Developments

Just over a year ago (is it really that long?!) I posted a couple of rough sketches showing some ideas for the layout. Since then I have managed to get all the track laid, but that's about it. Despite the painfully slow progress, on the positive side it has allowed for my ideas to develop and evolve a little more.

Since I originally came up with the track plan, one of the difficulties was trying to decide on a 'back story' for the layout that would tie things together and define it a little more. (I suppose I should have got that sorted before the track plan but there we go!)

Around the same time I was inspired by some photos of the Melingriffith Tinplate Works but I didn't want to go down the route of modelling a private industrial complex as such. Then I suggested the idea of a branch line that had lost its passenger service, with the sidings at the front perhaps being part of a goods yard with the old station just 'off scene'. However, this was all rather vague and I still felt something wasn't quite right about it.

(You might ask whether its entirely necessary to have a cohesive back story for such a diminutive layout, but its important to me - maybe even more so given the layout's small size, as it helps to set the small part you actually see within a wider imagined setting and context.)

Recently, through reading a number of books, I have been greatly inspired by the railways of the Forest of Dean and this has proved a huge inspiration in thinking about the layout.

I'm now pretty firmly decided that it should be set within the Forest of Dean during the late 1950s/early 60s. The single through-line would be one of the branches (such as the Coleford or Lydbrook branches - although I'm happy for these sort of specifics to remain vague) that ran off the main line through the forest, serving various collieries, stone works and the like. The line diverging from the loop siding at the back will be a secondary branch or long siding leading to one such facility some distance 'off stage', and the sidings at the front (for which I've had most difficulty coming up with a convincing purpose in the past) will serve loading screens for a closer to hand (though still off stage) colliery.

The screens themselves will be of fairly simple, corrugated iron construction and relatively low profile as some at the smaller collieries were (suitably rusty and dilapidated of course for the era and atmosphere I want to portray). The sidings, which currently end a few inches short of the baseboard edge, will be extended up to the very edge, with the screens (in reality built in half relief) covering the last 4 or 5 inches. (A 'proscenium arch' type arrangement will eventually help to hide the front edges at either side and create the impression of the scene continuing to the left and right.)

Running down from the back of the layout (where it will emerge from the trees) and into the top of the screens will be a trestle-supported rope-worked tubway (which could be made operational) to carry the coal from the pithead (off stage through the trees at the rear) to the screens. This, along with the screens themselves, and suitably placed small trees and scrubby undergrowth, will help to hide/disguise the 'holes in the sky' where the tracks exit to the left.

The right hand end of the layout will remain as I have always imagined it, with a bridge carrying a minor forest road across the railway and disguising the exit at that end. At the back the road will bend round and be hidden by trees and at the front the proscenium arch (and more trees) will hide it. The ground will rise up steeply all along the back of the layout with trees and bushes disguising the join with the backscene.

I know a picture would be better, but I haven't got round to it yet, so these words will have to suffice for now!

Final final final plan!!

The front sidings are now almost laid, believe it or not! (It's a good job I'm not trying to build Retford!!!!)

I've had a slight re-think on the rest of the track plan since the original design. The sketch above shows the revised plan as well as illustrating the other features that will make up the overall scene.

I think having the back siding and industrial buildings at an angle and the through line and loop on a slight curve will add a little more visual interest and hopefully create the impression of more space than if everything was parallel. The back siding will run into the buildings with the track then curving sharply to exit parallel to the back of the layout, allowing for longer trains than can actually be accommodated and possibly loading and unloading of wagons off-stage.

The exit of the through line to 'stage left' will be screened by a small building and some scrubby trees, while the 'stage right' exit will be disguised by an ivy-clad two-span brick road bridge carrying a narrow lane over the railway, the front and back of which will be hidden by a hedge and trees.

In front to the right there'll be the back of some allotments, seperated from the railway by an overgrown hedge. Opposite, at the back of the layout, there'll be an embankment, with steps descending to the trackside from the lane. Along the top of the embankment, disguising the backdrop, will be a thicket of trees.

Most of the track will be buried at least to sleeper height (and some to almost rail level) in modelling clay, weathered, and then liberally 'grassed'. (Some of my favourite railway pictures are of dilapidated railway backwaters, often freight-only or industrial lines, where the railway is gradually being 'reclaimed' by nature.)

