The changing design of Stoke Prior Station

This will be the station at the top of the garden where the double track main line will terminate and the single track branch line will begin.

Here's the first design, done before any track had been laid.

As the undergrowth was cleared and the railway progressed around the garden it soon began apparent that the top left hand corner of the garden fell away quite a bit so I decided that the railway would need to pass over a viaduct - see previous post.

I then decided that possibly the best way to lose height would be to incorporate a spiral and design number two was sketched.

I've now completed the bridge and the next job is to decide on the final station layout. To fit in the spiral with a minimum radius of 3 would necessitate building curved platforms. Although this wouldn't be a problem the curves would be quite severe and quite frankly it would look rubbish, so here is design number three.

I can now have nice straight, and slightly longer, platforms at the terminus and a run round loop for the branch line which I think increases operating potential enormously.