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My 00 Gauge layout - Oldmoor Junction Model Railway

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Cowley

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Ah yes, get rid of the bed, well a mattress will do & it'll be like being on the bottom bed of a bunk bed, then use the bed frame to make the railway over the bed!

Yes! It’ll be like a two story bedroom. Just a little hatch in the middle of the railway for Peter to stick his head through and a crawl space underneath for his bed. :lol:
 

reddragon

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Yes! It’ll be like a two story bedroom. Just a little hatch in the middle of the railway for Peter to stick his head through and a crawl space underneath for his bed. :lol:
Brilliant idea, now perhaps we both need to use our DIY skills, get him on holiday and for him to come back to a wall to wall layout!
 

Peter C

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:lol: :lol:
I needn't give you my address either - to misquote Victoria Wood, "It's in the Cotswolds, there'll be Land Rovers everywhere and probably a crew from Countryfile, you won't miss it"... ;)

-Peter
 

reddragon

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:lol: :lol:
I needn't give you my address either - to misquote Victoria Wood, "It's in the Cotswolds, there'll be Land Rovers everywhere and probably a crew from Countryfile, you won't miss it"... ;)

-Peter
The queues for Diddly Squat farm shop could be an issue and Clarkson might get in the way

Well I know your local station and you are in a 1980s semi, narrows it down a bit
 
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Peter C

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you are in a 1980s semi
Care to share your working @reddragon? I've said several times that my local station is Kingham but that's as much information as I'm prepared to give - and it's as much information as I believe I've given.

-Peter
 
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reddragon

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Care to share your working @reddragon? I've said several times that my local station is Kingham but that's as much information as I'm prepared to give - and it's as much information as I believe I've given.

-Peter
haha, I can tell the age of a building from very few bits of information, room layouts, size, shape, windows, doors etc. Part of my old job!

Actually, just found your house with your car parked in the road outside. House is older than I thought! 1960s, you've changed the doors & windows!! Nice quiet road.

lol
 

Peter C

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haha, I can tell the age of a building from very few bits of information, room layouts, size, shape, windows, doors etc. Part of my old job!
That's quite the skill indeed! I never knew you could work something like that out from a few photos and a Paint drawing. :)

-Peter
 

reddragon

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That's quite the skill indeed! I never knew you could work something like that out from a few photos and a Paint drawing. :)

-Peter
Yes each era has a design style, window type, layout, use of materials, ceiling height etc. Only self builds & one offs break that.

You have mid 1980's windows (material not used earlier & colour abandoned soon after), a retrofit door typical of late 80's to early 90's. OK still retrofitted today, but less common. Room too large for post 1990.
 

Peter C

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After searching through the jungle modelling forum for several months about ten seconds, I finally found my goal - the buried treasure my layout thread...

I'm writing this whilst half-watching the Crewe Railcam, so this has taken longer to write than anticipated. There's also the small problem of trying to make it funny, but I'm sure we'll muddle through. So then - are we all sitting comfortably? No? Well, hurry up then...
I thought it might be worth making this post just so the thread doesn't get forgotten at the bottom of the pile (essentially, so this thread doesn't get left for as long as the layout itself has been). I've not made any progress with the layout apart from the following:
  1. Realising I've got a 14xx and a Battle of Britain/West Country, meaning I could recreate the opening scene of The Titfield Thunderbolt
  2. Quickly realising I've not got any green coaches for the BofB/WC to pull
  3. Dropping that idea
  4. Wondering what on earth I should do with the area formerly known as Eastfield Road, then as Oldmoor-on-Sea, and now "that bit I've left along with the rest of the layout".
So as you can see, it's been a pretty rock-and-roll time on the OJMR. I've not got any further with what the Oldmoor-on-Sea bit is going to be - in fact, I've made the problem worse by adding a third option (which I believe @Cowley suggested ages ago and which I've thought about a couple of times since) - a small freight yard. I've got lots of wagons which have spent their time, for the most part in recent weeks, in boxes on the shelves under the layout, and it would be nice to have somewhere to store them. The main problem is that I don't do a lot of shunting on the layout, mainly because a lot of my shunting engines are pretty poor at slow-speed running, so unless I want shunting done at Mach 3, it's a bit of a problem.

I think one of the two ideas I proposed in the last post was that of a small countryside station - at least, that's what I've been thinking about trying to make for a short while since that post. That plan has sort-of changed and turned into the idea of a small heritage centre, not only so I can include a station (to complement both Little Piddling and my seeming love of stations), but also plenty of sidings and maybe a shed too. Having spent some time on the interwebs yesterday looking at various photos of Yeovil Railway Centre (again - I believe another @Cowley suggestion), I think something vaguely like that, with only a few engines and some bits of rolling stock, could be achievable in the small area I have available. Turns out Yeovil Railway Centre only have three wagons, all on-loan from the NRM - so very-small-scale operations are totally possible whilst still being within the environs (fancy word that) of realism.

Another positive for a railway centre set-up in that space would be the fact that I could store anything there, and it wouldn't be like the 1980s NSE idea I had where you'd only have BR Blue/Grey stock - plus the fact that I'm too young to remember BR, so it would be pointless me including it on a layout where so much of the stuff is based around places I've been and rolling stock I've been on/can remember seeing. Anyway, who's to say that the railway centre couldn't hold a 1980s-themed event with a Class 50, 47, 33, and 121? I'd certainly go to that in real life!

I bid you all goodnight.

-Peter
 

Iskra

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After searching through the jungle modelling forum for several months about ten seconds, I finally found my goal - the buried treasure my layout thread...

