Forncett N gauge re-visited.

[tcinbg]

Back in the murky mists of time I made my first post about a station I intended to model.

Which is here

Sorry I have not been around much over the past couple of years, doesn't time fly by, unfortunately due to a severe medical problem which didn't take to long to resolve, but took a longish time for recuperation, and, the fact that this caused a major delay in the building of our home meant that the railway had to be put on the back burner. In a roundabout way it also meant that I was able to increase the size of the room to 2.6 metres by 2.3 metres.

The light can now be seen at the end of the tunnel so it is now full steam ahead.

The fortunate thing about the delay is that I was able to do considerable more research into the layout of the original station and its environs.



The most northerly part of the map is missing, but, it shows a turntable and siding for, I would guess, a station shunter. I believe that the lines to the North of the station on either side of the main line are for goods train reception. What seems odd about this is that the goods yard is to the South of the station, so shunting of goods wagons would certainly have caused some problems with the main line through trains.

This map also gave me some problems with how to construct the layout. The major one was size. From the turntable to the road bridge in the South is approximately 510 metres, (measured on Google Earth), which I reckon is about 3.44 metres in N scale. Much to long for the space available. I tried putting the goods reception on a curve, but it just didn't look right, then I shortened everything to fit in, that didn't look right either. Eventually I had an Eureka moment and planned it almost corner to corner.



The walls and the ceiling of the room have just been plastered, I need to lay some sort of floor soon, then baseboard construction will begin.

The layout will be DCC using NCE PowerCab, and Peco Streamline code 55 track.

If anyone has any comments on the layout I would appreciate it before I order all the track on line. (Remember, I live in Bulgaria and to date have not been able to find any railway model shops here at all.)

Thanks for reading this, it is nice to be back with NRM.

Trev

[ElDavo]

Gald to hear you are back in the modelling harness. Interesting plan and certainly gives much more scope running diagonally across the room. Had you though about putting all of the station area on a slight curve? I realise the prototype is straight but the slightest of curves would (I think) give you slightly more length and easy the transition into the curves at either end. Just a though.

Cheers
Dave

[klaatu]

I am still only a beginner, but - your access looks limited to me. How will you reach that turntable in the top right hand corner, for example?

Steve

[Bufferstop]

Hi Trev
Are you going to build the baseboards to be demountable, or given the shape fixed. If they are going to be fixed I would go for the American "L Girder" open top system which allows the edges to be any shape you like. You could then maximise your access space by making the edges of the well follow the line of the railway fences. Even if you intend to operate from the front you'll spend a fair bit of time in there during construction. You could also put a slight curvature to the diagonal edge so that it comes outwards to meet the walls. Finally make the backscene curved to eliminate the "corners in the sky." It's a good plan, doesn't attempt to overfill the space but got enough to make operation interesting.
John W (aka Bufferstop)

[SouthernBoy]

Nice plan, nice original too

I'll just echo a few comments already made ...
Can you access all areas easily?
A curved back board will make a big difference.
Can you find a way to ease the main-line curves lower left?

Also, could the curves to the turntable bottom left and the yard above the station be eased a little? They just seem a bit sudden and abrupt.

Another thought I just had was whether you could curve the hidden sidings gently down and around from top left to near where the tracks enter the scenic section, and then continue that curve down through bottom left and through to the station (so it's like a long, drawn-out 'C' shape) ? It may mean the approach to the station on that side is more curved than straight, but it may be worth a try instead of the 'S' arrangement ... ?

Anyway - those are just thoughts that popped into my head - feel free to ignore them. There's probably good reason for most of those things

Anyway, it's N, and it's looking good

[tcinbg]

your access looks limited to me.

Absolutely right Steve, still pondering on that.

I would go for the American "L Girder" open top system which allows the edges to be any shape you like.

Good idea and will be doing that.

"corners in the sky."

Like that term, had planned to do that, just couldn't get a curved line in the programme I'm using.

Can you find a way to ease the main-line curves lower left?

Also, could the curves to the turntable bottom left and the yard above the station be eased a little? They just seem a bit sudden and abrupt.

Currently working on both those problems.

Had you thought about putting all of the station area on a slight curve? I realise the prototype is straight but the slightest of curves would (I think) give you slightly more length and easy the transition into the curves at either end.

Tried a curved station, to be honest it didn't look right.

Thanks for the input guys, greatly appreciated. Currently working on flipping the plan to the goods yard is bottom left and won't curl round so much, also it just might give me better access to the fiddle yard.

[tcinbg]

Well, after a very sweaty (it is 32C and very humid here at the moment) couple of hours a revised/amended Forncett plan is below.

Once again any comments greatly appreciated.

Trev

[SouthernBoy]

Wow, that's a great transformation. It just flows so much more naturally now

I had a little play around with the curves bottom left a bit more ...





But either way - to my eye it's got to be nearly there

[tcinbg]

After SouthenBoys play around, a little tickle to the plan.



Bridge A - which is at the southern end of the station.


Bridge B - which is about 2 k to the north of the station and is the start of a viaduct over the River Tas valley where the branch line used to divert to Wymondham.

[tcinbg]

As I have started building the layout I thought it about time to update this topic.

I recently came upon a more detailed map of the station area, it shows more detail of the area north of the turntable, extended goods and or carriage sidings and a signal box for the junction to Wymondham.



I have been unhappy with the previous layout plan, mainly because it crams so much detail into a small area. After much thought and deliberation I have decided that the layout will be split into two levels, as below, the station on the upper level, and the fiddle yard on the lower level. The two levels will be joined by two helix.





This will allow much more detailed modelling of the station area, and because of the increased modelling area be much more true to the prototype.

On the plus side, platforms and sidings will be longer and I will be able to include the branch line to Wymondham departing from the main line at Forncett Junction, the one minus is that the whole station will be U shaped, not straight as in the original, we can't have everything I guess, but it is nice to try.