Making it a bit more interesting

Maybe I was being a bit too minimalist with my previous plan. I was thinking about what I said about adding an extra track running from end to end allowing for a locomotive to run round its train before shunting the sidings, and decided that this would make quite a significant difference to the operational potential. Bringing the loop crossover into the modelled area would further increase the interest.

I've made some rough adjustments to the Templot plan above to show the idea, with the dotted lines at either end representing the tracks that extend 'off stage'.

Rough plan

OK, here's the first draft - the track plan has been done in Templot, then a bit of colour added in Photoshop. The grid lines are every 3 inches. The whole diorama is just 4'x2'. The track enters from stage right under a brick-built overbridge (cliché yes but still the best form of scenic break, especially in such a small space). The 3 tracks would be fed from free-standing cassettes, positioned as required. The tracks fan out into 4 sidings - the rear siding passes into the works building itself. The siding in front of this passes between two buildings and off stage left. I might add an extra siding alongside this one, also running off stage left, so as to allow a loco to run around its train (making use of off-stage facilities at both ends in the process). The front two sidings would be quite overgrown - the tracks almost hidden in long grass. All around the perimeter of the yard there will be tall, mature trees, giving quite an enclosed, almost wooded feel (and providing an effective scenic break). There's possibly space for something at front right - maybe a small building and vehicle access?

The whole scene would be set up to give the impression of general neglect and disrepair while still being an active industrial facility (though in terminal decline). There would be various odds and ends of junk lying around in corners and between the tracks - rusting, rotting, crumbling away. Rolling stock would consist of open wagons (coal, possibly other raw materials - these would be loaded and unloaded off stage left, allowing full wagons to be drawn in and empties taken away later) and vans (goods outward, probably loaded inside the building itself). Motive power? Well, whatever is available really. Given that there need not be too many clues to location, this could be quite flexible, allowing me to indulge whatever takes my fancy - the theory being that the facility is served by the railway rather than being a privately operated affair.

Track and wheel standards will of course be P4, given that I have nailed my colours to the mast already! Mind you, I will have to try to recreate the appalling track conditions found in these sort of locations so that'll be interesting with the P4 wheels!

A new direction

Over the past few months - as you've probably noticed if you're a regular reader - posts about modelling have tailed off rather. As I observed previously, a lot of this has been down to the development of the MRJ Index taking precedent, but it's also partly the realisation that my grand designs (ok, fairly modest designs) were just not going to happen in the near future because of a lack of the necessary space and time. My plans relied on converting our garage into a workshop/railway room, but this has had to go on the back burner. Also, the amount of time necessary to complete such a project would be fairly considerable. Consequently, I'd lost a bit of direction and drive.

So this past weekend I decided it was time to start investigating the possibility of something a lot smaller, in fact something small enough that it could live permanently on the worktop in our spare room. This would not preclude the other ideas from one day coming to fruition but would likely stand a better chance of getting built, at least in the short-to-medium term.

The scenic part of the layout (or maybe 'working diorama' would be a more suitable description) would need to fit on a single 4'x2' baseboard with simple detachable cassettes for 'off-stage' storage. The challenge, then, is to find a suitable concept/prototype that would work in such a small space, with enough potential scenically and operationally to satisfy me.

I have some interesting ideas brewing, but I'll save these for another post!

After more staring at track plans, measuring baseboards, etc. I'm definitely of the opinion that 3 goods yard sidings is too many for the space I have. What I really don't want to happen is to end up with just an unbroken swathe of tracks between the front of the baseboard and the platform at the back, which would basically be the case if I filled the space with sidings.

To go back to the subject of the engine shed... I was flicking through Barry Norman's book 'Designing a Layout' last night and found myself looking at the Aldeburgh track plan again. OK, it's the opposite side of the country, but this is essentially the same as my previous track plan with the engine shed coming off the back siding - but instead of the siding being used for a loading dock or such like, it is simply an engine servicing road, which makes the idea of the engine shed adjoining it perfectly acceptable. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, because it makes perfect sense.

