simon b

That's excellent, thank you. I never got to see the layout in person, and the station was the part I couldn't find a clear pic of.

I agree, chasing 2 mile freights has no interest for me but things like this I find fascinating. The whole Utica sub division is full of interest, but the brewery with street running ticks all the boxes. For those that haven't seen them here's a couple more vids that show just how tight that curve is, they even have trouble coupling the cars because of it. I've not seen proof, but I'm told an SD40 has been in there.

You could try a thin wash of a sandy color to bring out the mortar courses, then see how the rest looks.

Not to far away is this setrack point and 3rd radius curve.

There is also this video of it moving across the main lines on the dollys. It also shows all the bolt holes visible where the fairings at either end of the loco have been removed, not simply gas-axed off by cowboys as some people have implied. It should also be clear why they were removed.

If anyone has a few of these they want to sell please get in touch. Cheers.

This is a base coat of halfords khaki, then dry brushed humbrol 29 earth brown, then a few light dusts with a matt black spray.

Holborn viaduct has been visited before in this thread, so I'll suggest Richmond as another terminus with through lines. On the subject of Blackfriars, I often thought modeling the inside of the trainshed itself would an interesting idea for a micro layout.

I've been playing with idea of making the 2 goods warehouse sidings a higher level than the station, not only for interest but also to help with viewing. By using the nature of the kickback headshunt, I think I can get up to 15mm of height by the time the tracks level out at the warehouse point. West Kensington coal yard used a similar arrangement for trains to access the yard. As long as I don't bring the station roof/canopy's further out than the goods warehouse viewing shouldn't be too bad. Nothing set in stone yet though, I'm just posing things on a board at the moment to see what works.

What a great idea for a layout, loving the level of detail your building for this.

Not quite, but class 15 and 16 diesels are a good equivalent. Looking at it I wonder if the goods area would be better if it was raised above the station area slightly, I could move the headshunt point back a little to gain height.

Had some time this morning so layed out the mk2 version, but reversed the viewing side so the goods area is at the rear. This seems to flow quite well, using a mix of medium and long radius points the scenic area is 8ft.

It's Amersham, but the track layout is an illusion. Looking from right to left: up main, stabling siding 1, stabling siding 2, down main. Platform 3 is out of shot to the left.

Of course if you want a prototype.....

Hi all. I'm short of a few points for a project, I need a pair of SLE186 curved right code 75, and three SLE195 medium right code 75. If any one has some of these in good condition, new or used please get in touch. Cheers.

I guess it would depend on if you want to reverse trains in all the platforms or just the bay, Moorgate and Liverpool st met spring to mind.

Thinking more about Minories plans which include goods/parcels, I now think the mk2 version with the goods shed alongside the station is a better option. On the original versions with the goods sidings as a kickback from the lower platform, I could never work out an effective way to shunt those sidings. You cant use the pilot as you would block yourself in, and when you want to depart the freight loco is always at the wrong end of the platform. So unless you use the pilot to shunt the train to another platform you would need a second goods engine. That always seemed a little unrealistic to me. There is the option of a runaround loop, but it would land up being very short so of questionable use. With the mk2 version the freight arrives into the lower platform as before, but the pilot only needs to be used for one move. That is to draw the train into the headshunt and set it back into the goods sidings, the train loco can then take over. This means that the train loco is also at the correct end of the train for a departure from the lower platform. This seems more realistic to me, as it avoids tying up the pilot for long periods of time. The noted flaw to the mk2 plan is that the goods shed blocks the view of the station, but if you view the layout from the other side this is no longer a problem.

You wouldn't happen to have a pic of the high level station per chance?

Any updates on the layout?

Any updates on this project?

That was the issue I had. I could get rid of the reverse curves in the point work, but the sharp angle of the peco slips just ruined it for me. I was hoping their bullhead version would be better, but sadly not.

It would but there are only 3 platforms available on that layout, those are 1,4, and 5. As per the prototype the short platforms 2 and 3 are only used at night for parcel traffic, access to these is blocked by the other platforms during the day. I thought this could be an interesting feature to add to operations. On CJF's plan, I could never work out how to shunt the 2 goods sidings on the kickback from platform 3. In the steam era the pilot could be used, but there wouldn't be a pilot in the era of EMU operation so this is my alternative arrangement. It is getting away from the minories concept a little though.

That's the only issue with using the Tillig slip, it looks great but does mess up the track geometry. I did try it with a pair of curved points but the track centers are still very far apart, so I plan to make it look intentional by using the island platform one side and a bridge girder the other. I agree the loco siding is better placed on the down line if you have the room. I'm now looking at enlarging that plan into something loosely based on Holborn viaduct. I have 3 long passenger platforms, with the short Island used for parcels only. What would have been platform 6 (where the class 15 sits) is just a loco spur.

So looking at these mock up pics I would need 2 aspect signals on platforms 1-4 to protect the converging tracks, then 4 aspect signals at the ends of platforms 1, 4 and 5? What was platform 6 is just a short loco spur so not an issue, and the widened lines connection doesn't exist on this version.

Many thanks for that link, there used to be a lot more there than I thought. I'm still a little confused by it though. If I understand correctly there was a 2 aspect red/green signal protecting the points where the platform lines converge, but what was the subsidiary signal for? Was it effectively a distant signal for the following running signal or am I misunderstanding the diagram? I've found this later pic that appears to show a single aspect signal part way along platform 5.