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My 00 Gauge layout - Oldmoor Junction Model Railway

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43055

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I hadn't thought of that - I normally use an old towel (white in colour to make bits easier to spot) on top of a cutting mat (which I put on the table just out of habit now), which seems to work. :)


Haha - thanks very much! :D I try to make it funny and it's nice to know it works (sometimes at least). A lot of the humour comes from Victoria Wood; to the extent that one of the shops on the layout is to be named 'Acorn Antiques' when I get around to it.

===============

I've made a couple of changes to Oldmoor-on-Sea today. I say 'a couple', but really it's just adding two sidings. This diagram explains the changes (this is like a government briefing, isn't it?):

View attachment 93363
(Don't worry about Thomas - he's there because he put sugar in the engine of the Fat Controller's car this morning and he's being kept off the rails until a tunnel can be found to brick him into)

The new siding, shown with the green line, is going to serve the yet-to-be-built railway hotel. It'll be long enough to hold a small engine and a few wagons containing supplies for the hotel and should hopefully add a bit of interest to the station. I can keep the curved loop as I can just park trains on top of the points leading into the new siding. To allow for the hotel to fit on the walkway, I'll need to add a couple of extensions to the latter - these are shown with the red triangles. The actual sand area is going to be a lot smaller on this version of the layout than that without the new siding, but I think (or hope) it'll work. :)
The new siding to the top of the picture started the changes I've made today; the idea for this bit of the layout was, before Oldmoor-on-Sea, to have a heritage railway station with a two-track engine shed, and this is something I wanted to try and replicate in some form here. I like the idea of maybe being able to have even a tiny heritage operation running from the station, even if it is just an old Class 121 or 14xx and autocoach. Moving the end platform section, it turns out, has allowed for an extension to the pre-existing platform as well: only by a small amount but it should make the difference between having, say, four wagons in the platform and five.

That's it - that and to say that I didn't get around to having a look at the Deltic at the weekend: I need to get that done at some point. I've found a YouTube channel called 00Bill, and the guy on there fixes engines like that all the time so hopefully I can use his videos as a base for my own servicing.

Well done for making it through all that; it's the model railway equivalent of 'what I did on my holidays' (reason being I've said a lot without actually saying much - see, I said it was like government), but hopefully of at least some interest to someone.

-Peter :)
I've had that same thing with my layout more times than I'd like to admit - although I'm rarely adding new bits; it's normally because I've moved things and can't be bothered to tidy them away! :D

-Peter

==========

I've come up with this trackplan for the railway centre/Oldmoor Junction area:
View attachment 93810

I know there's an awful lot going on in this diagram so hopefully I can help explain it here.
  • The railway centre has been squished into a smaller area to allow for the larger area it once occupied to be taken over, in part, by the mainline depot. The railway centre is now comprised of three sidings, but this won't be a massive issue as I've got an idea to store some heritage stock in the Oldmoor-on-Sea area as well so heritage stuff will still be on the layout. The way for visitors to access the railway centre hasn't changed; there will be a service, probably formed of an autocoach with the 14xx, running from Oldmoor Junction platform 1 to the goods shed (which has a platform, hence why it's being used as a makeshift station), where people will alight and start their railway centre visit.
  • The Goods Shed for the railway centre will still have a form of road access. There will be a small road going along the side of the building which will connect to the main road as marked on the diagram: this smaller road will end in a gate preventing random people gaining access to the railway centre. The road will be fenced off from the mainline depot and will form part of the railway centre site which visitors can walk around.
  • Siding 4 on the diagram is a shared section of track between the railway centre and the mainline depot; I felt that it was a bit silly for the mainline depot to expand to be so close to the railway centre and the railway centre would be too close to the depot if it was to be expanded. This section of track is also necessary for engines to enter and exit the depot: because of the track design, engines need to run into Oldmoor Junction platform 1 before reversing and heading into the depot.
  • The depot (I'm also calling it a Traction & Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot (T&RSMD) - apologies for any confusion) will be comprised of three sidings, with one large shed covering them all. Each road in the shed will be a different length depending on the length of the siding it covers: this seems to happen at a few depots and so it's not totally unrealistic.
  • From a realism perspective, all of the pointwork in the railway centre/depot area will be hand-operated; I did think about having a small signal box at the end of Oldmoor Junction platform 1, but that seemed a bit silly considering the station already has a signal box at the left-hand end (on the diagram) of platform 5.

Please do let me know what you think of this: I quite like it as it manages to work in everything I wanted - the only issue is the cost of all those points!