I'm writing this whilst half-watching the Crewe Railcam, so this has taken longer to write than anticipated. There's also the small problem of trying to make it funny, but I'm sure we'll muddle through. So then - are we all sitting comfortably? No? Well, hurry up then...
I thought it might be worth making this post just so the thread doesn't get forgotten at the bottom of the pile (essentially, so this thread doesn't get left for as long as the layout itself has been). I've not made any progress with the layout apart from the following:
  1. Realising I've got a 14xx and a Battle of Britain/West Country, meaning I could recreate the opening scene of The Titfield Thunderbolt
  2. Quickly realising I've not got any green coaches for the BofB/WC to pull
  3. Dropping that idea
  4. Wondering what on earth I should do with the area formerly known as Eastfield Road, then as Oldmoor-on-Sea, and now "that bit I've left along with the rest of the layout".
So as you can see, it's been a pretty rock-and-roll time on the OJMR. I've not got any further with what the Oldmoor-on-Sea bit is going to be - in fact, I've made the problem worse by adding a third option (which I believe @Cowley suggested ages ago and which I've thought about a couple of times since) - a small freight yard. I've got lots of wagons which have spent their time, for the most part in recent weeks, in boxes on the shelves under the layout, and it would be nice to have somewhere to store them. The main problem is that I don't do a lot of shunting on the layout, mainly because a lot of my shunting engines are pretty poor at slow-speed running, so unless I want shunting done at Mach 3, it's a bit of a problem.

I think one of the two ideas I proposed in the last post was that of a small countryside station - at least, that's what I've been thinking about trying to make for a short while since that post. That plan has sort-of changed and turned into the idea of a small heritage centre, not only so I can include a station (to complement both Little Piddling and my seeming love of stations), but also plenty of sidings and maybe a shed too. Having spent some time on the interwebs yesterday looking at various photos of Yeovil Railway Centre (again - I believe another @Cowley suggestion), I think something vaguely like that, with only a few engines and some bits of rolling stock, could be achievable in the small area I have available. Turns out Yeovil Railway Centre only have three wagons, all on-loan from the NRM - so very-small-scale operations are totally possible whilst still being within the environs (fancy word that) of realism.

Another positive for a railway centre set-up in that space would be the fact that I could store anything there, and it wouldn't be like the 1980s NSE idea I had where you'd only have BR Blue/Grey stock - plus the fact that I'm too young to remember BR, so it would be pointless me including it on a layout where so much of the stuff is based around places I've been and rolling stock I've been on/can remember seeing. Anyway, who's to say that the railway centre couldn't hold a 1980s-themed event with a Class 50, 47, 33, and 121? I'd certainly go to that in real life!

I bid you all goodnight.

-Peter
Hump shunting was a winner, so maybe it's worth a try ;) Some poor bloke with a stick can chase after your wagons to slow them down, health and safety won't mind at all.

The railway centre idea is a good one. Anything that let's you run/display whatever stock you like most, is a good idea in my view.
 

Peter C

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Hump shunting was a winner, so maybe it's worth a try ;) Some poor bloke with a stick can chase after your wagons to slow them down, health and safety won't mind at all.
Haha :lol: Considering I think the baseboard isn't perfectly flat, hump shunting might well work...
Health and safety has missed Oldmoor completely so we'll be alright, just as long as the people stop standing around and start moving!

The railway centre idea is a good one. Anything that let's you run/display whatever stock you like most, is a good idea in my view.
Thanks - we're of the same mind then. I think I'll have a play around with the railway centre idea and see what I can get into that space!

-Peter
 

reddragon

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Haha :lol: Considering I think the baseboard isn't perfectly flat, hump shunting might well work...
Health and safety has missed Oldmoor completely so we'll be alright, just as long as the people stop standing around and start moving!


Thanks - we're of the same mind then. I think I'll have a play around with the railway centre idea and see what I can get into that space!

-Peter
My son wants me to build a sinkhole under the tracks, have a landslide and a flood. Maybe you need a railway disaster, one of those old locos could get 'destroyed' in a disaster movie scene?
 

Cowley

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After searching through the jungle modelling forum for several months about ten seconds, I finally found my goal - the buried treasure my layout thread...

I'm writing this whilst half-watching the Crewe Railcam, so this has taken longer to write than anticipated. There's also the small problem of trying to make it funny, but I'm sure we'll muddle through. So then - are we all sitting comfortably? No? Well, hurry up then...
I thought it might be worth making this post just so the thread doesn't get forgotten at the bottom of the pile (essentially, so this thread doesn't get left for as long as the layout itself has been). I've not made any progress with the layout apart from the following:
  1. Realising I've got a 14xx and a Battle of Britain/West Country, meaning I could recreate the opening scene of The Titfield Thunderbolt
  2. Quickly realising I've not got any green coaches for the BofB/WC to pull
  3. Dropping that idea
  4. Wondering what on earth I should do with the area formerly known as Eastfield Road, then as Oldmoor-on-Sea, and now "that bit I've left along with the rest of the layout".
So as you can see, it's been a pretty rock-and-roll time on the OJMR. I've not got any further with what the Oldmoor-on-Sea bit is going to be - in fact, I've made the problem worse by adding a third option (which I believe @Cowley suggested ages ago and which I've thought about a couple of times since) - a small freight yard. I've got lots of wagons which have spent their time, for the most part in recent weeks, in boxes on the shelves under the layout, and it would be nice to have somewhere to store them. The main problem is that I don't do a lot of shunting on the layout, mainly because a lot of my shunting engines are pretty poor at slow-speed running, so unless I want shunting done at Mach 3, it's a bit of a problem.

