Model Railway Forum

Hello all,

I'm planning a layout that has a small town station on a junction. The junction is between a double tracked mainline loop and a branch line that declines down and will eventually meet a small porting village scene. I want there to be a lot of freight through the junction as well as into the goodshed at the station. Also regional passenger commuter rail passing through on loop and local branchline passenger services from port village up to the town station.
I was also thinking I may have a special passenger service running from the mainline down to the port station and may attempt to build a harbour station a bit like a small version of folkestone harbour station, which I adore (such a shame its closed) sort of a miniature golden arrow style service (put them pullman carriages to some use haha).

This shall be my second ever layout and is the first one I will have ever built as an adult. I'm 32 and I have some knowledge of railway structure and running but would appreciate any advice from any more experience modellers on if they think this track plan is suitable and somewhat prototypical and if there would be any changes they would recommend. The layout will be built in a large attic.

Heres is a sketch of my track plans.

All the best,

Mathew.

Welcome to the forum Mathew.

What scale are you using and how much space do you have. How steep is the gradient to the port?

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:18 am Welcome to the forum Mathew.

What scale are you using and how much space do you have. How steep is the gradient to the port?

It will be 00 gauge. Space in attic will be around 6.5m x 4m. I'm thinking no more than 1:40 gradient down to port. I may even take the mainline loop on a very slight up hill gradient to help add to the illusion.

The proposed layout has all the necessary features for what you are proposing with a bay platform for the local service on to the branch but a facing connection to allow main line trains to get on to it without too much messing about. 1 in 40 is not too bad, the Folkestone Harbour branch was 1 in 30 and needed up to four R1 class 0-6-0Ts for the heaviest trains.

A goods yard with a reception siding is a good idea so that shunting can take place without obstruction the main line. In the steam era goods traffic was very important, coal was king in those days and virtually every station had at least one merchant supplying fuel to the town.

You need to consider the type of train to work the branch service. Push -Pull suggests itself for the passenger service with Hornby's class H or M7 with a two coach push pull set being an ideal combination. Branch goods would almost certainly use an 0-6-0 (Bachmann's C class would be a good one) although the main line goods would be a N or S15 .

If the branch terminal is a port how about a daily fish train to take the catch to London, half a dozen fish vans up to the junction, to be attached to a passing perishables service.

Keep us advised on your progress.

It looks really good as a concept. I lacked a back-story so have just messed around with track in the space I've got until I found something I liked, but cant get one or two areas to look right.

I'm finding going from the I'll have a go at that one day stage to actually doing it is harder than I thought it would be despite reading countless magazines, web, Youtube etc.

Plenty of friendly advice on here.

Shunts

Get a bit of track down. Doesn't have to be in its final position but once the track is there things start to fall into place.

Welcome to the forum. The track plan looks interesting with lots of operational potental. Enjoy and keep us posted.

LC&DR wrote: ↑Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:24 am The proposed layout has all the necessary features for what you are proposing with a bay platform for the local service on to the branch but a facing connection to allow main line trains to get on to it without too much messing about. 1 in 40 is not too bad, the Folkestone Harbour branch was 1 in 30 and needed up to four R1 class 0-6-0Ts for the heaviest trains.

A goods yard with a reception siding is a good idea so that shunting can take place without obstruction the main line. In the steam era goods traffic was very important, coal was king in those days and virtually every station had at least one merchant supplying fuel to the town.

You need to consider the type of train to work the branch service. Push -Pull suggests itself for the passenger service with Hornby's class H or M7 with a two coach push pull set being an ideal combination. Branch goods would almost certainly use an 0-6-0 (Bachmann's C class would be a good one) although the main line goods would be a N or S15 .

If the branch terminal is a port how about a daily fish train to take the catch to London, half a dozen fish vans up to the junction, to be attached to a passing perishables service.

Keep us advised on your progress.

Love the fish van idea! Give me things to look for when the exhibitions and trade shows start up.
Regarding a passenger service for port branch line, i have a hornby 0-6-0 terrier (merton) in the improved engine green LBSCR livery and have pre-ordered a pack of four hattons genesis coaches in the LBSCR mahogany. Hopefully that suits? I also thought i could have an odd day where i run GWR locos and rolling stock, for which i have a pannier tank and auto coach which i though would look nice running up and down the branch.
On the port its self i thought i may invest in a lil hornby pecket 0-4-0 or a hattons andrew barclay. I haven't decided which yet. haha