9C85

I have just found this thread. Excellent modelling and exactly the sort of era and area I like. Following with interest.

I like it. It has plenty of operating potential. One thing you could incorporate is swapping the engines on the auto train occasionally, with one coming in for coal and water and another coming 'off shed' to replace it. I would try to get a gentle curve on the platform or at least have it not parallel to the baseboard edge. I wouldn't worry about it being having too much track but I do think you're approaching the limit The trick is trying not to fill it with too many trains . If a siding can accommodate (say) six wagons, try not to put more than three or four in it. The space around the wagons will give an impression of size, whereas a full siding emphasises how cramped things are. I think you have a plan for a very 'playable' layout.

Thanks for the info. I am entering negotiations with the finance department

I thought it was ECML Mk4s last week?

These are the photos of my loco as it is now. I was slightly confused by the fact that the 'non-fan end' chassis is lower - I assumed that the space was there for the fan. Since the photos, and given my wrong assumptions, I have put the bodyshell back on the wrong way round. I will go and swap it back immediately (I even noticed that the cab floors weren't sitting snugly at the buffer beams but assumed that I had not clipped it back together properly). Makes me wonder if I will be able to put a chip in the correct way

I now know that I am getting old because the first thing I thought when I read this is 'what happens in an emergency?' eg when you collapse after seeing how much your next 'must have' loco or carriage is going for on Ebay? If the door opens inwards and the fiddle yard stops it doing that, then I would at least try to incorporate a 'fail safe' mechanism... that would be an engineering challenge in itself. I don't wish to pry but are there other people likely to be in the house when you are playing trains? Would they be able to get to you? Other solutions would be to put in a 'stable door' and crawl in/out via the lower half if the fiddle yard is in use, or 'just' switch the way the door opens from inwards to outwards. Again, apologies for the Health & Safety intervention.

You could also have another scenic break where the current goods shed is. The hidden section would only need to be long enough for your autocoach and a small tank engine. You could have that train shuttling on and off from the bay platform and providing a connecting service with the 3 coach trains which use the 'main' platform.

I am led to believe the bus stipulation is indeed Rule 2 There's nothing stopping you having the short siding as a cattle dock as it stands in your first plan - it would add a bit of operational interest shunting stock in and out of it. Also, if you move the goods yard to where the turntable is, you immediately have a reason for a road bridge over the track at the scenic break - the goods have to arrive at/leave the yard by road somehow. The current Goods Shed could then become another industrial siding - I am not sure, but from my experience of most layouts on here, Rule 3 states that is has to be a brewery. Cheers

Thanks again Richard and Mark, Richard, I know I keep putting you off, and thank you for your patience, but if it will fit inside my loco without too much plastic surgery then I feel that even I can have a go. I will take the body off my loco this evening and post some photos in order to check if (and where) things will fit. Thanks again, Stu

These are very useful pictures. I have an 8-pin Bachmann class 25 to which I would like to add sound. It has the larger tanks/ boxes arrangement as shown in the second picture above. I have a few questions: 1) How do you get the speaker wires from inside the roof to outside the chassis? 2) Do you have to drill a hole in the chassis? 3) Do you have to desolder the speaker/wires and refit them after passing through the chassis, or do they 'clip in' to the circuit board? 4) How do you remove the boxes/tanks? As you may have guessed, I am fairly new to this game and I try to get as much information as possible before trying something beyond my skill set. Thanks in advance. Stu

I think it is a bit of a stretch to have a turntable at this type of location but Rule 1 is also applicable. There's nothing to say that tender engines can't run tender first either inbound or outbound from your station- I am sure somebody on RMWeb will be able to give an example of such a station in the real world You also have to think about turning trains in the fiddle yard. Is 4ft long enough to hold a tender engine and 3 coaches which have come off the layout, plus a tender engine at the other end to take it back on? The alternative is handling the loco to switch ends, which will become frustrating, especially when there are trains on the tracks either side in the storage area. As for the track plan, a train can neither access nor depart from your short platform directly from the branch line- is this stub intended as a working platform, or is it a headshunt for the goods yard, or a layover siding for locos? As for breaks between the scenic section and the fiddle yard, some modellers choose to suspend disbelief and just cut a hole in the sky ( a piece of board painted blue with a train sized hole cut in it), while others prefer a more believable approach of having a tunnel mouth, or a road overbridge at the end of the scenic section. Please note that if you choose the bridge option, it MUST have a bus on it. Enjoy.

