MODEL RAILWAYS
Southampton
- Overview -
Objective
My railway had been in storage for a few years but, since moving home, the plan was to create a new layout in the garage of the new house. The baseboard would be constructed with modular panels to make the layout portable in the event of another house move or to take the layout to an exhibition. A modular system would also enable panels to be interchangable thus offering the opportunity to have different scenes. The layout was be representative of Southampton Central station and adjoining areas. The reason that I have chosen that is not only because I know it well and have observed it frequently, but also that it carries a great diversity of traffic.
Baseboard
Consideration led me to decide upon modular panels of 600mm x 1200mm as these best fit into the available area. That would also enable the layout to be portable.
Trackwork
I developed schematic diagrams of the proposed layout before work in laying the track began. The restriction of space available for the layout meant that short radius points had to be utilised and small radius curves employed, all of which have a detrimental effect on the performance of the trains. The final layout differed somewhat from the original as practical considerations had to be resolved.
Layout
The way that the layout finally evolved was to create a representation of the line between Northam Junction and Redbridge with Southampton Central station being the focal point. A set of marshalling sidings would accommodate as much stock as possible to work a realistic shedule.
Structures
Buildings and other structures were constructed from a variety of kits, pre-made models and scratch materials to represent the stretch of line between Northam and Redbridge. The finished result was a compromise between reality, space available and my poor modelling ability.
Operation
The plan has been to run trains as accurately as possible for a specific period in time, and the first period selected is a summer weekday in 1988. The formation of trains and running schedules have been constructed from working timetables plus information gathered from observations and photographs. Detailed marshalling and operating instructions have been written with a view to running a schedule to represent one hour in reality.
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