My 00 Gauge layout - Oldmoor Junction Model Railway

[The_Train]

Haha love the latest story! Get yourself some EastEnders style music and I think you might have a drama on your hands

Out of interest, did you (and the other modellers on here) partake in the Twitter Model Train Show on Saturday? My feed was littered with photo's and videos of people's layouts and rolling stock - I was genuinely amazed at what I saw and the fact it literally went on from morning till night with so many people involved from all corners of the planet. It clearly brought a lot of joy to people, me being one of them

 

[Peter C]

Haha love the latest story! Get yourself some EastEnders style music and I think you might have a drama on your hands

Haha - thank you I think there might be another story coming soon - a certain resident who owns a wool and yarn shop is less than impressed that trains have started running again after a week or so of quiet...

Out of interest, did you (and the other modellers on here) partake in the Twitter Model Train Show on Saturday? My feed was littered with photo's and videos of people's layouts and rolling stock - I was genuinely amazed at what I saw and the fact it literally went on from morning till night with so many people involved from all corners of the planet. It clearly brought a lot of joy to people, me being one of them

I did, yep - I think I posted photos and videos for the morning and they tailed off in the early afternoon. I really enjoyed all of the other layouts on show - some of the detailing work people have done is amazing. It left me wondering whether a similar thing could be done on the forums...?
If anyone's interested in seeing my small contributions to the #TwitterModelTrainShow, you can see them here: https://twitter.com/ModelOldmoor

-Peter

 

[The_Train]

I did, yep - I think I posted photos and videos for the morning and they tailed off in the early afternoon. I really enjoyed all of the other layouts on show - some of the detailing work people have done is amazing. It left me wondering whether a similar thing could be done on the forums...?
If anyone's interested in seeing my small contributions to the #TwitterModelTrainShow, you can see them here: https://twitter.com/ModelOldmoor

-Peter

Agree with all of that. Did you get any ideas from any videos you saw for your own layout? Must admit my particular favourite thing on a few layouts was a flyover. They look epic!

 

[reddragon]

Haha love the latest story! Get yourself some EastEnders style music and I think you might have a drama on your hands

Out of interest, did you (and the other modellers on here) partake in the Twitter Model Train Show on Saturday? My feed was littered with photo's and videos of people's layouts and rolling stock - I was genuinely amazed at what I saw and the fact it literally went on from morning till night with so many people involved from all corners of the planet. It clearly brought a lot of joy to people, me being one of them

You need an ice cream van that plays East Ender clang clang bing bong

 

[Peter C]

Agree with all of that. Did you get any ideas from any videos you saw for your own layout? Must admit my particular favourite thing on a few layouts was a flyover. They look epic!

I did get a few ideas, yes; not so much about what I could add to the layout in terms of track etc. but definitely in terms of how to do things. I'd love a flyover on a future (larger) layout!

You need an ice cream van that plays East Ender clang clang bing bong

An easy way of doing that would be a model ice cream van and the Hornby TTS vent van, surely...? I'll get my coat

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

I must admit that I do like the little stories about the characters too.
I could see that developing and you making a few little cameos as the layout progresses...

 

[The_Train]

I must admit that I do like the little stories about the characters too.
I could see that developing and you making a few little cameos as the layout progresses...

There is someone I follow on Twitter who does a daily story and initially it would be accompanied by a photo or 2. They have now progressed things to putting these pics into a video style post - a bit like a digital version of a flip book is the best way of describing it I guess

 

[Peter C]

I must admit that I do like the little stories about the characters too.
I could see that developing and you making a few little cameos as the layout progresses...

Haha - thanks very much! I started them because they make me giggle (sad, I know, laughing at my own jokes) and they've evolved from there. There might be a case to make it into a drama for the BBC if I'm not careful!
I've definitely got ideas for little scenes or things I could make. The first is to be Acorn Antiques, and will involve making a shop sign for the middle of the three new shops in the top-right hand corner of the layout. A small thing, but it makes me giggle just thinking about what goes on (or 'wrong' I suppose that should be) in there...

