My first layout is at a level where it can be used to simulate railway operations.  I have a couple of loco's, coaches, trucks & vans to help with this.

I have a vague plan that over short period of running I would simulate a daily schedule of railway operations with a time period of somewhere around the 1920's / 1930's.

The day will start with a "milk run"...a drop off of empty milk churns and collection of full milk churns from the station on my layout with those full churns then going "down the line" to the off-layout "city".  This is on the basis that a short distance off-layout there are several dairy farms producing milk.  Shortly after this a light goods train will pull in to either the station (or goods yard - not decided which) to off-load a few daily essentials for the village of Newdale  The first post of the day, newspapers, bread and perhaps an extra cask of ale or two for the pub!

While the light goods train is being dealt with the passenger services begin with a Autocoach pulled loco arriving and departing a short time later.

The light goods train has also moved on to the next stop down the line clearing the platform for the arrival of a two coach passenger service bound for a larger station somewhere up the line.  This service runs every couple of hours out of Newdale and can be very busy!

Now..it is best not to forget that the coal merchant in Newdale needs a regular delivery and sure enough just a few minutes behind schedule heavily laden coal trucks are reversed slowly down his siding to be off loaded by his men.

A key part of keeping Newdale prosperous, along with it's dairies, is wool.  While the coal trucks are off-loaded a another goods train arrives to be loaded with huge wool bales.  These bales will go on quite a journey and be added to a much larger train later in the day for transportation to the regional mill.

Once the coal & wool train have left Newdale the third passenger service of the day arrives and departs.  On some occasions this service will collect a few additional full milk churns which may have been left behind from the milk train earlier in the morning.

At this point in the day their is the opportunity for the station master to set about tidying his station after the activity for the morning.

A non-stopping goods train trundles through slowing enough to drop the second post (remember that?) if any onto the platform.  There is now a lull in traffic for a hour or so before the arrival of the two coach passenger service.  This train will hold at Newdale for around thirty minutes allowing the train crew a short break and the chance to have some lunch but more importantly it will not leave until the regular Autocoach service arrives allowing those passengers going down the line to transfer!

Once a week Newdale will receive a delivery of lamp oil.  This is off-loaded at the station and carefully transported into the village for safe storage. The train making this delivery arrives in the mid afternoon and will stop at all the stations served by the Autocoach service.

Activity picks up from mid afternoon onward with the departure of the lamp oil train with a long mixed goods train passing through bound for a large goods yard somewhere no doubt, the two coach passenger service arrives and swiftly departs.  As the evening draws closer the Autocoach service pulls in and this time it waits for the two coach passenger service arriving in Newdale with passengers bound for it's destinations.  The evening's papers have also arrived with the two coach service.

The two coach service will make one last trip into Newdale primarily as a passenger service but also to collect the outbound post.

With the darkening skies now over Newdale a goods train and the last Autocoach service of the day pass each other just outside of the station and another day draws to a close.

So...that's a day in Newdale...I'm off to the pub!

Nice little story and a glimpse of a bygone age.

I really like the sound of the day's operations. It's just like being there

Thank you for the comments!

I'm not sure if other members of the forum take it to this level but in mind it kind of makes a little sense to just do more than "run" a train.  There needs to be a reason hopefully supported by a little logic!

Very nice; just like being there. I remember being on a Class 101 DMU on the Carlisle - Newcastle line c. 1969 where bundle sof newspapers were thrown out of the guard's van onto station platforms where the DMU did not stop!

I spent much of the Christmas break creating a Working Time Table (based on Padstow's for 1961) and it really does help to imagine the events of a day (as you've described them). In my case on a Summer Saturday: glorious weather of course and only steam (SR and WR). However, I expanded the timetable for Penmayne by adding the same cross-country specials that the WR ran to Newquay so i can run more WR locos and stock, plus LMR and ER carriages and not only BR Standard ones! Next best think to having a Tardis (and, yes, cliche though it is, I do have a certain Blue Police Phone Box that will appear in odd corners of the layout!)

A timetable of sorts helps give playing with trains a little structure!

All good fun and adds a little character!

Quote from: lionwing on January 07, 2014, 08:43:17 PM
A timetable of sorts helps give playing with trains a little structure!

All good fun and adds a little character!

Yes, indeed. I like to plan as close as possible to how it would have been in real life. My admiration to all those guys who, pre-PC, worked out everything on paper.

I'll have to write a thread on WTTs.

Quote from: Chris in Prague on January 07, 2014, 05:14:33 PM
Very nice; just like being there. I remember being on a Class 101 DMU on the Carlisle - Newcastle line c. 1969 where bundle sof newspapers were thrown out of the guard's van onto station platforms where the DMU did not stop!

There is an old railway yarn about some goods being delivered to a halt in Queensland.  In the outback of Queensland the once a week mixed goods would leave various consignments for remote farms at various halts along the way to be picked up latter by the consignee.  The guard realising that he had forgotten to tell the driver to stop at a particular halt merely threw the parcels out onto the platform as they passed.

Quite a few of the items were broken and as I am told included a quantity of eggs so the consignee made a claim to the railways.  The guard was asked to furnish a report in which he merely said the goods were in good order when they left his hands.

Kind regards

Geoff

Quote from: lionwing on January 07, 2014, 08:43:17 PM
A timetable of sorts helps give playing with trains a little structure!

All good fun and adds a little character!

Agreed. I wouldn't be planning/my building own layout if it wasn't going to run an a, at least reasonably, representative timetable. Like you I intend to run a full sequence from morning to night, albeit not necessarily a full 24hra initially, but that would be the long term aid if I build up the correct stock/motive power.

Good work 

Trains seem to have started running later and finished earlier these days, at least judging by the Padstow 1961 Summer Saturday working timetable. However, as Penmayne (in my alternative history) grew to become rather bigger than Padstow and was a joint GWR-LSWR station (rather like Wadebridge, for example) and has services to Paddington via Bodmin Road as well as Waterloo amongst other destinations, I've pushed back the first train of the day from 07.26 to 06.42 by starting back a Wadebridge to Bodmin General service from Penmayne. Similarly, instead of the last train into Penmayne (Padstow) arriving at 22.26, I've scheduled the pannier tank and Maunsell 2P set to run one more service arriving at 22.56 (handy for drinkers from Wadebridge and Cant Cove's pubs) with the pannier going on shed at Penmayne at 23.17. I also have a Friday's only Summer Weekend Special from Paddington arriving at 22.50 and a  Summer Weekend Special from Waterloo (d. 16.00) arriving at 23.44 with the N class (from Exeter) going on shed at 00.05 before the railway closes down for the night!

Quote from: Chatty on January 07, 2014, 10:39:01 PM
The guard was asked to furnish a report in which he merely said the goods were in good order when they left his hands.

Kind regards

Geoff

Nice story
Very honest guard, too