Having received various comments, questions and likes in response to my post in ‘New members’, I am encouraged to start this thread in ‘Layout progress’. I hope I am not being too optimistic given the slow pace of construction to date over many years. Maybe this thread will help a little by providing gentle pressure to maintain progress so I have something to say. But don’t expect a rapid advance to completion — there is a lot to do and the rest of life to attend to.
As of now, I have a completed baseboard mounted mostly on cupboards around the walls of a room. I have some track laid and a few small elements of scenery in place. Due to pressures of work and priorities in the rest of life, progress has been slow, with long periods of no construction at all, in the twenty years since work started with building the baseboards. However, I retired last year and resolved to greatly speed up work on the layout, prioritise making it useable and, ideally, get it finished.
Rivermead Central is 0 gauge, coarse scale and will use principally vintage equipment. The stations are fictitious and deliberately a bit vague as to location and exact period. Broadly speaking, the intended ‘look’ is mid-20th century, built-up/industrial with buildings in brick. The buildings and other scenery will be correctly proportioned but not highly detailed — impressionistic, not photographic. The scenery will be deliberately restricted to a muted palette, predominantly browns and greys — perhaps the colours of an L.S. Lowry painting. It is there to provide a context for and contrast to the much more brightly coloured vintage trains.
Since I was a ‘young person’, I have always particularly admired three famous layouts; Crewchester, the Sherwood Section of the LMS and Paddington to Seagood. I do not have the space, time or resources to build anything as extensive as those layouts. But I do aim to copy the approach they took of a miniature system where trains could be realistically worked between several different stations.
Building a ‘system’ in a space 23’ x 10’ was always going to be a challenge. In the end I came up with a scheme that provides a main line (a continuous circuit) and two branches. The scheme is shown in this sketch:
The place names are all derived from streets/places where I have lived at some time. The sketch above gives no details of the actual track layout, just shows the relative positions and connections between the different locations. So, for example, ‘Cairnie Junction’ effectively occupies all of the high-level baseboard on the west side of the room. Both branches join the main line at Cairnie Junction. The main line is the continuous loop shown as a solid thin blue line. It is ‘above ground’ for its entire length and nearly all visible, though it will be partly behind buildings in the south-east corner. Main line trains from Cairnie Junction can be imagined as going to various far-off destinations, but in reality will soon reappear at the other end of Cairnie Junction station. The branch from the south end of Cairnie Junction goes to Cavendish goods yard. Soon after leaving Cairnie Junction, the Cavendish branch disappears behind scenery and then starts to descend. The dotted line is the part of the branch (ie. nearly all of it) that is out of sight behind scenery or in a tunnel. The gradient on the Cavendish branch is 1 in 66 on the straight sections, level on the curves. This track is in place. The terminus, Cavendish Goods, is approximately 160 mm below the upper level base boards. The low level area is coloured pink. The difference in height gives some visual separation from Cairnie Junction. The distance, by train, between Cairnie Junction and Cavendish Goods is almost 60’. The Cavendish branch is freight only with restricted clearances in one tunnel section. Coaches and large locomotives would exceed the loading gauge. Operation is to be with industrial 0-6-0 tanks. The other branch from Cairnie Junction goes to Rivermead Central. This line is electrified. The red indicates the electrified section. I intend most trains on the Rivermead Central branch will be operated by an e.m.u. (though I don’t have an e.m.u., but that’s the plan). I have space for carriage sidings at Rivermead Central, so there will need to be some loco-hauled services on the branch to get stock for main line services to and from Cairnie Junction.
I should perhaps point out that getting the line down to Cavendish Goods was not easy to do. The low level area had of necessity to be ‘in front’ of the main line circuit, or it couldn’t be reached to operate it. But the branch had to pass under the mainline and get ‘outside it’ so that the branch track could gradually climb to the level of the rest of the system. In order to keep the gradient to 1 in 66, almost the entire length of the branch had to be used to gain/lose height. This means the gradient has to start as soon as the line leaves the Cavendish Goods terminus — the problem being that the roofs of wagons/locos on the Cavendish branch were then almost immediately above the ground level at Cairnie Junction. The solution was to put the Cavendish branch under the main platform at Cairnie Junction station. By the north end of this platform, the upper parts of trains on the Cavendish branch are inside the platform. Then the station approach road covers the branch, and so on.