-Peter
Some nice ideas here. It is hard to see how to change the layout to reduce the number of points and still keep everything you want. I suppose you could merge sidings 1 & 2 as siding 1 looks to be the same length as a point on the map. I was going to question the second cross over at Oldmoor-on-Sea but you explained why it's there and I have something similar on my layout! With the connection between platforms 3/4 and 1/2 it could also be used as part of the platform face for platform 4 giving it a extra coach length. Don't worry about the pointwork being hand operated as all of mine is operated by the 'hand of god' on my layout.

Also I see you are on the RM web now :lol:
 
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Peter C

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Some nice ideas here. It is hard to see how to change the layout to reduce the number of points and still keep everything you want. I suppose you could merge sidings 1 & 2 as siding 1 looks to be the same length as a point on the map.
Trying to keep a balance between number of points and amount of track is difficult, as you say. I think I've caved in though with my use of points - the trackplan works and does what I'd like it to do so I suppose the number of points is just going to have to be faced :D
I hadn't thought about making sidings 1 and 2 into one - siding 2 is supposed to be twice the length of siding 1 but with the curved piece, I'm not sure if that's the case - if that makes sense!

I was going to question the second cross over at Oldmoor-on-Sea but you explained why it's there and I have something similar on my layout! With the connection between platforms 3/4 and 1/2 it could also be used as part of the platform face for platform 4 giving it a extra coach length.
The idea for the bit at Oldmoor-on-Sea with the loop and kickback siding is that the platform will run from the top of the baseboard all the way down to the bottom, following the track - so that's hopefully what's going to happen. I thought it would be easier to make one long platform than design some convoluted area to get around the fact that the track serving the railway hotel and the track serving the passenger platform are supposed to be for separate purposes (if that is at all understandable).

Don't worry about the pointwork being hand operated as all of mine is operated by the 'hand of god' on my layout.
I've been wondering about whether to motorise the points for Oldmoor-on-Sea; the issue is that when operating the layout, I tend to sit level with Oldmoor Town station, meaning changing the points at Oldmoor-on-Sea requires walking to and from the controller, but it's all exercise at the end of the day :D

Also I see you are on the RM web now :lol:
Yep - thought I'd join the cool kids (is that what the youth say? I'm not cultured enough re. this: apologies.) and share updates on there too. I noticed our friend Mr @Cowley is on there too? ;)

-Peter
 

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I am on there @Peter C. ;)
It’s quite nice for me as I don’t feel like I should be doing something... I must say that the people on there that have taken an interest in my ramblings have been very good to me actually.
 

Peter C

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I am on there @Peter C. ;)
It’s quite nice for me as I don’t feel like I should be doing something... I must say that the people on there that have taken an interest in my ramblings have been very good to me actually.
I just happened to notice your thread on there at some point and guessed that there probably weren't two exact-same layouts of Lapford in N gauge being built... ;)
It is a nice site, definitely. Obviously as it's entirely dedicated to railway modelling, there are going to be more people on there who can help out with modelling conundrums, but as you said a while ago: the modelling section on here is coming along very nicely - it's certainly a lot more popular than when I first joined the forums!

-Peter
 

reddragon

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I just happened to notice your thread on there at some point and guessed that there probably weren't two exact-same layouts of Lapford in N gauge being built... ;)
It is a nice site, definitely. Obviously as it's entirely dedicated to railway modelling, there are going to be more people on there who can help out with modelling conundrums, but as you said a while ago: the modelling section on here is coming along very nicely - it's certainly a lot more popular than when I first joined the forums!

-Peter
Nobody has notice my thread for days! Could someone comment please :)
 

43055

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Trying to keep a balance between number of points and amount of track is difficult, as you say. I think I've caved in though with my use of points - the trackplan works and does what I'd like it to do so I suppose the number of points is just going to have to be faced :D
I hadn't thought about making sidings 1 and 2 into one - siding 2 is supposed to be twice the length of siding 1 but with the curved piece, I'm not sure if that's the case - if that makes sense!
Ok. Using the plan siding 1 just looks very short to me so wouldn't be able to hold much.

Yep - thought I'd join the cool kids (is that what the youth say? I'm not cultured enough re. this: apologies.) and share updates on there too. I noticed our friend Mr @Cowley is on there too? ;)

-Peter

I am on there @Peter C. ;)
It’s quite nice for me as I don’t feel like I should be doing something... I must say that the people on there that have taken an interest in my ramblings have been very good to me actually.

