Peter C's Website

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Oldmoor Junction Model Railway - Update One - originally posted 18.2.2020

Hello all!
Having read about several other people's layouts on various websites, this forum, and even in magazines (does anyone remember those?! :D), I thought people on here may find my layout of interest.
It's a relatively small 8'x4' layout, with the standard two Hornby ovals of track, a tiny fiddle yard of two sidings, a station with three platforms (two through and one bay), and a small seaside terminus.
Set in the modern era, the idea of the layout is a mainline and heritage railway join operation situation - you can sit at the main station (Oldmoor Junction) and watch mainline trains run through and older steam-hauled services arrive from the seaside.
Here is the trackplan:

It's made in MS Paint so it's not 100% accurate, but it does a good job of showing where the track goes! :D
The layout works on DCC, using a Hornby Elite controller. I do have the option of running DC as well using a standard Hornby DC controller as most of my engines aren't actually DCC! This is mainly because they are either older models or models I got before I went over to DCC and haven't got round to chipping yet.
I took photos of each of my engines yesterday, so I'll put the best ones together and put them in the next post. I changed the layout about a bit yesterday afternoon so they won't be accurate photos in terms of the trackplan but they are accurate in terms of engines shown.

Thanks,

-Peter

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Oldmoor Junction Model Railway - Update Two - originally posted 23.2.2020

I've changed the trackplan a bit since I uploaded the first post. It's not a major change in terms of the main loops (the "running lines" as I've ended up calling them), but is instead a major change in relation to the station of Oldmoor Junction.
The new trackplan focuses on the mix of heritage and mainline operations running through Oldmoor Junction and includes two heritage-only platforms and a sizeable depot to maintain engines and units in.
I made the design in AnyRail but because I'm not particularly willing to spend £50 on the license for it, I can only lay 50 pieces of track, so MS Paint came to the rescue in filling in the rest of the layout for me, copying and pasting the track from place to place.

Here is the new design (don't worry about the R609 and R607 marks - they're there to help me when building the layout):

The TMD at Oldmoor Junction comes off of the terminating platforms for the heritage line and will allow me to store my engines and units when they aren't running. I've been watching some of the videos from Simon's Shed on YouTube (link here) and his work on modelling Kidderminster Town and the associated depot on the Severn Valley Railway inspired me to add a depot to my own layout.
The rest of the layout is broadly the same as the original I posted in Post #1, but with some small changes, one of them being the seaside station (or lack of). I decided that, as most of my buildings are designed for more of a countryside town and not a coastal holiday destination, it would look a bit odd to have a seaside station right next to the green hills of what is meant to be the Cotswolds!
I'll post the photos of the engines in the next post. There's quite a few of each one and trying to find the least-blurry one will be a challenge!

Thanks for reading.

-Peter :)

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Oldmoor Junction Model Railway - Update Three - originally posted 23.2.2020

I've talked a bit about trackwork and the layout for the Oldmoor Junction Model Railway (OJMR), but not scenery. I thought I'd go on about it at length for those who are interested to read!

I plan for the layout to show three types of area - the countryside (e.g. Cotswolds), a small town, and an urban street.

The way this is going to work is that at one end, the railway will pass underneath a hill which will be added to with a couple of small cottages and maybe a green field to create the idea of it being in the middle of the countryside.
In the middle of the board there's going to be a small town, formed of small shops and houses.
The opposite end of the board to the countryside end (the Fiddle Yard end) will contain a more urban street (think Open All Hours) and you've got the idea). This urban street is going to be above the Fiddle Yard and some of the curve at that end of the layout, meaning that the railway will be partially in a tunnel at that end. The Fiddle Yard will be hidden underneath the street, creating the illusion that trains going into that tunnel are going off to somewhere like London or Oxford.

Here is a diagram showing the raised bits (marked in red outline):

(The tunnel entrances are shown using circles)

The buildings at each end of the layout are going to be mostly card kits - the Metcalfe Worker's Cottages kit at the countryside end, and the Metcalfe Terraced Houses and Shop Front kits at the urban street end. The middle of the board is going to be populated by mostly Hornby resin buildings. This is to ensure that they all fit in as I've started building up the middle of the board with resin buildings and I don't want the buildings to look out-of-place. However, the Metcalfe Church kit does make an appearance at the countryside end, meaning a card kit is included in the town scene.

Thanks,

-Peter :)

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