Dark Satanic Mills (part 2)

A few years ago I was on a roll with Dark Satanic Mill layouts, producing several ideas for schemes. Here's another one I just found. I know for a fact there are other sketches concerning this concept and if I discover them I'll post them too.

This particular scheme was inspired by a set of pictures posted on RMWeb of some remains of an old railway line in the Bradford/Halifax area of Yorkshire. The whole site was very compact, hemmed in on all sides by a road, a footbridge, a roadbridge and cutting wall. The obligatory DSM was on the other side of the road to the yard, and forms the backdrop to the layout. Once again my scheme was to depict the rundown years of the 1970's and early 80's. There is a single track suburban commuter line in the foreground that a single car or two-car DMU regularly calls at. The rear has a couple of sidings that serve a scrapyard, imagined to be the other side of the footbridge at the left hand side.

Operation would be thus: A short freight train leaves a couple of empty wagons in one of the sidings and departs. After the train has gone a grotty little 4 wheeled shunter (switcher) appears from offstage collects the wagons and takes them offstage to the scrapyard. After a while it reappears with wagons loaded with scrap that it leaves to be collected by another short freight train that passes through the station later in the operating sequence. Some might say that it doesn't sound much for operation but those who know me and my other layouts will know that this is not a dissimilar sequence to that one used for operating Wingetts Recycling my 7 day model railroad exercise. So I know from experience that it works and isn't dull and boring.