Temsford
N gauge British modern image using DCC control.
The inspiration for this layout was taken from Yarmouth Beach.
I felt that I needed a change from the usual tail-chasing layouts that I had always been involved with and a
small terminus station with a stabling point and perhaps a small goods yard seemed to be ideal. At the time I was a member of the M&GN society so original track plans were not a problem. From holidays in the area many years ago I felt that something based on Yarmouth Beach had potential to be brought up to modern day usage. As the original was closed in the 1960's and turned into a car and coach park I had leeway to modify the track plan to suit my needs. I played around with various ideas until I settled on the final plan which of course bore very little relationship to the original other than it was bounded on 3 sides by streets. Looking at the 2 plans you can see the differences. Firstly I made this appear to be a through station cut back to the road which it would originally have crossed with a level crossing. Then the remaining single platform and station building was moved to the opposite side of the track, allowing a couple of sidings to serve a modern warehouse complex where there had once been 2 bay platforms.
The original Yarmouth Beach had a steam shed with turntable, coal stage and a small goods yard all in one area. The steam shed was retained as a storage facility for Network Rail and a small maintenance shed added close to the running lines. The turntable and goods sidings were removed and cut back in length to form a stabling point (this to serve the large industrial area off scene). The small area left would now allow for a local supermarket and a McDonalds.
The next problem was the scenic break. Yarmouth Beach had a level crossing where this would be and this was obviously not going to work so a disused viaduct was added with all but 1 arch filled in and used as small workshops / storage facilities.
Original Yarmouth Beach track plan
storage yard
Scenic area
Modified track plan used for layout
The layout measures 16ft x 3ft with approximately 10 ft being scenic
Construction
As this was going to be a permanent layout there is nothing fancy about the baseboards. I had quite a lot of suitable timber laying around so the boards consist of a mixture chipboard and plywood which resulted in the slightly odd shape to the layout (see plan above). The whole lot is supported on 2" x 2" legs and braced where required by 2" x 1" timber framing. The trackwork is laid on sheets of cork and the scenic section ballasted with various types of granite ballast fixed with watered down PVA (see the Yucca Springs section for the method).
Originally the method of control was to be normal DC using Gaugemaster walkabout controller(s) - at this stage I hadn't decided on the number, so the wiring contained numerous "dead sections" for the stabling of locos in the loco depot and the storage yard.
These 2 photos show the the general track layout with the scenic section already ballasted. The storage yard is not ballasted - the track just pinned in place.
It was at this point and in a moment of madness !! I decided to dabble with
DCC.