About the Layout:
Well, as you may have already read on the home page, the layout is based on a compact, fictional TMD which is imagined to be situated somewhere in the East Midlands of England. It's the mid-90s, when BR are in the busy process of privatizing, and the TMD is occupied mainly by Class 08s, 37s, 47s, 56s and 60s in either BR Railfreight Sector or post-privatization livery.
The layout is currently going to be run on DC. If I'm going to take the big step and convert to DCC, I'll probably build a different layout. This track-plan doesn't desperately require DCC, so for the moment I'm sticking with DC, which I'm comfortable and have a lot more experience with.
Well, as you may have already read on the home page, the layout is based on a compact, fictional TMD which is imagined to be situated somewhere in the East Midlands of England. It's the mid-90s, when BR are in the busy process of privatizing, and the TMD is occupied mainly by Class 08s, 37s, 47s, 56s and 60s in either BR Railfreight Sector or post-privatization livery.
The layout is currently going to be run on DC. If I'm going to take the big step and convert to DCC, I'll probably build a different layout. This track-plan doesn't desperately require DCC, so for the moment I'm sticking with DC, which I'm comfortable and have a lot more experience with.
_The baseboard:
The baseboard was made using some scraps of MDF salvaged from my previous, dismantled layouts - specifically, a piece of 18mm thick and a piece of pre-braced 7mm. I joined these two pieces of MDF together by bracing them to one another with pieces of 1'' x 2'' soft pine which gave a (sort of) decent baseboard. I then added backboards of 5mm ply (or the ends) and 3mm hardboard (for the back). The baseboard has a distinctive curved shape because the scrap of 18mm MDF was curved in the first place from me cutting a length of platform for another layout from it in the past.
Fiddle Yard
The fiddle yard currently isn't built but I'm hoping it will be in the region of 3' x 1' and made of 7mm MDF. I'm planning to have a three-way point leading to 3 storage roads (not shown correctly on the plan below).
Lighting for Exhibitions:
Along with the layout itself, there will be an light-weight (hopefully), un-mountable frame of soft pine which will hold up a name-board, stating the name of the layout, as well as a lighting tube. The name-plate (a piece of ply-wood probably) will conveniently hide the lighting tube behind.
The planned (but not in any way finalized) layout track-plan:
The current track-plan (see diagram below) consists of a large engine / servicing shed complete with maintenance pits, as well as a wheel lathe, a fueling point and a washing plant. There's also a spare siding for a few of my heavily weathered wagons to sit in.
The baseboard was made using some scraps of MDF salvaged from my previous, dismantled layouts - specifically, a piece of 18mm thick and a piece of pre-braced 7mm. I joined these two pieces of MDF together by bracing them to one another with pieces of 1'' x 2'' soft pine which gave a (sort of) decent baseboard. I then added backboards of 5mm ply (or the ends) and 3mm hardboard (for the back). The baseboard has a distinctive curved shape because the scrap of 18mm MDF was curved in the first place from me cutting a length of platform for another layout from it in the past.
Fiddle Yard
The fiddle yard currently isn't built but I'm hoping it will be in the region of 3' x 1' and made of 7mm MDF. I'm planning to have a three-way point leading to 3 storage roads (not shown correctly on the plan below).
Lighting for Exhibitions:
Along with the layout itself, there will be an light-weight (hopefully), un-mountable frame of soft pine which will hold up a name-board, stating the name of the layout, as well as a lighting tube. The name-plate (a piece of ply-wood probably) will conveniently hide the lighting tube behind.
The planned (but not in any way finalized) layout track-plan:
The current track-plan (see diagram below) consists of a large engine / servicing shed complete with maintenance pits, as well as a wheel lathe, a fueling point and a washing plant. There's also a spare siding for a few of my heavily weathered wagons to sit in.
Current, and most likely final track-plan.
_Base-board diagram with measurements.
The Basic Layout Sequence:
First the loco enters the TMD from the fiddle yard by going under a road bridge (the road is called Almere Road - which is where the name for the TMD itself is derived from). Now the loco has three main choices (see the track-plan for a clearer idea of what I mean):
i) It can go up to the Engine / Maintenance Shed.
ii) It can get refueled using the refueling facilities.
iii) It can 'pop in' to the Wheel Lathe for work.
iii) Or, it can get washed using the Wash Plant facilities.
If the loco is the Class 08 with some TTA wagons ready to replenish the refueling facilities then it must shunt it's TTAs into the siding with the fuel drop off facility (basically two tubes) and the idea is that the fuel that the TTA is carrying is disposed of down one of those 4m tall tubes sticking out of the ground, and then the fuel travels through the pipe, underneath the ground, to the other side of the TMD, where the fuel tank for the re-fueling pumps is situated.
The Scenic Break:
The scenic break will simply consist of the the road bridge which I just mentioned.
The Backscene:
The backscene is a piece of hard-board, as described earlier, and is painted Duck Egg Blue. Low-relief factory units sit on top of a brick effect retaining wall. The retaining wall around 76mm tall (10 Scale Metres), and the Retail Park warehouse units are something like 100mm tall.
A Plan of the Fictional Area Modeled - (a better view of the place and surroundings if the place was real):
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Almere Road TMD, 2012
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