I just happened to notice your thread on there at some point and guessed that there probably weren't two exact-same layouts of Lapford in N gauge being built... ;)
It is a nice site, definitely. Obviously as it's entirely dedicated to railway modelling, there are going to be more people on there who can help out with modelling conundrums, but as you said a while ago: the modelling section on here is coming along very nicely - it's certainly a lot more popular than when I first joined the forums!

-Peter
Glad to see a few of us are on there too. I mostly hide in the background looking at the products area more than the layouts.
 

Peter C

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Ok. Using the plan siding 1 just looks very short to me so wouldn't be able to hold much.
It is a bit short but could hopefully be able to hold a small tank engine or a wagon. Not much but something :)

Glad to see a few of us are on there too. I mostly hide in the background looking at the products area more than the layouts.
Haha! :D I'm still learning how to use RMWeb - it doesn't work like I think it should most of the time (and surely the issue can't be my fault ;)).

==============

Talking of trackplans, I thought it might be worth saying that I think there's a new design on the layout. I'm not going to share things yet (unless you all ask really nicely) otherwise this thread could be renamed "Examples of how Peter can't make his mind up and will probably never get the layout finished", but I'll share a few things here:
  • Turns out that moving the railway centre to where the mainline T&RSMD was to begin with solves most of the issues I had. It still allows for a sizable set-up - four sidings and a small station - and it gives the entire railway centre area over to be the T&RSMD. I've got things laid out (goods shed, level crossing, small signalbox, coal merchants building) and it looks nice too
  • Town planning is difficult
  • Squishing everything I wanted to have on the layout into a small area requires having a convoluted kickback siding set-up but is jolly satisfying when it all works
  • Town planning is made difficult in no small part by the Hornby insurance offices building; massive, heavy, and a pain to work with (but that's enough about Mrs Miggins)
  • 1:76 scale cars are smaller than I think they are so the roads can be quite small and still realistic
  • The building layout design/town planning was really difficult OK: it took much longer than expected and the buildings only just work and most of Oldmoor is now going to be parking spaces but that's better than nothing
As I said - if you ask nicely and say please, I'll share what I've come up with: complete with poor MS Paint captions and annotations. :)

~~~~~

I think it's probably time for the next instalment of everyone's favourite soap comedy opera: Mrs Miggins Investigates...
Did Mrs Miggins ever find who stole her gramophone? Where did Dave Hatley go on holiday for Easter? Why do I keep asking questions?

We join Mr and Mrs Miggins in the Crown & Anchor pub. Mrs Miggins is talking to Dave Hatley.
"Well I never knew you could do that with a felt-tip pen and a fish finger," she says.
"You pick up this sort of thing after working in the pub industry for as long as I have," says Dave, who's been working in pubs (he says working, he means drinking as a customer) for decades now.

Mr Miggins is currently on the floor, completely plastered after having had one pint too many. He was well-known in Oldmoor when he was younger for being able to drink 100 pints in one sitting, and wants to try and prove he can still do it. Mrs Miggins hasn't noticed this yet as she's so engrossed in what Dave has to say.
"Did I ever tell you about that time I went to Oxford?" says Mrs Miggins.
"I don't think you did Maureen," says Dave.
Mrs Miggins goes on to tell a long and rather boring tale about the time she went to Oxford; highlights included her visit to the museum, walking through the grounds of the university, and how she got done for trespassing.

Eventually, Mrs Miggins notices her husband slowly climbing back up onto the stool next to her. "What were you doing on the floor?" she asks him.
"Oh, nothing" says Mr Miggins, embarrassed that he'd only had half a pint.

~~~~~

Apologies for that being such a short story, but I thought it was worth just posting it as I know many of my readers (in my dreams) were really confused following the last episode focusing on the mystery of the missing teapot in Little Piddling-on-the-Wold. :)

Thanks for reading,

-Peter
 

hexagon789

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Haha! :D I'm still learning how to use RMWeb - it doesn't work like I think it should most of the time (and surely the issue can't be my fault ;)).
I joined rmweb before here, and pre-website redesign. I've never felt it worked properly since the redesign, but I can't quite express why...


"Examples of how Peter can't make his mind up and will probably never get the layout finished"
I feel like that as well sometimes, that seems to be how it goes - you aren't alone!


