Interlocking

In 2009 I built my first 1:43.5 scale kit, an LNER open merchandise wagon. I decided to use ScaleSeven standards, and found it very enjoyable. I think it might have been my first ever model railway kit! Following this I built an MR 8t van:

In 2010 I built a Connoisseur Models LSWR C14 in brass to ScaleSeven standards, midway through I met Peter Mann of the Model Railway Club in London, and sought both advice and my next locomotive build.

Lastly, I built a B8 Turnout from C&L:

Though all of this worked well I found it to be just TOO BIG for my space:

This plan is for a 11′ (plus staging) S7 layout. It is based off of Barchester by Albert Kiernan, albeit cropped and adjusted. The single line branch leaves the Brighton mainline to meander through several hamlets before terminating at the depicted layout. The track plan is of a small pre-1870’s terminus (albeit freelanced):

The town is in a verdant rural location, with freight consisting primarily of outbound timber, fruit and hops and inbound domestic coal – but the majority of income is from passenger traffic, – Hop Picker specials are chartered, and Express locos head up Boarding School specials (with utility vans tacked onto trains for all the assorted luggage).

Plain passenger trains arrive on B and are runaround. The loco is turned on the turntable (off-layout) then watered/coaled on track A. It reattaches and departs. Goods are served by tracks C and it’s adjacent track (exact placement of the crane, dock and goods shed isn’t decided). Hosting the coal-staithes on switchback is unprototypical, but a healthy compromise.