Muckton

The layout now has a new owner.

I was at a loss for a name and Eileen came home from her allotment one day and said why don't you call it Muckton, she'd been spreading it that day. I looked on the map and found there was such a place to the south of Louth.

The idea for this is similar to Moxley but with the addition of a reverse siding which makes the shunting even more complex having to get to both ends of stock on the traverser roads. I also designed and made a single slip which gives me a lot of moves in a very small space. What I like most about these micro layouts is achieving reliable slow running using scratchbuilt locos and a homemade controller. The satisfaction resulting from the hours of work is immense.

Track plan

One aspect of the light railway is the end of the line, terminus being too posh a term for most of them. I'd read about the Bishop's Castle Railway and their antics with trains being pushed up to the town from Lydham Heath often without even being coupled. 

I smashed off the back scene I never did like the grey background idea, rebuilt the track, changed the single slip to a Barry slip and made the little outrigger thing for the built in controller. And then tried a country back scene, that didn't work so I changed it to a row of terraced house.

The brake van on the left is based on the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Railway one, the 4 wheel coach from the North Staffs Railway and the loco is a Y8 made from card including the chassis.

The 'facilities' are minimal the only traffic being, coal, cattle and some goods.

The station hut has a ticket window and a bench to site on, if any goods come in with the passenger train the the brake van gets shunted into the other siding and the goods are stored in the old van body.

Video of the layout;

Cheers - Jim