I think one of the two ideas I proposed in the last post was that of a small countryside station - at least, that's what I've been thinking about trying to make for a short while since that post. That plan has sort-of changed and turned into the idea of a small heritage centre, not only so I can include a station (to complement both Little Piddling and my seeming love of stations), but also plenty of sidings and maybe a shed too. Having spent some time on the interwebs yesterday looking at various photos of Yeovil Railway Centre (again - I believe another @Cowley suggestion), I think something vaguely like that, with only a few engines and some bits of rolling stock, could be achievable in the small area I have available. Turns out Yeovil Railway Centre only have three wagons, all on-loan from the NRM - so very-small-scale operations are totally possible whilst still being within the environs (fancy word that) of realism.

Another positive for a railway centre set-up in that space would be the fact that I could store anything there, and it wouldn't be like the 1980s NSE idea I had where you'd only have BR Blue/Grey stock - plus the fact that I'm too young to remember BR, so it would be pointless me including it on a layout where so much of the stuff is based around places I've been and rolling stock I've been on/can remember seeing. Anyway, who's to say that the railway centre couldn't hold a 1980s-themed event with a Class 50, 47, 33, and 121? I'd certainly go to that in real life!

I bid you all goodnight.

-Peter

Actually Yeovil Railway Centre did have 50050 for a while and were doing restoration work on it before it moved onto pastures new. So definitely within the realms of plausibility.
So is any of the stuff in the centre of the railway related to preservation now Peter?
 

Peter C

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Actually Yeovil Railway Centre did have 50050 for a while and were doing restoration work on it before it moved onto pastures new. So definitely within the realms of plausibility.
Ah yes - I noticed that on my interweb searches so my 50046 will definitely be making an appearance at the railway centre if I build it.

So is any of the stuff in the centre of the railway related to preservation now Peter?
I've been thinking about what to do with the space which used to be the railway centre - I want to keep the larger town scenic section in that sort-of area so I'll probably add some small sidings to go with your idea of the railtour-loco servicing bit, but that idea's subject to change :lol:

-Peter

=============
New post - 18.7.2021

Right then - let's see if I can get through this post in the boiling heat...

With a fan focused on my laptop, and one on me, I'm making this to show the work I've just finished with the railway centre trackplan for the aforementioned unused area of the layout. Here it is:

Railway Centre.jpg

It fills up all of the available space but that's kind of necessary to get all of the stuff I want in. I'll take you through each of the numbered sections on that picture.

  1. This is the station area and comprises an island platform with two faces. The track on the right is very close to the edge of the board, so I'll need to get a bit of wood to act as a barrier to stop trains throwing themselves down the few-feet-tall distance. These platforms can take a two-car multiple unit with a little bit of an overhang at the (non-buffer, of course) end. There isn't a run-around facility as that would only allow for a single carriage to be run-around by the engine, but a station pilot could be used to move the carriages from one platform to the other and then the engine could follow. Passengers would get from the platform to the rest of the railway centre via the platform end ramp.
  2. The engine shed is a basic two-road affair, suitable to hold two or three engines (two if they're large engines, three if they're of various sizes). There isn't a lot to say about this bit as I think we all know how engine sheds work :lol:
  3. A basic siding, or so it seems - in actual fact, this is going to be a super-cool, top-secret facility engine maintenance shed. The siding can hold a Class 52 but the building which would go over it certainly wouldn't, so it's going to be a compromise but that's model railways for you. Think something like the SVR's Kidderminster Diesel Depot but just one road and only big enough for most of one engine and you've got it right.
  4. The level crossing has been part of the OJMR's railway centre incarnations for ages now and it's almost always been a cosmetic thing, not really designed to allow people to cross the railway. Its use here follows this same idea; my thinking behind it being here is that it could be part of an interactive thing, where people learn about how railway signalling works; the building directly next to the crossing is a small Hornby signalbox. The building next to that is a coal merchant's building which would probably be moved away from that location in place of a scratchbuilt building like the one at Didcot where you can have a go on the old Swindon signalling panel. The track connecting to the level crossing will join the other track at the curve circled in yellow.
  5. This section is the goods shed - again, another key part of the OJMR railway centre. Here, it is near the edge of the baseboard but doesn't actually go over it. This will be the main goods hub of the railway centre, and the main goods area of the entire layout given there aren't any other areas of the layout focused on freight traffic. The level crossing track could also serve as a freight siding, as could one of the station platforms.

So there's plenty of track (and most of it flexitrack from @reddragon which, having sat around for about a year, has become really useful in recent weeks). The station was one of the main things needed to finish the end of the Little Piddling branchline, so a unit could plausibly get to Little Piddling; a train coming from the main loops on the layout needs to reverse at the railway centre end of the branch before heading back into Little Piddling.

That's the trackplan I've got. It fits all of the criteria I came up with - station, engine shed, goods shed, maintenance shed*, and the level crossing. If you have any questions, do ask!

-Peter :)

*(enough sheds to fill a garden centre)

===========

My son wants me to build a sinkhole under the tracks, have a landslide and a flood. Maybe you need a railway disaster, one of those old locos could get 'destroyed' in a disaster movie scene?
Are you going to cave in to pressure on that one?
It's a bit more extreme than my Titfield idea but I like it - although whether the people of Oldmoor would particularly want their houses falling down a sinkhole or not, I'm not sure :lol:
Although maybe I could have an engine tumble down an embankment - like what happened to 1401 in The Titfield Thunderbolt... all I'd need is a steamroller to pull it out of the shed!

