Haha
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Oldmoor Junction Model Railway - Update 17
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As we are quickly approaching Christmas, and it's been about a month since I last made a proper update on the layout, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know what I've done.
Depot
I've made several different changes to the bits of track coming off from the inside loop over this year but I think I've finally got something I like. The small station is still there (and is still unnamed), but is now in front of the brand-new Oldmoor Traction & Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot!
The depot is comprised of two main roads and a smaller siding which runs down part of the depot building. The building itself was scratchbuilt using the card from cereal boxes and I think it looks quite nice. My plan is to use some form of brick paper/paint to make it look like the metal panels you sometimes get on this kind of building. On the inside, my plan is to put a raised walkway/platform between the two tracks and to make all but in between the rails 'concrete' using the card from cereal boxes again - the picture shows what I've been experimenting with. It's just the inner-side of a cereal box.
Roadworks
The (fairly small) population of Oldmoor (at present) must be absolutely fuming at the number of roadworks which have been carried out recently; this one, however, is probably the most drastic, and has involved changing the angle of the entire road to fit the Railway Centre onto the layout!
My plan is to make the area right next to the wall against the railway a form of thing garden running alongside the wall, then a path, then the road, then another path, and then the buildings. I might add a bus stop in as well (for the one knackered old bus on the OJMR) to increase the visual interest. The war memorial will be the main part of the town gardens, and will also include a few benches along the perimeter hedges.
Moving the road has seen the removal of the two small sidings which came off the track into the depot; those sidings were no good as the track and points didn't conduct the electricity needed to get engines moving and the space can be put towards the much more interesting Railway Centre.
This picture shows the effect the battery-powered tealights have in the buildings; especially now the nights have drawn in. The effect works very well with the Christmas lights along the edges of the layout! The only problem is that the flickering effect makes it look like either the power supply to all the buildings is very dodgy, or the residents of Oldmoor are having a set of co-ordinated raves! I'll leave this as a point for the reader to think about.
Bay platforms
Oldmoor Junction station is comprised of two through platforms and three bay platforms: this has been the case for some time. However, until a couple of weekends ago, the bay platforms were of no use as the points and trackwork weren't properly working. A quick fiddle around with the superelevated curves and the points on the entrance to the three platforms has proved to fix the issues I had before and now I can use the platforms as planned. My use of Hornby point clips also means one platform is always supplied with power - this platform has to be kept empty, but I suppose this is more realistic as I don't think Oldmoor Junction would need such a frequent service that all platforms were occupied at all times.
Railway Centre
I've been banging on about a railway centre on my layout since the beginning of this thread but I think I've finally got it all planned. Here is the current idea (paper used for planning - engines to test siding sizes):
I've decided to take two tracks off of the outermost bay platform instead of the single track I'd planned before and this means I can have quite a sizable railway centre, including the Metcalfe goods shed, which is definitely one of the focal points of the area. The whole trackplan has been squeezed into the area behind the shops on the main road on the layout; this provides quite an interesting scene/setting for the track running into the goods shed as it looks like it's hidden away - something I've never had on the layout before.
I've also included two smaller sidings closer to Oldmoor Junction station:
I believe a term for these would be 'kickback' sidings, but they're really there to hold an engine or two close to the station and out of the way of the rest of the railway centre. The plan is to run trains between Oldmoor Junction and the railway centre goods shed, vaguely mimicking Didcot Railway Centre's use of their transfer shed as a standalone station. My GWR autocoach and pannier tank train should fit perfectly on the goods shed line, and having a shuttle could make for some interesting shunting as the shuttle needs to be moved out of the way of any large trains coming into the bay platforms, such as the 2+2 HST set I've used for terminating services, because trains of three coaches or more can only really fit in that platform - if that makes any sense.
New building
Last year I got a couple of Metcalfe building kits. One of these was a three-building kit, comprising of a pub and two shops.
I built one of these buildings the other week, and, whilst it's still not fully finished, here it is on the layout:
The idea is to have a road running in front of this building, a junction to have a road running in front of the two houses, and then for the road to run off the edge of the baseboard and into that wonderful place 'Imagination'. I've also made a fairly poor attempt at recreating a certain TV set in the building; this being that of Victoria Wood's 'Acorn Antiques', which I find hilarious (along with all of her other work). The weird white thing to the left is supposed to be the railing as seen in this photo:
(apologies for just a link - the photo is far too big in file size to share here. The purple railing to the right is what I'm on about)
And then the things to the right are the blinds used at the start of some sketches which say 'Acorn Antiques' on them.
I'm going to try and make a Acorn Antiques shop sign to cover the one which is currently on the front of the building at some point. I'm also trying to work out how to fit as many cameos and jokes in as possible!
I hope you enjoyed reading this post - apologies for the length, but with the OJMR advent calendar, I've been rather busy! Merry Christmas one and all!
-Peter
