Hrm..., Marshbrook...

After a conversation on RMWeb, there's also this alternative....

Marshbrook, as it was in the '30s.

Yes, yes. I know. Make your %^&*()ing mind up, Mike :D

In other news,. just scored a Millholme Models LNWR 4-6-2T kit on eBay.

So, here's the current track plan

Subject to a bit of fiddling in the area of the passing loop, of course.

Designed for the new Peco code 75 bullhead, assuming they do eventually produce a single slip!

A few achievements today...

...helped by having no broadband, and having to be in home for the solar heating engineers.

I’ve removed the original Bachmann “G W R” lettering from the tank sides of my 56xx, with a cotton bud, some enamel thinners and the end of a cocktail stick, and replaced it with HRMS Pressfix “GREAT WESTERN” lettering. For a moment or two it looked as if one side was going to read “GREA|- WESTERN” due to not pressing down on ALL the letters!

I also took delivery of a MicroScale ‘Truck Tuner’ from wizardmodels.co.uk, which is a very handy little widget (pointed out to me by the folks on RMWeb) for opening out wheel bearings on (in my case) Lima wagons, which tend to have horribly out of scale (and in at least one case out of round) wheels.

Also did a lot of thinking and planning, and I think the current aim is to:

• settle on a track plan for James’ 8’x4’ board, and use that as practice for track laying, ballast and scenery. I suspect this is going to wind up as a derivative of one of CJF’s ‘double track junction plus high level branch’ plans from 60 Plans For Small Locations, and will make James’ happy ‘cause it’ll have a tunnel! This will, I think be ‘Onnybrook Junction’ and I might try and squeeze Longville’s track plan in as the upper level station. What I do hope to do, though, is try and avoid CJF’s penchant for retaining walls, perhaps by adopting the approach from the Peco Settrack plans book of having a double sided scenic break.


• slowly start building baseboards for Much Wenlock. It looks like this is 3 4’x2’ board plus a 4’x1’ fiddle yard either end. The interesting gotchas are that the whole thing isn’t flat, and there’s at least one road that has to go from over to under the railway in about 7’. I think I understand how, though.

Or.... (what, me? indecisive)

... I wonder if I could fit Much Wenlock in 10' or 12' of scenic baseboard?

The main problem is it would restrict the number of rooms in this house I could built it in. Longville would fit along one wall of one of the (several) 12'x12' rooms here including its fiddle yards. Much Wenlock is markedly longer - it's actually two stations separated by a couple of hundred yards, for all practical purposes, as the old one became the goods yard when the new one was built.

Longville has two problems:

• It's positively dead in terms of traffic and loco availability - 3 passenger trains a day! 
• It slopes the wrong way! If you look at the diagram in the previous post, the terrain actually slopes down from bottom to top (being as how it's on Wenlock Edge!). Which would mean that ideally you'd want to view the layout from the top... which means the buildings block line of sight on half the track.

However, on the plus side:

• It's only four points, and is nice and small.

As far as Much Wenlock goes, on the other hand:

• Much more traffic
• No real slope, although the south/west bound line to Presthope is usefully at the back of the layout and raised a little.
• Has a proper engine shed and goods shed.

But

• It looks like it really needs 12', which restricts me to the outbuildings or the library, by the time I've added 3' of fiddleyard either end.

New arrivals and a track plan

Today’s post brought James’ Bachmann 4575 small Prairie, which went straight to Trains4U for chipping - nice purchase, seems to be pretty much brand new except for a missing set of cabside steps, which doesn’t look as if it should be beyond me to knock up in plasticard. It also brought a couple of books from Transport Diversions, specifically the Country Railway Routes book on the Wenlock branch and the District Controller’s View series book on the Severn Valley Railway (also covering the Wenlock branch in passing).

I’m now even more desperate to find my Wenlock Branch book! Some very nice photos of several of the stations on the Wenlock branch, especially Longville (which benefits from the station building being still intact and well photographed).

Starting to be very tempted by Longville on a 6’x18” or so board with a pair of 3’ fiddle yards either end - it’d be pretty simple to build and allow me to concentrate on scenery etc.

My only wonder is whether James would object to something that’s not a roundy-roundy and has a very simple track plan.

Track Plan 2

Just idly considering two other options:

• taking the right hand end right round the corner and along the workbench, which gives me an extra 10' of main line run and room for Wistanstow Halt. If I can do that, though, I can cut it down a bit, and try for....
• a roundy-roundy with fiddle yard in 12' x 8' or so. My first run at a station plan with runaround loops for 6 coaches looks to be about 20' long, but it could be bent in the middle....

Track Plan

So, after a skim through Cooke section 63, I've reached a few conclusions...

I do actually have about 35' of length in the music room, and I can turn the corner at both ends for a fiddle yard (one end has a piano, the other is used for stacking flightcases, which in both cases will fit underneath) - basically a very stretched, inverted U

Essentially the layout of Craven Arms from south to north goes:

• south-facing junction, South Wales line off to west
• main station
• level crossing
• relief roads/goods loop
• north-facing junction, Bishop's Castle branch off to west
• Wistanstow Halt
• north-facing junction (Marsh Farm), Wenlock branch off to east and an up loop.

My mental map has had the southern end at the right hand end of the U, but I'm starting to think that's less practical if I want to slip the Bishop's Castle branch in, since it can come off a bit short of the right hand end and vanish behind the backscene to a two road fiddle yard, whereas the Wenlock Branch can curve round to the main fiddle yard.

Assuming I have 30' of clear run (allowing for turns into the fiddle yards on both ends), if I can fit the South Wales junction, main station and relief roads in 16', that leaves about 14' of open country to fit the two north junctions in. I might even have room for Wistanstow Halt. The Wenlock branch can actually round the corner in front of the main fiddleyard and have its own small (4', 3 road) yard.