 |
THE SCALEFOUR SOCIETY 18.83 LAYOUT CHALLENGE |
| |
THE SCALEFOUR SOCIETY 18.83 LAYOUT CHALLENGE |
COLINTON by Alistair Dickson and Colin Brown
The layout being submitted for the
challenge is based on an actual station with operations simulating
those that
were known to take place during 1960 or thereabouts. Some modellers'
licence is
applied, certainly with passenger traffic, to add some variety to what
is a
purely goods traffic operation.
The station and immediate lines replicates the station of Colinton in
the south
west district of Edinburgh on what was the Caledonian Railway's Balerno
Branch
Line. A reference title is "The Balerno Branch Line" published by the
Oakwood Press.
This branch formed a loop, 6 miles in length, off the main Edinburgh to
Carstairs line and was occasionally used as a diversionary route for
main line
traffic.
I have a childhood connection with the branch as I grew up alongside
the line
further west of Colinton whilst it was still in use and the line
removal
operation is still vivid in my memory. The station and sidings were
chosen
because the overall length has only had to be slightly compromised to
fit within
the area limits and there is a reasonable amount of freight traffic
generated by
paper and grain mill operations. The track layout and lack of a run
round loop
in the station provides for restricted shunting movements that will add
interest
to the layout's operation.
Compromise on the depth of the layout has been necessary which is
unfortunate as
the valley and slopes around the station are an attractive feature to
model,
some of these features having instead to be reflected in the backscene.
Passenger traffic was discontinued in 1943 but we may speculate that BR
had an
initiative to try to resurrect commuter traffic hence the possible use
of a DMU
set. The specific locomotives and coaches built to cope with the
branch's sharp
radii were superseded by LMS and BR stock therefore these are not
modelled at
this time. That may come later.
The layout is our first attempt at Scalefour and there will be
challenges in the
form of overlapping "Y" turnouts and interlaced sleeper turnouts.
After that, the scenery consists of a large number of trees and shrubs
along
with a substantial road overbridge.
Larger image, Next Layout, Challenge Index