Riley Street Sidings (00 Scale)

Layout History

Living in a small house, I rarely have the opportunity to set up my layouts for running at home - in between exhibitions they are usually stored unused and unseen. Sometimes I just want to have a play, so I thought I would put together an "inglenook" shunting puzzle layout which can be up and running in five minutes on the kitchen table (domestic approval permitting!). I also like old industrial settings - at university I was a member of the Industrial Archaeology society and we had a great time wandering about Northern England in a minibus checking out old industrial relics! I have a small but gradually growing stock of little industrial tank engines and diesels in 00 scale, so this would be an ideal excuse to use them. I envisaged the layout could be run either as a private industrial railway, similar to the Middleton Railway, or as a British Railways (NE Region) backwater, somewhere in north-eastern England, sometime in the 1950/60's     

Layout Description

I have called this an "Inglenook" style layout, and it is designed to meet the strict 5-3-3 siding capacity rules ( see https://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/ ) - in 00 scale it is just possible on a 4ft x 1 ft board If not being run as a puzzle, the lack of a run round loop obviously limits it's operations, but does mean a second loco can be employed to assist in shunting if desired. Trackwork is Peco with live frog points so even the shortest wheel-based locos should not have a problem. Buildings are mainly recycled, some from my recently dismantled Kirkbythorpe layout, and one even from my very first layout, Huggate. The low-relief structures are quickly made place-savers until I can scratch-build something a bit better. There's not a lot more to say about the layout, it's so simple. 

Oh, the name? Our current dog is called Riley!

Whilst the layout was designed to be a home layout for playtime fun or photography purposes, and never really intended for exhibitions, I am very pleased with how it has turned out and would be happy to take it to shows if invited to demonstrate that eveyone has room for a model railway!

Layout Specification

Exhibition Details:-

Layout Size - 4' wide. 1' deep. Operating space approx. 3' deep required in front of layout.

Operated from front, viewed from front

Scale 4mm/ft, 00 Scale

No. of Operators - 1

Layout has integral lighting structure if required

Programme Description -  A compact 00 scale micro layout representing a small industrial scene in the 1950/60's. It can be run as an "inglenook" shunting puzzle.... or just for fun. It can be run with industrial tank engines as a private railway, or as a British Railways (NE Region) yard. 

Exhibitions Attended:-