clecklewyke

Since writing the above I've remembered the layout which prompted my thoughts. It is Rod Hall's classic Llanastr Ian

I agree with Donw's comment. It's a pretty standard small terminus model but I'd suggest you'd get more operational fun by increasing the goods yard and reducing the loco depot. The latter could be omitted. being imagined off-scene. But I also have three general points: 1) Don't attempt to include too much. Stations are very large - especially country termini which were built on cheap agricultural land. So they were far too spacious to be represented realistically in the sorts of spaces we have. So we can model just the most interesting bits and leave out the rest. This is Iain Rice's "bitsa" approach. You don't even have to model the whole run-round loop as the left-hand points - they be part of a sector plate fiddle yard. 2) Putting the fiddle yard at the end of the layout will nearly double its length. Ypu could extend the goods yard in front of the fiddle yard. See the original Castle Rackrent as an example, where the fiddle yard was behing a quay-side scene. 3) Read any of Iain Rice's books on compact or cameo layouts. They are ful of inspiration. I hope these ideas are helpful Ian

Have you thought of adding a small curved extension to the "loch" side of the layout and thus changing its shape to a sort of triangle with a curved hypotenuse? * This would then become the front of the layout with a curved pier, along which you could then curve the sidings? The whole thing could then fit into the corber of a room. Building the pier with water in front of it would be fun. Ian * I dragged that word from the recesses of my mind. I haven't used it since "O" levels in 1963!

If you do so please incorporate the steamer pier. The whole point of the station at Loch Tay was to serve the steamers on the loch. Barry Norman shows how this could be done in his Wild Swan book on layout design. The trick is to have the pier in the foreground with trees making the background, i.e. the other way round to Andy's design. Ian (who sails dinghies on Loch Tay and loves exploring this area.)

Tim, when you are as old as me you will realise that time is running out and every minute saved by spending few pennies is worth the cash. If I don't spend it either my children or the tax man will! But it's a dilemma, I'm as mean-fisted as any other Tyke so I do understand where you are coming from. Ian

I have always used Gibson wheels and crank pins. They are designed for each other, look good and work well. The only reason I can think of for not using the correct crankpins is that you have a stock of an alternative. However that requires extra work and the possibility of damaging the wheel or getting the crankpin out of alignment, with consequent poor running. Given that the Gibson crankpins cost only 95p per wheel I cannot see why you should take the risk of not using them. Ian

It's reassuring to know it's not just me. I also am using code 100 as they comprise the "throat" of the fiddle yard so appearance is not critical. It's odd - some work fine but others not, including the three-way. I suppose the fact they are second-hand might be important but they seemed to work fine manually, Ian

Is there experience out there of using Hoffmann motors with Peco points? I've used Hoffmann motors satisfacorily with hand-built P4 points but I have ad to convert to OO and have replaced the P4 points with Peco Streamline points. I now find that the motors do not have enough power to drive the points. I think the springs in the points are too strong for the motors. I suspect that I could overcome the problem by removing the springs but am loathe to mutilate the points in this way. Any other suggestions> Ian

The chassis is brilliantly designed, easy to build and works well (at least in P4). My G5 is just about the best performer on Humber Dock, so fear not - you'll be fine. Ian

I can see the attraction! Best wishes, Ian

Hi, Jonathan, Just a couple of heretical thoughts (which a vicar should have no difficulty in countering). These derive from ideas expressed by Cyril Freezer 50 or more years ago. Amazing how they have stuck! What strikes me about these plans is the enormous length of rural stations - land was cheap in the Victorian countryside. And most trains will simply pass through or pause briefly, the once- or twice-daily stopping goods, the occasional branch train and possibly a through goods reversing into a lye-bye (sp?) to let a faster train pass being the only variations on this theme. Now this is fine if you have a lot of trains and your main interest is watching the trains go by but not much of a challenge if you want to operate a timetable with a group of operators. With about the same number of points and only half the length I have built a four-platform city terminus with a small set of sorting sidings - a subsidiary to the main yards outside the town. For me this is a preferable use of my limited space. I think you will see that this sort of scheme dictates that there will be much more varied operation. Every train has to stop and be reversed, either by running round or attachment of a light engine. Trains are broken up and re-combined. There is constant shunting of wagons in the yard and justification for both long distance and local goods services and a wide variety of passenger and parcels trains. The goods arrival line will sneak off-stage to the fiddle yard so there will be a continuous run for when I just want to see trains pass by. All this can keep two signalmen and three drivers (and probably me as the Fat Controller) happily engaged for hours on end when the area group comes round, and is also worthwhile for just myself or myself and a fellow enthusiast neighbour who comes round most Thursdays. I hope this alternative view gives something to think about, especially about how you want to operate your railway. Whatever you do I hope you have fun! Cheers, Ian p.s. I failed to notice that facing point on your first plan. That would be real heresy for the Midland!

Jonathan, it's good to see you back in harness. I hope the house move goes smoothly and I look forward to reports of wood-cutting, track laying etc. And that's a pretty recognisable example of a Midland Railway junction, shades of Garsdale, with no facing points on the main line. Best of luck! Ian

Please don't or I'll sue for copyright infringement. See posts 22 and 24 above. I hadn't thought of the copyright issue. There are plenty of examples of potential breaches - Borchester, Ambridge, Llatrggub etc. as well as my Royston Vasey. How long does copyright last? Incidentally I love the idea of Wetwang and Haltemprice - my part of the country. There's also a village called Wham near Skipton. Ian

Just testing... Ian (70 this month and feeling it!)