There is someone I follow on Twitter who does a daily story and initially it would be accompanied by a photo or 2. They have now progressed things to putting these pics into a video style post - a bit like a digital version of a flip book is the best way of describing it I guess

I've seen a few of those - one of the ones I found quite funny was worse than a seaside postcard though: innuendo was key!

-Peter

 

[The_Train]

I've seen a few of those - one of the ones I found quite funny was worse than a seaside postcard though: innuendo was key!

-Peter

That is exactly my sort of humour

 

[Peter C]

I've not posted anything on here for a while now because I've come to a bit of a Countdown conundrum. I can't decide what I want to do with the railway centre area of the layout; track or scenery?

(pause for dramatic effect - it's just like East Enders this, just with fewer fights in pubs)

I originally designed the layout with plenty of track to allow for the most operational potential possible. This has worked up until a few weeks ago, when I realised that having some more scenery on the layout wouldn't go amiss. The railway centre currently takes up loads of space, and while it's lovely to be able to have so much space for sidings and engine display areas, it does take away from what I can do scenics-wise.
Oldmoor is currently served by one road, which runs from off the edge of the baseboard to the station car park - and that's it (and very unrealistic and boring). This wasn't always the case; at some point during the layout's construction, I'd built up quite a nice (basic, but nice) little area using free card kits from the interwebs and my scenic grass puffer bottle (so I couldn't electrocute myself) in the middle of the baseboard. A single road came from one side and split into three roads which then joined back up at the other end in a curve - if that makes sense.

My current thinking is that I should try and reduce the size of the railway centre and increase the scenic town centre area so as to provide a bit more interest for the layout. I could also make it link up with the road in the top-left-hand corner of the layout via a level crossing, which could be nice and would be done in a similar way to Exeter St. David's station (just with two tracks, not the six I think it has - @Cowley can hopefully confirm/deny), where the level crossing is just off the end of the platforms.
I'd expand the town centre out so it had two roads - one running along the railway lineside, and the other running parallel to the outside track of the railway centre, if that make sense. What does everyone on here think? You're a knowledgeable bunch so I expect you can help out here. Apologies for this being such a long and wordy post but there aren't really any photos I can share (unless I get my crayons out and you want to try and decipher what I come up with).

Thanks,

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

Well I’m a bit of a ‘less is more’ kind of person, although I have had railways with lots of track and sidings in the past.
I suppose looking back though all my layouts to some extent have featured a lot of scenery, roads, buildings etc.
I think part of the issue that you might have is that you’ve got so much stock now that on a board the size you have unless you go for a full scale TMD (or railway centre) you’ll never be able to fit everything onto it (plus you’ll want to add more stock as time goes on).
So yes I’d definitely be up for adding extra roads (especially if they look like they’re serving a purpose) and getting more scenic interest in there.
It always looks better if these things are tied together and seem to have a reason for existing.

I was thinking about this after reading your post: What about running steam stuff one week, 1980s/90s stock another week and then more modern stuff (68s etc) on another week?
You could even swap road vehicles and things like that around to be era specific?
If you could get some kind of unit/drawers/boxes etc to store what you’re not using that week you could thin out what you’ve got and you’d have more space on the layout for shunting or running trains.

These are just thoughts of course as I’ve always enjoyed making the scenery as much as I enjoy running the trains.
It’s a bit different doing things in N because it’s about playing to its strengths - plenty of scenery, decent length trains and gentle curves etc.

I could get loads of track onto my boards but I like to see a train in the landscape which to my mind is what N is best at.

Edit - Yes, 6 lines over the crossing at St David’s.

 

[Iskra]

I agree that it’s a good idea to slim down the railway centre, and rotate which older stock you display in favour of a bigger scenery area. The scenery you have done so far looks good so I’d be happy to see more and agree that it looks more realistic with less track.

 

[Peter C]

Well I’m a bit of a ‘less is more’ kind of person, although I have had railways with lots of track and sidings in the past.
I suppose looking back though all my layouts to some extent have featured a lot of scenery, roads, buildings etc.
I think part of the issue that you might have is that you’ve got so much stock now that on a board the size you have unless you go for a full scale TMD (or railway centre) you’ll never be able to fit everything onto it (plus you’ll want to add more stock as time goes on).