*Yes - a spoiler for a movie which is almost seventy years old.

-Peter
 
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reddragon

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Are you going to cave in to pressure on that one?
It's a bit more extreme than my Titfield idea but I like it - although whether the people of Oldmoor would particularly want their houses falling down a sinkhole or not, I'm not sure :lol:

Although maybe I could have an engine tumble down an embankment - like what happened to 1401 in The Titfield Thunderbolt... all I'd need is a steamroller to pull it out of the shed!


*Yes - a spoiler for a movie which is almost seventy years old.

-Peter
I will probably do a landslide / bank slip feature and maybe a collapse sewer with works going on, that meets his demands surely?
 

Peter C

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I will probably do a landslide / bank slip feature and maybe a collapse sewer with works going on, that meets his demands surely?
That sounds interesting. Have some blokes in orange stood around to add to the realism ;)

-Peter
 

Cowley

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That scene in the Titfield Thunderbolt is so good, as is the 14xx racing through the streets after they’ve nicked it. It’s a wonderful film.
 

Peter C

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That scene in the Titfield Thunderbolt is so good, as is the 14xx racing through the streets after they’ve nicked it. It’s a wonderful film.
It really is brilliant. It was on the telly some time in the last year and I must have watched it getting on for five times on iPlayer before it was removed!
The bit at the end when they get to Bristol Mallingford and then all of the engines start whistling, and the vicar is so happy that they've all saved the railway... superb.

-Peter
 

Cowley

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It really is brilliant. It was on the telly some time in the last year and I must have watched it getting on for five times on iPlayer before it was removed!
The bit at the end when they get to Bristol Mallingford and then all of the engines start whistling, and the vicar is so happy that they've all saved the railway... superb.

-Peter

It’s definitely in my top 5 favourite films of all time. Mind you I love all of the Ealing Comedies just because they’re such a wonderful snapshot of that time.
 

Peter C

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It’s definitely in my top 5 favourite films of all time. Mind you I love all of the Ealing Comedies just because they’re such a wonderful snapshot of that time.
I've only watched Titfield but the other Ealing Comedies do look really good. I was watching a documentary the other day and "Passport to Pimlico" came up and looked quite funny so that's gone on the "films to watch" list :D

-Peter
 

Cowley

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I've only watched Titfield but the other Ealing Comedies do look really good. I was watching a documentary the other day and "Passport to Pimlico" came up and looked quite funny so that's gone on the "films to watch" list :D

-Peter

Yes that’s a great film. The Ladykillers is a good one to see also. It’s an excellent film anyway plus there’s lots of railway scenes in it.
 

Peter C

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Yes that’s a great film. The Ladykillers is a good one to see also. It’s an excellent film anyway plus there’s lots of railway scenes in it.
I think there were a few clips of that I saw in another video. It was funny seeing the famous "Copenhagen Fields" layout on YouTube and thinking "oh yeah, that's that bridge from the film!".

-Peter
 

reddragon

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I think there were a few clips of that I saw in another video. It was funny seeing the famous "Copenhagen Fields" layout on YouTube and thinking "oh yeah, that's that bridge from the film!".

-Peter
The old Will Hay films were good too - Oh Mr Porter, Where's that fire and Ask a Policeman. A bit dated though!
Also St Trinians Great train robbery!!
 

Peter C

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"I'm taking an early holiday cos I know summer comes soonest in the south"

As the summer heat shows no signs of disappearing, I've made some more progress on the layout. Today's changes focus on the town scene within the centre of the layout, and it's changed quite a bit... (but honestly, what did you expect - this is my layout we're talking about here!)

It must have been a couple of months ago that I first changed the town scenic section in the centre of the layout to have two roads instead of just one in order to add some more interest. I've kept this idea and here's what an hour's work produced this afternoon:
Overview 1 for RailForums.jpg
Apologies for the messy baseboard - I was going to tidy it up, but it's too hot :lol:
The lines I've drawn on in MS Paint should hopefully give a good idea of what on earth I've actually done (you see, @Cowley's got proper painted roads, and @43055 has got proper walkways, and I've got some wood and a computer). There's still the one road going up to the station, but after leaving the station area, it'll reach a roundabout from which it can take one of two paths. I'll describe each numbered section below, as I did with the railway centre update. The numbers in the list correspond with the numbers I've written on the board (funny that), and I've given the location of each section on the picture too as it's a bit difficult to find each bit.
  1. (near the top of the frame, in the middle) - this is the roundabout. I've not had a roundabout on the layout before, so this will be a nice change. It'll be simple to make it as well, given it's a circle with road markings on and maybe a fancy scenic bit in the middle. The excellent Wordsworth Model Railway (wordsworthmodelrailway.co.uk) site has a road kit on there, so if all else fails I can use the roundabout piece from their kit (although I'd prefer to paint it on).

  2. (to the left of the roundabout) - this is going to be a pub. Well, technically it's going to be a Metcalfe coaching inn (link). I've already got a pub on the layout, but with the road leaving the roundabout to the left in this photo I'm trying to achieve more of a quaint countryside feel and so a pub has got to be there somewhere. I used the measurements provided on the Metcalfe website for the building to make a 2D plan of it with the right measurements so I could test-fit it and it works very well in the space I had.
    The kit comes with an L-shaped building with a yard area so it's different to the other buildings on the layout. I might add a small garden next to the pub and move the model shop building (in front of it in this photo) further towards the camera. However, ScaleScenes also do a pub building (link), so I'm going to make a 2D plan of the measurements for that building and test-fit it before deciding to go with the Metcalfe one.

