Thoughts on Minories

Been playing around with C J Freezer’s Minories track plan, from the Peco 60 plans for small locations book.

I just wanted to see what I could get on two 4ft x 2ft (1220mm x 602mm) boards for future reference.

These are just the station boards, any fiddle yard or other parts of any layout would be on separate boards, however I also wanted the main lines to enter from one corner not straight from the end, as whatever is attached would be at right angles to these two boards.

Looking at plan No. SP37 (for anyone who has the book), Minories was incorporated into the corner of a 8ft x 5ft layout with curved main lines into the station throat.

Also, whereas most Minories plans I’ve seen appear to have been drawn with the main lines entering the station from the right hand side, I have mine entering from the left. Basically, I just turned the book upside down and did a rough ‘best guess’.

(All plans draw in SCARM with Peco Streamline Code 100 track and short radius Electrofrog points).



The black line in the middle denotes the baseboard join between the two boards.

First thing I did was to include a three-way point, as two of the points were over the baseboard join.

Approximate platform face lengths are marked in millimetres.



Then I straightened the platform roads to get rid of the reverse curves.



Platforms 2 and 3 lengths have decreased a little and the goods line head shunt is a bit short, so I swapped a left hand point for a ‘Y’ point.



By moving the ‘Y’ point to the baseboard join, I managed to lengthen the goods head shunt but the sidings are now a bit shorter.

Platform 3 has a much gentler curve although platforms 2 and 3 have shrunk a little more. I added the platform face length in inches as I find it easier to judge as I use 10” as a average coach and loco length. Theoretically platform 1 would take a four coach train and loco and platforms 2 and 3 a three coach train with loco.

The problem with using opposite handed points to form crossovers is that it results in narrower track centres.

The track centres between the platform 1 & 2 roads is only about 47mm instead of the 51mm Peco Streamline normal distance. Shouldn’t be a problem and is really more prototypical, however two trains passing while leaving and entering these two platforms could possibly side swipe due to overhang. The same problem exists to a much greater extent with the two main lines as they enter the station throat in the bottom left hand corner.

The only solution I came up with was to insert a small section of track about 20mm long at the toe of the three-way (marked in blue) and remove the siding for the pilot and replace it with an appropriate curve.



As there are no runaround loops in the Minories plan there has to be a pilot loco, so it probably needs to sit at the end of platform 1 which can longer be used for parcels traffic.

Another alternative is to use double slips instead of the three-way, which I think makes things look tidier, but Peco double slips are only available in Electrofrog in Code 75 and they ain’t cheap.



One other question is goods traffic. I can only think of Milk and/or some sort of Van traffic to a warehouse would really fit in a urban terminus type layout.

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas, or has built, is building, or is considering building a Minories type layout.

If I haven't made you all fall asleep with this rather long post, please feel free to post any thoughts or plans you may have.

Ed

 

Lot depends on era as well Ron.

The original was designed for the steam era with the two shorter platforms for local traffic with tank locos hauling three non-corridor coaches, and the longer platform for "semi-fast trains comprising four corridor coaches headed by a 4-6-0".

There was also a goods shed on one of the goods yard sidings.

Think if I ever built it, I would want modern image with some DMU/EMUs and Class 86 hauled corridor coaches for the longer platform.

Freight then is a problem, as most is taken to depots outside of stations.

Ed

 

Your probably right about freight Ron, but just DMUs and a few loco hauled passenger trains might get a bit boring operationally after a while.

I read Birmingham Moor Street had a substantial goods yard next to the station until about 1972, so maybe a bit of modelers license?

Another option could be engineering trains, they have to leave them somewhere.

I tried curved points in earlier versions Kim and they didn't fit due to the radius, but the plan has changed so much it was worth trying again and they do now fit. Good call



Ed

 

If anyone fancies steam era, I've put a goods shed in.



Ed

 

O gauge would be 16ft Kim and that's before you think about some sort of fiddle yard

N gauge could be quite good as you'd only need 4ft x 1ft and if you made it a bit longer you could extend the platforms to take eight or more coach trains.

Ed