We moved in! The furniture was moved in, finding a place for our combined furniture was the next challenge. But back to the train room! Was it going to to be the smaller or large room? It was the furniture that decided. I recently took a cabinet off my brother's hands and it's location in the house was a sticking point in the move. However my girlfriend is probably one of the best negotiators I know. We came to the agreement that I would take the display cabinet into the train room and I would get the larger room to compensate the lost space. I took the deal! I gained the extra metre, though lost some space on one side, but this would allow me to butt the layout up to the door if I so chose. I decided for practical reasons not to do this, and to have about 50cm between the door and the layout. I incorporated the cabinet into the room and kept the 2.6m square for the most part. I'd extend the yard at station 1 to give myself more room. Now the layout was coming together.
Now that I have a taken the step from the concept design to the preliminary design, I moved up to version 2.0 I was now able to work with the space, inspect and measure on site if you will. I gained room between the loco depot at Station 1 and the yard at station 2. I'd added a small siding at station 2 to run off the front of the station, allowing transfer from station 1 to the local goods at station 2. Station 2 however was a massive sticking point for me. I still couldn't access the bay platform from the main. Nor could I send goods from Station 2 to Station 4. While the branch line could operate independently, the yard was still cut off form the main in my mind. Sure I could always shunt back on the branch, but it was still restricted. |
As we continue around the layout, I was fairly happy with 3, I had introduced a goods shed to the mix in 1.8. Different, but I felt it necessary as most halts out west had capacity to accept goods. However it still wasn't right here either. Station 4 was more or less similar to my design 1.8. So I set to work on the changes I wanted to make with this extended space.
Design 2.1 included a small run round in the yard at 2. This was impractical to say the least. It was a quick fix to a problem of there not being a run round at Station 2 for the branch as (in my head at the time) shunting on the main was Impractical..... How wrong I was. All else had stayed the same with this design. I was not happy with Station 2's set up, though I wanted a small yard here for an independent station, it was not independent if it couldn't run round and relied heavily on other locations. Or if every train from 2 had to go down the branch to get back to Station 1. I wanted operational flexibility with this layout. 100 things to do to occupy my time on a rainy day! I quickly moved past this design. |
Design 2.2, I attempted to rectify this situation by placing a double slip in the entrance to the bay platform at station 2 and having a set of points come on top the main connecting to this. This gave me the run round that I needed. Allowing me the space to run round a small branchline train off the main, for the most part. And I could marshal a train to either the bay platform or to the line next to the bay and send a train on to the branch, or up to station 4. All seemed to be going well with this design, though the keen eyed amongst you will notice that I have in fact left that silly little run round in at station 2, the one I added in design 2.1. This was frustrating. I endeavoured to right this wrong! |
Design 2.3! I've done it! No main line run round at Station 2! "Okay!" (I told myself) "Let's work from Station 4 (least complicated) to Station 1. Right, turntable for the 36, 19 and diesels, check! Plenty of storage, 4 general goods sidings, 1 Perway siding, one cattle siding, CHECK! Station and run round, check, check. Is the station long enough...... Well it is a country station so that doesn't matter..... But the run round is long enough! Check!" "Okay, on to Station 3! Platform? Check! Small goods siding? Check! Headshunt for electrics and non-electrics? One of each, so check! Run round? Also Check! Trailing Wheat silo? Check! On to 2!" "Small yard? Check! Ability to shunt off main? Check! Bay Platform? CHECK! Double track? Check! Large Platform? Check! Independent branchline? Check! Really quick branchline check, curve radius okay? Check! Branch as per actual? Check!" |
"Right! Lucky last! Mainline all good, double cross over? Check! Room and flexibility for electrics? Check! Goods storage? Check! Passenger storage for 2 FS, a VHO, and up to 6 FOs...... Not check....." I could fit the 3 large carriages by sacrificing a goods road, but I wouldn't get both sets in..... Oh well maybe I can work around this. And it hit me... There was no run round in the platform. Right! Back to the Drawing board...
So I started on design 2.4. I added in the carriage sheds next to the electrified headshunt, and then had to work out how to get the carriages from one side of the yard to the other..... So I made the most impossible mess..... From platform 1 across to the carriage shed, I had an SL91 Right hand small set of points, into an SL94 Large Diamond, into 2 SL93 small diamonds finishing at a very sharp SL97 Small "Y". As you can see from my legend of locomotives on the right hand side, I could barely fit 4 FOs in one storage shed road.... Let alone 6! No, this design was too much! Back we go! Back to design 2.3 for a tweek! |
This tweek I dubbed Design 2.35, half way between the monstrosity of 2.4, but back close enough to 2.3. This was it. Design 2.35! The run round was fixed! I had decided that my FOs would take one of the goods roads at station 1, the largest one, and live there.... One set had a home..... The FS's and VHO I reconciled to Platform 3 of the Station 1. Okay sorted right? Passenger carriages have a home. Fantastic, that was the last problem solved! Time to send this design off for a second opinion (as I did with most designs along the way). The truths from my brother came hard and fast. My spacing between the island in the middle of the room and Station 1 was too narrow..... I thought it wasn't and retorted to which I was told, "Though you may be right, look at the other side.... 30cm gap..... really? 30cm to fit through? And have you measured the gap at the top of the branch?" I had not. It became very evident that I had too much happening.... It was too ambitious for a first attempt at a layout this size... |
While I was a tad upset with this news, my brother had a solution. "Leave it with me," he said, "And I'll see if there's a way we can have the electrics stop partway along the journey, give you the double track, and keep your branch."
This, little did I know, was design 3.0, well the beginning of it.... And I'm happy to say (at the time of writing this blog) the last version to be released! The last set of preliminary designs!
This, little did I know, was design 3.0, well the beginning of it.... And I'm happy to say (at the time of writing this blog) the last version to be released! The last set of preliminary designs!