RobinofLoxley

Hey @5BarVT thats a big shift you have put in there

I just wondered RogerP since you have track to acquire, and four DC controllers, how you might use them and came up with this 'thing' below. The outer loop is fourth radius, which fits nicely on the board, with possible power feed locations indicated A-D. This is the minimum as a layout that relies on fishplates to carry power is going to have quite a few dead zones. Apart from the fourth radius, I also made liberal use of R610's to extend the length to the maximum and facilitate what I have done in the central area; if building it you most likely get some flxitrack and cut pieces twice the length of a R610 to do the same job. Using controller D you can shunt independent of anything else happening. Inside the loops is a rather eccentric station arrangement.

Is the inside loop first radius? Looks as though it must be. Modern stock often wont go round it as curve radius is too tight. Mainly locos affected although coaches may lock buffers.

Im wrong; now I look really closely at the photo I have, its rust. Not black, may have been once, probably not red.

To this day there's a black painted Esso tanker with red frames on the SVR.

just going back a bit, to the tank kits, a couple of questions: Has anybody fitted them with sprung buffers, and if so what did they use, what were the results? While there are examples of the esso tanks painted black, the original colour seems to have been grey, although they look silver in one of the Paul Bartlett photos. Or were the individual companies tanks painted in different colours - Regent/BP/Esso etc. Would they have run in mixed rakes? What colour has anyone used for the red frames? The worst part of the kits is in my opinion the ladders. Where can replacements be found? Thanks Robin

You are absolutely right. I was just drawing out the changes I mentioned in my last post, as Ben has only the demo version of Anyrail and sending complete files is helpful; the solution was given by @Revolution Ben earlier in the thread, I had forgotten to add it, as I had just realised. Put the runaround on the end of the 2 sidings, with a long enough shunt to take a loco and brake van

For some reason no dialogue box appeared in the layout post so I couldnt put the text there. I can't see why the third platform can't double as a headshunt, given that in the era everything had been cut back to minimum. However if thats not ok there's room to insert a turnout that faces the opposite way to the 3-way turnout, which can then be moved onto it. Trying to keep the throat as compact as possible, however at A I have inserted a small straight. Its never been discussed if this layout is DC/DCC, what the point control might be, but in case point motors are being used, for example MTB MP-1's there will be three in a row and there wont be space or room to work without that short straight. If the main line is going to be single at the fiddle yard, the question then arises whether the station should be represented as a single line terminus or double. If its single the track section B on the drawing isnt needed; if double, something is needed to disguise/hide the turnout to give the impression of a double track line continuing, hence I put a bridge there. I'm sure there must be examples of a double track terminus with branch line, but not so many with 2 singles (Fort William comes to mind). I also show an extra loco siding thinking a small servicing point could be put there; perhaps there was a small shed in steam days.

Its coming along but still needs some fine tuning. Platform lengths and the station throat generally need some work. Will reply later.

That branch line isnt a bad shout. It can leave the 'main' much nearer to the station too. The rectangle I put in thats become a platform was actually to locate a cassette, I dont know if I ever mentioned that? The branch is for a dmu, probably 2 car, short platform, so you can ease those curves out, perhaps by fitting a small piece of ply into the angle between the two boards. Just a few cm gained there helps a lot with curves. There still could be a cassette in the fiddle yard, just a bit more tricky to do with a station and a backscene in front.

There's a consensus of sorts here that odd number configurations look better, so 2+3 better than 2+2. Still cutting 300mm off from the 2+5 though.

I can send the file but it has to be emailed, cant be done as an attachment to a mail here. If you pm me your email address I will send it you.

Im asking about the HST as the longest train on the layout, doesnt matter you havnt got it, you are planning to have it. Using my proposal for reference only, the longest track in the station is 106cm, with precious little room for accurate stopping and any building behind. Your own proposal has plenty of room but to my eye the station is disproportionately large for the available scene, with the platform track going well over half the way across. Will that look OK?

All these kinds of products are created by feeding a reel of raw material through a machine then cutting to size afterwards. The sheets will be stacked and counted into batches but i would have thought that there was opportunity for badly pressed sheets to be removed before sale. I would send photos to the supplier and ask for replacement sheets.

The most logical place for a station pilot to rest is beyond the first station turnouts, where it has access to all lines whichever side it is. Some might argue its better to put it in an awkward spot instead, in order to force more manoevres. Im not sure what the second storage road, as labelled, does for the layout. It may look better balanced with even a third siding in the freight area, but they really need to be nearer the turnout- there's 60cm of dead track there. It seems to me that if diesel arrivals are going to be regular then a service point would be a good feature to have. Just one thing Ben - what is the total length of your 5+2HST? (Being lazy)

I think there's a connection, but I cant remember what.

If i remember correctly Vectis has a sellers premium similar to the buyers premium. But they are doing a good job and provide a service - what you buy comes well packaged in reasonable time - their despatch folk must be on the ball!

Yes, my mistake. Without looking at the traverser proposals I had it in my head that the traverser was on the end of the sidings, when in fact it replaces them. I'd also add that the way its drawn, both Chimer and I put the turnouts where the long curve is on the traverser drawing so there wouldn't be that much extra track available

I dont think point (1) is true; however many sidings there are they need points. (2) is absolutely your choice. Personally I dont like to fill in all the blanks in this forum when its clearly not needed.

There are some good proposals here but I would just like to add some comments and a doodle of my own. Its especially important and its been referred to already, that the fiddle yard and station tracks are of comparable length, so that the station is designed for the longest train (HST based on rule 1) and the fiddle yard must then be able to absorb it. If that creates a conflict its resolved by changing, that means reducing, the longest train until a balance is obtained. Even so, there has to be enough open trackwork between the two to stage plausible movements. What @Chimer did was to create longer fiddle yard sidings using St-5 and -6 turnouts; its possible to have 6 sidings as I'm sure he knew. Then there's the question of compressing down to single track, with varous benefits, but possibly compromising parallel movement. I dont suppose @DCB would find the outbound train held at a stop signal while the inbound passed it to be OK. I have drawn what happens with the extra turnouts needed to allow full parallel movement, its up to the OP to decide on that. Totally agree about that a traverser would impede any traffic yard operations at the front centre of the layout. On my drawing I have shown road (1) in the fiddle yard having a cassette option. Parallel movements here also create some requirement for wrong line running because the relevant turnouts cant be accommodated off-scene. Then there's the question of the size of the terminus. I can't see a full four road station being compressed to single track but I bet someone knows a prototype for that. I think that 2 main tracks with the third doubling as a yard access looks reasonably in proportion to me. Sorry about the reverse curve. I have put in access roads for carriage sidings and a goods yard without suggesting how these should be laid out. There an opportunity at the front to massage the view of the fiddle yard access turnouts with buildings in front of them, though.

Soft cushions..

That gap is in effect shared with five other joints on the loop. So suppose the actual gap turns out to be 4mm, thats 0.8mm per joint. When insulated joiners are used, they have a small spacer at the centre about 0.8mm thick to keep the metal track ends separated. Realy thats nothing.

Thanks but asyou can see I've ordered. Any time you adjust any of these motors, you are at risk of losing a screw if you are working under the baseboards. So I have stocked up.

Lol so does mine. How I overlooked that I dont know.. Ordered from Accu, postage costs 3x the cost of 24 screws