Terminus Layout Station Plan

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Hello Everyone.

I am building an OO Gauge layout based on this plan by C J Freezer.



So far I have all around the wall sections completed except for some detailing. The last part to be done is the terminus.
I have the Terminus baseboard ready for track laying.

The size of the layout room is 23' x 9' & the Terminus baseboard is 14' x 2'8".

I am not sure about how  near to prototype practice the terminus station in the plan is ? I have been advised that it has several flaws in it so I was wondering if anyone here could suggest a better terminus plan or have one which might be suitable for the space I have available.

I am not an expert in prototype practice & while I don't wish to stick rigidly to prototype practice I would at least like it to make sense.

Any advise would be gratefully received.
There are some photo's of my progress here.

http://s285.photobucket.com/user/tony-daly/library/Layout%20Room/July%202015?sort=3&page=2







"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
Regards.
Tony.
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Hi amdaley,

:Welcome to the forum. I can't advise as I'm not up on prototypical practices but by the look of these photos of your layout, you'll soon be advising us. They look terrific.

I'll keep an eye open to see how you tackle the terminus. Fantastic layout.:thumbs:pathead

Cheers

Toto
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Lots of work done already, Tony.

Welcome.  :cheers
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Sol
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Tony, while it may not be prototypical, it does seem to me to allow a lot of interaction & movement in the station area.

My main station certainly follows NO real plan but was designed for the interest in shunting, etc.

It is your railway empire to do with it as you please.

As Max said, a lot has ben done & very nice indeed.

Ron
NCE DCC ; 00 scale UK outline.
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A friend of mine had this plan, with a few variations, for his previous layout.

The biggest problem for his was the gradient up to the terminus from the bottom of the plan; however, he had it as a flying junction off the main running lines, making the uphill bit much shorter and steeper than the version you have there.

Platform 1 was only accessible from the lower part of the plan, so required a little shunting to release trains the other way but, again, your version appears to address this with an extra double slip. My friend also added a few carriage sidings on the upper side, running parallel to the running lines but level rather than on a gradient.

I can say it was a very interesting layout to operate. It will be a lot easier than my friend's layout to operate using DCC (his was analogue and pre-dated his going over to  DCC). I think you could do a lot worse for interest and variety of operations, regardless of whether or not it is prototypical.

Jeff Lynn,
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Ed
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Wow, you certainly have been busy Tony :thumbs

Looks like the layout I've always wanted, but will never achieve.

As Ron and Jeff said wouldn't worry too much about prototypical operation, as long as it works for you.

Not sure there is any prototypical way of operating a terminus anyway, bearing in mind they were built by different railway companies at different times and have been altered and adapted over the years with changes in traffic volumes and types.

Basically it's rule 1 applies and I am extremely jealous.


Ed



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Hello Everyone.

Thank you for the kind words.

It gives great confidence to think that someone likes your work. I know its my layout & I can do whatever I wish with it but Its difficult when you have to do it all yourself & no one else in the area has any interest in Railway Modelling. At least in the UK there are plenty of shows & clubs where ideas can be knocked around & discussed. Over here clubs & modellers are few & far between at least on the west side of the country.

When I say prototype I don't mean that everything has to be LMS or GWR or whatever but I wouldn't for instance put an SR signal box in an LMS station or run SR or LMS passenger stock in the one train. You could however see a local SR train being passed by an LMS express if that makes any sense. It sounded better in my head than on paper :roll:

So far what I have done has taken me several years to build as I only do a few hours a week on the layout. I came back to Railway Modelling in about 2008 after being away from the hobby for a very long time. I'm sure that some of you know how it is. Girls, marriage, children, college etc :lol:

I have several other terminus plans & when I am satisfied there are  no more to see I will make a decision on which one to build. I might put a few up here to discuss if I can get the printer / copier to work. I suppose if I put ink in it that would help ;-)

"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
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Tony.
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Here's another plan I've looked at.



"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
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Tony.
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Hi Tony,

Both look good but not without their challenges. The first one seams to be spread out a bit more. Both could drive you to bankruptcy on the points alone.:mutley

Very exciting plans though.

Cheers

Toto
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Looking at the plan in post 1, have you checked the gradients?  I reckon you have about 7ft to get from the crossover on the left to the ramp at the bottom platform. 
That crossover will need to be about mid height between the two levels because you only have about 9ft to the flyover. My guess is that you will be steeper than 1 in 35 or so. Is that right? Can your trains handle that?For prototypes, signalbox.org has lots of signalling diagravnms. They include terminii so that may help with ideas.

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Regards,

Brian

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[user=1505]toto[/user] wrote:
Hi Tony,

Both look good but not without their challenges. The first one seams to be spread out a bit more. Both could drive you to bankruptcy on the points alone.:mutley

Very exciting plans though.

Cheers

Toto
Hi Toto.
I have 25yds of Peco track & a good number of points in stock which should go a good way to what I need.

"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
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Tony.
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[user=1325]Brian R[/user] wrote:
Looking at the plan in post 1, have you checked the gradients?  I reckon you have about 7ft to get from the crossover on the left to the ramp at the bottom platform. 
That crossover will need to be about mid height between the two levels because you only have about 9ft to the flyover. My guess is that you will be steeper than 1 in 35 or so. Is that right? Can your trains handle that?For prototypes, signalbox.org has lots of signalling diagravnms. They include terminii so that may help with ideas.
Hi Brian.

