So just to get an idea of the length of trains I’m going to be able to run I tried laying some plywood boards on the cross-members I’ve put in already and got some carriages out of storage. Just from setting them out roughly, it looks as though the maximum train length I’m going to be able to run is 8 carriages.
This will influence the design of the station on the scenic level of the layout (based on Hadley Wood). I’m going to have to make the scenic break at the road overbridge and station building point rather than the southern tunnel just the other side of it. This also has the added advantage of hiding part of the train ‘off scene’ and not filling the whole station area.