That's the main issue, definitely. I've got a TMD on the layout at the moment, and once the heritage railway bit is done I'll have a small shed there which should be able to store three/four engines, so it's not as if there isn't anywhere to store stock.

So yes I’d definitely be up for adding extra roads (especially if they look like they’re serving a purpose) and getting more scenic interest in there.
It always looks better if these things are tied together and seem to have a reason for existing.

That was sort of what I was thinking too. It's all built up bit-by-bit so far, with each thing following on from the next but not really relating to it.

I was thinking about this after reading your post: What about running steam stuff one week, 1980s/90s stock another week and then more modern stuff (68s etc) on another week?
You could even swap road vehicles and things like that around to be era specific?
If you could get some kind of unit/drawers/boxes etc to store what you’re not using that week you could thin out what you’ve got and you’d have more space on the layout for shunting or running trains.

I've thought about doing that in the past (the excellent McKinley Railway does this) and it does appeal - especially if I could swap out certain things on the layout to make it more realistic. My stock currently sits in a couple of small bookshelves which are underneath the edge of the baseboard and so they are on display to a certain extent, but not as much as they could be if they were on the layout itself.

These are just thoughts of course as I’ve always enjoyed making the scenery as much as I enjoy running the trains.
It’s a bit different doing things in N because it’s about playing to its strengths - plenty of scenery, decent length trains and gentle curves etc.

I could get loads of track onto my boards but I like to see a train in the landscape which to my mind is what N is best at.

It's only fairly recently that I've started thinking more about scenery on the layout as opposed to just running trains (which I still think is the most fun bit ). Your comment about playing to the strengths of N ring true for 00, I think: especially on a board the size of the one I've got.

Edit - Yes, 6 lines over the crossing at St David’s.

Ah brilliant - thanks

I agree that it’s a good idea to slim down the railway centre, and rotate which older stock you display in favour of a bigger scenery area.

Definitely. I'm going to try and design a smaller railway centre at some point today and see what I can do. The main thing I need to include space for is the goods shed - it's a big building and I really like it so it's got to go in somewhere.

The scenery you have done so far looks good so I’d be happy to see more and agree that it looks more realistic with less track.

Thanks very much - I've been mostly just doing bits and bobs using what I've got to hand and it seems to have gone alright so far. Hopefully having more of a scenery section will allow me to do more scenery in terms of greenery and that sort of thing; I've got plenty of things to use in that case!

Thanks both for your replies - very helpful.

-Peter

 

[reddragon]

Peter. I'd stick to getting set on your track layout, wiring etc before anything too fixed!

One idea I came up with, so that my son could do his own scenery was to cut out thin ply base sections shaped to fit somewhere so that he could make his own creations that could be stood on the base but removed too. That might work for you allowing easy future changes.

 

[Peter C]

Peter. I'd stick to getting set on your track layout, wiring etc before anything too fixed!

There are lots of things which need doing on the layout, yes - it's all up in the air now, though, with regards to what I actually settle on.

One idea I came up with, so that my son could do his own scenery was to cut out thin ply base sections shaped to fit somewhere so that he could make his own creations that could be stood on the base but removed too. That might work for you allowing easy future changes.

I actually thought of a similar system for the heritage railway in the top-right-hand corner of the layout, so that I could switch between heritage railway and some form of goods yard (following on from @Cowley's suggestion ages ago of turning that area into a small freight yard). I'll look into how I could do that for the main bit of the layout but given its size it would be a lot of work!

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

How’s the bit that ballasted going Peter? Does everything run ok over it?

 

[Peter C]

How’s the bit that ballasted going Peter? Does everything run ok over it?

It's all working really well so far @Cowley (touch wood - it's all going to go wrong now isn't it!). I can't remember when I started the ballasting - I think it was sometime at the start of the year - but I've not done any more ballasting beyond the bit I shared when I started. It's mostly a case of needing more time to finalise the ballast on the main lines before putting the water on it and then the glue.

