[Makemineadouble]

I've posted two plans on my Blog as discussion points. This is one of the proposals for my new S&Djr layout.
The plan owes much to David Jenkinson's book Modelling Historic Railways plan 4 the Kendal Branch.
The idea is to be able to operate to a timetable between Bath & Bornemouth, and to provide a basic path for freight, most of which will be coal froma mine via the marshalling yard to the Gas works at BGP.

 

[Dennis David]

I went to your blog but i didn't see any track plans. Am I missing something?

 

[Makemineadouble]

yes

 

[Dennis David]

All I see is pictures of your train room, a boat and your dog.

 

[Doug]

MMaD, you are not publishing your Blog entries. They are still in 'Draft' format. Only you can see the posts until they are in 'Published' format.

You can set that entries are published directly in the settings of your Blog.

 

[Makemineadouble]

Arrrrrr yes they are now published

 

[neil_s_wood]

Looks pretty good.

It's big.

How long do you think thats going to take you to build?

 

[Dennis David]

Ok, now that's better. Because you seem to have a lot of room I wonder if you might consider making the yard at Evercreech Junction double ended. It will allow you to run switch engines to work both ends assuming you plan on doing some switching. The actual junction just past the yard if you go clockwise looks very interesting.

At Bath Green park you might want to build a service facility. Will you be running mostly diesel or steam?

I found the following books very helpful:

 

[Dennis David]

How is Bath Green Park connected to the mainline?

 

[Makemineadouble]

The yards at Evercreech were roughly as drawn. Bath has a large engine shed (two of them) it's just the outline of the buildings don't show up to well I'll do an amended drawing soon. The layout of each station more or less matches the real thing. The layout is designed for single man operation. The use of fiddle yards, or staging yards is minimised by the two terminus stations which reduce the need for too much staging. The two large engine facilities will enable me to house most of my loco stock, which currently stands at 75 plus. The layout will run under Digitrax DCC, I plan to use block detection, and route control.
I only run steam, I use diesels on track cleaning duties only. I'm currently examining ways of doubling the length of run. The usable space in the room is 27ft x 17 ft so yes I have a large space, and I intend to use it.

 

[Doug]

Is this going to be built in the middle of the room? With walking space around the edges or do you duck under and operate in the middle between the stations?

 

[pedromorgan]

i was about to ask where were you going to stand but doug beat me to it!
gibson does a fantastic trainshed in etched brass for bath green park. its almost as nice as the real one!

peter.

 

[Dennis David]

Digitrax DCC is a good choice. I will be using some of thier reverse units and may use their block detectionn also. Hopefully we can compare notes and post our findings on MRF.

 

[Makemineadouble]

Yes I have the Alan Gibson trainshed kit, it's formidable it weighs nearly 5 kg with all the excess. I also have
a good resistance soldering setup, which is ideal for this type of etched kit.
To answer the other questions:
there's a lift bridge to enter the room. (I hate duck unders)
the layout goes around the walls with an island in the middle housing the two termini.
I've been using DCC since 1994, and Digitrax since 2000.
I still have to move the track around slightly to creat more space in the centre, it maywell be that once I do this the return loop will be under the termini.
I'm very pleased with this design which totally fits an S&Djr theme.
It can be operated by single operator if needs be. The layout isn't too large to be completed in a resonable time frame. I have a large amount of completed buildings. Most of my stock IE. loco's and rolling stock match the theme of the layout. It avoids too many hidden staging yards using the termi instead to house stock.
I figure I'll have most of the benchwork down by Christmas, and some track. The balance of track probably by April next year, maybe sooner. It's not that complex. I'll firm up on the drawing to show clearly how Bath is connected to the layout (throught the pink track at the bottom). Note the island section is at slight different levels. I still have to discuss this plan with a mate of mine who blissfully thinks I'm just going around the room twice on a split level.

As an alternative I has considered selling all my stock, and then,
modelling H/O American or
converting to 0 gauge ( and going totally pre-war II) LMS "I like red loco's" or
sticking to a simpler layout going modular.

 

[Doug]

This track takes up your whole track room. Do you have space for a work bench to do some building, repairs and servicing?

I have a work bench with a double mainline running against the sloping roof, two feet above the desk-top - about a foot away from my head when sitting at the desk or the PC that's there too.

 

[Dennis David]

Hmmmm ...

I have a desk to the right of my layout. Maybe I can construct a small staging area since I have a another work area downstairs and don't want the mess in my library. I could create a drawer for my keyboard and make one of the yard tracks a programming track.

 

[Makemineadouble]

I have a work room for serrious modelling in the house, but I'll have a small area in the layout room somewhere ! The programming track can be anywhere as far as I'm concerned. It will probably be attatched to
the PC I have for the layout.
I'm busy redrawing the layout sketch as when I moved things around I lost a bit.

 

[dwb]

Q1: I was wondering what brand and radius pointwork you were thinking of using? If you were considering large radius Peco, some of the crossings may take up more space than is indicated on the plan.

Q2: What sort of train length are you hoping to have?

I pose these questions based on my own experience of building a double track through junction station for 6 coach trains using Peco large radius points in about 24ft length. The two "throats" take a lot of space.

David

 

[Makemineadouble]

6/7 coach trains
and Peco code 75 probably
I've drawn most of the layout using medium turnouts my minium radius is 36", and hidden 30".

BTW I dont think this will be the last plan, it was more a discussion point.