Project Concept

Ok, here's the deal. I like trains. Not just modelling them but traveling on them too. From the 6 weeks I spent in Japan traveling on the various types of Shinkansen - I especially liked the 700 series - to traveling on the creaking, under funded and neglected British network, I've always enjoyed train travel. That is what has inspired me to model railways.

Now, I only model British railways, and modern traction to boot. I have no interest in steam traction, only diesel and electric, though I've got nothing against other people modelling steam layouts. It's just a matter of personal choice. I've also tended to buy models of trains that I've traveled on, where they've been available in RTR. From class 91's through class 43 HST's to class 50's and 73's, I've bought them all where I could. On the freight side, I've got class 47's, 37's, 8's and some kits of class 56's and 60's. On the MU side, I've got a class 101 DMU too.

It doesn't take a genius to see that this is a real mix and match of rolling stock with a number of locomotives that would never have operated together and that's left me in a bit of a quandary. That's because lately I've thought that it would be good idea to model a particular area - and that area is Kent, where I live.

I come from a town called Sheerness (click here for a link to Google Maps showing the Isle of Sheppey. Sheerness is the town in the top left of the island). It's not much of a town. Nothing particularly wrong with it but nothing to make it stand out from the crowd. From a model railway perspective, though, it has a lot to recommend it from an operational point of view. Right next door to the train station in the town is a steel mill with rail access. Right next door to the steel mill is a dockyard with rail access. That means that you can reasonably expect to see scrap trains, steel trains and car trains as well as the passenger traffic on the line. But there's some problems from my point of view. I want to model a through station and Sheerness is an end-of-branch terminus. I'd also like to have at least 2 tracks and, if I can fit it in without cluttering the layout, 4. The Sheerness line is a single track branch line once it gets onto the Isle of Sheppey.

I'd also like to have a rail connected container handling facility. Sheerness docks has a container handling facility but it isn't connected to the rail network, although the railway line is only a couple of hundred yards or so from it. I also want an MPD, possibly with some carriage sidings and a loco/EMU cleaning facility, such as is at Gillingham and the Sheerness line has nothing like those sorts of facilities.

So, rather than basing my layout on how Sheerness looks today it will be a layout loosely based on Sheerness but with a few what if's? thrown into it and called something along the lines of Sheerport or Sheerhaven. The what if's? will be:-

What if the Sheerness line didn't stop at Sheerness but continued on to Minster, Eastchurch and Leysdown?

What if the level of traffic on the line justified a 2-track, or even 4-track, line?

What if the container facility at Sheerness docks had rail access?

What if there was an important enough destination on the Sheerness line to warrant express traffic hauled by class 73's in a Gatwick Express-like formation?

What if the old line to Sheerness via Cliffe and Hoo that had the rail line terminate at Port Victoria before completing the journey by ferry to Sheerness Pier was kept open to passenger traffic? Also, what if the line had been improved over the years by having a tunnel built under the Medway to replace the ferry service so that trains could travel all the way to Sheerness via this line?

Also, after a suggestion from one of the site forum's members, I've decided to make provision for military traffic. The Isle of Sheppey used to have an RAF airfield at Eastchurch and an army barracks and Royal Navy dockyard at Sheerness. If one of the What Ifs? was to imagine that one, 2 or perhaps all 3 of the military installations were still on the island in some form or other then some military freight traffic could be run on the layout to add operational variety.

That means the layout should have the following:-

• 2 tracks minimum but preferably 4
• 4 platform station with passing loops at the station if a 2 track plan is used
• Through line to fiddle yard behind backscene to allow for continuous run
• MPD with carriage sidings and loco cleaning facility
• Container handling facility
• Car train loading facility if space allows
• Scrap and steel trains to be run on the layout
• Military traffic on the branch line
• Fast trains to be powered by class 73 hauled stock
• Slow traffic to be a combination of 4-CEP, 4-CIG, 4-BEP, 4-BIG and 2-HAP's
• All passenger traffic to be in blue, blue/grey or Intercity livery
• All freight to be Rail Express or Railfreight 3-tone grey livery
• Extensive fiddle yard to allow for smooth operation

So that means I've got quite a bit of surplus stock to offload and a lot of EMU's to buy and build to achieve the mix of rolling stock needed to achieve what I'm after.

Now to put together a track plan to achieve all that!

The track plan itself, once put together will be, surprise, surprise on the Track Plan page. The project concept is also being discussed on the site's forum. I've added a link to the forum below should you be interested.