Muir Street
By Spencer Anderson
Muir Street is like Milton Street MPD, a purely fictitious layout and is named after the primary school I attended many years ago in Motherwell. It came about with me wanting at some point to build a model of the footbridge at the north end of Motherwell station, which crosses the WCML between Ladywell Road and Muir Street. This would not have fitted in on Milton Street and so thoughts turned to a very simple double track main line layout, purely for running wrong line light locomotives.
The theory is that the line is situated between an MPD and a station/goods yard where the locos would run either to pick up their train or to the MPD to be serviced. I originally had the track straight but, Bill (he of the haircut fame), advised curving it, which improves the look greatly. There is a retaining wall to the rear of the tracks with an embankment leading up to the main feature of the layout which will be the back yards and low relief tenement buildings. I am considering having two identical footbridges at each end of the scenic section and cannot resist having a couple of signals operated by the incredibly realistic Megapoints control system.
Since the initial concept of the layout in February 2018 (was it really that long ago?) things have evolved dramatically and hopefully the final design has been decided upon. The final track plan has been drawn up and this should afford storage for a total of 7 trains and approximately 15 to 20 light locos. The plan could be added to in future to increase the storage capabilities but there's always the danger of over doing things.
Progress can be followed on the Muir Street Updates page.
The theory is that the line is situated between an MPD and a station/goods yard where the locos would run either to pick up their train or to the MPD to be serviced. I originally had the track straight but, Bill (he of the haircut fame), advised curving it, which improves the look greatly. There is a retaining wall to the rear of the tracks with an embankment leading up to the main feature of the layout which will be the back yards and low relief tenement buildings. I am considering having two identical footbridges at each end of the scenic section and cannot resist having a couple of signals operated by the incredibly realistic Megapoints control system.
Since the initial concept of the layout in February 2018 (was it really that long ago?) things have evolved dramatically and hopefully the final design has been decided upon. The final track plan has been drawn up and this should afford storage for a total of 7 trains and approximately 15 to 20 light locos. The plan could be added to in future to increase the storage capabilities but there's always the danger of over doing things.
Progress can be followed on the Muir Street Updates page.