Another sketchbook idea

Here’s a quick idea for a scheme I just had that I thought I’d share with you.
It’s a farmyard interchange point.
A short train of loaded potato wagons is brought “onstage” and pushed into the potato warehouse, where they can be unloaded by hand and then one at a time the wagons can be left on the road in front of the warehouse until a long enough train of empties has been assembled, these then go “offstage” to the fields to be re-loaded.
Then I wondered about adding a little extra action in the form of an empty flatbed lorry appearing on stage, disappearing into the warehouse and re-emerging fully loaded with potato sacks. There are a few layouts out there doing this with radio controlled vehicles, like this wonderful example from Giles Favell.

I’m not entirely sure if my model making skills would be up to that. Perhaps I could get by with pulling the lorry on and offstage with some fishing line.
Whatever I decide, I think this would be an excellent concept to work on further

Pages from my sketchbook

What follows are a couple of pages from sketchbook detailing a few avenues I’m exploring as possible the for the layout. You'll notice a couple of themes. The farmyard and the exchange siding. I like both. An exchange siding layout allows for the possibility of prototype activity. A loco brings in a short train of wagons loaded down with full sacks of potatoes. Weighs them on the weighbridge, then brings them up onto the loading dock, where with the clever use of trees as a view block, the operator can remove the loads and emptied wagons can leave the scene.

A Farmyard scene also presents lots of possibilities. Trains of wagons can run though the layout or shunted into the barns to be loaded and unloaded. My only concern would be the sharpness of the curves, and wether or not Kadee couplers would be able to stand the rapid switching of direction.

This version above has the feature I really like, being able to watch the train com towards the viewer, before turning sharply into the farmyard. Once again, would Kadee couplers stand a sharp 10" radius curve? I'm not sure.
Anyway, things to think on, and a better development of the idea than schemes shared here previously.

Layout planning thoughts.

The track plan is something I've been giving some serious thought to over the past weeks since the last blog post. I don't rightly know what I want yet. I've been exploring ideas though. Firstly, I was really impressed with some of the pictures over at Dave Enefers website. Particularly the second page  , link shared here again so you can see what I'm on about. Those pictures of the railway running in front of the farm houses and barns are very atmospheric and appealed to me in a big way. My grandparents lived in small farmhouses not at all dissimilar to those.

concept 1

This first concept is very basic, but it would allow continuous running of trains, something I have found to be very important as I often get distracted and drawn into conversations about my modelling which if I'm working a shunting layout leads to a lack of action on the model. Simple shunting into the one siding by the barn is available but it's not much.
I think it would also be important to me and the layouts presentation to incorporate "tatey clamps" or graves. These are where the potatoes are stored in long, low piles between harvest and distribution to the rest of the world. A couple of sidings serving graves would allow more shunting. But, (and this is a pet peeve of mine on model railways). If you're going to shunt an open wagon into a siding, it should leave it loaded and vice versa. It would destroy the illusion of the model to have an out of scale hand move potato loads in and out of the wagons. To that end I extended one of the sidings off stage behind the farmhouse so they could be loaded/unloaded out of sight, an idea I've used before.

Concept 2

I'm still not happy. These schemes are immensely flat and lacking depth. Everything is layered and parallel to the baseboard edges. This doesn't appeal to me at all.

Holmes Hall an old concept for a Gn15 layout.

The sketch above illustrates something I've wanted to develop for a few years. Being able to watch trains run towards you. In this "Holmes Hall" concept the trains run towards you at the right hand side before swinging around a sharp curve into the yard. This was envisioned as a triangular layout, not unlike the Crowsnest tramway. How plausible this would be in 1/32 scale I'm unsure yet. But I would certainly seek to incorporate the idea on any layout.

Wraggmarsh Farm. (line map from Stewart Squires Potato railways book
overlaid on Google maps)

Wraggmarsh Farm (or house) on the Fens, near Spalding had an extensive railway system serving the potato fields and had its own private dock on the river Welland so produce and supplies came in and went out on boats. It has some interesting elements in it. The loading dock for example, but as basis for a layout that would be little more than the old "fox, chicken and bag of corn" shunting puzzle. It would be great for me but not so for a viewing public. Could I fit something like that into a Holmes Hall continuous run concept? We'll have to see.