Love Lane, B.R. (E) c.1956-59

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Love Lane has been extended and some of the old boards replaced with plywood built boards. This will enable the team to build, by far, a more prototypical ex GER goods yard which we felt Love Lane would have featured if it really had existed.
There will still be the loco servicing spur albeit in a different position and the revised track plan will create much more operational interest with a double track main line throughout the layout.
Love Lane is still considered the terminus of outer suburban London commuter services but with the main line continuing onwards to Cambridge with all the traffic that entails, express passenger, parcels, milk and goods etc.

So here's a little taster, lots more work to be carried out.

IMG_1291.JPG

IMG_1293.JPG

Col.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Love Lane is still considered the terminus of outer suburban London commuter services but with the main line continuing onwards to Cambridge with all the traffic that entails, express passenger, parcels, milk and goods etc.

Make it really interesting and turn it into a Central Line terminus similar to Epping and create a GE version of the Met/GC line. Then you can have LT 1923, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 and 34 'Standard' and 1938 tube stock...... :)
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Love Lane has been extended and some of the old boards replaced with plywood built boards. This will enable the team to build, by far, a more prototypical ex GER goods yard which we felt Love Lane would have featured if it really had existed.
There will still be the loco servicing spur albeit in a different position and the revised track plan will create much more operational interest with a double track main line throughout the layout.
Love Lane is still considered the terminus of outer suburban London commuter services but with the main line continuing onwards to Cambridge with all the traffic that entails, express passenger, parcels, milk and goods etc.

So here's a little taster, lots more work to be carried out.

View attachment 158778

View attachment 158779

Col.
Wow, that really has been stopped back.

Hopefully make it up next week fingers crossed.

JB.
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Dave

There is a fifth column among us (myself included) who quite fancy some 3rd & 4th rail. For me a train of Q stock (very mixed with ex District G, K & L cars included) and maybe an F stock rake would appeal. Also the LT works train could arrive behind a battery loco and swap for an LT steam loco. Maybe the Met E Class will make an appearance before too much longer. Photo courtesy of Scale7JB.

John C-3s.jpg
 

Arun Sharma

Western Thunderer
Make it really interesting and turn it into a Central Line terminus similar to Epping and create a GE version of the Met/GC line. Then you can have LT 1923, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 and 34 'Standard' and 1938 tube stock...... :)
.... and even flat-fronted 1935 experimental stock!
I'm sure I have a set of engineering drawings of F stock somewhere. The original driving cars were double-ended so a one car F stock shuttle might be appropriate.....
 

Easterner

Western Thunderer
Love Lane has been extended and some of the old boards replaced with plywood built boards. This will enable the team to build, by far, a more prototypical ex GER goods yard which we felt Love Lane would have featured if it really had existed.
There will still be the loco servicing spur albeit in a different position and the revised track plan will create much more operational interest with a double track main line throughout the layout.
Love Lane is still considered the terminus of outer suburban London commuter services but with the main line continuing onwards to Cambridge with all the traffic that entails, express passenger, parcels, milk and goods etc.

So here's a little taster, lots more work to be carried out.

View attachment 158778



Col.

Do we get a sneak peak of what looks like the new trackplan laying on the new boards above? ;)
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Track plan print done this morning (thanks Prontaprint, great service).

Picture 1 shows the view from the overbridge looking towards the station. Access to the yard is via a single slip from the up line with access from the yard to the down main. The white box on the left represents the granary which will probably have a gated siding.


P3.jpg

Picture 2 shows more of the planned pointwork facing the down direction towards the overbridge. The granary siding is approached via a single slip from the goods loop beside the goods shed.

P5.jpg

Picture 3 shows the pointwork planned for the station end of the yard. Nearer the camera is a tandem point giving access to the mileage siding / coal rod (left), the goods shed road (centre) and the goods loop (right). Beyond the tandem point is a 3 way point (very Great Eastern), which accesses the loading platform and the loco siding which will be where the coal siding was previously.

P7.jpg

Picture 4 is another view in the down direction showing the goods shed. This is a mock up based of the shed at Ongar. It had been intended to base the shed on a shortened version of the one demolished not so long ago at Wivenhoe. This proved to be too wide for the available space and would not give space for a vehicle loading or unloading and turning at the goods shed. A pity as Colin Dowling (Eastsidepilot of this parish) produced a superb drawing and I laser cut a mock up. The mock immediately told us it wouldn't work - hence the value of mock ups. All is not lost. Colin now has the mock up and is looking to see if it will work on Bow Creek.

The right hand road is the mileage siding / coal road. The coal staithes and coal office are just visible in the distance as is the white box representing the granary.

P6.jpg

Picture 5 shows the new track base for the end curves at the country end of the layout which was formerly single track. Doubling the track meant building two crossovers to gain access to any part of the storage siding. Even masochists like the Love Lane team drew the line at a curved scissors crossover.

