RobAllen

That's super-helpful. Thanks! I had forgotten about the facing point lock…

Having read http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/sdjr/yellow.html, I think that I the ground signals would be red as I'm assuming that there have been no layout alterations. I'm not sure if the ground signals would be Stevens 'flap' type or small semaphores though. Reading the ground signals section of http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/sdjr/signals.html, I imagine either would be plausible? I'm trying to understand what the ground signal to the right of the slip controls. As I understand it, this signal controls shunting movements onto the running line. Essentially there are two: Firstly a loco running around its coaches and secondly shunting wagons. I'm assuming that most shunt moves will use the running line as a head shunt. Does that mean that the ground signal needs to be off when shunting wagons from the goods shed to say the platform when making up the outbound train? If so, would the signal be easily seen by the local crew when coming from the goods shed, give that it's positioned facing along the runaround loop?

Morning folks! Have spent this morning fixing the controls on the cooker hood. It's only a few years old and I'm unimpressed that the plastic structure holding them has broken. Superglue and plasticard to the rescue! I'm also very thankful for the very helpful comment on my Holcombe thread about how to signal the plan. So much knowledge freely shared. I'll update the plan while drinking my tea next. I'm hoping to get the DCC-EX command station from Chesterfield Models hooked up to Melcombe Road Sidings today to see how it works. Once that's done I can start converting locos as I have a fair few non-sound decoders acquired during sales. Tomorrow I'm hoping to pop over to the Redditch exhibition as it's not too far from Worcester. I'm going to attempt to pick up the bullhead rail and points that I need, which does mean that I need to commit to either large or medium points. Large look better, but medium mean that the curve can be a little less tight. Decisions!

Irritatingly, I need to be in the USA that weekend meeting new client. Gutted!

Looks fantastic! All my stock is ~1935 and I'm incredibly aware that I only need to backdate a little to run SDJR rolling stock. Mind you, I have to build a layout first, before I need to learn how to build coach and wagon kits along with repainting locomotives…

There's barely any SDJR termini! 😆 Bath, Bournemouth, Bridgwater were all built by a separate railway. Wells was its own particular scenario, leaving only Burnham-on-Sea. Looking at the signalling diagrams for Burnham-on-Sea and Bridgwater in Harman & Parkhouse's Pictorial Atlas, the home signal seemed to be a little way out from the station. Burnham-on-Sea diagram has "237 yards" noted next to the signal, and Bridgwater has "25 yards", but I don't know where they are measuring from. Maybe from the signal box? As such, somewhere on the curve seems plausible, but I wonder if it would be more visible inside the curve or on the outside?

Ah! I guess that's why Burnham-on-Sea's was on the platform. Similarly, I see that Bridgwater's was up the line a bit right next to a level crossing, matching Phill Sutters's comments on an earlier plan that the signal box would operate a crossing if it was close enough to the station. Logical, when you know the thinking.

I'm working on the assumption of ~1935-1938. My current stock is post the 1932 renumbering. I may possibly one day back-date to the 1920s for the SDRJ livery. Yes. There'll be a gate at edge of the grey area in where the industry is as I'm assuming is the land that the industry owns. It's probably a brewery, dairy or something like that; I'm keeping options open.

I suspect that I would need a bigger baseboard! Lovely building though… 🤔 It arrived 30 mins ago. My initial skim shows that it is every bit as good as foretold!

This is the current plan. While not germane to the question of the signal locations, a few notes: The double slip exists as I couldn't work out how to fit a point and a trap point into that space such that the next point wasn't over the baseboard joint. I would have gone with Phil's idea of taking the private siding off the main line otherwise. Another compromise is that , it uses large radius points at the cost of a tighter curve at 62cm radius. Not sure if that's the best idea, so maybe I should use medium radius and loosen the curve a little. Signal box position is a complete guess. I assumed that the signalman needs to collect/give a token the box should be close to where he'd do that. Mind you, Burnham-On-Sea's signal box was on the platform itself.

Have neck pain for three days now. Grumbling about it, while taking ibuprofen and gently stretching it. Considering giving up on work for today.

Took me a little over a month. I’ve bookmarked so many posts as I have much to learn in my future and will need to refer back. There’s been more modelling achieved in the average week throughout this thread than I could possibly hope to get done in the average month!

I’m not sure if this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but watching the effort my wife has been putting into getting her Computing degree, it requires as much work nowadays as when I got mine 30 years ago.

For what it's worth, the latest Apple Maps has offline maps. I've not needed them yet, but have set them them up Yorkshire ready for my trip to the NYMR later this year in case I forget closer to the time. Funnily enough, my wife also prefers my larger car to her Aygo for longer journeys.

Irritatingly, they have you over a monopolistic barrel if you want to use the nice large screen for sat nav. Car manufacturer navigation systems aren't especially good in my experience though and don't seem to route as well or know about heavy traffic patterns like Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps do. Also, that £300 update is out of date in a year or so too if you happen to travel to somewhere where the roads have changed. The phone maps are updated for free, much more regularly. As a result, we use our phones in holders attached lower than the windscreen using ProClip holders in each car. These are not cheap as they are per-car model, but in our view they "fit" the car better. https://www.brodit.co.uk The "real" solution is to get a car with Android Auto or CarPlay and then you get the nice big screen with the decent maps.

As I work in IT, I rely on them professionally on a remarkably regular basis!

FWiW, I also cannot react to @18B's posts either.

I built a Finetrax OO point as a test for my new layout. While it went together reasonably well, I didn't enjoy building it enough that I am looking forward to building the rest that are required. As a result, I'm going to use Peco Bullhead as I don't want to resent time spent on my hobby as I'll end up avoiding it.

Ironically, I was talking with @Compound2632 recently at the MRS meeting in Kettering about how hard it is to work out colour of locos and rolling stock from photos. At least with buildings, we can generally find later colour photos that give at least the right flavour. Related : Although out of my timespan, l’ve been staring at colour photos of the SDJR to try and get a feel for the ballast colour and am hoping that the colours in the 30s weren’t that far different from the 60s.

Which reminds me that I need to work out signalling for Holcombe. Hoping that it’ll be simple!

I was not aware - thanks for pointing it out. I have snagged that copy. I had noted that there were a number of stations with the same basic design, so Midsomer Norton will work just as well for me as Wellow. No matter how much research I think I’m doing, there’s always more that can be done.

Thanks. The downward slope looks more interesting than the upward one, though Radstock’s seems quite steep compared to most stations. Downwards feels a bit different and I’m hoping will help give the station a sense of place on the SDJR.

You have interpreted the general idea correctly. I had realised that I needed the ground to be “platform height” on the station entrance side, so the idea is that this higher ground would allow driving straight onto the carriage loading dock from the road which seems to be a neater use of the landscape by the railway company. However we do need to be at ground level for by the time we get into the goods yard itself, so I was thinking of a curved slope, but your point about the camber is well made. I like your idea of keeping it higher lever all the way along to simplify the slopes. Thanks. Not sure how that buffer stop on the carriage loading dock line got there! It’s gone on the master plan now! Interesting point about whether a buffer stop is needed on the platform line. I’ll have to see what I can do there when I get that far. This is incredibly helpful. Thank you.

Copper clad sleepers it will be then! Thanks.

Did you try the ModelTech connectors on a curved join in the end and did it work?