Middlebridge Metro

Middlebridge Metro is a simple shuttle layout. Built with an overarching principle of KISS to get trains moving quickly, the metro is intended to provide both display and operational interest as my first "proper" layout since moving to Middlebridge.

The name was taken by the inspiration for an elevated metro line. The Hamburg U-bahn U3 line has a historic elevated section at the waterfront as seen in the header photo for this page, which I was inspired to turn into a layout as a shelf-like section along a wall, with a station at each end.

The track plan is simple: two platforms for each station (one platform of one station for empty stock only), through a scissors crossover at the station throat, onto a two-track main line between. This permits two trains to be moving at any one time, and a variety of trains on display for shuttling back and forth. The plan is simple enough to be entirely automated without too much difficulty in future.

Given the primary purpose is to have trains displayed and moving, some leeway is required regarding the stock that may run simultaneously. The layout is realistically signalled for a UK main line, but this does not preclude metro trains or indeed continental visitors from stopping by.

Header photo from Oxfordian Kissuth on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)