Pottington Quay Micro layout - shunting practice

Since wiring up the layout I have spent the last week or so laying the track in the fiddle yard and the running trains on the layout.  In particular I have been keen to play with the shunting options of the layout; needless to say it is a lot of fun, although at times my patience has been tested with 3 link couplings. I have really enjoyed shunting trains around and using an 08 to move wagons to where they are needed after they have been been brought onto the layout.

A filthy class 25 arrives with a short ballast train.  This locomotive is heading back to the paintshop soon!

There are two lessons learnt so far.  The first is the layout is much more enjoyable to operate from the front.  I was going to use a Bachmann E-Z controller - but will revert back to the NCE powercab - to give the flexibility to move about.  However, the control panel is built into the back of the layout - so by standing at the front there s a lot of leaning over the fiddle yard - ah well.... you live and learn.

After uncoupling from its ballast train the 25 is used to take the passenger service back towards Exeter.

The second issue is the front siding was originally going to be an engine shed that had been converted into a wagon repair works.  The engine shed itself would have been a scenic break for the second fiddle yard exit/entrance.  However, this does not work as I often need to use the siding to store a loco/wagon during shunting.  So with this I am going to have to work out another way to disguise the entrance/exit to the fiddle yard and leave this as an operational siding.

Classes 33 and 08 shunting wagons and getting the ballast train ready, with a class 25 waiting in the siding.

Another key part of the layout is there is no run around facilities for locomotive hauled services, due to it being a truncated branchline and the difficulty BR would have had to change the track plan here. So when a class 25 with a couple of mk1s appears it needs a locomotive to take the carriages away back up the line.  This is great, as it always means you can justify a class 25/31/33 hanging around the sidings awaiting the next passenger service.  I plan to run one set of locomotive hauled stock and one DMU into the station area.

View towards the fiddle yard, with a mock up building where a goods shed will be placed.

I have also been running a couple of DCC sound fitted Bachmann locomotives around, especially the class 25 they released a few years back.  I have to say, the sounds are pretty rubbish on the factory fitted locomotives and not at all in sync with the engines movements.  So I am about to purchase a Howes sound chip for the Western project and reblow the class 25 and 37 Bachmann sounds using Howes again.  Getting the modelling/paint-works set up for detailing these locomotives and starting the buildings on Pottington Quay is now the priority, but as ever I am off away with work for a couple of weeks now, so this will all have to wait until August to get started in earnest in detailing the stock/layout.

Time-lapse sequence

Micro Layout - Pottington Quay....

Well more time has passed since my last update - lots of work travel have taken its toll on modelling activities. However, in between trips Pottington Quay was retrieved from storage, point motors and wire were purchased and quite a few evenings have been spent burning my fingers and cursing! However, I finally have a working trackplan, ready for DCC operation. All the points are wired up for DCC operation and use the SEEP PM1 to change the frog polarity on electrofrog points - something that has improved running no end (I previously used insulfrogs). I also used the Express Models powerbus kit and found this to be excellent and pretty simple to use. 

Birds eye view of the completed micro layout track plan.

Running a few trains during track testing.

I have wired a very simple control panel together using toggle switches and everything works! The seep motors were slightly awkward to position - not in terms of the throw - but if the throw is not sufficient in one direction then half of the point will be dead. This is just one of those things you have to learn the hard way!

The layout design has four working points. It was originally designed to be a through running station, but now it has been downgraded to a single line terminus on a truncated branchline (the Ilfracombe branchline of course). The layout has two lines running into it from a fiddle yard - which will hopefully give some flexibility. The layout imagines the line had been retained west of Barnstaple to Pottington but closed further west to Ilfracombe. Hence a very simple station terminus will be built and will mainly be served by DMUs, with a small goods yard and engine shed converted into a small wagon repair workshop - all extremely conjectural!

Looking towards Barnstaple - showing the two tracks to the fiddle yard.

I have collected far too much stock over the years, so this layout is designed to be simple.  I am going to run a handful of locos (nine to be precise) that would have run in the area in the 1970s.  This includes a representative from classes 22, 25, 33, 42, 45, 50 and 52, and of course a couple of DMUs for good measure.  I am going to run it off a Bachmann E-Z command unit, which I really like for its simplicity and speed dial.  I hope to sound chip and detail all of the locomotives in due course.  The next steps are to  spend some time in the evenings working out where to place various buildings. I am going to attempt some scratchbuilding for specific structures - nothing too fancy (or complicated), but just some buildings to hopefully give the layout some individuality.  The quay wall and the station are the two structures I will be starting with and if I feel brave maybe a warehouse.....    

Class 25 pulling a passenger service into where the terminus station will be placed.  The exit to the fiddle yard on this side will be blocked off.

Although the trackplan is live and usable I am now going to take sometime to play trains and check that I am happy with the configuration and everything is reliable.  There is a fair amount of work to do tidying up the wiring and there are lots of lights to be added.  I also I plan to place a camera into one of the buildings to link to a lap-top, to give a live perspective to the layout from the non-viewing side.  Other immediate tasks are to finish the fiddle yard (3 road) and then start some real modelling - (including building some wagons!)  The video is not the most exciting in the world - but too me it is pretty good to see the layout finally working.