Ah I see about the mislabeled image! Generally speaking i'm leaning towards the LMS when not directly following Sodor lore, so if I don't need to bother with sandwiching then that is fine but yes i've also seen a few southern engines pulling non passenger rolling stock on the other end of auto fitted stock, so will have a bit of fun with that
Does anyone have any LMS books featuring motor trains that they would recommend? Thinking about it 3 coaches in the motor-train unit will probably be sufficient, as the trains operating at rush hour in the morning and evening are managed by direct trains from Tidmouth Terminus and these can be decently longer.
Dropping a coach has allowed me to pull in the main station building in a bit to the east, as unlike in Knuckles's plan my primary station buildings are wider and placed to the west of the bay where there is room for the foundations to spread out northward.
Taking on the above points i've placed a suspended coaling stage just north of the northern headshunt ( represented by the broken truck thats been placed on a low loader ).
I did consider placing the water tower at the eastern end of the platform, something like this,
but as its not needed by the engines on the mainline i've placed it at the other end of the bay near the passenger gantry/footbridge ( the steps on the southern platform will face east when its built ).
The reason for placing the ( bulbous ) water tower here is because it would be in the way of numerous illustrations showing the mostly bare eastern section of the platform and because there is a bit of a hill along the branch line when it starts pulling away from the coastline I figure pulling chimney first is better than pushing bunker first
Even if a tender engine is on branch duty they have plenty of reserve and need to run to the main yard for turning around regardless, so can top up there if necessary.
This is the small yard in its current state.
Where the 812 Caledonian is placed represents the headshunt and the news stand in front of it is representing a buffer. I trust for just an engine there is no danger of it running backwards, so no need for a catch point and as Noel has mentioned the double slip protects the mainline. The rest of the yard is all attached to the throat in the above loop. The shed building might change a bit when I come to fully flesh it out, but that will still be the basic track arrangement.
Does that all look fine?