TravisM

All sensible suggestions, thought's and questions are most welcome, as to buffers on the head shunts, I've decided only to have them in the warehouse and the siding under the overhead crane. I want the world to think that they go further on, so if I decide to expand the layout, I won't have to worry about removing them. To stop stock rolling off, I plan to use thick clear plastic that I can screw to the ends, high enough to stop stock hitting the floor, not high enough to be noticeable. I'll probably have long gone up the chimney before Peco finally do a Bullhead short crossing, so I'll have to make use of their normal code 75 for now.

Finally managed to get the printer working and started to figure out what goes where, and exactly how much room I have. Here's some pictures of the progress.

Oh I plan too 😂. Learnt from bitter experience not to do that first. But first I need to sort out my damn printer so I can print out these templates.

Tim Horn delivered my baseboard for the layout today, fully assembled, which was extremely generous of him. I've decided to go with the plan I've uploaded, because after playing around with different plans I had drawn by placing track roughly where I wanted it to go, this one worked the best. As you can see by the pictures, I've allowed 14 inches as the absolute minimum for a head shunt, which equates to one Class 08 and one BYA bogie wagon. I'm planning to use Peco Code 75 Bullhead rail for the visible sections of the layout as I think it will look so much better, but I'm having problem downloading the Peco point templates because Peco send the plan to the printer as a PDF, and my printer won't print them, so I'm a bit stuck at the moment. I'm sure there's away round this.

Closest I'm ever likely to get to one, 841 - Class O - 0-8-0 - Museum of the Moscow Railway, Moscow Rizhsky Station - 06/2017 😂

As I've got one on order, really looking forward to seeing the samples. I know this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but roughly how long before the samples are approved and they arrive at Rails, and into my grubby little paws.

I like this plan over your latest creation as everything flows nicely. By putting in carriage sidings, your creating more work for yourself if your running it as a one man band, or if you have others in to help run it, do you have enough space in the operating well without getting in each others way?

I think I'll leave it as it is as I've got stock I can use, a Class 08 shunter and various other items I wanted to use on the layout, ie containers, vehicles etc, which focus the attention to it being set in present day. As this is supposed to be a money saving project and use what I already have, I'm defeating the principle idea and possibly spending more money which I could eventually use on my Cumbrian Coast layout.

After a trip to West Hill Wagon Works new shop opening yesterday, I was able to study their two helixes and the approaches needed to get them to work properly without derailments. I've come to the conclusion that my St Bees plan works great on paper, the reality is that I'm going to run out of room very quickly. The whole plan would have worked beautifully had my room been another 18 inches/2 feet longer in each direction. With a heavy heart, I'm going to have to compromise (again) and come up with a new plan. I've also attached a picture of one of West Hill Wagon Work's Helixes and you can see that it takes up more space than I had originally hoped, and that uses 3rd and 4th radius curves, which is what I would have needed to have two trains able to use the helix at the same time. It was also nice to see @Accurascale at the shop, showing off their new wares.

I'm wondering if I should backdate it to the 70's, mainly because the wagons are shorter, so more of them and might look better on the tighter curves, as well as having possibly more shunting options. Instead of using a BR shunter, using a Sentinel 0-6-0 diesel as the docks shunter as not all docks used BR traction.

Having seen one of the Accurascale pannier tanks in the flesh earlier today, even though it was undecorated, it looked the part. I forgot to ask, apart from what era your modelling, what area as well? In most cases, a J78 and pannier tank would have been poles apart as I think (happy to be corrected) that J78’s were a northeast loco, where as the pannier’s could be found just about all over the western region. As I’ve found with my ‘The Docks’ layout, you need to plan your shortest siding so it can accommodate your biggest loco with your longest piece of rolling stock. Something I’ve learned from bitter experience. Also, don’t let being young put you off as most of us here are big kids at heart 😜

That’s why I do a cut and past reply. So much easier and both parties know that the transaction has gone well.

Unfortunately that’s buyers for you. I tend now to leave feedback only when the buyer leaves theirs. I also put that in the item description, which usually motivates people as they want to been seen as a good buyer.

Hi there, Welcome to the RMWeb club, and most on here are very welcoming to newbie’s, so don’t be scared to ask questions. You have some interesting ideas and you could use them straight of the mark, but I do have a few questions. 1, I notice you are in Finland, are you planning to model UK or European practices? 2, What scale are you modelling? 3, What era are you modelling, ie steam, diesel or change over? 4, The biggie, what do you want to achieve? Sometimes we over extend ourselves and it looks a mess. I like to follow the KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid), as well as ‘less is sometimes more’. Remember, this is all fun, so enjoy and don’t be too hard on yourself, or take notice of armchair critics.

Im not planning to have the Class 60 on the layout due to length of head shunts etc, it would be assumed that that it was left at the exchange sidings (as per real life). Also, as it’s a stand alone layout, there would be no fiddle yards.

Any better?

Good improvement but there's zero room for a head shunt by the yard office. I need to have at least 13 inches there.

Oh dear, I thought I had that covered, it can but not as easily as I first hoped. Oh well, back to the drawing board, or back to the original plan. As they say 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'!

This might be a better plan. The track by the home signal would be the lead into the dock complex from the exchange sidings.

Hi Keith, Thank you for your comments and I've also got a copy of the book, and the whole thing was built in two weeks, track, electrics, scenery etc. I also wanted it to be stand alone, plus portable, but I didn't want to follow Robert Smaus track plan exactly, so I'm trying to 'anglize' the layout if at all possible, and that's why I asked for others input. I still might stick with the original plan as it does work really well.

I had an attempt to copy your plan using AnyRail and Peco Code 75 track. I couldn't quite manage the plan exactly, so this was the best I could do. Also, the shortest train I can run is 13 inches.

Interesting plan you’ve drawn @Schooner and when I get home, I’ll have a play with it on AnyRail and see if it fits as you drawn it. Thanks for the input.

Thank you for all your replies, very informative and helps a lot. The road is basically straight with no islands or traffic calming measures. I like the idea of putting two trucks side by side, and working it out from there.

I’m building a small shunting layout based on a docks scene and I want to put a road in the foreground, but I have absolutely no idea how wide it should be. As the layout is based in the present day, the road will be a representation of a two lane carriageway leading up to the docks main gate, so large trucks will be using it. Could someone tell me how wide it needs to be, with a kerb to get a realistic interpretation.

Not needed as you’re going to cut short the head shunt into steel warehouse, and I want openings for trucks to back into. Remember the KISS method, less is more.