A good model railway is a moving picture, drawing the viewer into the scene. Alan Ronalds' describes his methods for creating a convincing illusion.
VALE OF LUNE
Alan Ronalds
FACT FILE
Layout Name: Vale of Lune
Scale/Gauge: OO
Size: 20' x 15'
Era/Region: 1930s LMS Cumberland/Westmorland
Layout Type: Continuous loops
A model railway layout is a moving picture. The efficacy of the layout lies in the quality of the pictures. In other words, sophisticated prototypical movements should be reproduced on a regular basis. Many such movements or ‘set pieces’ involve short travel, and so, it is necessary to balance the schedule by including large runs of simpler movement. Too many layouts do not achieve this balance. Ideally, schedule planning should start at the track design stage. Good plans ensure that there are plenty of holding areas out front. There is little satisfaction for me in running a train out from the fiddleyard and having to run it back again. On a quick count, there are nine holding areas on my layout. The arrangement is therefore versatile and permits a wide variety of movements or set pieces. The examples that I give are for a layout based on the LMS main line in the Lake District.
The size of the space available limits the trackplan. In turn the plan limits the number of trains, the choice of trains should therefore be carefully planned, so as to represent the prototype’s characteristics; for example, steam era South Wales equals lots of coal trains.
Everything needs to be balanced; work out your best range of block trains, such as petrol, cattle, milk, iron ore (in my case), horseboxes and so on. Similar thought should be given to the choice of coaches and locomotives. Locomotive types will be obvious enough, starting with express passenger and working down to shunting types. As for coaches, consider local rakes, push-pulls, ordinary, secondary and express trains. Investigate the relevant coach formations for your location.
On my layout, I need to represent ex-LNWR stock, Midland clerestories, ‘Tatty’ old Midland stock and Gresley coaches. The LMS era is covered by panelled and flush-sided Period I to Period III vehicles. Operators like challenges and they like variety. It is the responsibility of the owner to train, motivate and challenge operators, and also to entertain the visiting public. Most of us will have observed failures on both counts. Probably the best layouts are those with a strong prototypical influence, but with one or two concessions to operators and/or the viewing public.
Single operator layouts with a terminus have similar responsibilities. These layouts are obviously smaller with a simpler trackplan, but this does not preclude a detailed schedule.
EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION
Small layouts of diorama size don’t have to be static. Recently, I viewed two small layouts, both beautifully presented. One layout, ‘Polpendra’, was a hive of activity, the other was static. I visited it three times ask the expert the best way to add operational interest and variety to branch line passenger trains?
A Pre-Nationalisation company kept fixed sets (two or more semi-permanently coupled coaches). The companies gave them a letter for identification purposes. The most famous of these was the Great Western Railway ‘B’ set. The set is, of course, available in model form in N and OO. At busy times, they would be strengthened by adding extra coaches to the middle. Spare coaches - strengtheners - could be stationed on your layout, and the changing of the formation would be a useful set piece.
Another handy way to add operational interest is by running ‘through coaches’. These front-rank vehicles were different from the mundane branch coaches, usually having through gangways and being much more modern. In most cases, the coaches would have been attached to the branch train, but I think it reasonable for a bigger locomotive to work the ‘through’ to its destination on occasions. Larger model goods yards can have a wagon distribution plan: vans to the goods shed siding, a tank wagon siding, a milk depot, coal staiths and a miscellaneous siding to include all the surprise visitors. I like to have an empties siding.
North American modellers are good at ‘spotting’ - placing wagons alongside appropriate lineside fixtures. BP road tankers, on my layout, appear on two of the goods yards, and operators are required to spot the BP tank wagons alongside them. I also spot a coal wagon for the milk factory and designate an empties siding. I am familiar with the argument that the viewing public only lingers for 10 minutes, but in my experience, visitors will circulate the hall several times before leaving. Rotation means handling, and I realise that there may be objections from the ‘hands off ’ brigade, but I can honestly say that handling damage has been absolutely minimal over a period of some 35 years. We railway modellers are usually careful people.
I am an advocate of central reversing loops for circular layouts, what goes north should eventually come south. On my layout, my favourite locations are the ‘Y’ points that give access to the reversing road. This is long enough to take two trains at a time. Basically, Operator 1 drives the train into the far end of the road, and Operator 2 carries out the reversal. During the course of the schedule, all trains with ‘identity’ are reversed, this includes goods trains and famous named trains such as the ‘Coronation Scot’ (see below) and the ‘Royal Scot’.
Operators should be supervised as some will need extra training and motivation. Additional motivation comes from work variety and challenge. I have seen the opposite: demotivation through monotony and inactivity. Give them set pieces such as changing locomotives ‘out front’, splitting trains or shunting exercises.
MAKING IT CONVINCING
How long is the schedule? Instructions for ‘Vale of Lune’ are written on 5in by 3in cards, which are placed in cut-down ring binders. The master file, used by the ‘Fat Controller’, started with three-ring binders. The master file lists all the movements for the five control panels. It gradually grew from three to six files, as new trains and new ideas came into being.
I now come to the ‘improbabilities’, or in other words model situations that do not exist in real life. Locomotive sheds are required when trains start and finish from the location depicted. Some model sheds have large locomotives displayed. The adjacent stations can best be described as countryside and no trains start or finish there.
On circular layouts, ‘out front’ goods yards are too often poorly presented. No goods trains call to set down or pick up. No shunting by the station pilot takes place to illustrate the assembly of a goods train, or its distribution. At best a little ‘shuffling’ may take place. Sometimes the sidings don’t even have road access!
Scenery and buildings need careful thought regarding their placement. There are some conjunctions that have been exhibited which are unbelievable, and are certainly wrong in terms of spatial relationships. Given that fiddleyard-to-fiddleyard layouts, like their fiddleyard-to-terminus brethren, do not require central reversing roads, other efforts to develop set pieces should be made.
On the freight side facilities, for end loading vehicles are an option, as is a cattle dock. A provender store would be suitable for ‘spotting’ wagons. Keep thinking about development and ideas will flow. Reverting to passenger stock, on my layout I have several ways of splitting and joining trains. A Glasgow express arrives on the Down Main with through coaches from Manchester to Keswick. The Keswick portion is uncoupled, and the Glasgow train departs. A 4-4-0 located at the back platform (light engine movement from shed) backs onto the remaining portion. The Keswick then follows the Glasgow express and diverts. The Down ‘Lakes Express’ also splits, but this time the rear portion is drawn back by the station pilot and shunted to couple with a 4-4-0 waiting at the head of the back platform. The trains leave together, side-by-side. In the Up direction, the two portions are coupled on the Up Main. The back platform is used to house local passenger trains, which are due to connect with expresses. This occurs in both Up and Down directions. Bay platforms are underused on many layouts. Local passenger trains can convey an assortment of vehicles that can be detached and deposited in the bay. Bays are often used by push-pull trains or, in more modern times, railcars.
As another set piece idea, how about a heavy coal train with a banker at the rear? Or attaching a banker whilst ‘out front’ if the train locomotive is ‘steaming poorly’. Ballast and other engineering trains are useful for causing diversions whilst they work.
A final example of a set piece on ‘Vale of Lune’ is the ‘Dundee and Durham’. The Durham portion enters down the LNER branch and travels wrong road into the Up Main. It is deemed to be a ‘stopper’. The Dundee portion follows and runs past the Durham on the Down Main. It then crosses to the Up Main and reverses to couple with the Durham. An LMS locomotive, waiting at the back platform, couples so as to take the train in the Up direction (a reversal). The train leaves for Blackpool and the two LNER locomotives head back to home territory.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES
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