I relied on the imagination of greater brains for two of my layouts. Clecklewyke is JB Priestley's small West Yorkshire mill town created for his play "When we were married" Royston Vasey is another imaginary West Riding town, this time from the League of Gentlemen, and so has local trains for local people and a local shop. When I chose it I had no idea of the Chubbie Brown origin. Try mining from the works of authors who create a convincing sense of place. Hardy, Priestley, Trollope or even a TV or Radio series - The Archers (Borchester!) Coronation Street (Weatherfield, Rosamund Street, Florizel Street) Simple theft! Ian (Edited to correct slip of the brain. "Friends" indeed!)

A friend has despatched a film to Fotoview for processing. After several weeks they have neither returned the photos nor cashed her cheque. Googling "fotoview home" gets the result "The site fotoview.com has been disabled. Please contact support" I suspect the worst. Does anyone know anything about this firm, At least a telephone number would help! Note that my friend is entirely non-digital so has no interest in phone apps etc. Thanks Ian

I hope all goes well for you and that you can return as quickly as possible to your model railway plans. It's such an interesting iconcept and if you want to mull over ideas I'm sure we will all be keen to chip in. Good luck! Ian

Of course not but the original question was about pick-up goods, not express goods. Fast goods needed a fast loco - can someone remind us of the story of a notorious Kings Cross driver catching up th Talisman while driving the down Aberdeen? Was it Bill Hoole? Ian

Yes. The GWR and WR were somewhat lax in their use of what in other regions was defined as express passenger livery. But even elsewhere, shed masters would in extremis use green locos for mundane goods work. Even the mighty Gresley A4s had a power classification of 8P6F. Mind you, shunting with a screw reverser was no sinecure. Ian

Are you referring to the Southern Railway locos which carrie BR Nos 10201 - 3? These are described here as being designed by Bulleid and were certainly a success, lasting in service until 1963 when they were withdrawn, largely bcause they were non-sandard. They look to me to be diesel versions of the Leader, sharing many of the Leader's design concepts - not just the bogies - and their much of their design was eventually developed into the BR class 40 (the EE Type 4 to us preTOPS types). So could the Leader have been developed successfully? Maybe it was, as the BR Class 40? Ian

I also liked this - I'm looking for city station sounds in steam days but I found nothing better than this. My only complaint is that there seemed to me to be too many guards' whistles - or is my memory playing tricks? Ian

Again I say, surely there is not enough space for any meaningful representation of either the goods shed or carriage shed at Swansea, they are just too large. Ian

Sorry, I don't understand this reference to the L&Y. I thought it had nothing to do with South Wales and I thought the Coal Tanks were a purely Crewe design - built before the LNWR took over the L&Y. Can you please explain? Ian

I also want goods to be a major part of Bradford North Western but I decided that a goods yard appropriate to a city, even at a secondary terminus, would be far too large to accommodate. Coal staithes, goods warehouses ("sheds" is too small a word ) cranes etc. take up too much space for the area we have available.. I think they will not fit in and will look more like a small village's yard. What city stations do have is lots of sidings on which to store stock and to sort stock. So I have laid a small set of parallel sidings which is intended to represent a (very!) small sorting yard. They are linked to goods arrival and departure roads so the sequence is: a long distance goods train arrives, the train loco uncouples and goes to shed, a shunting pilot couples up, draws the train onto the headshunt and sorts the wagons into the appropriate sidings for outgoing trains to local yards which are not modelled. Each siding will hold the train for a particular local yard The trains having been made up, small goods locos arrive and pick up their trains and take them to their distinations (which are all represented by the fiddle yard). So there is a constant ebb and flow of main line and local goods trains, in a small area. To give the whole thing purpose you need some way of dictating the destination of each wagon. I use map pins with coloured heads, inserted random;y into holes in the wagon roofs, tarpaulins etc. This is a bit unsightly (Ron complained about the "balloons" above each wagon), but my eyesight is so poor I need something easily visible. There are alternatives, such as cards or even the computerised wagon sorting systems used by our transatlantic friends. Peter Denny simply painted a co;oured spot where the way bill would be on the wagon solebar. When the train was turned on the train-length turntable which made he uses as a fiddle yard a different coloured spot would appear. So I have three sidings, one for Bridge Street yard (black pins), one for Scargill Sidings (white pins) and one for Hammerton Street yard (GN) (red pins). I'd like more but even with such a small yard it can take half an hour to shunt an incoming train - enough for us to dedicate one operator to the task. I hope that helps. If you really want goods warehouses etc., they can be painted on the backscene or modelled in low relief - they make good view lockers at the fiddle yard entry - but whatever you do make them BIG! City warehouses, especially on the LNWR, were superb structures, well worth modelling. Think of Huddersfield, Oldham etc. Keep posting! Ian

Why not try a battery-powered radio-controlled loco. This could use inductive charging, just like my toothbrush and then would be totally unaffected by dirt. There are lots of suppliers out there and his technician will have fun setting it up! Ian