  3. (just above the pub area) - this is going to be a church. I had a church on the layout when I started this thread back in February 2020 (I believe it was a Christmas present) and it was a good model. However, it was a bit big and I couldn't really work it into the rest of the scene (at this point, my plan was to have a large hill at one end of the layout and another raised section at the other) so it went in a box. Over time it managed to get a bit crumpled and when I found it a few weeks ago, it had got to the point where it wasn't worth rebuilding it.
    The church idea goes with the idea of having one road through the town be more quaint than the other - every little village has a church of some kind and even if you're not religious (such as myself), they're still very nice buildings with plenty of modelling potential. One example of this potential is shown in the little walled-off area to the top of the frame, above the piece of paper marking out where the church is going to be: this will be a small village green area, with the potential to hold a market (which can be made using this Metcalfe kit).

  4. (to the right of the church) - this item in the list is probably the smallest one: it points towards the shops inbetween the two roads (and which face onto the left road). The idea here is to have two sets of shops backing onto each other where possible (i.e. where the gap between the roads is wide enough) and then have just the one shop on one of the roads when it isn't.

  5. (to the right of the roundabout) - @Cowley might be pleased to see this finally materialise on the layout, given it was his idea. :) It's a small area where railtour engines can be put so that they're out of the way of mainline trains (and shunting duties when dealing with the railtour stock itself). There are only two sidings as there's not much room for more sidings and the town scene. The gap between the two sidings should be big enough to have a water crane in there somewhere - thus giving more of a reason behind my plan to include a water tower somewhere on Oldmoor Junction station (just as at Birmingham Moor Street).

  6. (below the sidings from number five) - this red area shows where a fourth siding for Oldmoor Junction station will go. It'll branch-off from the platform track to the left of it at the first straight piece of track and will act as a holding siding for locos and stock which need to be in the station area - just like the previous four-siding incarnation of the station. (So it turns out number 4 wasn't the smallest item on this list! :D)

  7. (to the left of number six) - we're slowing getting there folks :lol: This is going to be a new track in the station purely to allow for stock to access the railtour sidings from item number five. Trains need to pass over a curved set of points and a cut-down Hornby R606 track piece to get to this bit of track before reversing into the railtour sidings. I know people online say you shouldn't use curved points, but I've got them and they need using so here we go! I think i may end up cutting this track down by one track piece when it comes to laying the track as there needs to be plenty of space for the station building.

  8. (to the left of number seven) - finally; the end! This is the road leading up to the station. It's going to run between either the depot building and a car park (so the car park will be next to the track from item number seven), or between the track from number seven and the car park (so the car park will be next to the depot), but I haven't decided yet. I might include a bus stop somewhere in the station area, and there's almost certainly going to be some sort of turning area (probably not in the form of a turning bay, but just a bit at the end of the road linking one lane to another round a curve), as well as a taxi rank somewhere too. Whilst writing this, I've realised that maybe having the station building be in the form of an old GWR one, like at Birmingham Moor Street, instead of the mostly-glass design I'd originally planned, might be nice.

Phew - that was a lot to get through. Sorry for so much to read! o_O

Actually - before you click off and read a more interesting thread about HS2 or something, I've got a little bit to share about the railway centre. Turns out that having the level crossing and the maintenance shed road in each other's places makes for a much better use of space, so I've swapped them around. The level crossing could now potentially be used to provide access from Oldmoor Junction station to the railway centre as it's right at the end of the outer-loop platform.
The maintenance shed is now going to be next to the goods shed, but this might make for an interesting contrast where you've got the newer design of the maintenance shed (my thinking is that it'll be a similar design to Kidderminster Diesel Depot - and Oldmoor T&RSMD as a result) and the older style of the goods shed.

As always, do let me know what you think - if you have any questions, then do ask.

Thanks for reading!

-Peter

(P.S. A special photo is attached for all you lovely people who read to the end of this post. It's just for you; I'm sure no-one else can see it ;))

Overview 2.jpeg

(It's an overview of the town scene so you can get a better idea of what I've got so far)
 

reddragon

Established Member
Joined
24 Mar 2016
Messages
3,145
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Churn (closed)
"I'm taking an early holiday cos I know summer comes soonest in the south"

As the summer heat shows no signs of disappearing, I've made some more progress on the layout. Today's changes focus on the town scene within the centre of the layout, and it's changed quite a bit... (but honestly, what did you expect - this is my layout we're talking about here!)

It must have been a couple of months ago that I first changed the town scenic section in the centre of the layout to have two roads instead of just one in order to add some more interest. I've kept this idea and here's what an hour's work produced this afternoon:
View attachment 100024
Apologies for the messy baseboard - I was going to tidy it up, but it's too hot :lol:
The lines I've drawn on in MS Paint should hopefully give a good idea of what on earth I've actually done (you see, @Cowley's got proper painted roads, and @43055 has got proper walkways, and I've got some wood and a computer). There's still the one road going up to the station, but after leaving the station area, it'll reach a roundabout from which it can take one of two paths. I'll describe each numbered section below, as I did with the railway centre update. The numbers in the list correspond with the numbers I've written on the board (funny that), and I've given the location of each section on the picture too as it's a bit difficult to find each bit.
  1. (near the top of the frame, in the middle) - this is the roundabout. I've not had a roundabout on the layout before, so this will be a nice change. It'll be simple to make it as well, given it's a circle with road markings on and maybe a fancy scenic bit in the middle. The excellent Wordsworth Model Railway (wordsworthmodelrailway.co.uk) site has a road kit on there, so if all else fails I can use the roundabout piece from their kit (although I'd prefer to paint it on).

