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Shirebeck in Emswell Track Plan |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 30 March 2008 17:29 |
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Birdseye view of shirebeck showing the two 4 foot x 2 foot scenic boards.  
Observant readers will note that the track plan is essentially a classic tymesaver proving that this track arrangement can be made to work very well in a UK diesel layout. Traffic is fed from either end by identical 4 road traverser plate fiddle yards - each 4 foot in length. |
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Last Updated on Sunday, 30 March 2008 17:58 |
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Shirebeck in Emswell Layout Description |
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 22 March 2008 17:06 |
Shirebeck in Emswell is a fictional location on an ex-GC secondary through line linking Lincoln with the Nottingham/Derby area. The yard serves as the reversing point for a short branch to a coking plant (1970s) / Steelworks (1980s) at the Nottingham end, just the other side of the road bridge. In addition, the yard is a freight facility in its own right, with regular van and general merchandise traffic to King Ltd's and Westfields warehouses. The PW siding also see regular use for stabling wagons. An hourly DMU service runs between Lincoln and Nottingham, occasionally substituted by a short loco-hauled set.
The layout is usually run either as a late-1970s or mid-1980s, though this timespan can be widened to include BR steam or even earlier (though 1940 is as early as we can go - the Pillbox!)
Trackwork is C&L, using steel rail. Point control uses the excellent Tortoise motors. Control is DCC via hand-held Roco Lokmaus2, with provision to revert to conventional DC if required. The superb structures are kit-bashed or scratchbuilt by Tony Wood, which we have we have not tinkered with too much!
Locos are mostly RTR offerings from Hornby, Lima and Bachmann, rewheeled with 'Ultrascale' drop-in EM gauge wheelsets and all are super-detailed with full pipework, screw couplings and varying degrees of weathering. The loco fleet reflects the usual motive power seen in the East Midlands during the period portrayed, with Classes 20, 25 and 31 hauling the majority of trains, with the occasional larger interloper from classes 40, 45 and 47. Some of the unusual livery variations seen during the 1970s are modelled - notably the old green livery with the new TOPS numbers, while at the 1980's end of our timeline, Red Stripe Railfreight is the latest livery you'll see.
Rolling stock is mostly kit-built - for the 1970s fleet, Parkside and Airfix provide the bulk of the vans and minerals fleet respectively whilst the 2 trains of coke hoppers (one loaded, the other empty) are from the old 3H kit. The remaining 1970s stock is rewheeled RTR, as is the bulk of the 1980s revenue stock. The P Way fleet is a mix of Cambrian and Parkside kits. All stock on the layout is fitted with Smith's 3-link, Instanter or screw coupling for authentic shunting.
The signals are from the Ratio range, non-working at present but we do plan to re-fit with fully operational signals throughout.
The layout was featured in the November 2004 issue of Model Rail magazine.
With thanks to Tony Wood, Natalie Jones, the EM Gauge Society and Diesel and Electric Modellers United |
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