In other news, I've been doing some work on the railway centre and the road through the town today. I expect you'll all be as surprised as I was to find out that it worked - and it worked well! Here's what I did (this is like show-and-tell, isn't it?):


The railway centre has been reduced in size be a fair bit, and now has four tracks for engine storage (three of which will be covered by a scratchbuilt engine shed), the goods shed, and then the two bits of Oldmoor Junction station which were there before.
The town centre will still have the one road but it will have buildings on both sides as opposed to the one and it will also be able to be expanded upon with the addition of a few more buildings. The insurance offices now fit in a lot better than it did before.
The water tower on the platform at Oldmoor Junction will be a permanent fixture - think Birmingham Moor Street (or any other station from the steam era which had a water tower on the platform). There won't be any water cranes on the platforms at Oldmoor Junction, but there might be one in the railway centre which I'll say takes water from the tower on the station.

I've also done some work on the heritage railway in the top-right-hand corner of the layout: I managed to get a pair of left-hand Hornby points through taking up one of the junctions linking the Little Piddling line to the mainline (it was only good for small engines and small trains due to clearances around the power track) and they've been incorporated into the heritage station. I've also used some of the flexitrack from @reddragon as a temporary measure until I can get some Hornby set-track to finish it off; then I can start ballasting.
I don't have any photos of this bit right now but I'll share some in the morning/when I remember.

I hope this is of some interest!

-Peter

 

[reddragon]

It's all working really well so far @Cowley (touch wood - it's all going to go wrong now isn't it!). I can't remember when I started the ballasting - I think it was sometime at the start of the year - but I've not done any more ballasting beyond the bit I shared when I started. It's mostly a case of needing more time to finalise the ballast on the main lines before putting the water on it and then the glue.

In other news, I've been doing some work on the railway centre and the road through the town today. I expect you'll all be as surprised as I was to find out that it worked - and it worked well! Here's what I did (this is like show-and-tell, isn't it?):
View attachment 91754

The railway centre has been reduced in size be a fair bit, and now has four tracks for engine storage (three of which will be covered by a scratchbuilt engine shed), the goods shed, and then the two bits of Oldmoor Junction station which were there before.
The town centre will still have the one road but it will have buildings on both sides as opposed to the one and it will also be able to be expanded upon with the addition of a few more buildings. The insurance offices now fit in a lot better than it did before.
The water tower on the platform at Oldmoor Junction will be a permanent fixture - think Birmingham Moor Street (or any other station from the steam era which had a water tower on the platform). There won't be any water cranes on the platforms at Oldmoor Junction, but there might be one in the railway centre which I'll say takes water from the tower on the station.

I've also done some work on the heritage railway in the top-right-hand corner of the layout: I managed to get a pair of left-hand Hornby points through taking up one of the junctions linking the Little Piddling line to the mainline (it was only good for small engines and small trains due to clearances around the power track) and they've been incorporated into the heritage station. I've also used some of the flexitrack from @reddragon as a temporary measure until I can get some Hornby set-track to finish it off; then I can start ballasting.
I don't have any photos of this bit right now but I'll share some in the morning/when I remember.

I hope this is of some interest!

-Peter

I like Titfield Thunderbolt going along the street! I hope those Xmas lights are down by now, bad luck after 12th night!!!

 

[Peter C]

I like Titfield Thunderbolt going along the street!

Haha I'd not actually thought about recreating that scene from the film using my 14xx; I'll try that at some point.

I hope those Xmas lights are down by now, bad luck after 12th night!!!

I quite like them, and so I've decided to keep them up around the layout as they make it look nice. They're not on all the time as it's a bit of a faff to set them up though.

-Peter

 

[Jaz avalley]

Where you have laid the white track holders gives you a shunting puzzle option so I think it a good idea, you mention a building over part which adds interest, often if it is earler4 era a coaling area was popular, and it sold to the public and stocked the trains,and then a weighing area was essential


I scratched this on p,astic not hard to do.
1. It’s your layout and if you do not want these pictures just say I’ll remove them
2. If you fancy the idea and want all the picture on how I did it I’ll pop them on Goathland where they ended up,rather than block your thread
FYI I would be tempted to paint the back ground blue while you have the chance unless you intend a photographic backscene as adding it later will be a real pain. Looking good by the way,early on spending time to get it right is always worth it.