  2. (to the left of the roundabout) - this is going to be a pub. Well, technically it's going to be a Metcalfe coaching inn (link). I've already got a pub on the layout, but with the road leaving the roundabout to the left in this photo I'm trying to achieve more of a quaint countryside feel and so a pub has got to be there somewhere. I used the measurements provided on the Metcalfe website for the building to make a 2D plan of it with the right measurements so I could test-fit it and it works very well in the space I had.
    The kit comes with an L-shaped building with a yard area so it's different to the other buildings on the layout. I might add a small garden next to the pub and move the model shop building (in front of it in this photo) further towards the camera. However, ScaleScenes also do a pub building (link), so I'm going to make a 2D plan of the measurements for that building and test-fit it before deciding to go with the Metcalfe one.

  3. (just above the pub area) - this is going to be a church. I had a church on the layout when I started this thread back in February 2020 (I believe it was a Christmas present) and it was a good model. However, it was a bit big and I couldn't really work it into the rest of the scene (at this point, my plan was to have a large hill at one end of the layout and another raised section at the other) so it went in a box. Over time it managed to get a bit crumpled and when I found it a few weeks ago, it had got to the point where it wasn't worth rebuilding it.
    The church idea goes with the idea of having one road through the town be more quaint than the other - every little village has a church of some kind and even if you're not religious (such as myself), they're still very nice buildings with plenty of modelling potential. One example of this potential is shown in the little walled-off area to the top of the frame, above the piece of paper marking out where the church is going to be: this will be a small village green area, with the potential to hold a market (which can be made using this Metcalfe kit).

  4. (to the right of the church) - this item in the list is probably the smallest one: it points towards the shops inbetween the two roads (and which face onto the left road). The idea here is to have two sets of shops backing onto each other where possible (i.e. where the gap between the roads is wide enough) and then have just the one shop on one of the roads when it isn't.

  5. (to the right of the roundabout) - @Cowley might be pleased to see this finally materialise on the layout, given it was his idea. :) It's a small area where railtour engines can be put so that they're out of the way of mainline trains (and shunting duties when dealing with the railtour stock itself). There are only two sidings as there's not much room for more sidings and the town scene. The gap between the two sidings should be big enough to have a water crane in there somewhere - thus giving more of a reason behind my plan to include a water tower somewhere on Oldmoor Junction station (just as at Birmingham Moor Street).

  6. (below the sidings from number five) - this red area shows where a fourth siding for Oldmoor Junction station will go. It'll branch-off from the platform track to the left of it at the first straight piece of track and will act as a holding siding for locos and stock which need to be in the station area - just like the previous four-siding incarnation of the station. (So it turns out number 4 wasn't the smallest item on this list! :D)

  7. (to the left of number six) - we're slowing getting there folks :lol: This is going to be a new track in the station purely to allow for stock to access the railtour sidings from item number five. Trains need to pass over a curved set of points and a cut-down Hornby R606 track piece to get to this bit of track before reversing into the railtour sidings. I know people online say you shouldn't use curved points, but I've got them and they need using so here we go! I think i may end up cutting this track down by one track piece when it comes to laying the track as there needs to be plenty of space for the station building.

  8. (to the left of number seven) - finally; the end! This is the road leading up to the station. It's going to run between either the depot building and a car park (so the car park will be next to the track from item number seven), or between the track from number seven and the car park (so the car park will be next to the depot), but I haven't decided yet. I might include a bus stop somewhere in the station area, and there's almost certainly going to be some sort of turning area (probably not in the form of a turning bay, but just a bit at the end of the road linking one lane to another round a curve), as well as a taxi rank somewhere too. Whilst writing this, I've realised that maybe having the station building be in the form of an old GWR one, like at Birmingham Moor Street, instead of the mostly-glass design I'd originally planned, might be nice.

Phew - that was a lot to get through. Sorry for so much to read! o_O

Actually - before you click off and read a more interesting thread about HS2 or something, I've got a little bit to share about the railway centre. Turns out that having the level crossing and the maintenance shed road in each other's places makes for a much better use of space, so I've swapped them around. The level crossing could now potentially be used to provide access from Oldmoor Junction station to the railway centre as it's right at the end of the outer-loop platform.
The maintenance shed is now going to be next to the goods shed, but this might make for an interesting contrast where you've got the newer design of the maintenance shed (my thinking is that it'll be a similar design to Kidderminster Diesel Depot - and Oldmoor T&RSMD as a result) and the older style of the goods shed.

As always, do let me know what you think - if you have any questions, then do ask.

Thanks for reading!

-Peter

(P.S. A special photo is attached for all you lovely people who read to the end of this post. It's just for you; I'm sure no-one else can see it ;))

View attachment 100027

(It's an overview of the town scene so you can get a better idea of what I've got so far)
One bit of advice. Ballast all of the track to stop you changing it. lol
 

Peter C

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Joined
13 Oct 2018
Messages
4,514
Location
GWR land
One bit of advice. Ballast all of the track to stop you changing it. lol
That's worked with the bit along what I'd call the "front" (i.e. the bit with the Little Piddling branchline) - I ballasted it earlier this year or late last year and it's not been changed since. I need to get on and ballast the rest of the main loops soon and then I can start on the railway centre and the other bits of Oldmoor Junction station (as well as the depot).

