Hairyhandedfools layout - Ablingham (photo-intensive)

[hairyhandedfool]

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/Welcome.jpg

This is Ablingham, my fictional town north of Sheffield. It is set around 2004, when Midland Mainline had their Project Rio services from London St Pancras to Manchester and still had Turbostar units, and Virgin had their brand new Voyagers running about.

The idea was to use as many of the trains I had previously bought as I could. Logically it had to be in the northern half of England because of my 156 and 158 DMUs from various companies.

The plan itself was for a twin track mainline serving a half covered station (to hide the full length platforms) with a local stop not far away, and a bay platform. For interest I added a stabling area and a couple of light maintenance sheds.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/layoutplan.jpg
Key
Purple = Non-scenic or covered areas
Red = Station buildings
Blue = Platforms
Light green = Light maintenance shed
Dark green = Shed style building
Grey = Level crossing
Turquiose = Power feed

Rolling stock is, by and large, what I like but I have tried to keep a theme going (pictures to follow). The town areas will hopefully have some scenic value (pictures to follow).

Ballasting has recently been started on the layout with much of the main station area having treatment.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/ballastd.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/Aviewfromabove.jpg

Any questions? Feel free to ask away!

[hairyhandedfool]

Some of the rolling stock found at Ablingham:

A couple of ex-Virgin HST power cars
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/hstdvt.jpg

60016 stables outside the station
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/60016.jpg

57003 in the yard
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/57003.jpg

A 150 and 67 in the station
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/67002tailscharter.jpg

[hairyhandedfool]

One of the Scenic areas is the village of Bourne, encompassing a small station for some of the local services (apologises for the poor quality of photos):

An over view of the station area. The station used to have an extra platform but as services were rationalised the platform fell into disuse and was disconnected from the mainline, the spare platform will hold a restaurant using a mk1 restaurant car and mk1 brake coach.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/bournestation.jpg

The local pub carpark, with the pub behind the trees.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/carpark.jpg

An American car dealer has set up shop . the idea is that his cars arrive by train in the shed you can just see on the right, are offloaded, and then sold on site
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/cardealer.jpg

The local bus stop, with some graffiti. Some security fencing is needed here!
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/busstop.jpg

[Chris]

Nice layout you have there. Personally I am modelling in Z scale at the moment. Not really at he stage for posting photos though you can see some of the progress of the layout on my website. What is the overall size of your railway (or did I miss it)?

Best wishes,
Chris.

[hairyhandedfool]

Oh sorry, its 15ft 3in at its longest and 10ft at its widest, generally 2ft wide boards but there is a 4ft wide section. I'll have a look at your site when I get the chance, probably tomorrow.

More pics:

The end of the terminus platform.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/bayend.jpg

A class 156 and class 170 occupy the platforms (ignore the station name boards on the buildings, I haven't changed them from years ago)
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/170.jpg

There are some people but only a few at the moment. A class 150 is dispatched.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/dispatch.jpg

A pet project, not really in keeping with the layout, but I had to have one.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/319instationb.jpg

[hairyhandedfool]

Here are some views of some wagons that are used on the layout.

THis is a standard Hornby HEA wagon filled with a coal load.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/coalwagon.jpg

A Hornby TTA tank wagon repainted.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/tankwagonb.jpg

A couple of shots of some ballast wagons.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/ballastwagonc.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/ballastwagonb.jpg

[hairyhandedfool]

A few more pics for you to digest.

A couple of (Lima) 66s haul a ballast train.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/66andballast.jpg

Track workers discuss their next plan of action.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/engineeringwork.jpg

An HST passes through.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/virginHST.jpg

A video (not the greatest quality) of the HST passing through.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/th_SV_A0024.jpg (http://s285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/?action=view&current=SV_A0024.flv)

[Somershire]

I like it, nice work. It looks like a lot of fun.

Is is DC or DCC?

Cheers Dave

[hairyhandedfool]

Sorry for the late reply, not been in the forum for a while.

It is DC, but I have my eyes on DCC when funds allow, too much stock and too little money!!! I'm also looking at replacing the couplings on my multiple units so they can all couple with each other, something that is lacking at the moment.

