Mike Sheardown
Western Thunderer
Part 1 - Introduction
To be honest, it feels as if I’ve been designing / planning this model railway forever!!!
I first got back into model railways about 7 years ago, whilst working as a volunteer fireman at Peak Rail in Derbyshire. After finishing an early turn one day, I came across a copy of Railway Modeller magazine in the Crew Mess Hut, which contained an article on DCC and Computer control. I’d never heard of DCC, let alone linking it up with computers, but the potential for using this as the basis for designing a prototypically operated model railway, really excited me.
To cut a long story short, I then built a simple double line oval Test Track with a couple of passing loops, in order to help me get my head around DCC, and during this time, I also started to develop plans for the design of the layout.
I have to say, that this design has changed many, many times, and that what I am planning to build now, bears absolutely no resemblance to the various layout scenarios I experimented with over the years. However, the basic aims that I wanted to achieve with the railway, have remained pretty much unaltered since the beginning, and here they are:
1.The railway must have a sense of purpose. By this I mean that trains must go to, and come from, real places, working in real time, and to a reasonably historically accurate timetable.
2.The railway must create a sense of space and distance, such that all visual and audible information presented to the viewer / operator, promotes and confirms the illusion, that each section of the railway, is only one part of a much greater and more extensive network.
3.The railway must have fully interlocked points, signals and block sections, and thus the ability to be operated prototypically and to absolute block, including the (optional) use of block instruments between block posts, and lever frames with full mechanical interlocking.
4.The railway must be able to cope with single person operation, despite it’s complexity, yet, it must also be able to accommodate varying numbers of additional operators in various roles if desired (i.e. drivers, shunters, signalmen etc)
5.Locos and rolling stock must look, sound and behave like the real thing, without undue compromise, but where compromises must invariably occur, then the most realistic operational scenario must be adopted.
6.The railway must look realistic, conveying both, reasonable historical accuracy, with scenic believability.
Not much in that lot then
!!
The geographical setting of the railway, covers a section of the Midland Main Line across the Derbyshire Peak District, and then on toManchester. Here are a couple of sketch maps I’ve done, to give you an idea of the location, and the principle lines involved:
The date is set at the end of the 19th Century, partly because the Working Timetables I’m using are from 1898, but more importantly, because it pre-dates the building of a ‘cut off’ line between (just south of) New Mills and Heaton Mersey. This ‘cut off’ line gave the Midland Expresses a much faster route into Manchester than had previously been the case through Marple and Stockport, but, it is the intense level of traffic through Marple prior to this happening, that particularly interests me, as Marple is one of the ‘on stage’ stations that I’ll be modelling.
The other 2 ‘on stage’ stations will be Millers Dale, and Buxton, so here’s another sketch map, showing the geographical relationship between the 3 stations I plan to model:
Well that’s probably enough for now, and I really hope that this diatribe hasn’t been too boring. I find it hard to know how to pitch these kind of things, so any feedback would be helpful and much appreciated.
Mike
To be honest, it feels as if I’ve been designing / planning this model railway forever!!!
I first got back into model railways about 7 years ago, whilst working as a volunteer fireman at Peak Rail in Derbyshire. After finishing an early turn one day, I came across a copy of Railway Modeller magazine in the Crew Mess Hut, which contained an article on DCC and Computer control. I’d never heard of DCC, let alone linking it up with computers, but the potential for using this as the basis for designing a prototypically operated model railway, really excited me.
To cut a long story short, I then built a simple double line oval Test Track with a couple of passing loops, in order to help me get my head around DCC, and during this time, I also started to develop plans for the design of the layout.
I have to say, that this design has changed many, many times, and that what I am planning to build now, bears absolutely no resemblance to the various layout scenarios I experimented with over the years. However, the basic aims that I wanted to achieve with the railway, have remained pretty much unaltered since the beginning, and here they are:
1.The railway must have a sense of purpose. By this I mean that trains must go to, and come from, real places, working in real time, and to a reasonably historically accurate timetable.
2.The railway must create a sense of space and distance, such that all visual and audible information presented to the viewer / operator, promotes and confirms the illusion, that each section of the railway, is only one part of a much greater and more extensive network.
3.The railway must have fully interlocked points, signals and block sections, and thus the ability to be operated prototypically and to absolute block, including the (optional) use of block instruments between block posts, and lever frames with full mechanical interlocking.
4.The railway must be able to cope with single person operation, despite it’s complexity, yet, it must also be able to accommodate varying numbers of additional operators in various roles if desired (i.e. drivers, shunters, signalmen etc)
5.Locos and rolling stock must look, sound and behave like the real thing, without undue compromise, but where compromises must invariably occur, then the most realistic operational scenario must be adopted.
6.The railway must look realistic, conveying both, reasonable historical accuracy, with scenic believability.
Not much in that lot then
!!The geographical setting of the railway, covers a section of the Midland Main Line across the Derbyshire Peak District, and then on toManchester. Here are a couple of sketch maps I’ve done, to give you an idea of the location, and the principle lines involved:
The date is set at the end of the 19th Century, partly because the Working Timetables I’m using are from 1898, but more importantly, because it pre-dates the building of a ‘cut off’ line between (just south of) New Mills and Heaton Mersey. This ‘cut off’ line gave the Midland Expresses a much faster route into Manchester than had previously been the case through Marple and Stockport, but, it is the intense level of traffic through Marple prior to this happening, that particularly interests me, as Marple is one of the ‘on stage’ stations that I’ll be modelling.
The other 2 ‘on stage’ stations will be Millers Dale, and Buxton, so here’s another sketch map, showing the geographical relationship between the 3 stations I plan to model:
Well that’s probably enough for now, and I really hope that this diatribe hasn’t been too boring. I find it hard to know how to pitch these kind of things, so any feedback would be helpful and much appreciated.
Mike
.
(yes, I know - just one??), and here it is:
Heh, ho.