-Peter :D
 

Cowley

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Messages
15,686
Location
Devon
"I'm taking an early holiday cos I know summer comes soonest in the south"

As the summer heat shows no signs of disappearing, I've made some more progress on the layout. Today's changes focus on the town scene within the centre of the layout, and it's changed quite a bit... (but honestly, what did you expect - this is my layout we're talking about here!)

It must have been a couple of months ago that I first changed the town scenic section in the centre of the layout to have two roads instead of just one in order to add some more interest. I've kept this idea and here's what an hour's work produced this afternoon:
View attachment 100024
Apologies for the messy baseboard - I was going to tidy it up, but it's too hot :lol:
The lines I've drawn on in MS Paint should hopefully give a good idea of what on earth I've actually done (you see, @Cowley's got proper painted roads, and @43055 has got proper walkways, and I've got some wood and a computer). There's still the one road going up to the station, but after leaving the station area, it'll reach a roundabout from which it can take one of two paths. I'll describe each numbered section below, as I did with the railway centre update. The numbers in the list correspond with the numbers I've written on the board (funny that), and I've given the location of each section on the picture too as it's a bit difficult to find each bit.
  1. (near the top of the frame, in the middle) - this is the roundabout. I've not had a roundabout on the layout before, so this will be a nice change. It'll be simple to make it as well, given it's a circle with road markings on and maybe a fancy scenic bit in the middle. The excellent Wordsworth Model Railway (wordsworthmodelrailway.co.uk) site has a road kit on there, so if all else fails I can use the roundabout piece from their kit (although I'd prefer to paint it on).

  2. (to the left of the roundabout) - this is going to be a pub. Well, technically it's going to be a Metcalfe coaching inn (link). I've already got a pub on the layout, but with the road leaving the roundabout to the left in this photo I'm trying to achieve more of a quaint countryside feel and so a pub has got to be there somewhere. I used the measurements provided on the Metcalfe website for the building to make a 2D plan of it with the right measurements so I could test-fit it and it works very well in the space I had.
    The kit comes with an L-shaped building with a yard area so it's different to the other buildings on the layout. I might add a small garden next to the pub and move the model shop building (in front of it in this photo) further towards the camera. However, ScaleScenes also do a pub building (link), so I'm going to make a 2D plan of the measurements for that building and test-fit it before deciding to go with the Metcalfe one.

  3. (just above the pub area) - this is going to be a church. I had a church on the layout when I started this thread back in February 2020 (I believe it was a Christmas present) and it was a good model. However, it was a bit big and I couldn't really work it into the rest of the scene (at this point, my plan was to have a large hill at one end of the layout and another raised section at the other) so it went in a box. Over time it managed to get a bit crumpled and when I found it a few weeks ago, it had got to the point where it wasn't worth rebuilding it.
    The church idea goes with the idea of having one road through the town be more quaint than the other - every little village has a church of some kind and even if you're not religious (such as myself), they're still very nice buildings with plenty of modelling potential. One example of this potential is shown in the little walled-off area to the top of the frame, above the piece of paper marking out where the church is going to be: this will be a small village green area, with the potential to hold a market (which can be made using this Metcalfe kit).

  4. (to the right of the church) - this item in the list is probably the smallest one: it points towards the shops inbetween the two roads (and which face onto the left road). The idea here is to have two sets of shops backing onto each other where possible (i.e. where the gap between the roads is wide enough) and then have just the one shop on one of the roads when it isn't.

  5. (to the right of the roundabout) - @Cowley might be pleased to see this finally materialise on the layout, given it was his idea. :) It's a small area where railtour engines can be put so that they're out of the way of mainline trains (and shunting duties when dealing with the railtour stock itself). There are only two sidings as there's not much room for more sidings and the town scene. The gap between the two sidings should be big enough to have a water crane in there somewhere - thus giving more of a reason behind my plan to include a water tower somewhere on Oldmoor Junction station (just as at Birmingham Moor Street).

  6. (below the sidings from number five) - this red area shows where a fourth siding for Oldmoor Junction station will go. It'll branch-off from the platform track to the left of it at the first straight piece of track and will act as a holding siding for locos and stock which need to be in the station area - just like the previous four-siding incarnation of the station. (So it turns out number 4 wasn't the smallest item on this list! :D)

  7. (to the left of number six) - we're slowing getting there folks :lol: This is going to be a new track in the station purely to allow for stock to access the railtour sidings from item number five. Trains need to pass over a curved set of points and a cut-down Hornby R606 track piece to get to this bit of track before reversing into the railtour sidings. I know people online say you shouldn't use curved points, but I've got them and they need using so here we go! I think i may end up cutting this track down by one track piece when it comes to laying the track as there needs to be plenty of space for the station building.

  8. (to the left of number seven) - finally; the end! This is the road leading up to the station. It's going to run between either the depot building and a car park (so the car park will be next to the track from item number seven), or between the track from number seven and the car park (so the car park will be next to the depot), but I haven't decided yet. I might include a bus stop somewhere in the station area, and there's almost certainly going to be some sort of turning area (probably not in the form of a turning bay, but just a bit at the end of the road linking one lane to another round a curve), as well as a taxi rank somewhere too. Whilst writing this, I've realised that maybe having the station building be in the form of an old GWR one, like at Birmingham Moor Street, instead of the mostly-glass design I'd originally planned, might be nice.

Phew - that was a lot to get through. Sorry for so much to read! o_O

Actually - before you click off and read a more interesting thread about HS2 or something, I've got a little bit to share about the railway centre. Turns out that having the level crossing and the maintenance shed road in each other's places makes for a much better use of space, so I've swapped them around. The level crossing could now potentially be used to provide access from Oldmoor Junction station to the railway centre as it's right at the end of the outer-loop platform.
The maintenance shed is now going to be next to the goods shed, but this might make for an interesting contrast where you've got the newer design of the maintenance shed (my thinking is that it'll be a similar design to Kidderminster Diesel Depot - and Oldmoor T&RSMD as a result) and the older style of the goods shed.