Thanks for the information. I have three laser-cut MDF girder bridges on my layout, but I would like to have a go at building my own 3D printed version to get more definition to the girders etc. I have a non-intentional gradient in my sidings and certain well running stock follows the shunter back down the grade after being parked (Delayed-action Kadees). When I first saw it happen it did rekindle my thoughts of building a gravity shunting yard, but like you say, not all stock behaves the same.

I have just found this thread. Totally outside my era but I am here admiring the workmanship. Could you tell me which 3D printer you have and which design package you use in conjunction with it? Does it come with any design software or do you have to import models from other packages? I have access to Autodesk inventor and normally at work I could get access to a 3D printer (although I have only ever printed replacement shower screen towel rail fixing brackets- nothing for my layout as yet). I am working from home at the moment so I couldn't print anything even if I wanted to. Also, with regards to gravity shunting, I would be interested to see how you progress. I have always wanted to have a hump yard layout but I came to the conclusion that the only way I could get consistent operation and realistic speeds would be to have one of wagons in the consist motorised. Whilst typing that last sentence it dawned on me that I would then have the problem of what happens when a loco attaches to the consist and tries to remove it? I suppose my solution to is OK for consists which end up 'off scene' ie a gravity/hump yard in the background. Anyway, back to the drawing board for me. Keep up the great work. Stu

Weird. I have had this loco for four months and I was sure that when I first got it, the Kadee couplings I fitted to it were at the correct height. This evening, I have had a mini shunting session and noticed that the delayed action uncoupling wasn't working. Closer inspection reveals that the coupling is a good 2mm above where it should be. When I first got the loco, I was aware that some early Bachmann Peaks had non-standard height NEM pockets, but I remember being quite relieved when I got the loco and things looked OK. Perhaps I have just been convincing myself that everything was alright? I am not sure what to do about it... I put quite a bit of effort into changing the livery from the white roof and stripes, then weathering it, and I have seen fixes for adapting the couplings to the correct height, but I may just take the opportunity to treat this as my first loco upgrade, sell it, and put the proceeds towards another loco.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-X-Detailed-Model-Railway-Brick-Red-Retaining-Wall-For-HO-OO-Plaster-New-/223198483038 This is where I got the retaining wall. It's pre-painted plastercast which looks OK straight out of the package but I weathered mine using a technique I also found on the internet.- it's in my thread from about page 6 I think. I had to file down some of the edges to reduce gaps and also fill some gaps but once it's painted it looks the part. It's a lot quicker and more robust than a card or plastic kit. To install it, I screwed a 75mm high batten along the line of the wall I wanted, and simply Gorilla glued each wall section to the batten. As I mentioned, you might need to fettle each piece as you install it. I just used a workshop file to straighten everything up. I am contemplating having a row of terraced houses at one end of my layout, but it will probably be house backs rather than having a road in front.

Apologies for jumping all over your thread but I enjoy a design challenge. I have gone old school and knocked something up with pen and paper. I have therefore kept pointwork to a very low level, so it should fit in the required area. You should hopefully be able to expand the trackwork at the right hand station end to improve 'playability' You will see that I have included 3 hidden sidings and perhaps somewhat optimistically turned them into loops, so you can turn trains around off scene, but you could get away with two (even one) dead end siding if you are happy to have light engines running on and off scene ( it's actually a deliberate inclusion on my layout). With the plan as drawn, you can have passenger trains arriving from the hidden sidings and being run around by their loco in the station, ready to depart off scene again. Similarly , a freight train could pull into the loop, and the engine could run around via the platform road and head down to the wharf On your original plan, you have no means of swapping ends for the loco at your wharf. You could get around this by having a small shunting loco based at the wharf which could release the incoming loco, or you could have the inbound propel (push) the train from the station, down the branch to the wharf, where it would shunt its train. When finished, It would drag its train back up to the station, run around, and nick off to the hidden sidings. Just typing this up has made me realise that the trackplan has potential to be a very enjoyable 'playable ' layout. Good luck with it.