  • Turns out that moving the railway centre to where the mainline T&RSMD was to begin with solves most of the issues I had. It still allows for a sizable set-up - four sidings and a small station - and it gives the entire railway centre area over to be the T&RSMD. I've got things laid out (goods shed, level crossing, small signalbox, coal merchants building) and it looks nice too
  • Town planning is difficult
  • Squishing everything I wanted to have on the layout into a small area requires having a convoluted kickback siding set-up but is jolly satisfying when it all works
  • Town planning is made difficult in no small part by the Hornby insurance offices building; massive, heavy, and a pain to work with (but that's enough about Mrs Miggins)
  • 1:76 scale cars are smaller than I think they are so the roads can be quite small and still realistic
  • The building layout design/town planning was really difficult OK: it took much longer than expected and the buildings only just work and most of Oldmoor is now going to be parking spaces but that's better than nothing
It's interesting to read of others' problems/issues and workarounds, I'm glad you've managed to achieve some workarounds - you're first point in particular about the moving the railway centre, I often when planning things out do seem to keep moving bits and pieces around. Trying to obtain interest while preserving flexibility, it's not easy sometimes


I think it's probably time for the next instalment of everyone's favourite soap comedy opera: Mrs Miggins Investigates...
Did Mrs Miggins ever find who stole her gramophone? Where did Dave Hatley go on holiday for Easter? Why do I keep asking questions?

We join Mr and Mrs Miggins in the Crown & Anchor pub. Mrs Miggins is talking to Dave Hatley.
"Well I never knew you could do that with a felt-tip pen and a fish finger," she says.
"You pick up this sort of thing after working in the pub industry for as long as I have," says Dave, who's been working in pubs (he says working, he means drinking as a customer) for decades now.

Mr Miggins is currently on the floor, completely plastered after having had one pint too many. He was well-known in Oldmoor when he was younger for being able to drink 100 pints in one sitting, and wants to try and prove he can still do it. Mrs Miggins hasn't noticed this yet as she's so engrossed in what Dave has to say.
"Did I ever tell you about that time I went to Oxford?" says Mrs Miggins.
"I don't think you did Maureen," says Dave.
Mrs Miggins goes on to tell a long and rather boring tale about the time she went to Oxford; highlights included her visit to the museum, walking through the grounds of the university, and how she got done for trespassing.

Eventually, Mrs Miggins notices her husband slowly climbing back up onto the stool next to her. "What were you doing on the floor?" she asks him.
"Oh, nothing" says Mr Miggins, embarrassed that he'd only had half a pint.
I like your little anecdotes, Mr Miggins must've been quite some bloke to put away 100 pints! ;)
 

Peter C

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I joined rmweb before here, and pre-website redesign. I've never felt it worked properly since the redesign, but I can't quite express why...
I think in my case it's just a case of being too used to this site and expecting everything to work the same over there!

I feel like that as well sometimes, that seems to be how it goes - you aren't alone!
Ah that's good - I do wonder sometimes if I've made more changes to my layout than maybe anyone else ever in the history of small model railways... ;) My reasoning for changing things every two seconds is always because I'd prefer to have a nice layout after changing it a million times than change it once or twice and have something decent but not quite what I was after.

It's interesting to read of others' problems/issues and workarounds, I'm glad you've managed to achieve some workarounds - you're first point in particular about the moving the railway centre, I often when planning things out do seem to keep moving bits and pieces around. Trying to obtain interest while preserving flexibility, it's not easy sometimes
I agree with you with regards to reading about other people's layouts and their issues/solutions. Having less space than others on here means more compromises have to be made but I think I've managed to balance too much track and too much scenery. What kind of layout do you have? I seem to remember you mentioning it before but I'm not sure?

I like your little anecdotes, Mr Miggins must've been quite some bloke to put away 100 pints! ;)
Thanks :D
That was the issue you see - he said he "put away" 100 pints, but he meant that he actually just put them away and never drank them: he'd have a couple, hide the other 90-odd his mates had got for him, wait until they were looking the other way and hide them, and then pretend to have had all of them and be perfectly fine!

=================

I thought it might be worth sharing the current trackplan:
1617693070300.png

The new design for the T&RSMD gives over loads of space in comparison to the original design. With the large engine sheds, it looks a bit like Old Oak Common (and I use the phrase "a bit" because it's nothing like OOC really ;)) - I might expand the lower engine shed to cover the bottommost track of the T&RSMD too if there's enough space behind the shops in the town scene.

