Shepherds Siding benchwork

 Installing benchwork for Shepherds Siding

Shepherds Siding is the first section of scenery for the layout's mainline.  It will include the wheat silo for operational interest.  The benchwork has taken me longer to install, as other non-railway things got in the way. The actual benchwork was a bit trickier than I originally envisioned.  So rather than do a 2 part blog post,  I thought it best to wait until the benchwork was complete. 

The Bomen VISY Container shuttle train approaches Shepherds on August 7th, 2025.  The former siding has been placed out-of-use, and is quietly rusting away.  

The shuttle train was headed by QUBE QBX001, and Independant Rail MZ 1431

2 years ago, I wrote a blogpost on the prototype location 
https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2023/12/shepherds-siding.html

Plywood.

The Benchwork for Shepherds siding started with cutting out a sheet of plywood.  

Using a handsaw, and jigsaw, this shape was based on the brown paper template that I drew last year.  The  centerline of 70 cm radius curve was drawn now, rather than later

The shape wrangled into position.  Unfortunately, this was the 3rd attempt - additional clearances needed to be cut out

I used some wooden blocks to elevate the plywood above the staging yard tracks

Frame.

I was using up some leftover pine offcuts from the room build, and my earlier home layout which is probably not ideal.  There were some minor dimension differences. 

I made a rough sketch of the frame

Timber framing roughly placed on the plywood.  

Framing screwed together.  Once this was done, the frame was traced onto the plywood, to give the guilde for the later holes to hold the screws

The frame on the floor of the train room

The frame just resting on the blocks of wood that formally held the plywood aloft

Getting the height right

Shepherds Siding will be  level, so there will need to be a vertical curve beyond the 3% grade of the ramp.  The end of that curve will determine the height of Shepherds above the staging yard tracks

I extended the ramp with an offcut length of pine.  The pine didn't bend on its own - the 3% grade is easily seen above the frame

The spirit level damped down pine, with a really nice curve 

The frame was raised to meet the pine, using some plywood offcuts as spacers

Clamps, block extenders, and another spirt level to confirm the the shepherds Siding area was level

Joining the ramp to the plywood requires use of a special joiner made of a plywood, and pine board sandwich

The joiner on the top of the ramp.  The clamp is holding the pieces of timber whilst the white glue set.  Once the plywood is laid, screws will be used to fasten it properly. 

After the clamps had been removed, and the risers all screwed, the frame ready for the plywood top

Plywood top installed.  The previous lines drawn of the frame on the plywood, made for an easy drilling the screw holes.  The height difference was 17cm, just shy of the 20cm that I wanted, but still more than enough clearance for the staging yard tracks

A mat for the crawl under the shepherds siding benchwork to the void beyond makes it easier for your knees.  

Shepherds Silo

Many years ago, I acquired an Auscision S024 silo kit cheaply.  I knew it was not correct for Shepherds Siding's S016 silo, but it was cheap.  Later, there was an opportunity to swap it for an S016 from a model train enthusiast in Wagga, but unfortunately, the deal never materialised, as illness took over, and the layout was disposed off by his family.

So, how does the Auscision S024 silo fit the space?

The S024 silo in the rough location.  The Auscison model is cast in resin, and quite heavy.  It assumes a straight track alignment.  To accomodate the curve, the resin would need careful carving away

I always knew that the siding track would be tighter than the 70cm radius of the main line, but estimating the radius with the Peco flex track at 45cm may be too much of a compromise.  

The short answer is that the silo will not fit.  I had considered removal of one of the large bins, to make the silo foorprint physically smaller, then repairing the mess, but that might be just as hard as building an S016 silo from scratch. 

Conclusion

It was great to actually get the benchwork down, but I can no longer put off installing the electrics.

To finish, here are some more images from Shepherds.

More pictures from the August 7th VISY container train

Greg Wilson photographed a train passing by Shepherds in 1982.  Greg was obviously on the bulk wheat silo. The BWH on the siding are the type of wheat hoppers that I have for my operation session

Greg Wilson also captured an XPT from the same location - it is outside my nominal 1970 time period, but I also plan to run the XPT on my layout.