I'd not thought of that as a benefit of a turntable: certainly makes the idea much more appealing considering the RRP of Hornby points! I've done some research, though, and turns out the Dapol turntable kit is really quite poor, the Hornby one needs too many modifications to work on DCC and to work properly at all, and the well of the Peco one is too deep to fit on my layout; it's some 30mm deep whereas my baseboard is about 20mm and there's a table underneath it which I'm not prepared to drill through.
This is a long way of saying that I've dropped the turntable idea; one of the many compromises of model railways I suppose!
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Readers may have seen my post in the
What's your latest acquisition? thread about a new arrival to the OJMR - a Lima Class 09:
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It's been repainted into BR Green by a previous owner, but I think it's been done with some sort of spray thing as it's really well-done and I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been pointed out in the description on eBay. It was just £30 including postage, and included glazing which the base Lima models didn't come with (meaning I get to save a few quid on the glazing parts from elsewhere on eBay). I went for this model following a
discussion on RMWeb (I hope it's alright to share a link to that on here?) about if the models were any good: I've had a Hornby Railroad Class 08 for a few years now but have never been happy with it due to the many inaccuracies it has. This model isn't perfect - it's a bit too tall I think - but it's got the correct outside frames so it's good enough for me.
Having talked about changes to the layout in a previous post, I thought I'd ask once again for ideas/thoughts. I've been trying to work out if there are any changes I can make to the layout, particularly the Oldmoor Junction/railway centre area. I'm wondering if the current five platforms - mainly the three terminating platforms - is a bit over-the-top for a station which is supposed to be about as well-served as Oxford, which has four platforms (two of which are bay platforms).
I played around with bits of paper yesterday and came up with this sort of idea:
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It essentially involves just removing one platform and using the space for an extra siding, which would allow for two sidings; a bit like Worcester Shrub Hill, where there is a siding between the two platforms. This idea seems quite appealing as it gives more track space and makes the station a bit more realistic.
The final change I thought about making yesterday was moving the T&RSMD from its current location to where the railway centre is going to be, and therefore splitting the railway centre area in half; one half would stay as the railway centre, and the other half would become a modern depot. The area where the depot is now could then be devoted to some form of freight - maybe like the tarmac plant just beyond Banbury station, which is a freight site right next to the mainline. I think the current depot on my area could act as quite a nice little freight hub as it's got plenty of track space and good mainline access (blimey, this is like a proper railway proposal now - I'll stop).
The main issue is that I've struggled to get a trackplan which would work for both a railway centre and a TMD. I'm happy to reduce the size of the former to allow for both as that could still work but there would need to be some sort of heritage aspect (and mainly space for the Goods Shed). Does anyone reading this have any idea for how I could achieve this? Examples would be very useful (i.e. from other layouts, if possible).
Thanks very much for reading all of that - sorry it's a long post again but I do quite like rambling
-Peter