It's back to plan 7246543 then!!! As BR used to say - we're getting there!

Craigw is right about the engine shed... I'm now considering not including one at all. I don't really want to change the layout significantly as I've already settled on most of the layout being the way I want it (for example, having the platform facing the front of the layout, having the goods yard at the front etc.) which means there really isn't anywhere else to fit it in. In reality, as I've admitted before, an engine shed would be something of an extravegance for such a small terminus anyway, even though I like the idea of modelling one.

So here's the track plan without the engine shed. I've also rotated the whole track plan slightly - bringing the left-hand end closer to the front edge of the layout. I can imagine the view across the railway tracks with meadows sloping gently up towards the backscene (where a hedgerow could disguise the join), similar to Stephen William's Faringdon.



The drawback of removing the engine shed is that it means less operating potential. It's a difficult line to tread between getting the appearance right (spacious and uncluttered) and having enough operating potential to sustain interest. One idea is to try and fit another siding into the goods yard...



...which works in theory (there's sufficient room between the tracks for loading and unloading etc.) but in practice might look too cluttered. For example, the picture of Farindon's goods yard at the bottom of p.78/79 of Great Western Branch Line Modelling Part 3 is absolutely the sort of spacious feel I want to acheive, and this might be lost with too many sidings too close together. The only way to really decide this is to print out the two track plans full size.

If only I'd made the baseboards a just that bit wider - another 6 ins would make all the difference but I'm stuck with 2 ft now - there's no way I'm starting again!!! (I can't move everything back any further as I need to allow enough room for the station building and I'm not a fan of low-relief buildings.)

Another day, another track plan! On the basis that I'm now (once again) intending to use the garage, albeit perhaps still a year or two away, I've reverted back to the 3 baseboard scheme. (11 ft long rather than the 12 ft I was using before to allow sufficient room for 'off-stage' storage (3 ft 6 ins) and a further 6 ins 'manouevering room' for dismantling the layout should it be required (the garage is 15 ft long).

In addition to extending the plan to include the loop entry crossover I've changed the position of the engine shed - I was bothered by it's location before, requiring engines to run into the goods yard to gain access to the shed road, which seemed an unlikely prototype layout. I'm still not 100% convinced with the new location but think it's better here than where it was before. I suppose it could be argued that there isn't really a need for an engine shed at all at such a small branch terminus, but I just like the idea of modelling a small shed scene with the additional scope for engine movements.

I've also kept the line to a double-track formation beyond the loop entry crossover. This is partly because it looks odd having this turnout and the goods yard turnout staggered (which would be necessitated by the baseboard joint in the middle of them) when in real life the track formation would probably flow more smoothly. Also, having the extra running track adds the potential for some extra train movements although to be honest I'm not quite sure what!! My only recourse to a prototype is Llanfyllin where the track continued double for some distance beyond the loop entry crossover before reverting to single track - I don't know how far or why though!

What is gained, I think, by extending the length is not only the obvious benefit of having a little more space to actually run trains (a train-length or so, at least!), but the opportunity to add a little more 'breathing space' to the overall layout of the station area. While spatial compression is often necesary on a model railway to give an overall visual continuity to a scene, too much compression can lead to a cramped feeling that detracts from the spacious, uncluttered atmosphere that characterised many rural railway stations. Some of the best models I have seen have managed to protray something of that sense of space, without trying to fill every available square inch with scenic clutter. A good example is Stephen Williams' Farringdon.

Here's the latest version of the track plan, with the new baseboard size:



The 'back' siding will actually run behind the platform with a loading dock at the end. The 'reverse' siding at the front I am now thinking will be an engine servicing road with a small engine shed, water tower and coaling stage adding visual interst at the front of the layout and helping to break up the view a bit. I've also shortened all the turnouts from C8 to B8 to eek out a few extra inches here and there.