It is a lot of fun to 'play' with, the wide variety of stock helps there, and it is always very busy with HSTs and locals all running amongst each other.

I want to add some more pics to the site, but unfortunately my 'puter is having hissy fits, so I'll have to try and figure something else out.

Just added a third full length HST to the layout, well I say full length but it is prototypically six coaches long instead of the normal 8.

[Somershire]

Going to DCC on yours does look an expensive task! Im hoping to get some track laid on mine very soon. I want to give my new HST a proper run out.... although it wont have room for your train lengths... :(

[hairyhandedfool]

Getting the tracks down is the key thing I think, then you can have fun whilst putting scenic items on the layout.

The really off-putting part for me is that I have a load of stock that I currently don't use, but which I want to keep and so if I go DCC I will have to do those at some point too!

Nothing like the sight of a full HST powering through a station:

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/mmlhst.jpg
(old, slightly blurry photo)

Another view which might show the mountain I face with DCC is the fiddle yards:

Upper fiddle yard:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/newupperfiddle.jpg

Main fiddle yard (the approach to the upper fiddle yard is at the back):
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/newmiddlefiddle.jpg

This is the fiddle yard junction, for those who are interested, the top right track goes to the lower fiddle yard and top left to the layout, the line to the other end of the layout feeds off the bottom third from right track and runs between the Virgin Voyager and NSE Class 117 in the previous picture:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/fiddleyardjunction.jpg
(blurry photo)

[Somershire]

Now that really is a big undertaking. If you fit them yourself it will save money. Soldering & electrical stuff isnt my strong point, but Ive managed to do a few.

Im going to have a few of my older unlit models fitted with lighting while the layout is being rebuilt. Im not doing the lighting though, that job is being outsourced.

DCC, definitely the way forward :)

[hairyhandedfool]

And thats without the lower fiddle yard either!!!!!:eek:

I've never been a soldering wiz, but having just repaired some connections on my Bachmann 158s (too much 1st radius running years ago), I think I can probably manage the soldering for DCC, if I can work out which wire goes where!!!!

But some of my locos have 8 or 21 pin decoder sockets fitted as standard and one already has the decoder fitted.

The question really is, if I get more stock or replace some older stock with new, do I go with DCC fitted and accept the decoder thats fitted as standard or buy the DCC ready version and buy a seperate decoder, which will surely cost more?

When I go DCC, I want to fit everything with lights, ideally with the orange 'hazard' lights on the passenger carrying stock, but thats lots of drilling and stuff, my other half insists my DIY skills are not the best (to put it politely!), so it will be fun!! The Lima/Hornby 156 shouldn't be too bad on the headlight front though, because the plastic headlights are moulded on the clear windscreen piece, so I should be able to just snap that bit off, carefully.

[hairyhandedfool]

I was sitting around at work the other day waiting to sell tickets to anyone who happened to want them and it struck me that this layout is in serious danger of being boring, I mean its busy, it ticked all the boxes in terms of running stock and it fitted into my needs for long trains, but its constantly fiddle yard to fiddle yard with very little change, even the sidings are in danger of not being used as much as I had intended. Its just not giving me the satisfaction I thought it would. Coupled with the fact that DCC-ing the layout could be harder than I imagined anyway, because of the positioning of the lower fiddle yard.

So, some soul searching and some thinking, I came up with a new idea, well a couple actually, both of which are terminus layouts (one has a short single track on the 'terminus' end but it won't go far), but they have two sections, and bizzarrely are both interchangeable. In other words, each terminus end could fit both of the fiddle yard ends.

So, Terminus plan one has five platforms all of which are dead ends (seems obvious but plan two isn't, more on that later), two can easily hold a 2+9 HST/225 with room to spare, the other three could possibly hold a 2+7 (Cross Country) or rake of 7 mk2 coaches plus the two locos needed to pull them in and out. From back to front they will be long platform line (going into a tunnel under the main road), long platfrom section (also going into tunnel), two shorter platform lines (ending in time for main station entrance and lifts to street level), long platform (going into another tunnel), long platform line (going into same tunnel), shorter platform line and then the last short platform (linked to main station by a bridge system of some sort).

