First off, thank you for adding me to your forum!

I've had model trains since I was a little kid.  Been out of the hobby for a few years.  My original collection grew out of control in size and scope.  I had dreams of a basement filling layout like you see on magazine covers here in the US.
But there was no way I could pull that off with my skills, space, and budget.  So my collection went off to the care of my nephew.

A few weeks ago at a family Christmas get together, said  nephew brought a couple of magazines on British model railways.  I had been thinking about getting back into the hobby, and thought that this would be an interesting change of pace.

I have the materials for a 2'x8' baseboard sitting around from my last go around in the hobby.  I found a trackplan for a layout that size, http://www.freetrackplans.com/0115-Exchange-Sidings.php

This arrangement look like it could have some good operational possibilities, as there is traffic for raw materials going into the branch line, and traffic for finished goods coming out.  Could this arrangement also work as a heritage railway?  Would there have been a passenger station at locations like these?

Hi Peter and welcome to the club.Decide what you want to get from your layour and look at a few different plans.Plenty of advice here whatever you choose.

A Hearty welcome to the club Peter, hope you get as much out of it as I do. Enjoy!

A warm welcome from Mackay Peter.

Welcome, Peter.   :cheers

Hi Peter
 Welcome to the club .
 Ted

Hello Peter,

Welcome to the club.

Jeff

Hi Peter,

A hearty and warm welcome to the forum and you may feel cold outside at the moment, but the twin cities remain a firm favourite with me.

Enjoy your research and planning of your railway and 8' x 2' gives you great scope.

Have fun,

Bill

Hi Peter Hearty welcome to YMRC from a -0c South Wales U. K. Idea looks good to me just go for it

Enjoy Forums

Best of Luck

Noviceman

Hi Peter,

Welcome.

Station on the mainline next to some exchange sidings? - yes. I like the one that existed at Yarnton, Oxon, from 1940-1966. Nine sidings and a turntable road. Used by the LMS and GWR. Exchange sidings by definition means 2 or more railway companies.

Tonks in "Ironstone Railways and Tramways of the Midlands" gives many examples of private ironstone railway exchange sidings. Simplest I am aware of was at an ironstone quarry in Bloxham. One exchange siding and one wagon load a week. The Brymbo Steel Works just outside of Wrexham had an extensive internal railway system, and until the end of WW2 was collecting full iron ore wagons via the GWR from its works in Hook Norton, Oxon.

Nigel

[user=2009]AstroRails[/user] wrote:

I have the materials for a 2'x8' baseboard sitting around from my last go around in the hobby.  I found a trackplan for a layout that size, http://www.freetrackplans.com/0115-Exchange-Sidings.php

This arrangement look like it could have some good operational possibilities, as there is traffic for raw materials going into the branch line, and traffic for finished goods coming out.  Could this arrangement also work as a heritage railway?  Would there have been a passenger station at locations like these?

Welcome from even further north although perhaps not quite so frozen!

That layout looks quite interesting operationally and you could certainly fit in a halt for a push pull passenger train or similar..

Will you have an additional board (s) for storage? The layout plan does seem to contemplate trains moving off the "stage"  to both the right and left.

If you are restricted to 8' you may want to check out some other plans

Regards from Vancouver

:hi Peter, from a foggy Essex.


:Welcome



Ed

Welcome Peter from another one.  :cheers

Enjoy yourself on here but, before you put track to board, make sure you know what you want and what you can fit in.  As John Dew says, there are so many different plans around, most of which work extremely well.  It just depends on what you want from your layout.

Welcome aboard, not seen much freezing so far this year on the UK south coast.

8' x 2' would be fine for N more scope for scenery than 00/H0 (and/or more track!) I've run N for over 40 years, I'm now 82, hand/eye coordination not quite what it was but still coping.