 

[Peter C]

Where you have laid the white track holders gives you a shunting puzzle option so I think it a good idea, you mention a building over part which adds interest, often if it is earler4 era a coaling area was popular, and it sold to the public and stocked the trains,and then a weighing area was essential
View attachment 91786
View attachment 91787
I scratched this on p,astic not hard to do.
1. It’s your layout and if you do not want these pictures just say I’ll remove them
2. If you fancy the idea and want all the picture on how I did it I’ll pop them on Goathland where they ended up,rather than block your thread
FYI I would be tempted to paint the back ground blue while you have the chance unless you intend a photographic backscene as adding it later will be a real pain. Looking good by the way,early on spending time to get it right is always worth it.

Thanks @Jaz avalley - it was part of the idea of the railway centre to not only give some space to display engines but also to give some more operational interest to the layout: it's nice to know you like the idea too.
I've got a sort-of weighing area thing already: it came with a Metcalfe (I think) kit from a magazine a while ago alongside a coal merchant's building. I've put the building and weighing bit at the end of the row of shops in front of the goods shed for now. That one that you've done looks really cool; I might try and make my own using that method at some point.
I'd thought about painting that bit of the wall blue but it's not really an option because of moving things around in the future, etc. I might try and add some sort of background thing but I'm not too fussed about the grey for now.
Also - don't worry about leaving the pictures here - they could be very useful in the future. I'd definitely like to see some more photos of your work on that as well!

-Peter

 

[Jaz avalley]

Thanks @Jaz avalley - it was part of the idea of the railway centre to not only give some space to display engines but also to give some more operational interest to the layout: it's nice to know you like the idea too.
I've got a sort-of weighing area thing already: it came with a Metcalfe (I think) kit from a magazine a while ago alongside a coal merchant's building. I've put the building and weighing bit at the end of the row of shops in front of the goods shed for now. That one that you've done looks really cool; I might try and make my own using that method at some point.
I'd thought about painting that bit of the wall blue but it's not really an option because of moving things around in the future, etc. I might try and add some sort of background thing but I'm not too fussed about the grey for now.
Also - don't worry about leaving the pictures here - they could be very useful in the future. I'd definitely like to see some more photos of your work on that as well!

-Peter

fyi I made the notice board too,obtained a photograph head on scanned and printed at a percentage til right size cut glue to backing and stuck it on I have a number of photographs but they are mostly Goathland related but you can find ones for you own layout and do this quite easily,I can talk you through it if you have issues.

 

[Cowley]

Very very nice @Jaz avalley!

 

[Peter C]

Hello all
I've been doing some changing of trackwork in the area which was Eastfield Road, but is now called Oldmoor-on-Sea, this afternoon and I've come up with a new trackplan. How the track doesn't get dizzy I don't know, but personally I'd rather change the track a few times now and have something nice than put it down once and then have something I'm not happy with.
Anyway - here's what I've come up with:


As you can see, it's going to be a fairly small station which is pretty much boxed-in by walls and raised roads. There'll be a retaining wall at the top end of the station, and there will be a road up above the railway level (if that makes sense) near the top of that wall. The road will run over the top of platform 1 in much the same way as this walkway at Dawlish (not my photo):

My station will have fewer posts holding the raised section up.

Even though it says the siding will be covered on my diagram, I'm not sure if this will be the case as I've not seen any covered sidings in real life - probably because they're not all that useful or easy to alight from stock in. Are there any examples of places where stations have roads running over the top of platforms, or where there are covered sidings? I'd be interested to see if there are any of the latter as it would be cool to see how it worked.
The station will have a regular Little Piddling-on-the-Wold to Oldmoor-on-Sea service as well as a slightly less regular Oldmoor-on-Sea - Oldmoor Junction service. I've dropped the heritage line idea as I really wanted a seaside station, even if it was just at the seaside in name, and I wanted to see if I could make something which felt like it was near the seaside - if that make sense. The layout I've come up with is less 'seaside away days in Brighton' and more 'wet and soggy trips to Grimsby' as it's going to be quite grey with the retaining walls but I'm going to try and counter-act this with some buildings which look like the sort you see in Cornwall (mainly St. Ives, which is where I'm using as a main reference for the street/building design).