I've decided to number the T&RSMD platform as no. 1 at Oldmoor Junction as I just like the idea of having the London-bound platform (the one at the top of the diagram) being numbered 5: it's been like that for ages now. Passenger services won't use this platform but it's not unheard of for a mainline station to have a numbered but unused platform: Birmingham Moor Street has Platform 5, which hasn't been used for quite a while:
1617693397369.png
(not my photo - (c) Copyright N Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.)


I tried setting out some of the buildings for the railway centre yesterday, and they don't look too bad:
Oldmoor Railway Centre.jpeg

The level crossing is a Bachmann one I was given as a present a few years ago and hadn't really got around to using on the layout as it's a single-track one and my layout is, for the most part, double-track. It's going to act as an access-point for road vehicles entering the railway centre: these vehicles will be primarily coal-carrying as the coal merchants is right next to the crossing to allow for easy transfer of goods. The signalbox next to the crossing (on the other side in this photo) is going to act as an entrance kiosk for visitors.

The goods shed is going to be mainly a storage shed for locos and carriages: I'll add some detail in there at some point to make it look like that's where engines are serviced/maintained. It fits in the space given, but there's a bit of an issue.
Oldmoor Railway Centre and Oldmoor Junction.jpeg
As you can see in this photo, the gap between the goods shed and the outermost track of Oldmoor Junction is going to be quite tight. There'll be fences blocking off both bits, so there will be some form of access to Oldmoor Junction, but they won't solve the issue of the road/path being so small (it's 30mm wide, leaving space for fences alongside the goods shed and the track).
I can't move the track, as it's essential for making the T&RSMD work, and I can't move the goods shed, as it won't fit anywhere else.
There are three solutions which I can think of here:
  1. Design the outermost track of Oldmoor Junction so it's set into the ground, like you'd see on a tramway
  2. Make an entrance to Oldmoor Junction in this space, at the other end of platforms 1/2:
1617694496632.png


3. Put a small car park area where the red box is on the above diagram, make the road between the track and the goods shed into a pedestrian-only area, and then continue with the station as planned (the car park may be in a slightly different position but the point still stands)​
What do you all think? I'm thinking about going with the third option, but the first one also appeals. If you know of any real-life examples of stations with entrances a bit like this, then do share as I'd love to see them.

Thanks for reading this really long post - I promise I'll start making smaller posts soon. ;)

-Peter
 

Cowley

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Really good. I like that second to last photo where it’s looking up through the buildings.
Currently smashing concrete up with a sledgehammer so I’ll post something later. :)
 

Peter C

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Really good. I like that second to last photo where it’s looking up through the buildings.
Thanks very much :) I've been trying to work out how to make the layout look a bit more interesting and photos from different angles seems to be the way to do it, so I'll carry on with that then!

Currently smashing concrete up with a sledgehammer so I’ll post something later. :)
Sounds like jolly good fun - is this some sort of concrete industry you're developing in your garden? ;)

-Peter
 

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No it’s work Peter. So at least I’m getting paid to do it. ;)
 

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Really good. I like that second to last photo where it’s looking up through the buildings.
Currently smashing concrete up with a sledgehammer so I’ll post something later. :)
I only do demolition at the weekends :)

Currently stripping a room for refurbishment.
 

hexagon789

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I agree with you with regards to reading about other people's layouts and their issues/solutions. Having less space than others on here means more compromises have to be made but I think I've managed to balance too much track and too much scenery. What kind of layout do you have? I seem to remember you mentioning it before but I'm not sure?
Relatively small like yours, I don't have a thread of my own as I don't feel it's far enough developed to warrant it.


The new design for the T&RSMD gives over loads of space in comparison to the original design. With the large engine sheds, it looks a bit like Old Oak Common (and I use the phrase "a bit" because it's nothing like OOC really ;)) - I might expand the lower engine shed to cover the bottommost track of the T&RSMD too if there's enough space behind the shops in the town scene.
Thanks for sharing your plan, really helps to understand your project more.


I tried setting out some of the buildings for the railway centre yesterday, and they don't look too bad:
I think it looks fine, I really like the 'rolling stock display' nature of this section, I'd like to develop something similar myself.
 

Peter C

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Relatively small like yours, I don't have a thread of my own as I don't feel it's far enough developed to warrant it.
Ah fair enough - sounds much more structured (if that's the right word?) than my thought process - I just sort of went for it and made the thread and everyone's got to see how indecisive I am!

Thanks for sharing your plan, really helps to understand your project more.
Nice to know it could help. I've been working on a couple of things for the layout this afternoon so I'll make a post tomorrow describing what I'm to do next - rather unsurprisingly, it'll involve another trackplan (probably: I'm still not finished with it yet).

