West Allen Street & Thawne

[danielb]

At Nottingham show, I had a good couple of days to play with the new version of the layout and learn a few things regarding the new trackplan and the way it effects the operations.

A few points to note:

1. The Davis Produce spur was a great addition to the ops, but I found I didn't actually use the extra hidden staging track for what I actually intended it to be used for. As such, I planned to move the backdrop to the rear of the board and add in a further scenic space to allow for the spotting of large covered hoppers, as I have a fair few but no industries dedicated to them. It makes sense that Davis Produce might have a grain elevator along with their factory/warehouse.

2. The switching lead for Davis that runs behind the oil dealer is too short to fit a switcher and a couple of 50' cars in by a gnat's knacker, so that will need extending.

3. The trackplan as it stands requires the hidden staging behind the Stonemasons to be used as a switching lead, and this leads to more time of trains being "off stage" when they don't really need to be.

As such, I've decided to expand and rework Thawne to provide a better use of the space there, though this does mean for a drastic change to the existing layout.

So, after receiving an invitation to the Calder Northern NMRA exhibition in Crewe on April 1st, I had a week and a half to get these issues addressed. And tomorrow will be see the last of the work done to complete the changes.

To address the issues, I've done the following:
1. Removed the stock shelf from behind Thawne, added a new scenic board running the length of the Thawne expansion, essentially doubling the size of the board.This has required the removal of the hidden staging track, the Stonemasons building, and both backscenes from the board.
2. Coupled with the removal of the staging track from Thawne, the switching lead behind the oil dealer has become the new main, and has been routed through the backdrop of the Handy Co board to a new staging track behind.
3.On Thawne, the old staging track will become a switching lead to better allow for operations on the layout.

With these changes in mind, there's been some shuffling around and additions/replacements of the industries served by the Midland Belt.

1. The Vilas Brothers building has been removed from the Davis Produce spur and re-located (again), to the end of the switching lead on Thawne.
2. The Davis spur has been extended and a grain elevator (or part of one) has been added to allow for unloading of large covered hoppers.
3. Wells Stonemason is no more - the structures have been salvaged for use on a future layout, and the site it once occupied has been taken over by a construction materials distributor, with a cement transfer silo, lumber sheds, etc.

Most of the structures are finished, or if not will be after my night shift ends in the morning.

Tasks I've got left to do is to lay the track on the hidden staging, fix down the grain elevator and silos and fix the ground cover around them, and finish off painting the Cement silo in the construction yard, all of which won't take too long.

Anyways, enough waffling from me, here are the progress photos:











I've also been working on L&N #99, using some prototype photos provided by an L&N Modelling group on Facebook (aint the internet great?). Unfortunately I don't have an idea of who took these photos as they have no ID information on them, so I cannot provide credit where it's due. Shame, as they really are wonderful images.

So here they are, along with my progress on replicating it in model form: