nice set piece for the last half hour of an exhibition.

I think they are similar but larger, twice the tonnage 20 ft longer 4 feet wider, too big for the Stroudwater's 68ft X 16ft locks

I think Walbridge was on the Stroudwater canal. The Stroudwater was built for 18th Century Severn Trows with typically 68 ft X 16 ft locks and ran from the Seven at Framilode to Brimscombe in the Stroud Valley, where it had an end on junction with the Thames and Severn which had 12 foot by 90ft + locks intended for Thames Barges which were 90 foot long. Traffic on both canals was predominantly house coal from the Forest of Dean for Stroud Cirencester Cricklade, Lechlade.

I agree the left hand FY road is too close to the wall. I would remove the left hand FY road and shift the crossover on the curve closer to the station and put a facing crossover to the last surviving left hand road so all 3 can be used for departures and arrivals. I don't know of anyone who makes a set track Double slip but I had one on my bed layout which is currently buried under Parish Council Audit papers etc and inaccessible, it must be set track geometry as the rest of the layout is set track. If it is NLA /obsolete maybe you would have to use streamline 2ft radius points and streamline double slip

Its getting worse. Bit like fitting go faster stripes, a tow bar and roof rack to a Ferrari...... 13.37 was better. But the top right siding will be awkward to shunt as the headshunt is rather short. Think I would change the trailing crossover on the left of the plan for a facing one further to the left to make shunting the top right siding less tedious. I would pull the empties out with the fulls and set the empties back towards the platform, but with a short headshunt you will tie yourself in knots running out of places to put wagons.

Sounds like a nice space. The thing to remember is the equation. N = 00 squared X 0.75. You can't get double the amount in the space but double the amount doubled! and locos coaches etc cost three quarters as much. Joking apart an 00 coach is near as dammit a foot long, so is a loco. 8 old 57ft coaches are about as long as 7 BR Mk1 or Mk 2. You want 3 ft radius for reasonable curves so that is doubled so you need 6 feet curve plus 9ft train so thats a straight platform long enough for the train plus the curves and your 15 feet is gone, without any pointwork. Points are about 10" long (3ft radius) so a crossover is 20" so if you want platforms for 8 coaches in 15 ft in 00 you are looking at a terminus.. CJFreezer has some good ideas in 60 Plans for small layouts/ Larger Layouts/ trackplans for termini. Otherwise a small station without the capability to handle expresses stopping but with a local passenger service stopping,turning back etc goods yard etc, even the MPD for a station just down the line can be a good scenario. My uncompleted loft layout had the premise that the Terminus was just down the line beyond the tunnel and the lavish MPD served it so locos went off shed to the Hidden sidings and reappeared with a train and later trains came through and shortly after the loco came back tender first for servicing. That way with curved points on the long hidden siding approach I can run 10 coach trains on a 15ft long layout despite my(only) through station only having platforms for 4 or 5 coaches. If required expresses can be halted at signals because of line occupation problems. You could put the platforms around a curve, they look a lot better than straight ones, Cheltenham still has a sharp curve through platforms after a dead straight run in from the north and pretty good one from the south so there is a prototype. If you go N a "W" shape layout with a peninsula like a 1/2 size US H0 basement layout might be fun. But please no straight platforms with bends at the end. Get a pen and a bit of paper and start doodling.

The problem seems to be more about fixings and the ability to cope with end thrust. At least 60% of model railway motors have an end thrust component, some have provision for this built in as in Hornby Dublo motors, some have a bit of a bodge as in Triang X04 some can't cope at all with reversed thrust. In this case the alternative is a spur gear drive to a layshaft and that is noisy, Hondas used a novel twin pinion arrangement on the CD175 with the pinions half a tooth out side by side which worked very well and might be worth trying on a model . Many of these coreless motors are high revving highly efficient types whereas we need something robust and powerful down in the 3 volt range for smooth starts. Its all a bit irrelevant worrying about performance if it has a life expectancy measured in seconds. I would suggest looking at motors from computer disc drives, some are quite chunky, anything with a worm drive should be ok and working on the basis that the fixing hole pattern and front bearing spigot is the key criteria. 90% of applications don't have room for a motor clamp so the end plate mounting holes are the critical point. I get good results from "12volt" computer motors but I use 3 and 12 volts, not the 21 volt resistance controllers or DCC decoders.. I suspect they would roll over and die at the first sign of 15volts +

Oh well. if no one else want's to comment.... It looks good for a set track based layout. The longest platform at the terminus will take 5 coach trains, All the platforms are accessible for arrivals and departures the fiddle yard looks compatible if slightly short compared to the station. There is no run round for loco hauled stock so you are going to be shunting around that sharp curve, and there is no real access for stock to the bottom storage siding as you need to use the TMD as a headshunt Personally I would push the TMD approach track and Fuelling point to the left. I would probably put a crossover so I could depart from the bottom platform as a train arrives at the middle platforms, maybe a double slip in the middle where the bottom next to bottom platform lines diverge. But as drawn I can see it being a lot of fun, look good and be operable in a prototypical manner. Better than 80% of the layouts on here!

It looks OK. It was a weird station. Should work well .It would need need lots of farm implements on flat wagons.. The Midland seemed to like to have weird stations in this part of Gloucestershire, Nailsworth is pretty odd as was Stroud Midland, its as if they didn't have Anyrail to work their track plans out before they built them. I think Neyland is the weirdest station I know of, but that's a different story. Not sure why there would be an MPD, The locosheds at most branches are for the loco for the first passenger of the day which goes TO the junction. The Goods will work from the Junction end,probably start at Glos Barnwood loco and the adjacent sidings and probably run once daily, quite a heavy train from the photos I have seen in pre class 14 diesel days. As with most branches there would be more passenger workings than goods, I guess 4 passenger 1 goods? Something overlooked in most models is South East excepted, Main lines generally have many more Goods workings than branches, 4 goods to 1 passenger is not atypical for steam era while branches it might well be 8 passenger trains and one goods (each way) per day. A lot of branch goods trains were quite lengthy, a 14XX pushing a wagon and a van may have sufficed at the end of steam but just look at all the wagons being loaded and unloaded in 1950s pics.

14 feet is not that long when you have to have a fiddle yard. I did a bit of lateral thinking and stole an idea from Borchester for a headshunt fiddle yard and adapted it . MO train arrives in fiddle and sets back into loops. Or Train arrives in fiddle uncouples loco and loco from loops pulls train into loop. Departing either loco propels train from loop to headshunt, or there is a kick back siding so a shunting loco can haul train back clear of points and retreat to siding, then train loco propels ot the last bit so it too clears points. Depends if you use Hornby Dublo Peco and Kadee couplings which allow propelling or tension locks which by and large dont! Fiddling would be done on the single line headshunt bit which sticks out

Is that 6 feet wide Fiddle yard 6 feet from the wall or 6 feet extra added to the 3ft wide baseboard. If it is only 6feet you don't have any room for a fiddle yard or traverser to take more than an engine and two coaches. Try the drawing the plan again using Streamline points Those set track points are for Thomas the Tank engine themed layouts on the kitchen table. I had to use them on my "Bed" layout and the really did look awfully toy like.

Wondering if you have snipped the wrong wires. That rail is supposed to be bonded to the frog and switched by the frog polarity switch see my altered photo. Personally I find this breed of points with plastic springs and without the contact tags on the blades to be entirely useless unless the stock rails are bonded and so I won't use them