P8.jpg

Overall the layout has grown by 6' in length and the storage siding will increase from 8 roads to 9. That will give us around 70' of extra storage capacity. David and Bob are making great progress on this.

Onwards and upwards.

John
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
An extra comment about the trackwork being constructed on the curve. From the halfway point on the curve round to the storage loops is not regarded as scenic. While we constructed storage loops by soldering rail to copper clad sleepers we didn't find it any quicker than assembling chaired track on individual sleepers. For this new track we have used laser cut track bases as shown and will use chairs to hold the track. This has been inspired by Tim Humphreys' (Mudhen) new layout where he has used this process. The bases for Love Lane are cut in MDF and we have found that the chairs bond to the MDF using butanone and the bond is remarkably strong.

John
 

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
An extra comment about the trackwork being constructed on the curve. From the halfway point on the curve round to the storage loops is not regarded as scenic. While we constructed storage loops by soldering rail to copper clad sleepers we didn't find it any quicker than assembling chaired track on individual sleepers. For this new track we have used laser cut track bases as shown and will use chairs to hold the track. This has been inspired by Tim Humphreys' (Mudhen) new layout where he has used this process. The bases for Love Lane are cut in MDF and we have found that the chairs bond to the MDF using butanone and the bond is remarkably strong.

John
Very exciting stuff this John and inspirational to boot! Are the track bases an intentio product and if so is the process straight forward ? It seems a real time saver ? Looking forward to seeing how it comes together
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick

As Colin says, they were done on my laser cutter (which is actually Intentio's pensioned off one). The ideas are all from Phil at Intentio and Tim Humphreys. Tim has described the method adopted to speed up construction of his layout. There is a distinction. On the bases that Phil at Intentio did for Tim, the web between the sleepers is, I believe, cut down to half the depth so the rail does not rest on it and is not visible when the rail is laid. As this is non-scenic track, I didn't bother with this. There was still quite a lot of work for David (OfftheRails) to amend the Templot drawing for laser cutting.

John
 

martin_wynne

Western Thunderer
There was still quite a lot of work for David (OfftheRails) to amend the Templot drawing for laser cutting.
@Oz7mm

Hi John,

For the timber outlines and sockets Templot can set an allowance in the DXF for the laser-cutter kerf.

Timber webs under the rails can be difficult to remove without causing damage (the knife blade forces the timbers apart). Instead, Templot can now add "sprues" to the ends of the timbers which are easily removed from track after laying, without damage (hold Xuron-type snips vertical):
sprues_2d.png

sprues_3d.png


To export the above, omit all the layers, and then switch back on just the layers you want:

sprues_2d_settings.png


For glued chairs, omit the chair sockets by leaving the colour blank.

More about this experimental stuff in Templot:

Plug Track

cheers,

Martin.
 

Lancastrian

Western Thunderer
Track plan print done this morning (thanks Prontaprint, great service).

Picture 5 shows the new track base for the end curves at the country end of the layout which was formerly single track. Doubling the track meant building two crossovers to gain access to any part of the storage siding. Even masochists like the Love Lane team drew the line at a curved scissors crossover.

View attachment 158960

John
John,

Something I would definitely have built :D

Ian
 

Allen M

Western Thunderer
Identification please. Is Love Lane a development of the layout that was in the shop, Perfect Miniatures (Peter Hunt) in Sudbury at one time?
I know Peter has retired and moved near Banbury I think.
Regards
Allen
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Allen

It is, though it was one of two layouts in the shop and I suspect the one you are referring to might be West Mersea, which sadly will probably just be broken up and scrapped as it was never made to be portable.

Love Lane in it's vestigial form was donated by the family of Peter Cavalier who started it, along with some nice locos and rolling stock, mainly built by Colin Dowling.

It moved location to Hertfordshire and has been greatly developed since then.

John
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Identification please. Is Love Lane a development of the layout that was in the shop, Perfect Miniatures (Peter Hunt) in Sudbury at one time?
I know Peter has retired and moved near Banbury I think.
Regards
Allen
Allen, as John says above sums it up although I will add that about the only remaining part of the original is the station section which is basically the station buildings, two platforms, and the Up and Down main.
We have saved all of the other buildings and infrastructure including the signal box, signals, loading gauge, gates, coaling facilities, offices, water tower etc, etc. nothing has been lost or discarded.
The only thing we may consider changing is the bridge at the country end as it doesn't quite fit the changed topography but we will see.


Col.
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
And to clarify Colin's remarks, the inherited layout from Sudbury was simply track laid on 4 baseboards measuring 16' x 1'6" overall. It now measures 47' x 19'

The Love Lane team built all the buildings you see. Colin is referring to what has been retained from the layout seen at Telford in 2019 (this is what Colin is referring to as the 'original') now we have decided to make it double track all the way round and build an extended goods yard to give some added interest.

John
 
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