Having got the new basebaords set up in the spare room, covered them in cork (B&Q cork floor tiles) and laid out the track plan on top (and while waiting for all the 00-SF track gauges to arrive or become available), I've been able to spend some just trying to visualise how everything will fit together and look once its finished. For me this is a crucial part of the planning - even though I'm modelling a fictional location I want that location to be as real as possible in my imagination so that when I start building I'm working from a mental picture I already have rather than simply hoping it will all add up to a convincing scene once its finished. I need to know how many lamp posts there are on the platform, where the point rodding goes, the size and position of the trees, whether a boundary is a fence or overgrown hedgerow.... all the sorts of things you could easily find out from photographs if you were modelling a real location and all of which go together to make up the unique feel and atmosphere of a particular place.

00-SF

In the process of preparing to start track building I went back to Ian Rice's "An Approach to Finescale Track" for a bit of a refresher course. In the process of mulling over the various critical gauges and dimensions required, I found myself searching around the various forums etc. on the web for some more advice, and stumbled across a thread discussing 00-SF (otherwise known as 'EM minus 2' apparently).

I have to confess that until now I'd not really pinned down an exact set of standards to use, beyond the vague notion of '00 finescale' and had shied away from further investigation in the slightly foolish hope that I might be able to get everything to work purely by a process of trial and error (for which you might like to read 'wing and a prayer'!). So I was immediately grabbed by the proposition that here is a set of track standards that allow one to run R-T-R locos and stock (at least of the more modern varieties, which is all I will be using anyway) without any re-wheeling or re-gauging (again, something I have no desire to get into at the moment), on hand-built track that has considerably improved appearance and running quality over 'standard' 00.

Without getting too technical, this is achieved by using a minimum track gauge of 16.2mm (EM minus 2mm) with crossing flangeway gaps of 1mm. For more information, see the 00-SF Yahoo group. At first it may seem perverse to further reduce the gauge of what is already under-gauge track, in the pursuit of enhanced realism, but actually when you understand it it makes a lot of sense. Actually, the 0.3mm reduction in gauge is only a 1.8% reduction, so not really noticeable to the naked eye, but the real difference is in the 1mm flangeways, a 20% reduction which makes a noticeable visible improvement and apparently leads to much smoother running through turnouts.

This all seems to fit the bill quite nicely for what I'm looking to achieve, so I've made some enquiries on the 00-SF group about getting hold of some gauges so I can start building to this gauge. I've also re-jigged my Templot plan using the new gauge specification as for some reason I had it set to the BRMSB standard before (although, having already printed out the track plan and started cutting and sticking it into the various sections required for construction, I need to check whether its worth reprinting it or not - I may be able to get away with the BRMSB version and simply rely on the track gauges to achieve the correct measurements, as at first glance the actual flow and radii of the track etc. appears largely unaltered with the new settings).

The question of location

There's still one pretty fundamental aspect of the layout that remains undecided and which needs to be resolved rather quickly. In fact, until it's been decided I can't even start on the trackwork....

It's just the small matter of location!

I can't seem to come to a final decision about where exactly I want to model. There are several prototype scenarios that appeal, most of which I've already written about at one time or another.

Although the exact location of the model is going to be fictional, I still need to have a fairly good idea of location - and region. My first allegiance has always been to the WR. However, the SR also appeals, and to a lesser extent the LMR. The obvious conclusion of this would be the S&D with it's joint railway status seeing locomotives and rolling stock from all three of these regions. However, the thing that slightly puts me off is the difficulty in coming up with a convincing enough scenario for a branch terminus without blatantly copying Chris Nevard's 'Combwich'! Maybe I'm not being imaginative enough but I'm just not sure.

I've already toyed with the idea of basing a layout on Llanfyllin in mid-Wales, but this layout is just too small to get away with a convincing interpretation, even acounting for modellers license.

Then there's the Bude line, and the Southern branches around Hampshire and Dorset...

Even if I don't quite pin it down exactly yet, I really do need to decide whether or not the line is in ex-GWR territory as this will determine the type of chairs used on the track. But I'm not even really sure about this!

HELP!!!!

Fleshing it out

Here's the layout plan with a bit more detail and colour. Although most of the detail is still pretty speculative, I'm gradually starting to build up a picture of how I want the layout to look, what should go where, etc.

A couple of weekends ago I did a bit of work on the baseboards, fitting C&L alignment dowels and bolts to join the two baseboards and make provision for the fiddle yard at one end. Those alignment dowels are a real pain to get right... no matter how carefully I lined everything up and marked it out, it still took me 3 or 4 attempts to get the dowels screwed in so they were perfectly aligned and so that the baseboards actually fitted together!

