Forget most of what I said the other day. I rang Peco because I couldn't see a Code 80 slip on their website. Well, there's a good reason for that, they don't make one. However, the good news it that this has caused me to re-think the design.

I've gone back to single track main line, end-to-end operation with a possible add-on fiddle yard to justify main line express operation. The scenario is that FSJ has become a popular excursion destination and so will receive occasional trains headed up by large locos. Upon arrival the coaches will be housed in a siding and the loco sent to RJ for turning and re-fuelling. In due course the coaches will be pulled from the siding, the loco attached and the train departed back to the fiddle yard. On other days I won't bother to fit the fiddle yard, which impacts access to the loft, and operate only the branch line activities. The fiddle yard also provides a source/destination for long goods trains.

So to the design, which is currently being re-drawn at 1:5 scale so I can check these ideas. Corkerdale will be the datum and the track runs level to just beyond the crossing point. It then rises at 1 in 100 to turn 1 and is then level until a point just beyond the east end of RJ from whence it rises at 1 in 100 to turn 2 which is level. The track rises again at 1 in 100 to a point just before FSJ which is level. This should provide headroom at the crossing bridge and between the underside of the FSJ baseboard and stock on turn 1. The baseboard for RJ's Motive Power Depot will be at a height to clear stock on turn 2 and will require a ramp of about 1 in 30 but I think this will look ok for light locos running to and from an MPD. It will be slightly disguised by the running road beside it rising at 1 in 100