Spaghetti Junction

Last weekend we made a start at laying the complex track and point work beyond Gunnmere, so that the two track mainline can become four tracks. This track-laying has continued during the evenings this week so that we have now reached the point (no pun intended) that you see above.

Our aim was to provide as much flexibility as possible such that trains could enter all necessary platforms and sidings upon arriving at Gunnmere, as well as access most tracks when leaving.

This proved a bit of a headache but, as the photos above show, we managed to achieve most of what we wanted to achieve, such that:

• Trains arriving off the Up slow line can access all platforms and sidings.
• Trains arriving off the Up fast line can access Platform 3 only.
• Trains departing Platforms 1, 2 and 4 can access both Down lines as well as the Branch.

We still need to add one more point to allow trains coming off the Branch to access Platform 3 so that these trains can continue to Sueston - this was a definite oversight in our original planning but should be easy to overcome although it will mean that the track here will resemble, even more, the Gravelly Hill interchange!

Hopefully, by next weekend we should have all of this track work completed and tested so that we can commence the large amount of wiring necessary to ensure the continuity of supply to all sections of track.