Next job is to get the remaining bits of woodwork done - backdrop and fascia - so I can move on to actually building the layout at last....

Layout plan 6,583,272...

I printed out the latest track plan at full scale this evening and laid it out on the living room floor to have a look at it properly. Almost immediately it was obvious that it didn't work for several reasons so I went back to the drawing board, and here's the revised (well ok, totally new!) plan...


The platform would be at the back right, the main goods yard to the front, with a (optional) short siding off the platform approach road - a loading dock (or former site of) maybe?

I've taken out the loop return; moving this 'off-stage' means there's a bit more real-estate available for the goods yard.

All but one of the turnouts are C8, which is generous for a layout of this size, but I think it'll look a lot better than trying to use tight radii. I've also introduced a gentle curve to the tracks on the left baseboard, resulting in the platform being at a slight angle to the baseboard edges, to provide a little relief from the otherwise very linear plan.

Llanfyllin inspiration

Like Topsy (so the old phrase goes) it just growed! I seem to have ended up pretty much back where I started out... with a layout plan to fit the maximum available space in the garage, rather than a small-scale intermediate project!

The trouble is, designing small layouts isn't easy when the prototype is far from small. Even the less important branch line stations, and in particular terminii, occupied quite significant areas, and trying to squeeze too much into too small a space is likely to just end up looking wrong.

The latest design (I make no claim to it being the 'final' one - who knows when I'll arrive at that point?!) took a good deal of its inspiration from Llanfyllin, a Cambrian Railways branch terminus, featured in the latest edition of 'Great Western Railway Journal' (published quarterly by Wild Swan Publications). It's absolutely packed with atmosphere and I was immediately cast under its spell!

While still limited in terms of shunting potential, with only three goods sidings (and only two of those in the goods yard as such), I think the additional length would help create more of a feeling of spaciousness and hence realism.

The layout design isn't meant to be an exact copy of Llanfyllin (the track plan is quite different for a start) but rather is inspired by it. I would envisage basing at least some of the buildings (station buildings, signal box, goods shed) on the structures at Llanfyllin while using some artistic license in other areas.

As usual though, as soon as the next bit of inspiration comes along I'll probably change my plans again, so don't hold your breath!!!

In some ways though, the planning is equally as enjoyable as the modelling itself, and, I would like to argue, is as much part of the whole process as anything else (well, I would I suppose, wouldn't I?!).

More expansion and some Great Western leanings...

Over the weekend I printed out the new track plan at full size and laid the two plans out side-by-side on the living room floor to "compare and contrast"! On comparison, the newer plan definitely scored more highly. The flow of lines just looks 'right' compared to the old plan which felt a bit like it had been shoe-horned into the available space.

There have been a few further developments in my thinking. First, I decided that I should rebuild the baseboards. This may sound drastic given the number of hours that went into constructing the first set, but they ended up being a bit of a botched job with the frames being too small (which would pose a problem when it comes to attaching a backscene since the baseboard overhangs the frame by 3"), and the 'lightweight' construction method actually means that there is very little in the way of 'solid' wood in the frames for the fixing of things such as baseboard joining bolts, alignment dowels, the aforementioned backscene, etc. I've decided that the advantages of the lighter weight baseboards are not really sufficient to merit their use unless you're going for significantly larger baseboards than 4'x2'. I also don't think that using solid lengths of planed timber is likely to lead to serious warping of the baseboard surface since any warping would usually occur horizontally rather than vertically, which I don't see as presenting such a problem (of course, I may yet live to regret those words!). Also, rebuilding the baseboards gives me the opportunity to add a further 6" to the length by having two 4'x2' boards rather than one 4'x2' and one 3 1/2'x2' (as I explained before - the result of my being too hasty in the first instance!)

