Isle of Stoner Railway - St Ruth Extension

[Isle of Stoner]

I've been busy (intermittently) ripping the end of St Ruth, relaying the hidden track section and adding a new board onto the right hand side. The plan is to turn my round and round layout into a terminus of a much larger, long term project.

I've been keeping a Blog about the goings on and that some members might be interested in having a squint. It can be found at http://isleofstoner.blogspot.com/

It also covers some new rollings stock builds and building builds.

Enjoy or not, up to you and your point of view.


John W 452


PS Went to Woody Bay for the first time the other day. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Looked a bit like County Gate but with less trees! ;D

[invercloy]

The latest progress is looking good, John.

The estuary will look quite picturesque.

How long until the layout makes its way around the rest of the garage? ;)

[Isle of Stoner]

Well... that all depends on time and cash both of which seem to be in short supply.

The next phase brings my dreadful woodworking skills to the fore, the board for Port Lucy, the other terminus, will be directly underneath St Ruth so I now have to build a series of S bends to drop the line by about 2 foot. DHR roll over, I think it can be done but is my woodwork up to the job?

John W

[MickT]

TWO FOOT? Wow that is quite a drop to be accomodated! If I remember correctly, (TedP please advise), the multil level Craigcorrie & Dunalistair has a 15 inch approx separation between upper and lower levels and even this takes a circuit and a half of the room to bridge.

Mick

[Isle of Stoner]

I know, slightly mad but I calculate I've got about a 30ft run to do it in... we'll see. Maybe have to convert to rack at a later date.

John W

[invercloy]

I can't remember what your plans were to achieve the drop now, didn't you mention a spiral?

[Isle of Stoner]

I did have plans that involved a spiral but now the current plan is a series of almost overlapping S curves. I'm about to do some practical tests with my locos and rolling stock to make sure I'm not completely barking up the wrong gradient. Working with the WHR you get used to silly gradients and S bends.

Watch the blog for the great gradient tests... 8)

John W

[tedp]

I use a 20-25 metre run from the level crossing at Dunalistair to the summit on Inverlochan Moor, including a few flat sections at stations and on curves, to gain about 40cms. My maximum gradient is about 1 in 35, on a straight. In the corners of the room I have setrack curves of 22.5cm radius that are laid flat to compensate for drag. But I run very heavy trains. Perhaps you will manage 1 in 20.

If you have a 30ft length, why not consider the Crumley & Little Wickhill approach, and make a reversing station with a crossover and a loop? Depending on how much you trust propelling a train up a gradient, you might even take the Darjeeling approach, but I think a reversing station is better.

[Tigger]

So long as your trackwork is good and well laid you can get away with quite a lot.  I've always wanted to do a layout with a Darjeeling reversing 'Z' and you can achieve some quite formidable gradients!  One trick I learnt was that if possible the approach to a diverging turnout should be on the straight leg - easy with a passing loop, of course.  If you can arrange it therefore, make all propelling movements similarly to approach a diverging turnout on the straight.  The overall run length of the L&TR incidentally is about 35ft.  Ted, firstly I envy you and secondly I wish I'd built the L&TR as a multi-level layout!

[rhobat bryn]

Ted, firstly I envy you and secondly I wish I'd built the L&TR as a multi-level layout!

Firstly, for envy read admire.  Secondly, assuming you're not in possession of a bus pass and reliant on a zimmer frame, or even if you are, why not do it?  Maybe it's time for a new challenge.

[Isle of Stoner]

I had thought about a reverse, the branch line to the lighthouse has one but I really crave a nice long run.

I need to give this some serious thought, I'm hopeless at drawing plans and making it into a 3D puzzle has reduced my back of envelope work to virtually useless. It will be made up as I make it the end.

Thanks for all the advice though, I appreciate the benefit of your experiences.

John W

[Graeme Dunbar]

My personal favourite is a zig-zag, but no continuous run unfortunately. Imagining a train sweeping back and forth up a series of S's on your layout and "Julia dream .... " popped into my head. Don't know why. "Will she let the weeping willow wind his branches round?"  ;)

[Tigger]

[Firstly, for envy read admire.  Secondly, assuming you're not in possession of a bus pass and reliant on a zimmer frame, or even if you are, why not do it?  Maybe it's time for a new challenge.

Quite right - both envy AND admire!! :) I presume I've got enough years of breath to rebuild the L&TR and I'd love to, especially with the knowledge and skill I've acquired since I started when I was 16!  (The curious can now trawl these Forum posts and work out how far away I am from the bus pass!!) ;D 
However, with my plethora of interests I have a fear that if I start on a major rebuild it will never be completed and the Railway will cease to operate - and I'm really enjoying that bit at the moment!  Nearly four years ago Ted advised me in an email to keep to my original thoughts and ideas and I think that was very sound advice.
For a bit of fun I'm going to do two things.  Firstly, on exactly the same footprint I'll see what reasonable multi-lever designs I can come up with and then I'll use the room plan to see what else I could do!  I used to enjoy layout planning but haven't done it in a long while.
The new challenge is my loco in Scotland!