I think it looks fine, I really like the 'rolling stock display' nature of this section, I'd like to develop something similar myself.
Thanks :) I got the idea from Didcot Railway Centre, where they have plenty of space to store engines. My original idea of having a running line incorporated into the railway centre somehow fell through as there just isn't the space, so a more museum-like approach is what I'm going for.

-Peter
 

hexagon789

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Ah fair enough - sounds much more structured (if that's the right word?) than my thought process - I just sort of went for it and made the thread and everyone's got to see how indecisive I am!
Not at all, I don't feel my plan is any more settled or less changing


Thanks :) I got the idea from Didcot Railway Centre, where they have plenty of space to store engines. My original idea of having a running line incorporated into the railway centre somehow fell through as there just isn't the space, so a more museum-like approach is what I'm going for.
I think we discussed this before and I said how I was very taken by the idea because it would allow me to display stick which otherwise wouldn't really fit and as with yourself - it's space to store engines etc
 

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I think we discussed this before and I said how I was very taken by the idea because it would allow me to display stick which otherwise wouldn't really fit and as with yourself - it's space to store engines etc
I think we have, now you mention it. I hadn't thought about using such an area as display space for stock which doesn't work with the rest of a layout.

===============

Talking of the railway centre, I've come up with another (and finalised, for definite) trackplan for the railway centre. This is definite as I've started ballasting and gluing it all.
1617807125283.png
There's a bit more going on in this design than in the previous one - the run-around loop facility is a major part of it.

One of the things I like the most is the track going behind the row of terraced houses. The idea is that the railway centre was once a goods yard - hence the goods shed - and that this bit of track was a line connecting the goods yard to some form of small industrial complex where the insurance offices building is now located. A small engine, owned by the industrial complex, would run between the former and the goods shed to transfer wagons which would be shunted into trains and then sent away.
Continuing this history idea, the industrial complex closed several years before the preservation group got to preserving the goods yard. The track was taken up and the engine was sold off. The railway centre preservation group, when buying the goods yard, also bought the trackbed for the industrial track: this prompted them to buy the engine which had worked on the line from another heritage site and to start restoring the line as much as they could. I've decided to model this bit of track as if the group has only finished laying and ballasting it within, say, a year, so it's going to be cleaner than the rest of the track in the railway centre.
I'll write a more detailed history of this line after posting this and then I can share it as a .pdf or something in the next post.

The run-around loop formed by the track going into the goods shed and the bit coming back down will allow for plenty of shunting, as will the long siding at the bottom of the railway centre area. This bit of track can hold a 'Hall' class engine and three Triang Pullman cars, if that gives anyone an idea of length. The railway centre won't just have goods shunting to do: there'll be a considerable amount of passenger-stock work to be done as the site will be the place where local railtour stock and engines are stored overnight. The platform will be designed as a small GWR halt, and will be there mostly just to look nice and to add to the scene: however, there's always the possibility that a mainline service could use this platform as a way of getting people to and from the railway centre, in the same way that some TOCs have run trains onto heritage railways in the past.

I mentioned earlier that the ballast had started going down:

Ballast 1.jpeg
The ballast before gluing. The bottom track is the curve around to Oldmoor-on-Sea.

Ballast 2.jpeg
Another view of the track before gluing. The track in the bottom-right hand corner is the outermost loop and the middle ballasted track is the outermost siding of the railway centre.

Ballast 3.jpeg
The ballast after gluing started. I really must thank @Cowley for telling me about his method of using water and then glue: it's really worked and meant that I can actually ballast the layout!

Ballast 4.jpeg
The siding I wrote the history for above. This was the first bit I ballasted and it looks half-decent I think - yet to be glued.

I hope this was somewhat interesting: thanks for reading. :)

-Peter
 

hexagon789

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I think we have, now you mention it. I hadn't thought about using such an area as display space for stock which doesn't work with the rest of a layout.
I think that was what I mentioned I would develop the idea for.

I think we have, now you mention it. I hadn't thought about using such an area as display space for stock which doesn't work with the rest of a layout.

===============

Talking of the railway centre, I've come up with another (and finalised, for definite) trackplan for the railway centre. This is definite as I've started ballasting and gluing it all.
View attachment 94005
There's a bit more going on in this design than in the previous one - the run-around loop facility is a major part of it.

