Michaela's Layout

[Michaelaface]

hello forum, and welcome to my new layout

its roughly 3.5 by 3 meters, 00 gauge and loosely set up north somewhere in the BR steam era

here are some photos of where I've gotten up to

Fiddle Yard
I think one of my stumbling points of previous layouts is that I've never properly put enough thought and effort in to the fiddle yard area, and built them to do what I want them to do, which is to run the longest trains possible and also be able to hold all of my stock, so with those two thoughts in mind I've created this leviathan



in all there are 14 storage sidings, 5 for each through mainline, and 4 for end to end suburban traffic, dmus etc



Scenic section part 1
I'm going to focus on building this section first, as I've got a clear idea of what I want to do here, and also half of the buildings already built, my idea here is to have a raised track with retaining walls that intersects a densely populated industrial city/town, no real specific place in mind here, but I'm taking influences primarily from the L&Y areas, but I also want to incorporate tenement style buildings seen around Glasgow



this section has junction with a short loco siding (not sure if accurate)



and to those of you who have asked, here will be the home for my scratch and kit builds seen elsewhere in this forum



Scenic section part 2
This will be the final part of the layout, and at the moment the least complete, my plan here is to have a station inspired by Manchester Victoria, with a teminus side and a mainline through traffic side, but all is rough planning still, I'd also like to build my own point work for this section as 1) its cheaper, and 2) more flexible for the small amount of room I have to try to fit in everything I want



Current track plan idea for the station



feel free to leave any comments or suggestions, or ask any questions
thanks
Micheala

[Dublo]

Hello Michaela
Looks like you are off to flying start there, I was wondering where you were. Lo and behold you've been beavering away up in the loft. This current layout looks as if you have addressed areas that you were not entirely happy with before, whilst still retaining the same basic idea. I'm very interested in the build your own pointwork idea and would like to hear how you get on.

[Dad-1]

Hi Michaela,

So nice to hear from you after quite a while of absence.
Long trains, ahh one of my original aims, but never enough space for a fixed layout.
You've certainly been busy, planning is good, although I still enjoy building by emotion, just building because I fancy some idea.
I'll be following ........

Geoff T.

[Montfort2]

Wonderful layout. I'm following your work with a great interest.

[PinkNosedPenguin]

Wow, looks like a serious sized model railway - do you have a rough plan of the loft to help us put the different sections into perspective?
I love the raised track in your scenic section 1, and you have a decent amount of space to do the urban area justice too - great plan!
Also you are very brave attempting not only building your own track, but potentially complex pointwork too
I will follow your progress . . .

[glencairn]

Amazing! Love it. Well done, Michaela.

Glencairn

[Montfort2]

Could you post a complete track plan ? Thanks.

[Michaelaface]

I'm very interested in the build your own pointwork idea and would like to hear how you get on.

I'm still undecided on it, the layout already features points I've built myself, and they seem to work okay so far, but I still don't feel I'm up to the standard where they could operate reliably on the main parts of the layout, plus its added time onto the track work and I'm desperate to get onto the scenery and get some colour into the room!

Long trains, ahh one of my original aims, but never enough space for a fixed layout.

I'm sure I've seen quite a few good sized trains on St. Oval, and I'm "cheating" slightly, going to be doing the "half station" idea to get them to actually fit

Wow, looks like a serious sized model railway - do you have a rough plan of the loft to help us put the different sections into perspective?
I love the raised track in your scenic section 1, and you have a decent amount of space to do the urban area justice too - great plan!
Also you are very brave attempting not only building your own track, but potentially complex pointwork too
I will follow your progress . . .

I'll try to cobble together a plan once I've properly decided on how everything should go, still making slight adjustments here and there, I'm not full decided on the trackwork yet, its something I'd like to do, but I'm not sure if my abilities are up to the right standard just yet

Could you post a complete track plan ? Thanks.

I will soon, still working on some parts, and considering making slight changes to others

AND in other news here's a few bits I've been working on recently
- loco fixed, detail parts added, decoder fitted
- testing ideas for the backscene
- retaining wall and embankment test/experiment

[Michaelaface]

TRACKPLAN

you asked for it, so here it is, its a little skewed its its a composite of 4 images to get around anyrail's 50 pieces of track rule
the total size of everything is roughly 3.5 meters x 3.5 meters



POINTS

So in a previous post I said I was thinking about building my own, but I have since decided I'd like to actually finish this layout at somepoint this lifetime so I rather sensibly opted to work out a track plan using points I already had, saving both time and money, very sensible imo

here is an overview of the whole layout, now with completed trackwork and boards in place ready for back scenes (taken from a near impossible location to get to)



and a few more shots of the completed trackwork











Caution extreme levels of tedium beyond this point

So with my decision to use the code 75 streamline points I already had, they don't quite match up with the bullhead track on the rest of my layout, however I happened to chance upon a bag of C&L chairs lurking in the second hand section of hattons website, and as an experiment I thought I'd buy them and have a go at using them to add cosmetic detail to my points (saw someone on RMweb do this, looked pretty good on there) the only problem I have with this is that it such a boooooring job, now I like a lot of detail in my model railways but this is really pushing my limits now aha

also this point is over 10 years old and has featured on every single layout I've built since, its been nailed, glued, weathered, ballasted about 3 times, says a lot for the robustness of peco track!



as always all comments and questions welcome!

[BrightonMan]

Coming along well. I love the raised section with the line up above the streets, that's going to look awesome. Just a tad jealous of your fiddleyard

[NedFlanders]

Coming along well. I love the raised section with the line up above the streets, that's going to look awesome. Just a tad jealous of your fiddleyard

+1 for the Fiddle yard - and the whole layout plan!

[Mountain]

I'm very impressed. The only thing I would change personally is to slightly simplify the trackwork in the planned station area so it won't give the crowded look once the platforms are in. One then has room to use wider more realistic platforms, and by slightly reducing the number of sidings opposite the station it will also give a less crowded look. I know there is a balance between having room to stand and run trains and making things look real. Don't take my idea to heart if you love it as it is... I like it and am impressed. It must have taken you ages to reach the stage you are at.

Looking again at the layout. It is good as it is.

[glencairn]

An outstanding layout. Love it.

Glencairn

[Michaelaface]

thank you everyone! not done much more work on it lately, been trying to put together some footage of it all to upload to youtube

Coming along well. I love the raised section with the line up above the streets, that's going to look awesome. Just a tad jealous of your fiddleyard

thank you, yeah I'm lucky to have the space available and was determined to utilize as much of it as possible, I am a little surprised myself at how much I've been able to squeeze in to be honest!

I'm very impressed. The only thing I would change personally is to slightly simplify the trackwork in the planned station area so it won't give the crowded look once the platforms are in. One then has room to use wider more realistic platforms, and by slightly reducing the number of sidings opposite the station it will also give a less crowded look. I know there is a balance between having room to stand and run trains and making things look real. Don't take my idea to heart if you love it as it is... I like it and am impressed. It must have taken you ages to reach the stage you are at.

Looking again at the layout. It is good as it is.

I'll see how things go as I progress, I've fixed the track in a way that its really easy to lift it and adjust things, so if its not working out I'll be able to sort things, the current formation is totally seeing how much I could fit in, using what I already had

[Mountain]

It is a balancing act. I used to fill every available space with track and then discovered that I had no room whatsoever for signals!