Page 3 - September October 2011

I’ve often been intrigued as to why more use isn’t made of staging yards. Numerous home, club and exhibition layouts have these, and I’m sure you are thinking that they do what they are there for – a sort of filing system for trains to be pumped out onto the “visible part” of the layout.
My thoughts about this go back, now many years, to when a few of us built and exhibited Aldridge Indiana. This HO layout went through several stages of growth until it was decided it should be a basically single track continuous oval, one long side being the original station/town/industry sections, and the other being a staging yard.
Although such yards are often thought of as being the “back” of a layout (ie not on show), in fact there are many times that this is not the case. At clubs, and often at shows, the layout is walk- around for both operators and viewers. Consequently we decided that as the majority of Aldridge, in its final reincar- nation, was already fully scenicked, why not treat the staging yard as a subject to model properly, and include a loco facility. Admittedly this was for a 26 ft-long layout so gave quite a bit of scope for modelling.
From the time of its completion on- wards I found that I actually preferred to do my operating stints as yardmaster! The incoming trains, having done all their more usual switching “round t’other side” of the layout, would have their locos taken off and placed on shed, then the yard engines would break up consists and organise new ones for appearance later in the
sessions. We didn’t get round to a full operating system, so the guys handling the station/industry side of the layout would switch according to what cars they found when their next train appeared.
There was one occasion when the layout’s position in a show was almost centred in a continuous line of other exhibits and stands, and quite a few spectators admitted that they had not realised for a while that our two sides belonged to the same layout!
So next time you are planning a staging yard (even a stub-ended one where suitable), consider modelling it sceni- cally and you will find it adds a lot of variety to the layout operations.
Well, not long to Bournemouth now, and my “Managing Director” and I are looking forward to it. We like Bourne- mouth very much anyway, and the past conventions at this hotel, in its previous life as a Queens Moat House, were excellent. For us it also has the advan- tage of being a comparatively short drive from home, along the south coast, so we will be able to leave our fur-lined kayaks at home and hopefully not have to deal with Immigration and Customs (though I hear there are import duty problems between West Sussex and Hampshire?).
Seriously though folks, we look forward to arguing with, er... I mean chatting with all our buddies from across the Olde Country, and maybe some “Furriners” too.
Martin Boyask
CUPOLA
...FROM THE EDITOR
ROUNDHOUSE OCTOBER 2011
CONSIST...
CUPOLA 3 HEAD END BUSINESS CARS 4 DIVISION DIARY 5 UNCOUPLED CARS 6 REGION CALENDAR 8 CONTEST ENTRIES BOURNEMOUTH
Terry Wynne 9 STILL GETTING TO THE POINT
High Wycombe Club 10 AN EARLY SUMMER VACATION
2011 Eric Belshaw 12 WALESANDCREWE MikeIngham15 BEANERY 15 WHY NORTH AMERICAN?
Peter Smith 16 DVD REVIEW W A Corkill 16 THORN TREE FLATS Tom Winlow 18 ATLANTIC DIRECTOR REPORT
Nobby Clarke 21 REGISTRAR NEWS 23 DVD REVIEW Mike Arnold 23
WARLEY NEC MRS 19–20 Nov
NMRA British Region will be at Warley again for this year’s show with the publicity stand and some modelling exhibits. Help with manning the stand is sought, and if you are interested, please get in touch with Steve Scott at steve.scott36@blueyonder.co.uk or text to 07912 499430. I am looking for colleagues to do a 90 min–2 hour stint on the stand, which based on last year is not onerous, but helps the resident team by sharing the ‘burden’. I will generate a simple roster so please let me know which day(s) you are attending and the likely attendance times. I envisage three slots each day: 10:00–12:00, 12:00–14:00 and 14:00–16:00, but will flex this for a best fit. Look forward to seeing you at Warley!
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