I already have all the track around the walls completed. There are photos in my gallery.
How I handled the gradients was starting at the left hand junction as the front set of tracks went up the two lines behind went down at the same time so by the time I reached the crossover girder bridge I have enough height. Otherwise the gradients would have been virtually impossibly steep.
What I have left to do is the terminus so its the terminus part of the plan I am looking at.

Last edit: by amdaley


"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
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Tony.
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Wow what I wouldn,t give to be able to have a layout like that, looking forward to seeing how you get on with your terminus.

Pete.

it was already on fire when I got here, honest!
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[user=1766]jakesdad13[/user] wrote:
Wow what I wouldn,t give to be able to have a layout like that, looking forward to seeing how you get on with your terminus.

Pete.
Hi Pete.

Nothing happens over night. I've been at this about six or seven years now.
I'd do a little at a time & then leave it for a while. I think if you tried to do it all at once you'd get fed up & walk away.



"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
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Tony.
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While I'm trying to decide on which terminus plan to build people might be interested in how I got to where I am now.

Where I live here the house is built on a slope & there's a lot of rock on the site. The house is built in a stepped fashion where one side is single story while the other side is two story. Basically its a bungalow with a basement on one side.
I  started off with a room in the basement filled up to the ceiling joists with rubbish, no lights & a hole in the floor which filled up with water every time we had heavy rain. I  did some drainage work & put down some pathways out the back of the  house which stopped the water from going under the back of the house & into the basement.
With the help of a neighbor who did building work I put in lights & slabbed the ceiling. I put 2" Kingspan type insulation on the walls & filled the hole in the floor. I borrowed on permanent loan :lol: 6' from another storage room & put up a partition wall. This gave me a room 23' x 9'.

When I decided on a layout plan & started putting up baseboards this is what I had.
This is the utility Room end.



This is the other end of the layout room.
The low block wall was built to hide a rock outcrop which showed into the room at that end.



The layout is cantilevered off the walls to keep the floor as clear as possible.

In my next post I'll show pictures of the way the baseboards were built.


"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
Regards.
Tony.
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Nice woodwork, Tony.

The wall brackets are a great idea.   :thumbs
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G'day Tony.
I'm no expert and far be it from me to critique a C.J. Freezer plan but here goes for the fun of it.

A combination of both plans perhaps?

My main concern with both plans, and it is driven by the available length of the terminus board of course, is that engines going on shed after detaching from their trains in the terminus have to make several moves across what is a busy station throat. This will cause congestion and delays which to me are not desirable for efficient running of your railway.
More so in the first plan where access to the ash pits, turntable and coaling stage are all off a kickback from the one road above platform 1 at the top of the plan. (Numbering the platforms from 1 at the top of the plan down…). At least it's not a platform road.

The second plan at least has access to the engine facilities from platforms 1, 2 and 3. I'd try and incorporate aspects of this arrangement if possible. Ideally, if you can lengthen the terminus board, I'd try and fit the engine facilities on the other side of the station throat, but I suspect that that is a bridge too far, needing maybe another 6 or 7 feet of board?
Both plans require loco coal wagons heading for the coaling stage to use the short road at the top of the layout as a headshunt, creating further bottlenecks to operations and engine movements. Loco coal traffic was huge and a large terminal station like that would have several storage sidings for loco coal and a regular shunt happening to position and retrieve wagons I'd expect.

Goods receiving and shunting is the other aspect I'd be looking at, the 1st plan has, in my opinion, a much better arrangement for goods arrival, run around, head shunt and sidings than the 2nd plan… in fact it is quite elegant in layout.
The second plans Goods facilities look cramped and difficult to work with. 

Just my thoughts, hope they help.

cheers
Marty
.. and as a PS, if you haven't had the opportunity to read John Dew's Granby thread might I recommend it to you as an enjoyable read. Somewhere around pg 36 is some discussion about the difficulties concerning access to engine facilities.
http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=5500&forum_id=21&page=1

Last edit: by Marty


Marty
N Gauge, GWR West Wales
Newcastle Emlyn Layout.
Newcastle Emlyn Station is "Under construction"
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There is a lot of work in Plan A in terms of fitting and wiring the points and rather less in Plan B.  However Plan A gives more operational interest and is not unrealistic for a large station given the compromises and compressions of scale we usually have to accept in the hobby.

I am reminded of Bradford Exchange (or Interchange as it is today) with two main routes converging at the station throat and quite heavy traffic potential.

If you're happy with all those points - and I count four double-slips among them - then why not go for Plan A?

It has some operational limitations and there will be some awkward and conflicting moves but that is true of a good many stations in the real world.  There is no such thing, surely, as the "ideal track layout".  There will almost always be some moves which block others and are fussy to set up but needed for the timetable to work.

In terms of being prototypical I can't see why not.  It's not an actual location so you're going to make up your own timetable and moves anyway.  Not all locomotives will need servicing after arrival and some can be placed onto the front of the next out-bound working.  You already have shunt-releases built in to the track plan.  Train length is governed as much by our available space as anything and isn't always prototypical but even an engine and three carriages can be enough to represent a main line train if the rest of the scene "fits".

I'll watch with interest.

Rick
Layouts here and here
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As will I :lol:

Marty
N Gauge, GWR West Wales
Newcastle Emlyn Layout.
Newcastle Emlyn Station is "Under construction"
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[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:
Nice woodwork, Tony.

The wall brackets are a great idea.   :thumbs
Hi Max.
The wall brackets worked out well as they kept the floor clear which has its own benefits.
The only baseboard which has to use floor space for support is the Terminus baseboard down the middle of the room.

"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"
Regards.
Tony.
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