I've included a headshunt in the track design to allow for a locomotive-hauled service to run into the station occasionally, but I'm thinking this will be a fairly irregular occurrence as the town is no longer in its heyday and therefore doesn't need large services to take passengers to the seaside. A Class 153 will be a regular sight on the branch and maybe the occasional Class 121; as with the rest of the layout, I don't really care about what's running and whether it's all prototypical or not, so we might well see HSTs or shunter specials at Oldmoor-on-Sea

I've already laid most of the track - apart from the one set of left-hand points which I'll get from eBay at some point. I'd also like to change out the flexitrack I've used for Hornby set-track as it's all the same size and shape in terms of rails then and I won't have the slight differences between Peco and Hornby track to worry about.

I hope this is somewhat interesting.

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

It is.
I was thinking that a lot of stations on the old Great Central had roads above platforms and loops. Loughborough for one.
I’m going to have a think about it for a bit and get back to you.

 

[Peter C]

It is.

Ah lovely - nice to know my ramblings are of interest!

I was thinking that a lot of stations on the old Great Central had roads above platforms and loops. Loughborough for one.
I’m going to have a think about it for a bit and get back to you.

Interesting: I'd done a bit of googling but "railway station with road above platforms" didn't return much. I'll have a look at Loughborough and see what else I can find.

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

Ah lovely - nice to know my ramblings are of interest!


Interesting: I'd done a bit of googling but "railway station with road above platforms" didn't return much. I'll have a look at Loughborough and see what else I can find.

-Peter

It may not be what you were thinking. It’s a road crossing at a right angle but with the footbridge and station entrance it means that a bit of the platform feels below the road.

 

[Peter C]

It may not be what you were thinking. It’s a road crossing at a right angle but with the footbridge and station entrance it means that a bit of the platform feels below the road.

Ah yes - I was doing some looking at photos and it's definitely close to what I'm planning but not identical. It has given me some ideas, though: I'm going to see if I can fit a small station building on the road at the end of the station to provide access to the stairs leading down to Platforms 2/3. I'm also thinking about using a subway instead of a footbridge to provide access to Platform 1; a footbridge would take up valuable track space which is needed to make sure the largest engines possible can use the headshunt. Metcalfe make a nice-looking kit which looks to work well with their platform kit.

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

I like the subway idea.
Another thing about building something above the platforms is that it can give the illusion of something bigger out of sight (ie the rest of the station). If you can only see a bit of the trains poking out they could be ten coaches long for all you’d know.
Have a look at the station throat at Glasgow Queen Street in Scotrail 47/7 days. I always thought that’d be interesting to model even if you just did the short open air bit with a fiddle yard either end.

Class 47/7 | 47710 Glasgow Queen Street 060381 CD159

Glasgow Queen Street 47710 waits to leave with a service for Edinburgh Waverly, while another 47/7 and a 37 await their departure time. 6/3/81. ©Chris Davies/www.railphotoprints.co.uk

railphotoprints.uk

The way it’s set low down with road bridges above it. Quite interesting.

 

[Peter C]

I like the subway idea.
Another thing about building something above the platforms is that it can give the illusion of something bigger out of sight (ie the rest of the station). If you can only see a bit of the trains poking out they could be ten coaches long for all you’d know.
Have a look at the station throat at Glasgow Queen Street in Scotrail 47/7 days. I always thought that’d be interesting to model even if you just did the short open air bit with a fiddle yard either end.

Class 47/7 | 47710 Glasgow Queen Street 060381 CD159

Glasgow Queen Street 47710 waits to leave with a service for Edinburgh Waverly, while another 47/7 and a 37 await their departure time. 6/3/81. ©Chris Davies/www.railphotoprints.co.uk

railphotoprints.uk

Now that definitely looks interesting - and something I'd not thought about. I might try modelling something like that on a separate board at some point (I've got some flexitrack and an old shelf so I could probably throw something together).
The sort of idea I'm going for with this station is that the line might have once gone further but was cut back several years ago when the line beyond Oldmoor-on-Sea stopped making money, and Oldmoor-on-Sea station is becoming less and less popular as holidaymakers move from trains to cars. (The idea for this sort of station - i.e. not very popular and designed to serve a holiday destination - came from Filey Holiday Camp station: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/f/filey_holiday_camp/)

-Peter