I think that will do as an introduction. I’ll probably get on to track next, as I have an outstanding question to answer about points.
Martin
As of now, I have a completed baseboard mounted mostly on cupboards around the walls of a room. I have some track laid and a few small elements of scenery in place. Due to pressures of work and priorities in the rest of life, progress has been slow, with long periods of no construction at all, in the twenty years since work started with building the baseboards. However, I retired last year and resolved to greatly speed up work on the layout, prioritise making it useable and, ideally, get it finished.
Rivermead Central is 0 gauge, coarse scale and will use principally vintage equipment. The stations are fictitious and deliberately a bit vague as to location and exact period. Broadly speaking, the intended ‘look’ is mid-20th century, built-up/industrial with buildings in brick. The buildings and other scenery will be correctly proportioned but not highly detailed — impressionistic, not photographic. The scenery will be deliberately restricted to a muted palette, predominantly browns and greys — perhaps the colours of an L.S. Lowry painting. It is there to provide a context for and contrast to the much more brightly coloured vintage trains.
Since I was a ‘young person’, I have always particularly admired three famous layouts; Crewchester, the Sherwood Section of the LMS and Paddington to Seagood. I do not have the space, time or resources to build anything as extensive as those layouts. But I do aim to copy the approach they took of a miniature system where trains could be realistically worked between several different stations.
Building a ‘system’ in a space 23’ x 10’ was always going to be a challenge. In the end I came up with a scheme that provides a main line (a continuous circuit) and two branches. The scheme is shown in this sketch:
The place names are all derived from streets/places where I have lived at some time. The sketch above gives no details of the actual track layout, just shows the relative positions and connections between the different locations. So, for example, ‘Cairnie Junction’ effectively occupies all of the high-level baseboard on the west side of the room. Both branches join the main line at Cairnie Junction. The main line is the continuous loop shown as a solid thin blue line. It is ‘above ground’ for its entire length and nearly all visible, though it will be partly behind buildings in the south-east corner. Main line trains from Cairnie Junction can be imagined as going to various far-off destinations, but in reality will soon reappear at the other end of Cairnie Junction station. The branch from the south end of Cairnie Junction goes to Cavendish goods yard. Soon after leaving Cairnie Junction, the Cavendish branch disappears behind scenery and then starts to descend. The dotted line is the part of the branch (ie. nearly all of it) that is out of sight behind scenery or in a tunnel. The gradient on the Cavendish branch is 1 in 66 on the straight sections, level on the curves. This track is in place. The terminus, Cavendish Goods, is approximately 160 mm below the upper level base boards. The low level area is coloured pink. The difference in height gives some visual separation from Cairnie Junction. The distance, by train, between Cairnie Junction and Cavendish Goods is almost 60’. The Cavendish branch is freight only with restricted clearances in one tunnel section. Coaches and large locomotives would exceed the loading gauge. Operation is to be with industrial 0-6-0 tanks. The other branch from Cairnie Junction goes to Rivermead Central. This line is electrified. The red indicates the electrified section. I intend most trains on the Rivermead Central branch will be operated by an e.m.u. (though I don’t have an e.m.u., but that’s the plan). I have space for carriage sidings at Rivermead Central, so there will need to be some loco-hauled services on the branch to get stock for main line services to and from Cairnie Junction.
I should perhaps point out that getting the line down to Cavendish Goods was not easy to do. The low level area had of necessity to be ‘in front’ of the main line circuit, or it couldn’t be reached to operate it. But the branch had to pass under the mainline and get ‘outside it’ so that the branch track could gradually climb to the level of the rest of the system. In order to keep the gradient to 1 in 66, almost the entire length of the branch had to be used to gain/lose height. This means the gradient has to start as soon as the line leaves the Cavendish Goods terminus — the problem being that the roofs of wagons/locos on the Cavendish branch were then almost immediately above the ground level at Cairnie Junction. The solution was to put the Cavendish branch under the main platform at Cairnie Junction station. By the north end of this platform, the upper parts of trains on the Cavendish branch are inside the platform. Then the station approach road covers the branch, and so on.
I think that will do as an introduction. I’ll probably get on to track next, as I have an outstanding question to answer about points.
Martin
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