Murrbahn: Layout Design from prototype track plans Gaildorf/West (3)

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Quelle: Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg (PL 723 Bü 55). Used with permission.

Moving along to the passenger area, the tracks straighten out. There are 3 platforms and no over- or undercrossing. Hence passengers need to cross the tracks at grade to reach their respective platform. The platform for track 3 is generously wide at roughly 7 meters, while it's only about 3.5 meters for track 2. The plan indicates track center distances at 11 meters and 5.5 meters respectively. Track 1 has a wide platform in front of the station building.

To the left of the station building is a small news stand, including a room for firewood storage. It appears that the platform fence is still in place. To the right of the station building appears to be the platform gate. Platform gates started to get abolished in Germany in 1965, and opened up everywhere in 1974. Thus it's feasible that platform access at Gaildorf/West was still limited in 1971.

To the right of the station building is a "Nebengebaeude" (auxiliary building), which likely houses the rest rooms. There are bicycle stands next to the Nebengebaeude. Around the corner are several storage units, including for oil lamp storage.

Finally, there are the ramp and the freight shed.

A note on scenery. Next to the bridge over Feldweg 33 the tracks run on an embankment. On the station side, the embankment widens to the Bahnhofstrasse, parking, and access to the freight area. Next to track 3, the station area cuts into a hillside, with the highest point right across from the station building. That's the location from where I took the picture of the station building 2 years ago. The cut is back at grade opposite from the freight shed.

The most obvious nod to length compression is how the station building moved much further to the south than in the prototype, and the platform for track 1 is much shorter at about 100m.  Aside from that I retained the building arrangement, and will experiment with exact building placement when I get moving on construction, since there is some room to move the station building and restrooms further to the right. I have some space to model the edge of the cut along track 3, more so if I widen the segments by 10 cm.

The reduced length of the platform on track 1 is acceptable here, since this platform will be used only by a weg DMU, possibly with one trailing car. For passenger trains on the main line, I need to retain 170+ cm platform length, which I was only able to do with another compromise that I'll touch on in part 4.