Thanks for that input Nik, you’re right about watching the trains go by and that’s why I wanted a continuous run. Just going round and round I find boring so shunting is needed, but end to end doesn’t work when you just want to sit back and listen to trains moving. With the curve radius I want I couldn’t get a long enough platform for loco plus 4 clear of points. There was another design which had the long platform and a run round loop on the outside of an island with the loop extended into the continuous run. It worked for that aspect but the rest of the station and parcels area didn’t.The through line isn’t intended for parcels (although on one version of minories that’s what it was drawn as). Think of it more as a junction just before a terminal station. Examples it’s based on are Weymouth (the quay line), Buxton (connection to Great Rocks and Hindlow) or Swansea High St (former connection down to the docks). The parcels platform is right at the top of the layout with the siding but can also use the adjacent platform. The intention for this third platform is peak time passenger use, other times parcels.
Operating is my interest rather than building so I’m hoping to build once and ‘test’ lots! The plan has been a long time in gestation, it’s drawn in xtrack cad and has been ‘tested’ using their trains operation which I found very helpful in weeding out designs that weren’t going to satisfy. We’ll see if I’ve been successful when it’s built,
Paul.