by Trevor May (18448) & David Bromage

"Everybody has heard of Sanditon. The favourite - for a young and rising bathing place - certainly the favourite spot of all that are to be found along the coast of Sussex; the most favoured by nature, and promising to be the most chosen by man." - Sanditon, Jane Austen 1817

Introduction

"Sanditon" is a small point-to-point layout set in the mid to late 1990s, although the timeframe is quite flexible to allow a variety of stock to be run. Apart from the guidelines of the competition, the following factors needed to be taken into consideration:

• layout must fit in the back of a mid-size family station wagon (estate car)
• layout to take up minimal space when stored.

History

In her novel, left unfinished at her death in 1817, Jane Austen places the fictional town of Sanditon along "that part of the Sussex coast which lies between Hastings and Eastbourne". Taking that as inspiration this layout follows that the town of Sanditon, founded by Georgian industrialists, grew to become a commercial centre, but the boom started when the railway from Lewes to Hastings opened in 1846. A busy station and goods yard was established in a small valley, as well as a small loco shed, with the facility bookended by a tunnel at one end and road bridge at the other. The goods yard has more recently been restructured as a civil engineering depot but the station remains a busy part of the line between Hastings and Eastbourne, while the loco shed is gone although its siding remains. It is also assumed that Polegate Junction - Stonecross Junction at Eastbourne was not closed, allowing for goods workings.

Track plan

The layout is modular, separating into four parts - two for the display area, and a fiddle yard/traverser at each end. Each module is 1030mm long, with the station modules being 300mm deep, and the fiddle yard modules being 425mm wide and running at 90 degrees to the station modules. Behind the station will be the main street of the town, lined with cafes, bed and breakfast establishments, shops and terraced houses.

Construction

Construction will be on 6mm MDF baseboard over pine frame with MDF backboard. Track will be Peco code 55 with electrofrog points and code 40 third rail. The raised areas of the street and town scenes will be on extruded foam blocks or 3mm MDF overlaid with scenery.

Electrics

The layout will be wired for DC operation with block control (much as we would love to investigate DCC). Points will be operated using Tortoise motors and stock will be uncoupled using Peco electro-magnetic uncouplers.

Scenery

Buildings and facilities are initially likely to be based on kits from the likes of Ratio, Kestrel, Metcalfe and the like. Time and courage may allow for attempts at scratch building from card and/or styrene.

Operation

Given the busy nature of the line, a wide range of traffic is to be seen. Aside from the obvious passenger trains passing through, there will be newspaper and parcels trains, engineers workings, and through freights for points along the coast and transfer to mainland Europe.

Trains (potential)

• Class 411 (4-CEP) EMU
• Class 420 (4-CIG) EMU
• Class 423 (4-VEP) EMU
• Class 159 DMU Network Southeast
• Class 159 DMU South West Trains
• Class 158 DMU South West Trains
• Class 205 DEMU
• Class 207 DEMU
• Class 47 RES Livery parcels train
• Class 33 hauled engineer's trains
• Classes 37, 47 and 66 hauled freight trains

Some flexibility in time scale may also allow class 170 Turbostars and even Voyagers.

Page last updated: 07/08/08