Revamping Crawley Yard

Current Status

The layout was originally built as a pair of 4 Foot West Sussex N Gauge modules but with the house move to Dorset, these were unlikely to get much use so a rebuild into a standalone layout is underway. This has extended the overall length allowing some future development of the Industrial estate and bus depot on the north of the site. The track and buildings have been recovered from the original boards and stored ready for use on the new boards. The track plan remains broadly the same with plan if available to use code 80 Flat bottom concrete sleepered track and points from British Finescale in the scenic section and code 55 concrete track for the new 8 road fiddle yard to the rear. The new layout is 5.2M long and 760mm Wide ( 17 Feet by 2 foot 6) and the Anyrail diagram is shown below

The Green blocks represent covers which will be at each end of the layout, these will be for layout information and the JMRI control PC’s. These lift up so access to the track is possible. The end of the scenic section will be the road bridge which carries the AXXX at the southern end and the Foot bridge which has been dragged south for the model . Depth remains limited so some compression on the Aggregates and cement work and more limited industrial area.

The baseboards are built and the fiddle yard track is laid and wired. The scenic section is waiting for a new batch of code 80 track which I hope will be available in 2025. If not then I will revert to code 55. Point Motors and wiring up will follow and then the scenic work. Most of the buildings already exist except for the Bus depot and industrial units so hopefully, these won’t take too long to make and fit. The target for being ready for exhibitions is the middle of 2026

Background – 2013

I wanted to build a layout as part of the WSNG modular system that was based on a real location and was relatively close to where I live in West Sussex. My previous modelling has been focused on the Somerset and Dorset railway based on my ramblings over the old line as a teenager and familiarity with the Poole area from growing up. Neither the S&D or the Dorset area really dealt with the fundamental problem with the Modular solution of requiring 3 running tracks at the front for the Module and what to have in the background. I had a list of wants from this:-

The layout had to fit in my railway room frame (8*2)
I could and expected to attach the modular lines on the front giving a depth of 2” 6
continuous circuit so something could always be running for exhibitions
6 track fiddle yard to provide a variety of running stock
move from Steam to Modern but with the capability of running BR Blue
It needed to be close to home to make photo Reconnaissance easier

The challenges,

Finding somewhere prototypical I could model that had 4 + Running lines
There needed to be enough ready to run stock to get going (great expectations for the future)
didn’t really want to do a station due to the nature of the N Modular system

The Location

I settled down at Xmas 2013 still not clear what I wanted to do and spotted that there was a sale on for the Railworks Train Simulator module for the London to Brighton line. So, I purchased and started driving some trains up and down. Leaving Three bridges going north I spotted the Aggregate’s yard on the left and had that burst of inspiration needed to get going. Now I go past the yard at least 3 days most weeks so it’s a bit disappointing that I hadn’t seen it before but these things happen. So why this location:-

4 Tracks at the front for the Modular component
2 tracks behind parallel with the main lines so no need for any artistic alignment
Simple track plan for the yard
Fairly straightforward year with a couple of interesting buildings and activity (ideal for the module)
In Sussex so local
Wood at one end and Factory units at other to create break around for creating loop
Flat so no need for major earthworks and track laying complexity

Site Survey

After a bit of research on the Internet went to Google Earth and managed to get some great results with the overhead view below

The first site survey was completed on a cold Saturday in January. based on this I started on the plans for the main building, the aggregate centre next to siding 1. I started doing some paper plans for size and height based on the photos and plan and estimated the length around 250mm and 260mm at the widest point in scale. It was going to be very tall so had to be removable from the board for travelling purposes. Also had pictures of the cement works so will start the planning for that as well. The next step is the mock-up of the buildings and laying these onto the overall plan to get a sense of how the buildings will sit in the scenic space and what needs to happen around the and the side and back scene.

Key Buildings from the Survey

Aggregate plant
Main Building
Loading Bays
Aggregate shed
Chimney/Tank Array
Entrance building (Guardroom)
Truck loading Weighbridges
Cement Works
Mess sheds and Offices (Bachmann Portable offices)
Cement Tower and building
Loading Ramp area and weighbridge
Access Control office (From Main Line) Bachmann Fuel Point?
Burdens
Office Building
Lots and lots of stacked goods

DCC and Control via JMRI

My S&D layouts have all been DCC and see no reason now to build using DC. I’ve had some mixed success with railmaster software on Sturminster Halt but thats more to do with the running than the software. DCC Cobalt motors have worked well but not been happy using the Gaugemaster DCC30 Controllers, Will use here Integrated Cobalt motors/controllers on this layout but also include manual switching to a mimic panel. The mimic panel potentially mounted over the fiddle yard or at the back, Needs to moveable though as this wouldn’t work at home where the layout is operated from the front. Some complexity around the isolation, WSNG line 3 could be DC or DCC but needs to be switchable if I want to bring a train on or off the scenic part of the module. Line 4 isnt used by WSNG but other modular layouts do so this will be configured the same way. Assume at this point a 2 switch of some type (No Isolation, From WSNG Module, Isolated with DCC power)

Key Points

DCC control using either Hornby Elite/Trackmaster or Gaugemaster Prodigy
Points using DCC cobalt motors
Running tracks (WSNG) Linked at each end via 6 way blocks to other modules
Mimic Panel, Indicator Lights ? Not sure, Manual Point control, Isolating switches
Isolation on tracks 4 (Not used by WSNG but I could park a train here ? )
Isolation on track 3 (WSNG 3) to isolate this module from WSNG