One of the things I like the most is the track going behind the row of terraced houses. The idea is that the railway centre was once a goods yard - hence the goods shed - and that this bit of track was a line connecting the goods yard to some form of small industrial complex where the insurance offices building is now located. A small engine, owned by the industrial complex, would run between the former and the goods shed to transfer wagons which would be shunted into trains and then sent away.
Continuing this history idea, the industrial complex closed several years before the preservation group got to preserving the goods yard. The track was taken up and the engine was sold off. The railway centre preservation group, when buying the goods yard, also bought the trackbed for the industrial track: this prompted them to buy the engine which had worked on the line from another heritage site and to start restoring the line as much as they could. I've decided to model this bit of track as if the group has only finished laying and ballasting it within, say, a year, so it's going to be cleaner than the rest of the track in the railway centre.
I'll write a more detailed history of this line after posting this and then I can share it as a .pdf or something in the next post.

The run-around loop formed by the track going into the goods shed and the bit coming back down will allow for plenty of shunting, as will the long siding at the bottom of the railway centre area. This bit of track can hold a 'Hall' class engine and three Triang Pullman cars, if that gives anyone an idea of length. The railway centre won't just have goods shunting to do: there'll be a considerable amount of passenger-stock work to be done as the site will be the place where local railtour stock and engines are stored overnight. The platform will be designed as a small GWR halt, and will be there mostly just to look nice and to add to the scene: however, there's always the possibility that a mainline service could use this platform as a way of getting people to and from the railway centre, in the same way that some TOCs have run trains onto heritage railways in the past.

I mentioned earlier that the ballast had started going down:

View attachment 94007
The ballast before gluing. The bottom track is the curve around to Oldmoor-on-Sea.

View attachment 94008
Another view of the track before gluing. The track in the bottom-right hand corner is the outermost loop and the middle ballasted track is the outermost siding of the railway centre.

View attachment 94009
The ballast after gluing started. I really must thank @Cowley for telling me about his method of using water and then glue: it's really worked and meant that I can actually ballast the layout!

View attachment 94010
The siding I wrote the history for above. This was the first bit I ballasted and it looks half-decent I think - yet to be glued.

I hope this was somewhat interesting: thanks for reading. :)

-Peter
Very interesting, liked seeing the updated plan and your photos.
 

Cowley

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That’s really good to see some ballast down Peter. It looks neat too.
If you haven’t glued it yet then you can tamp it down with a dry bit of sponge if you want to get it any flatter.
 

reddragon

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I think we have, now you mention it. I hadn't thought about using such an area as display space for stock which doesn't work with the rest of a layout.

===============

Talking of the railway centre, I've come up with another (and finalised, for definite) trackplan for the railway centre. This is definite as I've started ballasting and gluing it all.
View attachment 94005
There's a bit more going on in this design than in the previous one - the run-around loop facility is a major part of it.

One of the things I like the most is the track going behind the row of terraced houses. The idea is that the railway centre was once a goods yard - hence the goods shed - and that this bit of track was a line connecting the goods yard to some form of small industrial complex where the insurance offices building is now located. A small engine, owned by the industrial complex, would run between the former and the goods shed to transfer wagons which would be shunted into trains and then sent away.
Continuing this history idea, the industrial complex closed several years before the preservation group got to preserving the goods yard. The track was taken up and the engine was sold off. The railway centre preservation group, when buying the goods yard, also bought the trackbed for the industrial track: this prompted them to buy the engine which had worked on the line from another heritage site and to start restoring the line as much as they could. I've decided to model this bit of track as if the group has only finished laying and ballasting it within, say, a year, so it's going to be cleaner than the rest of the track in the railway centre.
I'll write a more detailed history of this line after posting this and then I can share it as a .pdf or something in the next post.

The run-around loop formed by the track going into the goods shed and the bit coming back down will allow for plenty of shunting, as will the long siding at the bottom of the railway centre area. This bit of track can hold a 'Hall' class engine and three Triang Pullman cars, if that gives anyone an idea of length. The railway centre won't just have goods shunting to do: there'll be a considerable amount of passenger-stock work to be done as the site will be the place where local railtour stock and engines are stored overnight. The platform will be designed as a small GWR halt, and will be there mostly just to look nice and to add to the scene: however, there's always the possibility that a mainline service could use this platform as a way of getting people to and from the railway centre, in the same way that some TOCs have run trains onto heritage railways in the past.

I mentioned earlier that the ballast had started going down:

View attachment 94007
The ballast before gluing. The bottom track is the curve around to Oldmoor-on-Sea.

