Bondale - Leoton Station

Bonton

Leoton JMRI webserver panel. The amber dots with crosses are signals which are flashing. Notice the extra siding and lengths. The Yorkshire pudding factory now has its own loco, so it doesn’t tie up one of the “Main Line” locos when shunting.

The first day of testing the overhead catenary at Leoton. Bearing in mind that the masts and wires were over 40 years old, and hadn’t been used for nearly 20, I didn’t have too many problems getting them to supply the power.

I also dug dug out my Märklin overhead masts and wires. While not British (or Swiss) prototype, I wanted to see whether they were useable. The masts mainly have lights on top so can illuminate the station. Out of view, I designed and built my own catenary. This is for use in the non-scenic parts of the layout and was made from Brass tubing and old peco rail soldered to the tubing. It can be seen in use in the section on York station.

The track in this station is mainly Peco Streamline 100 with 2 pairs of motorised Roco large radius points. All Peco points are Electrofrog, except for the double slip, and are motorised with Peco point motors. With DCC Control having been installed there are now no dedicated controllers for the station. Points control is currentlyby non locking (On) Off (On) switches, but will be converted to DCC Concepts DCD-ADS-8sx decoders. At the moment there is a panel for accessory control mounted under York Station.

27000 Electra waiting the next turn of duty in platform 4 of Leoton station. This is a Triang model dating back to the 1960's. The Overhead Line equipment is by Märklin and is operational.

The station will be served by V3 (2-6-2 tank) powered 2 coach and Derby 2 coach DMUs. These will alternatively stop in the bay platform or run through to Bonton.

Because of the access to the Bay, and to leave the main line clear, all freight will enter and depart in the direction of York, even if it going to or coming from further up the line in the Bonton direction. A note here, the station was originally going to be called Bonham. This was before the appearance on the scene of Leo Samuel.

The factory has dedicated access running into it from the bay platforms. The construction of Bonham has altered very slightly from the plan above in that the siding now replaces the short spur. This was done for operational reasons. The Warehouse (left) is part of the Metcalfe Models range, and is being augmented by the Gate House and Factory / Loading Bay units.

The factory is so successful that Mrs. Anderson has bought a small shunting locomotive which will be driven by her friend Leo who is undergoing training at the moment. This is augmented by a fleet of Ex LNER 12T Refrigerated Fish Trucks (Parkside Dundas kits) to transport the eggs and meat for the Yorkshire Puddings and Scotch eggs in, and the produce away.

The first town in Bondale. The main industry used to be the woollen mill, but with the ever cheapening imports, the mill closed in the 1980's. Mrs Anderson has taken over the mill for the production of her well known and excellent Yorkshire Puddings and Scotch Eggs.

BONDALE - LEOTON

Swiss Chris Railways