Bondale - Layout Design

Leoton Station

Bondale History

Bondale as it currently stands. With the exception of the branch line from Bustdale junction to Bustham, and Mrs Anderson’s Factory sidings, the standard gauge track is now all laid.

After a lot of thought and roughly sketched ideas, I came up with the plan above. Even then the plan has changed during construction with the Bustdale freight line (orange) now completing the circle going through Bonton as a goods relief line, and the turntable at York at the other end and loco spurs being installed at the yard throat.

I had to think up a back-ground for the line. This would then give me the local and national freight and passenger flows through it.

Bearing in mind that this was supposed to be in Yorkshire, I decided to include coal (from Bustdale Colliery), a brewery, a transformer factory, and a Yorkshire Pudding factory. Apart from the colliery which mainly would be a supplier, the others would need raw materials for production, and transport to their customers. An example of working would be The dairy farmer at Bustham would supply Mrs. Anderson's Yorkshire Pudding factory at Leoton. The Route would be Bustham - Bonton - York - Leoton.

The finished products would be sent anywhere, but because of the limited access at Leoton, would go first to York to be sent all over the country, leading to Leoton - York - Carlisle via Bonton.

Bustdale Colliery would be represented by the York Fiddle Yard reached by a hidden line bypassing Leoton. The following pages will show the layout broken down into its respective parts.

Oh! And why the names? My friend Mrs. Anderson had 2 Yorkshire Terriers, Buster and Bonnie.who were always pleased to see me. They have now finally gone to the great kennel in the sky, where no doubt Her Ladyship is still trying to take on Great Danes and St Bernards.

They have been followed by 2 Lhasa Apsos: Leo samual and Jezabel Jess They are featured elsewhere on the site, but this is my tribute to them.

And what does Mrs. Anderson think of this, She did make the Yorkshire Puddings & Scotch Eggs so I could photograph them for the posters.

In 2007, having settled into a new employment position, I decided that I wanted to get my railways working again. The previous project (NordBad - Bräu Bahn, Had been too complex for me to build and was never finished. So I wanted something a bit more simple, but I also wanted to re-use as much of the boards and track from the old layout as I could. The area I had to use was 11’ 6” X 15’ 6” (3.51M X 4.72M) with a door in the middle at one end. The idea was to build it in stages so that I could get things running. Also not to have too many awkward to get at bits or too complicated construction as I am not quite as young as I was.

The brief I set myself for this railway was so that I could:

a) Run out and back trains;

b) Double track main line;

c) Sit there and watch the trains go round so a circuit of some kind;

d) some kind of branch line operation;

e) Shunting manoeuvres.

As a result of these, I came up with the following ideas:

a) a folded in dumbell off a double track main line;

b) A branch running from one of the stations;

c) I also wanted there to be some kind of authentic freight movements so the trucks would have some logical progression.

d) There would also be passenger flows to and from the various stations. These would be served by local stopping trains and also expresses to outside the area.

BONDALE - LAYOUT DESIGN

Swiss Chris Railways