View attachment 94008
Another view of the track before gluing. The track in the bottom-right hand corner is the outermost loop and the middle ballasted track is the outermost siding of the railway centre.

View attachment 94009
The ballast after gluing started. I really must thank @Cowley for telling me about his method of using water and then glue: it's really worked and meant that I can actually ballast the layout!

View attachment 94010
The siding I wrote the history for above. This was the first bit I ballasted and it looks half-decent I think - yet to be glued.

I hope this was somewhat interesting: thanks for reading. :)

-Peter
Careful on the points (or just avoid points)
 

Peter C

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That’s really good to see some ballast down Peter. It looks neat too.
If you haven’t glued it yet then you can tamp it down with a dry bit of sponge if you want to get it any flatter.
Thanks very much :)
I've started gluing it, but it's not all glued down yet. I'd not thought of using a sponge this time but I seem to remember you mentioning it before.

Careful on the points (or just avoid points)
That's one of the issues I've had with ballasting in the past. I've been careful around them today and I'll do them later, after everything else is glued.

-Peter
 

Cowley

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Yes it won’t work on wet ballast, only dry.
Agreed with @reddragon on the points. I don’t ballast around the blades. I just paint a bit of oil paint around the sleepers later.
 

Peter C

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Yes it won’t work on wet ballast, only dry.
Agreed with @reddragon on the points. I don’t ballast around the blades. I just paint a bit of oil paint around the sleepers later.
I think there are a few bits of ballast around the point blades but they're easily removed. I keep testing the points just to make sure I haven't broken them as I go! :)
I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about doing more of this ballasting work: the last bit I did was in January IIRC. It's slow but rewarding - I'm just dreading doing the bit around the back!

-Peter
 

Cowley

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I think there are a few bits of ballast around the point blades but they're easily removed. I keep testing the points just to make sure I haven't broken them as I go! :)
I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about doing more of this ballasting work: the last bit I did was in January IIRC. It's slow but rewarding - I'm just dreading doing the bit around the back!

-Peter

Yes it can be a slow process. Sometimes I seem to get loads done really quickly but sometimes it’s painfully slow.
 

Peter C

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Yes it can be a slow process. Sometimes I seem to get loads done really quickly but sometimes it’s painfully slow.
I've definitely found that out today - it seemed as though I got loads done yesterday but today's been slower.

Here's what I've got done so far today:

Oldmoor-on-Sea ballast.jpeg
Oldmoor-on-Sea. I've not yet ballasted the points (this station is mostly points and junctions) or the bay platform yet: the former because that's quite fiddly and the latter because I'm planning to add another siding coming off the bay platform. Readers may notice that I've used a different type of ballast in these photos; this is because I've used up all of the other ballast I had (and I've used most of this stuff too).

Oldmoor-on-Sea ballast 2.jpeg
Another shot of Oldmoor-on-Sea, this time showing the siding which is going to serve the Railway Hotel. Unlike the other photo, the ballast is kept closer to the track so I don't have to cut as much away once it's dried to allow for the platforms to sit in the right place.

RIghthand curve ballast.jpeg
The curves on the right-hand side of the layout. The change in ballast colour can be clearly seen here, but this is more pronounced than it will be when the glue has dried as the ballast closest to the camera goes a lot darker when the water and glue is applied. I think the ballast really adds to the trackwork around the bend as it shows where the railway is and makes it more realistic.

I've also started ballasting the track into Little Piddling-on-the-Wold, but I don't have any photos of this at the time of writing because it's far from finished. I'll share photos of that once it's done. :)

If anyone's interested, the way I've been doing this is through making a water/PVA glue mix (I don't know the ratio as I just mix it until the consistency seems right), which is applied to the track using a pipette following water being applied in the same way to hold it in place.
The main reason for ballasting everything now is because I think it makes the trains look as though they're running through the landscape and that they're part of the railway, rather than running on the railway but sticking out above the tracks.

-Peter :D
 

Cowley

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It looks a lot more finished doesn’t it?
That curve does look good. I wonder if you could get a footbridge over it at some point to break up the field of vision?
 

Peter C

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It looks a lot more finished doesn’t it?
That curve does look good. I wonder if you could get a footbridge over it at some point to break up the field of vision?
Thanks very much :) It's been good fun doing the ballast work. I hadn't thought of adding a footbridge but I'm not sure it would work as there aren't many places it could go between. There will be plenty of things to break up the scene though (AWS ramps, cable troughs, etc.) in the future.

-Peter
 
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