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The image below is the basic plan for extending Stoneybridge West which added a double track loopback board to one end of the layout sections disconnected from the Original Stoneybridge Railway home layout. It is a short (26 inch) board that looped the mainlines back. The inner track curves are set to the recommended minimum 9 inch radius. The lines that originally formed the high level station mainlines to the rear of the layout have been removed, this area has been converted into a 4 track fiddle yard. This makes the length of the current layout at 9 feet 3 inches (282cm). This may be extended by the insertion of another board between the existing `A' and `B' boards extending the length of train the station and fiddle yard can handle. The fiddle yard will be hidden beneath a row of large factory/mill buildings with the loopback lines at one end concealed beneath the town, the loopback lines at the other end being beneath a large scenic hillside. This layout will not have the usual `blue sky backscene' associated with traditional exhibition layouts. The back walls of factory / mill buildings along the rear of the layout will be the only vertical break to hide the fiddle yard from view, with a vast roofscape covering the fiddle yard from above. This means there will be restricted access to the fiddle yards during operation, when setting up the layout the factory roof sections can be fitted after the stock has been put on the rails. Most people think I have gone mad, I've been told many times, having a layout with tight curves in small tunnels and an enclosed fiddle yard is asking for trouble! Yes they are right, it seems that trains prefer to derail in the most inaccessable spot on any layout, often for no apparent reason.
All plans are in active development and subject to change. The most probable is another board between the `A' and `B' boards which would give longer storage loops/sidings behind the backscenes and extend the station platforms and sidings to enable running of longer through trains or a greater number of short trains depending on the operators requirements.
The C board is ralatively simple with the mainline loopback curve and trailing point connection at the tunnel mouth allowing trains to depart from any platform onto the Down line. This plan shows a canal below the railway with its own tunnel through the hillside/rockface at a level below the permanent way. The railway passes above the canal on a short bridge, This bridge will be of stone construction, the new `stoney bridge'. The railway tunnels allow the mainline to loop back to the fiddle yard sidings which will eventually be hidden inside the factory buildings along the rear of the layout. One of the tunnels will be fitted with a false tunnel opening on the end of the layout with dummy mainline tracks laid in, ballasted and tunnel walls fitted (C2 on above plan), this will allow the station approach to be be viewed through the tunnel from the front corner of the layout, providing an interesting alternative viewpoint for photography. The canal tunnel (C3 on above plan) is being built beneath the hillside, the roof and sides of the canal tunnel will converge to a small opening in the baseboard at the end of the fiddle yard. This hole has a 90 degree prism fitted to allow viewers to look from the canal towpath under the railway bridge along the canal tunnel through the hillside and see light at the other end of the tunnel even though the tunnel does not actually appear at the back of the layout. The light at the far end of the tunnel will actually be that which is reflected from above the layout by the prism. The converging sides of the tunnel also helps to give the illusion that the tunnel is longer than it actually is. The hatched area has been taken over by the Stoneybridge Railway Preservation Society, this will provide a good excuse to display odd items of stock or locos that from the wrong era that would not normally be on the layout and of course copious amounts of miscellaneous `junk'.
The diagram below shows the basic traction power feeds and track isolators on the Stoneybridge West layout. Initially all traction feeds are sourced from a standard twin track controller, Gaugemaster Series D (old square type) with No feedback or simulated braking/inertia control. The Down Yard is currently fed from the same control at the Down Mainline, The yard will be provided with its own seperate hand held controller which will provide a lower voltage with finer speed control for shunting.
I have collected various kits that will be bashed to produce the smaller buildings, some of which are partially built and will be completed once fixed in place on the layout. There is also a growing collection of spares from various kits which comes in handy during kitbashing sessions as a source of alternative/extra detailing parts. This layout will require vast amounts of brick walling and roofing of various types, I have been stockpiling N scale walling, both card and embossed plastic sheets, there is a growing accumulation of pipework, chimneys, vents, and windows which are being stored in readiness for a massive building project, the huge expanse of factory/mill buildings that will run the full length of boards A and B. I estimate that the main factory/mill buildings will require over 405,000 scale square feet of exterior walling, 130,000 scale square feet of various roofing materials and over 300 windows. This will be a whole project in itself and is expected to take approximately 12 to 18 months to construct, full detailing will no doubt take another year at least as there are plans to fully detail the interiors of prominent rooms install moving machinery in some of the factories.
Power feeds to removeable buildings are via 9 pin (DB9 type) plugs & sockets, here the plug is fitted into a hole in platform 1, the building with the socket fitted into its base will easily located on the plug. A 9pin connector will allow up to 8 individual lighting circuits to be controlled using `common return' wiring. The building that is to be fitted here only uses three of the eight available circuits. DB9 or DB25 connectors are easily used on buildings requiring lighting, motor control for moving machinery, power for a smoke generator or even audio circuits.
Stoneybridge West is being used for live testing and development of mechanical signalling systems, Semaphore signals and points operated by rods from a lever frame. The mechanical signalling system is now under construction, latest developements can be found on the Mechanical Signalling page.
The above image shows work so far on the new signalbox base on the Up platform.(May 2002) The signal box base has been cut away to allow a set of working cranks to be fitted in the interlocking room (Downstairs in the box) which will connected to the appropriate levers in the top section of the frame making the levers in the visible (upstairs) move accordingly when points and signals are changed. The cranks cranks will be operated via rodding below the platform surface, these rods will pass below the tracks to another set of cranks with rodding leading off to the relevant points and signals. When the point or signal is operated, (either by the operator or electrically by the TCS via cranks below the baseboards) a linkage from the point or signal will link it to the rodding runs from the signal box, when the point or signal is changed it will move the rodding to the box making the levers move accordingly in the frame. I am toying with the idea of having a signal person that moves to the appropriate lever as required but may opt for a signal person that is fixed to the most prominent lever at one end of the box and moves with the lever giving the impression that the signal person is throwing the lever, In actual fact the lever will be throwing the signal person, the whole system of rods & cranks will operate in the reverse of the real thing! But so long as it looks reasonably prototypical I'll be happy.
Photographs of Stoneybridge West by Night.
Stoneybridge West layout was exhibited at the PDMRS show on 10th November 2002 as a project in development. This went down quite well and generated plenty of questions from the visitors. I was assisted with running the layout by Mike Boydon a local Ngauge locomotive builder who brought a selection of kitbashed and scratchbuilt models of his own to run. The layout was assembled with the first train running on it within 15 minutes of the boards arriving in the hall. The layout was supported by 8 plastic adjustable legs left over from some new kitchen cabinets, this meant the layout stood on some desks/tables enabling children to see across the tracks and adults to have an aerial view :-).
Visit the Poole & District M.R.S. website for exhibition photos of Stoneybridge West and some of the other completed layouts at the 2002 show.
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