As always, do let me know what you think - if you have any questions, then do ask.

Thanks for reading!

-Peter

(P.S. A special photo is attached for all you lovely people who read to the end of this post. It's just for you; I'm sure no-one else can see it ;))

View attachment 100027

(It's an overview of the town scene so you can get a better idea of what I've got so far)

I completely missed this the other day. I’m at work at the moment but I’ll have a proper read of it this evening.

I completely missed this the other day. I’m at work at the moment but I’ll have a proper read of it this evening.

Right I’ve had time read it now and there’s some good ideas in there. I did however think that you’d drawn those roads onto the baseboard with a permanent marker at first. :lol:

It looks like you’re starting to get to the point of making this a bit more permanent now that you’ve played around with different ideas and I think there’s quite a bit of operational interest with what you’ve got at the moment.
I do agree in a way with @reddragon on the ballasting thing. It might be worth ballasting some of the bits you’re certain of so that you can start detailing those areas maybe?
 
Last edited:

Peter C

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Joined
13 Oct 2018
Messages
4,514
Location
GWR land
Right I’ve had time read it now and there’s some good ideas in there. I did however think that you’d drawn those roads onto the baseboard with a permanent marker at first. :lol:
Haha :) The board's covered in pencil markings showing the various ideas I've had over time so it's not that big of a leap to permanent marker!

It looks like you’re starting to get to the point of making this a bit more permanent now that you’ve played around with different ideas and I think there’s quite a bit of operational interest with what you’ve got at the moment.
Definitely. I've got an idea of what I want for each area and so it's just the little things like maybe adding another platform/swapping buildings, etc. that needs to be done before I can get started with ballasting everything.

I do agree in a way with @reddragon on the ballasting thing. It might be worth ballasting some of the bits you’re certain of so that you can start detailing those areas maybe?
Following on from @reddragon's comment, I got a little bit more ballasting work done yesterday - it's not glued down yet as I need to fix some of it but the curve closest to Little Piddling has now been ballasted up to the level crossing leading over to the corner with the famous Crown & Anchor pub :D
The only issue is that I need to get some more ballast now as I've run out of the stuff I've been using. I do have some sand-coloured stuff but the rocks are a bit on the big side. I think two bags will be enough to finish off the main loops and then get most, if not all, of the bay platforms at Oldmoor Junction finished.

====

Talking of making little changes to the layout, I've changed what the bay platforms at Oldmoor Junction look like. The original plan was for them to look like the picture on the left; they now look like the picture on the right:
1627134004904.png Oldmoor Junction for RailForums.jpg
(Sorry for one being landscape and the other being portrait!)

The main thing I'm aiming at with Oldmoor Junction is to have a modern-image station and, as a result, it wouldn't have loads of sidings scattered around (as it might have had in days before rationalisation). The main inspirations for the current trackplan are Oxford, Birmingham Moor Street, and to a lesser extent, York - the first two stations are comprised purely of platforms (and the two through tracks in the case of Oxford) and are focused on passenger services as a result. York, however, has at least one pair of sidings at the southern end of the station:
1627134684858.png
(Screenshot from RailCam's York ROC 1 camera, showing the two sidings to the left of the frame)

I've sort-of added similar sidings to Oldmoor Junction in the form of the sidings marked "2" and circled in green on this photo:
Oldmoor Junction for RailForums.jpg
They're shorter than the ones at York as they can probably only hold two engines between them, whereas the York sidings can hold four engines. An idea I had at one point was to expand upon this idea of the two sidings and make a tiny heritage operation, suitable for engines like "Smokey Joe" and the Ruston 48DS - it would require quite a lot of artistic license to get something usable in the space available but I'm going to spend some time on SCARM (Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeller) to see if something could be done with that.
(The sidings have also been changed so they're both straight and so that the one on the right could be made longer)

You can also see in that photo that I've dropped the short siding inbetween two of the bay platforms. It was only really long enough for the one engine, and didn't seem to fit in with the idea that the station trackwork would have been rationalised at some point. The track on the left of the station - the one without a platform - is going to remain as a non-platform track and will act purely as a way of getting engines into and out of the sidings. When operating on DCC though, it could be used to store one engine and then other engines could use the other half of the line to get to the sidings, having thought about it.

The Hornby station building on the inner-loop platform is a placeholder for something like a Metcalfe kit which will go in the middle of that platform. I saw another layout on YouTube (LNER_Steam) with buildings on the platforms - and @43055's layout - and they both looked really good. In the case of Oldmoor Junction, having a building on the platform also helps to break up the continuous view of trains as they pass through the station on the outer loop, making it more realistic as you rarely get a full view of a train in the platform when viewing from the other side of the station in my experience :D


I got a bit of testing done on the station trackwork the other day and it all works, which is brilliant. I'd had some problems before with the points to allow trains to enter the bay platforms, but now I can get a three-coach train into the platforms (and then realise I can only three coaches in the platforms without the loco on the front!).

Well that's that so far - I've got a bit of work done on the railway centre but I've been making a couple of changes as I find other prototype examples of heritage railway operations which I'd like to include on the layout!

Thanks for reading.

-Peter
 

Cowley

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Good stuff. So do you mean that the map is what you’re doing but without that little siding between the platforms?
 
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