AngusDe

I keep thinking I saw a 4w Sentinal at RAF Gutersloh 86-93, but I can't find any photos, most of my time there there were a 0-6-0 and a 0-4-0 loco there and I remember the distinctive sheeted/boxed in handrail area either side of the cab, but at 20-25 years distant memories could be playing tricks! [edit] and reading Clive's post my mind is playing tricks! lol! [edit] Angus

Your right Ian, corrected plan inserted! You'd think I'd know it instinctively, having played around with it for 40+ years, lol! Angus

A couple more thoughts. On the 3 x 4ft boards, you could have the traverser mechanics on a single board and the deck slightly longer? But that would require some quality woodwork on the baseboards for hassle free operation!.. Keeping all the pointwork on the central board would simplify wiring, and (to some extent) construction. Fitting it all into 12ft is still a squeeze and my only thoughts involve double slips! You'd need a scenic break that would disguise the entry/exit being essentially single track, I've also added the suggested carriage sidings/parcels/whatever to hide the fiddle yard in the domestic setting. The trouble is you've lost some of the flowing curves of classic minories, and double slips can be a bit more problematical for wiring and trouble free operation. You've also lost the ability for parallel arrivals/departures that you'd have with a traverser or a scissors crossing in the fiddle yard if you had a bit more room. If it is purely a domestic, single handed operation you wouldn't notice this restriction tho'... Just some thoughts, hope they help. Angus

In my haste I uploaded the wrong minories sketch, here is a more faithful version, but it uses the same space etc:- Angus

The great attraction of Minories, to me at least, is the sweeping station throat, which gives a air of complexity, without the complex, and avoids reverse curves through small radius point work. Unfortunately the throat, using off the shelf point work, does use up a lot of space. Doing a quick 5min job on AnyRail for your 12x1 space does suggest it is doable for your modern loco plus 3, but only if you have a traverser fiddle yard. If you want a Scottish theme, you can do a 5 platform Queen Street in the same space and gain a bit on platform and fiddle yard lengths and save the cost of one point, with the crossovers being located in the tunnel trains enter/leave the tunnel on either line in real life. It would be cramped in the space, but a few extra inches on the width could make for a nice layout, alternatively you could also keep the extra platform/train lengths for a pointed fiddle yard which would perhaps be easier for solo operation etc. I personally have no problem with the bottom platform being no more than a platform edge, as it helps protect stock from being knocked off the layout when the track is so close to the edge, but many folk would prefer a real rather than a imaginary platform! Anyway, I hope these sketches help feed the creative juices! Angus

And some more pics from Santa Apolonia station in Lisbon. You'll have to supply your own captions! Cheers, Angus

When we holidayed in the Algarve in Oct 2010 I took a few pics of the local station:- Estombar - Lagoa and took the train to Lagos We visited the station in Faro And took the train from Tunes:- to Lisbon:- Hope they help and/or inspire! Angus

I've always loved Crainlarich, as a boy it was a stop on our annual trip to Mallaig and the ferry to Stornoway. My Saturday job in a Glasgow model shop had the Crainlarich coal merchant who occupied much of the upper station yard was a regular weekly visitor and in my college days my best friend's parents had a B&B there so many drunken weekends of hillwalking and train watching ensued. In those days Crainlarich Lower, the C&O station, was still in use as the timber loading point which made it even more interesting. I've often thought that the C&O end of the spur from Crainlarich Upper was missed as a interesting railway site, extensive enough to warrant 2 signal boxes, giving the village of Crainlarich 4 in total!, yet there was virtually no traffic between the two until the C&O was truncated. Angus PS finally, my 100th post......

Jings, must have a very steady hand and 20/20 vision for that? An idle thought I have from time to time is, has anyone ever had working screw link couplings in any of the smaller gauges? Having seen working point rodding and working (ie properly tensioned etc) cantenary I'm beginning to think there must be someone out there, despite what I'd assumed to be the physics of the lightweight rolling stock etc. Totally OT, but hopefully you'll forgive me, lol! Angus

The yard at Stansted Mountfitchet used to have aviation fuel delivered for the pre expansion Stansted Airport, trains of 100ton bogie tankers with 37s at the head is what I rememberer from my time there 84-86. As I remember it the facilities were rudimentary, the rail tankers seemed to be unloading directly into road tankers, but that might be my mind playing tricks. By the looks of this it is all a car park now. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=stansted&hl=en&ll=51.902117,0.20359&spn=0.002942,0.008256&sll=55.966913,-3.33995&sspn=0.683277,2.113495&vpsrc=6&hq=stansted&t=h&z=18 Presumably it all comes by pipeline these days. Angus

In 82 I once spent a night at Lyneham, unfortunately I was supposed to be doing a nightshift at Machrihanish at the time..... Like Lawrence I await the basing review and the redundancy/early retirement it will almost certainly bring me. Strange times, Angus