Terminus plan two has 6 platforms, four terminus platforms and two through platforms. I know the through platforms mean technically this isn't a terminus station but the vast majority of trains will terminate there. Anyway, the through platforms stand on the outside of the terminus platforms creating an 'island' style station, not unlike Edinburgh Waverley. Three of the terminus platforms will face the 'fiddle' end and one facing the opposite way. One of the through platforms will be about 10ft long plus ramps, more than enough for a 2+8 HST, but not enough for a 2+9 (GNER) 225/HST. The other platform lengths could vary but with the smallest being just 2 1/2 ft long (to account for a two car unit plus buffers) facing away from the 'fiddle' end, and the station building taking about a foot or possibly two, that means two of the other terminus platforms at the 'fiddle' end could be as long as 5 1/2ft or even 6 1/2ft, long enough for a couple of multiple units coupled up. The length of remaining terminus and through platform are dependant on each others lengths because of the arrangement of platforms (the platform for the through line is built on the end of the terminus track), so if the terminus platform is 4 1/2ft long (to account for the buffers) the through platform would be 5 1/2ft long. The through platforms and one terminus platform at the 'Terminus' end will feed through a single tunnel mouth to a small three road storage yard with 4ft sidings, maybe less.

Both designs feed through a junction (which happens to be near indentical) and leaves three running lines.

'Fiddle' plan one has these three lines becoming two twin track mainlines with a small stabling area in between. The near side mainline (which for arguements sake we shall call East coast) dips down into a tunnel to the lower fiddle yard, and the far mainline (which for arguements sake we shall call West coast) rises slightly to account for it crossing the path of the East coast mainline and then going into the upper fiddle yard. The stabling point will be a short siding for locos to wait an incoming VXC service, before it attaches to work the train out of the station, and two sidings for a maximum of four 2 car units (two per siding). The problems with this design are that the upper fiddle yard for the West coast is quite small and could really only handle a couple of long express trains and a few local units, and that the scenic area will be smaller than the existing layout.

'Fiddle' plan two sees the three running lines remain, the centre line being bi-directional, but running downhill slightly (dropping about 2-3 inches over 6ft). At the corner of the loft it levels off and the outer line has a spur which quickly becomes four stabing roads, one of which is 10ft long (the others between 8 and 9ft), the nearest running line moves away from the other two to accomodate an island platform-ed (6ft plus ramps) local station (with no platform for the outer line) before a junction makes the three running lines into two single direction lines, the stabling roads also feed back onto the mainline, before the two lines running lines head downhill (about 4 inches over 8 ft) through a series of curves (as if running through the hills) and into a tunnel where the fiddle yard begins (which runs underneath the 'terminus' station and right round till it is underneath the 'island' platform section), which will provide plenty of storage space. The scenic area will increase in length by as much as 13ft although the total storage area will be slightly smaller (I think) than currently exists.

Any changes will be done in the new year because of money constraints, etc, etc, there will be extra power feeds pre-installed, but not connected, for DCC at a later date, and there will be no insulating track (so I don't need to remove them later). The re-arrangement will, once again, put my workwood skills to the test, as I wll have to re-build some of the base board areas to accomodate new storage facilities on the lower level (it is not possible to increase the storage area where I need to with the current arrrangement of boards. I'll also add point motors as standard.

I also think a change of area might be on the cards too as I have other stock from different areas, 159s, 166s and 170s from the south and 156s from the Glasgow area (specifically), and as VXC hired GNER and MML HSTs I can use them all over the place.

Anyway, enough gabbing, on with some errands.

[TWICK9]

Looks like you have a lot of work to do. Brian.

[hairyhandedfool]

So Ablingham disappears into the night, to make way for a new layout, the final shots show what is left of the site before final earth works remove the last pieces of track and the ballast.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/Whereitusedtobe.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/Dismantlingthetracks.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/156passingsheddemolished.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll50/hairyhandedfool/150passingsheddemolished.jpg