
OO gauge Motive Power Depot
As featured in
British Railway Modelling December 1998
Eastbridge shed depicts a small but important depot situated at a busy junction in southern England. The layout itself is partly based on Redhill and consists of three baseboards, two for the shed with a third for the fiddle yard giving an overall length of 10 6. The shed has three roads, the same as Redhill, the other trackwork being adapted to fit in the space available.
The main building is constructed of styrene sheet covered with brick paper and weathered with an airbrush. Weathering powders of various colours were also used. The roof is a typical Southern type found on various sheds throughout the southeast. Water tower details are similar to the one at Three Bridges shed (the water tank at Redhill being high up on a cliff adjacent to the Redhill-Tonbridge line). Inspection pits are provided within the shed on Eastbridge and in the yard outside, as well as on the ash and coaling roads.
The coaling stage is not an exact copy of the one at Redhill, the original being covered in asbestos sheeting, on Eastbridge it is brick built. The turntable is of the open pit type, scratch built mainly of styrene sheet with details including vacuum tank and pipe work. The drive unit is mounted under one end, a small can motor and gearbox drives a geared rubber wheel on a spring loaded sub-assembly which presses on the side of the pit to move the table round.
Eastbridge, being situated at a busy railway junction, from time to time receives engines from other parts of the country, but Southern locomotives predominate. Locomotives arrive on shed, are coaled, watered and turned if required then stabled to await their next duty. It can become quite hectic in the fiddle yard supplying and receiving locomotives to and from the shed.
A breakdown crane is normally attached to the shed, and goes off the depot and returns later during operating sequences, adding variety to the scene. Another move of stock occurs when coal wagons are pushed up the incline to the coaling stage.
The fiddle yard, covered from public view, consists of a five road transverser each road being able to hold two locomotives.