So to the plan above. It's largely the same as before with one or two very minor adjustments to make better use of the space (there's no substitue for printing the thing out at full-size in this regard). The one obvious difference is that I've added a third baseboard! Again, this is a prime case of something starting out small and growing... My thinking is that I can begin with the left and centre baseboards, then move onto the third at a later stage (perhaps when the garage is ready to provide the layout with a more permanent home). I realise now there's no point pretending this is just a 'stop-gap' project. It's already grown well beyond that even before I've laid the first piece of track, so I may as well plan ahead now to eventually be able to use all the space I'll have available in the garage.

The other big consideration currently on the table is whether to stick with my original idea of modelling a fictional S&D branch (as I previously described from Bridgwater to Nether Stowey) or whether to move to a post-nationalisation GWR branch line scene instead. This train of thought (pardon the pun!) is largely due to my recent aquisition of the first two parts of Stephen Williams' "Great Western Branch Line Modelling" (published by Wild Swan) which contain a huge amount of reference material (as well as heaps of inspiration) and which have made me realise that, by comparison, the scope for modelling a fictional S&D branch may be somewhat limited (in particular the choice of buildings and structures available to copy). I'm sure this debate will rage in my mind for some time to come so don't expect a definitive answer just yet! The most pressing 'need-to-know' factor relating to this is that if I decide to go with the GWR then I'll need to use 2-bolt chairs on my track rather than 3-bolt chairs (and that also means I can't use the C&L flexi-track so would have to hand-build the plain tack as well......).

Another track plan!

A couple of new books arrived last week - Barry Norman's "Designing a Layout" and Stephen Williams' "Great Western Branch Line Modelling Part 1". Both contain a good number of track plans (both prototype and model) and photographs of stations. And the inevitable has happened - I've started experimenting with new track plans!! (Now you might be beginning to see why I've not built a layout yet!)

The track plan above got its inspiration from two very different locations: Aldeburgh and Shipston on Stour. Opposite sides of the country but both quite similar in terms of their track layouts with the goods yard opposite the platform, and the goods shed situarted on a siding immediately adjacent to the run-round loop.

As well as the engine shed siding, I've also added a short siding at the end of the platform for loading and unloading cattle or possibly milk.

I actually rather like the idea of the goods yard being at the front of the layout: its more accesible for a start (useful when you're coupling and uncoupling wagons with 3-link couplings!) and a lot of the operational interest is in the shunting of goods wagons.

Again, the exit to the fiddle yard is hidden by a road bridge and backscene joins and corners are disguised with trees and hedges. The small hut to the extreme left of the goods yard is the weighbridge office.

Trailing sidings

Apparently it took Martyn Welch 5 years to come up with the final track plan for 'Hursley', so maybe I can be forgiven for taking ages over mine!

My latest thoughts are that the position of the coal yard sidings, while undoubtedly making for some interesting shunting manouevres, is fairly improbable in real life. Sidings were usually laid out to make shunting as straightforward and quick as possible, which seems to have usually meant from one direction only in branch line situations. Having any 'trailing' goods sidings at all is fairly unlikely, still more so when half the yard faces in one direction on one side of the station and half the yard faces the other way on the other side! Hardly likely unless there was some severe geographical limitation imposed when the railway was constructed.

So I'm now looking at removing the coal sidings altogether (at least in this location) and concentrating all the goods facilities - including coal - in the main goods yard behind the station. I'm now veering away from having a full-sized goods shed in favour or something more like the one modelled on Hursley, or the prototype one at Midford on the S&D - a small currugated iron shed with loading dock, adjacent to the track. This wouldprovide more space and enable me to get a third goods siding in, still with ample room, I think, so it doesn't look squashed.

I'm also thinking of moving the engine shed to the opposite side of the line - trailing off the main platform loop. I'm not sure if this is a more likely location for it - the advantage is locos that are simply running round a train can run on directly into the shed road for water etc. rather than having to perform a forwards/backwards/forwards manouevre across to the other side, then back again.

I might possibly have a short trailing siding on the other side (where the shed road was previously) - the idea being that this would have been the location of a cattle dock and would have been shunted by horse. Of course, there's no practical way the siding could be used during loco-shunting, so it would essentially be a dummy siding - perhaps overgrown with grass and weeds?

I think a headshunt as such is uncalled for in this setting - the station would never have been busy enough to warrant having one would it?

Well, that's that for now - until the next time I open Templot!!!