Branchline goods track layout - is this workable?

[SwissRailPassion]

Ok what would you suggest?

 

At the moment it is a good shed siding at the bottom left, then an open siding possibly for cattle etc, and finally the line adjacent to the platform which could be a siding rather than a passenger bay. All of these are linked by the double slip to a shunting spur and the down line. So, three sidings in total and a shunt.

[The Stationmaster]

Ok what would you suggest?

 

At the moment it is a good shed siding at the bottom left, then an open siding possibly for cattle etc, and finally the line adjacent to the platform which could be a siding rather than a passenger bay. All of these are linked by the double slip to a shunting spur and the down line. So, three sidings in total and a shunt.

Gives you a bit more room but if you want to shunt inside that means having either a short enough train or having a  siding long enough to hold it.  Your shunting is in any case going to be relatively straghtforward - one or two vans for the goods shed and one or two from it, whatever full loads inwards wagons there are to place ready for unloading and any loaded outwards and empties to pick-up plus inwards coal to detach and outwards empties to collect.  

 

So basically you need to get any empties out, reposition any part discharged or wagons still underload (usually happens with coal wagons) then put in the new arrivals.  The new arrivals would be marshalled next to the engine on your train when it arrives assuming the job has been done properly earlier in the train's journey so they are detached with the engine and stay between the engine and any outward wagons while the latter are picked up and shunted onto the rest of the train, the new inwards wagons are then positioned - the only complication being any wagons which have to be pulled to get at outwards wagons and then replaced.  Have you got a siding in the yard long enough to do all that?

[SwissRailPassion]

I went to measure the layout again and using the peco templates I made the plan below. I can't put the station building on the up side because of a scenic rock face so the access to the station has to be from the left on the down. As each wagon is 3 inches long and a loco is 8, I have sketched out the plan to show the lengths of sidings including the loco. The up side can accommodate a train of 63 inches.

[The Stationmaster]

I went to measure the layout again and using the peco templates I made the plan below. I can't put the station building on the up side because of a scenic rock face so the access to the station has to be from the left on the down. As each wagon is 3 inches long and a loco is 8, I have sketched out the plan to show the lengths of sidings including the loco. The up side can accommodate a train of 63 inches.

Have you allowed for the effect of couplings on your length measurements?

[SwissRailPassion]

Ah yes, just at the layout now and all figures are minus 1 due to the coupling length. Eventually I want to use kadee couplings or some other close coupling. The shed fits 2 wagons and there's room for 4 beyond and 4 in front with the loco generously clear of the point blades.

[SwissRailPassion]

I'm reading that South Molton could stand 15 wagons on the goods shed line. So space for 10 wagons on this layout is a goodly number. Trying to arrange things on a 9 ft board so that there is a reasonable yet shortened perspective and scale is the challenge.

[rannorgana]

Have you got a copy of An Illustrated Survey of Selected Great Western Stations Layout and Illustrations Volume Three? If you have you could just copy Staines West its just a BLT version of what you had for the last plan.

 

rannorgana

[SwissRailPassion]

Over the last week or so I have been reading The Stationmaster's posts and looking at diagrams as well as a good general surf on the net. There is an informative guy (the bear) on another model forum and I got Bob Essery's book on goods. The layout itself is being rebuilt to look less like a toy and more like a model. Space is the problem, especially when a vote has been taken by the boys which means an overhead line over the station will remain.

Here's some photos of the bomb site showing work in progress. The curves are a bit sharp, around 2ft, at one end. The layout is a front station with a roundy loop at 3 inches height around a central operating space. There is also a loop flying over the station at 4 inches and a reverse loop at the back to allow trains to come down. Hidden siding loops are at ground level at the back and there is a hidden loop upstairs and several short sidings. 10 trains can be operated through a cycle.
Since these photos were taken there has been a tidy up!
It has to be a compromise between satisfying operation, sustained running for the children, and a goods yard to enable the goods vans etc to be shown and shunted rather than merely pass through.
The bridge will be dressed up as a truss girder which will span a scale 190ft. Trees etc and other scenery will help to create depth.

The shunting spur is, I think, too curved and I'm toying with the idea of running it through a tunnel under the embankment to create more space between the running lines and the sidings.

Comments welcome.

[SwissRailPassion]

After a bit of knocking about on the layout I've settled on the plan as adjusted by western sunset. By moving the station to the up side there is now enough room for the goods shed and a siding. There is good standing and roadway space of more than the required 24ft between the shed and the siding. For cattle and horses I've put in an up side trailing dock. The signal box is better sited for token exchange and a little gate cabin sits by the level crossing which gives access to the yard.

 

Any comments welcome

[Peter Kazmierczak]

You'll certainly need a trap point to protect the running line from the short dock, which I'd extend a little if you have the room (as in the first diagram below).

 

I'd also consider putting in a diamond crossing (as in the second diagram) as this reduces the number of facing points to just two. It was a very typical GW feature.

[The Stationmaster]

You'll certainly need a trap point to protect the running line from the short dock, which I'd extend a little if you have the room (as in the first diagram below).

