Lock Down Layout - Part 1 The Plan

With our sudden move to Alert Level 4 lock down and the opportunity to 'work' from home I thought now might be a good time to build a small lockdown micro layout. 

Since all my loco's are DCC I was going to put together a short programming track but why not make it into a proper layout. I've never built a layout to the scenicing stage. This will give me a great opportunity to practice all the different facets of model railways - bench work, track laying, DCC wiring, structure building and scenicing. Also by finishing a micro layout my wife will stop accusing me of buying stuff and not finishing anything.

The only downside is that I can only use what I have in the shed. 

A short internet search found a great plan that would work well as a micro layout, The track plan is Peco's Setrack OO Plan 30 - Locotec and Dewsbury Cement Terminal.

This plan is pretty simple and with a main and a single point leading to a siding. The original plan depicts a cement plant on the right hand side which can be shunted using both sidings and a goods shed on the right hand side that would receive wagons carrying machinery and other materials. At 122cm by 30cm (4' x 1') this is a good little layout that could be built fairly quickly.

I didn't have to look to far to find a Victorian prototype that would work with this plan. During my trip to Melbourne in 2016 I visited the Allied Flour Mill siding at Kensington. This is one of the last examples of broad gauge trains serving a Melbourne industry. 

I found some photos that I took on my visit in 2016 showing the mill. 

Unfortunately when I visited there was no train in the siding. So I had to search online to find these great photos of Kensington on the Wongm's Rail Gallery website. This is great resource of photos from around Melbourne and Victoria. You can find the Wongm's Rail Gallery website here.

The siding has a simple unloading operation. A loaded grain train arrives and starts to unload the first two wagons using an under track auger. When the first two wagons are unloaded the locomotive pulls the train forward positioning the second two loaded wagons over the auger. As these wagons start to unload the locomotive and first two now empty wagons cut off the train and move up the back shunt clear of the points. The points are set for the other siding and the loco pushes the two wagons back. The loco then cuts off the empty wagons and returns up the back shunt. The points are reset and the loco moves back onto the train. The train is again pulled forward with the third two wagons positioned above the auger for unloading. The loco and the second two now empty wagons are cut off before moving up the backshunt. This shunting sequence continues until all the wagons have been unloaded. 

A youtube video of the Kensington grain train shunting the flour mill siding can be found here. 

So the plan I have is something like this...

The layout differs from the siding at Kensington because it has a right hand point and not a left hand one. This is because I can only find a spare right hand point.. If I can find a left hand point I will use that to match the real thing.

And that's about it.