I just so happened to take some photos of my hidden sidings last week, mainly to show how I nearly snookered myself by having no spare locos in my yard. The above shows the view from the top with the factory building that hides it removed. This one shows how it looks normally The break between the 'real world' and the hidden sidings doesn't have to be too high, depending on the viewing angle of the layout. In the photo below, there's a hidden headshunt for the storage sidings behind the retaining wall.

Looking at your plan and the available area, are you planning on having any 'hidden sidings / fiddle yard '- which gives the illusion of trains going to and coming from 'somewhere else ' off scene? Or are all your trains going to be visible all the time. If it's the latter, might I suggest you extend the main line at your branch line station to the bottom edge of the board and have something like an overbridge or a tunnel over the last couple of inches of track? This at least gives a suggestion that your line is connected to a bigger network. Also, do you intend to have each of your three areas modelled as separate 'scenes' or do you want one continuous scenic layout? Again, if it's the latter, I would question the need for two stations, especially so close together. I would be tempted to have your industrial/wharf area rotated about 45 degrees clockwise (as suggested above by Philou) and connect it to the branch line station via a long, sweeping reverse/double/S-curve along the 'long' section. This would give your locos a chance to stretch their legs a bit. Also, if this curve was in a cutting, you could use the 'far wall' of the cutting to mask off a couple of hidden sidings which could connect to your branchline station on the right. Speaking from experience as a first time layout builder (if that even makes sense), a board width of 900 mm is a LOT to cover with scenery, especially if it's a single branch line in the countryside you are after. You could have two, even three, hidden sidings along the back wall and have your backscene in front of those. You would still probably have a 600mm/2ft width of scenic section. I hope you get a plan you're happy with and enjoy the whole process.

I have just realised that I still haven't been on a Class 91 hauled train with Mk4 stock. I remember when I first moved to Derbyshire in 1989, I would travel back to South Wales every weekend and go past the Metropolitan Cammell (?) Works in Birmingham and see the shiny new coaches in the sidings ready to go into service. I am also still yet to travel on a Pendolino. As for Azumas, people will be sentimental about them by the time I get to go on one.

I have often wondered how UK locos 'sized up' against North American locos. The bogies seem to be of a similar size, but the 'Shed roof' apex is about level with the top of the bonnet. I hadn't realised that they were that big.

I do like a BG.

I can confirm that my visit to Bristol Temple Meads was in 1979. The reason I know is that I remember singing misheard lyrics to the song 'Que Sera mi vida' by the Gibson Brothers, which was playing on the radio in one of the station cafes. I have just Googled the release date. It's weird what you remember isn't it?

Thanks a lot. Earlier in my thread (I think... or at least somewhere else on RMWeb) I mention my visit to Bristol Temple Meads in the early 80s (possibly the late 70s) and seeing 08 900 bimbling around with a brake van. I occasionally let my 08 off the yard and out onto the 'imaginary ' main line to collect ECS or a parcels train from Burchill station. I keep contemplating getting a brake van to accompany it on these adventures - it would also add some operational interest by having it 'kipped' in the fuel point headshunt when not required. Does anyone know of a manufacturer who produces BR brake vans with NEM coupler pockets?... I would need to fit Kadees to it and I would prefer to use the plugin variety rather than have to perform plastic surgery.

Your layout popped up on my YouTube feed yesterday. Absolutely fantastic work. Enjoy!

Talking of modelling the 1980s, the attached video popped up on my YouTube feed. I have no connection whatsoever to the maker(s) of this layout, but I wish I did do. I have watched this quite a few times now, and apart from me wanting to applaud at the end, it leaves me with a massive smile on my face. Enjoy...