 

I'd also consider putting in a diamond crossing (as in the second diagram) as this reduces the number of facing points to just two. It was a very typical GW feature.

Agree - obviously - with putting in the trap on the short dock siding.  Now as far as the other suggestion is concerned it really depends on the era you are modelling - as well as having space to follow Peter's second suggestion because he is absolutely correct in drawing attention to it as a 'very typical' GW feature - in fact it was originally the standard method of arranging such a layout and could be found in a number of places.  But equally - and this is where we come to era - quite a number of layouts arranged in this way were later altered to the form you have now settled on in order to save money when they fell due for renewal.  So era modelled can have an influence in this area.

[11B]

Hi SWP,

Just found this thread, and having read through it, your plan seems most workable, as other members make some very important and valuable suggestions.  One thing I do see from your original plan it almost has the track plan of an ex Furness railway branch line station, just missing a few more line in the goods yard.

 

Good look with it, I will be watching with interest

 

Ian

[SwissRailPassion]

Sorry, I forgot to put the trap on the diagram, I have one ready to install.

The year is 1958 to 1965. The diamond idea is good, but when I tried the template with a diamond or a single slip I couldn't create the curve needed. The track flexure will not allow a length of straight for either a diamond or slip so I went with the facing point as per Mike's earlier suggestion and as at Arley.  

The yard has just two sidings because of the roadway required between tracks. There is room for a third siding in between, but it will block off the unloading on the other lines. The shed siding will have a loading dock alongside for about six inches and the rest of the siding will be open for direct unloading at ground level. The long siding will be for general open wagons and coal will be at the buffer end with a wall to shield the shed area from dust.

 

My friend and the family are keen on the LNER which is local and have V1/3 tanks, Standard 4 with Thompson and Gresley coaches as well as Mk 1's so they are keen to run them. So the signalling may well be LNER/BR style to fit in.

 

I'm keen to build a GWR layout due to the sheer character of the stations and landscape and to build it with C and L track etc, but for the moment this layout will be a challenge. In the end it will, I hope, be a workable generic small station with a  goods yard;  a workable layout that is a nice model to look at and to play trains on. Also a test bed  to develop my modelling - a huge test of patience. The more I work at it the more patient I become - it's a good trainer.

[scruff]

Just a quick thought regarding coal deliveries on a bay platform line.

 

Gobowen station in Shropshire has coal hopper facilities built into the bay platform line as well as the adjacent siding. Coal is discharged from the hopper wagon into an underground conveyor which then elevates the coal up on a rotating conveyor into the coal yard.

 

I can't find a picture at the moment but I'm sure someone will know where there is one!

 

Cheers

 

Mark

 

edit: photo found

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21602076@N05/4296440862/

 

More here

 

http://www.railwaymedia.co.uk/Featured/Gobowen/28152435_jjGFfh#!p=1&n=10

[The Stationmaster]

Just a quick thought regarding coal deliveries on a bay platform line.

 

Gobowen station in Shropshire has coal hopper facilities built into the bay platform line as well as the adjacent siding. Coal is discharged from the hopper wagon into an underground conveyor which then elevates the coal up on a rotating conveyor into the coal yard.

 

I can't find a picture at the moment but I'm sure someone will know where there is one!

 

Cheers

 

Mark

 

edit: photo found

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21602076@N05/4296440862/

 

More here

 

http://www.railwaymedia.co.uk/Featured/Gobowen/28152435_jjGFfh#!p=1&n=10

Yes but that is a modern system probably originally dating from sometime in the 1960s as part of a concentration scheme.

[wagonman]

From what I saw at my local station c1960 the only goods traffic left was domestic coal – 2 or 3 wagon loads a week. Everything else was 'smalls' – parcels etc that went by passenger train. On one occasion the 'etc' was a young calf tethered to the platform railings patiently awaiting the next down stopper. There may have been some agricultural traffic in the mileage sidings but pretty much everything else came/went in a lorry.

 

 

PS: the station was Lavington on the Stert-Westbury line

[SwissRailPassion]

From what I saw at my local station c1960 the only goods traffic left was domestic coal – 2 or 3 wagon loads a week. Everything else was 'smalls' – parcels etc that went by passenger train. On one occasion the 'etc' was a young calf tethered to the platform railings patiently awaiting the next down stopper. There may have been some agricultural traffic in the mileage sidings but pretty much everything else came/went in a lorry.

 

 

PS: the station was Lavington on the Stert-Westbury line

Yes, many lines lost their freight very quickly. However at my local station, Bridlington, as a boy in the 70s I would see class 20s shunting vans and coal in the goods yard. Van traffic ceased in the mid 70s and the coal continued until 1984. Freight at Beverley and Driffield ceased at the same time. One morning in '84, two VDA vans arrived conveying a single box of ammunition for the school CCF. One van for the ammunition, and the other a barrier wagon. I guess that ran at a loss.

I'm pleased I saw it even though the station was less busy than at its heyday. The sight of the 20s shunting in the yard and the many visiting locos in the summer made me into a rail buff. What must it have been like in the 50s when railways were everywhere?

Today's slimmed down network where large parts of the country don't see a train, and most lines have no freight, means railways are more of a minority interest.