Plymouth Citadel - Track Plan
Plymouth Citadel is a medium size passenger terminus, with six platform faces. A short seventh platform exists for mail and parcels handling. One platform can handle 8 coach trains, and the other three main platforms can take 7 coaches. There is some limited (i.e. short) carriage siding accommodation, with five sidings each holding 4-5 coaches.
There is a reasonably complete motive power depot (MPD) loosely based on standard GWR practice. The shed only has two roads, but there are ten storage roads off the turntable. This was uncommon in British practice, but since a fully-featured Fleischmann turntable was available I could not resist making full use of it!
There are no goods facilities. The only goods service will be a daily coal train to the MPD.
The layout is designed for 1-3 operators
The station is built on an upper baseboard which is removable for construction and maintenance purposes. The main baseboard beneath has all of the main line trackage. The overall size is 6’6” x 2’11” (198cm x 89cm). This is slightly shorter and slightly wider than an average door.
The main line consists of an out-and-back loop wrapped one and a half times around the board to get a decent length of run - just on two scale miles from the platform starter signals back to the buffer stops. Part of this is arranged to look like a stretch of four-track main line. There are no storage loops, so trains will return in the same order that they depart, but a simple automatic control system allows up to five trains to be queued. There is a double track oval built into the reversing loop so that two of these queued trains can run continuously if desired.
There is a reasonably complete motive power depot (MPD) loosely based on standard GWR practice. The shed only has two roads, but there are ten storage roads off the turntable. This was uncommon in British practice, but since a fully-featured Fleischmann turntable was available I could not resist making full use of it!
There are no goods facilities. The only goods service will be a daily coal train to the MPD.
The layout is designed for 1-3 operators
The station is built on an upper baseboard which is removable for construction and maintenance purposes. The main baseboard beneath has all of the main line trackage. The overall size is 6’6” x 2’11” (198cm x 89cm). This is slightly shorter and slightly wider than an average door.
The main line consists of an out-and-back loop wrapped one and a half times around the board to get a decent length of run - just on two scale miles from the platform starter signals back to the buffer stops. Part of this is arranged to look like a stretch of four-track main line. There are no storage loops, so trains will return in the same order that they depart, but a simple automatic control system allows up to five trains to be queued. There is a double track oval built into the reversing loop so that two of these queued trains can run continuously if desired.
Track plan, upper level, out of date. The MPD trackage has been rearranged to maximise the length of the ramp to the coal stage. There are also ten loco roads off the turntable, but the demo version of the AnyRail software only allows fifty pieces of track. This also explains the short gap in the station throat!
The track plans were drawn using the free demo version of the AnyRail layout design software. It does have its foibles and limitations (such as a maximum of 50 pieces of track in the demo version), but even the demo version is functional enough to be useful.