Having recently purchased the Dapol pressflo wagons (5 pack) and then the Skaledale cement hopper, I said to myself, "Hmm, need somewhere to put these..?"

So, out came Anyrail once again…

This is what I have in mind, a 7' x 1' plank using code 75 track, electrofrog points (for ease of operation) and dcc. The plan consists of 3 x main sidings : warehouse siding, cement siding and fuel siding, with a headshunt and a small loco or brake van siding. The fiddle yard I'll revisit in the future, as I may just incorporate the fuel siding into the sector plate. ;-)

I have set the plan out on ply using the Peco templates and have found that I can fit the warehouse, cement sidings and the point-work onto one 4' long board, which will enable another 3' for the scenic break (bridge) and the sector plate, although the sidings and points, do look to occupy more baseboard on the plan. The scenics will be simple, a few fences (red lines), a warehouse, a small office and cement hopper, a canal and a few bridges (rail and road).




I'm looking at keeping the costs low, without spending too much… ;-) Maximum spend £100.00, hopefully ! I know the track, (points, single slip and flex) will cost me about £75.00 (less with VAT deduction) and the baseboards about £10-15.00 as I have most of the timber at hand.

The warehouse, office, canal and bridges will be scratchbuilt. I'm sure I can handle the scenics fairly cheaply, considering I have all scratchbuilding and scenic materials at hand.

Comments welcomed.

Cheers, Gary.

 

I really like the look of this, it also happened to be almost the same size as my operation abyss so interesting how different it is in the same size

Thanks Jimmy. I have never produced an industrial style of layout before. I was having a chat with Tom (Toto) a while ago and he thinks that I could do a half decent job of one. So, the challenge will be met ! ;-)

Cheers, Gary.

 G`day Gary,

 Looks good…..I will follow with great interest.

:cheers  Gormo

Gary, a narrow boat for bulk carrying would be 72ft long (285mm/very approx 1ft) and John Wiffen does a superb FMC (?) MODEL. If you could 'skew' your canal more you'd get one in nicely. ….even front the plank with the canal.

Go on! Have a look at JW's narrow boat,  you know you want to…..

Tee-hee,


Doug

Hi Gary,

A couple of things …… I am dying to see how the area around the bridges pans out as ( to me ) it looks tricky and because of its geometry …..very interesting. Not just you're usual straight bridge dropped into a scene. I did say a couple of things, our discussion went along the lines of ……..I think you could do an excellent job of an industrial scene ……….not half decent

With your occupation people might think that your attention to detail naturally lends itself to country / horticultural scenes but I think you can apply your skills to any type of setting ….. You have a natural eye for it. The scratch building ……. Well, that has spoken for itself so many times.

This will be a busy and popular thread as always.

Now, where are them tools.

Cheers

Toto

Hi Gary,

I notice you say " canal " rather than river, the plank maybe a bit narrow but you could have worked in a small goods drop off point there somehow. As I said, the plank maybe a bit neat for that. Just a thought.

Toto

Hi Gary

Brilliant track layout and probably just me, but maybe a bridge too many.

Can't see a railway company building three expensive bridges if they could possibly avoid it in some way.

Just my thoughts.


Ed

Interesting Gary.  My main concern would be how to construct the dropped baseboards for the canal.

Terry

The canal should just be a timber walledU U channel formed in the framework. I will be looking to do the same thing for my station subway. The framework is the easy bit. It is not impeded by anything underneath like point motors etc.

Toto

Looks good Gary, looking forward to further instalments. I can feel a china clay dry coming along here for me later in the year. Happy New Year to You and Yours and good luck.

Thankyou all.

I have placed an order with Hattons for the track, hopefully be here before next Monday, fingers crossed. ;-) That way I can lay it all out, to check my measurements are correct from the Peco templates. Then basebpoards will begin. I assume this will be a quick build.

Gormo, hopefully work will begin in the next 7-8 days.

Doug, thanks for the heads up on JW's narrow boat, but I'm thinking this as more of an industrial canal, draining all the wastes from the local industries. A very dirty, rubbished filled canal.

Toto, appologies my friend, "excellent it is then…" Hopefully anyway… :roll: And yes, a canal. No room for a river !

Ed and Terry, the frame will be a simple affair of ply and pine. The bridges will be of simple construction of steel I beams on concrete pads etc. See diagram below for framing and bridges.

Mick, minds think alike, as a china clay dry is what I had in mind originally, sited where the warehouse sits. But i want a building with some height in this corner to help balance out the layout.




Thanks for all your interest.

Cheers, Gary.


 

 

Hi Gary,

You may want to try referencing the Manchester Canal system. On the web. You may get some good ideas of industrial canals and their surroundings from there even though you are just modelling a very small stretch. ……, lots of details.

Cheers

Toto

Thanks for the heads up on 'canals'. Maybe 'canal' is the wrong word I chose. I'm looking more at an industrial drain, silted up and full of rubbish. Something like to this :

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/77682549 

and this, but with more vegetation on both sides of the drain : http://www.panoramio.com/photo/18933233 This photo is of the railway line over River Tame. Google Bromford Lane & Heartlands Parkway, Birmingham, then search out the River Tame. (Next to the Fort Used Car Centre)

Cheers, Gary.

Hi Gary,

Ideal. Looks the part. Crack on.

Toto

I will look forward to this Gary considering your other excellent efforts.I have made JW's canal,locks and even the bridge albeit in N gauge.It may be a basis for you to start from and turn it into your watery wasteland.

Looks to be an interesting project with a lot of potential Gary, going on your past work I'll look forward to seeing how this progresses.

Hi Gary, just found your new layout thread, it looks very good, plenty of operating potential I built one myself,I like your comment on it being a quick build I started mine around 2 years ago with the thought in mind I should be finished in a week or so  guess what? I,m still working on it!! I wish you luck and will follow your progress with interest Cheers mate Pete.

Hi Guys,
This plank thing has me curious…(thanks a lot Gary!) Are there any rules to this concept? Can you use N scale instead of OO? How long is a plank? Is this similar to modular layouts? Sorry about all the questions but this seems like a great idea and I have some thoughts about what I could do.

Robyn

Hi Robyn,

Thanks for looking in on this proposed plank. As for the rules/concept, it is all about shunting within the limited space. The idea is to be able to make the necessary moves in the allocated sidings/siding length. This means breaking up the train into portions, moving certain wagons to individual sidings, rearranging the wagons and preparing the next train to leave the plank for the fiddle yard. Simple really…:roll:

The two main types of shunting planks which started it all, are the 'Timesaver' and 'Inglenook Sidings'. Again, train movements are the key. To move one wagon may take 12-15 moves to place it into the designated siding. They can be a lot of fun. I enjoy the concept very much. My 'Inglenook siding' plank  is only 1350mm long and 500mm wide. This layout was exhibited at St Lukes Model Railway Exhibition (Hornsby, Sydney) back in November.

Layout thread snippet : http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=12116&forum_id=21&page=18#p222886

At the exhibition, one young chap rearranged and built up a train on my layout, which took him just over 30 minutes..

Here is a link to John Allens Time Saver : http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-timesaver.html Good reading and info on Timesaver and various other shunting planks.

As for scale, anything is possible, as long as you heed the rules of the original concept. As for being modular, yes they can be. It is possible to connect several shunting planks together to form a larger layout. If built in a similar fashion to N-track modules (early 1980's concept), possibilities are endless, which means in size, thay can grow and grow and grow…;-)

Cheers, Gary.