Edinburgh Haymarket and Exeter St. Davids.

[Mike-H]

Hello all,

First post in the forum, this may not be quite the right place for it but I couldn't select many of the other fora.

I've been away from the hobby for knocking on 30 years but now I finally have my own house and the loft floored.  I'm considering some layout ideas.

I'm not looking for ultra realism or appropriate stock for the prototype, I want to build a layout and enjoy operating whatever I want on it.

I have some low detail Hornby and Lima locos and rolling stock from the 80's in OO gauge and might find a layout for them (more on that later) but my main thoughts just now are N gauge and Edinburgh Haymarket depot and Exeter St. Davids.  I want some continuous running so I can have full length HST, APT, 225 and Eurostars charging about (and possibly even sneak in a TGV or Shinkanzen) but also shunting opportunities.  Looking on Google Earth the depot at Haymarket is quite substantial (more so than I had realised even though I've passed it on the train many times) and should offer some good shunting opportunities.  Likewise Exeter St. Davids has a smaller depot but a load of wagon sidings on the other side of Station Road offering some good shunting opportunities.  Perhaps I mash the two yards together?

I did have a look at the steelworks in Scuntorpe and that's a massive site!  Perhaps put that idea on a back burner.

I was also considering a OO gauge layout set in 1940's Germany with a Koldits like schloss, a flak tower and those amazing armoured trains.  That's also a back-burner idea though.

Any comments on the ideas greatfully received.

Chers, Mike...

 

Edited June 11 by Mike-H
I submitted it by accident before finishing it.

[Dungrange]

37 minutes ago, Mike-H said:

Looking on Google Earth the depot at Haymarket is quite substantial (more so than I had realised even though I've passed it on the train many times) and should offer some good shunting opportunities. 

 

Not sure that there are a lot of shunting opportunities for a layout based on Haymarket depot.  There's often nothing moving when I pass: stock is either stabled or it's stripped down for maintenance.  As you note, it is quite an extensive site, so you'll need a lot of space.

 

42 minutes ago, Mike-H said:

Perhaps I mash the two yards together?

 

Ultimately, it sounds like you just want a generic based on nowhere in particular type layout where you can run what you want, so there is nothing wrong with building something based on inspiration from multiple locations.  'Modelling real locations' may not be the best place for such a discussion, as it doesn't sound like that's what you want to do.  It's probably best to have a go at designing what you want and then posting in the Layout and Track design section of the forum.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/forum/66-layout-track-design/

 

Welcome to the forum by the way.

[Mike-H]

Thanks for your comments.

 

There's a lot of track at Haymarket though so should be able to do some shunting.

 

Yes, this topic wasn't really right but it was one of the very few I was allowed to select.  I'll take up your suggestion of the layout and track desgin topic if it'll let me.

 

So far I have drawn both locations (not to scale) to get a better feel for the track layout.  I could possibly post them in the layout and design area.

 

Chers, Mike...

[Dungrange]

2 hours ago, Mike-H said:

There's a lot of track at Haymarket though so should be able to do some shunting.

 

There's definitely a lot of track - if you include the full length of the headhunts at each end, then the depot is approximately 1.4 km in length.  In N gauge, that would require around 9.5 m or 31' to accommodate a scale representation.  I'd love to do it 00, but I don't have the space and I don't think the bank balance would stretch to buying the required number of multiple units.

[Mike-H]

28 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

 

There's definitely a lot of track - if you include the full length of the headhunts at each end, then the depot is approximately 1.4 km in length.  In N gauge, that would require around 9.5 m or 31' to accommodate a scale representation.  I'd love to do it 00, but I don't have the space and I don't think the bank balance would stretch to buying the required number of multiple units.

Yeah, when I did my drawings I truncated that section somewhat!

 

Having read the thread about the chap moving to a new house and having a colossal shed built for an N layout it's given me some ideas and changed my thinking a bit.  Not entirely sure what to yet but definitely changed!  I might do multiple smaller layouts rather than a really big one.

[scottystitch]

Take a look at Aberdeen Kirkhill, perhaps it might inspire.  This is a carriage/motive power stabling/servicing location with a twin track mainline running past.  It is 4mm scale on OO gauge track 

 

 

It is 29ft by 10ft in 4mm/OO, so circa 15ft by 5ft in 2mm/N

 

 

 

Best

 

Scott

 

 

 

[Mike-H]

17 hours ago, scottystitch said:

Take a look at Aberdeen Kirkhill, perhaps it might inspire.  This is a carriage/motive power stabling/servicing location with a twin track mainline running past.  It is 4mm scale on OO gauge track

Thanks for that, very interesting, gives me some ideas.  In OO that layout is a monster!  Looks great.

 

Cheers, Mike....