A very new direction

[Lawrence]

Those that know me may wish to sit down now!  For those that don't, I have never had an interest in modelling British stuff, I have always been interested in US railroads and dabbled with some Japanese stuff.

I have pretty much no idea about how British railways run but now find myself (for personal reasons) building a British layout. At this point I wish to put on record huge thanks to @newportnobby for his assistance and keeping me right on many things, not to mention his patience!

Blair Ivor is set in the Scottish Highlands in the here and now, and will be on an 18" x 72" board.  Everything must fit, there will be no fiddle yards, extra boards etc.  It is an old rural station that has had some necessary upgrades carried out to meet current railway operations requirements

You can see from the plan below that the mainline splits to service 2 platforms, below that are a couple of sidings.  This area is being used as a hub for equipment, supplies and machinery to service redevelopment in the area e.g. new drainage, better water supplies, moving overhead power lines underground - you get the picture - so there will be a couple of barren/hard standing areas at the bottom.

Between the lower platform and level crossing will be a small signal box controlling all the action 

Rolling stock: so far I have a Class 158 2 car DMU in Scotrail livery and a Class 66 in the new DRS livery.  I have 1 bogie bolster wagon, 1 pack of Metcalf stone platform kit and the girls have been given a list of Ancorton Models items I would like.  Some time in the future the points may be controlled by servos possibly using the MERG system.

I would be grateful for your advice on some very basic signalling type and placement and I believe the sidings should have shunt warning signs?

Also advice on applying power to this DC system (until I dig out what points I have I'm not sure what type I'll be using, probably electrofrog though.

Time is of the essence, I would like to get this up and running quickly with most of the scenic work done at the same time so all/any advice you can give will be invaluable. I also want to add another couple of freight wagons perhaps a container car and another flat wagon.

[ntpntpntp]

For DC, I would create separate power sections for the curves at each end, and each of the platform and loop lines.   The spur siding can be fed from the loop line.   

I usually double isolate all sections (ie. both rails not common return) so I can cab-control with two or three controllers powered from any source.

Something likes this. Works for live frog or insulated frog (I would recommend live frog of course). The diverging ends of the points make a natural position for the isolating joiners.   I would suggest you fit frog droppers now even if you don't plan to include frog polarity changeover right from the start - you'll probably want to later.

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You could add a single rail isolating gap and switch on the siding, if you wish to park a loco there.

[Zogbert Splod]

  Blair Ivor? Sounds a bit Scottish/Welsh to me. All the best people do it that way though.   

[Newportnobby]

Being a transition modeller I could only help Lawrence up to a point (sorry)

I also want to add another couple of freight wagons perhaps a container car and another flat wagon.

@red_death
Could anyone suggest a suitable pipe wagon and maybe a livery, as all I have come up with is my own preference for Railfreight red/grey rather than EWS.....maybe an OAA (Farish 373-403C) or OBA (Farish 373-626C)?
As Lawrence usually models American stuff I'm not sure what he means by a 'container car' but perhaps a VBA in Railfreight livery would do the job? (Farish 373-052C)

[ntpntpntp]

A slight variation on my previous suggestion for the power feeds, should you perhaps want to stop a train in the platform or loop and run another loco up to the other end to draw the train away, would be to split each of the platform and loop sections in half in the middle.  That's effectively what I have at my station, and the split is actually and conveniently at a board join.

[PostModN66]

  Everything must fit, there will be no fiddle yards, extra boards etc. 

Hi Lawrence - could you clarify; the plan you have posted has the look of one that runs between two fiddle yards (or one round the back) - can't see how you can operate it without an extra board....

Cheers Jon 

[Lawrence]

  Everything must fit, there will be no fiddle yards, extra boards etc. 

Hi Lawrence - could you clarify; the plan you have posted has the look of one that runs between two fiddle yards (or one round the back) - can't see how you can operate it without an extra board....

Cheers Jon 

What you see is what you get Jon.  I only plan to run the 2 locos mentioned, the DMU can hide in the trees or the tunnel, likewise the 66 can sit in the sidings area whilst the DMU runs through.  The only reason I curved the lines was to give a little extra length to hide the trains.

[PostModN66]

Aaah......I see!

Just as a thought, you could squeeze a circuit onto an 18" wide board.  A Farish 158 and a 66 will go round 8.5 inch curves quite happily (they do on my Lofthole layout).

Just saying! 

Cheers Jon 

[The Q]

I notice that no one has replied about signals, I believe the Highland line has gone over to radio "tokens", so at the moment only Fort William has conventional signals. All the through staions do not have signals.
You could claim that this railway was radio "tokened" and fit no signals at all.

[Bealman]

I was amazed that Kingussie had a manned signal box and semaphore signals on my visit in 2013!

[Tank]

Great news Lawrence!  Seen the light!!!   

[Bealman]

Thought you'd like that, boss.

Good brownie points, Lawrence! 

[red_death]

Currently in Berlin for work but the obvious single container flat is our forthcoming KFA - apologies for the shameless self-promotion but that is one of the reasons we picked it.

I can't think of anything obvious in terms of open wagons that would run singly in a rake of a Distribution type service perhaps a VGA.

[Lawrence]

Currently in Berlin for work but the obvious single container flat is our forthcoming KFA - apologies for the shameless self-promotion but that is one of the reasons we picked it.

I can't think of anything obvious in terms of open wagons that would run singly in a rake of a Distribution type service perhaps a VGA.

Appreciate your thoughts, as I mentioned previously UK railways are not something I have had much of an interest in, if it was one of my US layouts, a couple of flat cars and a gondola would have done very nicely, I'm guessing there must be UK equivalents, somewhere.

I guess I could always sub contract some of the work to a Japanese firm, who would supply there own rolling stock 

[Lawrence]

I was amazed that Kingussie had a manned signal box and semaphore signals on my visit in 2013!

I think a signal box and semaphore by the level crossing and semaphore before the tunnel mouth may suffice then.

Does the UK employ shunt limit signs for sidings?